" She laughed at Nickolai's pained expression." She laughed at Nickolai's pained expression. "But Pendorians don't get SANS; there's no need to worry." "That's what I told her." He was silent for a moment, then "She also said that 'those four boys who had left the arcade were just my age, and I should have more in common with them then I should with that creature.'" "She really said that?" Jofuran asked, laughing as he nodded. They sat together for a while, and then Jofuran said, "So, are you?" "Am I what?" "Going to stop seeing me?" "I'm seeing you right now, aren't I?" "I guess so," she said, returning to her former demeanor. "Hey, what's wrong?" Nickolai asked. "I just don't like the idea of coming between you and your Mother." "Look, don't worry about it, okay?" "Well, I do worry about it." "I'll never understood why Terrans hate Pendorians so much." "That's easy to understand," Jofuran replied, brightening. She held up the book she was reading. "Ever read James Burke?" "No," Nickolai replied. "Oh. Early twenty-first century writer. Really good at getting his point across. Lots of stage presence, too. Anyway, Terrans hate Pendorians because they covet." "They what?" "Back in your twenty-first century, Terrans wanted what we had, namely, spaceflight and medical tech. They got the first relatively quickly. In less than fifty years Terrans were trying their first FAL drives. "But what Terra really wanted was our immortality. They hated Pendorians because we were all young, strong, and healthy, and we'd stay that way as long as we liked." "But Humans have that now, too," Nickolai pointed out. "Yes, thanks to the Saman revolution. But look at it historically. To get what you had always wanted, immortality, you had to give up something very central to your species; the right to reproduce. The Saman process requires almost the entire nine months of fetal development to implement. Your species, Homo Sapiens Immortalis, can't reproduce without technology. Meanwhile, Pendorians, who had started out from tanks, go on having babies like normal. |