Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2015 2:27 pm
You are too kind, Cord Hurn.
Don't worry--I never care about what the media might say about me.
Don't worry--I never care about what the media might say about me.
Official Discussion Forum for the works of Stephen R. Donaldson
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That sounds about right!Savor Dam wrote:Yes, SRD studiously avoids tipping his hand as to whether Hashi is a Count Rugen character or someone more sympathetic...until it serves the story to be more clear.
"Don't drag it out, Hashi," said Godsen. "Who is he?"
Hashi Lebwohl beamed.
"Why, none other than our trusted ally and colleague, Milos Taverner."
Somewhere in the back of Angus' mind, a small hope flickered to life.
"Taverner?" Frik spat. "Are you out of your mind? You're going to trust this entire operation to a man like Taverner? He has the scruples of a trash recycler. He's already sold out Com-Mine Security. All we had to do was pay him enough. He's probably selling us, too. If he isn't he'll do it as soon as he's offered enough credit."
"I think not." Lebwohl was unruffled. "We have several safeguards.
"First, of course, a datacore is unalterable. Our Milos cannot effectively issue instructions which run directly counter to Joshua's Programming. And every instruction he gives--indeed, every word he utters in Joshua's presence--will be permanently recorded. Our Milos will be unable to conceal what he has done.
"In addition, his unreliability is known. We have all the evidence we require. If our Milos seeks to betray us, he will be destroyed. We have left him no doubt of this."
Hashi smiled benevolently, then continued.
"In any case, whatever your objections, you must consider the question of credibility. Joshua's partner must appear to be Angus Thermopyle's subordinate. The Captain Thermopyle who is known upon Thanatos Minor would never serve under another--and would never accept as a subordinate any man who was not demonstrably illegal. His programming will allow him to expose his partner's treacheries, to explain--and thereby protect--him. That will leave Milos helpless to do anything other than serve us."
Frik wasn't satisfied, but Min didn't give him another chance to protest.
"No, Hashi." She sounded almost calm. "It's untenable. You can't do it. I wondered why we took Taverner away from Com-Mine, but I assumed it was to cover all of us if he got caught. I never thought you wanted him for something like this.
"He's an impossible choice. You can't give a known traitor control over a weapon like Thermopyle. One of my people is at stake here. I'm going to fight you on this."
And delay the operation? Angus argued in his paralyzed silence. No, don't do it, you don't want that.
Hashi faced Donner squarely. "It has been decided," he asserted. "The director approved the order weeks ago." He paused, then added happily, "I am proud to say that the suggestion was mine. I consider our Milos the perfect choice."
Min bunched her fists, raised them in front of her. But she didn't have anyone to strike. Through her teeth, she snarled, "Lebwohl, you're a shit."
Hashi's eyes narrowed. In a prim wheeze, he retorted, "It will not surprise you, I think, to hear that I hold you in similar esteem."
"Come on, Min." An apoplectic flush covered Godsen's face. "I'm going to talk to the director. I want you with me."
Min flashed a scathing glare at him, turned away roughly, and strode out of the room.
"And when the director refuses to alter his decision," Lebwohl said to Godsen, "you will again attempt to 'go over his head.' This time, you will not succeed. The game is deeper than you understand, and you will drown in it."
Sputtering, the PR director hurried after Min.
When Donner and Frik wre gone, Hashi spent some time playing with Angus before putting him back to bed.
Warden's plotting to get Holt and the UMC in trouble is risky, as it easily makes Warden complicit in the escape of Angus and Milos, and the plotting would likely come to nothing if Hashi was not willing to play his part and take some of the heat from the GCES. But there is worse to come.In the eleventh chapter of [i]A Dark and Hungry God Arises[/i], the second chapter to be named after Warden, was wrote:"But how to go about learning the truth?" the DA director asked rhetorically. "That was the complex question. If I made my suspicions obvious to Deputy Chief Taverner--for example, by revoking his clearances and authorizations--he would certainly do his utmost to protect himself. Then I might never gain the information I desired. Therefor my best hope was to preserve the illusion that I had reqqed him because of his special knowledge of Captain Thermopyle. There was, after all, no reason why this should not be the truth.
"Indeed, where Captain Thermopyle was concerned, I was daily given reason to believe in Deputy Chief Taverner's honesty. My own interrogations were as unsuccessful as it is possible to imagine. Despite my most advanced techniques--within the limits of the law," Hashi added piously, "I gained nothing which Deputy Chief Taverner had not gained before me.
"Therefore what grounds did I have to treat Deputy Chief Taverner as a suspected illegal? Among the UMCP, we hold the principle sacred that a man is innocent until proven guilty." Hashi was starting to play his part too thickly, but Warden didn't interfere. "The more I interrogated Captain Thermopyle, the more my distrust of Deputy Chief Taverner evaporated.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I did not revoke his clearances and authorizations because I had no evidence against him. Until he released Captain Thermopyle and fled, I had no foundation for my suspicions.
Now Warden cut in. Impelled by the pain in his optic nerves, he asked roughly, "Does that help? You should be able to ask accurate questions now."
"Thank you, Director Lebwohl," said Len. "An admirably lucid account. Do I understand you to mean, then, that the 'error' you made reference to earlier was an error in judgement concerning Milos Taverner?"
"Just so, Mr. President," Hashi agreed placidly, as if he were at peace with the universe.
This guarantees the Governing Council is not just going to let this issue go.Min Donner sprang to her feet. Radiating outrage, she moved right to the edge of the camera's view. Her fists were clenched to strike out. If Warden hadn't stopped her with a quick glare, she might have jumped at Hashi.
But the DA director appeared oblivious to her fury--or to Godsen's consternation. As if he wanted to make himself look as bad as possible, he added, "I had another reason also. She is a beautiful woman, Special Counsel Igensard. Because of Captain Thermopyle's treatment, we suspect that she is aptly suited to satisfy the appetites of such men as Captain Succorso. We gave her to him to lessen the likelihood that he would turn against us if his mission on Thanatos Minor proved"--pushing up his glasses, Hashi finished--"difficult."
Through the shocked silence which gripped the Council, Igensard said softly, "Director Lebwohl, you used the word 'vileness' to describe Captain Thermopyle's behavior. Don't you think the description fits your own as well?"
Like Min, Warden leaped to his feet. "That's enough!" he roared. "Call off your dogs, Mr. President!" He wasn't worried about Igensard or the Council: his overriding concern was to restrain the ED director before she disrupted what he was trying to accomplish through Hashi.
"I didn't agree to this conference so that my people could be abused," he stated loudly. "I did it because my charter carries the duty of disclosure. But I remind you that there's no duty of consultation. We aren't required to let you second-guess us! We did what we did with Ensign Hyland for the same reason we do everything else--because at the time that seemed like the best way to fulfill our Articles of Mission. It was a gamble, nothing more, nothing less. It either works or it doesn't. Either way, we don't deserve insults from small men with big titles."
If that didn't achieve what he wanted, nothing would.
Hashi may by his own admission lack charisma, but he is full of insight. He realizes aspects of the characters of Holt and Warden that no one else in the Gap story realizes and is on to Warden's game of undermining Holt. Perhaps this awareness and approval of their natures is what enabled Hashi to willingly put himself in the "hot seat" in front of the GCES after Angus and Milos escape: he may not know the details of Waren's plan to neuter Holt, but he approves of the idea in the abstract.In the thirtieth chapter of [i]A Dark and Hungry God Arises[/i] was wrote:Instead I might speculate that his avarice is not for wealth, but for power--that he is driven by a desire for godhood, a yearning to attain the stature of unquestionable as well as unavoidable fate for the whole of humankind.
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And I might further observe that all human aspirations to godhood must fail while the Amnion and death exist.
Hashi is astute enough to realize that Warden must sully and compromise himself to remain in a position where he can effectively bring down the Dragon when the time appears right.It follows as naturally as humans fear pain that Warden Dios is not the Dragon's instrument, but rather his natural enemy.
This explains the Dragon's selection of him as director of the UMCP. How better to both defang and profit from a natural enemy than by binding him to yourself, sealing him away within your own structures and exigencies, so he cannot serve himself without also serving you?
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Grant for a moment that Warden Dios is another Holt Fasner--less confirmed in his lust for power, less eroded in his ability to control it, but another Dragon nonetheless. Precisely because he has been less confirmed, less eroded, he cannot aspire to supplant his nominal master. Yet what other outlets remain for his ambitions? What other needs or priorities might his brilliance serve? And--do not neglect this point--how else can his natural enmity to the Dragon express itself?
Perhaps by identifying himself with the UMCP rather than with the UMC.
And here is one of Warden's--and thus Donaldson's--brilliant paradoxes. Warden Dios can be in a position ot more effectively undermine Holt by making himself such a perfect executor of his will of keeping a power balance between the Amnion and humanity. Warden is crafty, but Hashi is nearly as crafty, with his demonstrated ability in these journal entries to suss (figure) it all out.Now consider the matter of the immunity drug.
The moment Intertech's research threatens to succeed, the Dragon perceives a threat. If humankind may be immunized against mutagens, the peril of the Amnion recedes. Therefore the necessity of the UMCP--and of its corporate host--recedes. Therefore the logic which sustains that host as the sole conduit for alien trade and wealth loses its syllogistic inevitability.
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But how does Warden Dios respond? Does he permit himself spasms of self-righteousness, as a lesser man might? Does he fall prey to scruples or fainthearted alarms? Does he oppose his putative master, either openly or privately?
Striking with brute force simply wouldn't have worked here, the power imbalance was too much - Warden was wise enough to recognize this, and to do the only really efficient thing - to make the Dragon strike himself.
He does not.
Instead, he persuades the Dragon that Intertech's research must be permitted to continue in secret--in my care, in fact. Employing his considerable resources of eloquence and charisma, he convinces the Dragon that an attained immunity drug--if it were kept secret--would be a tool of unmatched power. He does not stake his argument on the proposition that such a drug could be used to secure the safety of his own people.
Instead, he suggests using, not the drug itself, but knowledge of the drug against the Amnion. By "leaking"--odious term--that knowledge, he can induce them to be more fearful in their dealings with us. They will be at once confirmed in their distrust of humankind and eroded in their ability to act on that distrust. And this development will conduce to the security of the UMC as the sole conduit for alien etc.
How can the Dragon resist such blandishment? Its virtues are too plain to be refuted. The current state of poised but inactive hostility between humankind and the Amnion is reinforced. UMC profits are maximized. And Warden Dios' purity as the instrument of Holt Fasner's will is demonstrated.
Certainly the existence of the mutagen immunity drug, and the knowledge of its existence, gives Warden, Hashi, and the UMCP a formidable position whether it is ever used, or not. Hashi makes the case for that very well, here.Therefore the commonly held view that Warden Dios is the perfect instrument of Holt Fasner's will is affirmed, is it not?
I think not.
Consider the beauty of this outcome from the perspective of the UMCP. Certainly the Dragon is given what he most desires--the immeasurable and ultimately meaningless satisfaction of his greed. But the more significant, the more effective, benefits belong all to the UMCP. We have the drug itself, to use both for our own security and for the consternation of our opponents.
The risks of actions we have already taken are reduced. The risks of actions which we have heretofore declined are made acceptable. We can manipulate the defensive postures of the Amnion almost at will.
The consequences of humankind's quite natural and comprehensible impulse toward piracy are diminished. We are given a bulwark against the depredations of politicians, protected by the mere existence of our secrets from ham-fisted tampering.
Only Protocol suffers under the burden of secrecy--and such men as Godsen Frik are born to suffer.
Warden Dios has gained all this--and at what cost? At no discernible cost at all, apart from the delicious expense of allowing the Dragon to retain his illusions. And failures of godhood will--they must--derive from any illusion. Thus Holt Fasner has been at once confirmed in his lust for power and eroded in his ability to control it by his most necessary subordinate--his most natural enemy....
Wayfriend is right that Hashi still is bereft of some essential insight into Warden's character. Warden is doing what he is doing for the benefit of humanity, to enable it to get out from the burden and tyranny of Holt's godhood complex. As WF says, Hashi seems to think it's all about Warden wanting more power.I have had occasion to note in previous entries that he is my superior because he possesses a quality of charisma--the ability to lead by inspiration--which I lack. In other ways, however, I consider him my only peer--certainly my only peer in the hallowed bastion of UMCPHQ. Yet I must acknowledge that I would have been hard-pressed to manage the crisis which Intertech's immunity research represented as well as he did. Perhaps because I lack charisma, I might not have been able to obtain--as he did--the most desirable of all possible outcomes...
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Yet this is a paradox--at once fertile and dangerous--because Warden Dios' needs and ambitions can never be identical to the Dragon's.
Intertech's immunity research provides a case in point.
At once the Dragon moves to quash the research. It must be removed before it can become the means by which his hold on human space frays away.
So much is predictable, hardly worthy of comment.
His natural enmity to the Dragon is apparently defanged by his implication in the Dragon's disdain for humankind. Once again Warden Dios is subsumed by Holt Fasner's avarice.
Inevitably the Dragon cedes his approval. And so the Intertech research comes to me, to complete and use as I advise--and as Warden Dios sees fit.
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...having no scruples myself, I do not hesitate to call myself a genius. However, I am more cautious when I apply that name to others...
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I state categorically that Warden Dios is a genius.