like he had dislocated his jaw: “Well,
But Alnduul proceeded without responding to Wise-Speech’s sharp-if oblique-rebuke: “The legitimacy of the World Confederation of Earth is recognized. Member states may now submit general inquiries to the human delegation.”
A long pause. The voice of the Slaasriithi, Vishnaaswii’ah, emanated from the blinking green quatrefoil: “Has the human delegation prepared an encyclopedic self-reference for distribution to interested species?”
Caine nodded. “We have. We had thought the appropriate time to offer it was in today’s final step-that reserved for unofficial inquiries.”
“Your conception of protocol is correct. If you feel it is a fair and thorough almanac of your species, then we feel no need to ask any specific questions at this time. Rather, we shall compile a list of queries occasioned by our perusal of your self-reference.”
“That seems quite prudent.”
Wise-Speech’s simulated voice followed quickly: “The Ktor elect to follow the same procedure, in the interest of shortening the official portion of these proceedings.”
Hwang wiped his glasses. “Sounds like he’s had enough for one day.”
Alnduul gestured up at Caine and Visser. “The Convocation now invites questions from the human delegation. In the interest of brevity, please do not ask more than twenty questions of any given member state.”
Caine, standing outside the sending circle, smiled ruefully. “Never thought I’d be playing twenty questions again.”
“Yeah, well, this time, you’re playing for keeps.” Lemuel was not smiling.
“True enough.” Caine moved forward into the communication node again. “Alnduul, honored delegates, we have prepared our questions beforehand, and elect to submit the same twenty questions to each member state. Transmitting our questions now.” Caine nodded to Thandla, who pressed a virtual button on the touch-sensitive control screen, and leaned back.
Downing broke the silence. “Bombs away.”
Trevor looked over at him. “Which set of bombs are we dropping, anyway?”
“Given the arm’s-length attitudes we’ve encountered today, we decided on sticking with the basics: where they’re from, what they’re made of, how long they’ve been puttering about the stars, when they joined the Accord, which stars are on their allowed pathway of expansion. And of course, a few key questions on the state of their technology. We’ll use it all to construct a timeline, an astrographic map, project their capabilities.”
Elena cocked her head. “And culture and language-?”
“We will get to that in the unofficial information requests, Ms. Corcoran.” Visser had started to pace from one side of the gallery to the other. “Such sociological data are crucial. But with only twenty questions, we must secure key strategic data first.”
Wasserman looked up. “Speaking of strategic data, if the Arat Kur-and the other member states-were playing by the rules, they shouldn’t be able to do any more than listen from the edge of our space. And that means that all their information about Earth should be at least nine or ten years old, since that’s the number of light-years between the outer edges of the zone they’ve reserved for us, and the nearest other stars. So if the leak isn’t from that Dornaani report-”
Downing nodded. “Then someone has been eavesdropping from just outside our home system. Or even inside of it.”
“And to get to Earth, they would have to violate a lot of our other systems first-and be able to do it on the sly.”
Visser looked from Wasserman to Downing to Caine. “You are all assuming that the exosapients, like us, have to start their shift from a solar system. If they don’t, or if they have shift ranges of fifteen or twenty light- years-”
Wasserman jumped in. “If the Arat Kur can pull off stunts like that, then we’re so screwed it hardly matters.”
“Why?”
“Because that would mean that their technology is so far beyond ours, that we’re just a bunch of grunting Neanderthals compared to them.”
“Which is possible.”
“Possible,” commented Elena, “but I think not.”
“Why?” Visser asked.
“Because the Arat Kur seem worried about us. Genuinely worried. Don’t misunderstand me; I, too, suspect that they might be cat’s-paws for another member state. But I also believe that their objections to our candidacy reflect their own fears.”
Downing nodded encouragement. “Go on.”
“Uncle Richard, they are being rude to us. Pointedly and unnecessarily rude. And that behavior has clearly surprised the Dornaani, which suggests that it is not typical for the Arat Kur.”
Visser was staring at her. “So what is the significance of this?”
Elena folded her hands. “It may be an unwarranted-a humanocentric-generalization, but when one group perceives itself to be in conflict with another group, the members of the first group tend to dehumanize the members of the second group.”
Durniak nodded. “War propaganda. Racism.”
“Exactly. But that is the extreme case. The far more common variety of this is a daily dynamic in every culture: being snubbed. That’s what the Arat Kur have been doing to us.”
“And why is that important?”
Elena turned to Visser. “If they were so much more powerful than us, then they would not bother to snub us. Think back on all those British novels that were obsessed with class tensions: a nobleman could freely chat with a tradesman. Why? Because his position was so much greater that his status was unthreatened by associating with the lesser being. But-”
Caine smiled. “But the middle classes would stick up their noses and snub the tradesman. Because they were still close enough to his level that any suggestion of intimacy with him threatened to lower their status by dint of association.”
“Exactly.”
Visser was frowning, but not at Elena. “So you are saying-”
“I know it seems circuitous, but I believe that the Arat Kur’s rudeness, even hostility, suggests that they see us as possible rivals. And that suggests that they can’t have the immense technological edge that would allow them to shift about the cosmos without having to obey the same laws of physics that we do. If they did, the worst we would experience from them is benign indifference.”
Downing sat, hands on knees. “It’s only a hypothesis, but a bloody good one. However, we’re going to need more information in order to push this deductive process further along.”
Visser nodded. “Very well. So how do we go about doing that?”
Caine coughed politely and looked around the room: all eyes were trained on him. He shrugged: “Well, here’s what I was thinking-”
Chapter Forty-Four
ODYSSEUS
Alnduul’s image stood with hands folded as Caine stepped closer. “Alnduul, just a moment ago, we detected a crucial oversight on our part: we neglected to send questions to one other important group.”
“If you refer to the other candidates, the Hkh’Rkh, they are not yet a member state, and so your inquiries may only be made informally, at the end of today’s official proceedings.”
“Alnduul, the Hkh’Rkh are not the group to which we wish to address our questions.”
Alnduul’s inner eyelids slowly closed. “I am perplexed. There is no other group.”
“With respect, there is: the Custodians.”
