Read The Totems of Abydos for Free Online Page A

sometimes squatted before emissaries, and even one another, when time permitted, for several divisions, as though absorbing one another’ presence, and the warmth of a benign sun, before, subject to the imperatives of, say, business or diplomacy, eventually breaking the thitherto sustained purity of silence, muchly prized amongst them, with an almost apologetic courtesy. The entire crew of the ship, incidentally, was of the captain’s species. Very few ships maintained mixed crews. There were a number of excellent reasons for this, having to do with several matters, such as optimum atmospheres and temperatures, difficulties of communication, particularly in emergency situations, diverse chemical requirements, diverse parameters pertinent to comfort and accommodation, numerous diverse methods-engineering factors, such as colors most easily discriminated and odors most easily detected, suitable placement of instrumentation, and numerous diverse devices, designed for convenience, depending on the prehensile appendages in question, for controlling the ship’s systems. There were senses in which many species did not even see, feel, hear, smell, or taste the same world, so to speak, that is, that their experiences would have been exotic and perhaps even unintelligible to those of other species. To be sure, these numerous experiences would presumably be related in some topological manner to an independent reality, or, at least, that seemed the most economical hypothesis to explain how two different species, say, Zatans and Ellits, could get different ships to the same place by prearrangement at the same time. Without some such accommodations interstellar commerce, warfare and such, would have been almost impossible. Certain of the manufacturing worlds did design ships for diverse species. There were even ships in the galaxy which were designed for, and had been purchased by, and were flown by, representatives of Brenner’s and Rodriguez’ species, to be sure, those of colonial worlds, that is, of individuals whose ancestors had purchased passage on alien vessels to other worlds, often individuals who had been uncomfortable, inefficient, or unsuccessful on the home world. Indeed, some such individuals had been deported, that their ideas could remain in quarantine, so to speak, in remote asylums, unlikely to contaminate the ideal tepidities, or, more kindly, the serenities, of the home world, achieved at such cost over many centuries. To be sure, this was now seldom done, because of advances in neurological engineering achieved over the past two centuries, in virtue which triumphs many notable successes had been achieved in reforming the eccentricities of such deviants. Indeed, some of these individuals had climbed to unusual heights in the bureaucracy, and even, it was rumored, in the metaparty, the existence of which was often denied. The convert, after all, is the most zealous of adherents, as he must, before his own stern tribunals, before his own doubts and remorse, suspecting himself, not certain of his true motivations, defend and justify his decision, or betrayal. Another technique was that of the postnatal abortion, in which a mother’s oversight, forgivable given her ignorance, her lack of foresight, was rectified by court order and the state at a later time. The state, after all, and the metaparty, with which it was in effect identical, if such a party existed, surely in its collective wisdom, knew better than any particular individual. Indeed, Rodriguez had fled more than one world to escape such a termination, not of his person, of course, which would have been heinously immoral, but, retroactively, of his judicially decided nonperson. Postnatal abortion had replaced capital punishment, the immorality of which was notoriously transparent. On some worlds populations had been subjected to such abortion. An additional argument of great force in favor of such merciful termination, done with all kindness, and all possible