"I know. But it used to be considered wrong to hurt or kill others. Then the True Shape priests wormed their way into Mekk's brain and convinced him to order the extermination of all teries. I guess it was inevitable that Talents would be added to the list. So it's now an act of devotion to go out and kill a tery or a Talent. Everything is twisted."
"I'm sure Talents were included in the extermination order for political reasons as well," Tlad said. "If Mekk is as suspicious and fearful as you say, he probably wanted to eliminate those subjects who could plot against him without ever saying a word."
"I suspect that's true. But if the present is bad, the future could be worse."
"Worse?" Jon whispered, unable to stay out of the discussion any longer. "What could be worse than the present?"
"Well, at this point the provinces are complying with the extermination decree out of fear of Mekk's wrath. But as time goes on, the practice of killing on sight anything that doesn't bear True Shape will become traditional and customary and routine. It will continue long after Mekk is gone because it is entwined with religious myth. How do we fight a myth?"
"With another myth," Tlad said in a matter-of-fact tone.
Rab laughed. "Just like that? Another myth? Ah, if I had that power. I'd create a religion that could bring us all together, not drive us apart. Or better yet, I'd do away with all religion and let us live for ourselves."
"That would be unrealistic. Myths exist because people want them, cling to them, need them. To supplant existing religions, you'll have to come up with a bigger and better god, one who could push the others aside, one who could implant the idea that teries and Talents are every bit as human as the rest of us, implant it so deeply that it could never be uprooted."
"If I can get our hands on those weapons," Rab said with sudden intensity, "I'll show Mekk and his priests just how human we teries and Talents can be!"
"Is that what you want the weapons for? To make yourself the Overlord?"
"No, of course not," Rab said quickly. "But we can use them to change things around to our benefit. We won't have to run anymore — from anyone."
Tlad made no reply. As Jon watched him gaze into the fire, he noticed a worried frown on his face.
— XIX-
Jon sought out Tlad the next morning and learned that he had departed at first light, no destination given. He struck off into the forest and made for Tlad's hut. It was already mid-morning but he knew he could easily catch up. No human could move through the forests as quickly as –
He'd have to get used to classifying himself as human. He had come to accept that now, and he wanted the other humans around him to accept it. But Rab said go slow, go slow, go slow.
So he did. But it irritated him more and more each day to hide his intelligence. Previously taciturn by nature, he had now developed an insatiable urge to talk to other humans. But there was no one to listen. Rab was always busy or surrounded by Talents, and when Tlad arrived, he and Rab spoke of things that Jon could not understand. So he was forced by ignorance to remain silent.
So now he sought out Tlad — who was human yet did not seem to require the company of other humans. Perhaps he would accept the company of a tery who craved to be with another human on an equal footing. They were both aliens, outsiders, standing apart from the rest of the culture — Tlad by his own choice, the tery by heritage and decree of law.
Tlad was not at his hut, had not been there recently by all signs. Perhaps they had traveled different paths; the tery passing him on a parallel course. Jon waited for a while, then decided to scout through the area between the hut and the new camp of the psi-folk.
Eventually, he came to a familiar clearing. Looking to his left he saw what he had come to call the shimmering fear. And something else.
Someone was in the field. A man…
Tlad.
Jon watched him approach the shimmering fear. He moved quickly, steadily, like someone who knew exactly where he was going and was anxious to get there. He walked right up to the shimmer — and into it!
The shimmer enveloped him and he disappeared!
Jon ran forward with his heart thudding in his throat. Tlad was in danger and he had to help. But where was he? Had whatever hid inside the shimmering fear drawn him in and swallowed him? Or was Tlad immune to the fear? Was he part of it?
The questions fled unanswered as he felt the first tentacles of terror and revulsion coil around his chest and throat and begin to squeeze. But still he ran. He ran until he felt he could no longer breathe, until his legs became stiff and rigid. And when he could no longer run, he walked — slowly, painfully forcing each limb forward until he entered the shimmer.
Suddenly the forest disappeared. His vision shifted and melted into a blur. All that was left was the fear that buzzed around and through him. Still he forced himself on, one more step…one more step –
The shimmer was suddenly gone.
And with it, the fear.
He stood panting and sweating in a cool, odorless room that seemed to be made out of polished steel.
Not three paces ahead of him, Tlad sat with his back to him. He was staring at a portrait of a man on the wall above him. Jon opened his mouth to speak…
…but the portrait spoke first.
— XX-
"I regret having to say this, Steven, but I'm going to have to turn down your request. As you well know, the Federation Defense Force intervenes only in strictly limited circumstances, and your request for intervention on Jacobi IV does not meet the narrow criteria set forth in the LaNague Charter. The imposition of a protectorate in this case would be at odds with the very purpose of the Cultural Survey Service, which is to preserve and promote human diversity. The psis you've described on Jacobi IV are well on their way to establishing a truly tangential society; intervention by an interstellar culture at this point would stifle them. Your talented friends will have to find their own way out of this predicament, I'm afraid. I wish them all the luck betweeen the stars.
You may help them, of course, but only with the native materials at hand.
Good Luck, Steve, and out." #
"Damn!" he said through clenched teeth as he angrily cut off the playback.
No sense in running through it again. It was painfully obvious that this was an irrevocable decision on the part of the higher-ups. He had expected a rigid, by-the-rules response, but that didn't lessen his frustration.
"Of all the stupid narrow-minded —"
He turned and froze at the sight of the tery standing in the lock, staring at him.
"Jon?"
"You live within the fear?" the tery said, a tone of awed wonder in his gruff voice.
"The fear?"
He was so stunned by Jon's presence that he didn't catch the reference.
"The shimmer —"
"Oh, that!" He realized that Jon meant the craft's neurostimulatory repeller. "I use it to keep out people and curious creatures. But how'd you get past it?"
"I thought Tlad was in trouble. I came to help."
He saw how Jon was still panting and trembling, how his fur was soaked with sweat.
"You came through the field?" He was moved. The field induced an almost irresistible flight response in the autonomic nervous system of any mammal within range. Very potent. It took guts to get past it. "Thank you, Jon."