“Approximately one hundred million years hence, in the Third Siege. We have a number of volunteers from that period, since the cultures of that time have a superior perspective on history.”
“I thought I was a messenger from the Queen. I’m wearing the body of her consort.”
“So you are,” the Horven said, as though just noticing. “That means that the last unit is in place and activated, and we can begin on the next. I shall initiate the cycle.”
“You handle the gravity compression? I thought the Queen—”
“Once the unit has been activated, the ordinary species cannot attune to the Traveler,” the Horven explained gently. “Several hundred personnel must be discorporated, which means they must be assessed by the Traveler. I will handle juxtaposition.”
Of course! The destroyer blocked off that macroscopic band, as Ivo had observed, making it impossible for most minds to draw on the intergalactic knowledge. Ivo had set it up, for the human party; the Horven—
“You are the one-in-a-thousand!” Groton exclaimed. “The species that is immune to the destroyer.”
The Horven donned a surprisingly Earthlike helmet and touched a panel. “There will be several shifts,” it said. “This will take some time, but it only occupies a portion of my intellect. Please do not interrupt your discourse.”
The Queen’s workers, Groton realized, would be lining up and passing through Traveler introductions, exactly as he and Beatryx and Afra had while Ivo guided them past the lurking destroyer. But the Horven must be handling them a score at a time! “You — you built the destroyer!”
“We — with companion species — designed it,” the Horven admitted. “We cannot construct or emplace the individual units.”
“Why are you doing this? Why are you reserving true space travel for yourselves?”
“It must be.” Lights were flickering within the helmet, and Groton wondered what circuitry was being utilized. A lead to the macroscope, naturally, and trunk lines to the upper regions…
“Wait! I need to get back upstairs before the cycle begins.” Shifts there might be, but if he missed the last one it would be the end, for him.
“For what purpose? Your destiny is with us.”
“It is?” He was confused.
“We have weighted the repressive side of the scales. The destroyers have been installed. Now we must balance the other side, or the task remains half-complete. Another representative will replace me here; you and I travel to Horv.”
“And I am supposed to — to participate in the other side too? When I’m not even certain I agree with this side?”
“I apologize for my neglect,” the Horven said. “I forgot that you have not been adequately informed, since your species evolved many millions of years after mine passed.
“The Traveler destroyed the civilization of our galaxy once, and perhaps many times. This travel-power is too great for juvenile species; it only releases and amplifies their destructive impulses. Therefore we of the Second Civilization, rising from the ruins of the First, have had to take defensive measures against this Second Siege. Only we who have left violence behind can safely travel from star to star. In this manner we may preserve galactic civilization until the Siege is over.”
At last it was beginning to fall into place. Now he remembered a fragment of — history? — he had heard or read at some point, that reinforced this explanation. “The destroyer — only destroys evil minds?”
“Not evil minds, no. To be savage is not to be evil. It is a necessary phase in the evolution of a mature species. But until it passes, that species must be protected from itself. It must be confined to its planet of origin and that planet’s immediate environs. It does not have the discretion to indulge in galactic contacts — apart from purely communicatory, of course. Maturity requires an extended apprenticeship.”
“And you Horven are one of the mature species?” He had thought to put irony into his tone, but it misfired; he was already convinced that the Horven was mature. “Why do you make younger species do your bidding? Why not simply place the destroyer-units yourselves?”
“Because there is insufficient violence in our nature. We can conceive of suppressive strategy, though with discomfort, but cannot implement it. We could not survive the destroyer ourselves, if such pacifism diminished in us.”
Thus this temporary cooperation between forward-looking juveniles and inactive seniles. Were they correct? Was this necessary to save civilization?
He thought about the incalculable violence of human history, and was not prepared to deny the need for this step. Man had always been willing, even eager, to spend much more effort on calamitous war than on any peaceful pursuit. Governments had spent billions of dollars, francs, rubles for war every year, while allowing their own less fortunate citizens to starve. Man in space would be the same — except that the stakes would be larger.
“I am a member of a juvenile species,” he said.
“Of the juvenile stage in your species evolution, yes. No species is inherently young or old. It may be that the climax of mankind will be a far greater thing than that of the Horven. Possibly some visitor from the Fourth Siege will know. We hope the measures we have taken here will enable your species to achieve such distinction.”
“I hope so too,” Groton said fervently. Then, remembering: “What is the other side of the scale? If this side is the forced preservation of galactic civilization?”
“Exploration, comprehension, knowledge. The nature of the Traveler, and the reason for its infliction upon us. The civilization that developed such technique is as far beyond the Horven as the Horven is beyond the Queen’s hive. Surely its purpose was not to extinguish our progress.”
“Why don’t you just pay the source a visit and find out?”
“That was attempted during the First Siege. But our predecessors were unable to map intergalactic convolutions prior to exploration there, and intergalactic ventures were unsuccessful.”
“What happened to them?”
“They never returned. Some survived, but their travel mechanisms were inoperative.”
“How could you learn about them, then?”
“Their traces were picked up subsequently on the macroscope.”
“But that could take millions of years, if they were in intergalactic space!”
“Yes. It was the Second Civilization that recorded the signals, and they only succeeded in this because they were specially attuned and alert. The macroscope is hardly effective beyond our own galaxy, ordinarily. By the time the signals had been identified, it was far too late to come to the assistance of their originators, even had travel been feasible at that time. But these casualties did assist in the mapping of deep space in a general way, and provide clues as to the nature of its dynamics. We believe we can now achieve the other galaxies in our cluster.”
Intergalactic travel! “So you mean to discover the truth about the origin of the Traveler,” Groton said. He realized that this was a similar quest to the one the party of human beings had embarked on. They had seen the destroyer as their enemy, when in fact it was their friend (though a stern one!); Earth might have been ravaged many times by other aggressor species, except for that protection, and the sapience of man might never have had the opportunity to develop. The true enemy was the Traveler — but this too was only conjecture, until its rationale was known.
“Your invitation tempts me,” Groton said. “The prospect of such explorations is fascinating. But my essential loyalty is with my own. I can’t simply—”
“You are not among your own. I assure you, the Queen’s ire at losing her present Drone will pass quickly. The King is the game, for us. Though of course we can arrange to have you occupy a different body, and return this one to—”