something for pride, showing that wolflings had been on the right track, on our own. But nothing new would come of it.”
Purofsky shook his head. “No, I decided it was time to go for broke. I’d plunge ahead with the old spacetime approach, and see if I could solve a problem relevant to Jijo — the Eight Starships Mystery.”
Sara blinked.
“You mean seven, don’t you? The question of why so many sooner races converged on Jijo within a short time, without getting caught? But isn’t that settled?” She pointed at the most brilliant point on the wall. “Izmunuti started flooding nearby space with carbon chaff twenty centuries ago. Enough to seed the hollow hail and change our weather patterns, more than a light-year away. Once the storm wrecked all the watch robots left in orbit by the Migration Institute, sneakships could get in undetected.”
“Hr-rm … yes, but not good enough, Sara. From wall inscriptions found in a few Buyur ruins, we know two transfer points used to serve this system. The other must have collapsed after the Buyur left.”
“Well? That’s why the Izmunuti gambit works! A single shrouded access route, and the great Institutes not scheduled to resurvey the area for another eon. It must be a fairly unique situation.”
“Unique. Hrm, and convenient. So convenient, in fact, that I decided to acquire fresh data.”
Purofsky turned toward the planetarium display, and a distant expression crossed his shadowed face. After a few duras, Sara realized he must be drifting. That kind of absentmindedness might be a prerogative of genius back in the cloistered halls of Biblos, but it was infuriating when he had her keyed up so! She spoke in a sharp tone.
“Master! You were saying you needed data. Is there really something relevant you can see with Uriel’s simple telescope?”
The scholar blinked, then cocked his head and smiled. “You know, Sara … I find it striking that we both spent the last year chasing unconventional notions. You, a sideline into languages and sociology — yes, I followed your work with interest. And me, thinking I could pierce secrets of the past using coarse implements made of reforged Buyur scrap metal and melted sand.
“Did you know, while taking pictures of Izmunuti, I also happened to snap shots of those starships? The ones causing so much fuss, up north? Caught them entering orbit … though my warning didn’t reach the High Sages in time.” Purofsky shrugged. “But to your question. Yes, I managed to learn a few things, using the apparatus here on Mount Guenn.
“Think again about Jijo’s unique conditions, Sara. The collapse of the second transfer point … the carbon flaring of Izmunuti … the inevitable attractiveness of an isolated, shrouded world to sooner refugees.
“Now ponder this — how could beings with minds as agile as the Buyur fail to notice advance symptoms of these changes, about to commence in nearby space?”
“But the Buyur departed half a million years ago! There may not have been any symptoms back then. Or else they were subtle.”
“Perhaps. And that’s where my research comes in. Plus your expertise, I hope. For I strongly suspect that spacetime anomalies would have been noticeable, even back then.”
“Spacetime …” Sara realized his use of the archaic Earth-physics term was intentional. Now it was her turn to spend several silent duras staring at a blur of stars, sorting implications.
“You’re … talking about lensing effects, aren’t you?”
“Sharp lass,” the sage answered approvingly. “And if I can see them—”
“Then the Buyur must have, and foreseen—”
“Like reading an open book! Nor is that all. I asked you here to help confirm another, more ominous suspicion.”
Sara felt a frisson, climbing her spine like some insect with a million ice-cold feet.
“What do you mean?”
Sage Purofsky briefly closed his eyes. When he reopened them, his gaze seemed alight with fascination.
“Sara, I believe they planned it this way, from the very start.”
PART EIGHT
ILLEGAL RESETTLEMENT OF FALLOW WORLDS has been a predicament in the Five Galaxies for as far back as records exist. There are many causes for this recurring problem, but its most enduring basis is the Paradox of Reproductive Logic.
ORGANIC beings from countless diverse worlds tend to share one common trait — self-propagation. In some species, this manifests as a conscious desire to have offspring. Among other races, individuals respond to crude instinctive drives for either sex or xim, and spare little active attention to the consequences.
However different the detailed mechanisms may be, the net effect remains the same. Left to their own inclinations, organic life-forms will reproduce their kind in numbers exceeding the replacement rate. Over periods of time that are quite brief (by stellar standards) the resulting population increase can swiftly overburden the carrying capacity of any self-sustaining ecosystem. (SEE: ATTACHED SORTED EXAMPLES.)
Species do this because each fecund individual is the direct descendant of a long chain of successful reproducers. Simply stated; those who lack traits that enable breeding do not become ancestors. Traits that encourage reproduction are the traits that get reproduced.
To the best of our knowledge, this evolutionary imperative extends even to the eco-matrix of hydrogen-based life-forms that shares real space in parallel with our oxygen-breathing civilization. As for the Third Order — autonomous machines — only the relentless application of stringent safeguards has prevented these nonorganic species from engaging in exponential reproduction, threatening the basis of all life in the Five Galaxies.
For the vast majority of nonsapient animal species in natural ecosystems, this tendency to overbreed is kept in check by starvation, predation, or other limiting factors, resulting in quasi-stable states of pseudo-equilibrium. However, presapient life-forms often use their newfound cleverness to eliminate competition and indulge in orgiastic breeding frenzies, followed by overutilization of resources. Left for too long without proper guidance, such species can bring about their own ruin through ecological collapse.
This is one of the Seven Reasons why naive life-forms cannot self-evolve to fully competent sapience. The Paradox of Reproductive Logic means that short-term self-interest will always prevail over long-range planning, unless wisdom is imposed from the outside by an adoptive patron line.
One duty of a patron is to make certain that its client race achieves conscious control over its self-replicating drives, before it can be granted adult status. And yet, despite such precautions, even fully ranked citizen species have been known to engage in breeding spasms, especially during intervals when lawful order temporarily breaks down. (SEE REF: “TIMES OF CHANGE.”) Hasty, spasmodic episodes of colonization/exploitation have left entire galactic zones devastated in their wake.
By law, the prescribed punishment for races who perpetrate such eco-holocausts can be complete extinction, down to the racial rootstock.
IN comparison, illegal resettlement of fallow worlds is a problem of moderate-level criminality. Penalties depend on the degree of damage done, and whether new presapient forms safely emerge from the process.
Nevertheless, it is easy to see how the Paradox of Reproductive Logic applies here, as well. Or else why would individuals and species sacrifice so much, and risk severe punishment, in order to dwell in feral secrecy on worlds where they do not belong?
OVER the course of tens of millions of years, only one solution has ever been found for this enduring paradox. This solution consists of the continuing application of pragmatic foresight in the interests of the common good.
In other words — civilization.
— from A Galactographic Tutorial for Ignorant Wolfling Terrans, a special publication of the Library Institute of the Five Galaxies, year 42 EC, in partial satisfaction of the debt obligation of 35 EC
