Gelrayen looked unhappy. “We never did find any part of Trendaessa that was still intact, and the area of the bridge was completely gone. If fact, they finally had to abandon ainy plan of rebuilding the carrier. Every machine and major system in that ship was wrecked by power discharge, and her frame was damaged. She was the last of the old ships, and her memory units lacked the protection built into a newer ship like the Methryn.” “Have your losses left you short in your patrols?”
“No, the Karvand is back out again, and that leaves only the Destaen still under repair. We have moved three of our reserve carriers into the regular patrols. We know that the Union will begin intimidating the colonies any time now, and the truce will be broken.”
“Yes, they started rearming from the first,” Tarrel agreed. “I suppose it’s no secret to you that my convoy is moving supplies into the fringe to be ready to move against the colonies any time now. The trade companies will be appropriating ownership and control of agriculture and mining. I tried to convince them to keep the truce. We can’t be certain yet that we won’t be fighting a new war with the builders of the Dreadnought any time.”
“Perhaps, but it seems very unlikely,” Gelrayen told her.
“My interior scans of the Dreadnought, and the analysis of debris we collected, indicated that it was at least a quarter of a million years old. We were able to make sense of the few transmissions it made. It seems that it would have never attacked anyone except your people. It confused you with the enemy that it was designed to destroy, for the simple chance that the level of Union technology and ship design almost exactly matched, and your physical appearance was very much the same. When it tried to talk to the Starwolf carriers early on, it was simply telling us to mind our own business.”
“Oh, fine. I’m glad to know that it was all stupid and pointless in the first place,” Tarrel complained.
“Your superiors will be pleased to hear that.”
“I believe that everyone would be much better off if they never knew,” she said, then hesitated. “There was something that I should tell you. I don’t know if it’s in the best interests of the Union to do this, but you deserve to know. The last time I was at Alkayja station, I had a little talk with Fleet Commander Asandi. He told me that the Republic fears the Starwolves and that it conspires to keep you from developing your technology or your own social identity, and that it has kept you fighting the war to give you something to do.”
Gelrayen seemed to be hiding a smile. “Valthyrra said that you seemed to be concerned about us. That was why you conspired to keep us naked. The Republic used to keep us naked as a sign of our slavery.”
“And they put you in clothes to encourage you to stop thinking about how your were different.”
“Captain, we know exactly what has been going on,” he insisted. “The fact is, we are satisfied with the way things are for now.”
“You are?”
“Captain, with the exception of certain individuals such as yourself, no one has ever been honestly concerned about our future and what might be best for us. Unfortunately, we do not yet have a future. When we were designed, the Aldessan of Valtrys gave us free will. We are not compelled to follow any order that we are given, and that insures that we can never be used for evil intent.”
“Are you certain of that?”
“Yes, very certain. At the same time, the Aldessan made a great mistake in our design. They gave us an instinct, even to the point of an actual compulsion, to help anyone that we might find in danger or distress. The Union has been our enemy for centuries. But when you were in danger, we did not hesitate to help you. That compulsion to help completely negates our free will and it leaves us slaves to our own instinct to protect.” “Then you don’t see any hope for yourselves?” she asked. “Yes, we have one hope,” he said, then paused as the doors of the lift opened. They stepped outside the lift, then waited a moment in the corridor outside. “The Kelvessan have been evolving rapidly from the first. We evolve in stages every few thousand years, very suddenly and quickly. It might take thousands of years yet, but one day we will have evolved to the point that we have complete control over our own actions and we will simply assume our right to govern of our own destiny. Until then, all we can do is wait.”
“And you are satisfied with that?” Tarrel demanded. Gelrayen considered that briefly. “Actually, yes.” Unfortunately, his answer proved that he was probably right. Perhaps because they were capable of so much already, Captain Tarrel had wanted the Starwolves to enjoy even more. She realized now that they were simply very good at being what they were designed to be. For all that she believed that they deserved the same rights and freedoms that all other races enjoyed, she could not give it to them, and they did not seem ready to demand it for themselves. But she felt more sorry for them than ever. To some degree, they really were machines, compelled to fulfil the function that they had been designed for until they finally did acquire the ability to desire more.
If she felt sad and dissatisfied, perhaps it was entirely her own fault for thinking that anything should have been different because of all that they had been through together. The truce would end soon enough, and everything would be exactly the way it had always been. The Union was still the Union, with all its faults and injustices. The Starwolves were still the Starwolves, endlessly solving everyone else’s problems over and over. Only she herself had changed, and somehow she did not feel the better for it.