Free Intruder by C. J. Cherryh Page B

applications, down to every scrap of paper. One recommends the establishment of clerical offices to deal with it. One recommends, in fact, computers.”
    “Computers. We do not have
phones
in the villages, paidhi.”
    “You will have both in fairly short order, in fact, as you admit the Messengers’ Guild. They will bring them in.”
    Machigi frowned and rested his chin on his hand. “Computers. And who will run these machines?”
    “Foreigners, until you educate Taisigi youngsters in their use. Which you can do if you allow the Academicians’ Guild to establish a school.”
    “Computers. Schools. Guilds. Are we to
become
Shejidan? We are
not
Shejidan, paidhi! Nor are our fishermen going to send their sons to a school! You have no idea!”
    “They may, however, send their daughters.”
    “You are speaking of the utter overthrow of custom.”
    “You will never become Shejidan, nandi, but you
will
be the Marid, a
modern
Association within the aishidi’tat, and your people will have hospitals, schools, phones, and, one hesitates to say,
television.
”
    “We have not bargained for the utter overthrow of tradition.”
    “You will sign what seems logical to you to sign, and the Guilds must present their case to you for each of these changes. Things will change at whatever pace you decide, and your leadership, nandi, one is quite confident is equal to the task. When your people prosper, you will have their man’chi, one has no question. And your sons
and
daughters will, one predicts, be working in space, beside Ragi and Maschi, Edi, Easterners—and humans. Onewould be dishonest to claim things will stay the same. But you will not have people dying of sickness a local hospital could cure with a single dose of medicine or of injuries a surgeon could heal. You will not have villages festering in situations one single phone call to your offices could relieve. That is
power,
nandi. That is power no lord in the Marid has ever wielded. Computers. Phones. Satellites to warn your ships of weather. Within the Marid, you will have the same authority the aiji-dowager has over the East and Tabini has over the Ragi and Lord Geigi has on the space station; and when you visit Shejidan, you will do so with the ceremony and respect of a regional lord. But, nandi, one first needs the guilds to make these things happen. And one needs at least a few schools…not for everyone. But schools there must be. Your urging can populate them.”
    “You will get me assassinated.”
    “You will need Guild protection, I have no doubt, but you have it. I have been threatened by persons claiming the shuttles pierce the sky and may let the planet’s atmosphere leak away into the ether. I have been personally attacked by an individual claiming his telephones are spying on him at night…these things will happen. You will not find it advisable to walk on quayside without your bodyguard, I regret to say. You will not find it advisable at any time to ignore your bodyguard’s warnings. That I can promise you, from personal experience. There are dangers. Not everyone will be pleased at every step of the way. But there are compensations.”
    Machigi gave a long sigh. “You need not tell me about threats. But to have them coming from my own people—”
    “The perception that I am harming the atmosphere is now confined to a very few of limited education or unstable mind, and the Guild will not accept a Filing on such grounds. I understand your hesitation, nandi. I understand it very well. At times I have caused great distress, and I have suffered from it. In my worst fears,
I
am responsible for the disturbance that led to Murini’srise. But I feel—I feel very strongly—that I have done what had to be done for people to live good lives—and long lives, safe from hazards that come from above the earth as well as on it. Baji-naji, it is terrifying to
be
the flex in the universe. A very few
can
do it. The aiji-dowager has wagered heavily on your having