Secret of the Stars by Andre Norton

Author:Andre Norton [Norton, Andre]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2014-05-06T04:00:00+00:00

13

Lennox lost his detachment. His face screwed into a mask of hate.

“If you know everything, then you also know why.”

“Yes, I know why. Because twenty years ago a man who was bringing with him an offer of the greatest gift our species could have, appealed to you for help in the name of friendship, and you betrayed him to his death.”

“Oh, no,” Lennox shook his head, “you can’t fasten what you claim to be a crime on me, Councilor. I did what I had to do, what my loyalty, not only to the service, but all our kind, demanded of me. Nor will I deny that I agreed with every word of the orders I obeyed when I turned Marson in. He wasn’t even human anymore! What I did, I did for the good of every human being, in or out of space.

“That traitor,” his mouth twisted, “was a monster. What he came to offer was vile. You should thank whatever gods you believe in, on your knees, that he did not carry out his mission.”

“One way of looking at it,” Kronfeld’s judicial evenness of speech was the more impressive in contrast to the other’s hot vehemence. “That fanaticism has had official approval for quite a while. Only there’s another side to the same story. Marson had, in the pursuit of his scout duty, made contact with the Others who we have long-known shared our galactic space. The period of Marson’s contact began involuntarily on his part because he answered a strange distress signal and became involved in a rescue. He could not be as inhuman as his orders demanded he be; therefore, he discovered that this other species was entirely different from the official descriptions circulated by his superiors. He then joined them, lived among them, and only because he learned something which would benefit both races equally, did he volunteer to return to human-held territory, knowing that such an act might well mean his death. He hoped that some man of good will would listen and examine his proof.

“He came as an ambassador. But before he had a chance to reach those who might have understood, he was caught and killed, the whole affair covered up. This ended the matter—for all time your service believed. Then, fifteen or so years ago, there came a second attempt at communication. Because the situation on the other side was growing critical, though our short Terran life span does not limit those Others. This time the volunteer ambassadors numbered two, with a third individual brought to prove their point.”

Lennox’s fingers plucked at the empty blaster’s holster on his belt.

“A scout named Ksanga had followed Marson’s earlier orbit and been attracted into the same pattern of cooperation. He came back as pilot of a ship which landed on the planet Kris, two passengers on board, a woman and her child. He dared to return even though he knew that he was outlawed as no other wolf-head since the beginning of time. Unfortunately, he was recognized on Kris, picked up by your police.

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