Ally by Karen Traviss Read Free Book Online Page B

I’ll stand them by.”
    Esganikan closed the link and turned to Aitassi. “The gethes find our consensus odd. If only they could see us now.”
    â€œThey wouldn’t see this as lack of consensus.”
    â€œThis is the problem with remote working. No scent. No jask to help us agree on matters.”
    â€œSo, you’re content to have the Skavu in this system?”
    Aitassi knew as well as anyone what the Skavu were. But like all her kind, she walked the fine line of neutrality, culturally anchored to the wess’har but somehow able to work with other races on a dozen worlds. Humans seemed completely bemused by that. Everyone, as far as they were concerned, had to take sides. The neutral couldn’t be trusted. It was typical of a species that regarded information as a commodity.
    Esganikan’s gaze shifted to the Bezer’ej grassland beyond the hull. “The Skavu are utterly inflexible, but they’re efficient. I would have preferred an alternative, but time isn’t on our side.”
    â€œPerhaps they’re just what the isenj need. However heavy-handed they are, there’s not much more damage that they could cause. A case of two extremes meeting each other.”
    â€œTwo extremes don’t make balance.”
    A patch on the deck of her cabin became transparent as she touched the bulkhead controls, giving her an aerial view south of Jejeno.
    The recent fighting had left patches of reconstruction work like the stumps of decaying teeth. It was impossible to attack a section of such a crowded, complex environment without the effects being felt like shock waves all round.
    Maybe she could make some inroads without needing to call in the Skavu. “It’s time I saw the isenj ministers again.”
    â€œThey still ask for access to bioweapons.”
    â€œI find their method of warfare confusing. They never seem to finish anything. They simply peck away at each other now and again.”
    â€œIf you look at their history,” said Aitassi, “they might have squabbles, but destruction is rarely their way of settling disputes. They have to be facing catastrophe before that reaction sets in.”
    â€œThey are facing catastrophe. Perhaps it’s happening too slowly for them to notice.”
    Esganikan adjusted the magnification with a flick of her fingers so that the remote brought the cityscape hundreds of meters closer. She could see movement in some of the canyonlike streets that looked like a mudslide—the heads of thousands of isenj, dark and velvety, moving in orderly procession according to strict pedestrian traffic rules because they were so crowded. The infrastructure was finely balanced: they’d destroyed the ecology of their planet and everything was now carefully managed and engineered.
    Yes, isenj were brilliant engineers. And the trouble with brilliant engineers was that they always felt they could fix things in the end, even when the situation was beyond them.
    Esganikan touched the controls and the bulkhead became opaque again. “Call Shomen Eit. I can’t wait any longer for him to decide when he wants to talk about the transfer of bioweapons. Arrange a time for us to meet.” The minister spoke English now, the one positive thing the gethes had contributed to the situation: they had a common language, alien though it was. She could have called Shomen Eit herself, but it was usually Aitassi’s role to interpret, and bored ussissi troubled her. “We’ve never walked away from a request to restore a planet. The isenj can only save themselves by reducing their population. There’s no other option, and they know it.”
    Earth was the priority. She had to keep that in mind. Earth had biodiversity—thousands, even millions, of different types of people to save, from insects to large carnivores. Gethes might not have seen their fellow Earth species as people, but that was a lesson they would have to