"Chapter 21" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gordon Dickson - Forever Man)

Chapter
21

. . . ALTHOUGH NOTHING MUCH MORE THAN GUESSES ARE possible on the basis of the small amount of observation we have been able to make of the Laagi in this short time," dictated Mary, "some possibilities might be considered as reasons for elements of Laagi behavior that have been unexplainable until now.
"Such Laagi actions as those by some of their fighter spaceships on the spatial Frontier they share with us. For example, the occasional but not too infrequent situation of a large number of their space fighter craft turning and retreating from a much smaller number of human ones; or-conversely -a mere handful of their ships attacking a much larger number of human ones they have just encountered, even when such attack seems suicidal and therefore reasonless."
She stopped dictating, and there was a long moment in which Jim began to wonder if she would begin again.
"Therefore . . . therefore," she went on again abruptly, "we may consider as a possibility that the apparently unreasonable actions of the Laagi in the fighter ships just referred to were examples of reactions governed by a system of racial imperatives we humans do not have, and so do not realize exists. In
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other words, what seems unreasonable to us humans is reasonable to the Laagi, under certain special conditions.
"From what I've seen, and from what Jim Wander, who is with me on this observational incursion into Laagi territory, has seen, the Laagi may be more strongly influenced than we are by the inherited reactions that promoted survival in their prehistoric forebears.
"The Laagi, as I've pointed out a number of times before this, seem to be at base a communal race, in the sense that a hive of bees or a hill of ants is a communal race. But for a communal race to develop a technology comparable to our own requires that at some point it must have allowed the development of a certain amount of individuality in its members. Technology requires invention. Invention demands originality. Originality is a faculty of the unique individual who is different from all his fellow individuals. The Laagi, as I have mentioned before, have no -recreational areas or recreational activities. This is because their work is their recreation. Even our host member, whom we have named Squonk and who belongs to a local alien species of lesser intelligence than the Laagi, is actively unhappy unless he is constantly working during the hours he is awake. So with the Laagi themselves. They are born to work; and they do work until they die at their job-just as the worker bee literally works itself to death. I..."
Her words trailed off once more. After a few seconds, she went on .
...I have made a number of attempts to determine whether at this time the Laagi's occupation is still determined genetically, as that of the worker bee is. But so far, I've been unable to gain any solid evidence, one way or another. However, the impression both Jim Wander and I get is that the present-day, civilized Laagi does not have his occupation genetically selected for him at birth."
Squonk stumbled suddenly, backed up several steps and then began again searching the same area of floor he had just gone over, in the room where Mary and Jim were currently observing. The small alien was still singlemindedly in search of the missing object that the invisible Laagi within him would recognize when he, Squonk, found it. This was not the first time Squonk had so stumbled and backed up to search again

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over an area he had already examined. He had done it for the first time three days before. Jim was concerned. Mary had not seemed to notice.
` . . . if we use as a model for a typical human being one who has a base of instincts and reflexes based on those instincts, this overlaid by a pattern of cultural reactions and behaviors acquired from the community of humans surrounding the youngster as he grows up, and this in turn overlaid by a set of habitual actions and decisions, plus current decisions engendered by the conscious processing of previous experience plus the influence of the two lower layers of reaction, we have a three-layered structure for human action and response to a given situation.
"By contrast, the Laagi appears to respond according to a twolayer structure of which the older, instinctive one is dominant under some conditions, but under others the newer, conscious layer can control. To create a hypothetical example, suppose that if a Laagi encountered another Laagi that showed a particular form of sickness, his older instinct would force him to destroy the sick one, even if consciously he did not wish to do so. But if the other Laagi showed some slight difference in that form of sickness, then his newer, individual consciousness would be allowed to use its discretion about killing the other Laagi or taking him to one of their hospitals."
Mary stopped abruptly. It was marvelous, thought Jim admiringly, what she had been able to deduce from observations alone of a totally alien race. Sherlock Holmes would have been proud of her. When she went on, though, her voice was ragged with fatigue.
"Note again that what I have just suggested is a purely imaginary model, by way of example. We have not witnessed one Laagi killing another for any reason at all. We have not seen a fight or even what we could be absolutely sure was a serious disagreement between two or more Laagi. . ."
She ran down and this time did not resume talking, although her usual pattern with reports was to wind them up with a clear statement that the report was ended.
"Mary," said Jim, after she had been still for a long moment, "you're worn out."
"I'm fine," she said.
"No, you aren't. I've been watching you get more and

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more exhausted. No matter how much you think you can work steadily at something and just get by with an occasional snatch of sleep, you're running downhill, and you ought to recognize that yourself."
"What are you talking about?" demanded Mary. "We've got no bodies to run downhill. That's a purely physical phenomenon. I can work as long as I like. The mind doesn't get tired."
"Sorry. Yes, it does-evidently," said Jim.
"What would you know about it, anyway? You haven't had to do anything but ride along and redictate my reports."
"And watch everything that goes on," said Jim, "with the result I see some things you seem to be missing, lately. About Squonk, for one:"
"What about Squonk?"
"You've been overworking yourself, so consequently you've been overworking him; because he isn't built to know when to stop for his own health and safety."
"You're insane!" But there was a note of concern for the first time in Mary's voice. Concern-but disbelief as well. "He can take a nap anytime he wants to, and we always let him."
"He doesn't want to nap," said Jim. "He wants to find that nonexistent key we've had him hunting for for months. He's begrudging himself sleep more and more because you're begrudging yourself sleep. He'll stop and find a place to roll over and snooze, but only when we don't seem to be in the middle of something-such as when we've just given him a new order to search somewhere he hasn't searched before. Or when we're talking like this."
"You think he can hear us?"
"He can hear me," said Jim. "At least the part of me that gives orders to him; and for all I know he can feel my emotions as much as I can feel his. If he can do that, too, he's been picking up the backwash of the urgency I echo whenever you order a change in place or direction, or anything like that."
"I don't believe he's being overworked. That's what you're saying, isn't it, that I'm overworking him?"
"That's right. I know you aren't doing it deliberately; but all the same you've been setting up a situation in which, to

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take a leaf out of your own deductions, his racial imperative to work himself to death is controlling him."
"I don't believe it. This is some plan of yours to wind up my work here, so I'll turn you loose to get back to Earth."
"Sorry," said Jim. "If you won't believe me, you won't believe me; but I think you've forgotten who controls Squonk. Me. He needs rest and he's going to get it. Have you thought what kind of situation we'd be in if he died? I don't know how we'd go about switching to another squonk or getting back to AndFriend."
He broke off and spoke directly to Squonk through his usual Laagi image.