“I am your Legum.”
Aritch spoke with resignation.
“You are.”
“Your Legum wishes to hear of the Dosadi problem.”
“A thing is not a problem until it arouses sufficient concern.” Aritch glanced at the box in McKie's lap. “We're dealing with differences in values, changes in values.”
McKie did not believe for an instant this was the tenor of Gowachin defense, but Aritch's words gave him pause. The Gowachin combined such an odd mixture of respect and disrespect for their Law and all government. At the root lay their unchanging rituals, but above that everything remained as fluid as the seas in which they'd evolved. Constant fluidity was the purpose behind their rituals. You never entered any exchange with Gowachin on a sure-footed basis. They did something different every time ⦠religiously. It was their nature.
All ground is temporary. Law is made to be changed.
That was their catechism.
To be a Legum is to learn where to place your feet.
“The Dry Heads did something different,” McKie said.
This plunged Aritch into gloom. His chest ventricles wheezed, indicating he'd speak
from the stomach
.
“The people of the ConSentiency come in so many different forms: Wreaves (a flickering glance doorward), Sobarips, Laclacs, Calebans, PanSpechi, Palenki, Chithers, Taprisiots, Humans, we of the Gowachin ⦠so many. The unknowns between us defy counting.”
“As well count the drops of water in a sea.”
Aritch grunted, then:
“Some diseases cross the barriers between species.”
McKie stared at him. Was Dosadi a medical experiment station? Impossible! There would be no reason for secrecy then. Secrecy defeated the efforts to study a common problem and the Gowachin knew it.
“You are not studying Gowachin-Human diseases.”
“Some diseases attack the psyche and cannot be traced to any physical agent.”
McKie absorbed this. Although Gowachin definitions were
difficult to understand, they permitted no aberrant behavior. Different behavior, yes; aberrant behavior, no. You could challenge the Law, not the ritual. They were compulsive in this regard. They slew the ritual deviant out of hand. It required enormous restraint on their part to deal with another species.
Aritch continued:
“Terrifying psychological abrasions occur when divergent species confront each other and are forced to adapt to new ways. We seek new knowledge in this arena of behavior.”
McKie nodded.
One of his Dry Head teachers had said it: “No matter how painful, life must adapt or die.”
It was a profound revelation about how Gowachin applied their insight to themselves. Law changed, but it changed on a foundation which could not be permitted the slightest change. “Else, how do we know where we are or where we have been?” But encounters with other species changed the foundation. Life adapted ⦠willingly or by force.
McKie spoke with care.
“Psychological experiments with people who've not given their informed consent are still illegal ⦠even among the Gowachin.”
Aritch would not accept this argument.
“The ConSentiency in all of its parts has accumulated a long history of scientific studies into behavioral and biomedical questions where people are the final test site.”
McKie said:
“And the first issue when you propose such an experiment is âHow great is the known risk to the subjects?'”
“But, my dear Legum,
informed consent
implies that the experimenter knows all the risks and can describe them to his test subjects. I ask you: how can that be when the experiment goes beyond what you already know? How can you describe risks which you cannot anticipate?”
“You submit a proposal to many recognized experts in the field,” McKie said. “They weigh the proposed experiment against whatever value the new knowledge is expected to uncover.”
“Ahh, yes. We submit our proposal to fellow researchers, to people whose
mission
, whose very view of their own personal identity is controlled by the belief that they can improve the lot of all sentient beings. Tell me, Legum: do review boards composed of such people reject many experimental proposals?”
McKie saw the direction of the argument. He spoke with care.
“They don't reject many proposals, that's true. Still, you didn't submit your Dosadi protocol to any outside review. Was that to keep it secret from your own people or from others?”
“We feared the fate of our proposal should it run the gauntlet of other species.”
“Did a Gowachin majority approve your project?”
“No. But we both know that having a majority set the experimental guidelines gives no guarantee against dangerous projects.”
“Dosadi has proved dangerous?”
Aritch remained silent for several deep breaths, then:
“It has proved dangerous.”
“To whom?”
“Everyone.”
It was an unexpected answer, adding a new dimension to Aritch's behavior. McKie decided to back up and test the revelation. “This Dosadi project was approved by a minority among the Gowachin, a minority willing to accept a dangerous risk-benefit ratio.”
“You have a way of putting these matters, McKie, which presupposes a particular kind of guilt.”
“But a majority in the ConSentiency might agree with my description?”
“Should they ever learn of it.”
“I see. Then, in accepting a dangerous risk, what were the future benefits you expected?”
Aritch emitted a deep grunt.
“Legum, I assure you that we worked only with volunteers and they were limited to Humans and Gowachin.”
“You evade my question.”
“I merely defer an answer.”
“Then tell me, did you explain to your volunteers that they had a choice, that they could say âno'? Did you tell them they might be in danger?”
“We did not try to frighten them ⦠no.”
“Was any one of you concerned about the free destiny of your
volunteers
?”
“Be careful how you judge us, McKie. There is a fundamental tension between science and freedomâno matter how science is viewed by its practitioners nor how freedom is sensed by those who believe they have it.”
McKie was reminded of a cynical Gowachin aphorism:
To believe that you are free is more important than being free.
He said:
“Your volunteers were lured into this project.”
“Some would see it that way.”
McKie reflected on this. He still did not know precisely what the Gowachin had done on Dosadi, but he was beginning to suspect it'd be something repulsive. He could not keep this fear from his voice.
“We return to the question of expected benefits.”
“Legum, we have long admired your species. You gave us one of our most trusted maxims:
No species is to be trusted farther than it is bound by its own interests
.”
“That's no longer sufficient justification for ⦔
“We derive another rule from your maxim:
It is wise to guide your actions in such a way that the interests of other species coincide with the interests of your species
.”
McKie stared at the High Magister. Did this crafty old Gowachin seek a Human-Gowachin conspiracy to suppress evidence of what had been done on Dosadi? Would he dare such a gambit? Just how bad was this Dosadi fiasco?
To test the issue, McKie asked:
“What benefits did you expect? I insist.”
Aritch slumped. His chairdog accommodated to the new position. The High Magister favored McKie with a heavy-lidded stare for a long interval, then:
“You play this game better than we'd ever hoped.”
“With you, Law and Government are always a game. I come from another arena.”
“Your Bureau.”
“And I was trained as a Legum.”
“Are you
my
Legum?”
“The binding oath is binding on me. Have you no faith in ⦔
McKie broke off, overwhelmed by a sudden insight. Of course! The Gowachin had known for a long time that Dosadi would become a legal issue.
“Faith in what?” Aritch asked.
“Enough of these evasions!” McKie said. “You had your Dosadi problem in mind when you trained me. Now, you act as though you distrust your own plan.”
Aritch's lips rippled.
“How strange. You're more Gowachin than a Gowachin.”
“What benefits did you expect when you took this risk?”
Aritch's fingers splayed, stretching the webs.
“We hoped for a quick conclusion and benefits to offset the natural animosities we knew would arise. But it's now more than twenty of your generations, not twelve or fifteen, that we've grasped the firebrand. Benefits? Yes, there are some, but we dare not use them or free Dosadi from bondage lest we raise questions which we cannot answer without revealing our ⦠source.”
“The benefits!” McKie said. “Your
Legum
insists.”
Aritch exhaled a shuddering breath through his ventricles.
“Only the Caleban who guards Dosadi knows its location and she is charged to give access without revealing that place. Dosadi is peopled by Humans and Gowachin. They live in a single city they call Chu. Some ninety million people live there, almost equally divided between the two species. Perhaps three times that number live outside Chu, on the Rim, but they're outside the experiment. Chu is approximately eight hundred square kilometers.”
The population density shocked McKie. Millions per kilometer. He had difficulty visualizing it. Even allowing for a city's vertical dimension ⦠and burrowing ⦠There'd be
some, of course, whose power bought them space, but the others ⦠Gods! Such a city would be crawling with people, no escaping the pressure of your fellows anywhere except on that unexplained Rim. McKie said as much to Aritch.
The High Magister confirmed this.
“The population density is very great in some areas. The people of Dosadi call these areas âWarrens' for good reason.”
“But why? With an entire planet to live on ⦔
“Dosadi is poisonous to our forms of life. All of their food comes from carefully managed hydroponics factories in the heart of Chu. Food factories and the distribution are managed by warlords. Everything is under a quasi-military form of management. But life expectancy in the city is four times that outside.”
“You said the population outside the city was much larger than ⦔
“They breed like mad animals.”
“What possible benefits could you have expected from ⦔
“Under pressure, life reveals its basic elements.”
McKie considered what the High Magister had revealed. The picture of Dosadi was that of a seething mass. Warlords ⦠He visualized walls, some people living and working in comparative richness of space while others ⦠Gods! It was madness in a universe where some highly habitable planets held no more than a few thousand people. His voice brittle, McKie addressed himself to the High Magister.
“These basic elements, the
benefits
you sought ⦠I wish to hear about them.”
Aritch hitched himself forward.
“We have discovered new ways of association, new devices of motivation, unsuspected drives which can impose themselves upon an entire population.”
“I require specific and explicit enumeration of these discoveries.”
“Presently, Legum ⦠presently.”
Why did Aritch delay? Were the so-called benefits insignificant beside the repulsive horror of such an experiment? McKie ventured another tack.
“You say this planet is poisonous. Why not remove the inhabitants a few at a time, subject them to memory erasure if you must, and feed them out into the ConSentiency as new ⦔
“We dare not! First, the inhabitants have developed an immunity to erasure, a by-product of those poisons which do get into their diet. Second, given what they have become on Dosadi ⦠How can I explain this to you?”
“Why don't the people just leave Dosadi? I presume you deny them jumpdoors, but rockets and other mechanical ⦔
“We will not permit them to leave. Our Caleban encloses Dosadi in what she calls a âtempokinetic barrier' which our test subjects cannot penetrate.”