, it wouldn’t even occur to me,” Inga smiled, “but if you look at these lizards carefully, the analogy with our reptiles is obvious. There is a bunch of collages on the web where our new allies are almost hugged by the Komodo dragons. That’s really impressive.”
“Well, we’re not that dissimilar to them actually,” I also smiled, “We and the lizards share ancestors, and the oldest part of our brain came from reptiles in a not-too-much-modified form, so we have a chance to come to an agreement with them. The thing I love most about this story is that we have little to share with them. Warm oxygen planets are pleasant for them, of course, but they’d be perfectly comfortable living on Mars before it was terraformed.”
“Yes, their ability to adapt to external conditions commands respect, and we could use it, too…”
“It’s all about the way their civilization has developed. They’re so much older than us, but if we were going through technological progress in the first place, and we began to really understand genetics and biotechnology only much, much later, with the help of sophisticated scientific equipment, powerful computers and robotic laboratories, they were going through a biological process in the first place. The lizards began to work with inorganic nature only after they had hit the limits of living matter, but again through the prism of their biological approach. From here, they don’t like high-temperature technology because organic matter can’t stand heat. That’s why they don’t melt the armor, they grow it, and it is not clear at all what principles their engines operate on. It’s kind of gravitational, but by the way, they’re way behind us on this one. But they can make almost anything out of living organic matter.”
“To be honest, I don’t understand how they managed to hold out against the quargs for so many years.”
“It’s hard to tell, we don’t know much about them yet. As I understand it, the lizards had absolutely no intention of fighting anyone, just as we hadn’t it before we met the quargs. But unlike us, reptiles have never even fought each other. At least we knew what was happening when the quargs began to destroy our ships, and for the lizards, it was a real shock, they had never experienced such aggression and had no idea how to react to it. However, they were quick to figure out what to do, and the flexibility of their technology allowed them to respond well. Maybe that’s the answer to your question.”
We lay on the pool terrace, enjoying the gentle reddish rays of Barnard’s Star, and chatting lazily about recent events. The government of the planet Lantan, more commonly known as Barnard-3, has not forgotten its honorary citizens. As it turned out, the status given to us after the battle of the planet entailed a number of rights, such as a lifetime use of a cottage with a well-maintained garden, a swimming pool and all associated infrastructure in one of the most beautiful places of the planet – the foothills of the Central Ridge that cuts the largest continent practically in the middle.
I was granted ten days of rest by direct order of the Minister of Defence, which was binding and non-negotiable. On the third day of my walks with Inga on the mountain paths surrounded by cedars, I realized that Bronstein was absolutely right, forcing me to take my mind off the infinite whirl of activity in the capital and relax a little bit. I was slowly thawing, inhaling the scent of heated pine needles, bathing in a pool filled with water from a mountain stream, and enjoying the company of Inga, who did not dress in the usual service khakis, but wore light summer dresses or T-shirts and shorts, and sometimes nothing at all, if she was in the mood.
It was here, by a small mountain lake, where we came one night, that I decided that perhaps, in the foreseeable future, I would not have a better chance to dot the I’s and cross the T’s in my relationship with Inga.
“What do you think,” asked I, lying beside her by the water and looking at the first stars to light up in the dark sky,“three years is enough time for a man and a woman to know if they need each other?”
“Sometimes it takes a lot less time,” Inga grinned, “especially if the answer is negative. But if you’re referring to us, it was finally clear to me at Luyten-5.”
“And you never once tried to let me know?”
“That’s all I do all the time,” Inga smiled a little sad while looking closely at me.
Her statement made me a little confused. Since our first date in a cave on Ganymede, Inga has never once hinted to me that she wants to change anything in our relationship.
“I’m sorry, I must have been really stupid because of this endless war, since I haven’t been able to discern the obvious in all this time.”
“There was nothing to discern,” answered Inga while shaking her head slightly, “If you didn’t notice, then I did the right thing.”
“You speak in riddles.”
“I was afraid of this conversation, Igor. You’re a right guy, a very right guy, I’d say, too right. You were gonna ask me to formalize our relationship, right?”
“Yes, I was,” I didn’t deny it,“and I still want to. Right now, I’m asking for your consent to be my wife.”
“You…” Inga started talking by raising her voice a little, but stopped, turned away and then just seconds later, she kept saying, “You do not understand. I love you, Lavroff, but I’ll tell you no. You don’t need a family, Rear Admiral, I can see that. Not because you don’t love me. You love me, I’m not blind. But you have a goal, a real goal, that’s above all else. And that goal is not me, not the children I can give you, not our future together. To be honest, I’m not even sure I fully understand your goal, but you’re going to it nicely. You can only be loved for the way you do it, but in the same time it makes impossible to change anything in our relationship.
But understand, Lavrov, I do not need a family that will be started just because «it is necessary», just because of your sense of duty and your notions of what a real man and an officer should do. That’s what I’ve been trying to get you to realize. I want to be with you, but I won’t be jealous of your goal. I know it’ll only make it worse. I’d rather wait a year, two, five, ten years if I have to. I’ll help you get what you want the way I can. And then when you realize that the goal has been achieved, and that it’s time to think about yourself and your future, then you ask me your question again, if you want to, of course. Then maybe my answer will be different, but for now, I’m sorry, but no.”
I hugged Inga. We lay silent for a long time, each of us thinking of its own. I knew she was right, and that I really couldn’t change anything about this rotten state of things while I’m facing an unfulfilled task that affects the lives of hundreds of billions of people on either side of the still-to-be-built hyperportal. But today was not wasted for me, it gave me a clear understanding of what kind of woman I’d made a friend of and how much I fear losing her.
Chapter 1
No one interrupted our vacation. There was an astonishing silence on the fronts, coming immediately after the battle of Iota Persei. The quargs never sent there a new fleet, which I estimate had every chance of successfully seizing the system, because we had too little strength left, and the lizards had yet to recover from the crushing defeat that destroyed their entire orbital infrastructure.
With the new allies, things turned out very interesting. The lizards were very clever creatures, they took our invitation to ride in the big troop transport with understanding, if not enthusiasm. We did not have to explain to them that here, on the ships of the friendly fleet, that appeared unexpectedly and very fortunately, they would not find anyone with whom to negotiate future relations of the races. The reptiles themselves realized that those who had come to Iota Persei in predatory metal ships and punched evil enemies were probably not trained in the art of diplomacy. The best thing they do in life is fight, not talk, and those who can negotiate, sit somewhere else, where they, lizards, are invited.
As
