Star Wars_ The Adventures of Lando Calrissia - L. Neil Smith [196]
“However,” the Other replied, hesitating in his thought if not in his headlong flight, “I have had a disturbing new thought which—”
“That was the purpose of the experiment, was it not?”
“Yes, yes. But I do not believe you are going to be particularly happy with it. You see, it has occurred to me that, despite the unconventional methods by which you created our experimental subject, and despite the obvious anatomical differences …” Here, the Other made a gesture emphasizing the smooth, rounded shape of their kind.
“Yes? Please continue.”
“Do not be impatient; this is difficult. I have come to believe we have certain responsibilities toward this entity—specifically that you do—beyond simple scientific inquiry.”
There was a long pause as another several parsecs whisked behind them. Nor did the One reply at all. For once his friend had pursued a line of reasoning where he could not easily follow.
“You are its parent.”
“What?”
“You brought it into existence. You sent it out into the universe. We—you—cannot blandly let it be destroyed. Such would be reprehensible.”
Again the One failed to respond. The light-years rushed by as he plunged himself deep into thought, pondering not only the question of his responsibility, but the more disturbing thought that he had overlooked the issue entirely. Their experimental subject was a thinking being, not to be trifled with as if it were an inanimate object. Apparently complacency had cost him more than progress and the flavor of life, it had interfered badly with his ethical sensibilities.
At last: “I am afraid you are right, my old friend. Congratulate me, I am a father. And by all means, let us hurry, lest we be too late!”
“It’s simple, really,” Lando explained for the fifth time with as little hope of success as he’d enjoyed the first four. “You jump into the middle of a pair of ships, do the little trick we’ve discussed, and jump out. The navy’ll do the rest.”
The gambler floated in the lotus position in the center of the Cave of the Elders, Sen and Fey on either side of him. Each of the gigantic beings was at least five hundred times larger than he was. He felt like a virus having polite tea with a pair of bacteria.
“But Captainlandocalrissiansir, it is disgusting!” Fey complained. “It is demeaning, beneath the dignity of any—”
“How do you feel about losing your transparency?”
“What do you mean?”
Lando drew on the cigar he’d gotten Vuffi Raa to build a holder for in his suit helmet. There was a slight bulge now in the faceplate, and the air filters had needed overhauling, but at long last he could sit and think properly in hard vacuum.
“Isn’t death demeaning, beneath your dignity, disgusting?”
There was the distinct sensation that the younger of the two Elders had blinked with surprise. “Why, I had never thought of it that way before.”
Sen had remained silent through this argument. Now he spoke up. “Tell me, Lando, could you perform the physiological equivalent of this act? To excrete bodily wastes in order to—”
“You bet your biffy I could! Look: all that this requires is that you concentrate a certain mix of heavy metals in your systems, hop to the right coordinates, let your pores do their work, and hop out, leaving a sensor-detectable Oswaft-shaped outline behind for the boys in gray to shoot at. Play your cards right and, human reaction-time being what it is, they’ll shoot each other, instead.”
Sen and Fey thought about that. For rather too long a time, Lando thought.
“Listen, you two, you didn’t hesitate to offer me all kinds of precious jewels, and you manufacture them in the same—”
“It’s not the same at all!” Fey wailed. “Don’t you understand that it’s different when one—”
“Not from my cultural standpoint. On the other hand, Navy humans I know see a big ethical difference between killing animals for food and killing vegetables