“Then your own personal—not to mention racial—bias against the AAnn would naturally induce you to seek an alliance against them. Even if they did attack the Seeker, it may have been in error. They might, for example, have thought it a new design of your own. Why should we ally ourselves with you against them when we might be friends with them as well as with the Thranx?”

“A neat trick,” Ryo replied, controlling his temper. “There is one difficulty. The AAnn believe they are a chosen species, designated to rule the entire galaxy. Other, inferior races are to be exterminated or enslaved. They are very patient and careful to conceal such feelings in the presence of diplomats. This patience makes them all the more dangerous.”

“So you say,” Bhadravati responded.

Ryo’s composure slipped just a little. “What reason would I have to lie to you?”

“I just enumerated,” began the woman, but Ryo hardly heard her now.

He had innocently thought his carefully prepared proposal would be accepted instantly and approved. Its logic was unassailable. Instead, it had been casually brushed aside as unworkable and premature. Another aspect of human behavior to be filed for later dissection.

“They might indeed offer you apologies and alliance,” he told them. “Deceit is their refined weapon, deception their most prized characteristic. These attributes are supported by an advanced technology and militaristic society.”

“So you say,” the younger man repeated with infuriating self-assurance.

“We digress again,” Rijseen pointed out He tried to reestablish the atmosphere of cordiality with which they’d begun the questioning.

“As you’ve heard, we are only researchers. We can only pass your proposal along—as we do all information—to others better positioned to act on it.”

“You will do that for me?” Ryo asked.

“Of course. We are collectors of information, not interpreters. Now tell us again,” he said eagerly, “about the higher implications of the filian ceremony.”

Ryo sighed inwardly, determined to raise the issue again and again at future meetings until he received some kind of positive response.

XIII

XIII

A quarter-month later Ryo had an informal visit from Bonnie and Loo. Like the rest of the Seeker’s crew, they were still sequestered at the station, subject to medical as well as mental study. They were answering nearly as many questions as was Ryo.

Neither human was as uncomfortable as Ryo’s questioners. They were more accustomed to the climate of his burrow. The low ceiling and rounded corners did not trouble them at all. They had endured such surroundings for months on Hivehom.

Conversation consisted largely of pleasantries and reminiscences. Eventually the matter that had troubled Ryo for some days could be ignored no longer. He escorted them to the wall where his private terminal had been installed.