There were no webs between the alien fingers!
McKie said, "And you tell me that a DemoPol backed up by certain religious injunctions is the primary tool of government there?"
"An original condition of our experiment," Aritch said.
It was not a comprehensive answer, McKie observed. Original conditions invariably changed. McKie decided to come back to this after the High Magister had submitted to more muscle pain.
"Do the Dosadi know the nature of the Caleban barrier which encloses them?"
"They've tried rocket probes, primitive electromagnetic projections. They understand that those energies they can produce will not penetrate their 'God Wall.' "
"Is that what they call the barrier?"
"That or 'The Heavenly Veil.' To some degree, these labels measure their attitude toward the barrier."
"The DemoPol can serve many governmental forms," McKie said. "What's the basic form of their government?"
Aritch considered this, then:
"The form varies. They've employed some eighty different governmental forms."
Another nonresponsive answer. Aritch did not like to face the fact that their experiment had assumed warlord trappings. McKie thought about the DemoPol. In the hands of adepts and with a population responsive to the software probes by which the computer data was assembled, the DemoPol represented an ultimate tool for manipulation of a populace. The ConSentiency outlawed its use as an assault on individual rights and freedoms. The Gowachin had broken this prohibition, yes, but a more interesting datum was surfacing: Dosadi had employed some eighty different governmental forms without rejecting the DemoPol. That implied frequent changes.
"How often have they changed their form of government?"
"You can divide the numbers as easily as I," Aritch said. His tone was petulant.
McKie nodded. One thing had become quite clear.
"Dosadi's masses know about the DemoPol, but you won't let them remove it!"
Aritch had not expected this insight. He responded with revealing sharpness which was amplified by his muscle pains.
"How did you learn that?"
"You told me."
"I?"
"Quite plainly. Such frequent change is responsive to an irritant - the DemoPol. They change the forms of government, but leave the irritant. Obviously, they cannot remove the irritant. That was clearly part of your experiment - to raise a population resistant to the DemoPol."
"A resistant population, yes," Aritch said. He shuddered.
"You've fractured ConSentient Law in many places," McKie said.
"Does my Legum presume to judge me?"
"No. But if I speak with a certain bitterness, please recall that I am a Human. I embrace a profound sympathy for the Gowachin, but I remain Human."
"Ahhhh, yes. We must not forget the long Human association with DemoPols."
"We survive by selecting the best decision makers," McKie said.
"And a DemoPol elevates mediocrity."
"Has that happened on Dosadi?"
"No."
"But you wanted them to try many different governmental forms?"
The High Magister shrugged, remained silent.
"We Humans found that the DemoPol does profound damage to social relationships. It destroys preselected portions of a society."
"And what could we hope to learn by damaging our Dosadi society?"
"Have we arrived back at the question of expected benefits?"
Aritch stretched his aching muscles.
"You are persistent, McKie. I will say that."
McKie shook his head sadly.
"The DemoPol was always held up to us as the ultimate equalizer, a source of decision-making miracles. It was supposed to produce a growing body of knowledge about what a society really needed. It was thought to produce justice in all cases despite any odds."
Aritch was irritated. He leaned forward, wincing at the pain of his old muscles.
"One might make the same accusations about the Law as practiced everywhere except on Gowachin worlds!"
McKie suppressed a sharp response. Gowachin training had forced him to question assumptions about the uses of law in the ConSentiency, about the inherent rightness of any aristocracy, any power bloc whether majority or minority. It was a BuSab axiom that all power blocs tended toward aristocratic forms, that the descendants of decision makers dominated the power niches. BuSab never employed offspring of their agents.
Aritch repeated himself, a thing Gowachin seldom did.
"Law is delusion and fakery, McKie, everywhere except on the Gowachin worlds! You give your law a theological aura. You ignore the ways it injures your societies. Just as with the DemoPol, you hold up your law as the unvarying source of justice. When you . . ."
"BuSab has . . ."
"No! If something's wrong in your societies, what do you do? You create new law. You never think to remove law or disarm the law. You make more law! You create more legal professionals. We Gowachin sneer at you! We always strive to reduce the number of laws, the number of Legums. A Legum's first duty is to avoid litigation. When we create new Legums, we always have specific problems in mind. We anticipate the ways that laws damage our society."
It was the opening McKie wanted.
"Why are you training a Wreave?"
Belatedly, Aritch realized he had been goaded into revealing more than he had wanted.