The Sirian Experiments

“Very well,” I said. “Sirian ways are not yours. But surely the problems of discipline are the same everywhere? You should obey orders, freely confess your derelictions, and take your punishment—but you say there isn’t any.”

He sighed, and began his pacing.

“And you should put forward your point of view—you should say that in your opinion the policy for this planet is incorrect.”

He flung himself down on pile of cushions, stretched his legs out, put his behind his watched me, with smile.

“Canopus should argue with Canopus,” he said. “Well, why not? It has never been done. But…” and he laughed.

“I do not understand why that is so amusing,” I said. “But I have had a very great deal of experience with the administration of planets, and the perso

I have to record here that he laughed until I became very angry, but on behalf of Sirius, not of myself. For it was Sirius that was being criticised.

“Very well,” said he, “I shall go back, as ordered. I shall demand active rehabilitation—for I certainly need it. I shall demand the right to put forward an opposition to existing policy. I shall that that this was on the advice of Sirius…” and he nearly began laughing again, but he saw my face and stopped. “I am sorry,” he said, “I really am. But you simply do not know…”

“No, I don’t know. But I would like you to go on. If your persuasions fail, and the existing policy stands, then…” I hesitated, and said: “I shall not attempt to conceal from you that Sirius would like all of Rohanda. We obviously have very different ideas from yours. Let us say they are not so lofty! We could make good use of this Planet for our experiments. We have made very good use of the southern hemisphere…” and here I had to stop.

I had forgotten, because of the superior and even commanding position I had had to take in relation with this Canopean functionary, that our part on this planet had not always been honestly played! Again I found myself in the position of hoping a Canopean was not able to read my thoughts, yet knew he did.

I made myself say: “Did you know that some of our experiments in the south were not always entirely within the terms of our agreements?”

“Yes, of course we know that.” He did not seem inclined to say any more. Because it was of no importance?

“That you would not keep to the spirit, let alone the letter, of our agreements, was foreseen and allowed for.”

I was angry now. And defensive. “What I can’t understand is this: Canopus both allots this defective little planet a far more important role than we do—certainly you go to far greater lengths than we ever do—but at the same time you seem quite extraordinarily perfunctory…” and as I spoke, words flashed into my mind, and I received them with a sense of weariness. “I suppose you are going to say that what you do is in accordance with what is needed?”

“But what else could I possibly say?” he asked, genuinely surprised. For some reason the insectlike people of their Planet 11 came into mind: I remembered an infant that was a frail pink squirm held in milky semitransparent arms, surrounded by waving tentacles. And these loathsome things were higher in the evolutionary scale than I was, or at least very well regarded by Klorathy, and, therefore, also, by Nasar. For me to approach “the Need” seemed to demand resources of tolerance in me that I could not believe I would ever have. And yet again we reached, Canopus and I, a moment when understanding had been on the verge of trembling into light. And then had gone again. Had been engulfed in anger, guilt, and in disbelief in my own capacities.

I did not know what it was I had not understood. I heard myself muttering: “I don’t understand. I don’t understand.”

“Poor Sirius,” said Nasar, in the way he had done before.

“What will happen if you fail to persuade them?” I asked.

He stood up. He looked drained, and ashy and lustreless, all the energy gone out of him.

“I shall go home now. I shall take your advice. If I succeed in my application to question the Colonial policy, I shall say that in my view we should jettison Shikasta. I shall say that Sirius has put forward a serious request to take over Shikasta. If I fail, and the existing policy stands—and this is what will happen, Sirius, please do not expect too much—I shall, I suppose, have the pleasure of seeing you here some time.”

“Are you not permitted to request transfer to another planet?”

“I do not think that… but let us put it this way. Once I am there, and back in my normal frame of mind, I probably will not want to demand a transfer.”

“I do not understand why not,” I insisted. “And if you do return here, I hope you will suggest you are not to be left down here so long without periods of leave.”

He smiled again. It was gentle, and even appreciative and even—again—with a certain admiration. “I shall make your views known,” he said.

“And what work do you think you will be assigned when you come back? If you do.”

“What? Why, as always, I shall be sent to a new place—for of course it will not have escaped you that these cities of the eastern central landmass will soon be under sand?”

“No, it did not escape me!”

“Exactly so… and I shall either find myself in some dreadful city, which I shall regard, at first, as hell and torment, and then… perhaps it will all happen again? In any case, I shall set the current flowing, and guard the flow, and make checks to Shammat… all that I shall do—as I always do! Or perhaps they will tell me to make another city, or a cluster of cities, like these—all perfect, perfect… until…

“How do you go about creating your cities?” I asked—and again the word came to me. “Oh, according to need,” I said. “Yes, but how?”

“I think I shall go now,” he said. “If I don’t, who knows what may happen! I shall even perhaps find myself back with Elylé—I wouldn’t put it past myself, I assure you.”

“How will you call your spacecraft?” I asked.

“I shall return—in another way,” said he. “Goodbye, Sirius. And thank you. Look after your equipment—your earrings and the rest—they will be coming after it and after you, and when they find I have disappeared they may make that an excuse to take you physically… Call your spaceship in and leave. That is my advice.”

He ran out of the room, and after some time I him, small dark figure, emerge from the base of the tower. He taken no covering with him. I understood. He was going to walk off into the great snow wastes and die there. This gave me food for thought indeed—it was the begi