“How long?” It was Sir George’s turn to interrupt, and even he was stunned by the sheer ferocity of his own question. “How long has it been?” he demanded harshly.
“Some six hundred and sixty of your years, approximately,” the dragon-man told him, and Sir George stared at him in shock. He’d known, intellectually, that he’d slept away long, endless years in the service of his masters, but this—!
“Are . . . are you certain?” he asked finally.
“There is some margin for error. We are not trained in the mathematics to allow properly for the relativistic effects of the phase drive—” not even the dragon-man could make the dimly sensed concepts that went with that terminology comprehensible to Sir George “—and the guildsmen do not share such information with us. But they do speak among themselves in front of us, and they frequently forget—in their arrogance—that while we cannot speak as they do, we can hear. Indeed, that our kind has been forced to learn to understand spoken languages so that we can be ordered about by our `betters.’ ”
“I . . . see,” Sir George said, then shook himself. “But you were saying . . . ?”
“I was saying that even after so brief a period as that, we would estimate that your kind has certainly advanced at least to steam power and electrical generation by now. It is even possible you have developed the earliest forms of radio communication and atmospheric flight. But even if you have come only so far as inefficient steam engines and, perhaps, effective artillery and small arms, you will have advanced at more than double the rate of any of the so-called `advanced’ members of the Federation. If you are left alone for only a very little longer—perhaps another four or five of your centuries—you will have discovered the phase drive for yourselves.”
“We will have?” Sir George blinked in astonishment at the thought.
“That is our belief. And it is also what makes your species so dangerous to the Federation. Compared to any human institution, the Federation is immensely old and stable—which is another way of saying `static’—and possessed of an ironbound bureaucracy and customary usages. By its own rules and precedents, it must admit your world as a co-equal member if you have developed phase drive independently. Yet your kind will be a terribly disruptive influence on the other races’ dearly beloved stability. By your very nature, you will soon outstrip all of them technologically, making them inferior to you . . . and so, by their own measure, justifying your people in using them as they have used us. Even worse—though we think they will be slower to recognize this—your race, assuming that you and your fellows are representative—will not take well to the pyramid of power the Federation has built. Within a very short period of time, whether by direct intervention or simply by example, you will have led dozens of other species to rebel against the `advanced races,’ and so destroyed forever the foundation upon which their power and wealth—and comfortable arrogance—depends.”
“You expect a great deal from a single world of `primitives,’ my friend.”
“Yes, we do. But should the Federation, or another guild, learn that you, too, are from Earth and return there too soon, it will never happen. They will recognize the threat this time, for they will have a better basis for comparison . . . and will probably be considerably more intelligent and observant than the Commander. They can hardly be less, at any rate!” The mental snort of contempt was unmistakable, and Sir George grinned wryly. “But if they do recognize it, they will take steps to deflect the threat. They may settle for establishing a `protectorate’ over you, as they did with us, but you represent a much more serious threat than we did, for we did not share your flexibility. We believe it is far more likely that they will simply order your race destroyed, once and for all.”
Sir George grunted as if he had just been punched in the belly. For a long, seemingly endless moment, his mind simply refused to grapple with the idea. But however long it seemed, it was only a moment, for Sir George never knowingly lied to himself. Besides, the concept differed only in scale from what he’d already deduced the Commander would do if his violation of the Council’s decrees became public knowledge.