Carefully."
"Okay," Jamie said. He paused for a moment. "Brox wouldn't have given us that history lesson if it didn't have anything to do with the case," he began. "And they--whoever 'they' are--wouldn't have sent Brox to brief us if the Kendari weren't involved--and they wouldn't have come to BSI--and us--if humans weren't involved."
"So," said Hannah, "the obvious conclusion is that whatever case we're meant to deal with involves humans and Kendari and the Pentam System--or at least it might affect negotiations about the Pentam System."
"Two planets, Hannah. Two whole habitable planets. Maybe a pair of Earth-plus tropical paradises--or maybe one is a frozen iceball that's barely warm enough at the equator, and the other is so hot that only the north and south poles are survivable. It doesn't matter. Two worlds that people can live on without building domes or underground habitats. Plus which, lots of people care who doesn't get Pentam. That tells me that, somehow, Pentam has strategic value. And Brox has as much as told us the list of candidates for who gets Pentam is down to humans and Kendari."
"So?"
"So what if solving the case--whatever the case is--gets in the way of humans claiming two whole worlds? Or suppose cracking the case gets in the way of keeping the Kendari from snatching them? And let's just bear in mind that our old dear honorable friend and enemy Brox 231 is playing the game for the same stakes we are--but he has a lot more information than we do. He's going to have all the same motives, or temptations, or whatever you might want to call it, to bend the case his way--and he's starting the game with a lot more chips and much better cards, than we have."
Hannah frowned. "Or if you really want to dream up nightmares, suppose the case concerns a minor infraction by our standards, by human standards. To them it's a crime against civilization--but to us it's a parking ticket. Would it really be the right choice to make if we did everything by the book--and cost the human race two planets? Would bending the rules enough to keep the Kendari from getting them, and endangering us, necessarily be wrong, bad, and evil?"
Jamie shook his head. "Listen to yourself. If I made that paranoid and worried a speech, what would you tell me?"
"Something like there's never any way of knowing for certain how things will play out in the long run--or even the short run. And that mostly things don't work out the way you expected anyway."
Jamie nodded and grinned back at her. "So you might as well play it all as straight as you can, because playing dirty might not work out as well as you think."
"Okay," she said. "So maybe the moral is there's no point in overthinking this thing."
"But let's not underthink it either," said Jamie. "We can't assume things will be what they seem to be."
"Agreed. But there's something else," said Hannah. "Brox is scared. And maybe more than that. In shock. He's hiding it well, and it's always tough to read a xeno's body language and expressions, and he's doing a terrific job of playing it cool--but even so, it's plain enough that something has him really, really worried. Something bad has already happened--and something worse might."
There was a sudden lurch, and a bump, then the command sphere was falling away from the navigation dome port. Both Hannah and Jamie dropped heavily onto the deck, Jamie falling forward and Hannah sitting down very abruptly. Cursing and grumbling, Jamie got up on his hands and knees, then shifted around to look up at the rapidly receding view of the stars. "Now what?" he asked.
In a moment, they were through the first hatch, and, as best Hannah could judge, heading back the way they had come. "Well, we moved forward to get as far as possible from the propulsion system when it lit, and to do a visual navigation check. Now the check is complete, and the engines are off, so the safest place to be is back where we were."
"If Greveltra is that worried about safety,
"Okay," Jamie said. He paused for a moment. "Brox wouldn't have given us that history lesson if it didn't have anything to do with the case," he began. "And they--whoever 'they' are--wouldn't have sent Brox to brief us if the Kendari weren't involved--and they wouldn't have come to BSI--and us--if humans weren't involved."
"So," said Hannah, "the obvious conclusion is that whatever case we're meant to deal with involves humans and Kendari and the Pentam System--or at least it might affect negotiations about the Pentam System."
"Two planets, Hannah. Two whole habitable planets. Maybe a pair of Earth-plus tropical paradises--or maybe one is a frozen iceball that's barely warm enough at the equator, and the other is so hot that only the north and south poles are survivable. It doesn't matter. Two worlds that people can live on without building domes or underground habitats. Plus which, lots of people care who doesn't get Pentam. That tells me that, somehow, Pentam has strategic value. And Brox has as much as told us the list of candidates for who gets Pentam is down to humans and Kendari."
"So?"
"So what if solving the case--whatever the case is--gets in the way of humans claiming two whole worlds? Or suppose cracking the case gets in the way of keeping the Kendari from snatching them? And let's just bear in mind that our old dear honorable friend and enemy Brox 231 is playing the game for the same stakes we are--but he has a lot more information than we do. He's going to have all the same motives, or temptations, or whatever you might want to call it, to bend the case his way--and he's starting the game with a lot more chips and much better cards, than we have."
Hannah frowned. "Or if you really want to dream up nightmares, suppose the case concerns a minor infraction by our standards, by human standards. To them it's a crime against civilization--but to us it's a parking ticket. Would it really be the right choice to make if we did everything by the book--and cost the human race two planets? Would bending the rules enough to keep the Kendari from getting them, and endangering us, necessarily be wrong, bad, and evil?"
Jamie shook his head. "Listen to yourself. If I made that paranoid and worried a speech, what would you tell me?"
"Something like there's never any way of knowing for certain how things will play out in the long run--or even the short run. And that mostly things don't work out the way you expected anyway."
Jamie nodded and grinned back at her. "So you might as well play it all as straight as you can, because playing dirty might not work out as well as you think."
"Okay," she said. "So maybe the moral is there's no point in overthinking this thing."
"But let's not underthink it either," said Jamie. "We can't assume things will be what they seem to be."
"Agreed. But there's something else," said Hannah. "Brox is scared. And maybe more than that. In shock. He's hiding it well, and it's always tough to read a xeno's body language and expressions, and he's doing a terrific job of playing it cool--but even so, it's plain enough that something has him really, really worried. Something bad has already happened--and something worse might."
There was a sudden lurch, and a bump, then the command sphere was falling away from the navigation dome port. Both Hannah and Jamie dropped heavily onto the deck, Jamie falling forward and Hannah sitting down very abruptly. Cursing and grumbling, Jamie got up on his hands and knees, then shifted around to look up at the rapidly receding view of the stars. "Now what?" he asked.
In a moment, they were through the first hatch, and, as best Hannah could judge, heading back the way they had come. "Well, we moved forward to get as far as possible from the propulsion system when it lit, and to do a visual navigation check. Now the check is complete, and the engines are off, so the safest place to be is back where we were."
"If Greveltra is that worried about safety,
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