f doing the work more cheaply, so we must
recognize that the same interests of economy govern in this case.

"A computing animal, in that sense, is in the same class as a computing
machine. It would be folly to waste their abilities simply because they
are not human.

"There also arises the question of command. It has been represented to
this court, by certain officers who have been active in investigating
the candidate animal, that it would be as degrading to ask a human
officer to take orders from an animal as it would be to ask him to take
orders from a commoner of the Unorganized Reserve, if not more so. And,
I must admit, there is, on the surface of it, some basis for this
reasoning.

"But, again, we must not let ourselves be misled. Does not a spaceship
pilot, in a sense, take orders from the computer that gives him his
orbits and courses? In fact, do not all computers give orders, in one
way or another, to those who use them?

"Why, then, should we refuse to take orders from a computing animal?"

He paused and appeared to listen to the silence in the room before
going on.

"Stand at ease until the High Commander looks at you again," Tallis
said in a low aside.

This was definitely the pause for adjusting to surprise.

It seemed interminable, though it couldn't have been longer than a
minute later that the High Commander dropped his gaze from the ceiling
to MacMaine. When MacMaine snapped to attention again, the others in
the room became suddenly silent.

"We feel," the hard-faced old Kerothi continued, as if there had been
no break, "that, in this case, we are justified in employing the animal
in question.

"However, we must make certain exceptions to our normal procedure. The
candidate is not a machine, and therefore cannot be treated as a
machine. Neither is it human, and therefore cannot be treated as human.

"Therefore, this is the judgment of the Court of the Ingroup:

"The animal, having shown itself to be capable of behaving, in some
degree, as befits an officer--including, as we have been informed,
voluntarily conforming to our custom as regards superfluous hair--it
shall henceforth be considered as having the same status as an untaught
child or a barbarian, insofar as social conventions are concerned, and
shall be entitled to the use of the human pronoun, he.

"Further, he shall be entitled to wear the uniform he now wears, and
the insignia of a General of the Fleet. He shall be entitled,