Read Online Final Inquiries by Roger MacBride Allen - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Roger MacBride Allen
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We're frightened of you, of course--and also, I might add, very angry and annoyed."
"Annoyed? Why?"
"That isn't obvious? We arrived out in galactic society, or whatever you want to call it, just a few twelves of years before you did. We look back on that brief period as a lost golden age of promise. We weren't just one of two Younger Races. We were the Young Race among all the Elder Races, the only Young Race. Special. The first New Race of sentient starfaring beings to emerge in many thousands of years. In fact, it had been so long since a new sentient species was located that most of the Elder Races had assumed that the process of emergence was completed. We were unique, and of interest.
"Some of them took to calling us the Last Race. Their studies proved that 'the wave of evolutionary fervor'--that was their favorite phrase--that had produced all the sentient races had reached its end. We were the last dot on the graph, the last to appear. We were to be cherished, prized, protected.
"And then humans emerged, and the novelty was gone. Suddenly all their theories were wrong--and Elder Race scientists don't like to be proven wrong any more than Kendari scientists--or human ones, for that matter.
"Somehow or another, they seemed to take it out on your people, and mine, almost as if we had evolved, developed spaceflight, then star travel for no other reason than to make them look foolish.
"Since you appeared they have to explain away everything they got wrong. Some of them have decided you humans are merely the last aberration, the Last Race. Some have taken to assuming that there are any number of other Younger Races out there, bound to appear at any minute. But that position requires that they admit their mistake.
"So mostly the Elders have dealt with the problem by simply declaring that all Younger Races--humans, Kendari, and whoever else might suddenly pop up--are utterly insignificant. We are all so weak, so small, so behind in our technology that we simply do not matter. It doesn't matter if their theories are wrong, because the subjects of their theories aren't worth bothering about."
"That goes along with what our xenologists have concluded regarding the Elder Races in general," said Jamie. "The Elders figure that they know so much, and can do so much, have such superb science and technology and so forth, that anything they don't know or can't do is at the edges, unimportant."
Jamie had never really thought about the human-Kendari rivalry from the Kendari point of view. The human emergence into interstellar space must have upended any number of plans and hopes and expectations. It was just as irrational for the Kendari to resent the humans as it was for the Elders to resent both Younger Races for the crime of spoiling their nice neat theories.
There was a series of clanks and thuds, and Jamie sat up a little straighter. "Is our command sphere going to take another little ride?" he asked.
"I believe so," said Brox. "We are still traveling at something very close to light-speed, and will of course have to decelerate in order to match the orbit of Tifinda. Greveltra will want us as far from the propulsion system this time as he did the last time. Should we perhaps awaken Senior Special Agent Wolfson?"
"Huh? What?" Hannah came awake at the sound of her name. "Are we there yet?" she asked. "What's going on?"
The command sphere lurched forward before anyone could answer. They looked overhead to watch the sphere climb the vertical shaft system. "Brox says we're getting ready to slow down," Jamie half shouted, trying to make sure he was heard over the bangs and clatters of their transit.
"Thanks for the tip," Hannah said. "I never would have figured that out on my own."
The sphere crashed and banged through the various hatches and back up into the navigation-dome position.
The view overhead was utterly different. There was a muddled blob of reddened stars at the zenith, unnaturally crowded together, with only a
"Annoyed? Why?"
"That isn't obvious? We arrived out in galactic society, or whatever you want to call it, just a few twelves of years before you did. We look back on that brief period as a lost golden age of promise. We weren't just one of two Younger Races. We were the Young Race among all the Elder Races, the only Young Race. Special. The first New Race of sentient starfaring beings to emerge in many thousands of years. In fact, it had been so long since a new sentient species was located that most of the Elder Races had assumed that the process of emergence was completed. We were unique, and of interest.
"Some of them took to calling us the Last Race. Their studies proved that 'the wave of evolutionary fervor'--that was their favorite phrase--that had produced all the sentient races had reached its end. We were the last dot on the graph, the last to appear. We were to be cherished, prized, protected.
"And then humans emerged, and the novelty was gone. Suddenly all their theories were wrong--and Elder Race scientists don't like to be proven wrong any more than Kendari scientists--or human ones, for that matter.
"Somehow or another, they seemed to take it out on your people, and mine, almost as if we had evolved, developed spaceflight, then star travel for no other reason than to make them look foolish.
"Since you appeared they have to explain away everything they got wrong. Some of them have decided you humans are merely the last aberration, the Last Race. Some have taken to assuming that there are any number of other Younger Races out there, bound to appear at any minute. But that position requires that they admit their mistake.
"So mostly the Elders have dealt with the problem by simply declaring that all Younger Races--humans, Kendari, and whoever else might suddenly pop up--are utterly insignificant. We are all so weak, so small, so behind in our technology that we simply do not matter. It doesn't matter if their theories are wrong, because the subjects of their theories aren't worth bothering about."
"That goes along with what our xenologists have concluded regarding the Elder Races in general," said Jamie. "The Elders figure that they know so much, and can do so much, have such superb science and technology and so forth, that anything they don't know or can't do is at the edges, unimportant."
Jamie had never really thought about the human-Kendari rivalry from the Kendari point of view. The human emergence into interstellar space must have upended any number of plans and hopes and expectations. It was just as irrational for the Kendari to resent the humans as it was for the Elders to resent both Younger Races for the crime of spoiling their nice neat theories.
There was a series of clanks and thuds, and Jamie sat up a little straighter. "Is our command sphere going to take another little ride?" he asked.
"I believe so," said Brox. "We are still traveling at something very close to light-speed, and will of course have to decelerate in order to match the orbit of Tifinda. Greveltra will want us as far from the propulsion system this time as he did the last time. Should we perhaps awaken Senior Special Agent Wolfson?"
"Huh? What?" Hannah came awake at the sound of her name. "Are we there yet?" she asked. "What's going on?"
The command sphere lurched forward before anyone could answer. They looked overhead to watch the sphere climb the vertical shaft system. "Brox says we're getting ready to slow down," Jamie half shouted, trying to make sure he was heard over the bangs and clatters of their transit.
"Thanks for the tip," Hannah said. "I never would have figured that out on my own."
The sphere crashed and banged through the various hatches and back up into the navigation-dome position.
The view overhead was utterly different. There was a muddled blob of reddened stars at the zenith, unnaturally crowded together, with only a
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