It took Emily almost a week before she felt ready to return to the esponging centre, but at least she had the room-bot’s assurance that the last scenario wouldn’t show the dreadful scenes of death and destruction she’d previously seen on Miift. She spent a while on the Frame, studying more about the Iasuqi system and discovered that some Miiftians were returning to the planet after some six hundred thousand years in exile. The radiation was still there, but robots had spent several decades scraping the surface and burying the radioactive soil. Plants were beginning to gain a foothold and Miiftian scientists living on Desfogg, were cloning some of the original wildlife from the best preserved remains brought back by recent expeditions. It worked with some creatures, but not all. The oceans had survived the catastrophe and were teaming with life, providing the early settlers with a good source of protein. It would be a long time indeed before the planet would be home to anything like the original population.
‘A list of characters is on the screen. Choose your character by saying the number,’ said the room-bot.
There were eight names and Emily only recognised one of them, President Gareel Jovak, and she thought he’d been rather selfish and arrogant in his dealings with King Debruek of Miift in the earlier scenario. It was cancelling all of their Miiftian orders which resulted in the war.
On the list were President Gedor Nesofin of Desfogg; Prime Minister Delika Ostroy who was the leader of the Miiftians in exile; President Gareel Jovak of Mepdetvis; President Boronic Feredic of a planet called X-Jastu; First Minister Korodin Eveskreen of Pestoch – Emily knew this was the water world in the same system as Arlucian; the others were from planets she hadn’t heard of at all – President Coll Svertich of Opwispitt; President Jek Prodiv of Iyivis; and President Kil Trovver of Garnth.
Who should she choose? She knew that Pestochians were important in the later Federation, but this was still six hundred thousand years ago. Allegiances could change given the periods involved. She chose one she knew nothing about – President Kil Trovver. ‘Number eight,’ she said.
‘Please put the eye mask on,’ said the room-bot. ‘Scenario four of four will begin shortly.’
Slowly, the scene materialised. She was sitting at a large circular table in a plush room with windows along one side. Outside, trees filled most of the view, with staggeringly high mountains in the far distance; Himalayan in scale. In the room, Emily could see that she was one of eight aliens sitting around the table. Emily immediately recognised President Jovak, almost opposite and the fishy personality of the Pestochian First Minister. She looked down at a document. The others were all reading it too.
‘This report is damning of all concerned,’ said President Nesofin.
‘So, let me get this straight, I’ll summarise, tell me if I’m misunderstanding anything,’ said First Minister Eveskreen. ‘Desfogg, Mepdetvis and Miift had an insular trading relationship which had continued for many decades. Miiftian people were the innovators.’
President Jovak jumped in, ‘Our people are innovative too, it’s just that Miift had the monopoly on materials needed for flight between the planets. They were undoubtedly skilled, but each planet had its own specialities. We were the breadbasket of the Iasuqi system.’
‘Don’t speak of us as if we are not at this table,’ said Prime Minister Ostroy.
‘No offence intended, Delika, but your people were dominating interplanetary trade.’
‘Please, please,’ said the Pestochian First Minister, ‘let me summarise.’
Emily saw the others relax a little.
‘To continue – the Arlucians arrived in your system and began trading with all three planets, particularly selling quantum drive ships which could move between the planets faster than light.’ The first minister looked up and each of the Iasuqi representatives nodded or gave some other confirmation that they agreed. ‘Suddenly, Desfogg and Mepdetvis stopped buying Miiftian technology because, compared with Arlucian’s it was outdated and slow. Yes?’
‘Yes,’ said Prime Minister Ostroy. ‘But it—’
‘Please, Delika, let me finish what the report summarises,’ said the Pestochian. ‘This did not become a problem until Miift discovered that work in progress on ships and other space technology was being cancelled by Desfogg and Mepdetvis.’ He waved the prime minister down again.
‘King Debruek travelled to Mepdetvis to find out what was going on, and you,’ he said, pointing at President Jovak, ‘told them that you were no longer buying any technology from them, despite the fact that they had shipyards full of part-finished ships you had ordered.’
‘They were no longer any use to us,’ said President Jovak.
‘Please, Gareel. All the reasoning is in the report. We’ll be here all day if you keep interrupting. You’ve all signed off the accuracy of the report. Now, if we are going to understand and help, we must work from the facts.’
‘Sorry,’ said President Jovak. ‘Please continue.’
‘At this point, we know that King Debruek stormed out of the meeting. In a stroke, Mepdetvis and Desfogg had destroyed Miift’s economy.’
‘We didn’t cancel our orders, Korodin,’ said President Nesofin. ‘Desfoggians honour their contracts.’
President Jovak jumped up and faced President Nesofin, ‘Why, you condescending restgard1, how dare you criticise us. We had dozens of ships on order. You had only two or three.’
‘For galaxy’s sake, stop it!’ Emily heard her character saying. He was furious. She felt the heat in his face. ‘We’ve agreed to meet here, arranged an independent report and you two are acting like a couple of schoolkids. Please, Korodin, continue.’
‘Whatever the rights and wrongs of cancelling or not cancelling orders,’ said First Minister Eveskreen, ‘King Debruek seems to have decided to put the blame on Arlucian. He summoned an Arlucian delegation and, without warning, imprisoned them and destroyed their ships.’
Prime Minister Ostroy looked down at the table. He made no attempt to counter the claim.
‘We should note that the Miiftians in exile have not tried to defend the rash actions of their king. The Arlucians sent a small fleet which arrived in orbit around Miift. King Debruek had them all destroyed on arrival without any negotiation or discussion.’ First Minister Eveskreen laid the report on the table in front of him and looked up at the other members of the group. ‘What happened next is the most disgraceful piece of overreaction any of us will ever have encountered. The Arlucians attacked Miift with extremely dirty, nuclear devices. The intention was clear – they intended to wipe out the entire planet. If it hadn’t been for the swift actions of the Desfoggian people, the Miiftians would now be extinct, or as good as.
‘That is the summary. Now we, as a group of like-minded intelligent species, must decide what action to take.’ First Minister Korodin leaned back. ‘Let each of you provide your opinions. Gedor, you befriended Miift in its hour of need. You first.’
‘Firstly, I must condemn the Miiftian government, although I fear it was primarily King Debruek at fault. Their unprovoked assault on the visiting Arlucian delegation was unforgiveable. However, it is clear that Arlucian overreacted. Wiping out an entire species in revenge is not the behaviour of a civilised race. They may be technologically advanced, but their actions were intolerable. I don’t know how to punish them though,’ said the President of Desfogg.
‘Gareel – your views.’
‘Mepdetvis was the first planet in this system which the Arlucians visited. We got on well with them and once we discovered the quality of their ships and the fact that FTL travel could be used within the Iasuqi system, we did rather jump at the opportunity. We treated Miift badly, cancelling legally binding contracts, but Debruek and his minions had been taking advantage of us, and the Desfoggians for many decades.’ He looked across at President Gedor Nesofin, who nodded agreement. ‘We should have provided help to Miift and didn’t. I regret that, but the Arlucians were completely out of order in their actions.’
‘Coll. What do you think?’
The president of Opwispitt leaned forwards in his seat. He said, ‘Arlucian’s behaviour is unacceptable. We didn’t know any species from the system of Iasuqi until this awful event, and in less than a year, it is difficult to assess any new friends. I see our meeting today as an opportunity to create a cohesive confederation of planets. If we are to do that, then we must be sure that we condemn any world which steps over the line. We have had a long relationship with Arlucian, but I have seen them take similar, though less drastic action in the past. We must be wise and thoughtful about this.’
‘Yes, well said, Coll. And you, Jek, what’s your view?’
President Jek Prodiv, a chameleon-like creature, had so blended into his seat as to appear to be an empty chair. The space the Iyivisian occupied rippled and his shape became clearer to the others in the room. All of a sudden, colours undulated across his body. He was speaking. An electronic gadget on the table before him produced the words, ‘We too, have long traded with the Arlucians and have had no problems with them, although they have tended to act as if they are superior to us and other species we know. We cannot allow such behaviour to continue. Let me throw the word “isolation” onto the table.’ He blended back into his seat.
‘Kil, we’ve known each other for a long time, what do you think?’ said the Pestochian, spraying himself with a fine mist of water.
‘Thank you, Korodin,’ said President Trovver. ‘I suppose our worlds have had more interaction with Arlucian than any others. Pestoch and Garnth are both in the same system, with Arlucian almost midway between us. We’ve been trading for almost four hundred thousand years. When Arlucian came up with FLT quantum travel, it changed the balance of interplanetary economics. They certainly took a more dominant role in the planetary system. Jek suggests isolation. That would be difficult for us. Our economies are quite integrated. Surely it would also damage Pestoch, Korodin?’
‘It would, but I too, agree something must be done. How about you, Boronic? X-Jastu is the most technologically advanced of all the worlds we know, including Arlucian. What’s your opinion?’
Boronic’s body swelled as he began to speak, ‘It is true that our technology is at a high level. It was, of course, us who arrived in your system, Korodin, and introduced quantum travel to all three of you. Arlucian conveniently forgets that. We must take action.’ Boronic’s body shrank down to a single ball then inflated anew. ‘I would also like to remind everyone here that we have all emerged from solitary planets which once had individual countries or states which warred with each other. We had one national leader who tried to murder every person who smelled different to his own countrymen. He almost succeeded, but the other countries eventually stood against him. Millions of our people died in a horrendous conflict.’
‘Boronic,’ said Korodin, ‘what has this to do with the matter at hand?’
‘What I am saying is that none of our planets became civilised until we were able to throw off national boundaries and work together with free movement of people worldwide and tolerance of different beliefs. Now we find ourselves, like individual countries, but in the vastness of space. We are finding new intelligent species as we travel outwards. Until we learn to work together, we will always be susceptible to tyrannical leaders like King Debruek and arrogant administrations like the Arlucians. We should turn this disaster into an opportunity. President Svertich suggested a confederation. It could be an empire or whatever we want to call it, but this should see the beginnings of it and it must take action to condemn Arlucian.’
‘Well said,’ said the president of Mepdetvis.
‘Delika,’ said Korodin, ‘you represent the Miiftians in exile on Desfogg. Let us know what you would consider a fair retribution.’
Prime Minister Ostroy got to his feet and wandered over to the window and looked towards the trees and distant mountains. ‘The Desfoggians have been good to us. They’ve given us a small section of their world to call our own. In fact, many of us have tried to integrate with the native people and, I must say, that is going well.
‘An expedition back to our world has studied the damage caused by the radiation. The Arlucians could have used a “clean” bomb, if ever a bomb can be called clean, but they chose to use the dirtiest bomb they could possibly manufacture. They were not taking revenge for the destruction of their ships and diplomatic team – they were intent on the complete annihilation of our species. They knew the radiation would make Miift uninhabitable. Our scientists tell us that it will remain so forever, or half a million years which is almost the same. There must be an adequate punishment.’
‘Thank you, Delika. As the first minister of Pestoch, I too have an opinion. Isolating Arlucian would hurt our economy, as well as that of Garnth, but I do agree that some form of isolation is likely to be both fair and justified.’
‘In that case,’ said Boronic of X-Jastu, ‘I propose that we form a loose empire of planets, of which we are the rule-making committee, and we ban Arlucian from interplanetary trade for a period of ten years. How does that sound?’
There was a mumble of agreement around the room as it disappeared into a swirling mist of blackness.
‘You have experienced scenario four of the Iasuqi history vista. You may remove your eye mask.’
Emily eased the blindfold upwards and the screen was again showing fields of wheat, barley, lavender, hills of heather and swathes of sunflowers.
‘It is suggested that you remain seated for five minutes to allow any disorientation to settle,’ said the room-bot. ‘You must wait at least forty-eight hours before returning.’
‘How can I find out what happens next?’ said Emily. ‘I want to see how Arlucian deals with its isolation and how things progress.’
‘I would recommend X-Jastu course six. It follows on from what you have been learning so far, but you must leave forty-eight hours before returning,’ said the room-bot.
‘Why is there this forty-eight hour rule?’
‘Esponging causes heightened interaction between the mind’s synapses. They must be allowed to return to normal activity before the synapses are artificially excited again,’ said the room-bot.
‘Thank you,’ Emily said, then made herself a cup of tea and enjoyed it while watching the giant television portraying underwater life on the Red Sea reefs.