Captain Shure is a classic Golden Age Sci-Fi space captain. He
is human-centric, with disdain for alien creatures, and perfectly assured of his moral stance;
this even acts as a pun on his name, since he is always "sure" of his right to act. In the story,
he apprehends a ship of aliens which seem to be gathering gemstones from planets which are
legally owned by Human government; they cannot communicate, but the aliens fight to keep their
collected cargo. It turns out that the gemstones are actually alien eggs, and the humans are
unwittingly bringing them home to hatch on Earth, with predicted dire consequences. Captain Shure
has no thought for the reasons of an alien race; he is only concerned with the promotion of
humanity, and he sees the "gems" as property simply because they are on planets within his
scope.
Shure's jaw
jutted out angrily. "We have to find out what they're after. Look at them go! They know exactly
what they're doing." He grabbed up the communication mike. Then he dropped it. "We can handle
this alone. We won't need Terra."
(Dick, "The Cosmic Poachers," Google
Books)
His attitude is to take action
without considering the risks; when a crewman wonders if the "gems" are alien property from
before the distribution of planets, Shure ignores the moral implications of this and goes ahead
with his plan. He is arrogant and ignorant, and it is implied that the whole planet Earth will
pay for his hubris. Without the ability to empathize with aliens as having different motivations
-- Shure wants valuable gems, the aliens want children -- he proves to be a capable military
commander but a poor diplomat, and has little common sense.
No comments:
Post a Comment