“Because SDSI had suspicions that something might be happening on this planet. Something that Foodlines was doing. Something even worse than what Brewster has been doing.”
“It couldn’t be!” Sapphire protested. “You said he’s a murderer.”
“He is. But that isn’t the worst thing in the universe.”
“There isn’t anything worse.”
“I wish you were right, Sapphire. But there is. It’s something called genocide.”
Sapphire sank back in her chair. It was Ruby, sitting huddled in the crook of her arm, who said, “What’s genocide?”
“I’m not sure I want to tell you.” Winnie shook her head sadly, but she went on. “I wish the word didn’t even exist. Genocide means killing not just one person, or a few people, or even a lot of people, but a whole race of people. It would also apply to killing off an entire intelligent species.”
“Gussie!” Amethyst shouted. “And the ruperts. Oh, no!”
“It’s all right, Amy, it hasn’t happened. And we’ll make sure it doesn’t.” Winnie turned to address the whole group. “You may not have a very high opinion of the government of Earth. It certainly hasn’t done much for you during your lives. But Earth has worried for centuries about the problem of meeting other intelligences in the universe. There are definite rules. The most important ones are, first, that no intelligent species can be exterminated, exploited, or reduced to slavery. And second, that the home world of any intelligent species belongs to that species. It cannot be exploited by any human group.”
“Brewster told us that the ruperts aren’t intelligent,” said Rick.
“He did. But he wasn’t making that up. He was quoting the official position adopted by Foodlines.”
“But ruperts are intelligent,” Topaz said. “You only have to spend five minutes with Gussie, and you’d know it.”
“I agree. So why do you think that Foodlines takes the opposite position, in every official filing of information back in the solar system?”
There was a moment’s silence, then Topaz said uneasily, “So they can keep Solferino?”
“Exactly. They suspect that there are terrific opportunities here for new biological products. If they ever hinted that ruperts might be intelligent, they’d be in danger of losing their exploration rights.”
“But what can Foodlines do about the ruperts?” Hag asked. “I mean, they’re here. People know they are here.”
“True. But no one on Earth knows that they are intelligent. Foodlines will insist that they are just animals, and ignore them. The ruperts are very shy, and they come out mainly at night. Unless you happen to be someone like Dawn, with great empathy for other species, you would never meet one. Foodlines can act as if ruperts don’t exist.”
“Act as if they don’t exist for long enough,” said Sig. “And eventually…”
“You are too old for your years, Sig Lasker.” Winnie frowned, but it was obvious that although she was angry it was not with Sig. “Quite right. Eventually, they will not exist. Not if you destroy their habitats, and deprive them of their natural food supplies, and maybe shoot any that you happen to see. Then the problem is solved. I hate to say this, but the people at Foodlines who made the decision to keep quiet about the ruperts learned that lesson on Earth. Humans have made thousands of Earth species extinct, in just that way, right back to the beginning of history.”
“I don’t get it.” Topaz was pushing right up against Josh. The group had been gathering closer and closer, as if they could not face alone the ideas that they were hearing. “I thought Unimine were the bad guys in all this. Now you seem to be saying the villain is Foodlines. And I don’t understand why, if Foodlines kept quiet about the ruperts, the government back on Earth sent you out here to find out what was going on.”
“It’s both of them, sweetie.” Winnie was sitting in the middle, with everyone crowded around her. “It’s Unimine and FoodLines, though of course I didn’t know that before I came out here. People in solar system government noticed that the first reports from Solferino said ruperts were the most intelligent life form on the planet, and fairly smart animals. Then later reports didn’t say anything about ruperts. Not one word. That’s when somebody in SDSI thought it might be worth taking a look. But a quiet look, so no one would become suspicious and start to destroy evidence or change behavior patterns. That’s why I was sent under cover, as a maintenance technician. As for your other question, don’t think of what’s going on here in terms of Sol Brewster and ruperts and the death of a particular exploration team. Think of huge, powerful, rich conglomerates, run by people who will never get within light-years of Solferino. There’s an old saying, but it’s as true today as when it was first stated: Power corrupts; and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The people at the top of Foodlines and Unimine have immense power. What they care about isn’t you and me, or individual rights, or even species rights. What they think about are company interests and corporate advantage. Foodlines wants control of Solferino, and for that control the conglomerate will gladly sacrifice the ruperts. Unimine doesn’t care about ruperts, either, any more than Foodlines does. Unimine wants to take over Solferino to get at the stable transuranics, but can’t do that as long as there are Foodlines representatives here. Only if every human on Solferino dies, or leaves, can Unimine move in and file for development rights. Now you see the plan. The original exploration team dies, officially of unknown causes. Then we die—Brewster picked you out, you know, as kids whose disappearance wasn’t likely to create a lot of screaming from their heartbroken parents.”
The trainees exchanged unhappy looks, but no one tried to argue with Winnie.
“Finally, when we are safely dead and disappeared, Brewster leaves,” she went on. “And Unimine has a clear road to occupy Solferino. They can apply for mineral development rights, because no one else is on the planet, and Foodlines’s license depends on maintaining a presence. So what if they have to strip-mine a whole planet to get at the transuranics? So what if you have something at the end that’s a dark, lifeless world? All you had here, according to the official record, were low-level native life forms. Wipe them out, they only get in the way. Reduce the surface of Solferino to raw magma. And then show real nerve: Try for a terraforming contract from solar government, to make this world habitable again by humans.”
It had been a long speech, delivered with great intensity and few interruptions. Everyone sat spellbound, until Topaz said, “But now they’re going to be found out, aren’t they? They won’t get away with it. What will happen to them?”
“I can make a guess, but you won’t want to hear this. Brewster will be charged with murder. Unimine will deny that they ever had anything to do with him. Foodlines will say that he certainly wasn’t working for them in what he did on Solferino—which in a sense is quite true—and they’ll drop him like a hot rock. So Brewster will have no one protecting him. He will be punished. But the real villains are the people right at the top of the conglomerates, the heads of Foodlines and Unimine. They allow this sort of thing to happen, and they even encourage it. And they’ll escape without a slap on the wrist. At the very worst, there might be a small fine for concealing information. Even there, I’m not sure. They will act innocent, and say, well, nothing happened, did it? The ruperts are alive and well. So what are you charging us with?”