eople of the Colony of Vishnu_ versus _Emily
Morrosh_, 612 A.E." He told them about the infanticide case. "I was
looking up rulings on sapience; I passed the word on to Ham O'Brien. You
know, what your people will have to do will be to produce a definition of
sapience, acceptable to the court, that will include all known sapient
races and at the same time exclude the Fuzzies. I don't envy them."

"We need some Fuzzies of our own to study," Grego said.

"Too bad we can't get hold of Holloway's," Emmert said. "Maybe we could,
if he leaves them alone at his camp."

"No. We can't risk that." He thought for a moment. "Wait a moment. I think
we might be able to do it at that. Legally."

IX

Jack Holloway saw Little Fuzzy eying the pipe he had laid in the ashtray,
and picked it up, putting it in his mouth. Little Fuzzy looked
reproachfully at him and started to get down onto the floor. Pappy Jack
was mean; didn't he think a Fuzzy might want to smoke a pipe, too? Well,
maybe it wouldn't hurt him. He picked Little Fuzzy up and set him back on
his lap, offering the pipestem. Little Fuzzy took a puff. He didn't cough
over it; evidently he had learned how to avoid inhaling.

"They scheduled the Kellogg trial first," Gus Brannhard was saying, "and
there wasn't any way I could stop that. You see what the idea is? They'll
try him first, with Leslie Coombes running both the prosecution and the
defense, and if they can get him acquitted, it'll prejudice the sapience
evidence we introduce in your trial."

Mamma Fuzzy made another try at intercepting the drink he was hoisting,
but he frustrated that. Baby had stopped trying to sit on his head, and
was playing peek-a-boo from behind his whiskers.

"First," he continued, "they'll exclude every bit of evidence about the
Fuzzies that they can. That won't be much, but there'll be a fight to get
any of it in. What they can't exclude, they'll attack. They'll attack
credibility. Of course, with veridication, they can't claim anybody's
lying, but they can claim self-deception. You make a statement you
believe, true or false, and the veridicator'll back you up on it. They'll
attack qualifications on expert testimony. They'll quibble about
statements of fact and statements of opinion. And what they can't exclude
or attack, they'll accept, and then deny that it's proof of sapience.

"What the hell do they want for proof of sapience?" Gerd demanded.
"Nuclear energy and contragravity a