Free Serpent's Reach by C. J. Cherryh

it produces is ours—including the betas and the azi. None of us tries the barrier.
    “Ever been out that far, to the edge? I have. In seven hundred years a man has time to do everything of interest. Ugly worlds. Nothing like Cerdin. But we’ve established hives that far out, extensions of our four entities here…or whole new personalities. Has anyone ever asked them? We’ve entered into a strange new relationship with our alien hosts; we’ve become intimately involved in their reproductive process…indispensable to them. Without metals, majat could never have left Cerdin. They have no eyes to see the stars, just their own sun, their own sun-warmed earth. But we’ve changed that. Even majat don’t have to work much, not the way they used to seven hundred years ago. But they thrive. And their numbers increase. And back here at Alpha, this Council, this wise…expert Council…makes ultimate decisions about population levels, and how many of us can be born, and where; and how many betas; and where betas can be licensed to produce azi, and when ad levels have to be reduced. Humanity’s brain, are we not, doing for our kind what the queens do for the hives? And in that process, we’ve grown different , my young friends.
    “I was here. I was here from the beginning, and I’ve watched the change. I’m from Outside. I remember. You…you’ve studied this in your tapes, you young ones of a century or so, you Council newcomers. I’m an old man and I’m delaying things. You think you know it all, having been born here, in the Reach, in a new age you think an old Outsider can’t understand. But I’m going to go on telling you, because you need to remember it. Because the majat will tell you that a hive that has lost its memory, that has…unMinded itself…is headed for extinction.
    “Do you know that no ship from Outside has ever tried to reach Cerdin? Ever, since Delia? We’re quarantined. They’re all around us, Outside. Human space. These few little stars…are an island in a human sea. But you don’t see them trying to come in. Ever wonder why?
    “They don’t want the majat my friends. They want what the majat produce, the chitin-jewels, the biotics, the softwares. Humans from Outside meet the betas and the azi at Istra station, and they will pay for those goods, pay whatever they must. They cost us little and Outsiders value them beyond price. But they don’t want the majat. They don’t want hives in their space.
    “And above all, they don’t want us. Alpha Hydri, the Serpent’s Eye. Offlimits by treaty. And no one wants in. No one wants in.”
    “Get to the point,” Eron said.
    Slowly Lian turned, and stared at Eron. There was quiet, anticipation. And suddenly outcries erupted, people throwing themselves from seats. A bolt flew from Moth’s hand to Eron, and the man fell. Raen flung herself to the back wall, expecting more fire, eyes scanning wildly for weapons on the other side.
    “When you practice assassination,” Lian said, while Moth held the weapon on Eron’s friend Yls, “recall that Moth and I are oldest.”
    Yls died. Men and women screamed and tried to bolt their seats. Moth continued to fire. There were bodies everywhere, on the floor, draped over seats, over the rail, in the aisles. At last she stopped, and the half of the Council that remained alive huddled against the door.
    “Resume your seats,” Lian said.
    Slowly, cowed, they did so. Moth still had her weapon in hand.
    “Now,” said Lian, “the matter of a vote.”
    Someone was sick. The stench of burning was in the hall. Raen clenched her arms about her and shivered.
    “Raen a Sul hant Meth-maren,” Lian said.
    “Sir.”
    “You may go. I think that it would be advisable to leave Cerdin and seek some House in obscurity. You have outlived all your enemies. Count that fortune enough for a lifetime. I don’t think it wise that you shelter with another House on Cerdin; you could too easily become a cause, and the Family