Shikasta

I have reissued instructions for his elimination.

I send you comradely greetings. My remembrances, memories of an old friendship are one of the few pleasures of my exile.

[This Overlord was recalled shortly after. His friend Ku Yuang had already been removed from his position by an opposing faction. Both were sequestered, and underwent "beneficent correction" until their deaths. Archivists.]

History of Shikasta, VOL. 3014, Period Between World Wars II and III. SUMMARY CHAPTER.

This was a period of furious activity.

The inhabitants of Shikasta, engaged in destroying themselves, soon to face the intensive, if short, final phase of their long orgy of mutual destruction, were not entirely unaware of their situation. A feeling of foreboding was general, but was not commensurate with the situation, nor specific to the various dangers. Alarms and warnings were frequent, but related to an aspect or part of the situation: these preoccupied them for a while, and were then forgotten as another crisis arose and seemed overriding. A few Shikastans, and in all countries, understood quite well what was happening.

Shikastans, then, in every country, scurried about like insects when their nest is threatened: a breach has been made, and in that place repairs must be effected. And of course, talking went on continuously and always and everywhere; councils, conferences, meetings, discussions, were held all over the planet, some of these purporting to be in the interests of Shikasta as a whole, but the habit of partisan and sectarian thinking was too ingrained for these to be of use.

None, or few, understood the nature of the intense interest taken in them by various outside localities.

That there was interest, on the part of "beings from space," was suspected, and there was a worldwide belief that heads of states and governments knew factually and specifically about the visits, peaceful or otherwise, from other parts of the galaxy. It was believed that these functionaries and their underlings denied this knowledge out of a fear of the reactions of their populations, who, for their part, because of the i

Meanwhile, under the noses of the unfortunates, real battles were being fought, real events took place.

First of all, there was our former enemy and uneasy ally Sirius.

Through the long development of Shikasta, Sirius had several times used areas, mostly in the southern hemisphere, and usually with our agreement, for experiments. Some of these animals proved unsatisfactory for Sirian long-term purposes, and were allowed to remain and develop along their own lines, without further modification or interference. Some of the experiments were successful or promising, and more than once Sirian fleets had descended and taken off an entire species, sometimes numbering many thousands, after anything from between five hundred or a thousand, to several thousand, years. These were transferred to other Sirian colonies, to develop along pla

Due to the comparative ease of travel in recent times, and the accessibility of all parts of Shikasta to the others, a great deal of racial mixing had taken place.

Sirius was not much involved in the culminating events on Shikasta. One reason was in fact this racial mixing: as soon as travel, due to the developments of technology, had become general, Sirius had wound up certain experiments, and had no further expectations of Shikasta. She always kept us informed, telling us exactly when she withdrew her active participation, placing in our hands details of the experiments she had at various times undertaken, whose results we might have to oversee, or take into account, ourselves. She did send observing spacecraft however, and these were of premier size and quality, the cream of her fleets. This was partly to indicate to us, her ancient rival, that the relinquishing of her power was voluntary, and partly to intimidate Shammat, whose frenzies of mind caused all of us anxiety.

Shammat of Puttiora was now in fact the most powerful planet in that complex, and Puttiora was her puppet, but remained the apparent centre for purposes of Shammat's convenience. Shammat knew that at some time the unfortunate cosmic pattern which had caused the long decline of Shikasta because of the diminishing flow of SOWF was due to end. She knew that Shikasta would again lock into place in the great plan that kept Canopus and her planets and colonies in an always harmoniously interacting whole. At some time, Shammat's influence would end.

But Shammat did not know when. Did not know how complete her overthrow was to be. Did not know what our plans were.

Shammat's disability has always been of the same kind and degree, and can be described in a useful Shikastan saying: it takes one to know one! For Shammat's low level of development has always prevented her from understanding the nature of our interests and intentions.

Shammat's nature has always been that of an exploiter, a drainer, a feeder, a parasite. She has never been able to comprehend that other empires may be based on higher motives.

Shammat, since her rapid rise to a key position in the Puttiora Empire, has been a place of power, highly fortified, always at war, whose citizens, all of a single racial stock, ex-Puttiora, have considered themselves superior, and draw tribute from any other part of the galaxy they might happen to conquer or influence. Shammat sits in the middle of the complex like an ever-open mouth. Shammat is, and always has been, a threat to the overall development of the galaxy. A vast planet, the largest known, it is barren, dry, lacking in resources. Everything has to be imported. And she lacks, completely, any wholesome balancing powers and currents because of her position in the cosmic organisation. Even Puttiora would not develop this dreadful place. Yet by an unfortunate combination of chances, some criminals found their way here, seized it, used its very awfulness to wrench power for themselves from others.

For a short time (in cosmic terms) Shammat was the most luxurious in the galaxy. It overflowed with riches, wealth, the products of a hundred inventive and industrious cultures. The inhabitants lived on a level of self-indulgence and beastliness that has never been equalled, not even during the nastiest episodes on Shikasta.

Power from Shikasta remained always Shammat's main source, and she was not able to find anything to replace it.

More and more power had been drawn from Shikasta. Shammat was taking everything she could, while she could. But she simply was not able to understand what was happening. She did not know how to find out, and flailed about wildly, blindly, in every sort of damaging way, in the hope that "something would work." She knew that we, Canopus, was, is, must always be, her enemy: knew that we were always present, potent, unconquerable - but did not know what to look for, unable to recognise us in our i

Shammat, until the very end, believed that in some extraordinary way or other, it would be possible to maintain "somehow," the link with Shikasta. "Something will happen." "It will all come right." This desperate unclarity was not what characterised Shammat in the days when we observed her accurately foreseeing the weakening of the link Canopus/Shikasta, and what that weakening might offer her in the way of benefits - but Shammat had degenerated. The long history of shameless dependence on others, the selfishness of her attitude towards neighbours in the galaxy, parasitism, her luxury and the weakening of her moral fibre - all had conspired to ruin her. And the emanations from Shikasta itself, in her final phase, were poisonous. The very process that Shammat had set moving - reducing, weakening, enslaving a large part of Shikasta's populations, this had reduced and weakened itself, and caused self-division and civil war.