Final Inquiries (48 page)

"I should have done more than just obey orders under protest," said the ambassador. "I should have refused the simulants, point-blank."

"And I should have done the same," said Flexdal.

"Ah, not exactly on point," said Jamie, "but I've been thinking about the groups representing the various humans and Kendari fringe groups that the Vixa brought in. I think they were here for the opposite, the converse, of that same reason. This is just a dumb junior cop guessing, but the Vixa have at least a rough general idea that neither of our societies has castes, that everyone is more or less equal to everyone else. Okay, I know the ten thousand ways that
isn't
true--but it's a lot truer for both our peoples than it is for them. Humans are all at least
supposed
to be equal before the law, even if we don't reach the ideal."

"I don't quite see what you're getting at," said Hannah.

"The Vixa must have as much trouble dealing with the subtleties of our more-or-less-but-not-exactly equality as we have understanding and dealing with their biocastes. They brought in a whole mob of politically active humans and Kendari who were, as best they could see, the
equals
of you diplomats. You represented all of humanity, and Zamprohna represented his brand of the Keep Earth Flat society. But all the Vixa could see were the representatives. On a gut level, an instinctive level, they might have asked, What's the difference? That would tend to depress their view of our status as well."

"But there's another part to that," said Brox, almost eagerly. "The Vixan castes operate on the consensus of the hierarchy. We keep coming back to that. There's a strong pressure to agree with each other, especially with the people who outrank you. Both our species have that impulse too, of course--but the Vixa have it a thousand times more."

"So they brought in representatives of external groups to put pressure on us," said Flexdal. "But they deliberately brought in groups with wildly divergent opinions to make it impossible for us to fully bow to that pressure. We could and did tolerate that, but the Vixa couldn't have. In short, they brought in our own people in hopes of driving us mad."

"We should have refused something besides the simulants," said Stabmacher. "We should have refused to continue the negotiations with all those damned delegations present."

"There's one other huge and fundamental difference of perspective in all this," said Hannah. "We all thought they wanted to make Emelza's death look like a suicide. The concept of suicide must be alien to Vixa. Individuals are expendable in service to the whole. Death of a Grand Vixan isn't the death of an individual, either. It represents the collapse of the entire household devoted to caring for the Grand Vixa. Suddenly the other castes have no home, no purpose, no leader. It never would have entered their minds to stage a suicide. They wouldn't really know what one was."

"And if the superior can kill the inferior at any time, murder isn't such a big deal either," said Jamie. "There are economic reasons not to do it. You might have to pay compensation, and that can run into real money after a while. But killing someone else's escort Nines wouldn't be considered that serious an offense. Probably the Vixa had experts and advisors who assured them we would react very strongly to the apparent murder of Emelza 401--but that was just expert talk. My guess is that the Zeeraums and Kragshmals of the hierarchy never quite understood what all the fuss was about. They never really had an emotional understanding of why the humans and Kendari were so upset."

"They are quite alien to us, aren't they?" asked Flexdal. He pulled his head back in puzzled surprise. "And I think I just meant both our peoples when I said 'us.' That's rather disconcerting, in a way."

"That's the way I felt the first time I did it," Brox said.

"That brings me to something I was thinking about while we were in that bunker," said Jamie. He stood up, to face the group, looking very young and unsure of himself--but going on ahead anyway.

"What would that be?" Stabmacher asked.

"Well, I'm no diplomat," said Jamie. "But just an idea. A thought. It couldn't hurt to listen, sir."

"Go on," said the ambassador, as he leaned back on the bench and looked out across the ruins of what had been and would be his embassy.

"From what you've been saying, without the Vixa trying to sabotage everything, the negotiations for Pentam ought to move forward pretty smoothly."

"Negotiations rarely run smoothly," said the ambassador. "But go on."

"Share the Pentam System, but
don't
divvy up the Pentam planets," said Jamie. "Leave one of them--well, leave it fallow. Whatever the word would be. Leave it alone for now. Save it for later. Just settle
one
of the worlds--and
don't
build separate Kendari and human cities, either. Build
one
city. One place that can--that can be a sort of giant joint operations center. A place where we're
forced
to work together. Where we can
learn
to work together."

No one spoke for a while. The sun was setting. The reddish dirt caught the gathering twilight and seemed to glow with color.

"I like that," the ambassador said at last. "Even putting the high and noble purposes to one side, it would actually be a far more practical solution. No duplication of effort, building two of everything--and if we're right in each other's laps--though of course Kendari don't have laps--it would be a great deal easier to keep an eye on each other. That in itself would help build trust. I wouldn't go so far as to call it the start of a potential alliance--but it would give us a huge head start on finding ways to work together, find the interests we have in common. What do you think, Xenologist Flexdal?"

"I think it will never work," Flexdal replied, rising up off his haunches. "We'll never get along. We'll never understand that we are natural allies, not natural enemies. We'll never see that we have far more in common with each other than with any of the Elder Races--or that
they
have far more reason to suppress us
both
than either of
us
has to harm the other. It will never work--unless we all fight like fury to
make
it work."

He paused, and stamped his rearfeet and forefeet, and twitched his tail. "But
I
like it as well. And if--
if
--it can be made to work--then I think it's just possible that the Elder Races
will
have to get used to having both of us around, after all."

"I've always liked your ideas, Jamie," said Hannah. "Well, maybe not every single one of them. But this one, I could definitely get behind."

"Forgive me for indulging in a bit of sentiment," said Brox, "but I believe that Emelza 401 would have liked it as well. She was coming to enjoy working with humans."

Jamie Mendez looked down at the ground and kicked away just a bit more wreckage, clearing the way for just that little bit more of something new to go in its place. He looked up at all of them, and smiled at Brox 231, his enemy, his friend, his colleague. "Well," he said, "if the Xenologist is right, and the Elder Races will have to get used to both of us--then maybe
we'd
better get started on getting used to each other."

THE END

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ROGER MACBRIDE ALLEN was born on September 26, 1957, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He is the author of twenty-two science fiction novels, a modest number of short stories, and two nonfiction books. His wife, Eleanore Fox, is a member of the United States Foreign Service. They married in 1994. They were posted to Brasilia, Brazil, from 1995 to 1997, and to Washington, D.C., from 1997 to 2002. Their first son, Matthew Thomas Allen, was born on November 12, 1998. In September 2002 they began a three-year posting to Leipzig, Germany, where their second son, James Maury Allen, was born on April 27, 2004. They returned to the Washington area in the summer of 2005, and live in Takoma Park, Maryland.

Learn more about the author at
www.rmallen.net
, or visit
www.bsi-starside.com
for the latest on the BSI Starside series.

NOVELS BY

Roger MacBride Allen

The Torch of Honor

Rogue Powers

Orphan of Creation

The Modular Man*

The War Machine (with David Drake)

Supernova (with Eric Kotani)

Farside Cannon

The Ring of Charon

The Shattered Sphere

Caliban

Inferno

Utopia

Ambush at Corellia*

Assault at Selonia*

Showdown at Centerpoint*

The Game of Worlds

The Depths of Time*

The Ocean of Years*

The Shores of Tomorrow*

BSI: Starside: The Cause of Death*

BSI: Starside: Death Sentence*

BSI: Starside: Final Inquiries*

NONFICTION

A Quick Guide to

Book-on-Demand Printing

The First Book of Hazel: A Quick Guide to the

Hazel Internet Merchandizing System

*Published by Bantam Books

BSI: STARSIDE: FINAL INQUIRIES

A Bantam Spectra Book / March 2008

Published by
Bantam Dell

A Division of Random House, Inc.

New York, New York

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved

Copyright (c) 2008 by Roger MacBride Allen

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