The Mote in God's Eye - Larry Niven [231]
Horowitz’ triumphant grin was even broader now. “Your work again, my lady. The Moties are so well adapted to space that you wondered if they’d evolved there. They did.” The xenobiologist nodded emphatically. “But not until they’d had a long evolutionary period on the planet itself. Want me to review the evidence? Physiological mechanisms that adjust to low pressure and no gravity, intuitive astrogation—”
“I believe you,” Sally said quietly.
“Mars!” Rod Blaine shouted. Everyone looked at him. “Mars. Is that what you’re thinking, Kevin?”
Renner nodded. He seemed to be a man in conflict, his mind racing ahead and not liking what it found. “Sure,” he said. “They fought at least one war with asteroids. Just look at the surface of Mote Prime, all torn by overlapping circular craters. It must have damn near wiped out the planet. It scared the survivors so much they moved all the asteroids out to where they couldn’t be used that way again—”
“But the war killed off most of the higher life on the planet,” Horowitz finished. “After a long time the planet was repopulated by Moties who’d adapted to space.”
“But a very long time ago,” Dr. Horvath protested. “The asteroid craters are cold and the orbits are stable. All this happened long ago.”
Horvath didn’t seem very comfortable with his conclusions, and Rod scratched a note. Not good enough, Rod thought. But—there must be some explanation...
“But they could still fight with asteroids,” Horvath continued. “If they wanted to. It would take more energy, but as long as they’re in the system they can be moved. We’ve no evidence of recent wars, and what has all this to do with us anyway? They used to fight, they evolved the Mediators to stop it, and it worked. Now they don’t fight any more.”
“Maybe,” Senator Fowler grunted. “And maybe not.”
“They didn’t fight us,” Horvath insisted.
“Battle cruiser got destroyed,” Fowler said. “OK, spare me the explanations. There’s the midshipmen, and yeah, I’ve heard all the stories about them. The fact is, Dr. Horvath, if Moties fight each other you know damn well one faction’s going to pick up allies among the outies and rebels. Hell, they might even encourage revolts, and by God’s teeth we don’t need that! There’s another thing bothers me, too—have they got a planetary government?” There was more silence.
“Well, Sally?” the Senator demanded. “It’s your field.”
“They— Well, they have a kind of planetary government. Jurisdiction. A Master or a group of them takes jurisdiction over something and the rest go along.”
Ben Fowler scowled at his niece. “Hell, we don’t even let humans wander around the universe until they’ve got planetary governments. Can’t you just see some Motie colony deciding to help a faction back home on Mote Prime?” He looked around the table and scowled again. “Damn it, don’t all of you look at me like that. You’d think I wanted to shoot Father Christmas! I want trade with the Moties, but let’s not forget the Prime Directive of the Empire.”
“We need more time,” Horvath protested. “You can’t decide anything right now.”
“We don’t have the time,” Rod said quietly. “You must be aware of the pressures, Doctor. You helped create them. Every interest group m this sector is demanding immediate action.” Rod had been getting daily calls from the Humanity League, and he was certain that Minister Horvath had been feeding information to the group.
“What’s bothering you is the potential birth rate,” Horvath said. “I’m sure you realize that they must be able to control their population. They’d not have survived this long if they couldn’t.”
“But they may not want to,” Fowler said. “Could we make them do it? Rod, has your Commander Cargill done any more work on that threat estimate?”
“Refinements only, Senator. His original calculations hold up pretty well.”
“So it’d take a big fleet operation to compel the Moties—and that’s with their present resources. What kind of problems are we handing our grandchildren if we help ‘em get colonies?