This Perfect Day

They took snapshots outside UniComp's white marble dome—whiter and more beautiful than it was in pictures or on TV, as the snow-tipped mountains beyond it were more stately, the Lake of Universal Brotherhood more blue and far-reaching—and then they joined the line at the entrance, touched the admission scanner, and went into the blue-white curving lobby. A smiling member in pale blue showed them toward the elevator line. They joined it, and Papa Jan came up to them, grinning with delight at their astonishment.

"What are you doing here?" Chip's father asked as Papa Jan kissed Chip's mother. They had told him they had been granted the trip and he had said nothing at all about claiming it himself.

Papa Jan kissed Chip's father. "Oh, I just decided to surprise you, that's all," he said. "I wanted to tell my friend here"—he laid a large hand across Chip's shoulder—"a little more about Uni than the earpiece will. Hello, Chip." He bent and kissed Chip's cheek, and Chip, surprised to be the reason for Papa Jan's being there, kissed him in return and said, "Hello, Papa Jan."

"Hello, Peace KD37T5002," Papa Jan said gravely, and kissed Peace. She kissed him and said hello. "When did you claim the trip?" Chip's father asked.

"A few days after you did," Papa Jan said, keeping his hand on Chip's shoulder. The line moved up a few meters and they all moved with it.

Chip's mother said, "But you were here only five or six years ago, weren't you?"

"Uni knows who put it together," Papa Jan said, smiling. "We get special favors."

"That's not so," Chip's father said. "No one gets special favors."

"Well, here I am, anyway," Papa Jan said, and turned his smile down toward Chip. "Right?"

"Right," Chip said, and smiled back up at him. Papa Jan had helped build UniComp when he was a young man. It had been his first assignment.

The elevator held about thirty members, and instead of music it had a man's voice—"Good day, brothers and sisters; welcome to the site of UniComp"—a warm, friendly voice that Chip recognized from TV. "As you can tell, we've started to move," it said, "and now we're descending at a speed of twenty-two meters per second. It will take us just over three and a half minutes to reach Uni's five-kilometer depth. This shaft down which we're traveling..." The voice gave statistics about the size of UniComp's housing and the thickness of its walls, and told of its safety from all natural and man-made disturbances. Chip had heard this information before, in school and on TV, but hearing it now, while entering that housing and passing through those walls, while on the very verge of seeing UniComp, made it seem new and exciting. He listened attentively, watching the speaker disc over the elevator door. Papa Jan's hand still held his shoulder, as if to restrain him. "We're slowing now," the voice said. "Enjoy your visit, won't you?"—and the elevator sank to a cushiony stop and the door divided and slid to both sides.

There was another lobby, smaller than the one at ground level, another smiling member in pale blue, and another line, this one extending two by two to double doors that opened on a dimly lit hallway.

"Here we are!" Chip called, and Papa Jan said to him, "We don't all have to be together." They had become separated from Chip's parents and Peace, who were farther ahead in the line and looking back at them questioningly—Chip's parents; Peace was too short to be seen. The member in front of Chip turned and offered to let them move up, but Papa Jan said, "No, this is all right. Thank you, brother." He waved a hand at Chip's parents and smiled, and Chip did the same. Chip's parents smiled back, then turned around and moved forward.

Papa Jan looked about, his bulging eyes bright, his mouth keeping its smile. His nostrils flared and fell with his breathing. "So," he said, "you're finally going to see UniComp. Excited?"

"Yes, very," Chip said. They followed the line forward.

"I don't blame you," Papa Jan said. "Wonderful! Once-in-a-lifetime experience, to see the machine that's going to classify you and give you your assignments, that's going to decide where you'll live and whether or not you'll marry the girl you want to marry; and if you do, whether or not you'll have children and what they'll be named if you have them—of course you're excited; who wouldn't be?" Chip looked at Papa Jan, disturbed.

Papa Jan, still smiling, clapped him on the back as they passed in their turn into the hallway. "Go look!" he said. "Look at the displays, look at Uni, look at everything! It's all here for you; look at it!"

There was a rack of earpieces, the same as in a museum; Chip took one and put it in. Papa Jan's strange manner made him nervous, and he was sorry not to be up ahead with his parents and Peace. Papa Jan put in an earpiece too. "I wonder what interesting new facts I'm going to hear!" he said, and laughed to himself. Chip turned away from him.