Antagonist - Childe Cycle 11 (3 page)

CHAPTER 3

"Our mother," Dahno said after a moment. He was calmer than Bleys was used to seeing him, on those rare occasions when the subject of their Exotic parent came up.

"Yes," Bleys nodded. "A highly intelligent woman from a rich society designed to help people rise to the limits of their talents—and yet somehow she came to feel she wasn't getting the recognition and status she deserved."

"All societies produce people who just don't seem to fit in," Dahno said. "But that's probably been true all through history. So how do you come to see that as a sign of the Exotics' societal decay?"

"I don't know of any way to prove it," Bleys said, "but I suspect that the proportion of people in similar situations has been increasing over the last century."

"That I can believe," said Dahno, "if only because the very existence of crossbreeds like us can probably be largely traced to that fact."

"If you mean that the dissatisfied tend to leave their worlds and move elsewhere, yes," Bleys said. "But don't make the mistake of thinking that our abilities arise out of a simple mixing of bloodlines from different worlds—we're the result of the mixing of cultures, not genes."

"I'm not entirely convinced of that," Dahno said. "You and I are something special physically, too."

"We may be," Bleys said. "But size doesn't mean all that much; remember that there are people on other worlds who can match us physically—some of the more legendary Dorsai, for example. But it's our power to persuade people to follow us that sets us apart, and that isn't based in any physiological part of us, as far as I can see.

Remember, many of our Others have been showing great persuasive powers, too, even though none of them match us physically." Dahno, clearly reluctant, only nodded.

"Your point was well taken," Bleys went on. "Our very existence, and that of the Others we've been recruiting, is a strong indicator that such decay must have been going on."

"Well, it's a strong indicator that people have been moving about between the Younger Worlds," Dahno said. "I'll give you that. But there might be plenty of reasons for that, and some of them directly opposite to the idea of decay."

"That's certainly true," Bleys said. "But we were talking specifically about the Exotics, and what form the decay of their society might take; and I repeat that our mother's life might illustrate that decay."

"She was probably the single most self-centered person either of us has ever known," Dahno mused. "It must have frustrated the Exotics to have that result from one of their most celebrated and nurtured bloodlines—but are you saying that selfishness is the form decay has taken among the Exotics?"

"She may well be an extreme example," Bleys said, making a note in his head to follow up on that remark about their mother's genetic heritage. No one had ever mentioned anything about that before, and he had never thought to look into it; Dahno's tendency to react strongly when their mother came up in conversation had generally led Bleys to avoid the subject. But Dahno seemed to be handling it well, for the moment.

"After all," Bleys went on, "most of the Exotics haven't rejected their entire culture to go chase dreams of personal status among the wealthy of other planets. But it only takes a little extra concern for oneself to weaken a society's faith in what was once its ultimate goal—when that small amount of self-concern is exhibited by each one of millions of people."

"How can you possibly prove something like that?" Dahno said. "You can't compare how the individual Exotic of today measures up to those of, say, two centuries ago. Even if you had Exotics of each time side by side, you couldn't measure something like selfishness."

"You're absolutely right," Bleys said. "And I never claimed to be
able to prove that the Exotics, taken as individuals, are decayed versions of their ancestors. But what I
do
claim to be able to prove is that the Exotic culture is no longer as strong and vibrant as it once was. The simple drop in their wealth as a society is an indirect proof of that. The rest is extrapolation—theory, if you want—that I use to try to explain what I've found.

"All I'm telling you is this: whatever flame once burned inside the average Exotic, that caused them to work together for a common goal—that flame is weakened today." He raised a hand to forestall the interruption he saw coming from his brother.

"It's not out. It's still there—strong yet, probably, in some. But it's weaker."

"Even if you're right, we can't make use of anything like that," Dahno said. "We work by offering people something they want and convincing them, in a way that bypasses their usual rational abilities, that they can get it by working with us—which in turn works because of our ability to override their normal skepticism for at least long enough for them to fall into line—and then inertia, in the form of the normal human inclination to avoid painful self-examination, tends to keep them in line. And the Exotics, taught from birth to question everything, are just too skeptical to fall for our usual line."

"That's one way to put it," Bleys said.

"Well, as you say," Dahno said, "we may not be able to bring the Exotics under our control, but it must be to our advantage to have them become less rich, and so less powerful. But how did that come about?"

"Except for the occasional expensive bit of advanced medical equipment and that kind of thing," Bleys said, "the Exotics have never been about manufacturing goods that other planets need to import. It's always been knowledge that they exported—the experts they sent out to the other worlds. The expense of interstellar freight has always meant that the biggest credit producer for any planet is the people it can send out to do things for other planets, things those planets couldn't manage to do for themselves. And the various Younger Worlds have, more and more, been producing their own experts, shrinking the market for the Exotic experts."

"I understand that," Dahno said. "I know that the Friendlies, for instance, who used to discourage their people from going off-planet, changed that policy some time ago. And that was only because of their desperate need for the hard currency of interstellar credits."

"Exactly," said Bleys. "If you think about it, that by itself is an example of the kind of decay that's infected all the societies on all the planets. And it's only one illustration of my reasons for believing the race will die out unless it's made to grow up." He looked at his brother keenly, wondering if he might get through to him this time.

"In the case of the Friendlies," he went on, "the change you mentioned was just one of many small ways they relaxed an old principle because of the pain of living up to it."

"Or they finally started to become a little more human," Dahno said, almost to himself.

"It was just that kind of decay," Bleys said, ignoring that remark, "that allowed you, followed by myself, to rise into a position of power here among the Friendlies. In past centuries we'd have been denounced as godless, and made virtual outcasts." He shrugged. "Some think that way about us even today, and many of them are willing to say so, and oppose us. But enough of the population finds reasons to go along with us that we're not only safe, but in control."

"There are places on these worlds where I wouldn't go without a well-armed escort," Dahno said, scowling.

"Yes," Bleys said. "That's true. But because Friendly society is divided, those parts cancel each other out, and we can keep control even though there are still many, possibly close to a majority, who would have rejected all those little things—and us—if they had realized what was going on. In their weakness they listen when we tell them, couched in the comforting words of their faiths, what they want to hear; and never notice, until it's far too late, that we've done something else entirely."

"We're off the subject again," Dahno said.

"Only a little," Bleys said, "but I'm getting there. You see, I expected, when I started researching the Exotics' power base, that I'd find just what I said: that the Exotics had suffered—undergone—a number of changes of the sort that could be expected to arise simply out of the workings of normal historical forces over a couple of centuries. I found, instead, ev
idence that the Exotics—and the
Dorsai, too—have been under covert economic attack for decades; an attack apparently aimed at cutting them off from access to interstellar credits."

Overriding the start of a comment from his brother, Bleys pressed on: "The first thing I looked for was a way to estimate Exotic wealth; and I found that in whatever terms you might want to measure it, it's been decreasing steadily for some time. That led me to a long-term pattern of Exotic-owned shipping being outbid for freight contracts and passenger carriage. I started to analyze traffic patterns, and found that shipping outbound from every one of the Younger Worlds for the Dorsai and the Exotics has been decreasing steadily over several decades at least—"

"Where
do you find that kind of information?" Dahno exclaimed.

"The government, of course," Bleys said. "I'm First Elder, remember? Those gray bureaucrats over at the Commerce Cabinet were happy to winnow through several decades' worth of the raw data that all governments accumulate—and then largely bury."

"Why would the Friendly government have raw data on Exotic shipping?" Dahno asked, a puzzled look on his face.

"You, more than anyone, know the value of accumulating raw intelligence," Bleys said. "Governments always accumulate lots of raw data, simply because it's out there and some functionary can justify his position by grabbing it."

"But raw data is useless if no one is looking at it and thinking about it," Dahno nodded. "You're right. But—"

"Stop right there!" Bleys said. "Let me get back to the Exotics."

"You're right, you're right," Dahno said. "It's just that I've spent so much of my life trying to find information.... Anyway, back to the Exotics—didn't you also mention the Dorsai? Where do
they
come in?"

"Well, that's another thing I wasn't expecting," Bleys said. "The changes in traffic patterns involving the Exotics were virtually echoed by the changes involving the Dorsai."

Dahno leaned back in his large chair, looking vaguely in the direction of the ceiling while holding one hand up to stop Bleys from continuing.

"I think I can see a pattern of sorts," he said. "Both of those are societies that lived principally on exporting knowledge—in the case of the Dorsai, military expertise that made them better at soldiering than anyone else around." Now he
looked back down at Bleys, chal
lengingly. "So both societies would be hurt when the other planets just stopped needing their experts, right? For instance, when the other planets either began producing more of their own experts, or got caught up in fewer wars."

"That's just what I expected to find," Bleys said. "And I did find it. You're right as far as that goes."

"What did I miss?"

"The balance of trade reports every government produces for its own use," Bleys said. "Academics and economists have been watching and charting that kind of number for centuries, trying to see patterns. And usually they produce pretty accurate data on the trends in all the major economic categories—including expert leases."

"I was never able to keep up an interest in that kind of thing," Dahno said.

"Dry as dust, I know." Bleys nodded. "But it's like any mathematical formula—somewhere under the dryness is an underlying reality that might be important, even exciting.... At any rate, it's true the other planets have been steadily increasing the numbers of experts—in a wide variety of fields—they produce. But what's exciting is that the increase hasn't been enough to account for the size of the disparity."

"Is that disparity in expert leases enough to cause the decrease in Exotic wealth you found?" Dahno asked.

"No," Bleys said. "There's another, even more measurable, disparity to be found in the commerce records. Specifically, in the shipping records."

"You mean, cargoes?" Dahno asked. "You said yourself that the Exotics were never about exporting goods—"

"That's right," Bleys said. "But I don't mean the cargoes. I mean the ships."

"Oh, of course!" Dahno said. "It's been pretty much a stereotype that the Exotics' merchant fleet carries most of the cargoes between the worlds—but I haven't seen anything to suggest there's been a change in that perception."

"Yes," Bleys said. "In fact, Exotic ships have been carrying a progressively smaller portion of interstellar trade. And the fact you didn't realize it shows the genius of the attack. It's been going on for a long time, and yet no one has really noticed—well, I'm sure the Exotics have noticed, but they're not likely to advertise the fact someone is trying to take, and succeeding in taking, their leading position away from them. It's been a remarkable fall for two worlds that once were the richest, and thus the most powerful, of the societies on the Younger Worlds."

"So maybe they've lost some market share," Dahno said. "That kind of thing is to be expected. It's in the nature of history, you just said that; things like that change over time, as conditions change and motivations change."

"True enough," Bleys said, "but this goes beyond that. What I found convinces me of the existence of a quiet campaign over a long period of time that apparently sought to undercut the Exotics' wealth and position, by means that can only be described as a covert conspiracy."

"All right," Dahno said, "so someone has targeted the Exotics in order to get a share—even a big share—of their money. That's understandable; and since it seems to have been working, I'd say it was a pretty good tactic. But whoever those people are, if they're in it for the money and the power, they'll likely be susceptible to our ability to influence them, in the end."

"They may be vulnerable to us," Bleys said, "but I'm not sure money and power are the reasons they targeted the Exotics."

"Oh?" Dahno said. "Can you think of some other motive?"

"Yes," Bleys said. "Revenge, for one."

"Well.
..,"
Dahno started slowly before warming to his thought, "I suppose the Exotics might have made enemies with their trade practices over the centuries, but I can't imagine anyone creating a secret society of some sort to oppose them. Have you been reading more of those Old Earth novels again?"

"Not revenge against the Exotics, necessarily," Bleys went on, ignoring the gibe. "Revenge against the Dorsai, perhaps."

"The Dorsai?" Dahno said, after a moment of silence.

"Yes," Bleys said. "I think I mentioned that the traffic patterns indicating a downturn in the Exotics' fortunes were being echoed by the patterns involving the Dorsai. At first I thought the Dorsai were being crippled simply as a by-product of the attack on the Exotics—but then it occurred to me it might be deliberately intended, as a way to deprive the Exotics of a weapon." He paused, thinking.

"Even then, I was too focused on the Exotics," he went on after a moment. "But now I'm coming around to the notion that it's possible the Dorsai were the original intended targets of this action I've called a conspiracy."

"I don't understand—" Dahno started; but Bleys continued.

"It's the only way it makes sense," he said. "Someone started, decades ago at least, to try to cut the Dorsai off from any sources of interstellar credits. You know as well as I do that none of the Younger Worlds is totally self-sufficient. The standards of living on all of them are far lower than that on Old Earth; but they all, each and every one, need to import a lot of things just to survive; and to do that they need interstellar credits. And no one more so than the Dorsai, a planet so poor it's always had to export its people to be mercenary soldiers, just to earn enough to stay alive."

"And you're saying someone has been trying to starve the Dorsai by cutting them off from credits?" Dahno said.

Bleys nodded.

"Where do the Exotics come into this, then?" Dahno said. "Are there two such plots going on? That's a little much to swallow."

"No," Bleys said. "One plot. If you remember your history, it follows naturally. The Exotics have always been a major customer for the Dorsai's services as the leading military professionals on all the worlds. To weaken the Exotics is to weaken the Dorsai's single largest market—and their single friend among the other worlds."

"Is it that the Exotics are being crippled to prevent them from helping the Dorsai, or that the Dorsai are being crippled to prevent them from helping the Exotics if they come under attack?" Dahno said. "Couldn't it go either way?"

"That's true, it could," Bleys said. "The records I've found hint that the campaign against the Dorsai came first, but I'm far from certain about that.... In any event, it doesn't really matter, does it?"