Read Online Statesman by Piers Anthony - Free Book Online Page B

retrospect I see this as one of the major follies of my life. I suppose I thought the Tyrant was indestructible. Nature has her way of educating idiots like me.
    We remained on guard, but already there had been too many close calls. We had to abolish the nomenklatura before it abolished us! But we had to proceed in proper order, or all would be for nothing.
    So we proceeded, warily. We were assembling a comprehensive list of personnel to be eliminated, and a similar list of those to be promoted. Under competent and motivated management, Saturn's industry would improve; I was sure of that. But it had a long way to go, for aside from the military complex, it was in an abysmal state. I wished we could import a few thousand technical supervisors from Jupiter.
    One problem was theft, and another was sabotage. Much of this might be because of disaffected workers. Proper motivation should help, but until we could set our program in motion, key installations had to be protected. But even the police were not to be completely trusted; some crimes were evidently committed despite the knowledge of the guards. How could we eliminate this complication?
    In Jupiter we would have gone to technology, setting up laser perimeters that would detect and foil any unauthorized intrusions. But Saturn lacked that kind of technology in the civilian sector. We needed something considerably more primitive, but just as effective.
    “Animals,” Spirit said.
    As it happened, Saturn had been doing research on animals. In Sibirsk there was a massive project dedicated to the reconstitution of primitive species. We were sure this would not be altruistic; there was bound to be some militaristic motive. So we inquired, and in due course managed to cut through the bureaucratic resistance and arrange an inspection.
    We visited. The complex was in its own bubble, separate from the city and restricted; even the local residents hardly knew what went on there.
    It turned out that they meant the appellation “primitive” literally. They were using gene-splicing techniques to breed back extinct species, some of which were prime prospects for guard duty.
    They had, it seemed, made progress toward the recovery of Earth's Pleistocene mammals. Equus , the ancestral horse, had a range within this bubble; Spirit, with a woman's fascination with horses, wanted to see that. I wanted to see Amphicyon , the huge ancestral dog. It was an irony that contemporary horses and dogs were rare today, because of the wasteful expense of maintaining them in space, but the more primitive variants were being bred in the name of research and defense.
    We had the tour. The interior of the bubble was like a monstrous zoo, with many layers of exhibits and many more of laboratories and storage facilities. The outer levels had vast fields planted with special high-gee-tolerant grasses and shrubs, to be grown and harvested for the grazers. The ceilings were huge day-glow panels, emulating the course of natural sunlight, cloud, and night.
    “But I thought the stress was on guard animals,” I said innocently. “Surely hay-eaters aren't—?”
    The guide smiled. “Some of the grazers are quite competent guards,” he said. “There are aggressive horned species that can stand up to almost any predator, such as Bison crassiocornis . But it is true they are not the best guard animals, because of their need for constant grazing, and their manure. Our herbivores are grown mainly as prey for the carnivores.”
    “Oh,” I said, disgruntled. Of course the true predators would need food, and if they were to be truly lean and vicious, they had to hunt it for themselves. Survival of the fittest: never a pretty business.
    We went to the upper levels, where the gee reduced toward Earth-norm. We did indeed see the primitive horses, right back to Merychippes and Mesohippus , the dog-sized, three-toed version of the Oligocene epoch. It was strange to see such a horselike creature so small.
    And we saw the