[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

man shape and human intelligence. Pomfrey called
his first witness Master B'na Kreeth.
The Martian's normal bad temper had not been
improved by being forced to wait around for three
days in a travel tank, to say nothing of the indignity
of having to interrupt his researches to take part in
the childish pow-wows of terrestrials.
There was further delay to irritate him while
Pomfrey forced the corporation attorneys to accept
B'na as an expert witness. They wanted to refuse but
could not he was their own Director of Research.
He also held voting control of all Martian-held Work-
ers' stock, a fact unmentioned but hampering.
More delay while an interpreter was brought in to
help administer the oath B na Kreeth, self-centered
as all Martians, had never bothered to leam English.
He twittered and chirped in answer to the demand
that he tell the truth, the whole truth, and so forth;
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
the interpreter looked pained. "He says he can't do
it," he informed the judge.
Pomfrey asked for exact tsanslation.
The interpreter looked uneasily at the Judge. "He
says that if he told the whole truth you fools not
'fools' exactly; it's a Martian word meaning a sort of
headless worm would not understand it. *
The court discussed the idea of contempt briefly.
When die Martian understood that he was about to
be forced to remain in a travel tank for thirty days he
came down off his high horse and agreed to tell the
truth as adequately as was possible; he was accepted
as a witness.
"Are you a man?" demanded Pomfrey.
"Under your laws and by your standards I
am a
man.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
nmn "
"By what theory? Your body is unlike ours; you
cannot even live in our air. You do not speak our
language; your ideas are alien to us. How can you be
a man?'
274 Robert A. Heinlein
The Martian answered carefully: "I quote from the
Terra-Martian Treaty, which you must accept as
supreme law. 'AU members of the Great Race, while
sojourning on the Third Planet^ shaft haw aS. the
rights and prerogatives of the native dominant race
of the Third Planet.' This clause has been interpreted
by the Bi-Planet Tribunal to mean that members of
the Great Race are 'men whatever that may be."
"Why do you refer to your sort as the 'Great
Race'?"
"Because of our superior intelligence."
"Superior to men?"
"We are men."
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
"Superior to the intelligence of earth men?"
"That is self-evident."
"Just as we are superior in intelligence to this poor
creature Jerry?"
"That is not self-evident."
"Finished with the witness," announced Pomfrey.
The opposition counsels should have left bad enough
alone; instead they tried to get B'na Kreeth to define
the difference in intelligence between humans and
worker-anthropoids. Master B'na explained meticu-
lously that cultural differences masked the intrinsic
differences, if any, and that, in any case, both anthro-
poids and men made so little use of their respective
potential intelligences that it was really too early to
tell which race would turn out to be the superior
race in the Third Planet.
He had just begun to discuss how a truly superior
race could be bred by combining the best features of
anthropoids and men when he was hastily asked to
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
"stand down."
"May it please the Court," said Pomfrey, "we have
not advanced the theory; we have merely disposed of
respondent's contention that a particular shape and a
particular degree of intelligence are necessary to man-
hood. I now ask that the petitioner be recalled to the
JERRY WAS A MAN 275
stand that the court may determine whether he is, in
truth, human."
"If the learned court please " The battery of law-
yers had been in a huddle ever since B'na Kreeth's
travel tank had been removed from the room; the
chief counsel now spoke.
"The object of the petition appears to be to protect
the life of this chattel. There is no need to draw out
these proceedings; respondent stipulates that this
chattel will be allowed to die a natural death in the
hands of its present custodian and moves that the
action be dismissed."
"What do you say to that?" the Court asked
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
Pomfrey. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]