even lead to a lasting peace." I'd never seen Alex look overwhelmed before. His face had gone pale, and his lips had pulled back until I was looking at his bicuspids. "Mr. Administrator, you're asking us to persuade whom-? I don't know any of their upper-tier people." Kilgore showed that he understood. "Alex. We've had no diplomatic relations with the Mutes for a century or more. And that was the Bandahriate. Which tried to rob them. But that's another story. We've traded public insults. And yes, we were responsible for some of that. Most of it unfairly, I am now learning. We've launched an investigation. It appears that the reports of Mute incursions in our space over the last few months were all concocted. By Barikay and his people." "Who's Barikay?" "Wexler's boss. Now in custody and on his way to prison. As Wexler will be when we find him. But at the moment none of that matters. Look: I don't much like Mutes, and I don't know many people who do. But we need them. We need somebody to go in and pick up the pieces. That's you. Nobody else can do it. Nobody else would have a chance. At least nobody I know. So I want you to go there. Apologize to them for us. Win them over. Get the war stopped." "That's good," said Alex. "What on earth makes you think I can do anything remotely like that?" "All right." He looked toward me. "The truth, Alex. I doubt you can do it. Probably nobody can. But you're our most realistic shot. You can represent us, and at the same time you can point out that you're not part of us. You share no responsibility for what we've been doing. But our world needs their help. We only ask that they make a commitment not to wage a war that they probably don't want to wage in any case. You'll be giving them an excuse to do what they want to do anyhow." "Mr. Administrator," said Alex, "even if we could get the pledge you want, the Confederacy would probably not be willing to take their word." DeVrio said quietly, "We think we can persuade them to go along with a pledge." "We hope so," said Kilgore. "To be honest, it's up in the air." He waited for Alex to accept. Instead, Alex simply looked at him. "Why?" "Why what?" "Why all the animosity? Toward the Ashiyyur?" "Hell, Alex, you know what they look like. And how they get into your brain." "Mr. Administrator-" "Hold it. Okay? Spare me the standard lecture on tolerance. They have the same effect on people that bugs do. You want to step on them. My God, Alex, they make your stomach churn. And that's without the mind reading. No. Look, we're never going to like them, and they're never going to like us. But we need to find a way around that. For now." Alex remained silent. Kilgore got to his feet. "We're doing everything we can to save the world, Alex. We need your help. Can we count on it? "Okay." "You'll do it?" "Of course." "Good. We owe you one." "I'm glad to help, Mr. Administrator." "Yes. Now, as I understand it, you know one of the mayors." "You've done your homework. But he's the mayor of a middle-sized town. He doesn't really have any influence at the top of the Assemblage." Nobody moved for a long time. I could hear noises elsewhere in the building. Voices. A door closing. The hum of the ventilation system. Finally, Kilgore straightened. "Well. You have a better connection than we do. And, Alex-?" "Yes?" "I think you're underestimating yourself." "I hope so. Have you cleared it with the Mutes?" "We've informed them." He became hesitant. "We've made overtures in the past. So far, they've refused
to accept a diplomatic initiative. They don't like us very much." "So how-?" "You and Chase will be going as private visitors. Talk to the mayor. Or however it is you communicate. Explain the problem. Giambrey will be going with you. As will Circe. She'll be the science liaison. Your job is to help get access for them. If help is required." "Okay." "We haven't time to send a request and wait for an answer." "I understand." "Good." He pressed his fingertips against his forehead. "I guess that's it. That's all you need to do." "We'll do what we can, Mr. Administrator." "There's one more thing you'll be interested in. We'll be announcing it tonight." He looked from Alex to me, and there was a plea in those eyes. "I'll confess it's an initiative I'd keep quiet if I could, but it's not possible." He signaled Circe. Circe's somber gaze locked on Alex. "The stakes first," she said. "If the evacuation plan goes smoothly, if the Confederates send their entire fleet, if private and corporate vehicles from the Confederacy arrive in the numbers we're anticipating, if our manufacturing capability runs without a hitch, and we are able to construct shelters and ships at predicted rates, and if the general population cooperates and does not become disruptive, if all these things happen, we will still lose almost two billion people." My stomach felt cold. I looked out the window. It was a bright, cool day. Spring not far away. The sunlight drew a series of rectangles on the carpet. "Consequently," she said, "we've tried to develop an alternative to evacuation and hiding out in shelters. Given adequate resources, we might be able to build a shield." Alex's brow creased. "A shield?" Circe nodded. "It won't be easy, but it might be possible." "What kind of shield are we talking about?" "A wall. A planetary wall that we will put between the gamma-ray burst and the world." She saw that neither of us understood what she was talking about. "Let me show you," she said. She touched her link, said something to it, and the room went dark. A few stars appeared in the background. Then we were looking at an asteroid, tumbling gently through the night. A ship trailed behind it. It was an Akron Lance VK2, a vehicle used locally for tourists. As we watched, the Lance closed in on the asteroid and touched down. Minutes later, ship and asteroid began to change course. "Those are our building blocks," said Circe. The Lance and the asteroid shrank as we drew back. There was a second ship with a second asteroid. We watched as they adjusted the vector and velocity of the rocks. Then they released them. We followed them through deep space. Toward a long band, with tiny lights hovering around it. As the asteroids approached, it expanded across the room, stopping just short of the main door on one side and the windows on the other. We kept going, angling toward one end. The band continued to grow, and the lights became moderately brighter. It became a wall. We angled toward one end, near the windows. The lights were like so many insects. And we saw finally that they were navigation lamps. Hundreds of them. Mounted on ships. The ships were dwarfed, made minuscule, against that vast fortification. We were looking at Circe's shield. Narrow beams, again in the hundreds, flashed everywhere along the shield's flanks. Lasers. An armada of vehicles intercepted incoming asteroids, sliced them into pieces, and delivered the pieces to other ships, which set them into the wall like pieces in a jigsaw. "Of course," Circe told us, "none of this will happen without your assistance. And maybe not even then." "Why?" "Unfortunately, we don't have hordes of asteroids readily available in any one place, let alone in a strategically correct place. But we've been able to find an optimum site to begin construction of the barrier. And to begin moving that barrier toward its rendezvous, three years from now, with Salud Afar. And the gamma-ray burst."