Finally, another mechanicalvoice announced, “This is Vipin Aicilef Pinaar Eascra, Senior Vipinof the Lignatians. Explain why humans would set out on so dangerousa mission, before your people had even conquered the light-speedbarrier, if it was not an attempt to save the humanrace.”
Before answering thequestion, Ricci looked over at Drawde. “Vipin – that’s how youintroduced yourself to us. Is a title or a name?”
“Humans would call it atitle. Best translated for you as governmental scientist orengineer, but much more than that. There is no directcorollary.”
Matt was tempted to ask ifthe term ‘Senior Vipin’ meant Aicilef was Drawde’s superior, but hesupposed it didn’t really matter. He turned back to Aicilef, who heassumed was the purple-hued Lignatian to Millua’s right andre-opened communications. “Humanity went out into space as soon aswe were physically able. First to our moon, then to our neighboringplanets, and now we’ve established colonies in the star systemnearest to Earth. It is our nature to explore and learn about ourenvironment – the boundaries of that environment have only beenlimited by our physical reach. And we’ve been very determined andcreative about overcoming those limits.”
“This does not align withour experience with the humans of Experiment Alktata.”
“You’ve reared thesepeople in an artificial bubble and handed them everything withouteven fully explaining how it works. How do you expect them tosuddenly be resourceful and determined?”
“Functional human young donot retain the knowledge of their ancestors?”
“No, that’s not how humanswork. Human young learn from those who came before – but thatknowledge must be imparted, gradually, over many years. Andreinforced through life experience.”
“You were correct, VipinDrawde, this defect in the humans was not an artifact of thecloning.”
At last Ricci saw anopening to pose some questions. “You admit that you cloned thehumans from the Valiant. Why did the Lignatians do that? And how was itaccomplished?”
“There was a Lignatianprobe in the region when the Valiant was destroyed. We believedthat the last of your race had perished on that ship – the otherhumans in the area having been consumed by thePakarahova.”
“You know of thePakarahova?”
Wayru Millua answered,“They once offered us their distasteful assistance. We have nodesire to give up our present form. We instructed them to leave usin peace.”
Matt was intrigued,reflexively wanting to hear more about their encounter with thePakarahova but at the same time cognizant that the subject of humancloning took precedence. “Am I to understand that the Lignatiansestablished a human colony here on Jileesa because you believedthat the human race had perished on the Valiant? And you, therefore, took itupon yourselves to attempt to resurrect them?”
“That is correct,” VipinAicilef said. “We were moved by the plight of humankind to preventtheir extinction.”
Ricci was equal partstouched and appalled; the latter emotion got the upper hand whenWayru Millua took control of the conversation once more. “A plightthat was an illusion. The Lignatians have expended enormous timeand resources on what we now find is a worthless endeavor. We builtspecial probes to access the Valiant and retrieve the geneticsamples. We scanned the databases to learn your language, history,and culture. We built a human suitable environment and designednovel technologies so that the humans could one day resume themission of the Valiant and find a new home. All this we have done because we weredeceived by humankind. What defense can you offer for this act oftreachery?”
“There was no deliberateattempt to trick the Lignatians. With all due respect, WayruMillua, if you were deceived, it was your own doing.Furthermore—”
Ricci’s hand was gentlypushed off the control panel by Drawde. “This is not a wise courseyou have embarked upon. It would be better to show more humilityand respect to the Council.”
“It would be better if theLignatians had respected the human dead. I understand that yourintentions were noble but what you did was a gross violation ofhuman rights and ethics.”
Though the Council hadn’theard Ricci’s last few statements, Millua responded forcefully tohis former declaration. “This is the true human way, is it, CaptainRicci? No thanks do you offer for the trouble we have taken, noapologies do you make for the fraud of extinction, when in truthyou outnumber us more than a thousand-fold.”
Taking a second to corralhis temper, Matt heaved a great sigh. He moved his hand back to thecontrol panel, stating, “I do offer thanks for your nobleintentions towards humanity, and for the extreme effort youextended on behalf of the humans in your care. I’m sorry it was alldone due to a cross-cultural misunderstanding. This impression ofour extinction was imparted unintentionally. The only amends I cannow offer is to relieve you of your responsibilities. As soon as wecan arrange transfer of all the humans from Jileesa to Uniterrae,we will trouble you no more.”
Matt watched as thefilaments in Millua’s head all flashed a blinding white. He onlyunderstood the significance of that display when Millua declared,“Yes, we see now the true nature of humans. Now that you haveexposed our hidden home world, you are ready to depart. Now thatyou have stolen our technology, far superior to yours, you are donewith us. Now that you have drained the last trickle of lifeforcefrom our bodies, you will ‘trouble us no more.’”
“If it’s so important toyou, we will faithfully uphold the secret of Jileesa’s location –and we have certainly notstolen your technology!”
“Do not lie when your owndeeds and words stand against you. Have you not already begunadaptation of our neutrino-beam communication technique? Did younot inquire almost immediately and very forcefully as to how ourtranslation device operates? Did you not assign your engineer thetask of uncovering all the mechanisms of the Aurora?”
Ricci decided to tacklethe spurious accusations in reverse order. “I assigned my engineerto fix the Aurora so that your humans could get home. Lieutenant Brodie askedabout the Silver Tongue simply because that’s human nature – to be curious aboutsuch wonders. And yes, we have looked into your communicationtechnique – but that’s hardly ‘stealing technology.’ That’s whatspace-faring species do – we learnfrom each other. All of us. We exchange ideas andadvances and generally everyone benefits from theinteraction.”
“Lignatians are not aspace-faring race. We send out probes only, in order to gainknowledge of the physical universe. We have taken great pains
