“Before beginning, we wish to clarify: the Custodians may not withhold information pertaining to their own activities, is this correct?”
“Fundamentally, but there are two key exceptions.”
“Which are?”
“Until you are conferred membership, we will not indicate the existence of, nor discuss any of our activities involving, any protected species.”
“Understood. And?”
“And, if in answering your questions regarding our activities as Custodians, we would be forced to disclose information on other member states, we must decline to answer.”
“We assumed so. However, did you not, during our first contact, indicate that another race had been recruited to augment the Custodians in a variety of routine functions?”
“This is so.”
“So we may also ask questions regarding the performance of those functions as well, correct?”
A pause. Gotcha. But maybe you’re glad we’ve found this loophole—
“You may.”
“By extension, then, we may ask the identity of these auxiliary Custodians?”
A longer pause. “We have never considered this particular line of inquiry. However, revealing any of the activities of a member race would violate the race-privacy protocols of the accords.”
“Allow me to verify that I am accurate in my understanding: is it true that this other race has served as Custodians?”
A long, long pause. Then: “Yes, they work as Custodians.”
“Then I do not understand how questions pertaining to them, or their identity, are protected under the accords. The Custodians themselves have no such protections.”
“No, but the racial identity of our assistant Custodians is irrelevant. Their species of origin does not alter their responsibilities or their performance of them.”
Caine had foreseen that rebuff: “Alnduul, do you believe that the nature of an observer influences what they observe, and thus, what they report?”
“Yes: we hold this to be a fundamental tenet of the limits of empirical method.”
“So do we. So I must insist that the speciate identity of a given Custodial team will ultimately shape the work they do. By inescapable deduction, then, their identity is pertinent to any detailed inquiry into the overall history and performance of the Custodial function within the Accord.”
“Please excuse me for a moment.”
No one in the gallery spoke. Alnduul’s “moment” was seven minutes in length. Then: “Thank you for your patience. Although we have no extant policy on this matter, your reasoning is without flaw. In the absence of explicit rulings to the contrary, we hold that you may inquire as to the identity of those who have been solicited to assist us in routine Custodial tasks.”
“Good job, Riordan.” Lemuel’s mutter was triumphant. Visser was smiling fiercely; Downing only nodded and mused. Elena seemed to be carefully staring somewhere else.
And now, the 64,000-credit question . . . “Which member state has been assisting you in Custodial matters?”
Alnduul’s pause was peculiar in that Caine could not see any reason for it. “The Ktor.”
Eyes closed, Downing nodded vigorously to himself.
“May we ask how the Ktor were chosen, and why?”
Again a long, strange pause. Alnduul’s thumbs seemed to flex downward slightly—
—and Elena was on her feet. “He’s embarrassed—or apologetic—or annoyed.”
“Annoyed at us?”
“No. At himself.”
Alnduul stood straighter. “I cannot reveal all the circumstances surrounding that choice, for to do so would violate the privacy of several member states. However, I may tell you that the Ktor volunteered to serve in this role. Furthermore, the requirements of Custodianship make it most prudent to solicit help from other member states in descending order of their technical competencies.”
Downing and Visser exchanged confirmatory nods.
“Logical,” Durniak whispered. “As the most senior member state after the Dornaani, the Ktor are probably their closest technological rivals.”
And therefore, Caine thought, even more likely to be the ones behind the Arat Kur obstreperousness. But why? Well, we’ll circle back toward that later—“When was the Accord established?”
“Approximately seven thousand years ago.”
The quiet in the gallery was absolute. Caine couldn’t be sure, but it seemed as though some were holding their breath.
“Are the Dornaani the architects of the Accord?”
“For the most part, yes.”
Huh? “There were other architects?”
“Not at the time of the Accord’s formal institution seven thousand years ago. But the spirit and structure of the accords was borrowed from the founders of an earlier, analogous organization.”