The Dosadi Experiment

As he waited beside the white rock on Dosadi, McKie reflected on these matters, biding his time, listening.  The alien heat, the smells and unfamiliar noises, disturbed him.  He'd been told to listen for the sound of an internal combustion engine.  Internal combustion!  But the Dosadi used such devices outside the city because they were more powerful (although much larger) than the beamed impulse drivers which they used within Chu's walls.

"The fuel is alcohol.  Most of the raw materials come from the Rim.  It doesn't matter how much poison there is in such fuel.  They ferment bushes, trees, ferns . . . anything the Rim supplies."

A sleepy quiet surrounded McKie now.  For a long time he'd been girding himself to risk the thing he knew he would have to do once he were alone on Dosadi.  He might never again be this alone here, probably not once he was into Chu's Warrens.  He knew the futility of trying to contact his Taprisiot monitor.  Aritch, telling him the Gowachin knew BuSab had bought "Taprisiot insurance," had said:

"Not even a Taprisiot call can penetrate the God Wall."

In the event of Dosadi's destruction, the Caleban contract ended.  McKie's Taprisiot might even have an instant to complete the death record of McKie's memories.  Might.  That was academic to McKie in his present circumstances.  The Calebans owed him a debt.  The Whipping Star threat had been as deadly to Calebans as to any other species which had ever used jumpdoors.  The threat had been real and specific.  Users of jumpdoors and the Caleban who controlled those jumpdoors had been doomed.  "Fa

"The owing of me to thee co

Aritch could have alerted his Dosadi guardian against any attempt by McKie to contact another Caleban.  McKie doubted this.  Aritch had specified a ban against Taprisiot calls.  But all Calebans shared an awareness at some level.  If Aritch and company had been lulled into a mistaken assumption about the security of their barrier around Dosadi . . .

Carefully, McKie cleared his mind of any thoughts about Taprisiots.  This wasn't easy.  It required a Sufi concentration upon a particular void.  There could be no accidental thrust of his mind at the Taprisiot waiting in the safety of Central Central with its endless patience.  Everything must be blanked from awareness except a clear projection toward Fa

McKie visualized her:  the star Thyone.  He recalled their long hours of mental give and take.  He projected the warmth of emotional attachment, recalling her recent demonstration of "nodal involvement."

Presently, he closed his eyes, amplified that internal image which now suffused his mind.  He felt his muscles relax.  The warm rock against his back, the sand beneath him, faded from awareness.  Only the glowing presence of a Caleban remained in his mind.

"Who calls?"

The words touched his auditory centers, but not his ears.

"It's McKie, friend of Fa

"I am the God Wall.  Have you come to worship?"

McKie felt his thoughts stumble.  Worship?  The projection from this Caleban was echoing and portentous, not at all like the probing curiosity he always sensed in Fa

"It's McKie, friend of Fa

The glow within McKie dimmed, then:  "But you occupy a point upon Dosadi's wave."

That was a familiar kind of communication, one to which McKie could apply previous experience in the hope of a small understanding, an approximation.

"Does the God Wall permit me to contact Fa

Words echoed in his head:

"One Caleban, all Caleban."

"I wish converse with Fa

"You are not satisfied with your present body?"

McKie felt his body then, the trembling flesh, the zombie-like trance state which went with Caleban or Taprisiot contact.  The question had no meaning to him, but the body contact was real and it threatened to break off communication.  Slowly, McKie fought back to that tenuous mind-presence.

"I am Jorj X. McKie. Calebans are in my debt."

"All Calebans know this debt."

"Then honor your debt."

He waited, trying not to grow tense.

The glow within his head was replaced by a new presence.  It insinuated itself into McKie's awareness with penetrating familiarity - not full mental contact, but rather a playing upon those regions of his brain where sight and sound were interpreted.  McKie recognized this new presence.

"Fa

"What does McKie require?"

For a Caleban, it was quite a direct communication.  McKie, noting this, responded more directly:

"I require your help."

"Explain."

"I may be killed here . . . ahh, have an end to my node here on Dosadi."

"Dosadi's wave," she corrected him.

"Yes.  And if that happens, if I die here, I have friends on Central Central . . . on Central Central's wave . . . friends there who must learn everything that's in my mind when I die."

"Only Taprisiot can do this.  Dosadi contract forbids Taprisiots."

"But if Dosadi is destroyed . . .

"Contract promise passes no ending, McKie."

"You ca

"You wish advice from Fa

"Yes."

"Fa

Constant trance?  McKie was shocked.

She caught this.

"No trance.  McKie's nexus known to Fa

"I think not.  I can't have any distractions here."

"Bad choice."

She was petulant.

"Could you provide me with a personal jumpdoor to . . ."

"Not with node ending close to ending for Dosadi wave."

"Fa

"Caleban contract, McKie."

Her displeasure was clear.  You didn't question the honor of a Caleban's word-writ.  The Dosadi contract undoubtedly contained specific prohibitions against any revelations of what went on here.  McKie was dismayed.  He was tempted to leave Dosadi immediately.Fa

"McKie can leave now.  Soon, McKie ca

"Body/node?"

"Answer not permitted."

Not permitted!

"I thought you were my friend, Fa

Warmth suffused him.

"Fa

"Then why won't you help me?"

"You wish to leave Dosadi's wave in this instant?"

"No!"

"Then Fa

Angry, McKie began to break the contact.

Fa

"I must go.  You know I'm in a trance while we're in contact.  That's dangerous here.  We'll speak another time.  I appreciate your wish to help and your new clarity, but . . ."

"Not clarity!  Very small hole in understanding but Human keeps no more dimension!"

Obvious unhappiness accompanied this response, but she broke the contact.  McKie felt himself awakening, his fingers and toes trembling with cold.  Caleban contact had slowed his metabolism to a dangerous low.  He opened his eyes.

A strange Gowachin clad in the yellow of an armored vehicle driver stood over him.  A tracked machine rumbled and puffed in the background.  Blue smoke enveloped it.  McKie stared upward in shock.

The Gowachin nodded companionably.

"You are ill?"