In the midst of the proceedings, the Terran Navy commander reveals that his people have been studying Fuzzies, and that they can indeed speak. Leonard Kellogg, one of Grego's staff, kills a fuzzy and this leads to a court case which hinges on whether the fuzzies are animals or sapients.Īfter much discussion of what it means to be "sapient" (speech and fire use being one definition), the matter goes to court.
If ruled sapient, the entire planet would be declared a protected aboriginal zone, and the Chartered Zarathustra Company would lose its exclusive rights to the resources there. Victor Grego soon tries to intervene, claiming that the Fuzzies are just animals, not sapients. It is soon apparent that the creature is highly intelligent, and he soon brings his family band to join "Pappy Jack" at the shack. The miner gives the little fuzzy some Extee-Three, a kind of canned emergency ration cake, and the fuzzy devours it greedily. The creature has armed itself with a chisel from his workbench, but is peaceful and mostly unafraid. One day, Holloway returns to his cabin to discover a tiny humanoid, covered in golden fur. The planet is basically "owned" by the Chartered Zarathustra Corporation (under Victor Grego), which installed basic services and colonial outposts initially, and now reaps the benefits of new discoveries, such as the valuable sunstones. Jack Holloway, an elderly, individualistic sunstone miner, lives a solitary life in a wilderness area of planet Zarathustra.
Beam Piper about what truly makes a creature sapient.
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