"Genetic deterioration?" Valthyrra's lenses seemed almost to blink in confusion. "Actually, it is hard for me to make any valid observations, but that does not change the fact of its reality. Our own human worlds are in slow decline, and there is every indication that the Union worlds are proceeding at a much greater pace. Especially the inner worlds — it is getting so bad that if all the machines were to suddenly stop, it is doubtful that they could ever get anything running again."
"Why?" Velmeran asked.
"Because Mother Nature is a stern mistress," she explained, the information analysis, storage and retrieval systems in her warming to the task. "The one rule of all life is change, and the driving force is survival. But that is a game that modern, civilized man has not been forced to play in nearly sixty thousand years. Nature intended that only the best should thrive and multiply, but for so long now nearly everyone survives — and reproduces indiscriminately. Change continued, but in a random, ineffectual manner, and once begun the process accelerates itself.
"Which, mind you, is all theory to explain what we have been observing since before I came out of the construction bay. What the future holds is even more speculation. But if the race is protected so that these conditions go undisturbed, then the present deterioration will continue."
"Which may very well happen," Velmeran said. "Since we are likely to take over the management of the human race in the very near future."
"The Kelvessan cannot provide for the entire species," Valthyrra answered. "I have often thought, when considering the problem, that the best thing we could do for humanity is to systematically destroy its entire civdization. I have even wondered if our very purpose is self-defeating. The Union has existed for most of recorded history, and we have been a catalyst, a unifying force, acting to keep it alive. I do believe that, had it not been preoccupied fighting us, the Union would have split into its various sectors and reduced itself to smoking rubble within the first few hundred years of its existence."
Velmeran brightened, seeing the logic in that. "Of course they would have. They would even yet. And a collapse of their civilization, a return to the most primitive of conditions, would also mean a return to the old laws of survival and natural selection, and the species would rejuvenate itself."
"Then you do understand," Valthyrra said approvingly. "That is our dilemma; wreck a civilization, and possibly save a species. But I already know that it is not our place to make that decision."
"The Union itself seems to be of the opinion that there is little hope," Velmeran offered. "They believe that they are already doomed to extinction, except for a few mutant races that are no longer strictly human."
"In a sense, there is very little of the race left that is strictly human," Valthyrra said as she glanced at the main monitor. Then, realizing what he had said, she snapped her pod around to face him. "And how is it, pray tell, that you are privy to what the Union thinks on the subject?"
Velmeran shrugged indifferently. "Councilor Lake explained it to us last night over dinner."
"Councilor Lake. The Councilor Lake, who runs this sector like he owns it — which he does?" Mayelna demanded. "And how did it come to be that you had dinner with Councilor Lake?"
"He invited us," Velmeran replied. "Just the four of us, Dveyella and myself, the Councilor and his nephew Donalt, the Sector Commander. We dined on Vinthran follycrab."
"But… why?" Mayelna demanded in exasperation.
"Apparently for the sole purpose of warning us. The Union knows that it is doomed, but it seems that the High Council intends to die fighting. Councilor Lake warned us to expect war the way we used to fight it, for as long as the Union's resources hold out. He said that we can expect two new, deadly weapons that will soon be used against us."
"But why would he warn you about what must be the Union's most secret plans?" Valthyrra asked.
"Because he knows that the Union cannot win. And I believe that, for a number of reasons, he wants us to win. Most of all, he believes that we will prosper once the war is over, and we will gradually take over complete dominance of their own civilization. That way we will keep the machines running and, if the human race does face extinction, it will be a gentle, painless death."
"Their civilization is more fragile than they might believe," Valthyrra said. "The heavily populated industrial planets are wholly dependent on off-world food supplies.
An interruption of that supply would starve those worlds in a matter of only a few short weeks. Eight-or nine-tenths of the Union's entire population would be destroyed before we could do a thing to stop it."
"Lake trusts us not to strike at civilian targets," Mayelna pointed out. "According to his plan, I am sure, the Union will fight for as long as it has warships in space and then it would surrender."
Velmeran nodded. "That just might be his plan. But that is not our immediate problem. That warning of things to come is."
Mayelna glanced up at him. "Do you have any idea of what that is about?"
"No, we would just have to wait and see." He shrugged helplessly. "Forewarned is four-armed."
Mayelna put her head in her hands and muttered a most dire obscenity. Then she lifted one hand to wave them away.
"Go away, children. All this business is simply beyond me, and I want no part of it." She glanced up at Valthyrra's camera pod accusingly. "Why did you never tell me about any of this?"
"You never asked," the ship replied simply. "We have waited a very long time for the Union to realize that it is doomed, knowing that it will begin the last phase of this war. We have known that we would have to be very careful if we are to save anything of what would otherwise be destroyed."
"But what would happen if we drew back and refused to fight?" Dveyella asked.
"The Union wid fall apart very quickly once interstellar trade begins to fail," Valthyrra explained. "Then greedy men would seize control to wring what they can of dying worlds. Faced with starvation, entire populations could erupt into uncontrollable violence… or entire populations could be put to death so that the chosen few might live. As I said, the deaths of worlds would not be measured in years or generations, but weeks or even days. Or perhaps even seconds, if they turned their own planetary defenses upon themselves."
Velmeran shook his head slowly. "You envision a very dark future indeed, but I fear that you are right."
"You should be pleased," she told him. "Your stupid little dinner party was the turning point of this entire war."
"Then, by your leave, I would contemplate the future from the safety of my own room," Velmeran said as he and Dveyella turned to leave. Then he stopped short and turned back. "I am forgetting the real reason why I came. Dveyella wants to stay with us, and we would like to know if she can fly with my pack for now."
Valthyrra's camera pod bobbed as she momentarily lost control of her voluntary functions. She glanced at the Commander, but Mayelna only stared back in speechless confusion. She turned back to the younger pilot, pausing a moment to check her breakers and relays as an excuse to gather her wits.
"I see no reason why that would not be perfectly acceptable," she said in a surprisingly even voice. "Although I think that it would be something of a waste of her own abilities as a pack leader."
"We had thought that it would only be temporary," Velmeran explained. "Once Keth's students are ready to fly, I thought that we might disassemble my pack to form two new ones, the other under Dveyella's leadership."
"That sounds good to me," Valthyrra agreed, suppressing an uncharacteristic urge to giggle with hysterical relief. She glanced at the Commander.
Mayelna shrugged. "Suits me."
"So be it," Valthyrra declared with an air of finality. "You would be going out to hunt within the next few days."
"We were the last to hunt," Velmeran cautiously pointed out. "Remember? We ended up the hunted."
"With eight entire packs humbled, no one is going to complain," Valthyrra insisted. "And I want your children to make another run. Their confidence is high now, and I want them to hunt again before they lose that."
"A good idea," Velmeran agreed. "By your leave, Dveyella and I would get down to serious business."
"I would have thought that you had done that last night," Valthyrra remarked as the two young Starwolves left. Whether or not they heard her, Mayelna certainly did. She reached up to give the camera pod another swat.
"I actually got my way," Valthyrra muttered after a long moment. "Just when I thought that I had screwed things up beyond any repair, I actually got my way."
"Through no effort of your own," Mayelna added. She returned the monitor to hold and sat back wearily. "And I remind you that you have not had your way completely. I have not yet named him Commander-designate."
"If you do not, I soon will." That was no threat, but a promise. "Why do you think Dveyella gave up special tactics to remain with him?"
"To indulge her infatuation for my poor baby!" Mayelna replied hotiy.
"She could have had him entirely to herself; he meant to go. He wanted to go," Valthyrra insisted. "This was her idea. She knows."
"Whoever had the idea, I do approve of one aspect," Mayelna said. "At least Velmeran will live to see his first hundred years. And not come back crying because his beloved mate ran out of her own portion of luck."
"Then we are actually in agreement?"
"Well, partial agreement," she amended. "I do not approve of this business. Velmeran is simply too young. What is the point of love anyway. It can be among the worst of personal catastrophes, and yet people go looking for it like fools."