by Darrell Bain
“It seems your prophesy arrived sooner than expected, Travis.”
“Yes. The next one like that might not happen for a thousand years but in the meantime we have to deal with it. Frankly, I see no hope of communicating with those things.”
“I ... fear I do not, either. Your recommendation?”
“You're better able to judge their technology than us. How soon until they discover faster-than-light travel?”
“Soon. You were correct when you suggested first contact be at a remote station. Since the event, we have sent another robot flyer to one of their cities. It was attacked viciously and was barely able to return.”
“Then I recommend returning with an armed ship, one capable of wiping out their industrial base. Completely. If you can't push the button, we can. Maybe by the time they get back to the level where they are now, they'll have become a bit more civilized.”
“And if not?”
Travis said nothing but held out his hand and turned his thumb down.
She knew what that signal meant. “Agreed,” she said after a longer than usual pause.
“May I give you some advice for your sextants, Seissina?”
“Please.”
“Begin research immediately on whether your predilection against harming sapient beings is cultural or evolutionary. If it's cultural, it needs to be changed. If it's evolutionary, then you need us to become the fighting arm of our joint civilization.”
“How strange. Three sapient species so far. One that is nonaggressive, one that is moderately aggressive and one wholly aggressive, all in terms of attitude toward other sapient beings.”
“Your point?” Travis asked.
Seissina flicked her ears and gave a mild whistle. “I was just wondering. Are those the whole range of attitudes possible, or might there be others at each end of the spectrum and in between?”
Travis shrugged. “That's the reason we explore. To find out these things. And now, if you don't mind, I think I'll return to my ship. Sissy is waiting on me. Oh yes, thanks for agreeing to marry Sissy and I. We couldn't have managed it otherwise since I'm both captain and mayor.”
And their pair bonding is as strange as everything else about them, Seissina thought as she saw the anticipation in Travis’ eyes and the eagerness in his body as he prepared to leave. I'll never know, of course, just as he will never know how sextants feel about their male. What an outlandish thing the universe is.
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