Suddenly Jonnie realized that he had no money. Not just no money in his pockets. He didn't have and never had had any money at all. He'd even given the gold coin away. He thought maybe he got pilot pay that was given to Chrissie, but he had never seen it. He steered off apprehensive thoughts of Chrissie quickly. He had better keep his mind on this talk. But he was broke. Penniless.
"I’m sorry,” he said. “Perhaps later if I ever get any money to deposit.”
The two gave each other a quick look. But Dries said, “Well, just remember, we're not enemies of yours.”
“I think you would be very bad to have as enemies,” said Jonnie, still fishing. “That fleet wouldn't go away until you talked to Snowl."
“Oh, that!” said Dries Gloton. “The Galactic Bank has lots of services for its customers. What you saw there was just notarial services. They needed a radio notary code trace to attest and verify that it was a valid conference order. He wouldn't take their word, of course. They trust the bank.”
“Was calling the emissaries here a bank service, too?” said Jonnie.
“Well, no,” began Lord Voraz.
“You could call it so, if you like,” said Dries. “For sometimes such a conference is arranged as a service. It 's in the interest of the Galactic Bank to have civilized planets do business together smoothly.”
Jonnie was not at all satisfied but he put an easy face on it. “These emissaries do seem to obey you, though. They call you 'Your Excellency' and they call Lord Voraz 'His Worship.' What do you do if they don't obey you? You know, not come to the conference or do what you say.”
The thought shocked Lord Voraz. Before Dries Gloton could stop him, he said, “Unthinkable! Why, the bank would call in their loans, shut off their credit. Their economies would shatter. They would go bankrupt. Their whole planet could be sold right out from under them. Oh, they would think several times before-”
Dries finally got his attention and shut him off. “Now, Your Worship,” he said softly, “I know you feel strongly about these matters but we must remember that this is my sector and things that concern this planet are my worry. Forgive me. I think possibly Sir Lord Jonnie doesn't really know too much about the Galactic Bank. We haven't reprinted the information leaflets for ages. Would you like to know more about it, Sir Lord Jonnie?”
Jonnie definitely would. He privately had become very alert about “the whole planet could be sold right out from under them.”
Chapter 4
Chong-won poured more tea.
“You mustn't get the impression we are violent people,” said Dries, taking a large swallow from a bowl.
Just powerful and deadly, Jonnie thought.
“Our race is called the 'Selachee,' continued Dries. “We are indigenous to the only three habitable planets of the Gredides System. The planets are mostly water– nine surface parts of water to only two parts of land on the average. And we have only banking as our industry.”
He smiled and drank more tea. “We're ideal bankers. We can eat anything, drink anything, breathe almost any atmosphere, live on almost any gravity. By tribal mores, we worship total honesty and the righteousness of obligation.”
Jonnie thought that was probably true, but he also thought they were not telling all they knew and especially what they intended to do. “Honesty” might not include the whole truth, and there might be some real clues here as to what was going on. He smiled politely and listened closely.
“We have about five billion inhabitants on each planet,” continued Dries, “and
It is quite a busy population. Although mostly devoted to banking, we have, of course, our engineers and specialists and, naturally, lots of mathematicians. Nearly five hundred thousand years ago we developed space flight. That's about the right figure, isn't it, Your Worship?”
Lord Voraz was still a bit out of sorts at the idea of planets going back on obligations. But he put a good, professional banking face on it. “Four hundred ninety-seven thousand, four hundred thirty-two years this coming Sidereal day one hundred three for this universe,” he said.
“Thank you,” said Dries, having gotten His Worship back into the discourse.
“And three hundred two thousand years ago-'
“Three hundred two thousand three,” said Lord Voraz.
“Thank you.... We ran into the Psychlos! Now, don't be alarmed. We were not conquered. We didn't even fight a war. In those days the Psychlos were not as bad as they became about a hundred thousand years later. In that time, they had not begun killing for the love of it-I’m sure I don't have to go on to you about Psychlos.”
“No indeed!” said Jonnie. This was all going somewhere that was going to wind up as bad news. He could feel it despite their smiles.
“Precisely,” said Dries. “Where was l? Any way– and this will amuse you-they were not interested in us really for we did not have any metals to amount to anything. Being mostly water, our planets would have presented formidable mining problems.
“We needed metals and the Psychlos needed some computer technology we had, and so we became a market. This was something brand-new in Psychlo experience. They had a lot to learn about finance and that sort of thing. So we taught them.
“internally, they were pretty bad off. They breed like...what's some fish of this planet you'd know...like herrings! They have always been terrified of founding actual Psychlo colonies for fear they'd rise and revolt against the home planet. They had mobs and unemployment. Heavy, heavy depressions. They were an economic mess.
“So we helped them build markets for metals. With their teleportation shipping arrangements, it was very easy for them to do this. They became prosperous and developed even more ways to mine and we saw to it they were economically stable.
“Then suddenly, from the Psychlo viewpoint, an awful thing happened. It terrified them. That was about two hundred thousand years ago.”
“Two hundred nine thousand, four hundred sixty-two," corrected Lord Voraz.
“Thank you. Another race stole or invented teleportation!"
“The Boxnards, Universe Six,” said
Lord Voraz.
“It is unclear what happened then,” said Dries. “We don't always have access to military files and we never had access to these, not ever. But I think the Boxnards tried to put teleportation to military use. The Psychlos got there first and the entire seven planets of the Boxnards and every single Boxnard were wiped out. It took the Psychlos years.”
“Three years and sixteen days,” said Lord Voraz.
“They even slaughtered people and races which had been associated with or allied with the Boxnards, for we never afterwards found any trace of them.
“That war,” said Dries, “also seemed to change the Psychlos. For nearly half a century they all but cut contact with other worlds. It was a bad time
for us as well. Our economy was wrapped up in their concerns. They also must have engaged in some internal slaughter because the next records we have show their own population to have decreased by six elevenths.
“It took another century for the Psychlos to become busy again. But they were a very changed people.”
Aha, thought Jonnie. I have the time they began to use those capsules in baby Psychlos' heads! And why. To protect their teleportation technology and mathematics.
“They had burned all their books,” said Dries. “They had lost any aesthetic arts they had had. You can tell from their dictionaries that the language they had accumulated over the ages ceased to be in full use. They dropped words like 'compassion' or 'pity' and it even seemed they had dropped the term 'good sense.'