“We can never let them leave here, of course,” one of the elders said finally. “Surely you realize that.”

“I do not. That’s absurd. How do we open negotiations with them if they are not allowed to return home to begin discussions and make introductions?”

“There will be no introductions,” the military observer remarked quietly. “Not for a long time. Not with this group.”

“But … these are the people who can make us so strong the AAnn will not dare prowl among our colonies. Their presence here is indication enough they are a technologically advanced race.”

“Of that we never had the least doubt,” the officer informed him. “That is one of the things that troubles us.”

“You have to let them go. It’s indecent to keep imprisoned those who’ve done you no harm. I’ve talked with them—two of them, anyway. I know them. They are ready to be friends.”

“So they have told you,” said the elders. “Are you a qualified xenopsych then, that you can positively interpret their motives?”

“They were telling me the truth.” Ryo struggled to contain his anger and frustration. What was wrong with these elders? At least two of them wore the black star of Eint. Did that stand for nothing here? “They had no reason to lie to me.”

“No reason by your reasoning, perhaps, but what of their own?”

“I spent quarter months with them, in a difficult survival situation. Once communication was opened they were no more than cautious toward me. There was no continuing hostility. After a while there was honest friendship. So much so that they allowed me to persuade them to return.”

“We are aware of that,” Drin said, “and very grateful to you for doing so. Not only was their escape scientifically disruptive, but had you somehow made your way south into more populated regions, your companions could have precipitated a panic.”

“I still don’t see what you’re all so afraid of.”

“We’ve had a chance to study them for some time, in a closed environment,” the elder spokesman said. “The results,” he hesitated significantly, “do not hold out much promise for interspecies cooperation.”

The military observer was more direct. “When they were first settled here and placed under continuous observation, it was immediately evident their social relationships are—well, disturbing.”

“What would you expect,” Ryo argued. “They thought you were the ones who’d attacked their ship.”

The officer made a gesture of denial. “We treated them kindly, realizing they might not be allies of the AAnn. It was their reaction to one another that was so unexpected, not their reaction toward us.” His tone filled with remembered amazement.