Shikasta

by Doris May Lessing Little Dorrit

  What we needed, to be precise, was to progress Rohanda up to the appropriate level in twenty thousand, not fifty thousand, years.

  As is customary, we put out tenders among our colonies for volunteers, and we chose a species from Colony 10, which has been remarkably successful in symbiotic development.

  Of course, a species has to be of a certain mental set even to consider such conditions: let us say that they must be adventurers! While the main outlines of a probable development are known, it is never possible to forecast exactly what will happen when two species are put into symbiosis: there are too many unforeseens. And it was not kept from them that Rohanda was by nature unpredictable, unusually subject to chance and change. Above all, it was not known how their life-spans would adjust: if badly, down to the Rohandan current norm, then this volunteering of theirs could be regarded as not far from racial suicide.

  But it is enough to say that at that stage and at that time these were a strong and healthy species; they were alert and mentally adaptable; they had the genetic memory of experience in similar experiments.

  Small groups of Colony 10 volunteers were introduced successfully onto Rohanda, in various parts of the northern hemisphere. There were a thousand in all, male and female, and almost at once - that is to say, within five hundred years - it was obvious that this was going to be a most successful experiment.

  The interaction between the two species was admirable, both being well affected. There were no instinctive aggressions due to genetic incompatibility. We on Canopus were congratulating ourselves.

  Well within the twenty thousand years, the younger (ex-monkey) race would have attained the required level; and the fast-developing Colony 10 people would have advanced themselves to a stage where they could be said to have taken an evolutionary step forward that in usual conditions might take ten times as long.

  I shall describe the situation as it was about a thousand years after the introduction of the Colony 10 species.

  First, the indigenous race. Nothing remarkable here: we have all seen this before, since it is a pattern that has shown itself on many planets.

  The creatures were now on their hind legs, and their arms and hands were well adapted for manifold tasks and the use of tools. They had a strong sense of their own worth - that is, as creatures able to manipulate their environment and survive. They hunted, and were at the beginnings of an agriculture. They were about the size of an average Shikastan now, and were enlarging rapidly. They had thick long head hair, and short thick body fur. They lived in small groups, widely scattered, with little contact between them. They did not fight each other. They had a life expectation of about one hundred and fifty years.

  A good proportion of the first Colony 10 people died early - but this was to be expected. There is never any explanation for this type of death. The infants were the size of their parents before they were out of childhood: the species was increasing in size so rapidly they called themselves Giants almost from the start. This was not without unease: no species observes itself in such rapid change without misgivings. They were a tall, strong race from the beginning, but a thousand years of Rohanda had already made them a third as tall again. They were well built. They were dark brown or black in colour, with a particularly attractive glossy healthy skin. They had no body hair, and very little head hair. The nails of their hands and feet were vestigial, no more than a thickening of the skin at toes and fingertips. It was too soon to know how their life-spans would be affected. Some of the individuals who had been introducted onto the planet were still in full vigour, and as for the young ones it was too soon to say. Colony 10 has a mild climate of very little variation. Clothes are not worn except for ceremonial occasions. But on Rohanda the Giants had to develop clothes, which they did at once, very soon being able to dispense with the shipments from warehouses on Canopus for materials made from the barks and plants of Rohanda.

  They had established with the Natives a tutelary relation which gave the liveliest of interest and satisfaction to both sides. It was the Giants who taught the Natives the beginnings of plant culture. They taught them, too, how to use animals without harming the species. They were developing language in them. It was still only the basis of many talents - arts, sciences - that the Giants were laying, for it was not yet time for the establishment of the Lock between Canopus and Rohanda that would begin the Forced-Growth Phase.

  Conditions continued appropriate and about seven thousand years after the matching of the two species, a special mission was sent from Canopus to see if it was time to establish the Lock.

  Here are extracts from their Report. (No. 1300, Rohanda.)

  THE GIANTS

  LIFE-SPAN: On Colony 10 they lived to be twelve thousand, fifteen thousand years. Fears that immersion in Rohandan conditions would drastically reduce their life-span have proved right. At the start expectancy was reduced to about two thousand years. Almost at once this began to improve, and now they live four thousand or five thousand years. The trend is upwards. We observe the usual anomalies. A minority die, without any apparent reason, very young. These are not the types that might be considered degenerate (see Size, below), the thin attenuated ones, who in fact live as long as the robust. Nor is there a way to forecast who will die at two hundred years or five hundred years.

  SIZE: They are twice the size they were on leaving Colony 10. They are strong and well built, with great physical endurance. Variants are extremely thin, spindly, comparatively awkward in movement; and very stout and powerful, so that seeing examples of the two extremes together it would be easy to believe them of different species.

  COLOUR: Previously dark brown and black skin tones are varied to shades of light brown and even cream.

  MENTAL POWERS: These are generally improved by the symbiosis. The level of practical intelligence is not different from those on Colony 10, but the higher levels have been stimulated quite remarkably, and it is this fact which makes the experiment the success it undoubtedly is.

  THE NATIVES

  LIFE-SPAN: Increasing. But not as fast as with the Giants. They live about five hundred years, unless they are subject to accidents. They die, like the Giants, of attacks of minuscule organisms, some locally evolved, some from space. We see no sign of the Degenerative Disease.

  SIZE: Half the size of the Giants, at about eight or nine feet. They have refined remarkably. Their body hair is much less. Their head hair is profuse however, with strongly marked eyebrows. Build, features, general character are broad, solid, strong. Their animal origin remains marked. They are mostly brown-eyed. From settlement to settlement across the northern hemisphere, these creatures are remarkably uniform.

  COLOUR: Their skin tones range from cream to brown, but the majority are a warm light brown.

  MENTAL POWERS: No trace at all of Higher Powers, but their practical intelligence is developing even better than expected, and this is a sound and healthy basis for what we plan when we establish the Lock.

  GENERAL

  Relations between Giants and Natives are good. A steady but slight contact is maintained. The Giants make visits only when it is felt that the Natives will benefit from advice or redirection. The Giants live never more than one hundred miles from their protégés. Their settlements are comfortable, but of course not considered as more than temporary, and used as experiments for the phase to come. That is, all buildings, plantings, irrigation are experimental, with a view to future cosmic alignments dependent on the Lock. This mission has the pleasure of reporting that there is no sign at all of the Degenerative Disease. Nowhere are there to be seen any buildings or developments that are for any other reason than that of preparing for the Lock. The settlements are all of course aligned as far as is possible at this stage with geophysical factors.

  The Natives live in much cruder settlements - viewed from the angle of cosmic alignments, though from the physical aspect some dwellings have reached quite handsome levels, with aspirations far beyond the needs of warmth and comfort. It is t
his factor which more than any other makes us conclude that the Lock should not be delayed. Some dwellings have designs and patterns on walls, roofs, pottery, utensils, fabrics. These designs, because of the tutelage of the Giants, are well within the needs of this phase, but an imbalance is shortly inevitable.

  Hunting has ceased to be the main source of food. Agriculture is well developed, with grains of all sorts, gourds, leafy plants. Husbandry is practised, with a good developing relation with the animal stocks. There is as yet no urgent need for irrigation: natural water patterns remain adequate. But the Giants' research suggests that irrigation should be established in the hotter areas of the Central part.

  Our report is one of success.

  It is this mission's opinion that conditions are ripe for the establishment of the Lock. The Giants are anxious for this. Without in any way complaining or wishing to hasten phases which should not be hastened, they feel excluded from the common contacts of the galaxy. While none of them, as an individual, remembers genuine contact - the free flow of thought, ideas, information, growth between planet and planet across our galaxy - it is not long since the oldest of the Colony 10 immigrants died, and, in any case, their genetic memory is strong, active, developing. And all their preparations for the establishment of the Lock are made.

  AWARNING

  There are persistent rumours - mostly formalised as tales and songs told by the Natives, who get news very fast as their groups meet in the course of hunting or other expeditions - that "down South" there are races of extremely warlike and hostile beings. The Giants have sent expeditions to the two main landmasses, and have found only that the species established by Sirius are flourishing. (These will be the subject of a sub report.) It is clear to us that the Sirian tutors have caused these rumours to spread, so as to prevent our experimentees from wandering over into their territory. The Giants, who understood this, have created new legends and stories, and are doing everything to create mental sets that will keep our bargain with Sirius.

  Nothing of this is more than was to be expected, but there is something else. There are persistent rumours about "spies," both among the Natives and among the Giants. These spies do not enter Giant territory, but appear quite frequently among the Natives, and everywhere over the northern hemisphere. At first the Giants believed these to be from Sirian colonies, on ordinary fact-finding missions, but they now believe there are also spies from some other empire. They are cautious about committing themselves, but repeat that the distinguishing feature of these creatures is not in appearance, but in behaviour. In short, they show every feature of the Degenerative Disease. In our view everything we have heard can only confirm the presence of Shammat.

  OUR CONCLUSIONS

  1 The Lock may begin. We have optimum conditions.

  2 It should not be forgotten in our plans that this planet is subject to sudden and drastic change.

  3 Enquiries should be made from Sirius if spies from Shammat have been found in their territories.

  4 Attention should be directed to what Shammat is likely to be wanting. On the face of it there is no place for Shammat on this planet.

  Shortly after that the Lock was established, and was a success, making missions and special envoys unnecessary. The minds of the Giants - or to put it accurately, factually, the Giant-mind - had become one with the mind of the Canopean System, at first partially, and tentatively, but it was an ever-growing and sensitizing current. What came through from Rohanda was all good news. To absorb the tapes and records from that period of nearly ten thousand years is to participate in achievement, success, development. Few of our colonies have fulfilled our plans so hearteningly. The "spies" of the mission's report mentioned above seemed to fade out of the picture. It was assumed on Canopus that they were destroyed by the suddenness of the Lock - that they had not been able to stand the change to higher and finer vibrations, though we did not rule out the possibility that these creatures of Shammat had evolved, rather than died out, and possibly even in a way that might contribute to the general variety and richness of Rohanda.

  We have to look at things now rather differently. In short, it is a question, if not of apportioning blame - never a very helpful process, tending always to draw the attention away from essentials, rather than focussing it - then of knowing what went wrong, so as to avoid it on other planets. But the main cause of the disaster was what that word dis-aster implies: a fault in the stars. That, we could not foresee, beyond acknowledging that nothing on Rohanda could be taken for granted. If there had not been that shift in stellar alignments, it would not have mattered what the Shammat agents were doing, or plotting.

  But how was it we did not know they were there?

  The fault was partly ours - Canopus. As for Sirius, our relations continued to be formally correct: exchanges of information took place between the Colonial Services on the mother planets. At the local Rohandan or Shikastan level, they did not behave worse than we had expected, considering the much lower level of their Empire. But it is this lower level of the Sirian Empire which is the key to this and other problems of Rohanda/Shikasta; and my understanding of it is different now. It must be remembered that we servants of Canopus are also in the process of evolution, and our understandings of situations change as we do. [see History of the Sirian Empire.]

  In short, we were not thinking much of Shammat at all. It is easy now to say we were mistaken. Puttiora itself was concerned, or so it seemed, to keep well out of our way: the alliance between the Empire of Sirius and the Canopean Empire was not to be taken lightly. No one did take it lightly! Throughout our part of the galaxy there was peace, there was harmonious development, and no one challenged us. Why should they? Seldom has the galaxy seen such a blaze of accomplishment, such a long period without any war at all.

  Perhaps it is a fault of the species who thrive in peace, mutual help, aspirations for more of the same - to forget that outside these borders dwell very different types of mind, feeding on different fuel. It is not that Canopus did not guard itself from the vile Puttiora emanations, that we did not keep ourselves informed about that revolting empire, which dismayed us more because it could only remind us of our earlier less pleasant stages of development - it was not that we were negligent in that. But Puttiora did not challenge us anywhere else - so why on Rohanda?

  And so we did not take Shammat enough into account. That Puttiora should allow an outpost on a planet all rock and desert had always seemed to us inexplicable, though the rumours did come that Shammat had been colonised by criminals fleeing from Puttiora, that Puttiora had ignored them until it was too late. We had no idea at all of how Shammat was sucking and draining sources of nourishment everywhere they could be found, of how it built itself up, a thief getting fat on its loot. When Shammat was already a successful pirate state, we still thought of it as a disgraceful but unimportant appendage to the terrible but fortunately far-distant Puttiora.

  And what of the Giants, that alert, intelligent species who had everything on Rohanda under their control?

  Again, we believe that this is a question of benign and nurturing minds not being able to credit the reality of types of mind keyed to theft and destruction. Colony 10 had never been anything but a place of fruitful co-operation, and as I have said, they are peculiarly well adapted to harmonious symbiosis with others. And on Rohanda they had not experienced setback and threat. We now believe it is a disadvantage to allow too much prosperity, ease of development - and on none of our other colonies have we again been satisfied with an easy triumphant growth. We have always inbuilt a certain amount of stress, of danger.

  But suppose there had never been a dis-aster? Probably no one would ever have known that Shammat was on Rohanda... for Shammat can succeed only where there is disequilibrium, harm, dismay.

  We had very little notice of the crisis. There was no reason to expect it. But the balances of Canopus and her System were suddenly not right. We had to find out what was wrong, and very quickly. We did. It was Rohanda. S
he was out of phase, and rapidly worsening. The Lock was weakening. There were shifts in the balances of the forces from inside the body of Rohanda. These answered a shift - and now we had to look outwards, away from Rohanda - in the balances of powers elsewhere, among the stars who were holding us, Canopus, in a web of interacting currents with our colonised planets. Rohanda had felt the wrong alignment first, because it is her nature to be sensitive. Rohanda was at risk, Rohanda must be urgently rescued, held in phase, adjusted - so went our early thought.

  But it was soon established that this could not be. Rohanda could not hold her place in our System. It was not so much a question of jettisoning her, as of her jettisoning herself.

  Very well then: we could cushion and provide... so went our thought in that second stage of our discovery.

  Rohanda was in for a long period - but at that stage we had no idea how very long it would be - of stagnation. But we would make sure that at least there would be no serious falling away from what she had accomplished, we would maintain her until the cosmic forces changed again, which they would do, so we had ascertained.

  But then something else and worse was forced in on us. We could not make our information match with what we could register coming from Rohanda! The currents from Rohanda were coming wild, shrill, cracked... it was clear that they were being tapped. Previously, the strong full Lock between us and Rohanda had made impossible any such leeching away, but now there was no doubt of it.

  Things started happening all at once. Information from Sirius about Puttiora, its sudden increase of strength and pride. Information from our spies in the Puttiora Empire - about Shammat, in particular. Shammat was like a drunk, shameless, boastful, reeling... Shammat was going from strength to strength. Shammat was taking advantage of the new weakness of Rohanda, who was unshielded, unguarded, open to her. Which meant that Shammat had been lying in wait on Rohanda, had been established there... had known what was going to happen? No, that was not possible; because with all our technology, so infinitely in advance of Shammat's, we had not known.