by Matt
"Cjhor Elon," he said, "I will receive the report of this beast in particular privacy."
"Of course, immaculate sir," said the aide, getting to his feet behind his desk. "Shall I prevent all interruptions?"
"Yes. Subject to your own good judgment."
"I am complimented, immaculate sir."
The aide went out.
Lyt Ahn stood up behind his desk and walked across the room to stand before the large screen where Shane had once seen displayed the image of Lyt Ahn's son, as imagined by the mother, in the hands of those who had taken over the original worlds of the Aalaag.
Once more, without visible signal from Lyt Ahn, the screen came to life. But now it looked down from the building like the screen in the hallway Shane had passed hours earlier —the screen with the small group of Aalaag officers watching it—and showed the square below with its crowd and its lines of armed Interior Guardsmen.
"Come over here," said Lyt Ahn.
Shane walked clumsily over to stand at the left of the Aalaag before the image at which the other was looking. The effect was eerie. This particular screen went from near the top of the wall all the way to the floor at their feet, and was three-dimensionally perfect in its reproduction of the scene outside. To Shane it was as if they stood one long stride from the floor's unguarded edge, some five meters above the heads of the last rank of Interior Guards, looking down at them and out at the crowd in the square. The whole scene was brilliantly illuminated by artificial lighting that seemed to come from nowhere, but left the farther buildings surrounding the square in darkness. Bright as it was, that light did not intensify the darkness of the night overhead. Looking up, Shane could clearly see the stars of a cloudless, cold and windy night. No moon was visible. He glanced at his watch finally, and saw with a shock that it was nearly five o'clock in the morning.
Lyt Ahn glanced briefly at Shane.
"It is very interesting to see such a beast as you again," said Lyt Ahn gently. "Your breed of cattle has been requiring extra attention from us lately, attention we should not have to give them at this stage of an Expedition. Do you recognize any of your own kind as those you know, in the square down there?"
Shane stared out at the sea of cowls and glimpses of faces without really focusing on any of them.
"I do not know any of these beasts, immaculate sir," he said, "and they would not know such as a Shane-beast."
"That is reasonable," said Lyt Ahn. Again he glanced briefly down at Shane. "And I did not mean to imply that you were as those outside are. In any case, we have other things to talk about. You have been with Laa Ehon since I saw you last."
"This beast has," said Shane.
"Then I wish you to answer questions which I shall put you. Do not volunteer any information beyond that for which I ask. Do you understand?"
"This beast understands."
"Good." Lyt Ahn went into one of the Aalaag silences for perhaps twenty seconds. "Little Shane-beast, you have been allowed to come closer to the machinery of Aalaag decisions than any beast is ordinarily allowed to come. To properly answer the questions I am about to ask you, therefore, you had perhaps better be allowed further into an understanding—as far as your small mind can understand, of course—of what is at stake in that which I ask and the replies you make to them."
He paused—this time briefly.
"Do you understand?" he asked.
"This beast believes it understands the First Captain. The immaculate sir wishes me to be both fully truthful, but impersonal, in my answers about the immaculate sir Laa Ehon; this for weighty reasons which may well be beyond the understanding of this beast."
"Indeed," said Lyt Ahn. "Therefore you must comprehend how all-important it has always been, is, and always will be —our need to work toward our return to retake the home worlds that were stolen from us. It is something that concerns all Aalaag during every minute of the life of each. Those who, because of some weakness or perversion, fail to be so concerned, threaten the great purpose itself. These, we call unwell. You have perhaps heard the word used loosely, used even where your own kind is concerned where one of them has deviated from what it ought to be and do. But, strictly speaking, a beast cannot be well or unwell, since it has no part in the great purpose that rules the Aalaag and which we—all of us who are Aalaag and well—obey without question, without thought."
"This beast believes it approaches understanding of what the First Captain has just said."
"Good. I ask you, then," said Lyt Ahn, still watching the Interior Guards, warm in their Aalaag temperature-controlling clothing, and the steady, uneasy movement of the robed crowd in the square as it moved and shifted under the cold that would be penetrating even through the heavy clothing which most, if not all, would have on under their robes. "I ask you if the sir Laa Ehon has ever in your presence spoken of the Great Purpose?"
"Immaculate sir, he has not," said Shane.
"Has he ever spoken to you in any manner or of anything which you might assume to be contrary to the Great Purpose?"
"He has not, immaculate sir."
"Have you seen him behaving in any manner, or have you heard or overheard from his staff or beasts of behavior of his that seems contrary to the Great Purpose?"
Shane hesitated.
"I am waiting for an answer, Shane-beast."
"Immaculate sir," said Shane, "I am not sure what kind of behavior would be considered contrary to the Great Purpose."
"Tell me of whatever you think might be so; and I will decide."
"Immaculate sir, Laa Ehon wished to set up his own Corps of courier-translators and his wish in borrowing me was that I should teach them."
"You are right," said Lyt Ahn, "that is idiosyncratic, but not itself in any way a failure toward the Great Purpose. Do you have any other instances about which you were doubtful?"
"But immaculate sir, the sir Laa Ehon did not wish me just to train the beasts he had found to be courier-translators as I and those of my Corps in your House are courier-translators."
"In what way, then, did he wish you to train them?"
'To be primarily of use, the sir said, in his new Government Centers."
Lyt Ahn's gaze tightened on Shane's forehead.
"When did he speak of this?"
"He spoke to me of it just over a week ago."
"A week ago," said Lyt Ahn thoughtfully. "For some few weeks now, the Government Centers he originally suggested and has for some time been setting up have been producing not more, but less, in the areas to which they apply. Yet you say that only eight days ago, he was speaking of creating a Corps of courier-translators for use with them. Did he say what these new courier-translators were to do at the Government Centers?"
"He did not, immaculate sir, except to say that he might be First Captain himself, one day."
"And so he might," answered Lyt Ahn. The focus of his eyes narrowed still further. "But I told you not to volunteer information."
"This beast apologizes for forgetting that command," said Shane. "But—"
"There are no exceptions. An officer is not to have his reputation tarnished by the suppositions of a beast. I find nothing in what you have answered that justifies any doubt of the sir Laa Ehon's wellness. We will cease talk of that officer."
"This beast's apologies, immaculate sir," said Shane. He felt the urge to speak like a great hand at his back, pushing him forward, a hand that could not be resisted. "I understand that I am forbidden to volunteer information to the First Captain; but I feel a duty to say that I consider Laa Ehon unwell."
"Your opinion does not exist in this matter," said Lyt Ahn. His gaze was terrible. "Except as I request it; and I have not."
'The duty then passes from this beast," said Shane, "to his master."
Even as he said the words, he knew what reaction he invited by what amounted to an accusation that Lyt Ahn was, because of considerations of his own honor, leaning over backward to find Laa Ehon well. But he also knew that, once he had said it, not only he but
Lyt Ahn were left with the unavoidable fact that it had been said.
Lyt Ahn stood silent, gazing out at the scene shown before him for what was perhaps a minute and seemed to Shane an eternity.
'Tell me, then, why you consider the sir Laa Ehon less than well," said Lyt Ahn at last, turning his gaze directly back to Shane.
"Because he spoke of causing changes in the established relationship between beast and Aalaag."
There was another long silence on the part of the First Captain. Then he looked back at the screen.
"You are a beast of very unusual courage," he said at last, slowly. "I absolve you of impudence and of going against my orders. I will ask you a question. Laa Ehon spoke of these changes. To whom?"
'To me, immaculate sir," said Shane. "I had been presumptuous enough to speak of how his Corps of courier-translators could be put to use, once I had trained them. He stopped me and said that it was not for such as myself to plan their use, that he had plans of his own. He then mentioned what I have just said."
"You may go," said Lyt Ahn.
Shane turned and walked back into the room while Lyt Ahn continued to stand, his eyes on the view shown in the screen. Halfway to the door, Shane's steps slowed and halted. He took a deep breath, and suddenly everything he must do lay clear and plain before him. He had hoped for something to show him the way, but he had never expected the certainty that took him now. He turned and stood, facing the back of Lyt Ahn.
Several seconds went by. Then, slowly, Lyt Ahn turned and regarded him.
"You have not gone," he said, and there was the hint of a note that could have been sadness in his voice.
Shane knew where the sadness would have come from. A single defiance of the strict orders of its master might be admirable in a beast if it turned out that defiance had been caused by the beast's wish to best serve its master. Two defiances in a row could only mean that Shane himself was unwell—and that anything he had said until now must be disregarded, and he, himself, destroyed.
"Shane-beast has gone," said Shane. "Now I am here. It is only the body of Shane-beast that you see before you; a body which I, who am the Pilgrim—" he used the English word, for there was no such word in Aalaag—"am using to speak to you."
31
Lyt Ahn's gaze became very still. For Shane had ceased to use the third person submissive form of address in which all beasts should address their masters or mistresses. He was speaking to the First Captain in the direct, formal mode of equal to equal, as one Aalaag to another; a mode which beasts were not even supposed to know, but which most of the translators in the Corps had picked up by ear, long since.
"I am here and I am not here," said Shane. "For I am not simply a Shane-beast who is unwell. I am an entity without form or body, but with no lack of power for that reason. I am here, though untouchable, in your private office. I am also in the square outside, in each of those humans"—again he was forced to use the native word, the utterance of which in any human language, the Aalaag ignored in their presence— "there. I am in all who properly belong to this world; and I speak directly to you, as the individual who speaks for those who have come without invitation among us. You may destroy this body at any time you wish; but to do so will only result in your not hearing what I have to say. And for the best purpose of you and your people you should hear that."
He waited out the silence from Lyt Ahn.
"What is this supposed to be?" said Lyt Ahn. "One of the many different magics in which you beasts so superstitiously believe?"
"There is no magic here. Nor are there any beasts, anymore. Of all people—" Shane began to walk slowly forward until he once more stood where he had stood at Lyt Ahn's side, looking down at the square. He turned to face the other, who had turned as well, to look down at him. "—the Aalaag should understand that each individual of any people carries within him or her a portion of what belongs to that people as a whole. There is no Aalaag who lacks such a portion; and likewise there is no human without it."
Lyt Ahn tilted a thumb toward the crowd outside.
"We do not call those a people, but beasts and cattle," he said. "And we would not use that word you use to describe them, even if it were pronounceable."
"Such refusals," said Shane, "mean nothing and change nothing. I have pointed out to you that the Aalaag have a thing in common and that the humans have a similar thing in common. That is all I am. Not the human thing itself, but one of its aspects. Normally I exist in all individuals of this kind; but—once brought to life, as your people have brought me to life—I will live on, even with your people if there were none of mine, as long as one or the other survives."
"This, as I say, is superstition," said Lyt Ahn.
"Then if it is, your people are also superstitious."
"You will not," said Lyt Ahn, "compare the Aalaag to your own cattle kind."
"I do not compare them," said Shane. "I have no purpose in convincing you that what I say is true. I only am. The comparison you feel is in your own mind only."
"If you have no purpose in convincing me of anything," said Lyt Ahn, "why speak to me at all?"
"Because of what I am," said Shane. "I am an aspect of the human. I must express that aspect to you because that is my nature. Once I have expressed it, you will do as you choose."
Lyt Ahn looked at him through a long silence. Then the First Captain turned and looked at the shifting mass in the square. While the Interior Guards stood still in their warmed clothing, those in the pilgrim robes were shifting constantly, not only to keep themselves warm simply by movement but also to leave the square and make room for others to take their place, when cold, hunger, exhaustion or the needs of the body forced them away. Lyt Ahn looked back at Shane.
"What aspect is this you conceive yourself to represent?" he asked.
"I represent a rediscovery in them," said Shane. "Over many centuries of civilization my people had forgotten what they were and what they could not be. Wars, conquests, dominance and enslavements of each other had developed in them layers of trained behavior to hide what was a natural instinct, deep in them."
"You are not answering my question," said Lyt Ahn.
"I am answering it," said Shane, "but the answer you want is not one that can be given in a word. Wait and listen, and you will hear what it is."
"I will give you only a little more of my time," said Lyt Ahn.
"I am that instinct I just now spoke of, reawakened," said Shane. "When you Aalaag came to this world, you limited or ended many things that humans thought of as evils and that humans themselves had not been able to control. You brought peace and shelter and food and medical care for all you did not consider unwell among this native race. You brought cleanliness and order, and many other worthwhile things—but you brought them all with a mailed fist, an armored fist that arbitrarily destroyed what it chose not to cure—and you did what you did for your own comfort and reasons, rather than for those of my people."
"This is not true," said Lyt Ahn. "Any well Aalaag would scorn to mistreat, or fail to care for, cattle which were not sick."
"As those you see before you now, are sick?"
"Obviously," said Lyt Ann, looking down at the crowd in the screen, "they are sick. These at least must be destroyed. They have not been so yet because we need to learn what caused them to gather like this."
"Which is what I am here to tell you," said Shane, "and why, behind them, there are more gathering, and more. There are others on their way to each Headquarters you have built on this world, and others behind them, and they will never stop coming."
"It is an epidemic of unwellness then," said Lyt Ahn, brooding once more over the crowd. "If you have a cure for it, tell me; and as many of the beasts as can be saved will be."
"It is not an unwellness," said Shane. "That is what you must understand. It is, as I said, a reawakening of an instinctive trait in them, a trait that has been in them for millions of years and which can never be cured, suppressed, or changed. They d
o not tame."
Lyt Ahn slowly turned his eyes from the crowd back down upon Shane.
"Not tame?" he said. "We tamed them within one week of our first landing here. They have been tamed for three of these local years."
"No," said Shane, "they thought they were tamed, as you thought they were tamed, because of the centuries in which they had let themselves be owned and used by others of their own kind. But that was not a deep enough subjection to waken the ancient instinct of which I am an aspect. Slowly, very slowly at first, but gradually growing more and more rapidly aware of the difference until this moment, when now it runs like a fire out of control around the planet, came the realization that you Aalaag are truly different. You are not of their own human kind and have no right to use them. Now they know you for what you are—strangers that do not belong here, that can be permitted to own nothing here, that cannot be permitted even to exist here without their permission."
Lyt Ahn stared at him.
"Certainly you are unwell, Shane-beast, Pilgrim, or whatever you think yourself to be," he said. "We came down to the surface of this world and your people had their chance with all that they possessed, to drive us off. If they had, we would not have complained; for it would have meant that we were lacking or unready to match strengths with you. But it was your people who failed—and now, three years after we have kept you and treated you well, you complain."