You feel that Rojer should have obeyed Prtglm?
No, I mean, yes but Prtglm juSt ought not to have required Rojer who was the only one who could have carried out Prtglm’s plan Prtglm is – was – an old revered captain should have been obeyed. That planet should have been first wasted. Her tone was riven with intense animosity. where I know how much damage the Hivers have done to `Dini worlds, and hundreds of others, that …
that Xh-33 really should have been When Laria could not find an adequate fate, Afra couched his suggestions in an ironic tone he rarely used with his children. Exterminated? Fumigated? Wiped of life forms?
Scorched beyond use?
There was a long pause. Some thitig like that, so that that planet could never be able to colonize, to massacre innocent life forms on any other planet.
So? We must emulate their methods?
Well, just look what they did. Forcing queens of their own species out of their ship then blasting them, with out ever trying to find out why the ship came? Indignation now coloured Laria’s anger.
That’s very much a `debatable point, Laria.
It’s not that I’m ignoring other opinions, Dad. Aren’t I transmitting messages backwards and forwards every day?
You are, but are you listening to the content or just the context?
what do you mean by that, Dad? And what group do you support?
Her tone was aggressive as if any other than the position she espoused would be suspect.
Along with other thinking I find the data insufficient most theories have at least one fundamental flaw. We may never have answers to half the questions we’ve asked because there is no communication.
Observation is as open to interpretation as any other method of recording, since invariably the observer translates from his or her own experience. There hasn’t really been that much useful observation either, Laria said caustically.
Afra smiled, keeping his amusement well away from his argumentative daughter. I disagree, Laria. the material recorded from Rojer’s probes is still being analysed All it shows is that the Hivers have knot changed their methods or the dominait drive of their species in the centuries the `Din have known them.
The `Dinis never got close enough to a Hive world to make observations, or attempt contact, Afra said patiently. Laria’s feelings were quite pent up, by which he guessed she had had the tact not to discuss this with her Tower staff.
But we know what they do to planets. We know they’ve been doing it for centuries. Laria sounded querulous.
We know that the `Dinis have reported for the centuries of their sigTh to avoid being `exterminated’ and that limited to destroying Hive ships in space. Vie planet Xli-33
is the only one where they, and we, have seen populated by Hivers.
There is a lot more to be known there what we do even by extrapolation, Laria. what exactly upsets you, my dear?
Jh I knew i-m-in; confided in what Afra recognized as a -w of conflict in loyalties.
It is not up to us to dispute the `Dinis’ right to punish their own, he said gently. We must not let our own moral integrity be weakened by conflict with theirs. We can expect that `Dini reactions will not mirror ours. For one thing, humans have not fought a sustained battle for centuries, a condition which certainly alters perceptions in a way we can yet evaluate. That we have managed to pursue the joint purpose as far as we have and with as little friction as there has been – You `ve reduced Prtglm to the status of friction’?
Laria sounded appalled.
is a matter of no little achievement. Prtglm caused its own downfall by exceeding orders from the High Council of Alliance: orders in which it and our captains had been thoroughly briefed and in agreement. Do you not see that much?
That’s the easy part. w}Lot bothers me so is that Gil and Kat are dead, defending Rojer when none of them should have been put in jeopardy in the first place. But Prtglm is still there!
I can’t escape seeing its carrier and knowing what’s inside and Suggest in your most offhanded manner the next time you have occasion to speak to either Plrgt r – who’s its main assistant know Figtm and Plrgt’s now Pl6.