| Our Brother’s Keeper |
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| Written by Administrator | |||||
| Wednesday, 18 October 2006 | |||||
Page 3 of 3 “Like a human.” “Hold on, Nadia has a point,” Ben said. Nadia was attractive and Ben never lost an opportunity to play knight-errant, whatever he believed. Nicolaas eyed him with an invisible smile and kept silent. He was content with his showing. Nadia withdrew her glare. “The Peace City exists so we can find common ground with the Greys,” Ben said. “It was their idea in the first place. But right now we have a problem and we’re going to have to pull together so we can understand what is going on. Nicolaas, did the Greys throw you any curves in your track?” “We have been working on the issue of intellectual property,” Nicolaas said. “Traffic in ideas is the foundation of our entire system of trade because a developed planetary system essentially can manufacture anything its people need or want. In fact, we had hoped that cultural products might be the basis of our first trade opportunities with the Greys.” Nicolaas nodded graciously at Nadia, who refused to be mollified. He crossed his legs and continued: “The Greys seemed to be having difficulty with the concept of individual and corporate rights to intellectual property. Well, in this last session our opposite numbers hit us with a demand that showed they understand perfectly. The Greys demand compensation for all of their technology that we have used over the years without licenses.” “You’re kidding,” Roland said. “Enterprising,” Ben said. “Our interstellar travel and communications capabilities are based on Grey technologies.” “The invoice is itemized, and it goes back to 1947,” Nicolaas said. “How do they want it?” Rachel said. “Gold? Tens and twenties?” “The medium of exchange is to be determined,” Nicolaas said. “We broke for consultations.” “I know what they want,” Ben said. All eyes were on him. He lit his pipe. “Don’t be such a sphinx,” Roland said. “The Greys want peace,” Ben said. “But to get the genuine article they are willing to push us to the edge. Even back to open war.” “What did they tell you in the Military Track?” Roland said. “The Greys are ready for a fight,” Ben said. “A big one. Bigger than anything we’ve seen in decades.” “They came out and said that?” Roland said. “Not in so many words, but there was no mistaking their meaning.” “What did they say, exactly?” Roland said. “They said: ‘We have nothing further to discuss.’” “Oh.” “It’s no secret that the Outer Service has its assets deployed pretty statically, pretty comfortably,” Ben said. “The Greys patrol and skirmish with us enough to know that much. Plus, you can learn a lot about our deployments from open sources, on TV and from the Aethernet. But we don’t know what they’ve been up to in their home systems. Ever since Operation Crosshairs went south before the Armistice the Outer Service has stayed clear of Z.1 and Z.2 Reticuli. We don’t know what the Greys might come roaring out with one day.” “So what’s all this then?” Nicolaas said, gesturing at the surroundings. “A ruse? A stall?” “I refuse to believe that!” Nadia said. “I said that the Greys were probably ready for a big fight, not that they want one,” Ben said. “It’s apparent from what they’ve been saying in your discussion tracks that there is not only a chance to save the Armistice but an opportunity to turn it into a real peace. The Greys are willing to share the stars but not at the price of abandoning their view of the universe. Clearly, one key issue is the practice of terraforming by humans, whether we govern them or not.” “They’re going to fight us over terraforming?” Roland said, incredulous. “Something we’ve totally outlawed?” “Over our toleration of terraforming,” Ben said. “It seems the Greys know their Genesis. They really do expect us to be our brother’s keeper.” |
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