“As do I,” added Jallrii, not to be outdone in expressions of vapid nostalgia.
“You’ve been here awhile. You must have amassed a considerable body of knowledge, not to mention a first-rate collection of specimens.”
Thessu gestured fourth-degree assent. “All carefully ordered and classified according to potential ussagess and commercial value.”
She was nodding slowly. “I’m sure it’s very impressive. Could I see it? And my husband? He works for Bio, you know.”
Thessu gestured apologetically. “I am regretful, but that iss not possible.” He ventured the AAnn equivalent of a smile. “We have not worked sso hard for sso long to give away potential trade ssecretess to curiouss humanss.”
She didn’t think they would, but she was curious to see how they would react to her request. “Then, to be blunt about it, and from a purely hypothetical standpoint, as I said, you’ve had nothing to do with helping the rioting Sakuntala organize and you haven’t in any way helped them to obtain modern weapons?”
“You know what the Ssakuntala are like.” Jallrii summoned up a credible shudder. “Violent, unpredictable ssavagess. Truly, to place advanced armamentss in the handss of ssuch primitivess would be to invite chaoss! It would be totally irressponssible.”
She placed her hands flat on the desk and sat up as straight as her aching back would allow. “My thoughts exactly. Consequently, I can’t help but wonder who might benefit from the eruption of chaos on Fluva. Surely not the AAnn—truly.”
This time they appeared to hesitate before Thessu finally responded, “Fluva liess within the Commonwealth’ss ssphere of influence. It would be dissingenuouss of uss to deny that we would prefer to ssee it sshift to an unaligned sstance or, yess, even to requesst some kind of formal association with the Empire.”