The Sirian Experiments. Doris Lessing
to us our Colonized Planets, which they were in a position to retain for themselves, informed us that we must stay behind our own boundaries, offered us co-operation and friendship, and announced that this agreement would be described as a Truce, so that we would not suffer ignominy in the eyes of our fellow states and empires.
A very long time later, and quite recently, I asked my Canopean friend Klorathy, head of their Colonial Administration, what he and others like him now felt about this magnanimous and high-flown behaviour, in view of the fact that we, Sirius, had never given them credit for it, but on the contrary had done everything to expunge from our history books, and even – apparently – from our memories, any hint that Canopus had won that war and had then behaved as no empire has ever – to my knowledge – behaved anywhere. His reply was that ‘it was too early yet to say what the results would be and he preferred to withhold judgement’.
I record this typically Canopean remark. Without comment. Without comment at this place.
I said earlier that Canopus had not shown much interest in the results of our experiments on Rohanda, or on any other planet, for that matter.
Just as we did not understand their attitude at the end of the great war between us, so we did not, do not, understand their indifference to our work.
This is because they, in their own work, have gone so far beyond us. They have never had anything to learn from us. But we have consistently interpreted their attitude as one of dissimulation, believing them to be pretending indifference, out of pride, while secretly ferreting out any information they could, even sending spies into our territories and making use of our work without acknowledgement.
Our set of mind has been one that has consistently led us into wrong judgement.
Let us take an example. That the Conference was on Colony 10 and that it was from here the colonizers for Rohanda were chosen was merely a coincidence. Yet we were talking about the ‘cleverness’ of Canopus in making sure that we met these vigorous and formidable people, so that we would not be tempted to overrun our boundaries on Rohanda. And this belief of ours, crystallized at the Conference – I was one of those responsible, and am in a position to admit to the harm done – continued on into our sojourn on the planet, influencing us in all kinds of ways. But it was quite simply nonsense: we had suggested their Planet 10 ourselves. This is the kind of error suspicion leads us all into.
There are many more examples I could give, but I will deal with the two main factors, or themes, of this Conference: that is, as we were affected. We supplied to Canopus outlines of the experiments we proposed, but did not see then – were not prepared to see! – to what an extent these were to be conditioned by what Canopus proposed to do.
That was at the beginning of the 20,000 years during which we were to profit by Rohanda’s great time, under the influence of Canopus. It was not until later that Canopus decided to speed up her plan, because of her Planet 8, which was due to reach an untimely end because of unforeseen cosmic changes. Canopus was then thinking in terms of 50,000 and not 20,000 years, in which to advance the Colony 10 individuals to a certain level. She informed us that she planned two phases. First, a general heightening and consolidation of these Colony 10 volunteers up to a determined point. (That they were volunteers struck us then as laughable, though it was not long before we were employing the same policy, instead of conscripting.) This predetermined point – and we were offered full information and details – would be marked by what they called a ‘Lock’ – that is, a synchronization between Canopus and Rohanda that would bring the planet into harmony with their Empire as a whole. Harmony of a particular kind.
This, then, was the first theme, one unfamiliar to us at that time. Unfamiliar, I am going to risk saying, even now: for when we use words like harmony, good fellowship, cooperation – which we do plentifully and all the time in relation to our own Empire – we do not mean by them what Canopus means. At the Conference, being told that Canopus proposed to develop the Colony 10 volunteers, to stabilize them, to make use of their evolution to advance the Canopean Empire, what we understood from this was no more than the sort of development, stabilization, evolution, advance, that we associated with our own territories.
The second theme was how Canopus proposed to achieve these admirable results. For we were given – or offered, for we did not make use of this opportunity – all the information we wanted.
We did not accept because we were handicapped by being resentful, even though the general euphoria of the Conference succeeded in masking these unfortunate emotions. The northern areas were plentifully stocked with a certain species of primate. In parts these were already upright, using tools and weapons, with the beginnings of semipermanent settlement. This type of animal, at this level of evolution, is always of value, both for experiment and in training for simple tasks. There were none in Isolated Southern Continent II; and while there were some apes in Southern Continent I, they were at a low level of evolution, suitable for experiment, but of no use at all for work.
We saw Canopus ‘as usual’ grabbing the best of everything, for not once did we remind ourselves that there was no reason we should ever have been allowed on Rohanda at all. It was not we who had discovered this planet.
Canopus told us that certain rapid and desirable developments of the Colony 10 colonists would be because of a ‘symbiosis’ between them and the apes, and that the apes, too, would be benefited. We saw this ‘symbiosis’ in terms of a beneficial cultural exchange and, more specifically, as the superior immigrants being set free for higher tasks by using the apes as servants.
In short, the two main pieces of information, the bases on which the Canopean plan was predicated, were not understood by us at all. In spite of our being told everything. To emphasize this even more: now, looking back at the Conference, I can see that there was nothing not said, not made plain, not explained. But we misinterpreted what we were being told. And again, it is impossible not to ask, now, why Canopus set up the Conference in this way? To forestall reproaches of niggardliness? No! Knowing Canopus, this was not the reason. But they must have realized that we were not taking in what was being said, were understanding everything in our own way.
So why did they do it? It is only recently that I have had an answer to this question. The beginnings of an answer …
The end of the Conference was marked by all kinds of festivities and jollities. We were taken on trips to other Canopean colonies; invited, ‘if we were in that part of the Galaxy’, to visit them for as long as we liked – the usual courtesies.
Back on our Home Planet we Sirians lost no time. Planets in the healthy, vigorous conditon of Rohanda were – and are – rare. We of the Colonial Service were all delighted and full of optimism. Incidentally, it was at that Conference that Rohanda acquired its name. Perhaps this is not the place – it is too soon – to remark that when the planet suffered its cosmic reversal, and ceased to be so pleasant, even if it did not lose any of its fertility, Canopus at once jettisoned the name Rohanda, substituting another, Shikasta, ‘the broken or damaged one’, felt by us to be unnecessarily negative. This mixture of pedantry and poeticism is a characteristic of Canopus, and one that I have always found irritating.
Spacecraft had already thoroughly surveyed both Southern Continents, independently of Canopus. Our scientists had visited selected areas, and recommendations had been made. It was decided that Southern Continent I would be used mainly for agriculture. We had recently acquired our Colonized Planet 23 (C.P. 23) and had found it was well able to sustain large-scale settlement, provided it was supplied with food. This being part of the same solar system as Rohanda, and quite close, we had thought from the start of using one or other of the southern continents as an agricultural base. S.C. I was admirably equipped from the point of view of soil and climate. It was roughly divided into three zones, the middle one, equatorial, being too hot, but the other two, the southern part and the northern part, useful for a vast variety of plants. We introduced several grain plants from both our colonized planets and those of Canopus and developed some indigenous grasses to supply grains and also developed locally-originating tubers and leaf crops. I was not directly in charge of this enterprise. Those interested will find accounts of