“The clincher,” said Rodriguez, chuckling, “was when I let it drop that the Pons trace lineage through matrilineal descent.
That decided it.”
“But that is almost universal amongst totemic groups,” said Brenner.
“She does not know that,” said Rodriguez.
“I thought her background was in anthropology,” said Brenner.
“No,” said Rodriguez.
“But she is directress of the anthropology division of the consortium,” said Brenner.
“She is a political appointment,” said Rodriguez.
“But not one with her background in anthropology?”
“No,” said Rodriguez. “Indeed, she wanted to be the directress of the division of physics.”
“Her background is in physics,” said Brenner.
“No,” said Rodriguez. “But that division is thought to have greater prestige. Besides you do not have to know anything about anthropology to be directress in the anthropology division or anything about physics to be directress in the physics division. The posts are primarily administrative. If one wants some help, one can always ask a question or two, or take an opinion or two, and then make some decision or another. In these fields it doesn’t much matter, as all that is sacrificed is knowledge, which, in effect, was given up long ago. Besides, anyone can do anything. All are the same, and so on.”
“I see,” said Brenner. Sometimes Brenner did not care for Rodriguez’ mocking his politics. Surely Rodriguez had been exposed to the same conditioning programs as himself, conditioning programs which inculcated suitable values, opinions, and attitudes, reviewed and approved by appropriate authorities. Had Rodriguez grown up in a social vacuum, or was he one of those aberrant types who made up his own mind, who, in effect, dared to form his own opinions on matters? Did he put himself above the people, the community, the local interspecific consortium, the authorities, the metaparty, if it existed?
“Her background is in interspecific group relations,” said Rodriguez. “Her work was characterized by duplicativeness, triviality, unimaginativeness, and mediocrity. In addition, and of even greater importance, it was consistently and unquestioningly politically orthodox. It was natural then that she should have petitioned for, and been granted, a more lucrative post, one in administration.”
“I see,” said Brenner.
“To be sure,” he said, “even that would probably not have been enough. She owes her position to being the niece of an individual in the metaparty.”
“There is such a thing?” asked Brenner.
“Of course,” said Rodriguez.
“She is a member of it?”
“I do not know,” said Rodriguez. “Somehow I regard it as unlikely. I think she lacks the intelligence, the ultimate ruthlessness, for that.”
“I see,” said Brenner.
“She should be on her knees, scrubbing floors, in chains,” said Rodriguez.
Brenner looked at him, horrified.
“Stripped,” said Rodriguez.
“Rodriguez!” protested Brenner.
“Surely you found her curves of interest,” said Rodriguez.
Brenner gasped.
“Wouldn’t you like to have her at your feet, in a collar?” he asked.
“Stop!” said Brenner.
“There are worlds where that is where such as she would be,” said Rodriguez. “I have seen such worlds.”
“You’re joking,” said Brenner.
“No,” said Rodriguez.
Brenner regarded him, horror-stricken.
“Not every world is like the home world,” said Rodriguez.
“There are mediocrities in all fields, male and female,” said Brenner.
“True,” said Rodriguez, affably. “But she would still look well in a collar.”
“But what if she were not as she is, not merely attractive, if she is, not that I would notice such a thing, but was exquisitely beautiful, sensitive, even brilliant?”
“She would still belong in a collar,” said Rodriguez.
“A collar?” asked Brenner.
“An animal collar, a pet, or a slave collar, such things, in any case, owned.”
“I do not understand,” said Brenner.
“She is a woman,” explained Rodriguez.
“I do not understand,” said Brenner.
“That is what they need, what they want,” said Rodriguez.
“I do not understand,” said Brenner.
“One must own, or be owned,” said Rodriguez. “In their hearts they know that it is they who are to be owned. Not owned, freed by men too weak to own them, it is natural that they lash out in frustration. Denied their identities, they attempt to usurp spurious identities, turning their lives into pretenses; too, in their frustration and pain, they will attempt to punish men, as they can, for their weakness, for denying them to themselves.”
“What of the previous expeditions, the scientific and cultural expeditions, to the Pons,” asked Brenner, “that from Naxos, that from Eos?” Brenner thought it well to change the subject.
“I suppose they were completed,” said Rodriguez. “But in interlink I could do little more than pull their departure dates.”
“Their reports were not filed, their studies?” asked Brenner.
“I do not know,” said Rodriguez. “Perhaps they were destroyed, or lost.”