Grego took his eyes from the globe. "Ernest Mallin's studying all the
filmed evidence we have and all the descriptions of Fuzzy behavior, and
trying to prove that none of it is the result of sapient mentation. Ruth
Ortheris is doing the same, only she's working on the line of instinct and
conditioned reflexes and nonsapient, single-stage reasoning. She has a lot
of rats, and some dogs and monkeys, and a lot of apparatus, and some
technician from Henry Stenson's instrument shop helping her. Juan Jimenez
is studying mentation of Terran dogs, cats and primates, and Freyan
kholphs and Mimir black slinkers."
"He hasn't turned up any simian or canine parallels to that funeral, has
he?"
Grego said nothing, merely shook his head. Emmert muttered something
inaudible and probably indecent.
"I didn't think he had. I only hope those Fuzzies don't get up in court,
build a bonfire and start making speeches in Lingua Terra."
Nick Emmert cried out in panic. "You believe they're sapient yourself!"
"Of course. Don't you?"
Grego laughed sourly. "Nick thinks you have to believe a thing to prove
it. It helps but it isn't necessary. Say we're a debating team; we've been
handed the negative of the question. _Resolved: that Fuzzies are Sapient
Beings._ Personally, I think we have the short end of it, but that only
means we'll have to work harder on it."
"You know, I was on a debating team at college," Emmert said brightly.
When that was disregarded, he added: "If I remember, the first thing was
definition of terms."
Grego looked up quickly. "Leslie, I think Nick has something. What is the
legal definition of a sapient being?"
"As far as I know, there isn't any. Sapience is something that's just
taken for granted."
"How about talk-and-build-a-fire?"
He shook his head. "_People of the Colony of Vishnu_ versus _Emily
Morrosh_, 612 A.E." He told them about the infanticide case. "I was
looking up rulings on sapience; I passed the word on to Ham O'Brien. You
know, what your people will have to do will be to produce a definition of
sapience, acceptable to the court, that will include all known sapient
races and at the same time exclude the Fuzzies. I don't envy them."
"We need some Fuzzies of our own to study," Grego said.
"Too bad we can't get hold of Holloway's," Emmert said. "Maybe we could,
if he leaves them alone at his camp."
"No. We can't risk that." He thought for a moment. "Wait a moment. I think
we might be able to do it at that. Legally."
IX
Jack Holloway saw Little Fuzzy eying the pipe he had laid in the ashtray,
and picked it up, putting it in his mouth. Little Fuzzy looked
reproachfully at him and started to get down onto the floor. Pappy Jack
was mean; didn't he think a Fuzzy might want to smoke a pipe, too? Well,
maybe it wouldn't hurt him. He picked Little Fuzzy up and set him back on
his lap, offering the pipestem. Little Fuzzy took a puff. He didn't cough
over it; evidently he had learned how to avoid inhaling.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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