Gordon Dickson The Right to Arm Bears

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beginning, when the thunder of his own voice and the working of his own jaw
muscles so jarred his skullcap of headache pain that he was forced to stop.
"I?" replied Mula-ay, in a tone of mild, if unctuous surprise, folding his
hands comfortably upon his cloth-swathed belly. "How can you suspect me of
such a thing? I give you my word I was simply out for a stroll through these
woods, and noticed you tied up here."
"Tied up ?" began Bill, too jolted by the words to pay attention to the stab
of pain that the effort of speaking sent through his skull, from back to
front. He became aware that his hands were pulled around behind him, and a
moment's experimentation revealed that his wrists were tied together on the
opposite side of the narrow tree trunk that was serving him for a backrest.
"You can't get away with this sort of thing!" he stormed at Mula-ay. "You
know no Dilbian would do something like this. You're breaking the
Human-Hemnoid treaty on Dilbia. Your own superiors will have your hide for
this!"
"Come now, my young friend," chuckled Mula-ay. "As I say my superiors are
reasonable individuals. And where are the witnesses who can call me a liar? I
was merely wandering through the woods and happened to see you here, and sat
down to wait for you to wake up."
"If that's true," said Bill, his headache by this time completely
disregarded, "how about untying my hands and turning me loose?"
"Well, now, I don't know if I could do anything like that!" said
Mula-aythoughtfully. "That might be interference in native affairs expressly
forbidden, as you yourself point out, by the Hemnoid-Human agreements. For all
I know you've been caught in the act of committing some crime, and the local
inhabitants have tied you up here, until you can be taken back to face their
native justice." He shook his head. "No, no, my dear Pick-and-Shovel. I
couldn't take it on myself to untie you much, of course, as I'd like to."
"You can't get away with claiming something like that!" exploded Bill. "You "
He became aware abruptly of a sheer look of enjoyment on the round face
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opposite him, and checked himself with sudden understanding. He was rewarded
by seeing a slight shade of disappointment overshadow the smile with which
Mula-ayhad been regarding him up until now.
"All right," said Bill, as coolly as he could. "You've had your fun. Now
suppose you tell me what this is all about. I suppose you want to make some
kind of deal with me, and your idea in kidnapping me and tying me up here is
to start me out at a disadvantage. Is that right?"
Mula-aychuckled again and rubbed his large hands together.
"Very good," he said. "Oh, very,very good, young Pick-and-Shovel! If you'd
only had a little more training and experience, you might have made quite a
decent undercover agent for a human, that is. Of course, that was the last
thing your superiors wanted, in this case someone with training and
experience. Oh, the last thing!"
He chuckled once more.
"Cut it out!" said Bill in a level voice. "I told you, you've had all the
enjoyment out of me you are going to have. Quit hinting and come right out
with whatever it is you've got to say. I'm not going to squirm just to please
you."
Mula-ayshook his head, and his smile evaporated.
"You reallyare uninformed, aren't you, Pick-and-Shovel?" he said seriously.
"Your knowledge of my race is only that kind of half-rumor that circulates
among humans who have never done anything but listen to tall tales about
Hemnoids. Do you seriously think that my business here on Dilbia would allow
me to engage in that special and demanding art form among my people which you
humans consider to be merely the exercise of a taste for deliberate cruelty?
To be sure, I'm mildly pleased by your responses when they verge onsana , as
our great art is known among us. But any serious consideration of such is
impossible in this time and place."
"Oh, is that a fact?" said Bill ironically.
"Indeed," said Mula-aysteadily, "itis so. Let me try to draw you a parallel
out of your own human experience. You humans have a response calledempathy
the emotional ability to put yourself in another's skin and echo in your own
feelings what that other is feeling. As you know empathy, we Hemnoids do not
have it. But oursana is a comparable response, among us, even though you
humans would consider it quite the opposite.Sana , like empathy, is a response
that puts two individuals into a special relationship with one another. Like
your empathy, it requires a powerful involvement on the part of the individual
engaging in it."
"Only you don't happen to feel like engaging in it right now, I suppose?"
"Your skepticism," said Mula-aysteadily, "shows a closed mind. You humans do
not empathize lightly, and neither do we engage insana easily or casually. I
would no more consider you a subject ofsana on the basis of our casual
acquaintance here, than you would be likely to empathize with say Bone
Breaker, or any of the Dilbians, on the slight basis of the acquaintanceship
you have with them so far."
Bill stared at the Hemnoid. Mula-aywas apparently being as frank and honest
as it was possible for him to be, in his own terms. And the Hemnoid's argument
was convincing. Only, just at that moment, something inside Bill suddenly
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clamored like an alarm bell in denial of something Mula-ayhad just said.
"So you understand," Mula-aywas going on, "and you can put your own interior
human fears to rest on that subject. Just as," Mula-aychuckled again briefly,
"you can abandon the idea that I brought you here to make some kind of deal
with you. My dear young human, you are not one of those with whom deals are
made. You are only a pawn in the game here on Dilbia an unconscious pawn, at
that." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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