Shonjir By C.J. Cherryh

“Turn them loose. They won’t live in captivity.”

“That simple? But it’s not quite that simple afterwards. What of the regul?”

“The mri won’t fight for the regul any longer and there are only two of them. Only two ”

“Caring nothing for their lives, even two mri are considerable; and they have a considerable grudge against bai Hulagh who heads the regul peace party, SurTac Duncan.”

“I know these two mri,” Duncan said. “They did nothing to anyone on this world except to defend themselves. They only tried to get to safety, and we wouldn’t let them. Let them go now, and they’d leave. That’s all they want.”

“For now.”

“There is no tomorrow for them,” Duncan said, and then Stavros looked at him quizzically. “There will be no more generations. There’s a taboo between those two. Besides, even if there weren’t ten, even twenty generations wouldn’t make a vast threat out of them.”

Stavros frowned, backed the sled, opened the door. “Walk with me,” he said, “upstairs. You’re going nowhere else, I trust.”

“Yes, sir,” Duncan agreed. Stavros undoubtedly meant to put him off his balance, and he had done so. He was asked to accompany Stavros in public, before regul. It was a demonstration of something, a restoration of confidence: he was not sure what. Perhaps he was being bribed, in subtle fashion, offered status and the alternative was transfer to Saber. Stavros made it very difficult to continue the debate.

The sled eased its way through the office door, past the ComTech; it passed the outer doors, into the corridor. Duncan overtook it as Stavros waited for him. Stavros did not lock into the tracks that could have shot him along at a rate no man afoot could match, but trundled along beside him at a very leisurely pace.

“First thing,” said Stavros, :”no more library.” And when Duncan opened his mouth at once to protest: “You have to walk among regul over there, and I’d rather not have that. Flower staff can find what you need, if you describe it. Do you understand me?”

“No, sir.”

They walked some distance in silence, until a knot of regul had passed them, and they turned the corner into the upward corridor. “I want you,” said Stavros, “to spend your time on Flower as much as possible. Stay clear of the regul entirely. Work at your private obsession through channels, and write me a decent report a full one, this time.”

Duncan stopped on the ramp. “I still don’t understand you.”

Stavros angled his sled to look up at him, a sidewise motion of the eyes. “Yes, you do. I want you to apply your talents and prepare me a full report on the mri. Use any authority you want that doesn’t involve actually touching the mri themselves.”

“What value is that?” Duncan asked. “I’m no scientist.”

“Your practical experience,” Stavros said, “makes such a report valuable: not for the researchers, but for me.”

“I’ll need clearance over there.”

Stavros scowled. “I’ll tell you something, Duncan, and you listen to me. I don’t share your enthusiasm for preserving the mri. They were a plague in the universe, a blight, at best an anachronism among species that have learned their lessons of civilization to better advantage. They are probably the most efficient killers in all creation; but we didn’t bring them to extinction, nor did the regul nor did you. They are dying because they have no interest in comprehending any other way of life. No quarter, no prisoners, no negotiation or compromise: everything is black and white in their eyes, nothing gray. I don’t blame them for it; but their way of life was destruction, and they’re dying now by the same standard they applied to others: nature’s bias, if you like, not mine. Convince me otherwise if you can. And be careful with them. If you don’t respect them for what they are, instead of what your delirium remembers, then those two mri will end up killing someone: themselves certainly; you, likely; others, very possibly.”

“Then I will be allowed access to them.”

“Maybe.”

“Give me that now, and I can talk with them as the staff can’t. Keep the medics and their drugs away from them while they have minds left.”

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