Read The Last Place to Stand for Free Online

family to me. And as a man who has not had a real family in a long time, that has great worth. More than anything the Technos might value, family has worth. If I die, I would want to die here, not out there without family.”
    “I understand,” she said. “Family is worth more than everything else, and you are a part of our family. You remember that. No matter where you are, we are still your family.”
    “Thanks,” he said.
    After that, Samuel and his men put on their gear, which included weapons (stunners mostly and some batons for hand combat), whatever loose clothing they could wear in layers, some technology that would help them in the Techno's environment, and one book to read on the road. That latter meant more to them than might be expected. They had all come from the Techno's world, and books were not read to them, being barely even accessible. The Technos wanted all new information to be accessed through the use of technology, believing that eventually unlimited information would be available faster this way. Now, these men having escaped that world, savored what had been denied them: The relaxing experience of reading a book that they loved at their own leisure. Most of the men would read the book they chose over and over, savoring it, chewing it slowly, digesting every part and then quoting their favorite passages when they came to mind. Then, after a month or a few months they might have a chance to get a new book. So they chose carefully, if there was a choice, wearing each book out until it would begin to lose pages and then binding it together with string.
    They were ready, each of them ready to give their lives for the mission, though they did not always know the objective until they got there. They trusted Samuel's leading, knowing he was always thinking about them, calculating safety into everything, but still having a goal worth dying for. If the goal was not worth that, then there was no reason to leave this place. People were worth dying for, not machines. That was one value they all kept dear. They had seen what machines did to people, now that their understanding of the world had changed, and they wanted to offer people what had been offered once to them.
    “Let's go,” Samuel said.
     

Chapter 13
    “Class, today I want to talk to you about utility.” The students were quietly, paying attention. “Utility is the idea that everyone has something worth giving. Each one of you can give worth to yourselves by being of worth to society. Let me give you an example.”
    The teacher walked around the room. “E5528?”
    “Yes?” she said.
    “What are you good at?”
    The child thought for a moment. “I like to draw.”
    “Drawing,” the teacher said, “has no utility. People who draw are among the Castaways, those who do not want to be productive. The Castaways are not interested in making society better, they only care for themselves. They are selfish. Do you want to be a Castaway?”
    The student got embarrassed. “No,” she said quietly as she looked at the ground.
    “As I was saying,” the teacher went on, “utility is what give us value. Now, in the case of E5528, she may be good at drawing, but that is not a usable utility. Later, when she is older, she may be good at using her imagination to help engineers design innovative products. She might even help design new and useful chips.”
    A hand shot up in the front row, “Yes?” the teacher said.
    “When will we get our chips?” He was a new student. Still quite young.
    “When you go on to Phase 2 of your schooling. For you that will be five more years.”
    The same student, “But if the chips make us know things, why do we have to learn here?”
    “Because,” said the teacher, a little frustrated, “if you do not know how to be useful, you will not know what to do with a chip when you have it. You have to know what is important and what your place is in society.”
    Another student put up a hand.
    “Yes.”
    “I heard