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protocols both formal and informal; they also have rights of petition and
protest.
As you know we have felt obliged to issue an edict, the articles of which are
now familiar to you. Erris
Sammatzen spoke now in a slow and meaningful voice. We cannot and will not
tolerate the recalcitrance of a few hundred stubborn men and women who wish to
retain aristocratic perquisites to which they are not entitled. A more natural
and equitable system is long overdue, and I remind you that the absolute
authority of the land-barons across vast domains, achieved through violence
and compulsion, is now terminated. Title is reinvested in those tribes which
have traditional and legitimate ownership of the land.
We intend to inflict hardship on no one, and will assist in the orderly
transfer of authority.
Dm. Joris replied, again without heat: We reject your edict. It obviously
derives from altruism and in this sense does you credit, but it makes a number
of doctrinaire assumptions. I point out that the option of self-determination
is the inherent right of any community, no matter how small, provided that it
conforms to the basic charter of the Gaean Reach. We adhere to these
principles, and we claim this right. I now wish to anticipate your claim that
the rights of the domain tribes are curtailed. To the contrary. The factors
which contribute to what they consider an optimum life have never been more
favorable. Our dams and flood-control projects guarantee them year-round water
for themselves and their herds. When they need money to buy imported articles,
they are able to take temporary or permanent employment, as they wish. Their
freedom of movement is absolute, except upon the few acres immediately
contiguous to the domain halls, so that in effect, there is dual occupancy of
the land, to our mutual satisfaction and benefit. We exploit no one; we exert
authority only in a protective sense. We provide medical assistance;
we occasionally exert police powers, though not often, inasmuch as the tribes
usually administer their own justice. We feel that you of the Mull have been
stampeded into reckless decisions by the zealous and articulate group known as
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the Redemptionists, who deal in abstractions and not in facts.
I ask: what is accomplished by your edict? Nothing. What would the Uldras
have which they do not have now? Nothing. They would lose, and we would lose.
Your edicts only bring mischief to all of us assuming that we agreed to them,
which we do not.
Dm. Joris was answered by Adelys Lam, a thin nervous woman with a bony face
and restless eyes. She spoke in an urgent voice and punctuated her words with
jabbing motions of her forefinger.
I intend to speak of law and its innate nature. Dm. Joris, you have used the
words doctrinaire and
abstraction in a pejorative sense, and I must point out that all law, all
ethical systems, all morality, are based upon doctrines and abstract
principles by which we test specific cases. If we adopt a pragmatic attitude,
we are lost and civilization is lost; morality becomes a matter of expedience
or brute force. The edicts of the Mull therefore rest not so much upon
exigencies of the moment as upon fundamental theorems. One of these is that
title to pre-empted, stolen or sequestered property never becomes valid,
whether the lapse of time be two minutes or two hundred years. The flaw in
title remains, and reparation, no matter how dilatory, must be made. Again,
you scorn the Redemptionists; as for me, I rejoice that the
Redemptionists are sufficiently idealistic and sufficiently motivated that
they have urged this sometimes sluggish Mull to decisive action.
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Gerd Jemasze responded in a cold voice. Your ideas might carry more weight
were you not hypocrites and persons with an infinite capacity for
Hypocrites ? flared Adelys Lam. Dm. Jemasze, I am astounded by your use of
the word!
Erris Sammatzen said reproachfully: I had hoped our discussions might proceed
without fulmination, threats or invective. I am sorry to see that Dm. Jemasze
has become intemperate.
Let him call us names, Adelys Lam cried angrily. Our consciences are clear,
which is more than he can say for his own.
Jemasze listened imperturbably. My remarks were not invective, he said. I
refer to demonstrable fact.
You legislate against our imaginary crimes, and meanwhile you tolerate in
Szintarre and across the Retent an offense proscribed everywhere in the Gaean
Reach: slavery. In fact, I suspect that at least several of you are
slave-keepers.
Sammatzen pursed his lips. You refer to the erjins, no doubt. The facts of
the matter are unclear.
Adelys Lam declared: The erjins are not intelligent beings, by the legal
definition of the term or by any other. They are clever animals, no more.
We can demonstrate the opposite, beyond any argument, said Gerd Jemasze.
Before you reproach us for abstract transgressions, you should abate your own
very real offenses.
Erris Sammatzen said uncomfortably: You make a cogent point; I can t argue
with you. However, I
doubt that you can make so positive a demonstration.
Adelys Lam protested. Surely we are being diverted from our principal task?
Our schedule is flexible, said Sammatzen. I m willing to clarify this other
matter.
Another Mull member, the crusty Thaddios Tarr, said: We can t avoid doing so
and retain our credibility as an impartial administrative body.
Gerd Jemasze rose to his feet. I think we ll be able to surprise you.
Erris Sammatzen cautiously asked: How?
Uther Madduc called it his wonderful joke . But I doubt if you ll laugh.
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Schaine, listening from the side of the Great Hall, said to Elvo Glissam: I
don t understand why anyone
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should laugh. Do you understand this wonderful joke ?
Elvo shook his head. It escapes me completely.
The members of the Mull boarded the black-and-silver Ellux saloon. Gerd
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