Easy Does It

Hal Webber, a product of a highly conditioned society, postpones his scheduled CC Treatment after a recent change that adds a marital inclination; his father, proud of corporate triumphs and eager to reward a talented outsider engineer, remains confident in the Treatments. As Hal's conditioning lapses he experiences growing unease and then discovers that being stranded with a woman is unexpectedly pleasurable, prompting reflection on the costs of engineered civility, the liminal outsider status of Outlanders, and the tension between social control and unregulated human impulse.