"Let us leave them alone."Let us leave them alone." "When you two are ready, we'll be back at Shardik Castle." "What was that line, Ken? The one from Uncle Robert?" N'Nance asked. "What? 'Never crowd a child about his privacy? Sure, they'll make mistakes, but so did you' ?" "Yeah." "But is it not the role of a parent to teach his child what decisions he should make in private?" his mother asked. "Well, yes," Shardik replied. "But after a while we as parents have to realize-" the door shut, and he missed the rest of the conversation. Furry burst out giggling. "I don't believe him!" "What?" Nickolai asked. "Ken! He's just so... so... convincing! He had your mother hanging on his every word in less than half an hour." "Must be a talent. Tell me, Furry, what's going to happen to Matseh?" "At the moment, he's being held in anticipation of the next cruiser back to Terra. His parents are going haywire- they're insisting he could never do any such thing. According to Ken, they were shown vid of him bragging, and they insisted it was a forgery." "I thought... when things like this happened..." "People just disappeared?" "Something like that." "Not really. It's more like... People who are dangerous, who can't control themselves, are dangerous in general, and the general public is within it right to remove that threat. We're removing that threat. Imagine being under a life sentence to never have dealing with Pendor again. To never ride in a Pendorian starship. In fact, to have trouble from Terran starships with Pendorian AI's installed. To never be in a business where Pendor is a major trade partner. Life sucks for Matseh right now." "Oh." Nickolai was quiet with his own thoughts for a long time. "Furry... could that happen to me?" Jofuran didn't answer the question. |