‘Thank you for your honesty. We will consider what you have said and how it bears on the issue of our relationships with other worlds.’
That evening the Convenor was more than usually thoughtful over dinner.
‘The Assembly has decided that a degree of caution is advisable in dealing with other worlds, given that their populations tend to be far more numerous than ours and sometimes demonstrate very aggressive traits. We will accordingly be restricting access to slider machine technology; the human scientists who have worked with us know the theory, but actually constructing one is well beyond the H17 technology level, and will probably remain so for several decades. The other saurian worlds are even further behind.’
‘I don’t blame you; I’d do the same in your place.’
‘However, we will make contact with the other saurian worlds, one at a time. We feel that we have an obligation to reveal to them just what they are missing through not mind-linking. There is a long-term hope that we can build a saurian community across all of our worlds, so we have to start somewhere.’
‘Won’t there be problems with confused identities if people exist in more than one parallel world?’
‘No. Our worlds all separated generations ago, so we have few direct equivalents; where our other biological selves do exist, they have been brought up in different environments and are no more similar to ourselves than identical twins who have been brought up apart, in different cultures.’
‘So what’s the next step?’
‘Communication first, then, if that goes well, the first physical link.’
I spent the next couple of days exploring around Laketown, waiting to hear the outcome of the planned link with the Rulers of S2. The saurian headnets allowed global mind-linking via satellite, so their scientists were immediately aware of the decision and had set up the required system, plugging into S2’s communication network as they had with me. I saw less of the Convenor, who appeared preoccupied – it was clear that the initial links were not proving easy. I spent much time swimming in the lake, following its meandering links to the marshlands and the great bay of the Zuider Zee. I felt a strong sense of peace, of wholeness here, which was missing from my human world. I had not even been consciously aware of the sense of stress which underlay my awareness of the environment of my world, even in the deep ocean, until I experienced its lack here. I wondered if finding some way of transmitting this sense to humanity might help with the urgent struggle to withdraw from the environmental brink.
That evening the Convenor visited again, and even I could tell how tired she was.
‘It seems that our remote observations of the people on S2 had not properly informed us of some of the details of their society. We already knew that their Rulers were far more long-lived than the rest, but had not realised that they had secretly developed mind-linking and had also kept that to themselves, as an instrument of control over their populations. In one sense that helped, since we can link with them, although mental communication is no easier than with humans, because although many of us have learned their language we use different symbology and cultural references. They took a lot of convincing, but have finally agreed to a meeting. They will send a representative here, and one of us will simultaneously visit them; I’m not sure why they insisted on that.’
‘Mutual hostage taking.’ I guessed.
The Convenor looked at me, her body colour as well as her mind reflecting her astonishment. ‘That did not occur to us.’
‘It used to be a common diplomatic practice on Earth – my Earth, that is. They certainly don’t seem to be a trusting bunch.’
‘No, they are not.’ She looked at me thoughtfully. ‘Perhaps you had better stay close when we meet; we might find your advice useful.’
‘Yup – I can provide the necessary leavening of suspicion and paranoia, informed by a long cultural history of insincerity, deviousness and double-dealing. At least, we should be able to tell if they are plotting something really nasty.’
She hesitated. ‘I’m not so sure; they have the most powerful mind-blocks we have ever experienced and are very hard to read.’
‘Not surprising; the Rulers of the different countries will be used to dealing with each other, and the ability to keep their plans and thoughts to themselves will have had a very high priority for them. I’d better review whatever you have on S2 and its inhabitants.’
‘Yes of course – Primo will set up a briefing.’
The next morning Primo and I watched video clips of S2 and its inhabitants, while he gave me a running commentary.
The world looked very different from S1. The settlements were closer together, considerably larger and more crowded. Most of the buildings were still low, but there was noticeable differentiation between areas of large dwellings which were well spaced out, and those in which the buildings were packed much closer together. This was a physical manifestation of the hierarchical society which the Convenor had mentioned.
There were three broad categories of saurians in S2 society: the manual workers, the professional/managerial/entrepreneurial group which kept the society running, and the small ruling group. Membership of these three groups was largely hereditary, but the chance existed for outstanding supervisors among the manual workers to be promoted to the managerial group – and for movement in the reverse direction for those guilty of crimes or unlucky enough to lose their credit. The ruling group in each country formed a tightly-knit clan, and changes to its membership appeared to be almost unheard-of.
There were clear physical differences both between and within the groups. The manual workers varied between large, powerful saurians and smaller, more nimble types – bred for specific tasks, according to Primo. There appeared to be little in the way of self-determination on this world. The professional group looked the most like those in S1, while the Rulers showed marked sexual dimorphism; the males were the tallest of all of the saurians and athletically built, while the females were smaller, more slender and (Primo assured me with a tinge of admiration) highly attractive in a rather exotic way. The S2 Rulers had evidently utilised their genetic skills in a very different way from those of S1. One interesting detail was that as well as mind-linking, the Rulers reserved for themselves the power to heal – another way of reinforcing their control over their people.
I asked about military potential and Primo called up some clips of soldiers in training. They were also big and strong, and specifically bred for both endurance and fast reactions. They had been given the full benefit of self-repairing abilities so were very difficult to kill or disable. As a result, the standard personal weapon consisted of a large rifle which fitted over the shoulder to allow for a long recoil stroke – necessary to absorb the kick of the high-velocity explosive ammunition they fired. The shells were designed to detonate a few centimetres after impact, in the pious hope that the huge wounds thus caused would be beyond the capabilities of the most resourceful repair patch.
Training included hand-to-hand combat, or more precisely foot-to-foot. Saurian legs were much longer and more powerful than their arms, and their natural form of fighting was kicking. The military thoughtfully added the refinement of long, upward-curving blades attached to the top of the feet which, as one instructor was shown demonstrating on a dummy, allowed them to rip their opponents open with one kick.