impede her movement.
"My name is Qara-Chinua, thank you for your help," Qara said, belatedly remembering her manners. Then she spoiled it somewhat by asking curiously, "Why are there no other females among you?"
Vi did not reply immediately, but stared in the direction that the ambassador had taken, as if considering how much information she could divulge without incurring his displeasure.
"The most difficult thing I have found in learning your language is that there are many words which have more than one meaning. We do not have this phenomenon in our language, which has developed to the point where there is no ambiguity in our speech at all. One such word you use is 'confidence'. I have learned that it usually means self-assurance or self-belief, but it is also used when you wish to ask someone to keep something secret. May I tell you something in confidence?"
Qara didn't have the heart to explain that no-one on Earth would ever tell a Personet reporter anything in confidence, unless the person's true agenda was to ensure the dissemination of the secret as quickly and as widely as possible. Anyway, she was far too intrigued to say no.
"Of course," she said, offering the human race's absolute assurance of complete trustworthiness.
"In my society, females are regarded as far too valuable to be risked on contact expeditions. Compared to you, and to most of our other client races, we are extremely long-lived. I am nearly two hundred of your years old, but am still considered very young. The problem my people face is that, as our longevity has increased over the millennia, our females have grown increasingly infertile and, to make matters worse, less and less females are being born. It is as if our race as a whole has reached its pinnacle and no longer needs to reproduce. For this reason, our females are placed in protected environments from birth, where our sole purpose is to have young. It is very rare that any of us are permitted to engage in any hazardous pursuits."
"How were you able to come on this voyage?"
"I have an uncommon ability to learn and understand exotic languages and I was allowed to qualify as a translator. I was the top of my class. The ambassador, who insists on having the best personnel when he prepares a contact expedition, personally requested the Ancient Council to release me. Even then, I would never have been permitted to leave my reproduction centre if my fertility rating had not been extremely low."
It was impossible to tell whether the appropriate response to Vi's disclosure was to offer congratulations or condolences, a bit like when a friend announces that she is pregnant with twins. Most reporters would have had no compunction about asking for the gory details of life at a reproduction centre, but Qara was taking a liking to the earnest young stranger and decided not to be indelicate. She supposed that it must be a bit like boarding school for young adults.
"You must miss your family while you are in a reproduction centre. How often are you allowed to visit them?"
Vi gave her a sharp look, which from those eyes was very sharp indeed. She didn't answer at once and Qara began to think that she had offended the stranger after all.
"The ambassador is right about you, you certainly are skilled at asking perceptive questions. In our society, we do not have families as you understand them. We are born in the same way that you are, but we are not permitted to live with our parents. Our young remain with their birth mothers for two star-cycles, after which the females are sent to reproduction centres, and the males to evaluation centres. Most females remain in the centres until they are no longer capable of reproducing. After that, they are free to leave, although most remain as teachers, carers or in administrative positions."
Qara was horrified. It was boarding school from the cradle to the grave! And for a lifespan of hundreds of
"My name is Qara-Chinua, thank you for your help," Qara said, belatedly remembering her manners. Then she spoiled it somewhat by asking curiously, "Why are there no other females among you?"
Vi did not reply immediately, but stared in the direction that the ambassador had taken, as if considering how much information she could divulge without incurring his displeasure.
"The most difficult thing I have found in learning your language is that there are many words which have more than one meaning. We do not have this phenomenon in our language, which has developed to the point where there is no ambiguity in our speech at all. One such word you use is 'confidence'. I have learned that it usually means self-assurance or self-belief, but it is also used when you wish to ask someone to keep something secret. May I tell you something in confidence?"
Qara didn't have the heart to explain that no-one on Earth would ever tell a Personet reporter anything in confidence, unless the person's true agenda was to ensure the dissemination of the secret as quickly and as widely as possible. Anyway, she was far too intrigued to say no.
"Of course," she said, offering the human race's absolute assurance of complete trustworthiness.
"In my society, females are regarded as far too valuable to be risked on contact expeditions. Compared to you, and to most of our other client races, we are extremely long-lived. I am nearly two hundred of your years old, but am still considered very young. The problem my people face is that, as our longevity has increased over the millennia, our females have grown increasingly infertile and, to make matters worse, less and less females are being born. It is as if our race as a whole has reached its pinnacle and no longer needs to reproduce. For this reason, our females are placed in protected environments from birth, where our sole purpose is to have young. It is very rare that any of us are permitted to engage in any hazardous pursuits."
"How were you able to come on this voyage?"
"I have an uncommon ability to learn and understand exotic languages and I was allowed to qualify as a translator. I was the top of my class. The ambassador, who insists on having the best personnel when he prepares a contact expedition, personally requested the Ancient Council to release me. Even then, I would never have been permitted to leave my reproduction centre if my fertility rating had not been extremely low."
It was impossible to tell whether the appropriate response to Vi's disclosure was to offer congratulations or condolences, a bit like when a friend announces that she is pregnant with twins. Most reporters would have had no compunction about asking for the gory details of life at a reproduction centre, but Qara was taking a liking to the earnest young stranger and decided not to be indelicate. She supposed that it must be a bit like boarding school for young adults.
"You must miss your family while you are in a reproduction centre. How often are you allowed to visit them?"
Vi gave her a sharp look, which from those eyes was very sharp indeed. She didn't answer at once and Qara began to think that she had offended the stranger after all.
"The ambassador is right about you, you certainly are skilled at asking perceptive questions. In our society, we do not have families as you understand them. We are born in the same way that you are, but we are not permitted to live with our parents. Our young remain with their birth mothers for two star-cycles, after which the females are sent to reproduction centres, and the males to evaluation centres. Most females remain in the centres until they are no longer capable of reproducing. After that, they are free to leave, although most remain as teachers, carers or in administrative positions."
Qara was horrified. It was boarding school from the cradle to the grave! And for a lifespan of hundreds of
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