"A Planet Named Shayol" is a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

story by American writer

Cordwainer Smith Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger (July 11, 1913 – August 6, 1966), better known by his pen-name Cordwainer Smith, was an American author known for his science fiction works. Linebarger was a US Army officer, a noted East Asia scholar, and a ...

(the pen name of Paul Linebarger). Like most of his science fiction work, it takes place in his

Instrumentality of Mankind In the science fiction of Cordwainer Smith, the Instrumentality of Mankind refers both to Smith's personal future history and universe and to the central government of humanity within that fictional universe. ''The Instrumentality of Mankind'' is ...

setting. It was first published in ''

Galaxy Science Fiction ''Galaxy Science Fiction'' was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published in Boston from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by a French-Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break into the American market. World Editi ...

'' magazine in October 1961.

In other media

Audio

The story was adapted for radio by the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

and broadcast in 1986.

Plot summary

The protagonist, Mercer, who lives within the Empire, has been convicted of "a crime that has no name". He is condemned by the Empire to the planet Shayol, in which he lives in a

penal colony A penal colony or exile colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general population by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory. Although the term can be used to refer to ...

whose inhabitants must undergo grotesque physical mutations caused by tiny symbiotes called ''dromozoans''. Most grow extra organs, which the Empire harvests for medical purposes. The bull-man B'dikkat administers the prisoners a drug called super-condamine to alleviate the pain of their punishment and from their surgeries. More than a century pass. Mercer has found a lover, named Lady Da. B'dikkat shows the couple a sight that horrifies him. Children have been sent to Shayol, alive, though with their brains removed. Lady Da knows how to contact the Lords of the Instrumentality, in order to intervene. The Lords arrive on Shayol. They are shocked by what they find. The children are the heirs to the throne. Apparently, the Imperium has become so bureaucratic and corrupt that it condemned them to prevent them committing treason when they matured. The Instrumentality voids their permission to allow the Empire to exist and to maintain Shayol. They will free the still sentient prisoners and to cure their suffering with a substitute for the super-condamine, namely an electronic "cap" which actives the

pleasure center The reward system (the mesocorticolimbic circuit) is a group of neural structures responsible for incentive salience (i.e., "wanting"; desire or craving for a reward and motivation), associative learning (primarily positive reinforcement and clas ...

. The mindless prisoners are decapitated, leaving their bodies to be handled by the dromozoa while their heads are destroyed. Lady Da claims Mercer as her consort. Commander Suzdal appeared in "

The Crime and the Glory of Commander Suzdal "The Crime and the Glory of Commander Suzdal" is a science fiction short story by Cordwainer Smith, set in Smith's " Instrumentality" universe. It was first published in ''Amazing Stories'' in May 1964, and is collected in ''The Rediscovery of Man' ...

", a story set earlier in fictional history than this one. It apparently takes place in the Bright Empire from other of the Instrumentality works.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Planet Named Shayol, A Short stories by Cordwainer Smith 1961 short stories Works originally published in Galaxy Science Fiction Science fiction horror Body horror Fiction set in prison Mutants in fiction