Yes, “The Ungoverned” that’s it. Maybe it was ‘hedgehog’ not ‘turtle’? Unimportant.
Anyway the turtle (or whatever) is sort of an off stage hero of the book, but quite possibly this person has very good reason to ensure that nobody else can see what is happening inside his compound, to whoever he brought in with him… or whoever was born in there. And quite clearly the private security system they have set up is not even going to attempt to do anything about it, ever.
Ugh.
Blindspots.
I think I heard ‘cold equations’ as an old radio show a few years ago (‘x minus 1’ or something), can’t remember if they saved the girl there.
I think it is a good story. I find it to be very much the kind of story where the light it sheds on its author and his society is probably more interesting than the story itself.
Today we see a lot of similar stories about ‘ticking time bomb’ terrorist scenarios that justify torture. (Hey at least they didn’t have an actual government policy of tossing women out of spaceships back then!)
They tend to be rather (hah) tortured. As the point is that ‘there is no other option’ you end up with a strained mixture of giving the protagonist perfect information, yet absolutely no options in the end which tends to be pretty unbelievable. The real world is much more mired in probabilistic outcomes.
I once read part of “the decline and fall of the roman empire”. Written by an Englishman during the ascendency of the British Empire. The worldview of the author, Edward Gibbon, is fascinating.
Love all the 70’s short pulp sci-fi about bizarre sociological experiments accidental and intentional.
