The Tactful Saboteur

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The Tactful Saboteur is a novelette by the science fiction author Frank Herbert which first appeared in Galaxy Magazine in 1964. It is notable for creating the setting for one of Herbert's three elaborate "universes" or franchises spanning multiple volumes (the others being the Dune universe and the "Ship" universe developed with co-author Bill Ransom). The three chapter story, written in a brisk, economical style, proved to be one of Herbert's most popular works and was subsequently republished in The Worlds of Frank Herbert in 1971 and again in 1985's Eye after interest was renewed in the wake of the movie adaptation of Dune.

The protagonist of 'The Tactful Saboteur' is saboteur extraordinary Jorj X. McKie, an employee of the Bureau of Sabotage. BuSab is a government agency responsible for conducting dirty tricks "in lieu of red tape" to help slow down and regulate the vast galaxy-spanning bureaucracy of the ConSentiency (under BuSab rules the Secretary of the agency retains his position until he himself is sabotaged). Tasked with finding missing saboteur Napoleon Bildoon, McKie attempts to penetrate the secrets of the Pan-Spechi, a race divided into groups of five members, only one of whom possess ego-awareness at a time. In so doing he runs afoul of the "Tax Watchers" which is adamantly opposed to the existence of BuSab.

The ConSentiency established by Herbert in The Tactful Saboteur represents his only use of alien races living together with humans (if one excludes the Chem —created for the novel The Heaven Makers— who treated humans on a par with pets). Many of the aliens of the ConSentiency stories possessed highly-developed traditions and taboos which were easily trampled by human ignorance, which is exacerbated by the easy travel between planets offered by Caleban jumpdoors.

The irony of the story matches the irony of the title. McKie's designated role to make endless mischief against the galactic government requires him to become exquisitely sensitive to every nuance of the interlocking alien manners of many races. At one point in a "courtarena", McKie testifies about his profound knowledge of the bizarre aspects of Gowachin law, and this was greatly elaborated by Herbert in the final full-length novel of the series.

Bildoon and McKie go on to appear in Whipping Star and The Dosadi Experiment; in the second novel, Herbert reached a natural conclusion and no further ConSentiency novels followed. However, for McKie completists, the Herbert short story, A Matter Of Traces from 1958, also appeared in the 1985 Eye collection and featured one Jorj X. McKie as a more-or-less passive observer in a briefing as a colonist related his tale.

[edit] Sources

• Herbert, Frank. A Matter of Traces (1958) (short story) Fantastic Universe, 1958
• Herbert, Frank. The Tactful Saboteur (short story) Galaxy, 1964