“The kamethi have now been sent to Priamos,” said Ashakh. “They will know nothing until they wake onworld. The shuttle crew will deliver them to local authorities for safekeeping.”
“I did somewhat regret sending them.” Chimele arose, activating as she did so the immense wall-screen that ran ten meters down the wall behind her desk. It lit up with the blue and green of Priamos, a sphere in the far view, with the pallor of its outsized moon—the world’s redeeming beauty—to its left. She sighed seeing it, loving as she did the stark contrasts of the depths of space, lightless beauties unseen until a ship’s questing beam illumined them, the dazzling splendors of stars, the uncompromising patterns of dark-light upon stone or machinery. Yet she had a curiosity, a m’melakhia, to set foot on this dusty place of unappealing grasslands and deserts, to know what lives m’metanei lived or why they chose such a place.
“What manner of people are they?” she asked of Ashakh. “You have seen them close at hand. Would we truly be destroying something unique?”
Ashakh shrugged. “Impossible to estimate What they were. That is a question for Khasif. I am of the order of Navigators.”
“You have eyes, Ashakh.”
“Then—inexpertly—I should say that it is what one might expect of a civilization in dying: victims and victimizers, pointless destruction, a sort of mass urge to serach. They know they have no future. They have no real idea what we are; and they fear the amaut out of all proportion, not knowing how to deal with them.’
“Tejef’s serach will be great beyond his merits if he causes us to destroy this little world.”
“It has already been great beyond his merits,” said Ashakh. “Chaganokh ruined this small civilization by guiding Tejef among them. It is ironical. If these humans had only known to let them escort Tejef in and depart unopposed, they would not have lost fleets to Chaganokh, the amaut would not have been attracted, and they might have had a fleet left to maintain their territories against the amaut if the invasion occurred. Likely then it would have been impossible for us to have traced Tejef before the time expired, and they would not now be in danger from us.”
“If the humans are wise, they will learn from this disaster; they will not fight us again, but let us pass where we will. Still, knowing what I do of Daniel, I wonder if they are that rational.”
“They have a certain elethia,” said Ashakh quietly.
“Au, then you have been studying them after all. What have you observed?”
“They are rather like kallia,” said Ashakh, “and have no viable nasul-bond; consequently they find difficulty settling differences of opinion—rather more than kallia. Humans actually seem to consider divergence of opinion a positive value, but attach negative value to the taking of life. The combination poses interesting ethical problems. They also have a capacity to appreciate arrhei-akita, which amaut and kallia do not; and yet they have deep tendency toward permanent bond to person and place—hopelessly at odds with freedom such as we understand the word. Like world-born kallia, they ideally mate-bond for life; they also spend much of their energy in providing for the weaker members of their society, which activity has a very positive value in their culture. Surprisingly, it does not seem to have debilitated them; it seems to provide a nasul-substitute, binding them together. Their protective reaction toward weaker beings seems instinctive, extending even to lower life forms; but I am not sure what kind of feeling the harachia of weakness evokes in them. I tend to think this behavior was basic to the civilization, and that what we see now is the work of humans in whom this response has broken down. Their other behavior consequently lacks human rationality.”
“In my own experience,” Chimele said ruefully, “behavior with this protective reaction also seems highly irrational.”
The door opened and there was Rakhi. A little behind him stood Chaikhe, the green robes of a katasathe proclaiming her condition to all about her; and when she saw Chimele she folded her hands and bowed her head very low, trembling visibly.
“Chaikhe,” said Chimele; and Ashakh, who was of Chaikhe’s sra, quickly moved between them; Rakhi did the same, facing Ashakh. This was proper: a protection for Chaikhe, a respect for Chimele.
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