Antagonist - Childe Cycle 11 (79 page)

"You
mentioned
a
'commercial'
sort
of
conflict,"
someone
said from
the
back
of
the
circle,
a
question
in
his
voice.

"Well,
it's
possible,"
Bleys
said.
"If
we
weld
a
unified
community out
of
the
Younger
Worlds,
we'll
automatically
be
forming
a
commercial
entity
that
could
conflict
with
Old
Earth's
own
interests, eventually.
But
my
hope
instead
is
that
when
we
become
a
commercial
equal,
we
can
deal
with
them
as
equals—and
eventually
our
community
will
expand
to
include
them."
He
took
the
last
sip
from his
brandy.

"There
are
many
forms
of
conflict,"
he
said,
his
gaze
circling among
their
faces.
"We
have
the
advantage
in
all
of
them."
He smiled.

"It's
true
Old
Earth's
population
is
the
equal
of
all
our
Younger Worlds
combined.
In
both
military
and
economic
conflicts,
any
battle
would
be
a
hard
one—particularly
because
we
can't
wait
another few
hundred
years
for
our
population
to
grow.
And
waiting
won't
increase
the
natural
resources
of
our
planets."
He
put
his
empty snifter
down.

"If
you've
studied
history,"
he
went
on,
leaning
back,
"you'll
understand
that
in
any
sort
of
conflict
with
Old
Earth,
we'll
be
under
the disadvantage
of
being
able
to
bring
only
a
fraction
of
our
people
into contact
with
them,
across
the
long
lines
of
space
transportation— while
the
mother
planet
would
only
have
to
operate
just
outside
its own
atmosphere,
with
the
advantages
of
interior
lines
of
communications
and
having
its
largest
markets
within
its
own
sphere."

"You
seem
to
be
assuming
such
a
war
would
be
fought
near
Old Earth,"
Peter
Cossey
said.

"I
guess
I
am,"
Bleys
replied.
"And
that's
because
of
something
I mentioned
earlier:
they
have
no
clarity
of
purpose—but
we
do. That
gives
us
what
military
science
calls
the
initiative.''''

"You
implied
other
forms
of
conflict
might
occur,"
Ameena Williams
said.

"Yes,"
Bleys
said.
"In
fact,
I
consider
them
much
more
likely." He
looked
about
the
circle
once
more.

"I'm
talking
about
a
conflict
of
ideas,"
he
said.
"I'm
talking about
our
vision
of
a
future
for
the
entire
human
race
coming
up against
their
own
vision."

"Do
they
have
some
sort
of
vision
for
the
race?"
Sami
DcLong asked.

"A
very
good
question,"
Bleys
said,
smiling.
"The
answer
is: probably
not—not
in
any
terms
we've
been
thinking
about."
He shook
his
head,
looking
sad.

"The
fact
is,
Earthmen
don't
think
about
the
future
any
more than
do
the
people
on
our
own
Younger
Worlds.
The
closest
they might
come
to
it
is
this:
they
generally
have
an
attitude—maybe you
could
call
it
a
series
of
unspoken
assumptions—about
the
future.
And
if
you
think
about
your
history,
you
know
what
those
are: they
believe
that
Old
Earth's
way
is
the
best
way,
and
that
Old Earth
is
destined
to
be
the
natural
leader
of
the
human
race
for
all time.

"What
we're
going
to
do
will
change
that,"
he
went
on,
"for
all time.
It
will
take
time,
but
it
will
happen."

He
paused
again;
and
then
leaned
forward,
raising
his
hands
before
his
chest
as
if
placing
something
before
them,
for
them
to look
at.

"So,"
he
went
on,
"we
should
look
beyond
the
actual
confrontation
time,
when
it
comes,
to
what
we
want
to
accomplish.
What
we really
want
is
to
end
Old
Earth's
attempts
at
dominating
us.
These days,
those
are
very
underground,
very
subtle;
but
they're
still
there, a
hidden
motivation
for
that
planet's
behavior,
and
the
energy
behind the
attitudes
of
most
of
those
on
Old
Earth
toward
all
of
us
on
the Younger
Worlds.
As
if
we
were
a
lesser
people.

"What
we're
really
up
against
is
the
task
of
changing
the
mental attitudes
of
half
the
members
of
the
human
race—their
attitudes toward
us.

"I'm
confident
there
will
come
a
real
victory,
in
the
form
of
a
real change
in
the
way
they
think.
That's
why
we've
had
to
start
on
our own
worlds—as
you
did
in
the
organizations
you
lead—in
changing the
mental
attitudes
of
our
own
peoples,
to
a
form
that
will
allow them
to
shed
their
blinders
about
the
mother
planet.
And
that'
s
going
to
be
a
large
part
of
your
jobs,
in
the
future."