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controlled breeding over several generations. But Galyan knew he could produce a new breed within two
or three generations, given the means and the raw material. And the raw material was to come from
us from Earth."
He stopped and looked at the Committee members behind their long table.
Chapter 13
It was a second or two after Jim had stopped talking before his last few quiet words exploded with their
proper implication upon the minds of his Earth-born audience. Then the effect was, in a small way,
dramatic. Heinman sat straight up. The other members of the Committee, all up and down the table,
reacted with an equal and sudden alertness.
"What was that, Mr. Keil?" demanded Heinman. "You're accusing this Prince Galyan he was one of
the ones killed, wasn't he of wanting to alter us genetically to some sort of single-minded bodyguards
for his own purposes?"
"I'm not accusing him," said Jim evenly. "I'm stating a fact the acknowledged fact of Galyan's
intentions. The fact he acknowledged to me. He planned to do exactly what I say. I don't think you
understand" for the first time a little touch of irony swept into Jim's voice "that his doing that, by itself,
wouldn't have seemed so terrible to the rest of the High-born on the Throne World. After all, the lesser
breeds of humans on their Colony Worlds were available material for the High-borns' using. And we
weren't even that important. We were Wolflings wild men and women living out beyond the fringe of
the civilized Empire."
Heinman leaned back and turned to whisper to the Governor of Alpha Centauri beside him. Jim sat
without speaking until the whispered conversation came to an end. Heinman turned back to Jim and
leaned forward. His face was slightly flushed.
"A little while earlier," Heinman said, "you told us that the High-born on the Throne World were superior
beings. How can you reconcile the fact they were superior beings with such inhuman plans on the part of
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this Prince Galyan? Let alone the fact that, according to you, he planned to murder his uncle and
dominate his Emperor? If the High-born are what you say they are and the Governor of Alpha Centaun
III, here, agrees with you, at least in that the Prince Galyan would've been far too civilized to entertain
such savage and murderous intentions."
Jim laughed.
"I still don't think you, or the other members of this Committee, understand the cultural situation between
the High-born and the humans on the Colony Worlds or us," he said. "Galyan's plan against the
Emperor was an ultimate in crimes, from the viewpoint of any decent High-born, like Slothiel. But his
plans about us weren't inhuman at all, as any High-born would see it. In fact, most High-born would
consider us lucky to have the benefit of Galyan's attention. In making us into Starkiens, they'd have
pointed out, he'd have rid us of disease and made us a much more healthy, happy, and uniform race. Just
as the Emperor's Starkiens are disease-free, happy, and uniform."
Once more Heinman held a whispered consultation with the Governor. This time when it broke off,
however, both men looked annoyed and a little dissatisfied.
"Are you trying to tell us, Mr. Keil," said Heinman, and it was more of an honest, open demand for
information than any of the questions the Committee chairman had asked Jim earlier, "that all the actions
you took on the Throne World were justified, not merely for the good of the Emperor there, but for the
good of the people of Earth back here?"
"Yes," said Jim.
"I'd like to believe you," said Heinman, and at the moment it sounded as if he actually would have liked
to believe Jim. "But you're asking us to take a great deal on faith. Not the least of which is how you could
come to know the plans of this Prince Galyan, when they necessarily must have been kept extremely
secret."
"They were kept secret," said Jim. "Certain of the Governors and Nobles on the Colony Worlds" his
eyes lingered for a second on the Alpha Centauran Governor "had to know about his plan to get rid of
the Starkiens. The Princess Afuan and Melness, the master servant in the Throne World palace, had to
know other parts. But as much as possible, Galyan told nobody but himself."
"Then how could you find out?" demanded another member of the Committee a short-bodied, fat man
in high middle age whom Jim did not recognize.
"I'm an anthropologist," said Jim dryly. "My main field of interest is human culture, in all its types and
variations. And there's a certain limit to the variations that can take place in human culture, given
concentrated population, no matter how advanced the culture may be. The social arrangement of the
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