Necessity by Jo Walton Read Free Book Online Page A

about allowing this.”
    â€œI know an older form of their language, which they can comprehend. I will teach it to you according to our existing agreements about exchange of information,” Crocus said immediately.
    Aroo’s pink markings grew darker, which I suspect is a sign of approval. “Good,” she said.
    â€œPerhaps you should offer a class,” I said. “Many of us might need to learn English now. Though probably we can’t manage it at Aroo’s speed.” A few people laughed. The Saeli skill at languages was legendary.
    Aroo looked at me for permission to continue, and I waved my hand. “Communication was limited by language difficulties. They seem extremely interested in learning the location of our planets, for what they state are purposes of wholesome trade. They have also expressed interest in immediately purchasing fuel from us for their spaceship. We have not made any hasty decisions. And although the captain of our ship in orbit is an independent agent and not bound by me or by decisions made on Plato, he has agreed to take my advice for the time being, in consideration of existing agreements and negotiations soon to be concluded.” She meant the new trade agreement, of course.
    â€œIf they need fuel for their spaceship, does that mean they have run out?” Jasmine asked. Jasmine was a younger Worker, one of the ones brought to the Republic by Porphyry after the Relocation. “And does their spaceship work the same way yours does, so that you could sell them fuel, or would it be like putting a battery for a train into a Worker?”
    â€œI believe their ship must use the same fuel,” Aroo said. “Excuse me, it is difficult to convey this in Greek. This fuel is not like electricity. We and the Amarathi know only one way to be drawn up to what you might call the second hypostasis and come back down again elsewhere, thus evading the necessary barriers of light. We do it by using a fuel that comes from the heart of exploding stars. This must be the same for the space humans, for this is the fuel they named, using the Amarathi term.”
    â€œWe don’t need to go into either the physics or the metaphysics of that right now,” I said, cutting off all the people whose hands shot up to ask for clarification. “We’ll simply accept for today’s argument that you use the same fuel. Does your ship have enough of this fuel to spare that it can sell it to the space humans, if you decide to?”
    â€œYes,” Aroo said. “Though that might be a difficult negotiation. It is precious. It is hard to imagine what they might give to us of a comparable value to make this a mutually beneficial trade. We could better make them a gift of it to establish a long-term friendship, but this they have not asked, and we have not offered, as we were waiting for discussion with you. Such an offer could be made, but it would draw them into the established matrix of ongoing friendship and communication between us on Plato and the Saeli League.”
    â€œWe should know more about them first,” Diotima said.
    I nodded. “Do you have thoughts on the other part of Jasmine’s question, Aroo? Might they have exhausted their fuel coming here, like a fishing boat draining the motor to avoid rocks?”
    â€œIt is possible, but they did not say that this was the case.” Aroo came back and sat down, as expressionless as ever.
    â€œWe were about to vote on the established plan to tell the new arrivals of our divine origins in such a way as they will believe them to be a myth, and believe that this planet was truly settled by spaceships.”
    Aroo looked down. We had followed the plan when we met the Saeli, but those of them who lived here had inevitably seen things that couldn’t be explained away. Aroo was a Gold. I wondered what she believed about Pytheas and the Relocation. The Saeli have their own gods, and a little closed