"Artificial intelligences bear no responsibility for anything, Inquisitor. They are a tool. As you well know."

Tualurog looked at Kruts, expecting him to admonish Quanshuk for his added comment. Kruts, however, gazed coldly back at him, saying nothing. I will remember that, Captain, Tualurog thought, when I rule the armada.

"A tool indeed, Grand Admiral," Tualurog said, "a tool indeed. And what do you propose we do next, to destroy these humans?"

"Objection, Your Honor!"

"Sustained. Admiral Tualurog, I am aware that you have never before acted as inquisitor. But let me make this clear: If you do not restrict your questions to inquisitorial protocol, I will have to replace you. Understood?"

Tualurog avoided eye contact with Kruts. He could easily blow up at the miserable gut picker, and ruin this whole case. "Indeed, Your Honor. I appreciate your forbearance." He delivered the line smoothly. "Let me try to rephrase my question, because… Your Honor, it opens up another, very important part of the investigation."

He looked again at Quanshuk. Having put it as he had, Kruts was obliged to give him greater leeway in questioning, at least so long as he was making apparent progress. "Grand Admiral," Tualurog said, "please give this hearing your best estimate of the volume of space occupied by the human empire when we first encountered it."

Quanshuk knew exactly what Tualurog was getting at. His answer was an estimate made by shipsmind on the day before, expressed as a probability range.

"And what percentage of that space have we swept?"

Quanshuk's estimate was relatively precise, but it was the sheer vastness of the first answer that made the spectators' hearts sink. They'd all known of course, in a general sense, but to have it laid before them like this…

Tualurog looked knowingly at the board, then back at Quanshuk. "And how many planets have we colonized here?"

"Forty-seven."

"Forty-seven. With how many tribes?"

"Fifty-six."

"How many tribes do we have left?"

"Sixty-four."

Quanshuk's counsel had been tapping notes on his neckpad. In his own questioning, he would have the grand admiral explain his decisions. They were convincing enough. Even compelling.

"Sixty-four tribes left," Tualurog echoed, making the number sound every bit as bad as it was. "And our warfleet now numbers?"

"Two thousand seven hundred and twelve fighting ships. The reduction has been due largely to leaving defense forces in the colonized systems, but losses to enemy action have also been substantial."

Tualurog looked meaningfully at the hearing board, then turned to Kruts. "Your Honor, I would like to leave that train of questioning for now, and open a new train, which I am confident will change the complexion of this hearing. I respectfully request your indulgence."

Kruts eyed him mistrustingly. "Proceed, Inquisitor."

Tualurog drew nearer to Quanshuk now, and his tone became almost confidential. "I have not seen your chief scholar for several days. Is he ill?"

"Your Honor!" counsel complained. "I seriously object!"

"Denied for now. Proceed, Inquisitor. But this had better lead somewhere."

"It will, Your Honor. I have witnesses. Lord Admiral, your answer please."

Quanshuk had known this was coming since he'd seen the two humans in the witness section. And there was no way to explain it except with the truth. It seemed to him he'd botched the whole affair-everything since they'd arrived in this galaxy-and there was no way in the universe to fix it. He would tell it as he knew it, and take whatever came.

"Lord Inquisitor," he said, "Chief Scholar Qonits is not ill, so far as I know. I have sent him on a mission."

"Sent him?"

"In a long-range scout."

If the courtroom had been quiet before, it was now quiet cubed. "With the human known as David?" Tualurog asked.

"With the human known as David."

Now Tualurog feigned reluctance. He'd guessed the answer as soon as Qonits' absence had taken his attention. With that, uncovering witnesses had been easy. Then he'd requested a fitness board, proposing himself as inquisitor.

"And what, Grand Admiral, is that mission?" he asked slowly.

"I greatly underestimated the size of the human empire, Lord Inquisitor. As a result we are dangerously overextended, especially given the potency of the enemy fleets. However, our limited knowledge of humans suggests that while fierce, they are a life-form that can be-negotiated with."

A buzz filled the chamber. Kruts hammered it into silence.

"Proceed, Grand Admiral," he said.

"Of course, Captain. The mission, Lord Inquisitor, is to negotiate peace with the humans."

This time, instead of a buzz, there was an indignant hubbub. Kruts banged his gavel till the chamber stilled. "Lord Inquisitor, Lord Counselor, members of the fitness board," he said, "this hearing has grown to encompass far more than envisioned. I hereby adjourn the fitness hearing, and recommend that we deal first with this new development."

He scanned the gathering. "All spectators will leave the chamber until further notice. Security will escort the witnesses to the waiting room, except for the two humans, who will be taken to their quarters. Guards will remain with the humans to prevent suicide. Officers of the court, clear the chamber."

When spectators and witnesses had gone, the hearing board declared itself an emergency board, and elected Rear Admiral Tualurog as its chairman. Then work began on what to do about the predicament they were in.

Quanshuk, as a witness now, pointed out that no known empire except their own had exceeded twenty-eight habitable worlds. And their own had long since ceased to be an empire in its original sense. The second swarm had extended it to twenty-two worlds, and strained the power of the government to govern. The third swarm had set out with the understanding that it would form a sister empire, with loyalty to the same traditions, the Wyzhnyny species, and the high emperor-the ruler of the parent empire. But the sister empire would rule itself.

Two millennia and six swarms had spread the Wyzhnyny widely, but even so, the Wyzhnyny Empire occupied an expanse only a small fraction as large as the human empire.

During the day's meeting, no consensus developed regarding the nature of the human empire. The remarkable lack of high technology on any of the worlds so far conquered seemed to rule out a group of sibling empires. And the long interval without military resistance, and the considerable gap between fleet encounters, suggested the human core worlds were not well prepared for invasion.

But there was consensus on a new strategy, and it did not involve anything so outrageous as negotiation. Speed was the key, and further colonization would be postponed. Strike for the imperial core. When a star was found within detection range in hyperspace, the armada would emerge promptly, and determine from the electronic signature whether the system held a core world. A core world. If not, they'd generate hyperspace at once and speed onward. In that way they'd advance far more rapidly.

If they encountered a human fleet waiting in other than a core world system, they would bypass it, generate hyperspace and speed on. The first priority was to destroy the core worlds, and particularly the crown world.

When finally they fought, it would be with the humans' main fleet, and the battle would decide once and for all which life-form would survive. If they won, and they must, then scouting forces would be sent to search out the remaining core worlds. The fleet could then be sent to destroy their technical infrastructures. The following mop-up might take generations, but bit by bit they would exterminate the human life-form.