with me. So I don’t mourn them much. I…regret Aeolus. But your intervention was timely, for the nemet. Which does not mean,” she added, “that I have overwhelming gratitude to you.”
“It does not make sense,” he said, “that we two should carry on the war here. There’s nothing either of us can win.”
“Is it required,” she asked, “that a war make sense? Consider ours: we’ve been at it two thousand years. Probably everything your side and mine says about its beginning is a lie. That hardly matters. There’s only the now, and the war feeds on its own casualties. And we approach our natural limits. We started out destroying ships in one little system, now we destroy worlds. Worlds. We leave dead space behind us. We count casualties by zones. We Hanan-we never were as numerous or as prolific as you-we can’t produce soldiers fast enough to replace the dead. Embryonics, lab-born soldiers, engineered officers, engineered followers-our last hope. And you killed it. I will tell you, my friend, something I would be willing to wager your Alliance never told you: you just stepped up the war by what you did at Aeolus. I think you made a great miscalculation.”
“Meaning what?”
“Aeolus was the center, the great center of the embryonics projects. Billions died hi its laboratories. The workers, the facilities, the records-irreplaceable. You have hurt us too much. The Hanan will cease to restrict targets altogether now. The final insanity, that is what I fear you.have loosed on humanity. And we richly deserve it, the whole human race.”
“I don’t think,” he said, for she disturbed his peace of mind, “that you enjoy isolation half as much as you pretend.”
“I am Aeolid,” she said. “Think about it.”
It took a moment. Then the realization set in, and revulsion, gut-deep: of all things Hanan that he loathed, the labs were the most hateful.
Djan smiled. “Oh, I’m human, of human cells. And superior-I would have been destroyed otherwise-efficiently engineered for intelligence and trained to serve the state. My intelligence then advised me that I was being used, and I disliked it. So I found my moment and turned on the state.” She finished the drink and set it aside. “But you wouldn’t like separation from humanity. Good. That may keep you from trying to cut my throat.”
“Am I free to leave, then?”
“Not so easily, not so easily. I had considered perhaps giving you quarters in the Afen. There are rooms upstairs, only accessible from here. In such isolation you could do no possible harm. Instinct-something-says that would be the best way to dispose of you.”
“Please,” he said, rationally, shamelessly, for he had long since made up his mind that he had nothing to gain in Nephane by antagonizing Djan..”If Elas will have me, let me go back there.”
“In a few days I will consider that. I only want you to know your alternatives.”
“And what until then?”
“You’re going to learn the nemet language. I have things all ready for you.”
“No,” he said instantly. “No. I don’t need any mechanical helps.”
“I am a medic, among other things. I’ve never known the teaching apparatus abused without it doing permanent damage. No. Ruining the mind of the only other human would be a waste. I shall merely allow you access to the apparatus and you may choose your own rate.”
“Then why do you insist?”
“Because your objection creates an unnecessary problem for you, which I insist be solved. I am giving you a chance to live outside. So I make it a fair chance, an honest chance; I wish you success. I no longer serve the purposes of the Hanan, so I refuse to be programmed into a course of action I do not choose. And likewise, if it becomes clear to me that you are becoming a nuisance to me, don’t think you can plead ignorance and evade the consequences. I am removing your excuses, you see. And if I must, I will call you in or kill you. Don’t doubt it for a moment.”
“It is,” he said, “a fairer attitude than I would have expected of you. I would be easier in my mind if I understood you.”