Rite of Passage

Somebody started yelling for debate then, and it spread, more and more people yelling — this is the fun of Assemblies — and then, finally, they got everything quieted down.

The man who was recognized by the controller said, “It’s all right for you to sit there and tell us that, Mr. Persson, but can you guarantee that they won’t get another scoutship by whatever way they got their first one? Can you guarantee that?”

“If the other Ships are warned,” Mr. Persson said, “there won’t be any problem. But the real point is being missed here. The real point is not the damage that this backward planet can do to us. The real point is, what is the reason that there is any possibility of damage being done to us? I maintain that it is because they are backward!”

“That isn’t the question we are considering,” my father said. “We’re considering a specific case, not general issues. It isn’t pertinent. That’s my ruling.”

“It is pertinent!” Mr. Persson said. “It couldn’t be more pertinent. This question is larger than you want to admit, Mr. Havero. You’ve been avoiding bringing this question of policy, of basic policy for our Ship, out into the open. I say that now is the time.”

“You’re out of order.”

“I am not out of order! I say we should consider the point of general Ship policy. I call for a vote right now to decide whether or not we should consider it. I call for a vote, Mr. Havero.”

People in the Assembly started yelling again, some calling for a vote and some not. Eventually those calling for a vote got the louder end of it and my father held up a hand.

“All right,” he said, when it was quiet enough for him to be heard. “A motion has been made and seconded for a vote on the question of consideration of our planetary policy and carried by acclamation. Controller, record the vote.”

“Thank you,” Mr. Persson said, and punched his vote button.

I knew that Daddy wanted a vote of no, but I voted yes.

When everybody had voted, the master board showed “Yes” in green, “No” in red. The vote was 20,283 to 6,614. So we considered the question.

Mr. Persson said, “As you all know, our past policy has been to hand only as little technical information out to the planets as possible, and then only in return for material considerations. I say this is a mistake. I’ve said it before in Council meetings and I’ve attempted to bring it up before past Assemblies. In testimony that was made before the Council, Mia Havero stated that part of Tintera’s great hate for us is their feeling that they have been unfairly dealt out of their inheritance to which they have as much a right as we. I can’t say that I really blame them. We had no use for them — they had nothing we felt we could use — and in consequence they live lives of squalor. If there is any blame to assign for the fact that they are Free Birthers, I think it is ours for allowing them to lose contact with the unpleasant facts of history that we know so well. The responsibility was ours and we failed. I don’t believe that we should punish them for our failure.”

There was a round of applause from the Assembly as he finished. Then my father began to speak.

“I’m sure you all know that I disagree in every respect with Mr. Persson. First, the responsibility for what these people are — Free Birthers, possibly slavers, certainly attempted murderers — belongs to them, and not to us. They are products of the same history that we are, and if they have forgotten that history, it is not our business to teach it to them. We cannot judge them by what they might have been or by what they should have been. We have to take them for what they are and what they themselves intend to be. They are menaces to us and to every other portion of the present human race. I firmly believe that our only course is to destroy them. If we do not, then and only then will we have grounds to lay blame on ourselves. We in the Ships are in a vulnerable position; we live in an uneasy balance and the least mistake will be our ruin. Tintera is backward today, but even contained, tomorrow it may not be. That is the main fact to remember. A cancer cannot be contained and a planet that does not regulate birth is a cancer. A cancer must be destroyed or it will grow and grow until it destroys its host and itself. Tintera is a cancer. It must be destroyed.