Free Phoenix Café by Gwyneth Jones Page B

Aleutians hand over their research on the Buonarotti Device to Earth’s scientists—as was agreed at the Neubrandenburg Conference, when two halfcastes, Sidney Carton and Bella, had re-discovered the secret of instantaneous travel (excuse me if I correct the popular record, which credits this discovery to the Three Captains.). When they leave us, I say, equipped to seek our own new territories among the stars: will we be ready?”
    Probably Lalith had planned her speech without knowing that actual Aleutians would be in the audience. She certainly wasn’t making the alien visitors feel inconspicuous. Catherine was thankful when she realized the speaker had reached her peroration.
    “The Renaissance is not a war against gender. We, in the Movement, are Reformers and Traditionalists, feminine and masculine. We are women, men, halfcastes, and ‘don’t knows’ (this sally raised some human tittering). We have no plans to give up any of these diverse identities! We want to go on, not go backwards. To start history again from now. I call myself a halfcaste, but I’m not a human trying to imitate the aliens. I’m a human who is the product of three hundred years of history that cannot be denied. Who is trying to find a new way forward for humanity as it is. The Renaissance asks you to reject Aleutian goods and revive our native technologies—not because we believe that our culture is superior to theirs. Not because we reject the aliens. But because we need to learn to stand on our own two feet! I am a construction: born not of nature but of human history. Let us agree that this is true of us all. We can’t take up our old ways as if nothing happened—on that strangest of days, in Krung Thep, in Thailand, July 2038, when the Aleutians made themselves known. We must begin again from where we are now. Changed, not by the aliens alone, but by our own dynamic history. Changed and reborn!”
    Cheers, applause. An interval was announced. Refreshments, a sale and display of Renaissance products, informal discussion: after which Lalith would take questions. Lalith was being escorted from the dais. This time Catherine noticed how carefully her escort masked the sturdy figure; and the sparkle of a security shield around that humble olde-worlde lectern. Lalith’s profession of non-violence might be sincere. But her material was inflammatory: and the organizers knew it.
    Catherine stood, with the others. Maitri, warned them all, quietly.
    They joined the movement to another hall. At last there were things to see and touch. Antique boxed and mounted CRT screens, out of which Renaissance luminaries from round the planet were peering, ready to work the crowd. A long table where food and drink were being dispensed. The humans broke into groups, into animated conversations and nervous silences. No one approached the aliens; even Silent comment on their presence was now extremely subdued. But there was no real hostility.
    Most of the people were clearly Reformers, Catherine noticed. Most of them were young, and drawn from that shrunken and struggling group Mrs. Khan would call, with pity, “the employed.” There were also a few halfcastes and Traditionalists; even figures shrouded in the full chador who might be genuine high-caste Traditionalist young ladies. Everything was exactly as one would expect. She noted wryly the scattering of old lags: ageing humans with the brave, shabby, world-weary demeanor of lifelong dissidents. She knew that look well! Buonarotti’s miracle strikes again.
    Maitri’s party relaxed. The speech had been alarming, but it was over. The old spirit of adventure began to stir. Atha, pleased to recover his proper role for a while, went to forage at the canteen table. Vijaya and the second secretary, Smrti—a pair of amorous predators who had never been lovers themselves, but loved to hunt in couple—attempted to make Silent