Part 72 (1/2)
”But she was in charge of actually organizing the colony,” Corain said then, when things settled down. ”Describe what she did.”
”She was in charge of picking the azi and training them; and she did the main instructional tape. They wanted her to do all this stuff you can't can't do. Like all these buried instructions. What she did, she made the primary instruction deep-tape; and she axed the azi's contracts in a way that meant if there weren't any CITs they were contracted to the world itself.” do. Like all these buried instructions. What she did, she made the primary instruction deep-tape; and she axed the azi's contracts in a way that meant if there weren't any CITs they were contracted to the world itself.”
”She disregarded the Defense Bureau's instructions. That's what you're saying.”
”If she'd done what the military wanted the whole colony would likely have died out; or if they lived past the diseases the third or fourth generation would be really dangerous-psychsets interact with environment. They didn't want to hear that.”
”Time,” Chairman Harad said. ”Councillor Chavez of Finance.”
”You consider you're qualified to p.r.o.nounce on that,” Chavez said, following up.
”Ser, that's a real basic.”
”I don't care if it's a basic,” Chavez said, ”you're consistently reading in motives or you're attributing them to people only one of whom you know anything about, and you're not making it clear where you're quoting and where you're interpreting. I'm talking about your predecessor, young sera, who is the one whose notes you're supposed to be testifying to. Not your own interpretations of those notes.”
”Yes, ser.” Ari drew a long breath, and restrained her temper behind a very bland look. ”I won't explain, then.”
”I suggest you respect this body, young sera. You attained your majority last week; it means, young sera, that you are obliged to act as an adult.”
She looked at Councillor Chavez, folded her hands again and sat there.
”Go on, young sera,” Harad said.
”Thank you, ser Chairman. I'm sorry; I'll explain only if you ask. Ari wasn't technical about it: she said: quote: Defense insisted. I explained the hazards of environmental interactions in considerable detail. Their own psychologists tried to make them understand what I was saying; unfortunately the admirals had already made up their minds: the system of advancements in the military makes it d.a.m.n near impossible for a Defense Bureau bureaucrat to back off a position. Even if-”
”Young sera,” Chavez said. ”The Council has limited time. Could we omit the late Councillor's profane observations?”
”Yes, ser.”
”Go on.”
”That was the answer.”
”You didn't answer. Let me pose the question again. What, specifically, was Emory's argument to Defense?”
”I can't answer without explaining.”
”What did Emory say?”
”She said they shouldn't do it because the environment would affect the psychsets and the tape couldn't be re-adjusted for the situation. And Defense couldn't tell her enough about the environment. That was the first reason she said they were crazy.”
”She knew that when she made the original design. Why did she do it in the first place?”
”Because she did it during the War. If humanity had wiped itself out of s.p.a.ce and gotten the planets too, it was one more place humanity might survive. It was real dangerous, but it wouldn't matter if they were the only ones.”
”What was the danger?”
”You're going to get upset if I tell you again.”
'Tell me.”
”Letting a psychset run in an environment you don't know anything about. Do you want me to explain technically why that's dangerous?”
The Expansionists all laughed behind their hands. Even Tien, who was Centrist.
”Explain,” Chavez said with a surprising lot of patience. She decided she liked him after all. He was not stupid. And he could back up when he got caught.
”Deep-tape is real simple and real general: it has to be. If you make aggression part of the set, and they're in an environment that threatens them, they'll expand the aggression all over everything, and it'll proliferate through the rest of the sets all the way to the surface; or if you put in a block against against aggression, it could proliferate the same way, and they couldn't take care of themselves. Deep-tape gets all the way down to which way you jump when something scares you. It hits the foundation of the logic sets. And it almost has to be slightly illogical, because on pure logic, you don't move till you understand it. The deep-sets are a bias toward fight or flight. Things like that. And the Defense Bureau didn't give Ari senior any chance to design real deep-sets that might be a whole lot better for Gehenna. They came in and wanted her to program adult military-setted azi to colonize, and they wanted it in one year. She said that was garbage. She argued them into taking a mix of soldiers and farmers. So she composed a genepool of types that might have all the skills aggression, it could proliferate the same way, and they couldn't take care of themselves. Deep-tape gets all the way down to which way you jump when something scares you. It hits the foundation of the logic sets. And it almost has to be slightly illogical, because on pure logic, you don't move till you understand it. The deep-sets are a bias toward fight or flight. Things like that. And the Defense Bureau didn't give Ari senior any chance to design real deep-sets that might be a whole lot better for Gehenna. They came in and wanted her to program adult military-setted azi to colonize, and they wanted it in one year. She said that was garbage. She argued them into taking a mix of soldiers and farmers. So she composed a genepool of types that might have all the skills and and the deep-sets she figured might hold the deep-sets she figured might hold some some right answers to the environment, whatever it was.” right answers to the environment, whatever it was.”
”In other words she lied to the Bureau.”
”She had to. They were going to go throw their own azi onto the world without her help, and they were telling their own psychology branch to break the law and try to run a deep-set intervention on them. Their own psych people said that was stupid, and some of them were threatening to talk to the Council, but Adm. Azov told one of them he could end up on Gehenna himself if he kept objecting. That's what that man told Ari. Then she thought about bringing it to Council, but she thought about the chance of the whole human race getting wiped out, and that was when she made up her mind to go along with it, but to do it safer than Defense was going to do it.
”She couldn't just go back and mindwipe all those azi and start over. That was another crazy suggestion the military had. Reseune didn't have enough facilities. And you don't recover from mindwipe that well that they could just dump them off on another planet and leave them there with no psych help. So she couldn't work with the deep-sets. She just studied all the deep-sets and worked up something real simple: she told the azi it was their planet and they had to take care of it and survive and teach their children what was important, that was all. As positive as she could. Because she didn't know how long Gehenna would be lost, and how much that would change.
”And that's the danger in it. Their generations are real short. There's already been a lot of change. Alliance is scared of them because they're afraid there's something on the planet like a secret base, that's the way I understand it; but if there's anything like that, it's not in the notes. Mostly I hear it's the azi that did survive, and there's not much left of CIT culture. That means the program did take.
”There's too many people to mindwipe-thousands and thousands. They'd have to mindwipe them all the way down, and that's a lot of psych work, and they haven't got a Reseune. Councillor Nye can tell you what it would take-”
”It would take a facility the size of Reseune,” Giraud said, ”doing nothing else, for at least ten years; and the re-integration of that many mindwiped individuals into ordinary society would tax anything any any of us have. We're talking about thirty thousand individuals. Or more. They're still trying to estimate. No one has a place to disperse those people-they'd still cl.u.s.ter. Cl.u.s.ter means community; community means cultural ident.i.ty. Alliance hasn't got the population base to absorb them. of us have. We're talking about thirty thousand individuals. Or more. They're still trying to estimate. No one has a place to disperse those people-they'd still cl.u.s.ter. Cl.u.s.ter means community; community means cultural ident.i.ty. Alliance hasn't got the population base to absorb them. We We don't. Don't even mention turning them loose on Earth.” don't. Don't even mention turning them loose on Earth.”
”They probably can't find all of them,” Ari said. ”Anyway. So they can't get them off. They'll always be different; and they'll always be a problem. They're an azi population. They're not not like CITs. They're just going to be crazy according to CIT thinking. Teaching their kids is part of their mindset; and if you bring them into the 25th century that's like CITs. They're just going to be crazy according to CIT thinking. Teaching their kids is part of their mindset; and if you bring them into the 25th century that's another another environment that's going to hit that program and proliferate changes. That's Emory's word on it. If it's second generation, you could integrate them back, but there's even fourths now. Once it hits fourth, she said, you're into something real different. And they don't have rejuv. The Olders die off before they're a hundred. I've heard it's more like forty or fifty. That doesn't give them time to live with their kids or teach them much about being grown up. They're already more different from us than we are from Earth. That's Emory talking.” environment that's going to hit that program and proliferate changes. That's Emory's word on it. If it's second generation, you could integrate them back, but there's even fourths now. Once it hits fourth, she said, you're into something real different. And they don't have rejuv. The Olders die off before they're a hundred. I've heard it's more like forty or fifty. That doesn't give them time to live with their kids or teach them much about being grown up. They're already more different from us than we are from Earth. That's Emory talking.”
”I'm out of questions,” Chavez said.
”We're going to recess for lunch,” Harad said. ”And take ser Tien's questions after-are you holding up to this, young sera?”
”I'm doing all right,” she said. ”After lunch is fine. Thank you, ser.”
”It vastly disturbs me, sera,” Tien said, from the dais where the Nine sat. He spoke very quietly, very politely, which was the way the man talked. ”I have to tell you I'm concerned with the security clearance the Science Bureau has given you-not, understand, that I think you're not an exceedingly mature young woman. But we're dealing with things that could mean war or peace, and things that have been thrust on you very prematurely. Do you ever talk to your friends about these things?”
”No, ser, absolutely not.” It was a fair question. All along, Tien had been fair.
”Do you understand the importance of not talking to reporters about this?”
”Yes, ser. I do. The only people I've discussed this with are Denys Nye, Giraud Nye, and the Council, exactly; and my azi, but they're not in the room when I work with the System on this either, and they don't know everything. Certainly they don't talk: they're Reseune Security, and their psychset is against discussing anything about me, even little things.”
”We understand that. Can you estimate how much of the data you're not telling us?”
Oh. Very good question. ”My predecessor had some theories about what would happen on Gehenna.” Try to answer without answering. ”But they're complicated, and I can't report on those because they're all in design-structure, and they're something that's going to take me a long while to sort through. Science Bureau is going to provide us the Gehenna data as it comes in-”
”To you?”
”Ser, to whoever's working on this project, but likely to me, yes, since I'm the one with my predecessor's notes.”
”Time,” Harad said. ”Adm. Khalid.”
”Let's keep to the question of the notes,” Khalid said. ”And why those notes, if they exist, haven't been turned over to a competent researcher.”
”She is technically rated as a Wing supervisor,” Giraud said. ”And she is competent.”