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The Handicapped is a short story written by Larry Niven in 1967. Originally published in the December issue of Galaxy Science Fiction as Handicap. The story later appeared in the short story collection Neutron Star (Collection).

Partial Plot[]

An unnamed Garvey, scion of the family that controls Garvey Unlimited, arrives on the planet Down looking for a new market for the company's wares. Having contacted local professional guide Jilson to guide him through the desert outside Downtown to find his potential customer they arrive to encounter a reddish hairy cone with no eyes or nose and only the vestigial remains of limbs. Jilson is convinced it must be intelligent due to its big brain but Garvey dismisses this for lack of proof. Defeated, he heads back with Jilson to Downtown.

While at Downtown, Garvey becomes friendly with Jilson, who had appeared rather cold and taciturn while under Garvey's employ. Jilson asks Garvey about his work, which is a customary Downer question, he tells him about the family's business of providing Handicapped species such as dolphins and the Bandersnatchi with means of handling things and interacting with their environment. Jilson is particularly perturbed by the way the Bandersnatchi pay for their add-ons. Garvey also tells him he was hoping to find a new Handicapped species on Down (the previous hairy cone).

After having dinner with Jilson, his cousin and one of her friends, Garvey heads back to his hotel where he wakes in the small hours of morning after having strange dreams of the hairy cone and a weird feeling of certainty regarding the cone's true nature. Later that day, he and Jilson head to Downtown's zoo.

At the zoo, Garvey encounters the presessile forms of the hairy cone he encountered the day before, which are known locally as Grogs. They vaguely resemble Flatlander bulldogs, except the males are the size of chihuahuas. Garvey wonders at the treatment of the Grogs if they prove to be intelligent but Jilson justifies experimenting on them and keeping them caged for observation by noting that there's no other way to find out of they're intelligent or not. He gaves Garvey the example of how Dolphin intelligence was found.

They later visit the Laboratory for Xenobiological Research amid farming fields on the outsides of Downtown, there they meet Dr. Fuller, a Crashlander researcher of Grogs. Dr. Fuller keeps several presessile Grog individuals in his lab, including small male ones which he seems fond of, and tells Garvey of his plan of having a soon-to-be sessile female raised into the cone form on a suitable rock outside the lab despite repeated failures on previous attempts.

Dr. Fuller reticently shows that he doesn't know wether the Grogs are intelligent or not. He tells Garvey of how the Grogs develop their big brains after becoming sessile which he doesn't understand because a sessile Grog doesn't do much besides eating. He then shows Garvey and Jilson a Grog's nervous system, which consists of quite a big spherical brain and very meager spinal cord. Garvey is puzzled by this as is Dr. Fuller.

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