'I'm sorry. I'm coming across as being angry at you, and I'm not. I am angry at a society that turns people, people like you, into fugitives and throws them out as worthless or demons.' She took a slow breath. 'I am not making myself as clear as I should. The nanites gave you better vision, greater strength and greater endurance, and over time, clearer thought processes. Yet Dzin resists these changes. Why? Why does it limit you to less than you could be?'
'Because those changes destroyed the ancients,' I pointed out as dryly as I could.
'That's my point. Human society is based on the lowest common denominator. Or a fairly low denominator, anyway. Dzin, or Toze, or Dhur customs all limit the fullest expression of human capabilities. Those capabilities are not always or usually evil or antisocial.'
I shook my head. 'From what I've already learned, people infected with nanites require increased nutrition. There wasn't enough energy or technology to feed those who already existed, let alone meet the increased requirements.'
'Exactly,' answered Cerrelle. 'And every intelligent being who existed at that time, and for centuries before, knew that. So did most political leaders. Yet few serious efforts were made to curb population growth, and some belief systems actually encouraged unlimited reproduction. Does that sound like an intelligent species?'
'When you put it that way ...' I conceded, pulling at my chin. Humans didn't sound all that intelligent. But there was something about the redhead's argument that bothered me -the assumption of automatic superiority. 'Where's your sense of responsibility?' I asked. 'You can blame and denigrate the poor mites, but what have you done to improve the situation? You say all you demons know better, but what have you done?'
Cerrelle smiled - almost sadly. 'Our borders are open.
No one stopped you. No one tried to kill you. Your former colleagues have all the freedom they desire to do as they wish.'
'What if they tried to take over the Rykasha lands?'
'They would be stopped. It has happened several times, but years pass, and people forget' You're so superior ...'
'So are you, Tyndel. That's why they tried to kill you. And your beloved Foerga.'
'Leave her out of this.'
'Why? You believe she was a more perceptive and decent being than you are, and they killed her. Do you really think she was sacrificing herself to follow you to Hybra? Wasn't she also keeping herself away from jealous and scared mites? What better protection than to marry a Dzin master?'
Foerga? Worried about what others thought? 'She wasn't a demon.'
'I never said she was. I said she was a better being and that all mites turn against their betters when they can.'
'Are you any better?' I snapped.
'We walked in the snow last week. What did you see?'
'Dwellings.' I shrugged.
'Were they alike? Did they disrupt nature?'
'No.' I paused. 'They didn't seem to disrupt nature.'
Yet your masters of Dzin claim that demons are disruptive. Why? History shows that the greatest murders and disruptions were by so-called ordinary people, not by demons.' Cerrelle snorted. 'There are thousands of years of history, filled with villains, and everyone blames those villains, but most of the evil deeds attributed to them were actually carried out by ordinary people. Were those people weak - or did they secretly enjoy their work? I don't know that it matters. Either way, it's not a flattering image.'
'And you're better?' I pressed.
'At heart? Probably not. Part of what we do is to force honesty. That and what else we do, both to those who grow up in Rykasha and those like you, isn't exactly ideal... but we don't have any real choice.'
'Explanation is not awareness,' I quoted absently.
'You've said that before. It's true, and it's also meaningless.' She took another deep breath. 'You should know this already, but you're fighting knowing what you know. Human beings are programmed badly for going beyond the hunter-gatherer stage.' Cerrelle gave a wry smile. 'We have to struggle with rationality because ... rationality isn't necessarily good for survival on the species level.'
I had to frown at that.
'Look ... there are enough human beings out there so that your actions can't possibly destroy the species. That means all those altruistic responses that are gene-coded can be and are overridden by rational decisions for your own survival. Multiply that by billions, and that was the problem that the ancients faced. The other problem that humans face is lack of time. Our biological clocks are set by light and nutrition. The more exposure to light and the better the nutrition, the sooner the biological maturity. At the same time, with the civilization that creates artificial light and adequate food for most comes the need for greater knowledge, greater forbearance, and greater understanding, all of which require a greater social investment in the young over time.
'The ancients never did solve that problem. A burgeoning birth rate made the necessary investment in the young impossible for many societies - and there were many societies then, hundreds, if not thousands, from what we can tell from the records and traces, not the half dozen cultures that now exist. Add to that the biological urges to reproduce, which conflicted with the rational urge not to have so many children ... Anyway ... a lot of things were tried, from abortion to war to contraception to infanticide - none of them worked very well.'
'Dzin works,' I pointed out.
'It does, and so does Toze, and even the Dhur customs work,' Cerrelle agreed. 'And they're all dead ends. They work because they've managed to create a consensual, custom-based restriction on the amount of knowledge and change allowed into their societies. That is, none to speak of. That was the appeal of ancient religions. A code was supposedly imposed by a god, something greater than the society and its people - a code that was usually an attempt at what was conceived as greater rationality. Usually, it wasn't. At least Dzin has a semirational basis.'
Semirational? Even as I opened my mouth to protest, I wondered about the other phrase she'd said - the need for people to believe in something bigger than they were. Had that changed for the Rykasha? In what great dream did they believe? Did they even know what that dream was?
She held up a hand. 'Look ... I'm not saying that on the basic level we're much better. We use nanites and technology to force knowledge and self-responsibility into people, almost from the day they can comprehend. Do you know what our suicide rate is?'
Suicide?
'We force true rationality on people. You'll see. Some people can't take it.'
Not take rationality? A cold shiver settled in my spine, as though I already did know and feared accepting.
Add to that the problem that our biological clocks know on the genetic level that we're time-limited,' Cerrelle plowed on. 'We can use nanites to extend our productive life enormously, to ten times that of the ancients, but those gene-coded responses still say that you have to reproduce in three decades or the species will perish. And we have to keep our numbers low because the earth's resource base is limited, especially after the Devastation.
'What we need, what all humans need, is a longer life span, call it the inverse of neoteny, where sexual maturation lags, rather than leads, cultural or societal maturity, something that's embedded on the cellular level. It might have been possible for the ancients, but we've lost a lot, and we have to be careful with tinkering on cell-gene level.' She looked at the empty dishes and glasses. 'We're wasting time.'
'You never finish answering anything,' I protested.
'I'm trying, Tyndel. I really am. But one person can't tell you everything. That's why you got all that nanite-implanted knowledge and why it's necessary for you to use it and sort through it.'