In the end, it took very little time to hammer out an agreement. Since the Radiants didn't have a written language, anything like lawyers, or even laws, so far as they could tell, the agreement had to be simple enough to be contained in a handful of spoken sentences. The agreement that was finally worked out was this –
1 - Radiants and Humans (The Hetin folk were classed as humans for the purposes of this treaty) shall do no harm to each other, with the cursing of an individual back to an earlier physical form being defined as harm.
2 – Humans and Radiants shall refrain from entering each others territories, except for humans entering Radiant territory wishing to be adopted and except for ambassadors and their staff. Any human who enters Radiant territory wishing to be adopted does so at his own risk, and shall be considered to be committing suicide by the human authorities.
3- Radiants will only adopt humans who enter their territories wishing to be adopted.
4 – Any Radiant who has to pass across human territory in order to pass from one Radiant territory to another will do so at an altitude of at least a thousand feet above ground.
5 – Radiants will ensure that there will always be good weather in human territories.
6 – Radiants will not initiate any earthquakes whose epicentres are in human territories, or cause any volcano in human territories to erupt prematurely. It is understood that earthquakes and volcanic eruptions will happen from time to time, and humans will not blame Radiants for naturally occurring disasters.
7 – Humans will not activate any piece of equipment that emits radio waves within a hundred miles of a Radiant city.
8 – Humans and Radiants will establish embassies in each other’s territories, in order to settle any disputes not covered by the above agreements. The ambassadors will communicate with their governments by means of telegraph cables. Radiant embassies in human lands will be staffed by adoptees rather than by Radiants, and the adoptees will be subject to the same laws as the citizens of the countries in which they are based.
9 – The Hetin folk acknowledge that all life forms raised from globs are lawful residents of the planet, and waive all claims to sole ownership of the planet.
Pettiwell looked down at the single sheet of paper in his hand, on which a copy of the agreement was written. “My government expects these talks to go on for at least six months,” he said to Richard Daerden, the man sitting at the next desk, “and they'll be expecting something that fills a thick book! The Emperor will have a fit when he sees this!”
“It's possible that the Radiants and I have something in common after all,” the other diplomat replied. “When I see a long shelf full of law books, each one full of long winded verbage, the party of the first part and so forth, all I see are a lot of loop holes that a clever lawyer can drive a horse and carriage through. Long winded laws, to me, are just a form of deception perpetrated by lawyers on ordinary, decent folk. They can use them to control everyone else, but can always find a loophole to let themselves do whatever they want to do. Maybe the Radiants think the same way. I mean, look at rule number four. Radiants will ensure that there is always good weather in the human territories. It's simple, It’s obvious. There's no room for misunderstanding.”
“Of course there is! Who decides what ‘good weather’ is? And good for who? Humans or Radiants?”
“Humans, of course!” Daerden replied. “That's obvious from the context! And by good weather, it means good farming weather, for good harvests. It doesn’t need to be spelled out, it’s obvious!”
“My people back home will want it spelled out, though. How many hours of sunshine, how many inches of rainfall, varying from month to month and from region to region! Arid regions to get more rain than dry regions and so forth. They'll be expecting a whole volume of regulations on the weather alone!” He ran a hand through his great, unruly mop of red hair. “I'm really not looking forward to handing this over to the Emperor! I can already hear him shouting at me!”
“I think we were amazingly fortunate to get any kind of treaty at all! I know King Leothan will be delighted with this! He shares my opinion of lawyers, you know.”
“Of course he does! He's an absolute monarch who rules by decree! He might have written this agreement himself!”
The Brigadier, who had been listening to the conversation while keeping his own opinions to himself, drifted away. He walked over to the small table on which the female adoptee had placed a tray of snacks and helped himself to a mince pie. He bit a piece off, brushing the crumbs from his immaculate uniform, and chewed thoughtfully. He drifted over to where Shanks was standing by himself, staring at a collection of Hetin farming implements while, behind him, the Radiant continued to float in the middle of the room, its tentacles moving lazily where they hung through the hole in the floor.
The scientist turned to face him as he approached, and the Brigadier saw the anger boiling away inside him, just barely held in check. “Nine lines of text on a single sheet of paper,” he said, “and one of them exclusively devoted to us! The Hetin folk, I mean! A single line of text saying that they intend to keep the planet they stole from us!”
“Not just them,” the Brigadier pointed out. “I was also raised from a glob. So was almost everyone you know. If you had your way, what would you have done with me?”
“I'm just saying that our ownership of the planet should be recognised! Of course there’s nothing we can do about your people, you humans, and we wouldn’t even if we could, but our pre-eminence should be recognised! This is our planet! Everyone else, humans and Radiants alike, are invaders! They should be made to recognise this simple fact! They should be made to apologise for what they did to our civilisation!”
“You signed the document on behalf of all Hetin folk everywhere,” the Brigadier pointed out.
“Of course I did! What choice did I have? Everything else was agreed, wrapped up finished. All that was left was for me to say that the thieves could keep what was stolen!” He paced angrily back and forth across the floor. “It means that their persecution of my people will cease, though. Maybe it's worth it, just for that. If what that creature said is right, if there are thousands of us out there, then maybe there’s still a future for my people, if they leave us alone. We can form communities again! Cities, maybe one day even entire countries of our own! Maybe it was worth signing that damned document just for that! Maybe it’s time to swallow our pride, acknowledge the reality of the situation. You're here, the Radiants are here. That's a simple fact and that's that.”
The Brigadier took another bite from the mince pie and nodded while chewing. Anything that brought about peace, that allowed people to live together, adopt and raise animals, anything that allowed bloodshed to be avoided, was worthwhile. He had always considered pride to be a two edged sword. It could be a good thing if it prompted people to act decently towards others. They might only be doing it in order to receive praise from others, but if a good deed was done, who cared what the motive was? It might also cause artists and craftsmen to take more care with their workmanship than they might otherwise have done, but again, who cared how selfish the motive was if it improved the world? The problem was that pride could also cause people to hold onto ancient grudges, causing them to carry on fighting and killing long after it had ceased to do any useful good. Pride had been the main reason for Shanks's hatred of the Radiants. It made no logical sense for him to want to avenge the destruction of a civilisation that had fallen three thousand years before. It had been pride, and if he had seen the necessity to put pride aside for the greater good, then he, the Brigadier, could only applaud that.
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He said none of this, though. The Brigadier was not a good speaker, he had trouble finding the words to express subtle concepts, and so he just drifted away, gazing with only casual interest at the Hetin artefacts. As far as he could tell, the peace talks were concluded. They were just chatting now, eating snacks and gossiping as if they were at a party while waiting, as if for some kind of telepathically obtained mutual decision, for it to be time to leave, to return to their military escort and begin the journey back home. This made the Brigadier bored and impatient. If they were done here, then why weren't they leaving immediately? He had no doubt that the Radiants would be glad to see them gone, but he knew that there were social niceties that had to be observed, even if he found it hard to understand them. He moved further away, therefore, back towards the area where he remembered, from his first visit, the Hetin weapons were kept.
Shanks watched him go, feeling the anger rising within him again. The signing of some stupid document didn't change the fact that this was their world! A Hetin world! The Radiants didn't belong here, and neither did the glob creatures from which they arose! The Brigadier had asked him whether he would rid the world of glob humans, if he had the means to do so, and although he'd said that he wouldn’t, the truth was that he would! In a second! The myths and legends of his people spoke of a weapon his people had been working on in the last days before their civilisation fell. A biological weapon, a new disease that would kill globs and any creature that had been raised from a glob. If they had completed the weapon, the invaders would have been vanquished, wiped from the world as if they had never been, and the Hetin folk would still reign supreme!
All the science his people had once possessed was gone, but science was rising again! The arc oscillator was proof of that! Maybe, one day, it would rise to the point where his people could complete the weapon his ancestors had dreamed of! It would be generations from now, he knew. He wouldn't live to see it, but it would happen! He was suddenly certain of it! One day they would create the weapon and the invaders would be destroyed! It would be a shame that all the glob humans would have to die, some of them were good people, but they had never been meant to exist in the first place. Regrettable though it might be, they had to go. All of them, until there were only Hetin folk left in the world.
He looked across at the Radiant, still floating in the centre of the room. It was looking at him, he was almost certain of it. The eyes facing in his direction looked more focused than the others, and as he walked across the room the creature rotated slightly so that one eye was following him. What would you think if you could read my mind? he thought. What would you do if you knew what we have planned for you? He was careful to keep all trace of his thoughts from his face, in case it could read human expressions, and even if it couldn't, the adoptees could. It was imperative that he did nothing to give away his true intentions. This treaty they'd worked out would buy them time. Time for their numbers to grow, time for them to develop their science. The Radiants were probably planning something of their own, he knew. Searching for some way to regain the upper hand, but they wouldn't have agreed to this conference if they already had a plan worked out. This had agreed to this conference because they had no other way to prevent the humans from driving arc oscillators into every Radiant city. That meant they had time yet. Maybe decades. Maybe, he dared to hope, even a century. If he did something to throw that away, his name would be cursed by the Hetin folk for as long as their species survived!
The young female adoptee was walking in his direction, he saw, and he turned to face her, making himself smile pleasantly. She smiled back. “You're the Hetin man, aren’t you?” she asked.
“Yes,” he replied. “I imagine I’m the first of my kind ever to come here.”
“I believe you are. I just wanted to ask. I hope it isn't hard for you to be here. I've been told that you believe the Radiants were responsible for the destruction of your civilisation. You must have strong feelings towards them.”
“Once perhaps,” he replied. “Now, though... Well, it was three thousand years ago. It would be silly to still be angry about something that happened so long ago. We have to look to the future now. Enough people have died, on both sides. I’m sure that even the Radiants grow weary of war eventually.”
“They do,” she replied, looking downcast. “They hated doing what they did but they saw no alternative. They were so afraid of your radio machines. You have no idea how afraid!”
“Well, they don't have to be afraid any longer. It's a big planet, but enough for all of us. I think we've created a beginning here. The beginning of an age of peace and happiness for all the peoples of the world. An age in which neither humans nor Radiants have to be afraid any longer.”
The young woman beamed with happiness, and the glow of her skin seemed to grow brighter. “I hope so!” she said, gripping his arm with both hands. He had to restrain himself from pulling free with disgust. He made himself stand there and smile back as he endured her touch. “I really do hope so!” She smiled again, then danced away to find more food and drinks to serve her guests. Shanks rubbed his arm to wipe away the memory of her touch, and glanced again at the Radiant, which was still looking at him.
He turned his back on it and returned his attention to the museum's exhibits. Maybe there was something here that would help them rediscover lost Hetin science, bring the renewed supremacy of his people closer. He drifted along the shelves of ancient, dusty artefacts, therefore, wondering if he could find a way to smuggle one or two away with him.
☆☆☆
The summit had lasted four days, with the delegates returning to the camp made by their military escort every evening. None of them wanted to spend a night in the Radiant city, and this feeling didn't change now that a treaty had been agreed upon. They left the Radiant city for the last time before it grew dark, therefore, making their farewells and offering well wishes before walking back the way they had come.
Each human nation would send its ambassadors and staff sometime over the next few weeks and months, and it was expected that they would all live in the one building, for mutual protection and reassurance. A telegraph cable linking the ambassadorial building with Wilterland, the nearest human nation that had telegraph links with the rest of the human world, would hopefully be laid no later than a year after that. In the meantime, communications between the ambassadors and their governments would be by rider and pigeon. The adoptees who would be the Radiants' ambassadors, meanwhile, would be sent as soon as they could find some people who didn't mind deferring the final stages of their adoption for a few years.
The Radiant who had been Alpha for the summit watched the departing humans from high overhead. *It is intolerable that we should have to agree terms with larvae!* it thought. *We must devote all our efforts to finding a way to remedy this situation!*
*An alpha has already been chosen for this endeavour,* the massed Radiants of the city replied. *Join the Consensus and you will learn the identity of the candidate.*
The former Alpha did so, temporarily merging its consciousness with those of the others. Then it separated again. *Yes, a good choice,* it agreed. *Even so, we should consider the possibility that we may have to ask Those Above for help. It would be embarrassing, true, but less so than having to devastate the planet to save ourselves.*
*That is being considered, but only as a last resort. We may yet be able to remedy the situation ourselves. Do the humans know about Those Above?*
*Only as myths and legends. Some humans worship them, but they have no idea what it is they are worshipping.* It radiated amusement. *It has, apparently, never occurred to them that we may not be at the top of the ladder of adoption.*
The massed Radiants of the city expressed amusement back as they contemplated the power that Those Above could bring to bear against their upstart underlings, if they could be roused from their contemplations. On the one hand, they needed Radiants to adopt in order to create more of their kind, but on the other hand they had seeded Radiants on many worlds across the galaxy. The loss of one planet might not be seen as a great loss to them. Perhaps they could be persuaded to see humans, the arch tool users, as a threat not just to Radiants, but to the owners of the galaxy itself! That might require some exaggeration of the danger these humans represented, but lying was acceptable if it served the Radiant cause. All Radiants everywhere would agree to that.
The former Alpha returned its attention to the departing humans. You should have destroyed us when you had the chance, it thought. You will not get another. You don't know it, but you are doomed already. Doomed by your own compassion, your own civilised standards. If you knew anything about the true nature of the universe, you would know that only those who have power above all others can afford the luxury of compassion, for only power gives security. For everyone else, survival requires ruthlessness, the willingness to do whatever it takes to remove any potential threat. Not even the Hetin man saw the truth of that, despite what had been done to the civilisation of his ancestors. He was a fool if he thought that a non-glob civilisation, no matter how small, could be allowed to survive in the galaxy Those Above had created!
The former Alpha watched the humans for a little longer as they prepared to bed down for the night, ready to begin the journey home in the morning. Then it moved back towards the city, returning to the tasks from which the summit had taken it. There was much to do.
The end