Death Sentence by Roger MacBride Allen Read Free Book Online Page B

wrong," said the being on the low platform in the front of the room. The chamber was dimly lit, the rounded walls glowing faintly. A single shaft of light framed the glittering form of Bulwark of Constancy. The room's arrangements resembled something suitable for a place of worship.
    Learned Searcher Taranarak of geneline Lucyrn resembled Bulwark of Constancy not at all, but her species and Constancy's had lived together in close quarters for millions of year. She could read Constancy's body language as perfectly as she could that of a Metrannan--and Taranarak knew that Constancy could interpret her own gestures just as well.
    She bent her four knees in unison, a movement that, in her culture, was meant to express agreement more than submission. Taranarak's actual emotional state, however, might have been better described as weary toleration combined with frustration, though it would be unwise in the extreme to express anything like that to one of the Unseen.
    "By all moral, philosophical, and cultural measures, you are no doubt correct, and I of course agree with you," Taranarak lied, "but right or wrong, change is forced upon us."
    And change was not only absolutely essential for their mutual survival, not only a good thing, but an absolute moral imperative. However, one did not voice such opinions to the Unseen. "It infects, it spreads, like one of the illnesses in the Old Stories."
    "The illnesses never touched our kind, but only yours--and they were stopped," replied Bulwark of Constancy. "And thanks to the unchanging determination of my people, they have never returned to harm your people." Bulwark of Constancy gestured with its upper-left and lower-right expressive mandibles, indicating dismissal of a poor analogy.
    "I beg your pardon," Taranarak said. For a supposedly changeless being, Constancy was being--what was the delicious human word that Trevor of geneline Wilcox had used? Crotchety! That was it. Bulwark was being most unusually crotchety and fussy. But, of course, the mere existence of humans and Kendari, the fact that the Young Races must be dealt with at all, even if only as a mere trivial inconvenience, was a massive affront to the whole worldview of the Unseen Race. It was unfortunate that she had been forced to bring such matters to the attention of Bulwark of Constancy. "I did not wish to offend."
    "Nor have you--yet. But it is desired that you proceed with your report and conclude with all deliberate dispatch."
    "Very well," said Taranarak. "It is my opinion that the danger can only grow worse as the level of uncertainty grows. There is growing awareness, among many factions, that there is--or at least was--a treatment that can...alter matters." She dared not say anything more explicit than that for fear of offending Constancy.
    "It is wrong to alter matters. As a matter of simple logic, it is plain that any change could only be for the worse, because circumstances and conditions remain optimal, as they have been for a significant part of a standard galactic rotation."
    Not optimal for everyone, Taranarak thought. For the Unseen, perhaps, but not for Metrannans. "Wrong or right does not enter into it," she said. "The knowledge that there is --or even that there might be--a way to change matters is in and of itself destabilizing the situation." She hesitated. "Whatever we might think of change in general, or how this change might affect our society--our civilization--it is beyond any empirical dispute that this change might well have the potential to provide the deepest and most profound benefit to some individual Metrannans." Practically all individual Metrannans.
    "That is of no importance, as the benefits would be short-term at best. The instabilities induced by societal change would more than cancel out any transient and individual benefit."
    But if it benefits all individuals, how can it possibly be harmful to Metran society? But she knew the answer to that one. It was plain to see how a change so