Jack Chalker - Medusa - A Tiger by the Tail

He looked around to see how this was being taken—he had hashed it out on the security band well into the night with the Council and Krega—but saw no emotion whatever on the intent listeners. Well, not quite all—Ypsir was cleaning his nails with a small pen knife.

“In exchange for this,” he continued, “the Confederacy expects an immediate and total cessation of hostilities now underway against it by the Four Lords of the Diamond with the acquiescence of the Altavar, withdrawal of all such agents to the Warden Diamond, and a formal agreement that any future territorial or interest conflicts between the Confederation and the Altavar be settled by arbitration with both sides renouncing the use of force against the other. We feel this is more than fair.”

Morah waited a moment to see if he was finished, then saw his nod that he was. “Very well, then,” the Charonese said, “do you have anything to add, Doctor?”

Dumonia shook his head negatively.

“All right. I sense some objections among the Four Lords, but I will defer them at this time, and ask the Council to confirm this offer.”

“We do,” Luge’s voice came to them after a momentary delay caused not by interstellar communications but by the lag from the subspace relay they were using on the picket ship. “In fact, the offer was approved twenty-one to four by the full Council and thus is binding upon us if accepted.”

Morah nodded and turned to the impassive Altavar. “Manager Soog, are you prepared at this time to answer the offer?”

“We are,” the eerie synthesized voice responded. “We would very much like to accept the offer, which answers our basic needs and our objections to the current arrangement. However, we feel we cannot do so. The history of the human race argues against you, Confederacy. It is a most consistent record, no matter the technological or social levels. From the very beginnings of your history you have shown yourselves to be totally intolerant of those who are different. The record is a clear record of repression. Treaties are signed and sworn to and systematically violated at the first opportunity. You persecuted your own for a mild difference in skin color or bone structure, or because some worshiped a different god, or even the same god by different names. Treaties between nations held only so long as both nations felt so strong that they could destroy the other. Not once do we see social or political agreements made and held by mutual respect, only by mutual fear—and then with all the efforts of both sides devoted to destroying even that balance.

“You took these attitudes with you into space,” the creature went on, “and continued them for a while, until the years and the practicalities of distance and the advance of technology merged you racially and culturally. Still, the fact of this merger only caused redirection of this trait. Fully a dozen nonhuman races were discovered in your outward expansion. None equaled your power or emulated your culture. Five you utterly destroyed simply because you could not understand them. The other seven you conquered ruthlessly, and imposed your culture and your system upon them by force. With two of those you first concluded treaties of peace and friendship and the exchange of ambassadors and technical skills, because they were spacefaring races. But as soon as you decided that they could be no threat to you, you ruthlessly rushed in upon them and crushed them, ignoring your treaties. Understand that we do not necessarily condemn this trait, nor condone it, for it is natural to an expanding spacefaring culture and we have seen it before. We were even guilty of it ourselves, once. But you see where this leaves us in the current situation.

“Your treaties are worthless, until you know our strength and power, knowledge those treaties buy you because they buy you whatever time is needed. Sovereignty so easily given away may be more easily taken back. Nor can your military and government leaders rest easy as long as we are hidden behind a shield of their ignorance. Unless we show you all, you will try all the more by any means to learn and thus interfere. If we did show you, either you would determine us too weak and thus rush in to crush us, or we would be too strong, in which case you would spare no effort to catch up, then surpass us technologically and militarily. Your proposal, then, simply buys you the time you need to gain advantage, or it puts off the war, allowing you to build up and improve your forces. It offers us nothing of substance, and we must reject it.”

The three Councillors looked extremely distressed and uncomfortable at this assessment, and Dumonia leaned over and whispered to the agent, “Take ’em off the hook, son. They’re outclassed.”

He nodded. “Then do the Altavar have a counterproposal to avoid war?”

The creature did not hesitate. “We see only one possible guarantee of our own security and safety. The Confederacy will turn over to us control of all spacecraft of whatever size or type capable of interstellar travel, and will build no more. All interstellar travel and communications between human worlds and all forces capable of harming us will be entirely under-our control and supervision for a period of three hundred and fifty years from the date of commencement of the agreement. We will guarantee to maintain all existing passenger and freight routes and establish whatever added schedules are needed for the maintenance of the economy and the well-being of the people. We will not interfere in the internal political affairs of the Confederacy in any way. Expansion or the possession or control of any spacial weapons for the interdicted period will not be permitted.”

The Councillors gasped, and all Four Lords smiled knowingly. “But—that would leave the entire human race totally and completely at the mercy of a race and culture of which we know nothing, having to trust all your promises at face valuel” Senator Luge exclaimed. “Surely you can’t be serious!”

“You proposed to cut loose unilaterally fifty million plus people who are Confederacy citizens under law and put them under these people, you know,” Talant Ypsir snapped. “If it’s good enough for us, it should be good enough for you!”

Morah let the outburst pass, and the Councillors ignored it. “These are negotiations in progress,” he reminded them all. “Let us keep our decorum. Manager Soog?”

“Can the Senator or his advisors suggest any other way we can guarantee our security?” the alien asked.

“Our word is—” the Senator started, but the alien cut him off.

“Your word is valueless. Even you know this. Even as these proceedings begin, a vast and powerful war fleet is within range of the Warden system. On the very eve of negotiations it launched four military probes of advanced design against us. We know what your word is worth, Senator.”

There was consternation and frantic whispering on the Council’s side. Finally Luge seemed to calm everyone down and turned back to the camera. “May we have a recess to discuss a counteroffer?”

Morah looked around. “Is there any objection? No? For how long, then, Senator?”

“One—uh, sorry, two hours.”

“Agents? Manager? Lords? No objection?”

“Let them have their meeting,” Laroo snarled. “It’ll probably be hilarious.”

“Very well, then. This meeting is in recess for two hours and will reconvene at twelve thirty standard.”

Both screens winked out, and everybody seemed to relax. Both Ypsir and Laroo seemed extremely pleased by the way things had gone; Kobe was as impassive as Morah, who looked over at the two opposite him and asked, “Well? Do you think it’s still possible to reach any sort of agreement?”

“I doubt it. Not until we’ve gone through the bloody motions. How about it, Morah? Will they understand a show of force and resistance, or will they simply go all-out?”