Read Online Out of the Dark by David Weber - Free Book Online Page A

it might be well for us to consider the possible advantages of proceeding despite the Constitutional protections
normally
extended to a Level Two civilization.”
    “Advantages, Sir?” Ahzmer asked, and Thikair’s eyes gleamed.
    “Oh, yes, Ship Commander,” he said softly. “This species may be bizarre in many ways, and they obviously don’t understand the realities of war, but clearly something about them has supported a phenomenal rate of advancement. I realize their actual capabilities would require a rather more vigorous initial strike than we’d anticipated. And even with heavier prelanding preparation, our casualties might well be somewhat higher than projected. Fortunately, Ground Force Commander Thairys has twice the normal ground force component thanks to our follow-on objectives in Syk and Jormau. That means we have ample force redundancy to conquer any planet-bound civilization, even if it has attained Level Two. And to be honest, I think it would be very much worthwhile to concentrate on this system even if it means writing off the seizure of one—or even both—of the others.”
    One or two of them looked as if they wanted to protest, but he flattened his ears, his voice even softer.
    “I realize how that may sound, but think about this. Suppose we wereable to incorporate these creatures—these ‘humans’—into our labor force. Remember, preliminary physiological data suggests it may be possible to neurally educate them, so they could be rapidly integrated. But suppose we were able to do even more than that with them. Put them to work on
our
research projects. Suppose we were able to leverage their talent for that sort of thing to quietly push our own tech level to something significantly in
advance
of the rest of the Hegemony. The weed-eaters are content with the technology they have, and so are most of the omnivores. They’re stagnant—we all know that. Our programs are already giving us a small edge over their technology base, but let’s be honest among ourselves—it’s taking longer than we’d like, and so far our advances have been only incremental. These creatures might very well give us the opportunity to accelerate that process significantly. Possibly even suggest avenues of development we haven’t even considered yet. How do you think that would ultimately affect the Emperor’s plans and schedule?”
    The silence was just as complete, but it was totally different now, and he smiled thinly.
    “It’s been three standard centuries—over six hundred of these people’s years—since the Hegemony’s first contact with them. If the Hegemony operates to its usual schedule, it will be at least two more standard centuries—over four hundred local years—before any non-Shongair observation team bothers to visit this system again. That would be—what? Twenty of these creatures’ generations? More? And that will be counting from the point at which we return to announce our success. If we delay that return for a few decades, even as much as a standard century or so, it’s unlikely anyone would be particularly surprised, given that they expect us to be gathering in three entire star systems.” He snorted harshly. “In fact, it would
amuse
the weed-eaters to think we’d found the opposition more difficult than anticipated! But if we chose instead to spend that time subjugating these ‘humans’ and then educating their young to Hegemony standards, who knows what sort of R&D they might accomplish before that happens?”
    “The prospect is exciting, Sir,” Thairys said slowly. “Yet I fear it rests on speculations whose accuracy can’t be tested without proceeding. If it should happen that they prove less accurate than hoped for, we would, as you say, have violated the spirit—the
official
spirit, at any rate—of the Council’s authorizing writ for little return. Personally, I believe you may well be correct and that the possibility should clearly be investigated. Yet if the