Like a great, big wasp, Benita thought to herself. A huge wasp, going about its business. Except it had more than six legs. However many legs, its presence was reassuring, and the expectation of Chiddy and Vess arriving was even more so. And what was that about who speaking freely? The predators? Who cared if they spoke freely!
In the clearing, a fire had been built, and the Wulivery, some half dozen of them, were gathered around their fallen leader, while a dozen or so Xankatikitiki were busy with their slain comrades.
The night was chilly, and she recalled that both the Wulivery and Xankatikitiki had high body temperatures. No doubt they felt the cold, but the Fluiquosm probably did not.
Abruptly, the fire leapt up, a bright light illuminated the clearing, and Chiddy’s voice, tight with nary, said in impeccable English, “You will all have the courtesy to stay precisely where you are.” His words were followed by loud, simultaneous translations.
There were exclamations of surprise and annoyance. There was movement among the trees, quickly stopped, and several Inkleozese moved into the clearing tugging nets that were full of something invisible. These were pegged down with considerable dispatch under Chiddy’s watchful eyes, though they continued to move restlessly as Chiddy spoke angrily.
“Stinky seems to have met with difficulty, and so has ‘Growr. Well, they have played games with your membership in the Confederation for many years. The last time you pulled something like this your people paid a monstrous fine. That alone should have been enough to dissuade you from repeating your behavior.”
“Oh, end talk, Pistach,” said a voice from one of the nets. “This planet is incredibly rich! There’s enough here for all of us. You take the western half of it and civilize it. We’ll take Asia and Africa and eat them. And the Inkleozese can monitor Europe to their souls’ content. We won’t even stumble over one another!”
“That may be true,” said Chiddy. “But we have rules against involving ourselves in adversarial or factional relationships on new planets. You’re working with a rebel force against the legitimate government of this nation.”
“You’re working with a reactionary element against the best interest of the people of this planet,” charged one of the Wulivery. “And we’re prepared to bring it before the Confederation court! These people don’t need civilizing! They need weeding out! They need cutting down, losing their flab! Our entire population could dine four meals a day for a century before humans would even notice a drop in their population density!”
“That’s true, but irrelevant,” said Chiddy, wrathfully. “The humans must come to grips with their own population problem.”
“Just like they come to grips with their own drug problem?” cried Odiferous Tentacle. “You’re very selective which problems you will solve and which you won’t.”
“We only solve the ones that affect Neighborliness, and you very well known it,” snapped Chiddy. “We solve situations that may lead to general war, situations that cause continuing discontent among populations. In our opinion, drugs do that, and weapons do that and repressions do that. Such things are powderkegs, just waiting to explode! Men with breeding madness versus women. Catholic Ireland versus the northern Protestants! Israel versus the Palestinians! Iraq or the Turks versus the Kurds! Serbia, what’s left of it, versus the Universe! Ridiculous. These can be handled with a few suspensions, a few vanishments, without ending in a war that will kill off half the world’s population!”
“Enough,” said one of the Inkleozese.”We ar e here to monitor this situation. We have already found the three predatory races to be in contempt of the regulations concerning hunting rights on assisted planets. We find the predatory races were properly informed of the Pistach initiative on Earth. We find the Xankatikitiki, the Fluiquosm, the Wulivery have no right to be here.”
“We raise a point of procedure,” cried a voice from an empty net.
“State your point,” answered the Inkleozese.
“Section 7 A of the book of procedures establishes that when an initiative is begun on a false premise, that the initiative may be cancelled when the premise is corrected.”
“What false premise?” cried Chiddy.
“You say that Neighborliness will be best assured by eliminating drugs and weapons and by quieting repressions. We, the predators, say that Neighborliness will be best assured when the population of this planet is reduced by at least half and that the best way to do this is to increase drugs and weapons, increase warlike situations, and let the predators have freedom to hunt here as they will.”