The Kanshou (Earthkeep) (6 page)

"There she was, with her greatest fears materializing before her eyes: no wedding parties for me or Sissy, no grandchildren for her.  Sissy and I have further distressed Mother since then, Sissy by choosing to live with the yurt people instead of with our mother and aunt, I by entering the Kanshou Amah Academy."

After a moment, Rhoda sighed.  "My mother, clean and crisp," she said.

"Mi madre," said Zude, "Rememorante Afortunada."

"My mother, the perfect lady," said Longleaf.

No one broke the long silence that followed until Rhoda sighed again.  "Well," she said, "that's the such-and-such
.
"

"That's the such-and-such."  Longleaf and Zude repeated, almost in unison.

Zude took their cups to the transmog for refills.  "And now to the business of the day."

"That's harder," Rhoda said.

"It always is."  Zude set Longleaf's tea before her and Rhoda's hempbrew in front of her.  Three auras pulled back to more formal but still cordial distances, and a field of mutual concern rested among the three.

Rhoda leaned toward Zude.  "Magister, you've probably heard about the outbreaks of male violence in New Howrah and Greater Chendu, in the bailiwicks."

"I know about the bailiwick uprisings there.  I don't assume that the violence is male."  Zude sipped her coffee.

"Those circumscribed in the bailiwicks are overwhelmingly men."

"But not exclusively."

"No.  Not exclusively."  Rhoda exhaled audibly, trying to soften the brittle texture that began to surround them.

"But these outbreaks seem to be especially intense.  And fairly well organized."

"Oh?"  An exploding cushcar filled Zude's mind.  She suppressed the image and focused upon Rhoda's words.

"I don't know if you know it . . . Magister Win kept it under close wraps. . . but riots in New Howrah and Greater Chendu were followed by even more severe uprisings in Kandy and Singapore."

"I did not know they were counted more severe." 

Rhoda leaned toward her.  "They are severe enough, Magister, that whole demesnes of women are demanding immediate Habitante Testing--"

"Double-damn," Zude muttered, not taking her eyes from Rhoda.

"--so that research on the Anti-Violence Protocols can get underway."

"They're so sure!"

"So sure, Magister?"

"So sure that research will reveal a physical, discernable center of violence!"  Zude overarticulated the words.

Rhoda glanced at Longleaf.  "Yes," she said to Zude, "they're of that persuasion."

Abruptly, Zude stood up.  "Insanity!" she breathed.  She strode toward her desk unit.

"They want a final ridding of violence, Magister," Rhoda declared, "and to them the solution is the use of neurological inhibitors on any man convicted of--"

The words shot out of Zude's mouth: "'
Person
,' Major Densmore, on any
person
convicted of a violent act!"

Rhoda flared, almost rising from her seat.  "Magister, with respect, you are ostriching!  Over 95 percent of violent acts are still perpetrated by men!"

"I don't care if it's 99.9999 percent, Major!  The jury is still out on the question of female violence potential.  Until we can determine
without question
the incompatibility of violence with the female psyche, then our language must reflect that reality!" 
The image of the coverall-clad habitante held up two thumbs
. 
"Brava, Captain!" she cheered, her laughter filling Zude's head.
  Zude cleared the vision, and laid her gaze hard upon the Amah who confronted her.

Rhoda did not flinch.  With her eyes still fixed on Zude she spoke evenly.  "I stand corrected, Magister.  Charge my language to the fact that my duties have been exclusively with women for over two years.  That makes inflated statements about men easy utterances."

"I suppose so," Zude nodded, still discomfited.  "Amahs," she said, walking toward them, "with rapidly increasing frequency I am besieged by organizations throughout this tri-satrapy who want Habitante Testing enacted immediately."

"Magister--" Rhoda began.

Zude reclaimed her chair, her hand raised in a gesture of deterrence.  "I'm also besieged by those who feel that such testing would be a disaster, that the price in human freedom would be too great.  Habitantes have rights, Amahs!  And even if some organic basis for violence is proven, there still can be no excuse for any tampering with the brain of a violent offender.  I daresay you already know my position on all this."

In the pause that followed, Zude studied her two Australian visitors.  All three of them were carefully dodging the thousand volatile aspects of the planet's most controversial issue. 

"Kanshoumates," she continued, letting her inchoate feelings guide her, "we've been drawing near a pointed and dangerous cusp in our talking.  Magister Lin-ci Win and other protofiles would have us obliterate violence.  But we cannot obliterate it if, in the process, we destroy the rights of any person.  Both the Habitante Testing and the notion of violence inhibitors constitute for me an abrogation of individual rights.  It's no wonder you find me touchy on this subject."  She paused.  "We need to be more direct with each other."

Rhoda and Longleaf exchanged a look, unprepared for the Magister's candor.  Rhoda took a deep breath and asked, "Are you asking for true-talk, Magister?"

Zude's eyes opened a fraction of a centimeter wider.  "I am."

Still stunned by Zude's deliberate vulnerability, Rhoda  adjusted her subvention belt, trying to ease its pressure on her waist.  "Magister, do you feel comfortable with Longleaf as our witness and facilitator?"

"Fine."

All three women shifted and settled, though a measure of tension remained.  Longleaf began, "There are three preliminary agreements and three behaviors required for true-talk.  The agreements include equal commitment to struggle and self-examination in dialogue, suspension of rank without fear of retribution, and good will that avoids the exploitation or abuse of any being or thing, whether natural or artificial."

"All granted."  Rhoda and Zude spoke almost simultaneously.  Then Zude added, "That last agreement will be difficult, since it's precisely the agenda of the people you seem to represent here.  In my view they wish to exploit or do violence to a whole group of people."  

"You mean they want to exploit violent . . . people?" Rhoda asked. 

"Exactly," answered Zude.

Longleaf spoke decisively.  "We suspend the agreement about good will for the present, since it is substantial, a part of the discussion."  She continued, "The first of the three behaviors states, 'I will say all of the truth as I know it that pertains to the matter at hand.  I believe my partners in true-talk will do the same.'"

"Granted."  Rhoda and Zude again spoke in unison.

"Second behavior: I will acknowledge the shortcomings of my position and the virtues of the counter position."

"Granted."

"Last behavior: I will articulate and attempt to understand and appreciate the point of view that opposes my own; I will give this viewpoint respect-in-disagreement."

"Granted."   

Zude addressed Rhoda.  "So you will present a case and receive my response." 

Rhoda smiled in spite of herself.  "Yes, and -- dare I use the word? -- I will
persuade
you if I can . . . ."

Remarkably, Zude smiled back.  "And I you, Major.  If I can."  She lit another cigarillo, adjusting the exhaust chute.  "Take us back to the cusp, Jing-Cha."

"Before we return to that point, Magister," said Rhoda, "would you ask Captain Edge to bring us the package I turned over to her staff?"

Zude moved to her desk and tapped a message into one of the consoles there.  She resumed her seat.  "Jing-Cha?"Longleaf recited.  "Amah Densmore had just said, 'They want a final ridding of violence, Magister, and to them the solution is the use of neurological inhibitors on any
man
corrected to
person
convicted of a violent act.'"

"Thank you.  I wish to respond."

Rhoda nodded. 

Zude pressed the edge of the table, activating a large screen in the cushioned wall by Longleaf.  From what looked like a dense graphic, she isolated and magnified a statistical report.  "There it is, Kanshoumates.  We now have on Little Blue 780 bailiwicks, colonies which confine within their boundaries habitantes found guilty of violent acts."  She filled the screen with the three tri-satrapies in sequenced carto-sections, highlighted to demonstrate the bailiwicks' locations.  "That figure includes central cities, like this one, where the colonies are characteristically surrounded by free citizens."

She shifted the screen to the tables again and scrolled to comparative calculations.  "Each bailiwick holds an average of 1,282 habitantes, some as few as 500 and some as many as 4,000.  As you indicated, the habitantes are in large majority men, even when we count the people, in large majority women, who choose to live there with convicted habitantes.

"All told, we're looking at about a million habitantes and approximately 120,000 people who choose to live near them in bailiwicks, from Thule to the Falklands, from Ouagadougou to Fiji."  She paqued the screen and leaned back in her chair.  "Let's assume the highly unlikely possibility that a violence center is discovered in the human brain."  She extinguished her cigarillo.  "One million people.  If I understand you, you're suggesting that all of them, at least those convicted, should, against their will, be subjected to the surgical procedures that are supposed to render them docile and law-abiding."

Rhoda hesitated, wondering, in spite of the true-talk, what trap might lie ahead.  "Yes.  Perhaps with the promise of freedom or a reduced sentence if they have the surgery.  It would not be against their will, Magister.  They would have a choice."

Zude looked toward the entrance wall.  Captain Edge appeared, deposited a small package in front of Zude and disappeared.

"A choice, you say," Zude repeated.  "A choice of what?  Surgery or death?"
Rhoda did not answer.

"And how many do you imagine would choose to be so altered?" Zude persisted.

"Magister, when the benefits to society are understood, I suspect most of those convicted would choose to be relieved of their drive to destroy or injure."

Zude grunted.  "If they were choosing it over death, maybe.  But maybe not.  Maybe even the freedom to die unaltered, un-invaded, to die as one's own self, is more precious than living as a citizen, harmless and docile."  Zude rose to her feet, pacing again.  "And consider the consequences of such research for future generations, in the issue of Infancy Protocols.  Suppose through the widest stretch of the imagination that we could to determine which infants might 'carry' the violence center and which not.  Then we impose on newbornsa neurological requirement that vastly alters their lives--"

Rhoda interposed, "Like the transfusion of healthy blood for diseased blood, Magister?  Like endocrine transplants?  Like in-uteroorgan rehabilitation, gene substitution, lymph regeneration, all the techniques--"

"Major!" Zude snapped.  "What the pluperfect hell do you think the biotech riots were about?  About control of epidemics, yes, but far more than that!  What kind of history are they filling you with at the Hong Kong Academy these days that you don't know about the cyborg disasters and the genetic engineering fiascos?  You--"

Longleaf stood.  She moved to Zude's side and placed her hand on the Magister's arm.  "Personal attack and associational slur."

Zude looked at her.  "Right," she grunted.  "Right.  Delete.  I wish it unsaid."  Both she and Longleaf sat again.

Rhoda nodded.  "Magister, on this matter my feet point with yours," she encouraged.  "I understand the reasoning behind banning such research and behind the moratorium on cloning.  I am in sympathy with the public's loss of confidence in biotechnology."

Zude raised an eyebrow. 

"
But
we are speaking here of benefits to all humankind.  If research were to be authorized and a violence center discovered, then we could make ethical use of our knowledge and take a giant step toward an advanced, nonviolentcivilization, toward a reverence for life from the moment of our birth."  She looked toward the cat figure by Zude's desk unit.  "And if we rid ourselves of violence, Little Blue might even be populated again with animal beings."

Shaking her head, Zude contended, "Amah, you can't talk about the Protocols and reverence for life in the same breath.  Reverence for life interferes as little as possible with another's freedom."  She paused for several heartbeats, looking far down the familiar discursive path that now rolled out before them.  Then she changed direction entirely.  "You say you come with Magister Lin-ci Win's knowlege, even though she has not sent you.  I'm fully aware of her support of Habitante Testing.  Does she plan some strategy for convincing the Central Web?"

"I don't know the answer to that."

Longleaf touched Rhoda's sleeve.  "First Behavior."

The Matrix Major blushed as she turned back to Zude.  "Magister Win would of course wants your support with the Central Web, though she realizes that's unlikely.  Still, she hopes a new development might influence you."  Rhoda picked up the cotton pouch that Captain Edge had brought in, and emptied onto the table two three-inch wooden shafts, each terminating in a delicate and sharply pointed crystal.  "Have you ever seen these?"

Zude shook her head.  She examined the crystals.  "Are they tuned?"

"Precisely.  But not charged.  Captain Edge will tell you that they are monoclinic staurolytes with a wildcard vector that can operate as far away as twenty feet.  They burn out hairs, vocal bands . . . and testicles."

Zude looked at her.

Rhoda picked up one of the shafts.  "They're called 'ballbakers.'  In a rash of recent incidents in Singapore, they have been used to castrate men.  The woman in possession of these told us that if the Amahrery continues to stall on the matter of neurological violence inhibitors, renegade women would do it themselves and in their own way.  By castration."