PART IV:

Scientific Assessment

The Company's scientific division, under Ernst Mallin's leadership, worked diligently to develop a rigorous definition of sapience that would exclude the Fuzzies while including all recognized sapient races. This was a more complex challenge than initially anticipated.

The traditional "talk-and-build-a-fire" rule—a rough guideline suggesting that any being that could speak and make fire was sapient—was inadequate. Court precedent had established that the absence of these abilities did not necessarily indicate non-sapience. The Company needed something more sophisticated.

Dr. Mallin and his team proposed that sapience be defined by the presence of conscious thought, the ability to think in logical sequences, and the capacity to form abstract ideas distinct from mere sense data. The key, they argued, was whether a being's mental activity occurred primarily at the conscious level or remained predominantly subconscious.

By this definition, the Fuzzies' behavior could be explained as complex but ultimately non-sapient responses to stimuli. Their use of tools could be attributed to instinct and conditioned reflexes. Their apparent cooperation could be explained as pack behavior. Even the burial of their dead could be rationalized as an extension of their instinct to bury waste—an unpleasant-smelling dead body being treated the same as other unpleasant-smelling organic matter.

The Company believed this definition was scientifically sound and legally defensible. It acknowledged the Fuzzies' impressive capabilities while maintaining a clear distinction between clever animal behavior and true sapience.

The Naval Intervention

A complicating factor emerged when Space Commodore Alex Napier, commanding officer of Xerxes Naval Base, became involved in the situation. The Terran Federation Navy, it transpired, had been conducting covert intelligence operations on Zarathustra, monitoring the Company's activities to ensure compliance with the charter and Federation law.

Naval Intelligence had infiltrated the Company's own scientific division. Ruth Ortheris, who had worked as a psychologist under Dr. Mallin and had been involved in studying the Fuzzies, was revealed to be Lieutenant j.g. Ruth Ortheris of the Terran Federation Navy Reserve. She had been transmitting reports on Company activities for months.

When the Fuzzies disappeared from Science Center, it was Lieutenant Ortheris who had smuggled them out and transferred them to naval custody. For nearly a month, while Holloway searched desperately and the Company conducted its own investigation, the Fuzzies had been aboard Xerxes Naval Base, where Navy scientists studied them extensively.

The Navy's involvement added a new dimension to the legal proceedings. Commodore Napier, concerned about potential civil unrest and possible Company attempts to suppress evidence, had landed Marine forces in Mallorysport and assumed temporary control of the civil government. Resident General Emmert and Attorney General Mohammed O'Brien were arrested on various corruption charges.

From the Company's perspective, this was a gross overreach of military authority. The Navy had no right to interfere in what was fundamentally a civilian legal matter. The fact that the Navy had its own institutional interest in the outcome—Naval Intelligence would gain significant prestige if their surveillance operation uncovered a major charter violation—created an obvious conflict of interest.