War and Space

by Steve Challis

Love Conquers All

  There were still three months for the High Council to decide what to do about the Earthmen. It would take the Highway to Heaven that long to decelerate to orbital speed. The evil of the Humans left on the Earth had been ingrained into the people of Homeworld since they were babies and stories with the Earthmen as villains used in the nursery.

  So the logical thing of accepting the Earthmen as honoured guests and as a type of Human different from, but the equal of their own was not as straight forward as it should have been. There was plenty of time for the whole population of Homeworld to read the ex-president’s book. The part which turned the tide was the tragic love story of Mydepa and Mujib.

  The president had included plenty of pictures in his book. They were able to identify both with Mydepa and her Earthman lover. The people of Homeworld had time to decide that there was nothing actually repulsive about the appearance of Mujib or the other Earthmen in the pictures.

  There were also pictures that caused much amusement, including one with the eight foot ex-president standing next to the 5 foot Captain Jack.

  Ali was Mujib’s cousin and there was sympathy for him that aided his task as a diplomat. The ex-president of the Green Planet addressed the High Council of his people in an address holovised throughout the whole star system. He urged friendship with the Earthmen.

  Then Ali came on to speak. During the six months of the trip Ali had been learning the language of the Idaltus. He was able to urge peace and friendship. He proposed a ‘Federation of Friendly Sentients’.

  This was to be a very loose federation. The only duty was friendliness to all other members. Sentience was not defined, but basically any species could apply to join as long as they did it themselves and understood what they were doing. All existing members would have to agree to any new members before they were accepted. Initially there were to be three members; the Idaltu Humans, the Earth Humans and the Wise Apes. Ali had the full authority of The People of the Solar System to sign on behalf of the Earthmen while the President of the High Council was able to sign with the whole hearted approval of his people. Albert was a member of the Council of Elders of his species and signed on behalf of the Wise Apes.

  After that there were the information and technology sharing agreements; both sides were well pleased with their side of the bargain. The Idaltu Humans got the way of bypassing the speed of light while the Earth Humans got access to over a hundred millennia of technological development. The Idaltu Humans had not excessively modified themselves, but they were capable of genetic modification far more advanced than anything the Earthmen could do. They also had techniques for modifying planetary systems which enormously extended the range of planets that could be terraformed.

  However although the Idaltus were a very long way ahead of the Earth Humans in technology they were generally not any more advanced in science. The Earth Humans had smaller brains, but the cross linkages were different and in some respects more efficient.

  There was also an agreement that any planetary system already settled by either type of Humans should remain under the control of that type of Human. As far as future planets were concerned, it was expected that some would be settled by both types of Human working together, but because of the strong preference of the Idaltu Humans for low gravity planets there would be plenty of planets for both of them.