The Dosadi Experiment

"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 'no'?  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 freedom - no 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 begi

"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 ca

"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 'Warrens' 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 'tempokinetic barrier' which our test subjects ca

"Why?"

"We will destroy the entire planet and everything on it rather than loose this population upon the ConSentiency."

"What are the people of Dosadi that you'd even contemplate such a thing?"

Aritch shuddered.

"We have created a monster."