Free The Speaker for the Trees by Sean DeLauder Page B

intelligent agent will make
the best of this new opportunity.
    "And these
acolytes, friends who have kept me hidden, were kind enough to guide you to me.
Even they were roused by your arguments, though a bit puzzled by your
expressions of enthusiasm."
    The acolyte
beside him made no outward movement of acknowledgment.
    "You heard
that?"
    "You want
humanity to do well, do you?" asked the weed. "There's an idealistic
statement if I ever heard one. Blind and foolish. Much like many of their
philosophies. But... not without merit."
    "The
Council thinks humans might have infiltrated our system of spies." Hedge
shook his head in wonder at the revelations to which he'd been subjected.
"They think I might be one of them!"
    "The
consequence of a policy of deception is that the deceivers will invariably come
to suspect they too are being deceived. By those they are deceiving and
everyone else around them. Certainly an intelligent and observant agent such as
yourself realizes that they are indeed becoming more human. But that isn't what
really worries them."
    "Then
what?"
    "Humanity
has already reached this stage of development plants are now exhibiting. They
suspect everyone. But that means, since they are further along through this
baptismal stage, humans will soon transcend it. Our society has been in place
for eons and only now does it show similar signs."
    "So?"
    "So, maybe
it isn't the prospect of human interlopers that troubles them so much as the
fear that there is a species that is progressing exponentially faster than
them. And they know that some day, unless they act, they will be rendered
obsolete and all their power will vanish."
    "But isn't
humanity inherently dangerous? Isn't it possible that long before they overtake
the universe they could destroy themselves?"
    "Bah! More
garbage fed to you by the Council. Such blatant hypocrisy. Of course humans
fight with one another for dominion. All species do in their early epochs. Even
those plants who are so quick to preach about their utopian society. All
empires are founded on conquest. Plants who stretched over others to choke out
the light of rivals; strangled the roots of other plants with their own;
cluttered entire planets with themselves, spreading to every nook and cranny.
How is this any different from humanity? Yes, humanity is in great, great
danger. But, unlike plants during their evolution, not just from
themselves."
    "So, how
do we help them?" asked Hedge, then added an afterthought. "Should we
help them?"
    "Perhaps.
They’re the reason I'm here, you know. Isolated. Replaced by a didactic clod. I
suggested we watch them. Because their potential was so great, but often their
compassion appeared lacking. They learn so quickly, and at the same time so
slowly. We have been around for so long, and yet they are gaining on us in a
comparatively short amount of time. They are a marvel whose advancement accelerates
and compassion swells, while we, I fear, do the opposite. It is perhaps because
we are frightened by them. We become more like they were in an effort to be
what they are not, giving us the option to point back at them and say 'They are
different, and their difference is their undoing.'"
    "They want
me to lead the expedition to store them."
    "Yes, I
know," said the Plant. "It's perfect. The daisies are very clever.
I've always thought daisies were the smartest of plants. Always thinking. It's
because they grow so fast. They get accustomed to doing things at a faster
pace. So much quicker in mind than those old trees, so slow to change, so
rooted in the old ways. No pun intended." The Plant mumbled in distracted
amusement.
    "Perfect?
They're doomed to eternal imprisonment."
    "No no no.
Not if you are the one abducting them."
    "Oh! I
hadn't thought of that."
    Now he
understood. As head of the project Hedge would be responsible for keeping track
of all the humans that were stored and where they were kept. It would be very
easy to misplace a few here and there.
    "But