The Sirian Experiments

by Doris Lessing

  They made speeches every one of which congratulated themselves on their brilliant experimental work. It did not cross their minds to think we might not admire them as they admired themselves.

  And next morning we thankfully left.

  News about the appearance of ‘the great ones from over the waters’ had preceded us to the capital. We were received with much pomp and ceremonial. Again, the priesthood ruled, but the ruling caste did not consist only of the priestly families, as had been the case in old Grakconkranpatl. The division showed at once as we proceeded between two ranks, on one side the priests in their gorgeous robes and jewellery, flanked and buttressed by the soldiery; and on the other the privileged families, in colourful clothing and jewels, as charming and infantile as such indulged castes always are. No soldiers on their side! No guards, even! And no need of either, for they were the willing captives of the ruling priests. I shall not describe our visit to this capital city any further – there were no experimental stations there. But I shall mention the architecture. When the Lelannian and Grakconkranpatl states mingled, and Lelanos dominated, taking over the priesthood, the dark, blocklike, ominous, Grakconkranpatl style was used for all administrative buildings, prisons, hospitals, punishment centres. The light, fanciful Lelanos ways were used for housing and places of entertainment. Strange it was to see these extremes so juxtaposed.

  We spent some months in the capital. Slowly I saw that Klorathy needed this time to find out whether these brutes were capable of regeneration. The process, for the most part, consisted of listening. Or he probed, lightly and skilfully. Sometimes he made experiments of his own – but so slight and subtle were they that at first I did not notice what he was doing: I had to learn to be able to observe what went on. He would test their reactions to this idea or that, by suggestions, or even mild provocation. He would implant a new idea into a group and then wait to see how it would become processed by their particular mentation. I was not equipped to understand how he was reacting to what he found in them. But I was able to see that he was increasingly sombre, and even – it took me some time to be able to admit to myself that the great Canopus was capable of such emotions – discouraged. But there was soon no doubt of it: he was containing a dry and powerful sorrow, and I was able to recognize what I knew myself so very well and so intimately from such a long immersion in it.

  This stay in the capital is fully dealt with in my old report.

  By the time we left, in spite of Klorathy’s attempts to prevent us becoming cult objects, focuses of useless awe, that is what we had become. We had to forbid, absolutely, ceremonies in which droves of unfortunate natives were designated as ‘sacrifices to the Gods’. We insisted, as far as we could, that such practices were regarded at least‘over the long blue seas’ as unnecessary – it would not do to suggest to these self-satisfied ones that they were barbaric and primitive. When we left we travelled accompanied by priests, who performed their repulsive ceremonies at every opportunity; and by some of the youth, who saw no shame in describing themselves as ‘playpeople’.

  The experimental station we visited next was similar to the other in appearance. The experimental subjects again consisted of the local tribesmen, but they also used some other kinds of animals, notably carnivores. They preferred to use the natives, on the ground that these were nearer to themselves in physical structure. Also that they had done so much work on them comparisons could more usefully be made.

  At this station Klorathy made an attempt to persuade the technicians into asking the natives in a systematic way for information about their medicine. He spoke of places ‘beyond the waters’ where an advanced medicine was used, based on local balances and earth forces, on the rhythms of the stars, on the disposition of exactly placed and planned buildings, and on the use of plants. This ‘medicine’ was more than curative or preventive: health was considered as a result and an expression of the exact sciences, used by a whole society, taught to every individual in the society. Health was being in balance with the natural forces of – the Galaxy. Yes, he went so far. And, yes, I was all ears. For this was what I had wanted to know. He was talking about the Necessity, even if in this guarded and indirect way. That much I did recognize. But as usual I was being disadvantaged by my emotional reactions. How was it that this precious information, the real secrets of Canopus, of the Canopean superiority, was being given to these debased Lelannians. How was it, that when I had wanted, and for so long, to hear him talk in this way, it was not I who was addressed … it took me a long time, not until after we separated on this occasion, to see the simple fact that after all he had been speaking to me, since I was there. To Sirius … And he had not been talking to the Lelannians, that is, if one was to judge by results: for they could make no use of what they heard. They did not hear. They could not hear. I have never before seen so clearly and simply illustrated that law of development that makes a certain stage of growth impossible to an individual, a people, a planet: first, they have to hear. They have to be able to take in what they are being offered.

  Throughout the main occasions when Klorathy was with these top-level priest-technicians, they sat apparently all attention and respect, but their faces showed always the self-esteem that was their curse, the mark of their incapacity. The ground of their nature was this conviction of superiority, of innate worth over other species. Klorathy was notable to shake it.

  This was true of nearly all. There were in fact a few of them who did absorb the intuition that there was something here they could learn, and they came to him secretly. And he instructed them as far as he could. When we left this station, they accompanied us. Our escort was now an extraordinary mixture of officials and priests, the frivolously curious, and these serious students of his ways of thought.

  The third station was of particular interest, and the work there could have thrown light on the nature of the processes that had Rohanda in their grip – if the Lelannians had been capable of understanding them. The station researched the Degenerative Disease that caused the ‘ageing’ that I had first seen – but still only in a mild form – in Rhodia. Since that time, this expression of Rohanda’s falling away from earlier excellence had accelerated. The term of life was half of what it had been in the old Lelannian days. A hundred and fifty R-years was the norm now. And ‘ageing’ began at the end of the stage of physical readiness for mating and reproduction. There was a dryness, a shrivelling, and, soon, a wrinkling of all the skin casing. The hair lost its colour and became spectral and pale. The eyes, too, lost colour. Hearing, sight, touch, taste – all the senses – became blunted, or ceased to operate. The processes of mentation were affected, sometimes to the point of imbecility. There were compounds full of local natives, all over a certain age, and these were being tortured to give up the secrets of ‘ageing’.

  An interesting fact was that the natives were viable much longer than the ‘superior’ race. They remained energetic and flexible in limb for longer, their hair kept its colour often until death – their pitifully early deaths – and their teeth often remained comparatively excellent. Also, there was less mental confusion. This, Klorathy said, was because of the natives’ closer bond with the natural flows and forces, as compared with the Lelannians, whose ways were mechanical and imposed by arbitrary law or by whim; because they worked physically, which the ‘superior’ ones were proud not to do; because the stuff of their genetic inheritance did not include any contribution from Shammat and Puttiora.

  It was at this stage in our journey that Klorathy informed me nothing could be done for the Lelannians. They were beyond improvement. He asked me – in that way of his – what I thought should be done in this situation, but asked, too, that I should take my time thinking about it, ‘putting aside my emotions’.

  When we were back in the Sirian post in the hills above the rain forests, we sat together, as we had before our long and difficult journey, and we talked. I was impatient for him to come to a conclusion, to ‘sum up’ – a favourite Lelannian ex
pression. But he was in no hurry and for many days, and then months, our experience was allowed to, as it were, ferment between us.

  He was at particular pains to make me think about the Lelannian experiments, the Lelannian attitudes towards themselves as experimenters and researchers. I was by then reluctant to do this. I had been so sickened and disgusted at what I had seen, and my inability to change anything, that I wanted only to put the whole experience out of my mind.

  He said that the Lelannians, living in a rich and fruitful continent, blessed by the climate, and by every natural resource, had little need to work hard and to sustain themselves. That even if they had, they provided themselves with abundant slaves and servants who did all their unpleasant work for them. Leisure was their inheritance. It was, as the Shammat observers saw, their means of being kept in subjection, because it rotted them: the right amount of sloth and ease would keep them Shammat’s. Too much would make them useless. Shammat had influenced them towards their experimentation. Apart from a very small administrative class, who increasingly left this work to slaves trained for this purpose – who could be expected shortly to seize power for themselves, but that is another story – the ruling race as a whole occupied themselves with the increasingly refined techniques of research. There were not enough genuine avenues of inquiry to occupy everyone, and therefore the experiments became more bizarre, extensive – useless. And more and more unfortunate animals of other species were sacrificed.

  Their attitude towards themselves, that everything that surrounded them was their property, to use as they wished, meant that the delicate and invisible balances of force and power were increasingly disrupted. The two Southern Continents, the Sirian responsibility, were wildly out of key, were unbalancing the already precarious Rohandan cosmic economy. There had a been a time, at the beginning of our journey, said Klorathy, when he had believed it might be possible to arrest the brutalization of these Lelannians, to make them see the natural balances of earth, rock, vegetation, water, fire, and the infinitely various and differing species of animals, the creatures of earth, of water, of air, as irreplaceable and distinct, each with its part to play in the invisible cosmic dance. But it had become clear that the innate self-esteem of the Lelannians was too strong.

  And now we had come to the culminating point of our encounter, Klorathy and I: Canopus and Sirius.

  He was making, in fact, a complaint. If one could call this long process of journeying together for the purposes of my instruction, and these long discussions, during which he never insisted, or demanded, but only demonstrated – a complaint. The differing roles of Canopus and Sirius, our different weights and emphases in the cosmic scale, made these conversations of ours have the effect of criticism and – on my side – of resistance.

  Why had we neglected these Southern Continents?

  Because they had not seemed worth our while.

  But we had asked for them, had done more, had insisted on having them?

  At the time we needed them. (And, of course, we were not going to let Canopus get away with anything – ridiculous and petty though this attitude was. And is.)

  What were we going to do now?

  The point was, Rohanda was not of much interest to our Empire. Not now. It had been relegated, with other planets,to a position of being possibly useful again, in the future. Not all my persuasions, if I decided to take this course, would make Sirius actively exploit Rohanda agin. It was too overrun with inferior species, too problematical – and there was Shammat, whose rule was established everywhere. Apparently with Canopean permission, and that was more than we could understand.

  I said to Klorathy that there was nothing we, Sirius, could do for Rohanda.

  ‘You will not then, I am sure, be resentful if we interest ourselves in the territories?’

  ‘You are already! You have been for some time. I am not saying that anything you do is harmful, far from it. I am sure that without your intervention everything would be worse. But it is hypocritical to ask for permission for actions you have already taken.’

  ‘Never without your knowledge.’ At this we exchanged smiles: he was referring to the extensive and admirable Sirian espionage systems.

  ‘But now, in my view, definite and prompt action is needed in Southern Continent II. As is being done in Isolated Southern Continent I. By your old friend Nasar, among others.’

  I allowed him to understand that I did not care, would be happy to leave it all to him.

  ‘Tell me, Sirius, now that you have seen everything and thought about it, what, in your opinion, is the right thing to be done?’

  I exploded, out of long months of indignation and revulsion: ‘I would call in our fleet of Flame Makers and destroy these squalid little animals.’

  He was silent for a long time.

  ‘You are shocked, of course,’ I said.

  ‘No. I – we – cannot afford to be shocked. We have in fact destroyed cultures that have become corrupt.’

  ‘I am surprised that the great Canopus should use such means.’

  ‘Or surprised at our admitting it?’

  ‘Yes. I suppose that is it.’

  For we certainly would not have admitted it, in similar circumstances.

  ‘But when we have been forced to use such means, in order to keep our balances within measure, then these have been small local cultures. A city … a group of two or three cities … even a few particularly damaging individuals. At this very time, in the area of the great inland seas …’ and he seemed distressed, in pain ‘… we are being forced to take certain steps … This is not always the most pleasant of tasks, this Shikastan assignment.’

  ‘No. It is a horrible place.’

  ‘But you are actually suggesting we should destroy all life over a whole continent?’ he asked reproachfully.

  ‘They should be treated as they treat others.’

  ‘A hard rule, Sirius … tell me, have you ever reflected that our behaviour influences theirs?’

  This came too close to certain private thoughts of mine, and I exploded with: ‘The native tribes may be sympathetic enough now, harmless, but you know as well as I do that given opportunity they will become as bad as the Lelannians. That is why this is such a nasty planet.’

  ‘It is not the fault of the planet.’

  ‘That way of thinking is not within our scope, Canopus,’ I said, looking at him as forcefully as I could, hoping that he would – at last, as I then saw it – begin to reveal truths, secrets, Canopean expertise.

  ‘Why isn’t it, Sirius?’

  This silenced me. He was saying that I had admitted our inferiority and that he was challenging its inevitability.

  ‘Why? … and here we are,’ he added, in a low, reproachful voice.

  ‘Very well then, what do you think should be done?’

  ‘I propose that we space-lift all the Lelannians away from this planet.’

  ‘Where to?’

  ‘Why,’ he said smiling, ‘to Shammat, of course. Each to his own.’

  I laughed. ‘There are a million of them!’

  ‘You are rich, Sirius. You have large fleets. You are in the habit of transporting populations from planet to planet. And you suffer from underemployment.’

  ‘It is absolutely out of the question that I could get Administration to agree. They would not waste so many resources on such an inferior species.’

  He was silent for a while. ‘Sirius, very often a great deal of time, effort, and resources are spent on “inferior” species. Everything is relative, you know!’

  I did not choose to ‘hear’ this. Not at that time.

  ‘You are also very rich, Canopus. Are you telling me that you do not transport populations from planet to planet?’

  ‘Yes, I am telling you that. Not for the reasons you do, at least. Very rarely. We have a very finely balanced economy, Sirius. Exactly and delicately tuned. And if we were to undertake to transport a million animals from here to Shammat, then this would impose a st
rain on us.’

  There was a great deal of information in this, of the kind I wanted so much to have from him – about Canopus and its nature. But I was too disturbed at that juncture to take it in.

  ‘I tell you, it is not possible for me to arrange it.’

  ‘Not possible for one of the five senior administrators of the Sirian Colonial Service?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘I appeal to you. It may surprise you to know that your economy is more flexible in certain ways than ours.’

  ‘I am sorry.’

  ‘Then we shall have to undertake it.’

  I attempted to joke in the face of his evident disappointment, and even worry. ‘A million all at once will certainly impose a strain on Shammat!’

  ‘It might keep them busy for a bit, at least. And I must confess it does give me some pleasure, unworthy though it is, I am sure, that these Lelannians will become slaves now in their turn. Shammat is short of labour at this time.’

  ‘I share your feelings.’

  ‘Will you help us perhaps with the task of rehabilitating the tribes?’

  And now I did hesitate for a long time. I did feel in the wrong about refusing our aid in the matter of the mass space-lift. I was feeling lacking generally in relation to Canopus – hardly a new emotion! But I also could not understand why he, or they, should concern themselves with this trivial nastiness.

  ‘Why?’ I demanded. ‘Why take so much trouble?’

  ‘It will be useful for us – for everyone – for the whole Galaxy, if the tribes are enabled to return as far as possible to their old state. They will be returned to their own territories, and encouraged to resume their former simple lives in balance with the environment. Not taking more than they need, not despoiling, not overrunning their geographical areas, or laying waste. Before the Lelannian conquest this continent was in harmony. We shall see that it becomes so again.’

  ‘And for how long?’ I inquired, making him face me on this.