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Savela Insdotter circulated the official EruLabi response. Miniruta Coboloji
has been an inspiration to everyone who truly understands the EruLabi creeds,
Savela began. Unfortunately, she seems to have let her enthusiasm for our Way
lead her into a dangerous course of action. We reached an agreement and Ari
Sun-Dalt abided by it, in spite of all his feelings to the contrary.
We have a civilized, rational system for resolving differences. We don't
have to tolerate people who refuse to respect our procedures. We still control
the communication system. We can still sever
Miniruta's communication links with Athene and her manufacturing
facilities on the moon, if we register our will as a community. Isn't it time
we got this situation under control?
* * * *
Miniruta's answer appeared on the screens of every EruLabi on the ship.
Morgan wasn't included on her distribution list but an EruLabi passed it on to
him. Every word she spoke validated the analysis his program had made all
those decades earlier. The tilt of her chin and the tension in her mouth could
have been delineated by a simulator working with the program's conclusions.
Morgan watched the statement once, to see what she had said, and never
looked at it again. He had watched Miniruta abandon two groups: the original
Eight and Ari's most dedicated followers. No group had ever abandoned her.
* * * *
Savela's proposal required a ninety percent vote-- the minimum it took to
override the controls built into the information system. Anyone who had
watched the ship's political system at work could have predicted Savela was
going to collect every yes she needed. The proposal had been attracting votes
from the moment people started discussing it-- and no one had voted against
it.
Morgan believed he was offering Miniruta the best opportunity he could
give her. The EruLabi were not a vindictive people. A few wits had circulated
clever barbs, but there was no evidence they were committed to a state of
permanent rancor. Most of them would quickly forget her "excessive ardor" once
she "manifested a better understanding of our ideals".
Miniruta would re-establish her bonds with the EruLabi communion within a
year, two years at the most, Morgan estimated. He would once again recline
beside her as they sampled teas and wines together. He would look down on her
face as she responded to the long movements of his body. Miniruta was a good
EruLabi. It suited her.
He knew he had failed when the vote reached the fifty-five percent mark
and Miniruta started denouncing the EruLabi who had refused to support her
crusade to rid the universe of "cosmic totalitarianism." The tally had just
topped sixty-five percent when Ari advised him Miniruta's robots were
vandalizing the sites she had occupied.
* * * *
Fossils were being chipped and defaced. Rocks that might contain fossils
were being splintered into slivers and scattered across the landscape. Five of
the best sites were being systematically destroyed.
The carnage would end as soon as they cut Miniruta's communications link
to the planet. But in the meantime she would destroy evidence that had
survived two billion years.
Ari already had machines of his own at two of the sites Miniruta was
razing. He had transmitted new orders to the entire group and they had
immediately started ramming and blocking Miniruta's machines. The rest of his
machines were scattered over the planet.
They had only built three vehicles that could pick up a group of
exploration machines and haul it to another point on the planet. Most of the
machines on the planet had been planted on their work sites when they had made
their initial trip from the moon.
Morgan ran the situation through a wargame template and considered the
results. As usual, the tactical situation could be reduced to a problem in the
allocation of resources. They could scatter their forces among all five sites
or they could concentrate on three. Scattering was the best option if they
thought the struggle would only last a few hours. Concentration was the best
option if they thought it might last longer.
"Give me some priorities," Morgan said. "Which sites are most important?"
"They're all important," Ari said. "Who knows what's there? She could be
destroying something critical at every site she's spoiling."
Morgan gave his system an order and the three transport vehicles
initiated a lifting program that would place defensive forces on all five
sites. The vote on Savela's proposal had already reached the seventy percent
mark. How long could it be before it hit ninety and Miniruta lost control of
her equipment?
Most of the exploration machines were weak devices. They removed dirt by
the spoonful. They cataloged the position of every pebble they disturbed. If
the vote reached cutoff within two or three hours, Morgan's scattered
defensive forces could save over eighty-five percent of all five sites.
* * * *
Short range laser beams burned out sensors. Mechanical arms pounded
sensitive arrays. Vehicles wheeled and charged through a thin, low-gravity fog
of dust. Morgan found himself reliving emotions he hadn't felt since his
postnatal development program had given him simple mechanical toys during the
first years of his childhood.
For the first ninety minutes it was almost fun. Then he realized the vote
had been stuck at seventy-eight percent for at least fifteen minutes. A moment
later it dropped back to seventy-six.
He switched his attention to his political analysis program and realized
Miniruta had made an important shift while he had been playing general. She
had stopped fighting a crusade against her philosophical rivals. Now she was
defending Madame Dawne "and all the other elders who will have to live with
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