“We do not have the time to test those millions.”
T’sha strained the wind through her teeth. It held nothing, no taste, no texture, no scent. Empty air. Good for nothing but carrying flies and bad news.
“You came all this way to tell me this? You could have sent a message. I do wear a radio.” She tapped the fine neural mesh of her headset for emphasis.
T’sha searched D’seun’s stance and bearing, trying to get some feel for what he wanted. Despite his confident size, he was not at ease. He gripped and released the perches with each hand in turn so that he rocked unsteadily. His eyes darted about behind their lenses, looking for something other than her.
“There are things I wished to say to you directly,” said D’seun blandly.
T’sha’s posthands clenched the perch a little more tightly. “What are they? Do not speak against this candidate world? Do not say that if we must take this candidate, we must approach the New People and tell them plainly what we have come to New Home to do?”
D’seun inflated himself a little bit more. “The Seventh is the only planet where the life base has taken.” Light sparkled against his skin and his tattoos. He had several new patterns running down his shoulder—a kite with billowing sails, a pattern of interlinking diamonds, and an ancient pictorial symbol for movement.
T’sha turned her gaze from D’seun’s personal vanity. “Did the Seventh Team also report that the activities of the New People are increasing?” Her friend Pe’sen had monitor duty at the Conoi portal cluster. Now and then, he slipped her advance notice of team reports.
“That’s all to the good,” said D’seun calmly.
“Is it?” T’sha watched the cloud fingers in front of them with their haze of flies. Perhaps some hunter birds could be imported from the higher latitudes. They adapted well and needed little breeding supervision.
“What else could it be? Life must expand. Life helps life.” The intensity of his words rippled the air. She could feel them against the skin of her muzzle.
Is that what you believe? Or are you only saying that because you know it’s what I believe? With D’seun, this could be a question. She had seen him use partial truths to manipulate speakers and ambassadors before.
“Not all life views the world, perhaps I should say worlds, in the same way.” T’sha pointed her muzzle toward the thick, sulfurous columns of haze and rot. “We see this abundance of flies as a danger signal. How do the flies see it?”
D’seun held up one forehand. “Intelligent life understands the void must be filled.” That was an old truism, one that had never been put to the test. D’seun knew that as well as T’sha did.
“But filled with what?” muttered T’sha.
D’seun deflated until he was level with her again. “It is a question, certainly.”
“No, it is the question,” said T’sha. “And it is the one we are not asking.”
She watched the bones under his skin expand and contract as he resisted the urge to swell up and tower over her. “You certainly are.”
“Because someone must.” She had carefully gone over all the available memories of the New People. They themselves were as hard to see as shellfish in their shells, but their creations were easily found. Their creations existed on three planets and one satellite of the Seventh World system, and one of those planets was Seventh World itself.
What did not seem to exist was any sign of life outside the shells, which was what breathed life into the debates. No good information had yet been acquired about their home world. They were obviously intelligent, but if they were not actively spreading life to New Home, were they making legitimate use of its resources? And if they were not making legitimate use of its resources, what stopped the People from doing so? There were those who argued that a system that already supported life was the best place to move themselves to. It would provide community, knowledge, and resources. D’seun was one of those, although he generally argued much more about knowledge and resources than he did about community.
Until now, of course.
D’seun deflated, becoming small, tight, and hard. “We need a new haven and new resources to ride out this imbalance.” He sounded like a recording, running over and over until the feel of his words overwhelmed his audience and they could draw in nothing else.
Remain calm. Remain calm. You are an ambassador now and do not have the luxury of unchallenged opinion. T’sha leaned closer, seeking to draw him out. “Have you considered that contact with the New People will put an end to many questions?”