A Call to Arms

by Alan Dean Foster

  The diversity of the captured vessel’s crew was impressive. There were even non-oxynitro-breathers aboard: two methane-suckers and one which extracted oxygen from water. Nor were the captives awed by the force they had encountered. They believed that their own federation rivaled in strength that of the Peoples of the Purpose. The delight of the Amplitur was magnified tenfold.

  It called itself the Weave. When joined to what the Amplitur had laboriously constructed, it would effectively double in size the Peoples of the Purpose.

  A revelation of great import, which the Amplitur recognized with a conference on board the flagship of the expeditionary force. A few high officers among the allied races spoke out against the meeting, lest the Sspari launch a last, desperate attack and catch all the Amplitur vulnerable on a single ship.

  The possibility did not trouble the Amplitur. Given such an unlikely happenstance, a Molitar or Korath could take over and finish the resultant battle effectively. The Amplitur regretted the dependence which their allies occasionally displayed. Did they not realize that within the Purpose, all peoples were equal?

  Fast-blue-Breeder had requested the meeting. The moment needed to be commemorated.

  As they gathered aboard the flagship there was much intertwining of tentacles tips and soft husking of mouthparts. Despite the stress of the expedition and attendant combat, two of the Amplitur were reproducing. Following a fifteen-month gestation period, the large buds blossoming from their backs would be carefully removed and placed in nursery environments to mature as new individuals.

  Until that time the budding infants would depend on nutrients supplied by their parenting bodies. Though immobile, they were capable of learning, both through observation and the instruction offered via intimate telepathic communion with their parent.

  In a cleared recreation chamber the commander of the captured vessel was brought before the gathering. The locale had been selected to reassure, not to impress.

  In addition to the Amplitur a number of Crigolit technicians were present, together with some Segunian go-betweens. A single Molitar guarded the doorway, its bulk effectively obscuring it.

  The twelve Amplitur rested in a semicircle as the tall, thin alien faced them. He favored one of two legs, obviously injured. Within the fleet which had attempted to aid the Sspari he ranked somewhere in the middle. Not the equivalent of One-who-Decides, but higher than a technician.

  The thin frame was covered with fur and the short snout filled with sharp teeth. It was vertebrate and male, which was not as surprising as the fact that all the races of the captured ship were vertebrates.

  Preliminary research suggested that the organization to which these diverse species belonged, their “Weave,” was as contentious as it was powerful. Arguments and even actual combat between members was endemic.

  The Amplitur understood. To be united within the Purpose was very different from being tenuously tied together by feeble treaties and imperfect alliances. The latter bespoke an organization strong only militarily. Offered the beauty and inevitability of the Purpose, the fractious peoples who comprised the Weave would eventually put aside their disagreements and arms to join together with the more mature intelligences of the Purpose.

  None of the languages utilized aboard the captured vessel were especially complex, including that of the ship’s commander. Mechanical translation was feasible. The Amplitur, of course, had no need of it.

  The alien regarded his captors, straining to isolate shapes in the dim reddish light. One of the observers noted his difficulty and ventured a solicitous projection. “Is the illumination too weak for you?”

  The alien officer stumbled and clutched reflexively at his head. “Who said that?”

  When no reply was forthcoming he took several long strides forward. His long muscular arms and sharp teeth could have inflicted considerable damage on the slow, soft body of an Amplitur, were it not for the gentle restraining field that stopped him. He felt of it hesitantly before backing away.

  “Can he see us?” one of the other Amplitur thought generally.

  “We have been assured,” Fast-blue-Breeder opined, “that his vision is competent within the accepted spectrum, which is to say that it is efficient and like that of the majority of our allies in being shifted further toward the ultraviolet than our own. Nonetheless…” At Fast-blue-Breeder’s direction, brighter light filled the room.

  The alien regarded the twelve silent Amplitur. Tentacles and their manipulative digits wove silent, indecipherable patterns in the air. His mind simmered with uncertainty.

  Fast-blue-Breeder raised one tentacle and spread the four digits by way of greeting.

  “We mean you no harm.”

  “You show otherwise,” the alien responded.

  “You attacked us. We responded as necessary. We are told that your name is Prinac and that you are the ranking surviving officer of the vessel now under our control.”

  “What are you going to do with us?” the alien asked sharply. Its black nose and ears were in constant motion.

  “Brusque and impolite.” The thought occurred to all the Amplitur simultaneously. “Indicative of a primitive species not long a-venturing.”

  “You will not be harmed,” said Soon-dark-Concerning, a half-mature bud bobbing gently on its back, silent and observing. “You are going to be brought into the Purpose.”

  “What is this ‘Purpose’?” the alien inquired. “That is all we have heard about since you took us, this ‘Purpose’ thing.”

  One of the other Amplitur explained.

  “And what if we do not want to join your Purpose, like the Sspari who requested our help?”

  “There is no choice for an intelligent race. Were we not here speaking with you now, there would still be no choice. Eventually the Purpose would find you. It is what it is.”

  “Maybe it’s not what it is for us,” countered Prinac. “What then?”

  “You will be persuaded.” The Amplitur wondered why this was so, that so many races were slow to see the beauty and wonder of the Purpose.

  The alien commander adopted a typical bipedal defensive posture: legs bent, hands extended. A primitive display, thought One-who-Decides, for all that it was backed by apparent intelligence.

  “My people can be very hard to ‘persuade.’ As can our Weave allies.”

  “You are not truly united,” said one of the other Amplitur. “You argue among yourselves, but rarely resort to combat.”

  “We are not by nature inclined to combat,” Prinac shot back, “violence being the hallmark of the uncivilized.”

  “On this we are agreed,” thought Fast-blue-Breeder communally.

  “But we will fight if necessary to avoid being conquered by anything like you.”

  “We do not ‘conquer.’ ” There was exasperation in the thoughts of the Amplitur who replied. “Within the Purpose all are equal. So shall you be with us.”

  “From what I have seen and heard,” the alien responded, relaxing a little, “you Amplitur seem to be a little more equal than any of your friends.”

  “We were the first to realize the Purpose, the first to understand its implications.” One-who-Decides gestured imploringly. “You must realize that nothing you can say, no objection you can raise, is new to us. It has all been said and raised by dozens of races before you.”

  “If we were the conquerors you speak of, how is it that in this vast force which has defeated the objections of the Sspari and driven your own allies into thoughtfulness we number only twelve?”

  It made the alien hesitate. Double lids blinked.

  “That is the truth? This is all of you in the whole fleet?”

  “We always tell the truth,” said Fast-blue-Breeder. “When one struggles to serve and understand the Purpose, there is no rationale for prevarication. It is wasteful.”

  “We possess no extraordinary physical strength or fighting ability,” said another of the twelve. “The soldiers aboard this one vessel could overpower us eas
ily any time they wished.”

  “Why don’t they?” asked Prinac stiffly.

  “Understanding the Purpose, they have no wish to.”

  “Well, I do not understand, and I do not want to, nor does any of my crew.”

  “Understanding takes time. In a universe as vast as ours, revelation is in short supply. It is anyway a better thing when understanding arrives through study and thoughtfulness rather than coercion. Then one truly understands.”

  The alien hesitated. “You have said that you are not going to harm us. What are you going to do with us?”

  To the Weave commander it appeared as if those confronting him had suddenly gone comatose. In reality they were conferencing. Nor was it the first time they had done so. His eyes widened in realization, the slit pupils expanding horizontally.

  “Telepathy is a fantasy, direct mind-to-mind communication a dream. It violates the laws of conservation of energy as we understand them. But you can do it, can’t you? You really can?”

  “It is a survival trait unique to us,” One-who-Decides explained gently. “In its early days our world was an extremely primitive and hostile place. Despite this ability we do not feel that it makes us any better than any other people. Only different.”

  For the first time, the alien commander projected fear. “Can you read my mind?”

  “No,” said one of the Amplitur quickly. “And remember that we always speak the truth.”

  “If you cannot read another mind, how do you…?”

  “We project. That is the gift. Anyone can receive. That ability lies dormant in most developed minds. With none to project to you, you do not even realize it is present.”

  “If you observe carefully you will see that none of us has been moving our mouthparts, though we are quite capable of communicating by means of modulated sound waves, as you do. We have been projecting to you from the moment you appeared before us. Having never been projected to before, you naturally assumed that we were communicating with you by means of sound waves. That has not been the case.”

  “As you will also note, there is nothing in the least detrimental or harmful about the process.”

  “That does not answer my question. What are you going to do with us?”

  “I think,” replied One-who-Decides, the matter having been already agreed upon, “that we will assist you in repairing your ship.”

  “What’s that?” Prinac blinked again.

  “We will help you to fix your vessel to the best of our ability. Since the mathematics are unvarying, the means for traveling through Underspace are universally similar. Only materials and design differ.”

  “We intend to allow you and your crew to return to your home. Though we had no quarrel with you, your people attacked our ships and killed many. You will serve as messengers, apprising your people of our existence and intent. Hold nothing back, tell everything. We will supply you with additional information and statistics where your own observation is inadequate.”

  “I sense your fear. You will not be interrogated or mind-altered or otherwise persuaded against your individual will to do any of this. Should you choose to do so, you may say nothing, or invent your own tales. We cannot prevent that. You will simply be provided with information. It will be your choice as intelligent beings to disseminate or conceal this information as you see fit. Surely you cannot fear ideas!”

  “Nothing will be concealed within your ship or implanted upon your physical person, although we could easily do both.”

  Long-burdened-Walker moved slightly forward and demonstrated.

  The Weave officer suddenly bent double, his hands clasping the sides of his head as he dropped to his knees. It lasted only for an instant but took longer for him to recover. When he rose shakily, his hands were trembling and his tongue was hanging out of the side of his mouth.

  “What—what was that? What did you do!”

  “There are many means of communication.” One-who-Decides projected compassionately. “Are you still in pain? Do you require the attention of a physician?”

  “No,” said Prinac weakly. “No, I will be all right.” His expression, such as it was, had changed radically. “Which of you did that?”

  “It does not matter.” One-who-Decides gestured with a tentacle. “Any of us are capable of such communication.”

  Prinac took a deep shuddering breath. “I begin to understand how twelve of you can control a force of this size.”

  One-who-Decides was appalled at the implication. “We do not do so through that type of communication.”

  “You do not have to. It is enough for those serving you to know that you can. This is how you keep everyone in line.”

  “No one is ‘kept in line.’ We are all servants of the Purpose together.” One-who-Decides strove to be patient in the face of such ignorance. “You will come to realize this, and then you will be ashamed of your thoughts.”

  “You may choose to resist with force. You know that you would not be the first to do so. It results only in unnecessary suffering on both sides, since in the end all are contentedly integrated into the Purpose. When that day comes you will no longer fight and argue among yourselves, understanding as you will the true meaning of existence. Archaic concepts such as interspecies conflict over simple physical differences or mental outlook will disappear.”

  “We might beat you, you know. You have no idea how strong the Weave is. And you will not learn more from me, my crew, or our ship’s storage facilities. Because no one knows how big the Weave is, exactly. I do not think you have ever faced anything like it.”

  “It matters not. Without a singleness of purpose to unite, there can be no true strength. You live lives of aimlessness and wasted existence and can therefore pose no real threat to us. The Purpose is not the Amplitur, nor is it our allies. It exists exclusive of us, outside and beyond us, the real reason for everything that is. You cannot defeat that.”

  “That is to be seen,” replied Prinac even as he sounded less confident of his own power and philosophy.

  It might take a little longer, One-who-Decides mused. It was often such to varying degrees with primitive peoples. Gentle persuasion and reassurance almost always worked, though it was true they had never before encountered an organization like this Weave. But what an astoundingly grand opportunity it presented!

  Elation flowed between the twelve. Not one, not six, but an unknown number of new intelligences to bring to the Purpose. This was one of the seminal moments of history, and it was a privilege simply to be present.

  He felt a great love and affection for this Prinac; representative of an alien species, commander of a hostile warship. The projection rolled out from all and they could see that the Weave officer was affected by it.

  “You are mad.” was his response when the wave had subsided. “I do not love you. I do not love your Purpose. I do not love anything about you. Your intentions I find repulsive and your persons unpleasant. I especially do not like the way you treat your slave peoples.”

  “Slave peoples? What is a slave?” inquired another of the Amplitur.

  Prinac explained.

  There was some uncertainty among the twelve. “This concept is foreign to us. We do not understand what you mean.”

  “I will try to clarify.”

  Still the Amplitur failed to understand.

  “There is no slavery, as you call this thing, within the Purpose. How can there be, with all intelligences being equal?”

  “But you are not equal. You Amplitur are in control, whether by virtue of the fact that this ‘Purpose’ is your creation or through your ability to project telepathically. You control and the rest are subject to you. They do not try to rebel because they are afraid.”

  “You display ignorance, which is understandable.” One-who-Decides spoke, resorting to words for the aesthetic effect.

  “You there! Scomatt, third officer of the Crigolit. I am One-who-Decides. Are you afraid of me?”

  “Of course not,” said
the Crigolit. “We work within and for the Purpose, and furthermore, we are friends.”

  The fleet commander projected satisfaction, which the alien, too, could not fail to feel. “You over there, Aswen of the Segunia. Do you fear me?”

  The response was the same from all, even from the huge Molitar who guarded the door and could have crushed every Amplitur in the room before mere weaponry could have reduced it to a pile of disorganized jelly.

  Fast-blue-Breeder regarded the prisoner. “We do not understand what you accuse us of.”

  “Because you are blind to it.”

  “Are you so certain that it is we who are blind? We offer you cooperation, understanding, empathy, and openness within the Purpose and you respond with fear of domination. Why do you think your vision so much more acute than ours? Why should it not be the other way around?”

  “All I can say is that my own people will never be part of your Purpose, no matter what you do. You can hurt me up here,” and he tapped the side of his angular skull, “even kill me, but it will not matter.”

  “We intend no such thing.” The Amplitur were shocked at the notion. “We do not wish to kill anyone.”

  “Tell that to those who crewed the ships you destroyed.”

  “They attacked us,” One-who-Decides reminded the alien. “I say again that we had no quarrel with you and your kind.”

  “The Sspari came to the Weave. They explained what was happening. Many within the Weave were reluctant to send help because they did not want to get involved, but others saw rightly that you would find us eventually. Better to find out what we might be up against as soon as possible than to wait for you to surprise us.” The alien’s thoughts were awash with obvious pride. “That is what the Weave is about.”

  “It sounds not so very different from the Purpose,” observed another of the Amplitur. “Save that you argue among yourselves to no end.”

  “We value our independence,” Prinac told them. “Something your ‘allies’ seem to have forgotten.”

  “All are free to act as they wish,” said One-who-Decides, “within the Purpose. Daily life differs on all worlds, among all races. Neither we nor anyone else interferes with another race’s culture or art or traditions. Within that context we all strive toward a greater common goal, one which renders all friends. Not masters and slaves, as you describe it.”