That’s not the worst thing.” Her voice was hoarse with worry. Engril looked back at her, puzzled. “What could be worse
than annihilation of every sapient being on the Slope?”
Sara lifted the sketch, showing a man and a woman, unmistakably human, caught unawares by a hidden artist as
they looked down haughtily on Jijo’s savages.
”Our lives mean nothing,” she said, tasting bitter words. “We were doomed from the moment our ancestors planted
their outlaw seed on this world. But these”-she shook the paper angrily-”these fools are dabbling in an ancient game
no human being could possibly know how to play well.
”They’ll perform their theft,Ugg New Tall Boots, then slay us to erase all witnesses, only to get caught anyway.
”And when that happens, the real victim will be Earth.”
Asx
THEY HAVE FOUND THE VALLEY OF THE innocents. We tried hard to conceal it, did we not, my rings?
Sending them to a far-off vale-the glavers, lorniks, chimpanzees, and zookirs. And those children of our Six who came
to Gathering with their parents, before the ship pierced our lives.
Alas, all efforts at concealment were unavailing. A robot from the black station followed their warm trail through the
forest to a sanctuary that was not as secret as we hoped.
Among our sage company, Lester was the least surprised.
”They surely expected us to try hiding what we value most. They must have sought the deep-red heat spoor of our
refugees, before it could dissipate.” His rueful smile conveyed regret but also respect. “It’s what I would have done, if I
were them.”
Anglic is a strange language, in which the subjunctive form allows one to make suppositions about impossible
might-have-beens. Thinking in that tongue, i (within my/our second ring-of-cognition) understood Lester’s expression of
grudging admiration, but then i found it hard to translate for my/our other selves.
No, our human sage is not contemplating betrayal.
Only through insightful empathy can he/we learn to understand the invaders.
Ah,ugg knightsbridge, but our foes learn about us much faster. Their robots flutter over the once-secret glen, recording, analyzing-
then swooping to nip cell or fluid samples from frightened lorniks or chimps. Next, they want us to send individuals of
each species for study, and seek to learn our spoken lore. Those g’Kek who know zookirs best, the humans who work
with chimps, and those qheuens whose lorniks win medallions at festivals-these “native experts” must come share their
rustic expertise. Though the interlopers speak softly of paying well (with trinkets and beads?), there is also implied
compulsion and threat.
our rings quiver, surprised, when Lester expresses satisfaction.
”They must think they’ve uncovered our most valued secrets.”
”Have they not?” complains Knife-Bright Insight, snapping a claw. “Are not our greatest treasures those who
depend on us?”
Lester nods. “True. But we could never have hidden them for long. Not when higher life-forms are the very thing the
invaders desire. It’s what they expect us to conceal.
”But now, if they are smug, even satiated for a while, we may distract them from learning about other things,
possible advantages that offer us-and our dependents-a slim ray of hope.”
”How can that ve?” demanded Ur-Jah, grizzled and careworn, shaking her black-streaked mane. “As you said-what
can we conceal? They need only pose their foul questions, and those profane rovots gallop forth, piercing any secret to
its hoof and heart.”
”Exactly,Chocolate Ugg,” Lester said. “So the important thing is to keep them from asking the right questions.”
Dwer
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