Br’sei had felt himself swelling at that point, ready to argue, but the speaker’s words flew ahead of his. “What I see here convinces me that you and yours have a tremendous understanding of how life can be built and layered. Your life-base designs are strong and rich.” D’seun whistled, pleased. “I would like to talk to you about providing members for the initial teams, as well as engineers and designers for when New Home is found.”
The implication that brushed against Br’sei was that this discussion would take place only if Br’sei agreed to the idea of a mono-seeding. The speaker did make several excellent points, and the idea of Br’sei and his own team working on the foundations of New Home was a powerful lure.
“I think I could be convinced, Speaker,” Br’sei admitted, fanning his wings gently to keep himself close to D’seun. “Let me bring some of my engineers, and let us discuss this. Some new microcosms may need to be designed.”
“Thank you, Engineer Br’sei,” said D’seun, and the words sank deeply into Br’sei’s skin. “Bring your people. Let us think about what we may do together.”
In the end, with Br’sei’s help, D’seun had triumphed. As a result, Br’sei and his team, which he picked out with D’seun’s help, were given the most promising world to seed with a mono-culture of their own design.
It had worked and here they were, with D’seun as ambassador and Br’sei as collaborator.
Br’sei’s wings faltered slightly as that thought filtered through him.
“I have been thinking, Engineer Br’sei.” D’seun banked into an updraft. The warm air from the highland with its delicate taste of life lifted him high. “We say ‘Life spreads life’ all the time, but we do not ever hold still long enough to think what that should really mean.”
“Should mean?” Br’sei’s crest ruffled and spread flat, helping him keep an even path in the turbulent wind from the highlands. Pockets of heat and cold bumped against him, making him have to work to keep his position steady relative to the ambassador. If he was not careful, he would be trapped by the same eloquent arguments D’seun had used on the youngsters. “Not ‘does mean’?”
“On Home, I would have said ‘does mean.’” The updraft spilled D’seun into the cooler air and he drifted down again until he was level with Br’sei. “But here we are dealing with new possibilities. Here we can say ‘should mean.’”
Br’sei deflated just a little. The ambassador’s words were like a storm wind. They could sweep you along to an unknown destination before you even realized you were in a current too strong for you to fight.
“And have you decided what ‘Life spreads life’ should mean, Ambassador?”
“Not yet.” D’seun cupped his wings and hovered in place in a relative calm. “But I am wondering if it involves surrounding yourself with things that do not live.”
“What?” The single word burst out of Br’sei before he could even think about what he said.
D’seun dipped his muzzle. “Their transports, their base, they do not live. They are metal and ceramic without any living component I can find, and I have looked carefully.”
“But that’s…” Br’sei searched for a strong enough word and found nothing. He gathered his thoughts again. “They are other. Their life is different from ours,” he said, trying to give his words weight, but all the time he was thinking, Their home does not live? How can it care for them? How can they care for it?
D’seun glided close to him. “The question is, are they life we can live with?”
Br’sei deflated reflexively as the last sentence touched his muzzle. “Do you think they are insane, Ambassador?” Insanity was the gravest accusation that could be made against another being, worse than greed, worse than jealousy. Insanity meant they would ravage the life around them and that they would have to be stopped before they could damage the larger balance.
D’seun’s bones bunched tightly and he sank. “I don’t know, Engineer. I do know they frighten me.”
“Then why—”
D’seun’s teeth clacked but his amusement was grim. “Then why did I fight so hard for this world? Because this is the world where our life can exist, Br’sei. The only one we have ever found where it can.”
Their home does not live. Br’sei rolled his eyes upward, as if he thought to see the New People’s base floating overhead, drawn by the thought. The New People had not been his study or concern. His time had been spent with the highlands, the clouds, and the wind seeds. Even so, someone in the team should have told him about this.