The Sirian Experiments (37 page)

He was silent for a long time.

‘You are shocked, of course,' I said.

‘No. I – we – cannot afford to be shocked. We have in fact destroyed cultures that have become corrupt.'

‘I am surprised that the great Canopus should use such means.'

‘Or surprised at our admitting it?' 

‘Yes. I suppose that is it.'

For we certainly would not have admitted it, in similar circumstances.

‘But when we have been forced to use such means, in order to keep our balances within measure, then these have been small local cultures. A city … a group of two or three cities … even a few particularly damaging individuals. At this very time, in the area of the great inland seas …' and he seemed distressed, in pain ‘… we are being forced to take certain steps … This is not always the most pleasant of tasks, this Shikastan assignment.'

‘No. It is a horrible place.'

‘But you are actually suggesting we should destroy all life over a whole continent?' he asked reproachfully.

‘They should be treated as they treat others.'

‘A hard rule, Sirius … tell me, have you ever reflected that our behaviour influences theirs?'

This came too close to certain private thoughts of mine, and I exploded with: ‘The native tribes may be sympathetic enough now, harmless, but you know as well as I do that given opportunity they will become as bad as the Lelannians. That is
why
this is such a nasty planet.'

‘It is not the fault of the planet.'

‘That way of thinking is not within our scope, Canopus,' I said, looking at him as forcefully as I could, hoping that he would – at last, as I
then
saw it – begin to reveal truths, secrets, Canopean expertise.

‘Why isn't it, Sirius?'

This silenced me. He was saying that I had admitted our inferiority and that he was challenging its inevitability.

‘Why? … and here we are,' he added, in a low, reproachful voice.

‘Very well then, what do you think should be done?'

‘I propose that we space-lift all the Lelannians away from this planet.'

‘Where to?'

‘Why,' he said smiling, ‘to Shammat, of course. Each to his own.'

I laughed. ‘There are a million of them!'

‘You are rich, Sirius. You have large fleets. You are in the habit of transporting populations from planet to planet. And you suffer from underemployment.'

‘It is absolutely out of the question that I could get Administration to agree. They would not waste so many resources on such an inferior species.'

He was silent for a while. ‘Sirius, very often a great deal of time, effort, and resources are spent on “inferior” species. Everything is relative, you know!'

I did not choose to ‘hear' this. Not at that time.

‘You
are also very rich, Canopus. Are you telling me that you do not transport populations from planet to planet?'

‘Yes, I am telling you that. Not for the reasons you do, at least. Very rarely. We have a very finely balanced economy, Sirius. Exactly and delicately tuned. And if we were to undertake to transport a million animals from here to Shammat, then this would impose a strain on us.'

There was a great deal of information in this, of the kind I wanted so much to have from him – about Canopus and its nature. But I was too disturbed at that juncture to take it in.

‘I tell you, it is not possible for me to arrange it.'

‘Not possible for one of the five senior administrators of the Sirian Colonial Service?'

‘No.'

‘I appeal to you. It may surprise you to know that your economy is more flexible in certain ways than ours.' 

‘I am sorry.'

‘Then we shall have to undertake it.'

I attempted to joke in the face of his evident disappointment, and even worry. ‘A million all at once will certainly impose a strain on Shammat!'

‘It might keep them busy for a bit, at least. And I must confess it does give me some pleasure, unworthy though it is, I am sure, that these Lelannians will become slaves now in
their turn. Shammat is short of labour at this time.' 

‘I share your feelings.'

‘Will you help us perhaps with the task of rehabilitating the tribes?'

And now I did hesitate for a long time. I did feel in the wrong about refusing our aid in the matter of the mass space-lift. I was feeling lacking generally in relation to Canopus – hardly a new emotion! But I also could not understand why he, or they, should concern themselves with this trivial nastiness.

‘Why?' I demanded. ‘Why take so much trouble?'

‘It will be useful for us – for everyone – for the whole Galaxy, if the tribes are enabled to return as far as possible to their old state. They will be returned to their own territories, and encouraged to resume their former simple lives in balance with the environment. Not taking more than they need, not despoiling, not overrunning their geographical areas, or laying waste. Before the Lelannian conquest this continent was in harmony. We shall see that it becomes so again.'

‘And for how long?' I inquired, making him face me on this.

‘Well, not forever, certainly. No. That we know.'

‘Why? – oh, don't talk to me of the Necessity!'

‘There is nothing else, or less, I can talk to you of.'

‘Then do so,' I cried, excited and peremptory. ‘I am waiting. I feel always at the edge of things, and you never come to the point.'

At this he looked, at first, faintly startled, then grieved, and then – as if he had determined to use this aid – amused.

‘Sirius, you are indeed hard to please.'

I was angry. I was angry because of knowing I was in the wrong. I even knew
then
that this was why I was so fatally angry. I rose to my feet, unable to prevent myself, and said: ‘Canopus, I am leaving now.'

‘I shall not prevent you!' said he, in an attempt to remind me of our old ironical understanding of the real situation.

‘Very well, you can stop me if you want. But you won't.
Perhaps I would even be glad of that – if you would simply, and once and for all, do something unequivocal.'

And now he laughed. He laughed out, shaking his head with comical disbelief. This finally enraged me. I ran out into the open, summoned the hovering Space Traveller, and turned to see him in the doorway watching.

‘May I perhaps give you a lift? To your Planet 10, perhaps? I shall be passing it.'

‘I shall be staying here for a while.'

‘Then goodbye.'

And that was how this encounter of ours came to its conclusion.

Once again, distancing myself, it was with relief. I was simply not up to it! It was all too much! And, as I approached home again, I found myself muttering: ‘That's it then – it's enough!' And: ‘Very well, if that's how you want it!' But what these defiances actually meant was something I soon discovered, after I reported back and started to re-align myself with the work I had interrupted, for I found my mind was at work in quite other ways.

Recently I was scanning a history of that time in connection with a different subject, when I came across this: ‘Checks and restrictions were imposed on our experimental and research programmes; and as a result the numbers of animals licensed for use fell sharply.'

In this dry sentence is encapsulated what I am sure must have been the hardest effort of my career. I did not depart for the borders of our Empire. I did not apply for leave – which I was entitled to. I did not do, as Klorathy wanted, anything about our responsibility for Rohanda. But what I did engage myself with was a fight to force us, Sirius, into a different attitude towards our subject populations, and particularly as regards their use as laboratory material. This battle is by no means over. As I write this, different factions of opinion are still engaged.

Large-scale experiments of the biosociological kind are in progress – the kind that one of our wits has summed up as:
What if we
…? In other words, populations are subjected to this and that stress, or the planets of planets moved about – all that class of thing. And I am far from claiming that this does not cause suffering. Of course it does. I do not believe that it is useful – as some of our technicians still do – to say things of this sort: ‘These creatures are of so low a mental development that they do not know what is happening to them.' Yes, I certainly was of their company – once. I like to think that it was a long time ago. It will not have escaped the speculation of the more sensitive reader that my – perhaps unnecessarily full – account of the Lombis was for a purpose. But it is not possible to avoid such disturbances of a Colonized Planet altogether. What would then be the purpose of colonizing one? No planet is welcomed into the Sirian system without careful thought and planning and, as I have said, at this particular time our expansion is suspended.

To be part of the Sirian whole is to be part of progress, development, an attitude of ‘one for all and all for each!' Sacrifices have to be made by everyone for such an ideal. I want to make it clear, here, at this point, that I do not demand the total abolition of all social disturbance – that would be to demand the end of Sirius itself – Sirius the Mother Planet, herself daughter of the great star Sirius, and sister to her two siblings – Sirius the glorious, with her wonderful children scattered so felicitously through the Galaxy. Of course, I cannot mean that, cannot want that … I want no part of the sentimentalism that says that ‘Nature has its rights!' ‘Each in its own place!' Or ‘Hands off …' – whatever planet is in question: to mention a few of the more popular current slogans. No. It is the duty of the more evolved planets, like the great daughter of Sirius, to guide and control.

But that is a very different thing from using not hundreds, not thousands, not even millions, but billions of animals of all kinds and types of genera and species in cruel and unnecessary experiments. As we used to do. For a very long time. For not millennia, but for long ages. I say
unnecessary.
I use the word knowing how this goes straight to the point of
the argument, the disagreement.
Necessary for what?

At the time of my return from Rohanda on that trip, two-thirds of all the technicians throughout the Empire were employed on experiments on various kinds of animals. These were of every kind, from the mild to the horrific. In some there was concern that the pain suffered by the animals should be kept minimal. In others there was no concern at all. But, as often happens, the debate that started, and then raged – the only word for it – as a result of my efforts, was centred on the pain suffered or not suffered, and how much, and how it should be regulated. What was not discussed then – and what to my mind has not been adequately recognized since – is the question of the actual use of the animals at all, our attitude to them, what right we have to arbitrarily take them and exploit them according to our current needs. And this question, which to my mind is the real one, is rooted in another, much deeper: what is a genus
for?
What is its function? What does it do? What part does it play in the cosmic harmony?

It will be seen that I approach here the Canopean formula, or tenet, or habit of mind:
according to the Necessity.

It is also, of course, linked with our existential situation or problem. And much more fundamentally than on that level where we had to face the truth that something like fifteen millions of our most highly trained technicians were without an occupation. Without a function. Which is what we did have to face as controversy raged, and resulted in public opinion changing to the point where it could not tolerate any longer the mass torture – the accurate word – the mass and unnecessary torture of billions of living creatures. If we, Sirius were – are – to decide, at last, what we are for, what our function is, then it follows that we have to wonder at last what these lower animals are for.

Well, a great many of us are now pondering just this question …

The fifteen million technicians, finding themselves without a use, were retired, according to our custom, on to planets of their choice, to live out the remainder of their lives in
honour and peace. And, of course, to join those who have leisure to devote themselves to our basic, crucial, quintessential problem. Most of them died off very quickly. This always happens when a class of workers finds itself obsolete.

None of this happened without bitterness, emotional and mental conflict, and even – in some planets – rioting and social disturbance. It will almost certainly strike present-day students unpleasantly, and surprisingly, to know that some of the slogans under which these old battles were fought included:
What we have, we hold. Might is right. Victory to the strongest. The ends justify the means. The function of the inferior is to serve the superior.

Our entire administrative class was threatened. As for my own position, I had to face a long period of near-ostracism. That I was wrongheaded was the least of it. It was only with great difficulty that I avoided being sent off to Adjustive Hospitalization. Yes, it was put about that my mentality had been affected by sojourns in inimicable climates on unpleasant planets – Rohanda being chiefly blamed. And
in
some moods I even found myself agreeing with my critics. It was not always easy to see Klorathy's influence on my life – on (I insist) Sirius – as unambiguously good.

What I have put down here can give only a hint of what lay behind those words: ‘Checks and restrictions were imposed …' etc.

While all this was going on, I had no word from Canopus, though it can be imagined how much I thought of things Canopean, and of my friends. Yes, I thought of Klorathy and Nasar thus, although it was never without strain. The strain that the inferior must feel in coming into contact with the superior. I hope that this statement will not earn me, again, a threat of Adjustive Hospitalization!