Birthright

intelligence will do, or even what it's capable of. Don't forget: Of the thousand or so species we've already made physical contact with, we've been completely unable to communicate with ninety percent of them. They'rethat different. And since the big map was the product of human intelligence and endeavor, it projects outcomes based on strictly human logic and experience. We simply have no other type of philosophical system to program into it.” “I see,” nodded Nelson. “For a while there, I was beginning to think the map had absolutely no limitations. It's still the most impressive piece of equipment I've ever seen or heard of ... and I am now willing to admit that you probably aren't talking through your hat when you claim to be the most powerful man in history. I imagine no planet is explored or taken without your approval?” “Right,” said Landon.

“Very impressive,” said Nelson. “I see where there have been half a dozen assassination attempts on the Secretary in the last year or two. Too bad they didn't know where the real power lay.” “Wouldn't do ‘em any good,” grunted Landon. “Most of our defenses aren't too obvious, but no place in the universe is better able to protect itself. Don't forget: No ship can get within a half a hundred light-years without our having it on the map and knowing every single thing there is to know about it. I won't say we're impregnable, but no one is ever going to sneak in here and assassinate anyone.” “Howdo you get all your information?” asked Nelson. “The map building itself is just a tiny part of the Cartographic complex,” said Landon. “We employ more than four hundred thousand people whose sole duty is to collect and correlate information that pours in from all across the galaxy every day. Beneath the surface, we have a computer complex that positively dwarfs the map building. Someone once told me that there are more than eight hundred million miles of circuitry involved, though I don't know who'd bother to count it all. Results are the only things that matter, and we get them.

“The data is relayed to the map control room, also beneath the surface and adjacent to this building, which measures some two cubic miles. The information goes directly into the memory banks, and can be instantaneously translated into cartographic terms. “When I spoke to the Control Booth a while back, the man at the other end merely punched some standard buttons that had been programmed into the Cartographic computer complex. What you saw seemed solid and three-dimensional, but was actually a hologram simulated by a few hundred thousand modified lasers. Anyway, the facets I showed you are static, or at least as static as the galaxy ever gets. Projecting our expansion takes a little more effort, and a hell of a lot of intuitive interpretation. As I said, you can't expect a five-hundred-year-old denizen of the Delphini system, a creature that is composed of silicon, breathes ammonia, excretes an oxygen compound, and has a metabolism that we can't even begin to analyze, to react to a situation quite the same way you or I would. And, that,” the Director concluded, “is what makes it interesting.”

“I could spend a lifetime here,” said Nelson.

“The hell you could,” said Landon. “I didn't bring you here to join my staff. You're here for an

assignment, nothing more.”

“Then why did you show me all this?” asked Nelson. “So what I ask you to do won't seem quite so unpalatable to you,” Landon replied. “At least you'll know that when Cartography makes an assignment, we've got a pretty dammed good reason.” “Well, let's have it,” said Nelson. “How many deities do I have to slaughter?” Landon responded by pressing the button on the railing, picking up the microphone, and saying: “Landon here. Spin the whole damned thing around so the Gamma Leporis system is right in front of me.” The pseudo-galaxy tilted on its axis and began spinning so quickly that Nelson felt himself being drawn hypnotically into the vortex. Millions of stars swung by almost too fast for his eyes to follow them; and then, as suddenly as it began, the movement stopped. “Very good,” said Landon. “Now put its planets on flashing blue.” A medium-sized binary just in front of the balcony was suddenly alight, surrounded by sixteen tiny flashing blue dots. “Fine,” said Landon. “Let me have every aquatic world within ten parsecs, and also the home world of the Lemm.” More tiny blue lights flashed on, blinking wildly, and Nelson saw a pattern developing. There was a ten-parsec line of worlds, a dozen in all—not counting the Gamma Leporis system—plus another that lay still five more parsecs distant. “Good,” said Landon. “Now change the home world of the Lemm to green, and let me see every aquatic world they possess.” The farthest planet became a tiny dot of unbelievably bright green, and the other twelve worlds, plus three more worlds in the Gamma Leporis system, turned red. “One last thing,” said Landon. “Show me the five closest worlds under our control.” Five white lights flashed on, all of them more than a dozen parsecs distant. “Well, Pioneer,” said Landon. “That's our problem.” “Yourproblem,” said Nelson. “It doesn't become mine until I know what you're talking about.” “It's very simple,” said the Director. “The fourth, fifth, and sixth planets in the Gamma Leporis system are entirely aquatic. Which is to say that they consist of nothing but ocean. No continents, not even an island. Same with the other twelve worlds that are flashing red.” “So?”

“The ninth and tenth planets of Gamma Leporis are quite rich in numerous natural elements that the Republic needs: iron, lead, gold, even a little uranium.” “What has one got to do with the other?” asked Nelson. “Not much, except for the Lemm,” answered Landon. “We don't know much about them, except that they're quite similar to us in one respect at least.” “And what is that?”

“They seek after Empire,” said Landon. “They've established bases, artificial islands, on the fifteen aquatic worlds in question.”

“Why should that bother us, if we're after the material from the waterless worlds?”

“Good question,” said the Director. “Let me put it this way: How would you feel about an alien power's establishing itself on Deluros V?”

“I wouldn't like it much,” said Nelson. “Why?”

“It's a big galaxy. Let them look elsewhere for what they want. The Deluros system belongs to us.” “They might be peaceful,” said Landon.

“Then why are they expansionist?” said Nelson. “And why didn't they ask our permission?” “Precisely,” said Landon. “Well, it just so happens that we asked permission of the inhabitants of Gamma Leporis system.”

“What does that have to do with the Lemm?” “Lots,” said Landon. “You see, the ichthyoid population of Gamma Leporis IV is an ancient race, some four billion years old. Their intellects have reached a point to which Man can never aspire, even in the distant future. But nature played a dirty trick on them: She made them totally aquatic. No race advances without technology, and ninety-nine percent of all technology is based on fire. Can't have fire on a water world.”

“So the Lemm moved in and conquered them?” asked Nelson. “Conquer isn't the word,” said Landon. “The Lemm simply set up floating islands, dropped a few depth bombs that the ichthyoids couldn't cope with or respond to, and demanded that they begin mining their world and turning the various materials over to the Lemm.” “Sounds kind of like us,” said Nelson, not without a touch of approval. “To continue,” said Landon. “It took us the better part of a year to communicate on even a basic level with the ichthyoids. They wanted nothing to do with us or the Lemm. The Lemm are a bit more technological; I imagine we could communicate withthem in a matter of a couple of days.” “Why don't we?”

“No need to,” said the Director. “We've got a pretty good idea about their potentialities, their science, and their feeling toward outsiders.”

“For instance?” asked Nelson.

“There are no domes on the water worlds. That implies the Lemm are carbon-based oxygen-breathers. Their science is obviously based on somewhat different principles than ours, or else they'd be more interested in Gamma Leporis IX and X, instead of water worlds. And we know they're an aggressive race that has nothing against an occasional conquest.”

“Why not send the Navy against them?” asked Nelson.

“Two reasons. First, since their science is different from ours, we don't know what kind of fight they're capable of putting up. We're spread too thin throughout the galaxy to get involved in a major war just yet.”

“And the other reason?”

“Simple. We're outnumbered a million to one in this galaxy. We'll win it, in time, every last piece of it. But if we make too loud a noise too early in our career, our opposition—both real and potential—may coalesce before we're ready for them. So the Navy says hands off.” “But you don't,” said Nelson.

“Absolutely correct,” said Landon. “We need those worlds.” He picked up the