Free Final Inquiries by Roger MacBride Allen

us lowly humans for breeding to excess."
    "They do, and they are right," said Brox. "You do breed too quickly. But that is beside the point. My information is that, even at the most generous definition of what constitutes a sentient Vixan, the total planetary population, including the Ring and Columns, is substantially below a billion."
    "So why build that monstrosity?"
    "A human I have had some dealings with called it 'keeping up with the Joneses,' if I am translating the English phrase properly into Lesser Trade. Competition through the acquisition and creation of status markers. Once one clan had an elevator, all the clans that could possibly manage had to have one too. But there was a practical strategic side to it as well. Once one elevator was in place, the clan that controlled it gained improved access to space, and the other clans needed to follow suit in order to match that capability. When the Ring was proposed, all the clans cooperated with the project to demonstrate their wealth, to keep parity with the other clans' capabilities, and show how unafraid and unintimidated they were."
    "'We are strong enough that we have nothing to fear from connecting our column to yours,'" suggested Hannah.
    "Precisely. All this was endless thousands of years ago, of course. The irony is, of course, that living in a Column City or a Ring segment is vastly different from living on the planet's surface. As a result, the communities on the Column Cities and the various sections of the Stationary Ring evolved long ago into essentially independent clans that form and split alliances with their ancestor clans and the rivals of those clans whenever they see fit--and the Column City Clans control the column elevators, and, therefore, most access to space. In terms of enhancing the security and space access of the clans that were the original builders, the whole project was massively counterproductive."
    Brox looked thoughtfully out at the incredible structure. "Mind you, I am quoting the analysis of my own people--though it coincides closely with what your researchers have to say as well."
    Jamie caught Hannah's eye. This close to where they were going, Brox was allowing himself to let a few details slip. There were humans on the planet--humans who spent time observing and studying the Vixan culture, humans with whom the Kendari were in contact.
    "Arms-race theory," said Hannah. "Not all that far off from keeping up with the Joneses, really. The Red Queen, running as fast as she can to stay in one place."
    "The Red What?" Brox asked.
    "Hmm? Oh! An Earth legend. Not important. The point is that in an arms race, you expend a great deal of effort without gaining any advantage--but you must expend the effort or risk falling behind. All sides compete for advantage with such intensity that every achievement is canceled out or countered by the opposition before it can do any good. No clan benefited from the race."
    "Except in this case, it was of benefit to all the clans as a whole," said Jamie. "Now the planet has six space elevators, six orbital cities, and the Ring itself. Those are pretty significant assets."
    "The first elevator was a significant asset, and possibly the second--and perhaps even the third if you consider it as a backup system. But six is just a massive waste of resources," said Brox. "And that's not me opinionating. That's our embassy's economic staff doing some very thorough analysis. But the same analysts pointed out that we don't place the same values on things as species like the Vixa."
    "'We' meaning Kendari?"
    Brox looked a bit surprised. "No, actually, now that you ask, I realize what I meant by 'we' was individualist species, like yours and mine, as opposed to collectivist species, like the Vixa."
    "You're not saying the Vixa don't have the concept of the individual," Hannah objected.
    "No, of course not," said Brox. He gestured toward the SubPilot. "Obviously they do. Greveltra has a name, a status, a title. But the