I was really adjusting well to the reality that Helmer was going to be a part of my future for the next unspecified amount of months (years? Oh Lord…). I was actually more distracted by Julie setting cross-legged on my bed than I was by Helmer.
“Jaki, in this first session we thought it would be a good idea to exchange some basic information and get to know each other but as you can imagine there are several very important questions we need to address. The first one is simple: Why did you contact us and why are you here?”
Jaki replied smoothly, “It is both simple and complex. Basically, we feel a duty to protect you. As your world enters the era of spaceflight you will become noticed by other civilizations like the Coridians—and as you experienced with Laze Fair One, many of them are not friendly.”
“Who are the Coridians and why would they wish us harm?”
“We know the Coridians well. They are a less advanced civilization with an inferiority complex. They see an emerging space faring culture like yours as a competitive threat and unless we are here to stop them they will undoubtedly eliminate that threat before you can become sophisticated enough to protect yourselves.”
“Jaki, how can we compete with the Coridians or possibly be a threat to them? If they can move the Laze Fair One to Neptune, let alone have interstellar flight, they must be considerably advanced over us?” Helmer asked.
“To understand the answer to that will require you to have a better understanding of how our meta-society is organized and what we value. That is, I believe, a discussion better left to one of my colleagues and another day. In the meantime I would like to ask you a question.”
“Sure.”
“One aspect of Earth that my people are having trouble comprehending… How can a civilization that has attained space flight put some people in cages just because they will not do what other people tell them to?” Jaki asked.
Dr. Helmer replied, “When certain people pose a danger to the general population we’ve made a decision as a society that it’s safer if those individuals are locked away so they can no longer pose a threat to others.”
“Why would they pose a threat to others?”
“Well, that depends… Maybe you have something I want. If I can’t convince you to give it to me and I take it from you anyway that is harming you and your property. We lock people up that have shown they can’t be trusted not to harm others.”
I was pretty sure that this was how Helmer had wrangled himself the Head of Mission (Scientific) slot—he was a master at manipulating people through the use of what appeared to be sound reason and logic, many times at the expense of the truth. But hey, as long as the other guy would do what Derrick wanted he didn’t care. He was probably mentally counting up all the brownie points he was scoring right now by showing Jaki how reasonable and mature our society was.
Jaki said, “I am aware that your civilization has limited resources and therefore on a macro level uses multiple monetary systems as well as a plethora of primitive political systems to control the distribution of these resources, and I am also aware that on an individual level there can be much disagreement over the equity of those resource distributions and that this can cause conflict, but it appears to me that the majority of incarcerations do not stem from these inequities.”
Back in my room Julie exclaimed, “Wow where did that come from?”
Helmer blinked a few times then said, “Ah, how do you mean?”
“Dr. Helmer, I would suggest to you that if our two worlds are to work together, if Earth would like a friend and protector from true harm, then it is imperative that we not play needless political games or try and make ourselves look better. Noridia cannot help you unless you are honest about your world’s present situation, primitive as it may be. I can assure you that you will not reveal anything so repugnant to us that we would abandon you. However, if we feel that you cannot be a trusted partner we could very well decide that our priorities lay elsewhere. In the future I would encourage you to speak plainly.”
Helmer was stunned. I’d never seen that look on his face before—well, maybe once before but that’s not important now… He was obviously trying to retake control of the situation when he said, “I, we, couldn’t agree more. Openness between our peoples is imperative and in that spirit please let me say that I’m not sure what we said to make you think we were trying to hide anything?”
Jaki looked Helmer square in the eyes and said, “Dr. Helmer, I attempted to gain insight as to why your civilization seems to uniformly think it wise to capture and hold people against their will and you attempt to deflect my inquiry by referring to the circumstances that apply to only a small subset of all incarcerated individuals. For example, your planet jails millions of political prisoners—how are these people a legitimate threat to others or their property?”
It was like a drowning man grabbing at a lifeline… “Jaki, it’s true that in some countries people are jailed for having different political beliefs but that’s mostly what we refer to as ‘Third World’ countries. The modern world doesn’t condone that.”
Tilting her head Jaki said, “Really? I think you are mistaken but that is only one example. I know your people have an incomprehensible fixation on the act of reproduction. Your planet is overpopulated and you have many ceremonies and rituals surrounding procreation; everything from the ceremony of ‘marriage’ when declaring a short-term sexual partner to the ritual of making a ‘sex tape’ to seek fame. These acts are glorified and rewarded yet if the same acts involve the direct exchange of currency you call it prostitution and put the consenting adults in a cage. These are the things you need to explain to us so that we can better understand your civilization.”
“Uh, Jaki, that one might take a little time…”
“What about Controlled Substances? Fifty-five percent of federally incarcerated individuals in your own country have harmed no one but themselves—and in a huge number of cases they have not even done that. Yet you lock them away. You talk about Third World countries but the United States has less than 5% of the world's populationand 24% of the world's prison population. The reality is that on your planet the more ‘advanced’ you claim a country to be the higher percentage of its population it locks up. How does your society justify this? Why do your people let it happen?”
It was here that General Nesbit showed why he was the mission commander; “Jaki, I think this is a good time to recess. We want to answer your questions but I think we need to confer and make sure we’re giving you as objective of answers as possible. Let’s reconvene the same time tomorrow.”
“Well that wasn’t what I expected,” said Julie as the interview ended.
I agreed and told her that I was under the impression that this was supposed to be them informing us about their society, not the other way around. Anzio of course remembered the exact wording… “Actually it was promoted as a free-form exchange of cultural information but I agree that it seemed totally one-sided.”
The three of us were still in my room; I was at my desk while Julie sat at the head of my bed and Anzio was lying back at the foot of the bed with his long legs sprawled out across the floor.
Anzio continued, “Jaki didn’t become confrontational until Dr. Helmer gave her an answer that she clearly believed it to be disingenuous, yes? The thing is I probably would have answered the same way. We lock people up because they’re bad, right?”
“Or, because they’re mentally unstable.” Julie added.