Final Inquiries by Roger MacBride Allen Read Free Book Online Page A

about insulting our powerful host, I would assure you he takes that last statement as a strong compliment." Brox paused thoughtfully for a moment. "If anything, he is unhappy about my first statement, that he can acknowledge you--but since it is self-evident that he did respond to your statement, even if he did not address you directly, and it is therefore a matter of fact, he is, by his own lights, forced to accept it. So he can't be insulted."
    "I can think of plenty of humans who wouldn't be stopped by a little thing like that," said Hannah. "Anyway, the SubPilot does have a point, if not a sense of humor. You can at least brief us on the general situation now."
    "And so I shall. But the first thing I will tell you is that you must not believe a single word I say. You will have the chance to get everything confirmed--or debunked--by your own people, and your own senses, your own efforts. Do so. Get all the facts--and all the versions of the facts--you can. The second thing I will tell you is that you might as well pay very strict attention to me, because I am certain that your own people will debrief you as carefully as they can, in an effort to squeeze out every drop of the information I am about to give you. My people will be doing more or less the same with me, concerning you two, Commander Kelly, and the other humans I've dealt with since the--event."
    "In other words," said Hannah, "look forward to this being treated as a major situation. We'd gotten that impression already."
    "So get on with it," said Jamie. "Start at the beginning, and let's go."
    "Not the beginning," said Brox. "That might be a few million, even hundred million years ago. Back to when even the Elder Races weren't all that old. Leaving out a great deal of history, a star system, the Pentam System, has gone vacant. It is unusual for having not one, but two habitable planets, along with a number of other very attractive features. There have been meetings and negotiations going on since well before your race or mine came to the attention of the Elder Races, all revolving around who would be awarded the Pentam System--and who wouldn't. I won't propose going into the politics of the situation. To sum up, there were three or four shifting alliances, each made up of two or three Elder Races, each of which was mainly interested in making sure one or more of the other groups didn't get Pentam."
    " Two habitable planets in one system?" Jamie asked. "And you wouldn't want that for your own people?"
    Brox shifted, unexpectedly, into his somewhat awkward English. "No. If you be Elder Race, you would not. Because having new worlds is too much trouble. Because things have been way they are long time, and change cause trouble. Because your species already is rich enough, has power enough. Elders say they mature enough not to want more just for sake of having." Brox paused briefly, then spoke again. "Kendari ask: What is maturity--What is decadence? Elder Races say things stay the same. Kendari ask--things stay the same or just seem the same? Kendari--and humans--say need new things, need challenge, to stay strong, stop decay."
    Hannah knew what Brox was talking about. She and Jamie had seen it, and not so very long ago. An Elder Race could seem to have an utterly stable and secure society--and not even be aware of the slow rot setting in. It could be in a state of decline so slow it was undetectable. A species, like an individual being, never really stayed the same. If it did not evolve, it would decline. It had either to grow or contract, renew or decay. There was no middle ground.
    A seemingly static society could become so utterly fragile, so unused to change, so incapable of adapting to it, that anything new or different could destroy it. Therefore, change of any sort--such as the arrival on the scene of the Younger Races, the humans and the Kendari--represented a very real threat. No wonder so many Elder Races were hostile to them. Hannah replied in English.