GROUND / CH. 21:POWERFUL EXCHANGES.

MICK'S SHIP, OUTSIDE THE CITY.

“You are most welcome,” Mick said. “Come and go in peace in accordance to all rules of hospitality.”

“Thank you for not requiring me to grow wings,” the lieutenant said, as he climbed aboard.

“No problem. Our main reason for flying was to attract attention, after all.”

“Your had other reasons?”

“Our people are not naturally immune to slime creatures, and if my wife eats poison bulbs to prevent their unwelcome attention, then it would be death to my organisms to kiss her. I am Mick; my wife, Sathzakara does not understand much of this language we now speak, so I will interpret for her every so often. I welcome questions.”

“I do not understand how you can eat poison, but then it would mean you cannot kiss.”

“I was born a multicellular organism, my wife still is one. When I crashed here I almost died, and so did Academician Lana of the university safety office, who had previously been working in frontier biology, as had her mother and her mother before her. Lana had the skills to host the dying alien whose crash had burned half her organisms, and knew how to envelop the alien's muscles and extract from them the protein and iron she needed, even though her throat had been burned away in the fireball and she could not swallow. Lana preserved much of me, but not all. Some of me was spread over the landscape. I was a slow learner, and so she carried me as her podling for almost six years before I understood enough to survive without her. Even then, I did not realise that I needed to tell my stomach organisms to digest the food I was trying to feed myself with. Such things are automatic and out of conscious control among my people.” Mick shrugged dismissively: “differences. I am experimenting with trying to regrow some of my original muscle tissues, which respond to thought faster than a predator's. But many of our foods are deadly poison to collaborating organisms. If I were to leave with the others of my people who are in the craft that hovers in the evening sky, it would almost certainly mean I condemn the organisms I currently call mine to death, and without them I would die. I have no desire to betray them like that, nor to die. I therefore beg the government to grant me official recognition and permission to stay at least long enough that I can grow enough of the original me that I have some hope of surviving after budding away all my organisms. I also ask that the government acknowledge as a work of the One the miracle that the one person on this planet capable of keeping me alive was exactly there as I crashed, and having admitted the miracle, also admit that her actions should not in any way be held against her. I further ask that the laws that declare me and my family and friends a fiction be rescinded, and those who are in prison for telling the truth about meeting me or others of my friends and family be released. I hope no one considers these requests unreasonable.”

“From your point of view, I am sure they seem reasonable,” the lieutenant said. “But am I to understand that academician Lana consumed the flesh of a sentient being? That she engaged in an unsanctioned experiment? That she brought a potentially dangerous life-form into the city? That she held a podling for about six years? There are so many crimes here...”

“As the podling concerned, I assure you, she did not withhold freedom from me. Indeed I was most unwilling to have the plans we'd just developed ruined, but she insisted. As for consuming bits of me, she needed the nutrition or would have died herself from the burns, and she carefully restricted her consumption to muscles and bones, the parts most easily regrown. I bear her no ill-will for what she did. As for sanction for the 'experiment', I am certain that came from the One, as I have indicated. You may dispute His authority in the middle of this thunderstorm if you really want to, but please do it a long way from my wife and me.”

The squad member called Tatha smiled at that suggestion, and said “I do not believe the lieutenant is foolish enough to do that. May I enquire how the predator died?”

“The world we come from is larger than this; we are used to three times the gravity, have fast reactions and are used to faster predators. When the foolish beast sprang at her, it met her blade rather than her body, and discovered that my wife keeps her knife very sharp indeed.”

“It was impaled, then?”

Mick said something to his wife, and then said, “Because of the angle of her blade, the lower jaw and tail remained with the left half of the beast. As my wife was annoyed at the stupid animal for interrupting her careful work, and covering her with its blood, she needlessly removed the head with a second cut. I warn you not to touch the blade. It will cut with the slightest pressure.”

Sathie laid the knife on the table in front of Tatha, who saw that it was as long as a short sword, and its mirror-finished sides seemed to have no sign of sharpening as they tapered to nothing. “May I hold it?”

“Carefully pick up the knife, yes.” Sathie replied, grinning at Mick.

Tatha felt the weight of the blade — it was even heavier than she expected — and then she tried to catch a reflection from the firelight from the honed edge; she didn't get a single reflection, there was no honed edge she could see, no sign of the metal ever needing to be sharpened. Reverently, she put it down. “Sir?” Tatha said, “you were impressed by the pictures. I am far more impressed by this blade. Having heard of its use and seen it and felt its weight, I very much wish to be friends with these people.”

Her feeling was redoubled when she saw Sathzakara picking up the blade lightly and re-sheathing it with total precision and a practiced air.

“It betters your father's work?” the lieutenant asked.

“My father's best blades need the grindstone and regular sharpening. That knife, while clearly a thing of metal, has an edge like a flake of obsidian.” Turning to Mick, she asked “it is an alloy?”

“A complex one, with ingredients that might surprise you. There is no iron in it, for the people of my mother and my wife live and hunt in the sea which covers two thirds of the surface of our planet.”

Guna asked “You said in the sea? You can take air from water?”

“Only with machines. But those of us who are of the sea store a lot of oxygen in our blood and in our muscles. My father's people — land-people who outnumber us greatly — cannot do this as well.”

“And you? How do you count yourself?”

“I was born in a city under the sea, I hunted fish larger than myself. I was of the sea. Now? I am kept alive by my wonderful organisms, who give me the ability to change shape which is amazing to me. But I do so slowly, and it confuses my brain. I have neither oxygen store, nor speed; at sea I would be an easy meal for the fish I used to hunt. I am alive, for which I thank Lana and praise the One, but in most other respects, I am crippled.”

“A city under the sea?”

“The city of my mother's people. Under a dome of this material,” he tapped the edge of his ship.

Rek asked, “You do not seem slow to me. How fast were you?”

“I will let you see for yourself,” Mick said, picking up a thin straight stick from beside the fire. “Sathie, reaction-time demo requested.”

“Oh? OK.”

“I will let this stick fall. When she sees my fingers release it, my wife will catch it.”

Rek nodded, he had done this at school, but with a longer stick, the stick the alien had picked was barely as long as Rek's hand, too short, surely?

“First, my wife will catch it with the reactions only a little better than most land-people, based purely on sight,” Mick said. Rek's puzzlement at these strange words turned to surprise as the stick fell only three centimetres before she caught it.

“Now, she will use the other advantage many of my people have: not needing to wait to see my hand move, but hearing the thought that releases my muscles.”

This time, the stick barely moved one centimetre.

Rek decided that these aliens clearly had no need to poison anyone, and he'd be very happy to poison-test a kilo of the predator-meat they'd been offered. Mick laughed,

“Rek, you are very very correct. But I think you'll have to open your mouth if you want to persuade your lieutenant.”

Rek looked at Mick in shock, who said. “Yes, I heard your forceful decision.”

“What did you decide, Rek?” The lieutenant asked, curiously.

“How about I whisper it to one of you first, if Rek is willing?” Mick suggested, “just as further proof.”

----------------------------------------

CITY GUARD HQ, THE CITY

“Sir,” the lieutenant said, adopting the traditional pose of supplication, with one hand in his belt-pouch, the other hanging loosely at his side, “My mission failed. Rather than proving the manifestations false, I have seen numerous proofs that have utterly convinced me the visitors are in possession of technology we do not know. Biological samples were also provided for testing by the forensics department.”

“Biological samples? You persuaded them to sacrifice some organisms for testing?”

“They offered, sir. They state that they are multicellular organisms and almost every type of their cells are constantly being shed and replaced with no direction or intervention from themselves. The female cannot speak to us very well though she learns; the male states that he learned our language while on academician Lana's shoulder.”

“And where is academician Lana?”

“I asked that question, sir. I was offered a small box and told it worked by radio. I was able to have a two-way conversation with someone who claimed she was ex-academician Lana, and said she was in Old Yasfort, and had accepted an offer from the aliens for protection, knowing that some of her actions might not be acceptable in the present political climate. She said that the aliens have the technology to break rock into water, metals and gases and that although it would take a long time, they would rather create a second sea on the other side of the planet than allow her and their friends in Yasfort to be imprisoned. She also said, sir, that the aliens are quite capable of locating and releasing any prisoners they wish, but prefer to be polite and allow us to do it.”

“Polite?”

“Her words, sir.”

“I have heard reports of an invisible disk, that can show moving pictures.”

“Yes, sir. That demonstration was stopped when the alien noticed I was so shocked I was forgetting to breathe. The disk was formed by the small research device the visitors have. On their larger device, I saw items the size of small windows that showed me what the 'eyes' of the research device saw. They flew the device to a piece of forest north of the city where they said the male had crashed six years ago, almost on top of academician Lana, injuring both him and her. I saw a stone memorial to that event, and I also saw evidence of what geometrical shapes the small device can create, and what happens if the disk or other shape should be formed where there obstructions nearby.”

“And?”

“The obstructions are cut, sir, instantly. According to what I saw on the window-device, near to the crash site there is now a circle of trees cut by a cone and another by a disk. An expedition could be sent to verify these

things, if that is felt necessary.”

“What was the purpose of this demonstration?”

“It was, I believe, a demonstration that they have these tools, that they are not tricksters, and that it is not inability that stops them from choosing a military solution. Oh, I also saw a long knife that they said the females normally carry — of exquisite quality and sharpness — and a demonstration of the female's reaction speed. The male held this stick level with the bottom of her fingers. She caught it here, sir. Several times, including when I had been holding it.”

“I wondered why you were carrying the stick. So: technology, personal equipment and reaction times are all in their favour?”

“Yes sir. They also have a personal device that they say is a relative of the disk-forming mechanism. When activated, it forms a barrier around them. The male placed one of these devices on a small bush, and invited me to attack it with sword, arrows or claws. All I managed to do was break some arrows and dull the edge of my sword on the ground as it bounced off, and bend the branches of the bush a little when I clawed at it with all my force.”

The commander stood and faced a plaque on the wall; engraved on it, the simple words of the constitution, which started 'Let there be no wars, only truth and law.' “So, aliens have come, and they have given you a demonstration of their military superiority, have they?”

“They say they wish to be friends, sir, but...”

“If not, they would win any conflict?”

“It is not my place to say so definitively, sir. Certainly I believe that even without her invulnerability device, the female could have routed my whole squad on her own; she can move so fast! I also believe their device could force an entry to any location, even the government chamber, and that once inside its disk that cuts hundred year old trees in an instant could seriously injure anyone present.”

“What are their demands? I presume they have demands?”

“They made requests, sir. Mick, the male, as I said, says he crashed on top of Lana, who 'hosted' him, as she had 'hosted' lower animals during her research. She — assuming it was her I spoke to — described this as a process much like a large slime-creature enveloping a beast, but being selective in what was consumed.” he shuddered at that horrible thought. “Otherwise Lana believed she would probably die from her burns and that Mick's death would also have been certain, from his devastating wounds.”

“They can be wounded, then.”

“They can be, sir. Lana told me he had a bone through his heart, and very little remaining blood. When Mick was finally able, after 6 years, to think of having organisms as his, rather than Lana's, Lana budded him off with almost half her organisms. Mick states that it is possible, by their most difficult medicine, for him to regrow the lost parts of his body, but that it is a very slow process. His first request is time to do this, and to bud his organisms away before he departs, because leaving for his home would be death to his organisms from Lana and a betrayal of cooperation. He requests permission for his wife, his sister, and other friends and relatives to continue their discoveries in the Yasfort area, and to continue discussions they are having with the people there. He requests that laws denying their existence be repealed and those who have been imprisoned under them be released. He requests that we acknowledge what a miracle from the One it was that he crashed next to Lana, the only person with the knowledge and experience to keep him alive, and thus pardon the many questionable aspects of that process and their life as still-joined mother and podling.”

“And if the government will not listen to these requests?”

“Then I expect the conversations with aliens will continue, and the cries of those who say the government makes laws suppressing the truth will grow. Of course, the laws currently in force were based on what the government knew at the time. Now, however, as the city guard is constitutionally a non-political wing of government, the government knows better.”

“You believe, then that your report will be passed on?”

“Of course, sir,” the lieutenant said, his fingers straying to a small device in his belt-pouch.

“Despite the fact that you introduced it as a failed mission?”

“The mission parameters did not correspond with reality, sir.”

“What is reality? Is it not reality that you have broken the law you are sworn to uphold?”

“I have carefully avoided certain terms except in reported speech, sir. I believe that keeps me on the right side of the law.”

“Of which party are you a member, lieutenant?”

“The city guard are constitutionally apolitical, sir.”

“Yes, yes, of course. But once you are not a guardsman, where would you plan to devote your efforts?”

“It is my hope to continue within the guards, sir, eventually moving to a training role.”

“We live in interesting times, lieutenant. It is entirely possible that in the near future, especially considering the dangerous situation that you have appraised me of, the constitution will be... adjusted, and that the inefficiencies of tripartite government will need to be swept aside. In that situation, it could be very important to the fate of a soldier that the soldier's superior officers know who his friends and family are, where his allegiances lie.”

“It could indeed, sir,” the lieutenant said, his left hand deliberately locating the switch on the strange little device, his right not quite moving towards his sword, but added, “were corrupt officers to allow such chaos to return. Myself, I find my allegiances lie in the constitution, to history of which I have made a study, and to the system that my ancestor created, and my forefathers have preserved for the generations since.”

“To history?” the officer asked, amused. “An interesting place to trust for the future, but never mind. I was quoting, by the way. Who need not concern you, at least, not yet. There will be no disrespect to the legacy of your forefathers from me; I too am a descendent of Kovan. Take the samples to forensics, let us ensure all our troops and assets are in position before we strike at the constitution's enemies.”

----------------------------------------

GOVERNMENT CHAMBER, THE CITY.

“Ruling party members and other party members here as observers, I thank you for allowing me to bring you this important news.”

“Why do you fill the room with soldiers, general?” an observer from the Reason party asked.

“This squad of soldiers, under my orders, and the command of the lieutenant here, approached the strange — apparently floating — camp outside the east gate of the city. They approached with the intention of learning how the deception was being carried out, who by, and what their purposes were before causing them to stop.”

“I notice the camp is still there,”

“They are sir. So it is time for the misunderstanding to be stopped and replaced by facts. The living platform is somewhat larger than this chamber, weighs approximately seven hundred kilograms, and is of a tough transparent material which is considerably less dense than glass. The two occupants also have under their control an hour-glass shaped device which can also apparently defy gravity. They provided biological samples which our forensic experts, who also accompany us, have analysed. I have asked each member of the squad to describe one thing they saw or noticed during their visit. Proceed soldiers.”

“There were no wires or poles holding up the metal hour-glass, but there was a disk at the base which three of us sat on. The metal hour-glass bounced a bit, but was able to hold us up.”

“The disk was initially invisible, but then displayed moving images of us approaching it and looking for wires.”

“The male occupant of the camp stopped the images when he noticed that the lieutenant had forgotten to breathe.”

“He also told us we were welcome to stand on the disk, and warned us not to try to damage the device, because it was powered by something like unstable elements, and the safety of people in the city must come first.”

“He makes strange noises to his wife we cannot understand, but she does. To us she said some things, but it sounded like the first intelligible words of a mixling, like she was just learning to speak.”

“His wife has what he calls a knife, with which she killed a predator. I was permitted to lift it; it is is more a short sword which weighs more than my sword, but she lifted it easily. The blade was sharper, more perfectly sculpted, than any a master-swordsman would make, because such a blade would never hold its edge. This one remained perfect after cutting predator bone.”

“Her reactions are ten times faster than mine, and he was able to sense a decision I made, and to quote it exactly, although he was a predator length from me. He found my decision amusing.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“They find the taste of predator meat disgusting.”

“The metal hour-glass records sights as well as sounds. They have a thing like a box with a window on the front, that lets them see what it has seen. They ascribe this all to technology, not magic.”

“He and his wife worship the One.”

“The disk we sat on has no thickness. It is not sharp, because it has been bent back on itself, but a hand-span in from the edge my fingers could feel the fingerprints of my other hand, but could not penetrate it.”

“The disk can be turned on an off, like a tap. The male told me that the blunt edge only develops after a few seconds, that it is thinner than an molecule, and grows much faster than sound travels.”

“The disk is not always a disk. It can also be a cone or a rod or other mathematical shapes. I saw the disk cut huge trees, in the forest to the north, and have brought back a sample. The mirror-smooth side is what the disk cut, the other is the mess I made with my saw.”

“As a fan of science-fiction plays and books, I say they possess and demonstrated to us technology that our most imaginative playwrights and authors have not imagined.”

“I analysed the samples given from the couple — scrapings of their skin. The samples are clearly and without doubt from multicellular organisms, and as with skin-scrapings from a predator, contained no living organisms. My professor once pointed out to me that all samples he has analysed from plants to bacteria to animals (multicellular and multi-organism) have the same molecular structure for converting sugar to energy. I have, until now, observed this in every sample I have analysed, and like my professor, assumed this must be the only structure for life. The skin-scrapings contain a different structure, though its function is clearly the same. The skin-scrapings show many many similarities and but also differences. Differences in hormones and differences in genetics, so I am convinced they must represent male and female from the same species.” The forensics expert took a deep sigh of regret and went on “I further add that a month ago, I was shown a sketch that was reported to have come from the so-called 'Yasfort Cave'. I concluded at that time that the sketch was based on purest fantasy and did not in any way represent the genetics of any living creature. I must retract that statement and admit my error, for the samples I analysed last night exactly correspond to those sketches.”

“You do not believe it possible that the samples were carefully constructed falsities?”

“If such falsities could be created, it would only be possible by possessors of far greater technology than any mentioned yet, or even the hand of God alone.”

“You conclude then that if we assume that God himself does not trick us, the least unlikely possibility is that the visitors are, as they have claimed, not from Ground but some distant star?”

“I cannot comment on the studies of physicists. Biologically, I find it most unlikely that they are from anywhere that we have obtained samples from. But, perhaps they are from the far side of the planet, where our most intrepid explorers have not visited, but if so, why do we only find out about them now, if they have such technology?”

“You are aware, I presume, of the so-called 'common ancestor theorem'?” a member of the reason party asked.

“Certainly.”

“Could you describe it to everyone here?”

“It is an attempt to explain why so many biological processes are the same, between us and slime creatures, of course, but also in less-related creatures and so on, all the way back to simple bacteria. It suggests that at some point in the past, (whether through divine intervention or some natural process, and whether over a period of time or within the space of a day), a change or changes were introduced that split the types into two, and that if we go far enough backwards in that process there was a single common ancestor to all life, or, as some would prefer, that the creator shaped all life by successive modifications.”

“Given this theory, and given the way that it appears to be a rule of biology that all life is inter-connected in this way, and the way that we know bacteria can be carried in clouds and dust, can you imagine it would be at all likely that there should be no matching bacteria or any other related life-forms if these tool-users came from elsewhere on our planet?”

“No, I cannot consider it likely at all,” admitted the forensics expert.

“Thank you, no more questions from me.”

“There is a tradition to be observed here, if not a law,” said the leader for the party of tradition. “When a party finds that its own laws have been made in error, it is only honourable to unmake those laws, including in their unmaking compensation for those adversely affected. This is a tradition we must uphold, and I suggest we make it a law. Furthermore, when the erroneous laws have become a tool of oppression, it has long been the practice of the other parties unite to propose a vote of no confidence in the ruling party. It is my suggestion that we overturn this tradition, because I have heard strong rumours of Tradition-party members expressing a lack of respect for the constitution, and therefore I myself have no confidence that some of my fellow party members are considering what is best for the people, but instead are falling into the self-serving ways of corruption. As leader of my party, I therefore declare the party of tradition has become disunited. Let it be entered into the record books after the laws of nullification and the law regarding rectification.”

There was a shocked silence. The constitution was clear; a disunited party could not be in power, and legal experts had long agreed that a high party official making such a declaration automatically made it true — either they were united agreeing with him about the disunity, or disunited about the truthfulness or appropriateness of the declaration.

“What, then, of the laws proposed immediately before this declaration?” asked a member of the progress party.

“The constitution is clear that a disunited party cannot rule, but that laws declared beforehand need to be enacted,” the general said. “Unmaking the law is an easy task, and other than including a clause that says compensation will be made to those adversely affected, setting appropriate compensation should probably be left as an administrative matter — every case will be different, I'm sure. Having said that, perhaps some guidance regarding who can and cannot claim may be appropriate, as there have been corrupt practices.” This got murmurs of agreement from all around the room.

“As for enshrining this idea of compensation as law, I suggest that the new ruling party discuss the phrasing and wording of that law with all parties. It would not be right to have such a law become a matter for constant change.”

“What new ruling party?” the progress party member asked.

“Why, the rotation falls to your own, of course,” the leader of the reason party said, with obvious relish at the other's panic.

“But... we expected the tradition party to rule another year or two! We have not even brainstormed about our legislative goals yet!”

“Perhaps, then, this will enter the record books as your party's longest stay in power. I'm sure your finances will recover eventually. Who's your party leader?”

A look of panic grew on the faces of all the progress party members in the room as they realised that their current state of bickering over the leadership could well be taken as a sign of disunity in the party, losing them this unexpected power and the massive legislative advantage over the tradition party that it brought. One young member, very hesitantly got to her feet and said “I am sure that my party is — or will be once they hear — united in surprise at the unexpected turn of events while being most appreciative of the tradition party leader's honourable withdrawal from power as they urm, reestablish respect for the constitution in their ranks, and err.. fully united in its desire to elect a new leader to carry forward a progressive program of legislation that will properly reflect the opportunities presented by the alien visitors.”

Despite gabbling the last bit, her speech got her a standing ovation from the other members of her party.

The tradition party leader said, “I thank the young progressive whose name I'm afraid I don't know for her vote of thanks, and remind all assembled here that this is not the first transfer of power when a party has been without an agreed leader, indeed it has happened three times before. The young lady, indeed her party colleagues present, may not be aware that the tradition in such a case is that the first to show the necessary leadership by making a unifying speech to which all agree is therefore the agreed leader by the common acclaim of the ruling party she has just united. May I be the first to offer my congratulations to my opposite number.”

“That's not funny,” she said.

“Oh, I think you'll find it is hilarious with hindsight, Dantho,” one of her colleagues said, with an enormous grin, “And as our honourable opponent has so eloquently explained, you are the one who found a way to unify all of us here, and I don't think any of us would want to bring disunity to our party while we have power. Three blessings upon the new leader of our people!”

Dantho wished the ground would swallow her as they cheered and congratulated her and told her that she'd be an excellent leader. She wasn't so sure. Before she'd dared to open her mouth, she'd been a student member of the party for a year and a full member for two weeks, and she was only at this meeting because she'd been interviewing some senior party members for an essay about how government actually worked compared to the constitutional ideals.

----------------------------------------

MICK'S SHIP, THE NEXT MORNING.

“Hello again, lieutenant,” Mick greeted his visitor, “Have you brought a friend to see us?”

“I am called Dantho,” she said, “and I hear you gave the lieutenant a list of requests to the government.”

“That is true,” Mick agreed.

“What my colleagues in the progress party would like to know is... well, other than everything of course, but more precisely whether there would be any benefit to us Groundlings from you being here?”

“Ah, and they've sent you ask the questions?”

“Actually, they've proclaimed me the leader of the government. Tradition have acknowledged they vastly misunderstood the situation and passed laws too quickly, and after revoking those laws have honourably resigned from power.”

“Wow! I didn't think that was possible.” Mick exclaimed, then apologised.

She waved it away and said “A disunited party cannot govern, and some very non-traditional thoughts had entered some tradition party members' heads. Our party, not expecting power, had no leader, and I foolishly said something everyone could agree with, and so they declared me their leader. Yesterday I was a student of political science and the most junior party member, today I lead the ruling party.”

“Our little camp, such as it is, is most honoured. You will excuse me, I hope, if I interpret what you've said to my wife.” Mick reached for Sathie's fingers and thought to her what Dantho had said.

“Dantho, welcome.” Sathie said, only slightly wrongly, then she thought to Mick [she needs to talk to someone who knows, Mick], and said, “we go, talk to Takan?”

Dantho was confused, “'Talk to Takan'? I don't want to waste time!”

“I think it might be a good idea, if you're willing, honourable Dantho,” Mick said, doubling her confusion.

The lieutenant said “I think you and your wife do not know that the expression 'talk to Takan' means to waste a politician's time — I think because no one could persuade the great war-ender to return to politics. So I wonder what you do mean.”

“Lana has married, her husband is Takan,” Mick said.

“Who dared to name their child Takan?”

“If I remember correctly I think his mother was called Tana, I certainly remember his father was Yakan, son of Yas.”

“I know who that Takan was. Who is this Takan who married Lana?”

“Lana married 'the most curious man in the world', the son of Yakan son of Yas, who says he has always been too curious about things to stop breathing, who accepts organism replacement rather than interruption to his studies. I don't think he will be very willing to be involved in politics — there is too much disrespect — but on the other hand he has reclaimed his name, is as curious as ever, and has probably been learning a lot about us aliens. Perhaps he will be willing to share his thoughts.”

“You are not willing to share your own?”

“I, myself do not know how much influence it would be sensible for us to be upon your culture, your technology. We certainly do not want to cause chaos and disruption by overly rapid progress.”

“You forget which party I represent.” Dantho said.

“Too rapid progress destroys lives and brings anger, honourable Dantho. The city has messengers, we carry devices that allow each of us to call any other person's device, at will. Will you take the jobs of messengers? You have carters who move people and goods, but you have the power of steam, and even electricity. Why do you not move people and goods with electricity? It could have been done. Do you want to go to the far south, to Yasfort, and talk to Takan and Lana for an hour or two before returning to the city for an evening meal? Assuming you have broken no solemn oaths, nor encouraged others to do so, we can do that for you. But would you really like us to make the carters hungry and angry by stealing all their custom? We do not think that would be wise. Would you have us make all our knowledge available so that the university professors would have to study harder than their students, or be constantly ignorant? Would that be kind? Would you have us sell a tool that fits in a belt-pouch and which can burn though the side of a house, a predator or a person in a few moments? Those tempted to theft or murder would be very happy if such a tool was available, I think, the police less happy.”

“You exaggerate,” the lieutenant accused. “Your floating device cannot fit in a belt-pouch.”

“No, but this does,” Mick took out his rock-cutter. “I did not want to scare you too much, lieutenant. This was not invented as a weapon, but it can certainly kill.” He turned to Sathie, and asked, “Can you set up that piece of rock?”

Sathie nodded, and put a fairly large piece of rock, flat on one side, on to a table that was near the ladder. Mick stood next to their visitors, maybe two metres from the rock, and said, “the light will be bright, but it is safe to watch from this distance.” Then he set his rock-cutter and sliced a half centimetre thick slab off the one side. Sathie repositioned the chunk and moving close, he quickly sketched a small flower on the corner of the perfectly smooth side he'd just cut.

“This flower is called a 'forget-me-not' where my father is from. It is a bit smaller than I've drawn it and blue. A gift, honoured Dantho; the rock is from Ground, and the flower from Earth. An image of collaboration if you like. I have lived on Lana's shoulder for six years, you have a beautiful planet, and I do not want to inadvertently spoil the beauty of Ground. No matter how much you like progress, I am sure you do not want Ground to become like Earth, where our people originate.”

“Because?”

“Because Earth has a population of thousands of millions; it is crowded, full of divisions and inequalities, there are parts of Earth where the people are frequently either at war or hovering on the edge of it. In the past, we so polluted our planet that we altered the weather, and caused hundreds of millions to die in famines and floods. I know that lessons learned from ones own mistakes are the best learned, but please learn from us without repeating our mistakes.”

“Earlier you spoke of us not wanting carters to replace their horses with steam-power, and yet that is a policy of my party to allow this. You imply that electricity is even better, But, as to the rest... perhaps I should listen to you about your planet.”

“We actually have two now. The second is much more like this one. But will you then, come to Yasfort, and will you accept this gift?”

“I do not know what the significance of accepting the gift is,” Dantho said, carefully.

“If you will accept it, I do not need to offer it to the lieutenant, who is probably unable to accept gifts while on duty. I would prefer to leave your government with some evidence of this dangerous little engraving tool, that's all. It is the end result of many years of progress, designed by my mother's people to cut rocks before they stopped hiding from my father's. Meant as a tool for making homes and decorating them, her people eventually realised that it could also be a weapon and cause a lot of harm.”

“Yet you still carry one.”

“I do,” Mick agreed, “In this respect, I am counted as one of my mother's people, not my father's. I do not know if father has ever asked for training to use one, I am not sure it would be permitted.”

“And it burns?”

“That is the easiest description, unless you are a fan of science fiction.”

“Assume I am.”

“It produces an energy beam and a complex arrangement of forcefields: an outer enclosure that protects the energy beam from being scattered in air or water and also stops most of the rays from escaping the beam, and an inner one that sets how deep the cut will be, and reflects the energy beam back. There are other forcefields that allow me to cut in perfectly straight lines, set curves, and so on. The energy beam shreds the molecules into atoms and other forcefields sort them. Some hydrogen atoms from the rock are recovered and combined in the device to produce helium, as in the suns. Other hydrogen atoms are stored for future use, and some of the energy from making helium is stored as annihilation, so it recharges itself as much as possible.

Oxygen is released into the air, other atoms are collected into small grains so that they drop to the floor, rather than floating around as dust.”

“It not easy to make,” Sathie added, then made some other noises to Mick.

“My wife wishes to add: 'it is not safe to take apart, even for me, who made it.'”

“You made it?”

“Me? No, Sathie. She has great talent for making such things.”

“Who is Sathie?”

“My wife. Oh, it is our custom: often when we shorten a name we add 'ee' to the end.”

“And it cannot be taken apart?”

“It can be taken apart, but it is designed to last centuries. To take it apart you must remove the annihilation, or it will live up to its name.”

“You used that word before. What do you mean by it?”

“What do you understand by it?”

“A description of what might happen to unbelievers according to some: to become nothing.”

“I understand that some say unbelievers will become nothing because of the condemnation of the One, others say they cannot become nothing, because souls are eternal, and therefore they will live on, suffering an eternal state of regret and knowledge that their condemnation is right and correct, because they refused to trust the One. I hope that you have a better future than either. In my own language we call atoms and molecules 'matter', which means stuff. There is a very very rare substance that is made for a brief time in stars that we call 'antimatter', which is to say, stuff's enemy. It destroys atoms, leaving only energy. Annihilation is what Lana felt was the best description, as the word is also used poetically for the destruction of war.

“Then this annihilation, this stuff's enemy, once released into the world, would destroy the whole planet, surely?” the lieutenant said.

“It is very rare because stuff destroys it, just as stuff is destroyed by it. Nothing remains except vast amounts of energy, though it is possible that the energy will be changed back to stuff and annihilation. The same processes that happen in the centre of a star also happens it in the forcefields in this device, and the annihilation is stored: not much but enough to re-start the conversion of Hydrogen to Helium which powers the device a few hundred times.”

“So if the device was opened, there would be a vast energy release, an explosion?”

“Yes.”

“As much as a tonne of cannon powder?”

“I will ask my wife, she probably knows.” Switching to English, he asked Sathie, “Rough guess about how many equivalent tonnes of gunpowder there are in a rock-cutter?”

“Yours or a normal one?”

“You changed the spec?” Mick guessed.

“Remember I told you I'd made it so it could recharge? You don't need as much as most people's. You've got fifty micrograms of antimatter and ten grammes of hydrogen. Let me work out what that turns into,” she tapped her wrist unit. “two tons of TNT or three tonnes of average-yield black powder for the antimatter, and urm, something like two hundred tonnes of black powder for the hydrogen, once you take into account the power it takes to muck about with the weak force to trigger positron emission.”

“But it can't actually make the hydrogen go at once. Can it?”

“That's called the self-destruct mode, Mick.” Sathie said, “and that energy requirement is why it takes a while.”

“So it's not so you can get away?”

“Well, yes, there is that factor too, yes.” Sathie agreed.

Mick turned to the lieutenant, “My wife tells me that if someone were to trigger the self-destruct, then the energy released would be about the same as two hundred tonnes of cannon powder, but that only about two of those would come from the annihilation. It takes some time for the self-destruct to activate, not just so people can get away, but because it must use some energy from the hydrogen before it can make the conditions correct for what is left to all explode at once.”

Dantho looked at Mick with a mixture of respect and acceptance. “A device that can deliberately destroy itself and people investigating it is something that has figured in some stories of war, to protect great secrets. You speak openly about your secrets, but only in ways that convince that we should not investigate, an answer that consistent with what you have told the lieutenant, and what has been reported from Yasfort. You have secrets that you are prepared to die to preserve.”

“Yes. I am prepared to die to preserve the lives of others.”

“That is not the same thing.”

“If the secrets this contained were known to all, then someone in the rage of war-form could destroy half the city.”

“Your people have war-form?”

“No, but those who live on the land at home have had many wars. The most serious of those used bombs using the power that keeps the suns hot to destroy cities. Not just hundreds of tonnes of cannon-powder, but multiple bombs on a city, each bomb giving a power like of millions of tonnes, killing hundreds of thousands of people. Sathie's people — my mother's people — managed to hide, but they knew that their technology would be used to destroy them if they let the land people get it. The technology that brought us here was a cooperative work of people from both land and sea, but they were people who trusted God, who all took vows to not allow the technology to fall into the hands of others; three thousand years of mistrust fades slowly.”

“Three thousand years?” Dantho asked.

“About two thousand years passed before my mother's people stopped hiding; that was just after my grandmother was born. For a thousand years before they hid, they lived separately, increasingly worried by the way the land people did not keep oaths, did not stick to treaties.”

“How did they hide?”

Mick looked at Sathie, who grinned, “My city is under the sea.” It was one of the sentences she'd practiced with.

“You breathe water? Like fish?”

“No, we have a strong roof.” Mick said “It used to be that our city moved by sail, and our houses had doors that kept out most of the water and roofs that kept in the air; we sank the city when land-folk ships were seen. Then we made a dome of rock, and moved the city with a certain type of steam engine. We had long pipes for air and to release the smoke that let us move underwater. Some centuries later we replaced the fires with unstable nuclei; and then we found a better way: the power that warms the sun, using hydrogen and producing helium.”

“You have harnessed this power for a long time?” Dantho asked.

“About a thousand years.”

“And we do not even have a word for it, or know it exists.”

“Kalak, the astronomer knew that the suns make Helium, but not how. In only a few years you would have worked out the solution, and how it is linked to unstable isotopes.”

“Research on unstable isotopes is often banned by Tradition.”

“They are dangerous,” Mick pointed out.

“That is not why they ban the research. They think it will bring a change and they reject all change.”

“And now you are in power,” Mick said, “one who delights in all change,”

“I thought so, but I would not delight in a change to war, nor to a change to our constitution.”

“Even though it means constant swapping backwards and forward of laws?” Mick probed.

“That is not how the constitution was originally thought of. The thought was that the parties should discuss, that cancelling laws would happen rarely. The authors of the constitution would say the current system has become a decadent, bickering abomination. Ever since I came to real faith I've been praying that the One would sort it out.” She gave a little smile, “Now it looks like He's giving me the chance to. I would like, I would love to play some part in returning it to the way it's supposed to be.” Her eyes almost glowed at that pronouncement.

“I pledge you my prayers, my sword and my life in support of that quest, my lady Dantho,” the lieutenant said, shocking everyone.

“Lieutenant?” Dantho asked looking shocked, “I thought the guard were entirely apolitical.”

“We are the fourth party, my lady, the guardians of order, guardians of all laws, but most especially the constitution. On constitutional matters, we may be political, with our swords if necessary.”

“So I should expect unanimous support from the guard?” Dantho asked, surprised.

“You should, my lady. Sadly, many of my fellow officers wish to retire into politics, and already listen more to their future sponsors than the constitution. Some, I believe, even enforce the laws of Ground unequally, lending a political bias to their efforts in investigations. It is very hard to prove, however, certainly from within, without authorization or authority. Who in political authority would ever support such a move?”

“Well I certainly would,” Dantho said. “I'd have thought anyone in the Change party would, since we don't get many ex-guardsmen.”

“But the Change party are mostly out of power, my lady,” the lieutenant said, simply, “and such an investigation, merely an administrative data-gathering exercise at first....”

“Would easily be cancelled,” Danthoxs said.

“Exactly, dear lady.” the Lieutenant said, then blushed that his lips had betrayed his attraction to the head of government.

Dantho instructed her face not to show the surge of emotion she felt at seeing him blush — the lieutenant seemed a fine specimen of his gender, and the file she'd read about him before this trip had been positive, hence her visiting with just his accompaniment. But she couldn't think about what the future might hold now, so somewhat coolly she said, “Lieutenant, I've decided we're accepting the offer of a trip to Yasfort. As we'll be among strange and powerful aliens, I'd like to know who's going with me. What's your name?”

“Vokan, honoured lady,” he said. Earlier on, reading his file, she'd guessed that he'd pronounce the first vowel short, but he didn't, so she was glad she'd asked.

“And Vokan, do you have a living faith in the One?”

“I first begged the One for mercy as a recruit, and then learned a lot from the Reverend Lak, my lady. I feel though, that my faith really began to grow when I understood the message of grace he preached before he was arrested.”

“I have much to learn in Yasfort, Vokan, and need to be able to concentrate. Maybe on the way back I can discuss with you in what sense you have been calling me your lady since I spoke about my faith and my dream. For the moment, call me Dantho. I am not used to any title, and it seems titles might be ambiguous.”

“I'm sorry, lady Dantho, I spoke out of place.”

“I told you to call me Dantho, Vokan. We share faith in the grace of the One, and throwing titles around is confusing and may well be inappropriate.”

“I am sorry,” he said, trying to hide his renewed embarrassment at his social misstep.

“As I said, we will need to fully concentrate on the business at hand in Yasfort, and I hope you have no plans that would prevent long discussions once we return, because I think we will be talking about all that has happened today long into the night.”

“I had planned to attend a scripture study group, at an hour after sunset, assuming this trip permits.”

Dantho nodded, “Lasting about two hours?” she guessed.

“Yes, about that long.”

“Mick?” Dantho asked, “Would it be possible for us to get back to the city on time for Vokan's study group?”