‘Don’t talk about Cepheus 18. It’s a zoo. It’s a high-class zoo, with your petrified scientists teasing those poor creatures with their sticks poking through the bars. You throw them chunks of meat, but you cage them up. I know! I’ve been writing about them for two years now. I’ve almost been living with them.’
‘Zammo says—’
‘Zammo!’ This with hard contempt.
‘Zammo says,’ insisted Antyok with worried firmness, ‘that we treat them too like humans as it is.’
The newsman’s straight, long cheeks were rigid, ‘Zammo is rather animallike in his own right. He is a science-worshiper. We can do with less of them. Have you read Aurelion’s works?’ The last was suddenly posed.
‘Umm. Yes. I understand the Emperor—’
‘The Emperor tends towards us. That is good-better than the hounding of the last reign.’
‘I don’t see where you’re heading?’
‘These aliens have much to teach us. You understand? It is nothing that Zammo and his SciGroup can use; no chemistry, no telepathy. It’s a way of life; a way of thinking. The aliens have no crime, no misfits. What effort is being made to study their philosophy? Or to set them up as a problem in social engineering?’
Antyok grew thoughtful, and his plump face smoothed out, ‘It is an interesting consideration. It would be a matter for psychologists—’
‘No good. Most of them are quacks. Psychologists point out problems, but their solutions are fallacious. We need men of Aurelion. Men of The Philosophy—’
‘But look here, we can’t turn Cepheus 18 into . . . into a metaphysical study.’
‘Why not? It can be done easily.’
‘How?’
‘Forget your puny test-tube peerings. Allow the aliens to set up a society free of Humans. Give them an untrammeled independence and allow an intermingling of philosophies—’
Antyok’s nervous response came; ‘That can’t be done in a day.’
‘We can start in a day.’
The administrator said slowly, ‘Well, I can’t prevent you from trying to start.’ He grew confidential, his mild eyes thoughtful, ‘You’ll ruin your own game, though, if you publish SciGroup 10’s report and denounce it on humanitarian grounds. The Scientists are powerful.’
‘And we of The Philosophy as well.’
‘Yes, but there’s an easy way. You needn’t rave. Simply point out that the SciGroup is not solving its problems. Do so unemotionally and let the readers think out your point of view for themselves. Take the birth-rate problem, for instance, There’s something for you. In a generation, the non-Humans might die out, for all science can do. Point out that a more philosophical approach is required. Or pick some other obvious point. Use your judgment, eh?’
Antyok smiled ingratiatingly as he arose, ‘But, for the Galaxy’s sake, don’t stir up a bad smell.’
Bannerd was stiff and unresponsive, ‘You may be right.’
It was later that Bannerd wrote in a capsule message to a friend, ‘He is not clever, by any means. He is confused and has no guiding-line through life. Certainly utterly incompetent in his job. But he’s a cutter and a trimmer, compromises his way around difficulties, and will yield concessions rather than risk a hard stand. He may prove valuable in that. Yours in Aurelion.’
From: AdHQ-Ceph18
To: BuOuProv
Subject: Birth rate of non-Humans on Cepheus 18, News Report on.
References:
(a) AdHQ-Ceph18 letr. AA-LNmn, dated 174/977 G.E.
(b) Imperial Directive, Ja2374, dated 243/975 G.E.
Enclosures:
1-G. Bannerd news report, datelined Cepheus 18, 201/977 G.E.
2-G. Bannerd news report, datelined Cepheus 18, 203/977 G.E.
1. The sterility of non-Humans on Cepheus 18, reported to the BuOuProv in reference (a), has become the subject of news reports to the galactic press. The news reports in question are submitted herewith for the information of the BuOuProv as Enclosures 1 and 2. Although said reports are based on material considered confidential and closed to the public, the news reporter in question maintained his rights to free expression under the terms of reference (b).
2. In view of the unavoidable publicity and misunderstanding on the part of the general public now inevitable, it is requested that the BuOuProv direct future policy on the problem of non-Human sterility.
L. Antyok, Superv. AdHQ-Ceph18,
209/977 G.E.
From: BuOuProv
To: AdHQ-Ceph18
Subject: Birth rate of non-Humans on Cepheus 18, Investigation of.
References:
(a) AdHQ-Cephl8 letr. AA-LNmn, dated 209/977 G.E.
(b) AdHQ-Ceph18 letr. AA-LNmn, dated 174/977 G.E.
1. It is proposed to investigate the causes and the means of precluding the unfavorable birth-rate phenomena mentioned in references (a) and (b). A project is therefore set up, entitled, ‘Birth rate of non-Humans on Cepheus 18, Investigation of’ to which, in view of the crucial importance of the subject, a priority of AA is given.
2. The number assigned to the subject project is 2910, and all expenses incidental to it shall be assigned to Appropriation number 18/78.
C. Morily, Chief, BuOuProv,
223/977 G.E.
III
If Tomor Zammo’s ill-humor lessened within the grounds of Sci-Group 10 Experimental Station, his friendliness had not thereby increased. Antyok found himself standing alone at the viewing window into the main field laboratory.
The main field laboratory was a broad court set at the environmental conditions of Cepheus 18 itself for the discomfort of the experimenters and the convenience of the experimentees. Through the burning sand, and the dry, oxygen-rich air, there sparkled the hard brilliance of hot, white sunlight. And under the blaze, the brick-red non-Humans, wrinkled of skin and wiry of build, huddled in their squatting positions of ease, by ones and twos.
Zammo emerged from the laboratory. He paused to drink water thirstily. He looked up, moisture gleaming on his upper lip, ‘Like to step in there?’
