There was one problem, though: New Scotland is inhabited by New Scots, a people who have preserved their subculture for a long time and defend it proudly. Thus, since much of the action takes place on New Scotland, some of the characters, including at least one major character, had had to be New Scot. For structural reasons we had only two choices: the First Officer or the Chief Engineer. to be New Scot. For structural reasons we had only two choices: the First Officer or the Chief Engineer.
We chose the Chief Engineer, largely because in the contemporary world it is a fact that a vastly disproportionate number of ship"s engineers are Scots, and that seemed a reasonable thing to project into the future.
Alas, some critics have resented that, and a few have accused us of stealing Mr. Sinclair from Star Trek. Star Trek. We didn"t. Mr. Sinclair is what he is for perfectly sound astrographical reasons. We didn"t. Mr. Sinclair is what he is for perfectly sound astrographical reasons.
The astrography eventually dictated the t.i.tle of the book. Since most of the action takes place very near the Coal Sack, we needed to know how the Coal Sack would look close up from the back side. Eventually we put swirls of interplanetary dust in it, and evolving proto-stars, and all manner of marvels; but those came after we got very very close. The first problem was the Coal Sack seen from ten pa.r.s.ecs. close. The first problem was the Coal Sack seen from ten pa.r.s.ecs.
Larry Niven hit on the happy image of a hooded man, with the super-giant where one eye might be. The supergiant has a small companion, a yellow dwarf not very different from our Sun. If the supergiant is an eye-Murcheson"s Eye-then the dwarf is, of course, a mote in that eye.
But if the Hooded Man is seen by backward and superst.i.tious peoples as the Face of G.o.d . . . . . . then the name for the Mote becomes inevitable then the name for the Mote becomes inevitable and once suggested, "The Mote In G.o.d"s Eye" is a near irresistible t.i.tle. (Although in fact Larry Niven did resist it, and wanted "The Mote In Murcheson " " s Eye" up to the moment when the publisher argued strongly for the present t.i.tle.) s Eye" up to the moment when the publisher argued strongly for the present t.i.tle.) THE SHIPS.
Long ago we acquired a commercial model called "The Explorer Ship Leif Ericsson," a plastic s.p.a.ceship of intriguing design. It is shaped something like a flattened pint whiskey bottle with a long neck. The "Leif Ericsson," alas, was killed by general lack of interest in s.p.a.cecraft by model buyers; a ghost of it is still marketed in hideous glow-in-the-dark color as some kind of flying saucer.
It"s often easier to take a detailed construct and work within its limits than it is to have too much flexibility. For fun we tried to make the Leif Ericsson work as a model for an Empire naval vessel. The exercise proved instructive.
First, the model is of a big big ship, and is of the wrong shape ever to be carried aboard another vessel. Second, it had fins, only useful for atmosphere flight: what purpose would be served in having atmosphere capabilities on a large ship? ship, and is of the wrong shape ever to be carried aboard another vessel. Second, it had fins, only useful for atmosphere flight: what purpose would be served in having atmosphere capabilities on a large ship?
This dictated the cla.s.s of ship: it must be a cruiser or battlecruiser. Battleships and dreadnaughts wouldn"t ever land, and would be cylindrical or spherical to reduce surface area. Our ship was too large to be a destroyer (an expendable ship almost never employed on missions except as part of a flotilla). Cruisers and battlecruisers can be sent on independent missions.
MacArthur, a General Cla.s.s Battlecruiser, began to emerge. She can enter atmosphere, but rarely does so, except when long independent a.s.signments force her to seek fuel on her own. She can do this in either of two ways: go to a supply source, or fly into the hydrogen-rich atmosphere of a gas giant and scoop. There were scoops on the model, as it happens. a General Cla.s.s Battlecruiser, began to emerge. She can enter atmosphere, but rarely does so, except when long independent a.s.signments force her to seek fuel on her own. She can do this in either of two ways: go to a supply source, or fly into the hydrogen-rich atmosphere of a gas giant and scoop. There were scoops on the model, as it happens.
She has a large pair of doors in her hull, and a s.p.a.cious compartment inside: obviously a hangar deck for carrying auxiliary craft. Hangar deck is also the only large compartment in her, and therefore would be the normal place of a.s.sembly for the crew when she isn"t under battle conditions.
The tower on the model looked useless, and was almost ignored, until it occurred to us that on long missions not under acceleration it would be useful to have a high-gravity area. The ship is a bit thin to have much gravity in the "neck" without spinning her far more rapidly than you"d like; but with the tower, the forward area gets normal gravity without excessive spin rates.
And on, and so forth. In the novel, Lenin Lenin was designed from scratch; and of course we did have to make some modifications in Leif Ericsson before she could become INSS was designed from scratch; and of course we did have to make some modifications in Leif Ericsson before she could become INSS MacArthur; MacArthur; but it"s surprising just how much detail you can work up through having to live with the limits of a model. but it"s surprising just how much detail you can work up through having to live with the limits of a model.
SOCIOLOGY.
The Alderson Drive and the Langston Field determine what kinds of interstellar organizations will be possible. There will be alternatives, but they have to fit into the limits these technologies impose.
In THE MOTE IN G.o.d"S EYE we chose Imperial Aristocracy as the main form of human government. We"ve been praised for this: d.i.c.k Bra.s.s in a New York Post New York Post review concludes that we couldn"t have chosen anything else, and other critics have applauded us for showing what such a society might be like. review concludes that we couldn"t have chosen anything else, and other critics have applauded us for showing what such a society might be like.
Fortunately there are no Sacred Cows in science fiction. Maybe we should have stuck to incest? Because other critics have been horrified! Do we, they ask, really believe believe in imperial government? and in imperial government? and monarchy? monarchy?
That depends on what they mean by "believe in." Do we think it"s desirable? We don"t have to say. Inevitable? Of course not. Do we think it"s possible? possible? d.a.m.n straight. d.a.m.n straight.
The political science in MOTE is taken from C. Northcote Parkinson"s Evolution of Political Thought. Evolution of Political Thought. Parkinson himself echoes Aristotle. Parkinson himself echoes Aristotle.
It is fashionable to view history as a linear progression: things get better, never worse, and of course we"ll never go back to the bad old days of (for instance) personal government. Oddly enough, even critics who have complained about the aristocratic pyramid in MOTE-and thus rejected our Empire as absurd-have been heard to complain about "Imperial Presidency" in the USA. How many readers would bet long odds against John-John Kennedy becoming President within our lifetimes?
Any pretended "science" of history is the bunk. That"s the problem with Marxism. Yet Marx wrote a reasonable economic view of history up to his time, and some of his principles may be valid. pretended "science" of history is the bunk. That"s the problem with Marxism. Yet Marx wrote a reasonable economic view of history up to his time, and some of his principles may be valid.
Military history is another valid way to view the last several thousand years-but no one in his right mind would pretend that a history of battles and strategies is the whole of the human story. You may write history in terms of medical science, in terms of rats, lice, and plagues, in terms of agricultural development, in terms of strong leadership personalities, and each view will hold some truth.
There are many ways to view history, and Aristotle"s cycles as brought up to date by Parkinson make one of the better ones. For those who don"t accept that proposition, we urge you at least to read Parkinson before making up your minds and closing the door.
The human society in MOTE is colored by technology and historical evolution. In MOTE"s future history the United States and the Soviet Union form an alliance and together dominate the world during the last decades of the 20th Century. The alliance doesn"t end their rivalry, and doesn"t make the rulers or people of either nation love their partners.
The CoDominium Alliance needs a military force. Military people need something or someone they can give loyalty; few men ever risked their lives for a "standard of living" and there"s little that"s more stupid than dying for one"s standard of living-unless it"s dying for someone else"s standard of living.
Do the att.i.tudes of contemporary police and soldiers lead us to suppose that "democracy" or "the people" inspire loyalty? The proposition is at least open to question. In the future that leads to MOTE, a Russian Admiral named Lermontov becomes leader of CoDominium forces. Although he is not himself interested in founding a dynasty, he transfers the loyalty of the Fleet to leaders who are.
He brings with him the military people at a time of great crisis. Crises have often produced strong loyalties to single leaders: Churchill, Roosevelt, George Washington, John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Crisis, etc. (A year after Kennedy"s death Senator Pastore could address a national convention and get standing ovations with the words "There stood John Kennedy, TEN FEET TALL!!!") Thus develops the Empire.
Look at another trend: personal dictatorship. There are as many people ruled by tyrants as by "democracy" in nineteen seventy-five, and even in the democracies charges of tyranny are not lacking. Dictatorships may not be the wave of the future-but is it unreasonable to suppose they might be?
Dictatorship is often tried in times of severe crisis, energy crisis, pollution crisis, agricultural crisis-surely we do not lack for crises? The trouble with dictatorship is that it generates a succession crisis when the old man bows out. Portugal seems to be going through such at this moment. Chile, Uganda, Brazil, name your own examples: anyone want to bet that some of these won"t turn to a new Caudillo with relief?
How to avoid succession crisis? One traditional method is to turn Bonapartist: give the job to a relative or descendant of the dictator. He may not do the job very well, but after enough crises people are often uninterested in whether the land is governed well. They just want things settled settled so they can get on with everyday life. so they can get on with everyday life.
Suppose the dictator"s son does govern well? A new dynasty is founded, and the trappings of legitimacy are thrust onto the new royal family. To be sure, the t.i.tle of "King" may be abandoned. Napoleon chose to be "Emperor of the French," Cromwell chose "Lord Protector," and we suppose the US will be ruled by Presidents for a long time-but the nature of the Presidency, and the way one gets the office, may change.
See, for example, Niven"s use of "Secretary-General" in the tales of Svetz the time-traveler.
We had a choice in MOTE: to keep the t.i.tles as well as the structure of aristocratic empire, or abandon the t.i.tles and retain the structure only. We could have abolished "Emperor" in favor of "President," or "Chairperson," or "Leader," or "Admiral," or "Posnitch." The latter, by the way, is the name of a particularly important President honored for all time by having his name adopted as the t.i.tle for Leader . . . .
We might have employed t.i.tles other than Duke (originally meant "leader" anyway) and Count (Companion to the king) and Marquis (Count of the frontier marches). Perhaps we should have. But any t.i.tles used would have been translations translations of whatever was current in the time of the novel, and the traditional t.i.tles had the effect of letting the reader know quickly the approximate status and some of the duties of the characters. of whatever was current in the time of the novel, and the traditional t.i.tles had the effect of letting the reader know quickly the approximate status and some of the duties of the characters.
There are hints all through MOTE that the structure of government is not a mere carbon copy of the British Empire or Rome or England in the time of William III. On the other hand there are similarities, which are forced onto the Empire by the technology we a.s.sumed.
Imperial government is not inevitable. It is possible.
The alternate proposition is that we of nineteen seventy-five are so advanced that we will never go back to the bad old days. Yet we can show you essays "proving" exactly that proposition-and written thousands of years ago. There"s a flurry of them every few centuries.
We aren"t the first people to think we"ve "gone beyond" personal government, personal loyalties, and a state of religion. Maybe we won"t be the last.
Anyway, MOTE is supposed to be entertainment, not an essay on the influence of science on social organization. (You"re getting that that here.) here.) The Empire is what it is largely because of the Alderson Drive and Langston Field. Without the Drive an Empire could not form. Certainly an interstellar Empire would look very different if it had to depend on lightspeed messages to send directives and receive reports. Punitive expeditions would be nearly impossible, hideously expensive, and probably futile: you"d be punishing the grandchildren of a generation that seceded from the Empire, or even a planet that put down the traitors after the message went out.
Even a rescue expedition might never reach a colony in trouble. A coalition of bureaucrats could always collect the funds for such an expedition, sign papers certifying that the ships are on the way, and pocket the money...in sixty years someone might realize what had happened, or not.
The Langston Field is crucial to the Empire, too. The Navy can survive partial destruction and keep fighting. Ships carry black boxes-plug-in sets of spare parts-and large crews who have little to do unless half of them get killed. That"s much like the navies of fifty years ago.
A merchant ship might have a crew of forty. A warship of similar size carries a crew ten times as large. Most have little to do for most of the life of the ship. It"s only in battles that the large number of self programming computers become important. Then Then the outcome of the battle may depend on having the largest and best-trained crew-and there aren"t many prizes for second place in battle. the outcome of the battle may depend on having the largest and best-trained crew-and there aren"t many prizes for second place in battle.
Big crews with little to do demand an organization geared to that kind of activity. Navies have been doing that for a long time, and have evolved a structure that they tenaciously hold onto.
Without the Field as defense against lasers and nuclear weapons, battles would become no more than offensive contests. They"d last microseconds, not hours. Ships would be destroyed or not, but hardly ever wounded. Crews would tend to be small, ships would be different, including something like the present-day aircraft carriers. Thus technology dictates Naval organization.
It dictates politics, too. If you can"t get the populace, or a large part of it, under a city-sized Field, then any given planet lies naked to s.p.a.ce.
If the Drive allowed ships to sneak up on planets, materializing without warning out of hypers.p.a.ce, there could be no Empire even with the Field. There"d be no Empire because belonging to an Empire wouldn"t protect you. Instead there might be populations of planet-bound serfs ruled at random by successive hordes of s.p.a.ce pirates. Upward mobility in society would consist of getting your own ship and turning pirate.
Given Drive and Field, though, Empires are possible. What"s more likely? A representative confederacy? It would hardly inspire the loyalty of the military forces, whatever else it might do. (In the War Between the States, the Confederacy"s main problem was that the troops were loyal to their own State, not the central government.) Each stellar system independent? That"s reasonable, but is it stable? Surely there might be pressures toward unification of at least parts of interstellar s.p.a.ce.
How has unification been achieved in the past? Nearly always by conquest or colonization or both. How have they been held together? Nearly always by loyalty to a leader, an Emperor, or a dynasty, generally b.u.t.tressed by the trappings of religion and piety. Even Freethinkers of the last century weren"t ashamed to profess loyalty to the Widow of Windsor.
Government over large areas needs emotional ties. It also needs stability. stability. Government by 50%-plus-one hasn"t enjoyed particularly stable politics-and it lasts only so long as the 50%-minus-one minority is willing to submit. Is heredity a rational way to choose leaders? It has this in its favor: the leader is known from an early age to be destined to rule, and can be educated to the job. Is that preferable to education based on how to Government by 50%-plus-one hasn"t enjoyed particularly stable politics-and it lasts only so long as the 50%-minus-one minority is willing to submit. Is heredity a rational way to choose leaders? It has this in its favor: the leader is known from an early age to be destined to rule, and can be educated to the job. Is that preferable to education based on how to get get the job? Are elected officials better at governing, or at winning elections? the job? Are elected officials better at governing, or at winning elections?
Well, at least the counter-case can be made. That"s all we intended to do. We chose a stage of Empire in which the aristocracy was young and growing and dynamic, rather than static and decadent; when the aristocrats are more concerned with duty than with privilege; and we made no hint that we thought that stage would last forever.
RANDOM DETAILS.
Robert Heinlein once wrote that the best way to give the flavor of the future is to drop in, without warning, some strange detail. He gives as an example, "The door dilated."
We have a number of such details in MOTE. We won"t spoil the book by dragging them all out in a row. One of the most obvious we use is the personal computer, which not only does computations, but also puts the owner in contact with any nearby data bank; in effect it will give the answer to any question whose answer is known and that you think to ask.
Thus no idiot block gimmicks in MOTE. Our characters may fail to guess something, or not put information together in the right way, but they won"t forget forget anything important. The closest that comes to happening is when Sally Fowler can"t quite remember where she filed the tape of a conversation, and she doesn"t take long to find it then. anything important. The closest that comes to happening is when Sally Fowler can"t quite remember where she filed the tape of a conversation, and she doesn"t take long to find it then.
On the other hand, people can be swamped with too much information, and that does happen.
There were many other details, all needed to keep the story moving. A rational kind of s.p.a.ce suit, certainly different from the clumsy things used now. Personal weapons. The crystal used in a banquet aboard MacArthur: MacArthur: crystal strong as steel, cut from the windshield of a wrecked First Empire reentry vehicle, indicating the higher technology lost in that particular war. Clothing and fashion; the status of women; myriads of details of everyday life. crystal strong as steel, cut from the windshield of a wrecked First Empire reentry vehicle, indicating the higher technology lost in that particular war. Clothing and fashion; the status of women; myriads of details of everyday life.
Not that all all of these differ from the present. Some of the things we kept the same probably will change in a thousand years. Others. of these differ from the present. Some of the things we kept the same probably will change in a thousand years. Others. . . . . well, the customs a.s.sociated with wines and hard liquors are old and stable. If we"d changed everything, and made an attempt to portray every detail of our thousand-year-advanced future, the story would have gotten bogged down in details. well, the customs a.s.sociated with wines and hard liquors are old and stable. If we"d changed everything, and made an attempt to portray every detail of our thousand-year-advanced future, the story would have gotten bogged down in details.
MOTE is probably the only novel ever to have a planet"s...o...b..t changed to save a line.
New Chicago, as it appeared in the opening scenes of the first draft of MOTE, was a cold place, orbiting far from its star. It was never a very important point, and Larry Niven didn"t even notice it.
Thus when he introduced Lady Sandra Liddell Leonovna Bright Fowler, he used as viewpoint character a Marine guard sweating in hot sunlight. The Marine thinks, "She doesn"t sweat. She was carved from ice by the finest sculptor that ever lived."
Now that"s a good line. Unfortunately it implies a hot planet. If the line must be kept, the planet must be moved.
So Jerry Pournelle moved it. New Chicago became a world much closer to a cooler sun. Its year changed, its climate changed, its whole history had to be changed. . .
Worth it, though. Sometimes it"s easier to build new worlds than think up good lines.
A banders.n.a.t.c.h is twice the size of a brontosaur. Its skeleton is flexible but has no joints; the only the only breaks in its smooth white skin are the tufts of sensory bristles on either side of its tapering blank head. It moves on a rippling belly foot. Banders.n.a.t.c.hl live In the lowlands of Jinx, browsing off the gray yeast along the sh.o.r.elines. You"d think they were the most helpless things In known s.p.a.ce .. until you saw one bearing down on you like a charging mountain. Once I saw an ancient armored car crushed flat across a lowlands rock, straddled by the broken bones of the beast that ran It down. breaks in its smooth white skin are the tufts of sensory bristles on either side of its tapering blank head. It moves on a rippling belly foot. Banders.n.a.t.c.hl live In the lowlands of Jinx, browsing off the gray yeast along the sh.o.r.elines. You"d think they were the most helpless things In known s.p.a.ce .. until you saw one bearing down on you like a charging mountain. Once I saw an ancient armored car crushed flat across a lowlands rock, straddled by the broken bones of the beast that ran It down.
"The Handicapped," 1968 .
BRENDA.
2656 AD, AD, MARCH (FIREBEE CLOCK TIME) MARCH (FIREBEE CLOCK TIME).
Human-settled worlds all look alike from high orbit. Terry thought that the CoDominium explorers must have had it easy.
Aiderson jump. ZZZTT! One white pinpoint among myriads. has become a flood of white light. Nerve networks throughout ship and crew are strummed in four dimensions. Wait for the blur to go away. You had a hangover this bad, once. It lasted longer.
Now search the ecliptic a decent distance from the sun. Look for shadows in the neudar screen: planets. Big enough? Small enough? Colors: blue with a white froth of clouds, if men are to breathe the air. Is there enough land? How big are the icecaps? Three or four months to move close, and look.
Nuliajuk"s icecaps had covered half the surface. If they ever melted, Nuliajuk would be all water. A cold world. n.o.body else would settle, but what about Eskimos? So Terry Kak.u.mee"s ancestors had found a home, four centuries ago.
Tanith had no icecaps at all, and almost no axial tilt. Half land, but plenty of rainfall: the equatorial oceans boiled where they were shallow enough. Salt deserts around the equator. Swamps across both poles. Transportees had settled the north pole.
Terry Kak.u.mee floated against the big window at Firebee"s Firebee"s nose. It was sixteen years since he"d seen Tanith. nose. It was sixteen years since he"d seen Tanith.
Tanith was a growing crescent, blue with white graffiti, and a blazing highlight across the northern pole. Summer. One serious mountain, The Warden, stood six kilometers tall. It had been white-tipped in winter. Dagon City would be in the foothills, south.
The clouds were spa.r.s.e. The city itself didn"t show, but he found a glare-point that had to be the old s.p.a.ceport.
Brenda"s farm would be south of that.
Sharon Hayes drifted up behind him. "I"ve been talking to the Dagon Port Authority. One George Callahan, no rank given, tells me they don"t have much in the way of repair facilities, but we"re intensely welcome. I"ve got a dinner date."
"Good." On a world this far from what civilization was left near Sparta, the population would feel cut off. Ships would be welcome. "What about fuel?"
"They can make liquid hydrogen. There"s a tanker. Callahan gave me a course down. Four hours from now, and we"ll have to lower Firebee"s Firebee"s...o...b..t. Time to move, troops. Are we all going down?" orbit. Time to move, troops. Are we all going down?"
She meant that for Charley. Charley Lame (cargo and purser) was almost covered in burn scars. His face was a smooth mask. There was an unmarred patch along his jaw that he had to shave, and good skin in strips along his back and the backs of his arms and legs, and just enough unburned scalp to grow a decent queue. Sometimes he didn"t want to face strangers. He said, "Somebody"d better stay on duty, Captain Sharon. Did you ask about outies?"
"They haven"t been raided since the Battle. They do have a couple of high-thrust mining ships. Charley, I think Firebee"s Firebee"s safe enough." safe enough."
Charley let out a breath. "I"ll come. I can"t be the only war vet on Tanith. There was- I wonder-"
"Brenda," Terry said.
"Yeah. I wonder about Brenda sometimes."
"I wonder too."
2640A, NOVEMBER (TANITH LOCAL TIME).
Lieutenant Kak.u.mee had been Second Engineer aboard the recon ship Firebee Firebee during the destruction of the Sauron Second Fleet. The enemy"s gene-tailored warriors were dead or fled, but they had left their mark. Damaged ships were limping in from everywhere in Tanith system. during the destruction of the Sauron Second Fleet. The enemy"s gene-tailored warriors were dead or fled, but they had left their mark. Damaged ships were limping in from everywhere in Tanith system. Firebee Firebee would orbit Tanith until she could be refitted or rifled for parts. would orbit Tanith until she could be refitted or rifled for parts.
Firebee"s midsection was a blob of metal bubbles where the Langston Field generator had vaporized itself and half melted the hull around it. It was the only hit midsection was a blob of metal bubbles where the Langston Field generator had vaporized itself and half melted the hull around it. It was the only hit Firebee Firebee bad taken. Charley Lame had been caught in the flare. bad taken. Charley Lame had been caught in the flare.
They"d taken him to St. Agnes Hospital in Dagon City.
"The sky"s full of ruined ships," Terry told him. "Most of them have damaged Langston Field generators. First thing that goes in a battle. We"ll never get replacements."