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Ferrol blinked. You ve lost me.
Well, just think about what the situation was like out there when Amity was first
launched, Roman reminded him. A string of bombs, ready to go off in fact,
when that priority message came for us to get Lowry s group out of that pre-nova
system we both assumed it was a notification of war. Now, over a year later the
explosion still hasn t come. So why not?
Ferrol eyed him suspiciously. You re not going to try and tell me that Amity s
space horse breeding program stopped a war, are you?
I am indeed, Roman said. Because suddenly being overly loud and obnoxious
toward us carried the risk of costing something very valuable: space horse calves
that they didn t have to waste years going out and hunting down. And that s going to
be even more the case with the shark repellent. The shark repellent, and the shark
tranquilizers, and the vulture repellent, and the space horse calving-stimulator, and all
the rest of the things we ll come up with once we ve cracked the dust sweat
molecular code. On our side of the balance, closer relations with the Tampies will
give us increased access to space horses, and all the advantages that come with
that.
His gaze drifted to the viewport. Outside, just visible in the dim red light, he could
see one of Amity s lifeboats carefully skimming along the surface of one of the dead
sharks, busily harvesting more of the precious dust sweat. The universe runs on
economics, Chayne, he said quietly. Not ethics, not rhetoric, not public opinion;
but hard, cold economics. If there s clear profit to be made on both sides by ending
a conflict, the politicians will find reasons to cool the conflict down. If one or both
sides see more potential profit in war, then there ll be war. That s the way it s been
throughout human history, and I don t see any reason why it should change now.
Ferrol exhaled audibly between his teeth. You have a far more cynical view of
the universe than I ever realized, Captain.
Roman shrugged. Perhaps. But I ve always felt that simply refusing to face
unpleasant facts doesn t make you immune to their consequences, just powerless to
make constructive use of them. Of course I d prefer that our peace with the Tampies
be built on something a little nobler than money& but I prefer it to having no peace
at all. And the rest will follow eventually the public opinion and political unity and
all. It always does& if the economics can buy enough time. He cocked an
eyebrow. So don t be too quick to bury yourself away on some colony planet just
as soon as you have enough space horse credits to get there. We re going to need
people like you in the next few years people who are willing to buck the inertia of
public opinion to do what they believe in.
Ferrol smiled lopsidedly. Even if what those people once believed in was war,
warhorses, and genocide?
Roman shrugged. As Lieutenant Kennedy said, he reminded the other quietly,
it is the end of an era.
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