Larry Niven - The Mote in God's Eye

“Or take ‘em into the Empire and be done with it,” Fowler muttered. “I thought of that one last night. If they can’t control their population, we can do it for them—”

“But we know they can,” Horvath protested. “We’ve proved they’ve been civilized a long time in one system. They’ve learned—” He stopped for a moment, then continued excitedly. “Has it occurred to you that they may have population allotments? The Moties on that expedition ship may have been required to have their children at a certain time, or not at all. So they had them aboard ship.”

“Hmm,” Fowler said. His scowl vanished. “Maybe you’ve got something there. We’ll— I’ll —ask the Moties when they come in. Dr. Hardy, you’ve been sitting there like a man about to be hanged in low gravity. What’s got you upset?”

“Rats,” the Chaplain said carefully.

Horvath looked around quickly, then nodded in submission. “They disturbed you also, David?”

“Of course. Can you find the file, or must I?”

“I have it,” Horvath sighed. He scrawled numbers on the face of his pocket computer. It hummed and the wall screens lit… a Motie city, struck by disaster. Cars overturned and rusted through littered broken streets. Crashed aircraft were imbedded in the ruins of fire-scorched buildings. Weeds grew from cracks in the pavement. In the center of the picture was a sloping mound of rubble, and a hundred small black shapes darted and swarmed over it.

“It’s not what it looks like. It’s one floor of the Motie zoo,” Horvath explained. He touched his controls and the image zoomed closer to focus on a single black shape which grew until the outlines were fuzzy: a pointed, ratlike face, with wicked teeth. But it was not a rat.

It had one membranous ear, and five limbs. The foremost limb on the right side was not a fifth paw; it was a long and agile arm, tipped with claws like hooked daggers.

“Ah,” Horowitz exclaimed. He looked accusingly at Horvath. “You didn’t show me this one… more wars, eh? One of the wars must have wiped out so much life that ecological niches were left empty. But this— Did you get a specimen?”

“Unfortunately no.”

“What did it degenerate from?” Horowitz asked wonderingly. “A long step from the intelligent Motie to—to that . Is there a Motie caste you have not shown me? Something similar to that?”

“No, of course not,” Sally said.

“No one would breed selectively for those things,” Horowitz mused. “It must have been natural selection—” He smiled in satisfaction. “More proof, if it were needed. One of their wars almost depopulated their planet. And for a very long time, too.”

“Yah,” Renner said quickly. “So while these things took over Mote Prime the civilized Moties were out in the asteroids. They must have bred out there for generations, Whites and Browns and Watchmakers and maybe some things we didn’t see because we didn’t get to the asteroid civilization.”

“But a long time ago, again,” said Horvath. “Very long— Dr. Buckman’s work on asteroid orbits—well. Perhaps the Mediators were evolved in space before they resettled the planet. You can see they were needed.”

“Which makes the Whites as warlike now as then,” Senator Fowler pointed out.

“Now they have Mediators, Uncle Ben,” Sally reminded him.

“Yeah. And maybe they’ve solved their population pressure— Doctor, get that goddamn thing off the screen! It gives me the willies. Why the hell would anyone put a ruined city in a zoo anyway?”

The feral image vanished and everyone seemed relieved. “They explained that.” Horvath seemed almost cheerful again. “Some of their forms evolved for cities. A thorough zoo would have to include them.”

“ Ruined cities?”

“Maybe to remind them of what happens when they don’t listen to the Mediators,” Sally said quietly. “A horrible example to keep them scared of war.”

“It’d do it, too,” Renner said. He shuddered slightly.

“Let’s sum this up. The Moties are due in a few minutes,” Senator Fowler said. “One. The potential reproductive rate is enormous, and the Moties are willing to have kids in places we wouldn’t.

“Two. The Moties lied in a way that concealed their high birth-rate potential.

“Three. Moties have had wars. At least three big ones. Maybe more.

“Four. They’ve been around a long time. Really long. That argues that they’ve got their population under control. We don’t know how they do it, but it might tie in to why they have kids on dangerous missions. We have to ask. OK so far?”

There was a chorus of muttered assents. “Now to options. First, we could take Dr. Horvath’s advice and negotiate trade agreements. The Moties have asked for permanent stations, and the right to look for and settle on uncolonized worlds inside the Empire and beyond. They don’t insist on the interior space, but they’d like stuff we don’t use, such as asteroids and terraformable rocks. They offer a lot in exchange.”

He paused for comments, but there weren’t any. Everyone was content to let the Senator do the summation for the record.

“Now that course of action means turning the Moties loose. Once they have bases where we don’t control access to them, outies and rebels are certain to dicker with the Moties. We have to outdicker, and it’s possible that being generous now will get their gratitude later. Immediate agreement has the support of Commissioner Sandra Bright Fowler. We still OK so far?”

There were more nods and yeses. A few of the scientists looked curiously at Sally. Dr. Horvath gave her an encouraging smile.

“Second option. We take the Moties into the Empire. Install a governor general, at least on any Mote colony, possibly on Mote Prime itself. This would be expensive, and we don’t know what happens if the Moties resist. Their military potential is damn high.”

“I think that would be terribly unwise,” Anthony Horvath said. “I can’t believe the Moties would submit and—”

“Yeah. I’m trying to lay out the possibilities, Doter. Now that you’ve entered your objection I may as well state that this plan has the tentative approval of the War Ministry and most of the Colonial Office people. No Commissioners yet, but I intend to put it to the Moties as a possibility. Hell, they might want in.”

“Well, if they voluntarily enter the Empire, I’d support the action,” Horvath said.

“So would I,” Sally added.

Ben Fowler screwed his heavy features into a mask of contemplation. “Me, I don’t think it would work,” he mused. “We generally govern through locals. Now just what reward can we promise for cooperation with us against a conspiracy by their whole race? But we’ll ask them.”

Fowler straightened in his chair. The amused, thoughtful smile vanished. “Possibility three. The hoof-and-mouth disease remedy.”

There were gasps. Horvath’s lips were tightly drawn and he took a deep breath. “Does that mean what I think, Senator?”

“Yeah. If there isn’t any hoof-and-mouth disease, there won’t be any. If there aren’t any Moties, there won’t be a Motie problem.”

David Hardy’s voice was low but very firm. “The Church would object to that very strongly, Senator. With every means we have.”

“I am aware of that, Father. I’m aware of the Humanity League’s feeling too. As a matter of fact, unprovoked extermination isn’t a real alternative. Not that we can’t physically do it, but politically, no. Unless the Moties are a direct and immediate threat to the Empire.”

“Which they aren’t,” Horvath said positively. “They’re an opportunity. I wish I could make you see that.”