“This environment hassufficient beds and additional food will be provided. You have nowish for rest or sustenance?”
“We can get all of that onour shuttle.”
There was a long silence and Tal assumed Drawde was weighingRicci’s demand. “Your request can be granted. I will call for theboat to transport you back to your shuttle. I must warn you though,your communications with the Lovelace will be monitored by ourenvironmental Inspection-Filter. It will automatically blockanything which would send up an alarm. It is familiar with allforms of human communication.”
“I guessed as much,” Ricciresponded.
They endured anuncomfortable voyage back to the shuttle. Kaplita was sitting inmorose silence while Bayer was throwing deadly looks at Drawde, herhand not far from her holstered pulse pistol. Jacoway was studyingRicci closely – he was clearly distracted and Tal suspected thecaptain was weighing his next move.
When they disembarked onthe dock near the shuttle, Drawde asked, “Is there anything more Ican do for you?”
Ricci said, “As a matterof fact there is.” He stepped ever so slightly closer to the bluefigure. “You can tell me how it was that the Lignatians caused thedestruction of the Valiant.”
All three officers gaped attheir captain’s non-sequitur, Jacoway wondering what kind ofstrange tactical ploy this was.
There was no immediateanswer from their host. When the captain continued to stare theghostly figure down, Drawde asked, “On what do you base thisaccusation, Captain Ricci? Jileesa employs none but defensiveweapons, we have no enemies, we fight no battles. I realize thatthe current situation might make you assume us monstrous, but theCouncil’s actions are in response to—”
“I can’t help but noticethat you haven’t explicitly denied my allegation.”
“Why do you persist intouting this theory?”
“Logic dictates that sucha xenophobic race as yours wouldn’t take on a huge burden likeExperiment Alktata out of the goodness of your hearts – if you’llexcuse the expression. I’ve been puzzling about it since theaudience with your Ruling Council and then it came to me – guilt.You carry collective guilt about the destruction of theValiant. It’s theonly possibleexplanation.”
Drawde turned to re-boardthe boat. “I will call for you when a decision has been renderedand ratified by the Council. Please remember what I said aboutcommunications with your ship.”
Ricci called after theretreating figure, “It was an accident – wasn’t it?”
Jacoway watched as Drawdefroze, and then slowly turned back to face them. The only sound forthe next half-minute was the gentle lapping of the viscous fakeocean against the equally fake shore. The extended silence had anair of menace to it and Jacoway could see the tension in Bayer’sframe. She was obviously waiting to spring into action and defendthem from whatever Drawde had planned in retaliation for Ricci’saudacity.
When Drawde finally said,“Yes. It was,” it took Tal a moment to realize the Lignatian wasresponding to Ricci’s question. Drawde walked back to them,explaining, “An unforeseen complication was the catalyst.” Therewas another pause but no human responded. They waited for Drawde toelaborate. “You see, it should not have been possible for ourVhenarc probe to impact any ship.”
“Ohh, so that’s whathappened….” Kaplita nodded slowly, putting the pieces togetherone-by-one. “A Lignatian probe hitthe Valiant. Andthat caused that leak in the fusion reactor which doomed theship.”
“Yes, to all of that. TheVhenarc was the fastest, most powerful, and wide-ranging probe everlaunched from Jileesa. But the calculations for its trajectory werebased on the belief that any ship in that region of space wouldhave light-speed capabilities. There were no colonized worldswithin thousands of light-years, so how could it be otherwise? Thevipin who programmed the probe could not have conceived of a racesuch as yours. One so eager to explore space that you wouldwillingly spend literal lifetimes doing it.”
“How do you know so muchabout it?” Jacoway asked. “Who was that vipin? You? Or someone youknow?”
“Our lives do not stretchthat long. It was Vipin Drawde Occor Tyar.”
Bayer asked, “Was that oneof your parents?”
“We do not have parentssuch as you are familiar with. When a Lignatian nears theirlifecycle end, our bodies can produce buds, a process we callblooming. When we choose to bloom, one bud, or rarely two, itdepends on the lifeforce remaining, is produced. The bud feeds offof the dormant body and finally emerges as a new individual. Thatindividual retains the major life-memories of their ancestors. Thecloser the ancestry, the more vivid the memories.” The humans werestill digesting that startling information when Drawde explained,“Drawde Occor Tyar was my direct-ancestor. I am one of the fewLignatians left who is that close to the incident. Most Lignatiansexisting now are two or more ancestors removed from it.”
Ricci’s demeanor softenedconsiderably. “Are you very old, then – for aLignatian?”
“Yes, I am ancient indeed.My entire existence has been haunted by the lives lost due to amiscalculation by Occor Tyar. Afterwards, Occor was completelydevoted to Experiment Alktata. When the human environment wasfinally ready, Occor gave rise to me. It was my role to perfect thecloning technique and see it through to its conclusion. Now, all mylifeforce has been spilled for naught. I was reserving what remainsin order to direct the settlement of New Earth. It is unlikely thatthere is enough left for me to bloom. The Drawde line will end withme – in disgrace and failure.”
“It doesn’t have to bethat way,” Ricci urged. “If you help us, we can help you. The humans you’veso carefully nurtured can fulfill their destiny on Uniterrae – andyou can fulfill the obligation your predecessor left you. And diein peace.”
“You expect the five of usto prevail against the entire Ruling Council of Jileesa? Humans areindeed a brash and bold race, in their natural state.”
Ricci snorted in bleakamusement but gave no direct denial. “I have a plan that might saveeveryone – but I need your help to pull it off.”
“What would you have medo?”
“Tell me how to get amessage out of this environment.”
“Impossible. All potentialexchanges with your ship will be closely monitored during thiswaiting period.”
“What if we send amessage, not to the Lovelace, but directly to Tolu? YourRuling Council wouldn’t be expecting that – would they?”
“No, but theInspection-Filter program will also be monitoring that data stream.And will automatically block any communications indicating alarm orwarning.”
“Only if it can understand our
