lust, didn’t it? Back in the bad old days, before everyone had evolved into the thoroughly superior moral beings we are today, of course.”
Yiitir gave Thariinye an approving glimmer from under his brows but said nothing. This was Maarni’s area of expertise and Acorna suspected that even her eminent husband stole her thunder at his own peril.
“My, so many questions to answer at once,” Maarni said, gathering their attention as she might gather flowers for a banquet. “Let me see. Maati, my dear, things have not always been as they were in the holos any more than they are now. Worlds always change. If people don’t change them, planets rearrange themselves. Scientists can call it laws of entropy, or chaos theory, or whatever they will. I suspect planets change because they grow weary of always looking the same, and they find a good catastrophe a cure for boredom. Such change does make life quite interesting indeed for any lifeforms living on the surface of a planet at the time one of these makeovers occurs.”
Maati giggled. “When they change, do the planets then admire themselves using other planets’ oceans for mirrors?”
Maarni looked at her in surprise. “Why, I wouldn’t doubt it at all! That must be how they do it. Perhaps you should go into my line of work, with a mind that generates such images. Anyway, as Thariinye so shrewdly pointed out, we were not always as we are now. In the times before time as we know it, there were no Linyaari. There were only those of the race we call the Ancestral Friends and there were, after the Rescue, the Ancestors here on the face of this planet along with the plants and all of the creatures unable to share their mind’s thoughts. About this time we have only the stories the Ancestors handed down to us, and much speculation. None of the Ancestors alive today were alive then, nor were their dams or sires, or their dams or sires for many generations back.
“So if what I say now shocks you, Maati, for I know that Grandam took a very positive tone in her interpretations of our stories, please bear in mind that the People were Becoming back then, that they were finding their way, and that although they knew many things, they did not know then, any more than most people know now, how to treat their fellow beings.
“The Friends rescued the Ancestors from Old Terra. Perhaps they felt compassion for the Ancestors’ plight on their home world, it is true, but it is also said by some that the Friends had other reasons, or developed other reasons after the Rescue, for wishing the Ancestors to live near them. The Friends, you see, found our Ancestors very beautiful and they— yearned for them.”
“How?” Maati asked. “They were different species, weren’t they? Surely the Friends were anthropoid so that the mix between them and the friends produced—us. Oh, I see. It did produce us. So. Yes. The Friends yearned for the Ancestors. So what you’re saying is that we came to be for other than purely scientific reasons?”
“Yes. The Friends loved the Ancestors and yearned for them. And the Ancestors in those days were different from the precious ones still among us today. They were four-legged as they are now, true, and looked very much the same, but their temperaments were different in those days. Wild and fierce, intelligent and capable of learning, but not very learned, and very strong-willed and stubborn.
“The Ancestors were very grateful to the Friends for the Rescue and looked upon them as protectors, but still they remained wary. They had been hunted nearly to extinction back on their home world, and trust came very hard to them.
“One Friend in particular conceived a great passion for a particularly lovely Ancestor and followed her everywhere. She became alarmed and afraid of his ardor and one day, when she saw him, began running very fast, until she came to the edge of a great cliff. She was fleet of foot and nimble and turned aside quickly but the
Yiitir gave Thariinye an approving glimmer from under his brows but said nothing. This was Maarni’s area of expertise and Acorna suspected that even her eminent husband stole her thunder at his own peril.
“My, so many questions to answer at once,” Maarni said, gathering their attention as she might gather flowers for a banquet. “Let me see. Maati, my dear, things have not always been as they were in the holos any more than they are now. Worlds always change. If people don’t change them, planets rearrange themselves. Scientists can call it laws of entropy, or chaos theory, or whatever they will. I suspect planets change because they grow weary of always looking the same, and they find a good catastrophe a cure for boredom. Such change does make life quite interesting indeed for any lifeforms living on the surface of a planet at the time one of these makeovers occurs.”
Maati giggled. “When they change, do the planets then admire themselves using other planets’ oceans for mirrors?”
Maarni looked at her in surprise. “Why, I wouldn’t doubt it at all! That must be how they do it. Perhaps you should go into my line of work, with a mind that generates such images. Anyway, as Thariinye so shrewdly pointed out, we were not always as we are now. In the times before time as we know it, there were no Linyaari. There were only those of the race we call the Ancestral Friends and there were, after the Rescue, the Ancestors here on the face of this planet along with the plants and all of the creatures unable to share their mind’s thoughts. About this time we have only the stories the Ancestors handed down to us, and much speculation. None of the Ancestors alive today were alive then, nor were their dams or sires, or their dams or sires for many generations back.
“So if what I say now shocks you, Maati, for I know that Grandam took a very positive tone in her interpretations of our stories, please bear in mind that the People were Becoming back then, that they were finding their way, and that although they knew many things, they did not know then, any more than most people know now, how to treat their fellow beings.
“The Friends rescued the Ancestors from Old Terra. Perhaps they felt compassion for the Ancestors’ plight on their home world, it is true, but it is also said by some that the Friends had other reasons, or developed other reasons after the Rescue, for wishing the Ancestors to live near them. The Friends, you see, found our Ancestors very beautiful and they— yearned for them.”
“How?” Maati asked. “They were different species, weren’t they? Surely the Friends were anthropoid so that the mix between them and the friends produced—us. Oh, I see. It did produce us. So. Yes. The Friends yearned for the Ancestors. So what you’re saying is that we came to be for other than purely scientific reasons?”
“Yes. The Friends loved the Ancestors and yearned for them. And the Ancestors in those days were different from the precious ones still among us today. They were four-legged as they are now, true, and looked very much the same, but their temperaments were different in those days. Wild and fierce, intelligent and capable of learning, but not very learned, and very strong-willed and stubborn.
“The Ancestors were very grateful to the Friends for the Rescue and looked upon them as protectors, but still they remained wary. They had been hunted nearly to extinction back on their home world, and trust came very hard to them.
“One Friend in particular conceived a great passion for a particularly lovely Ancestor and followed her everywhere. She became alarmed and afraid of his ardor and one day, when she saw him, began running very fast, until she came to the edge of a great cliff. She was fleet of foot and nimble and turned aside quickly but the
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