Star Wars_ The Adventures of Lando Calrissia - L. Neil Smith [195]
“By the authority of Rokur Gepta, Sorcerer of Tund. Did you get all of that, young man?”
The stenographer, his face grown white, nodded dazedly.
“Y-Yes, sir.”
“Good. Send it out and make sure it’s understood that the order is to be carried out immediately. Now run along.”
Beneath his headdress windings, Gepta smiled. Aside from his two sessions in the armored compartment aft, this was the best he’d felt all day.
Vuffi Raa sat in the lefthand seat of the control room of the Millennium Falcon, setting up problems on the navigational console and cross-playing them through his master’s game computer. He had to admit, Lando had been right. His scheme wouldn’t win a war, and it might cost a great many lives on both sides, but it would wear the fleet down and encourage Gepta’s political opponents to step in and end the blockade. Had he been capable of shaking his head ironically, he would have done so.
He looked out through the segmented viewport forward, where he saw Lehesu hanging peacefully—at least to all appearances. He keyed the com. “I have completed the modeling exercise, friend Lehesu. I believe we have a good chance. Will you not join the others with their preparations?”
The giant creature swam closer to the Falcon and peered in at his little robot friend. “No, Vuffi Raa. I am aware of what I must do, and I am ready. I was curious as to the projections you are undertaking. Will the fleet truly destroy itself if Lando’s plan works?”
The droid raised a tentacle to indicate certainty since he couldn’t nod. “Yes, as unbelievable as it may seem. You are an amazing people, my friend, and that’s what makes it possible. The Falcon is as ready as she’ll ever be, although I—”
“You are troubled, Vuffi Raa?” Lehesu could interpret tones of voice even with a mechanical being. “Please speak to me about it; perhaps that will help.”
Glancing mentally at the timepiece he carried in his circuitry, the robot gave his equivalent of a shrug. “It is like this, Lehesu …” He told the Oswaft of the conflicts he felt in his programming and that he was beginning to disapprove of those who had imposed it on him. It didn’t seem right that he should be compelled to stand by idly—at least what he considered to be idly—while the Navy exterminated a gentle, admirable people.
“I see,” the alien replied at last. “You know, we are in much the same position. I do not know whether I can take a life in my own defense, either. We are not a fighting people, as you so rightly have observed. Perhaps it is time for us to abandon life to make room for a more successful product of evolution.”
The robot, not knowing what to say, said nothing.
“Then again, Vuffi Raa, we should go away only if we cannot change. If we can, we are a successful species, are we not?”
Momentarily, Vuffi Raa wished he could smoke a cigar like his master. It seemed to help the human think, and it lent a certain dignity to whatever answer he might give the Oswaft. “I do not know, my friend. It seems wrong somehow that the success of a race be measured by its ability to do violence. There are other things in the universe.”
The Oswaft was no more capable of nodding than the robot. “Still, one must consider that none of these things are any good to one if one is dead.”
Vuffi Raa chuckled. “You have a point, there, Lehesu, you have a point.”
“We are going to be too late!” the Other complained. “I know it!”
“Peace, my old friend,” the One replied. “That is not yet a foregone conclusion. There are no foregone conclusions anymore. And even so, it is an experiment. It would not be valid, did we interfere. Any result is a desired result, am I not correct in this?”
They bored through the endless night at a velocity