He stood at easy attention immediately inside the door. At the desk at the far side of the room the placement officer was going through a sheaf of papers. He looked up and said, “Ronald Bronston? Sit down. You'd like an interplanetary assignment, eh? So would I.”
Ronny took the chair. For a moment he tried to appear alert, earnest, ambitious but not too ambitious, fearless, devoted to the cause, and indispensable. For a moment. Then he gave it up and looked like Ronny Bronston.
The other looked up and took him in. The personnel official saw a man of averages. In the late twenties. Average height, weight and breadth. Pleasant of face in an average sort of way, but not handsome. Less than sharp in dress, hair inclined to be on the undisciplined side. Brown of hair, dark of eye. In a crowd, inconspicuous. In short, Ronny Bronston.
The personnel officer grunted. He pushed a button, said something into his order box. A card slid into the slot and he took it out and stared gloomily at it.
“What're your politics?” he said.
“Politics?” Ronny Bronston said. “I haven't any politics. My father and grandfather before me have been citizens of United Planets. There hasn't been any politics in our family for three generations.”
“Family?”
“None.”
The other grunted and marked the card. “Racial prejudices?”
“I beg your pardon?”