6 568 938.M41
Thick orange cables attach the ring to the Eugenics Board's central server as I absorb everything the tau know about their own biology. It's nice that they don't consider me to be a security risk, though the somewhat unsteady Maka'm did check that I was authorised for secure data.
"That cannot be right."
She hasn't got
less unsteady.
"Fio'el Maka'm, I was born thirty eight thousand years ago. I assure you that filing a protest against reality only serves to prevent you learning to deal with it as it actually is."
"But that is exactly the point. If you are correct, then there
is no reality. It is a shared hallucination made real."
"No." Tsua'm shakes her head. "That would be to say that when you are on a boat on the ocean during a storm, land stops existing when you lose your bearings."
I nod. "Or perhaps… The difference between air pressure at sea level and air pressure at the top of a mountain. It's… Funny, because there are a small percentage of humans who
enforce reality on the area around them. Do you want to know what
their power classification is called?"
"Yes."
"Tau."
"That is the Imperium's assessment of
our power level?"
"No, it's a pure coincidence that the words sound similar. They think it's the level
most of the tau species is at, but… There's a Fire Caste chap on my team who is definitely higher than that. Maybe as high as Rho."
"And Rho is..?"
"An unusually unpsychic human. Someone who might be
completely unaware of psychic phenomena." My construct cables
retract theatrically. "Thank you. It's going to take months at the very least before I'll be able to best-fit human genes with their tau equivalents, but I'll send you whatever I learn."
"Hybridisation is quite impossible."
I
don't say 'you kinky minx', because I don't think she'd get the joke.
"No, I-." / "Work placement."
Maka'm does a nasal twitch. Confusion, I think. I incline my head slightly towards Tsua'm to indicate that she should continue.
"I was curious as to whether it would be practical to assess the suitability of particular humans to particular types of occupation using their genes. It would simplify vocational training on fully incorporated human worlds."
"Do you think it would be possible to make human castes?"
"Perhaps, but that is for other people to decide. I can only make recommendations based on what Orange Lantern discovers."
I shake my head. "Probably not a good idea. That's the sort of thing that worlds that are culturally Imperial would take
strong exception to."
"I doubt that they would concern themselves if we limited our initial efforts to small scale studies."
"Have you ever heard of the Plague of Unbelief?" I
fabricate a small data pad loaded with pertinent data and offer it to her. "I suggest reading about
what Dolan
Chirosius managed
to spur
people into doing against Cardinal Bucharis."
She takes it from me. "I will study it and reflect upon its lessons."
"Short version: properly roused, every single human on a planet may turn out to be perfectly willing to throw themselves at you and every other tau and gue'vesa, no matter how compliant they'd been before or how they had benefited practically from their inclusion in the Empire."
"That is extremely irrational."
"No. It's extremely rational. The Tau Empire is an
exception in the way it treats conquered populations. Orks and Dark Eldar and tyranids are the rule. Enslavement, torture, murder and consumption; that's what surrender gets you. The ability of a population to say 'yes, we're doomed, time to see how many we can take with us' is actually useful on a species wide scale. It denies the enemy resources. That fact that it's maladaptive in a tiny proportion of cases doesn't make it irrational."
"I… See."
Tsua'm steps forward, her body posture relaxes and open. "If I may ask an unrelated question?"
"Y-es?"
"I have not requested a pairing, but I am curious as to whether I am reaching the point where it will be considered appropriate for me to breed. Would it be acceptable for you to check for me?"
Maka'm presses a few buttons on a computer console. "Yes. Yes, you are authorised for that information. Due to the nature of your work, it has been judged that it is best not to assign you for breeding at this time."
"Is that unusual?"
"No, it is fairly common in relation to work in highly secure areas. Of course, that does not impact the chance of approval or rejection to any pairings you arrange for yourself. Those go through the same approval process as normal."
"Thank you. Then unless there is anything else you wish to hear from us, we will leave."
"Will you be on T'au for long?"
"That is up to the T'au Aun'ar'tol, but-" Maka'm responds with an expression of shock. "-it is likely that we will be on T'au for a kai'rotaa at least."
I nod. "I'm hoping that we'll have time to see Fio'taun, and maybe some of the pre-unification water tribe settlements."
"Then if there are any matters arising from this meeting, I will be able to send a message to you. I should consider what I have learned carefully before formulating policy."
I
try to take a look-. Ah. I
fabricate a bottle of fermented nectar and offer it to her. She takes the bottle, opens the cap and sniffs it, her nasal cleft spasming as the scent hits.
"Ah. Thank you."
"You're not the first tau I've culture-shocked." Right. I walk over to Tsua'm, bend and pick her up in a bridal carry. That prompts Maka'm to stare in shock again, though Tsua'm's expression is more one of surprise. Now,
send a flight plan to air traffic control and
transition.
Tsua'm eyes open wide as our surroundings vanish, being placed by the open skies over the ancestral home of the Fire Caste, and the ring translates her scent as an expression of
fear.
"You're safe, Tsua'm. Perfectly safe."
"Everything that I have read about teleportation tells me that you are wrong."
"Oh, that wasn't teleportation. Teleportation involves travelling though the warp. If that happened to you… You probably wouldn't experience anything, due to your minimal warp presence. My method involves travelling between places in the material universe, and it's far safer. Here."
I
create a platform and gently set her down.
"See? Perfectly safe."
She taps her right hoof against the platform a couple of times, her hands still on my shoulders.
"Yes. Did you get the data that you need?"
"Is it that urgent? Do you want to be pregnant that quickly?"
"No, but it is unlikely that we will have cause to-." She twitches. "Was that a..? Line?"
"Not a serious one." I lower my face slightly towards her, exhaling with a little more force that usual so that my scent covers her receptors. "Unless you want it to be."
"I, um. Not… Not yet. But humans have… Intimate gestures of affection that are
not sex? I have a… Curiosity, about other species. About you. Beyond… What my job requires."
"Sure." I rest my forehead against hers. "Let me know if anything I do is
unpleasantly weird."
Or P'Aul is talking out of his arse.
