Free A Scatter of Stardust by E. C. Tubb

sorry for the animal you are killing for dinner. Both Frenzha and Lhassa are — were — soft worlds. The inhabitants herbivorous. They could afford to be gentle.”
    “But we are past all that now,” said Tolsen. “Survival no longer demands that we kill and kill and keep on killing.”
    “I know that, but our heritage is a part of us. An unknown number of years, an unknown number of generations, all have gone to make us what we are. We couldn’t afford the parapsychological powers. We couldn’t afford to be telepaths. We had to turn away from it in order to stay alive.” I crushed out the cigarette, conscious that I was talking more than I should.
    “Then — ”
    “There won’t be another Frenzha.”
    I rose. It was time to go. My visit to yesterday had stiffened my determination. Malkin met me outside.
    “Well?”
    “Will he recover? Fully, I mean?”
    “Never.” Malkin took my arm. “As an individual he is lost to us, but all is not lost. His seed bears the gene pattern which made him what he was. We’ll find him a girl, one with the same talent if possible. Together they’ll have children.” He drew a deep breath. “No. Tolsen is not wholly lost.”
    “I’m glad of that.”
    “And you?”
    “What do you mean?” I was deliberately casual.
    “Rumor gets around. What of the Lhassa?”
    “I am in command of the fleet which is being sent to Lhassa,” I said slowly. “On the theory, perhaps, that what I have done once I can do again.”
    “John!”
    “You said that I’d had a choice when dealing with the Frenzha,” I said. “But it was no real choice and you know it. Did you expect me to permit the destruction of my race?”
    “Do you think that you can avoid it?” Malkin was bitter. “We aren’t alone in the universe. How many races do you think we shall be permitted to destroy before we are wiped out as the menace we appear to be?”
    “Isn’t that up to you?”
    “How so?”
    “You, not I, have the answer. It’s up to you to produce the telepaths who will be accepted as ‘normal’ by the aliens. They must be our diplomats, our spokesmen. They must be our shield.” I stared him full in the face. “Produce enough telepaths, and we are safe from retribution and everything else. No telepathic race could ever bring itself to destroy a similar culture. If you doubt that, then go and look at Tolsen.”
    “Is that why you came, John?”
    “Yes,” I admitted. “There won’t be another Frenzha.”
    On the way out I stopped at the desk. The blonde was still there, still petulant, still hurt at the treatment I’d given her. She was snapping at someone on the phone. She looked up, her eyes wary.
    “I’m sorry,” I said. “I wish to apologize.”
    “For what?”
    “For not understanding you.”
    “I don’t — ”
    “I didn’t know that you were new here. Someone obviously forgot to make out the correct list of permitted visitors. I shouldn’t have lost my temper, but the truth is that I’ve a game leg and it makes me impatient.”
    She softened. Her eyes lost their strained wariness. She smiled. “I’m sorry to hear that,” she said. “In space?”
    “An accident. They gave me a plastic bone but it gives me hell at times. You know how it is.”
    “I know,” she confided. “To tell the truth I’m at fault, too, but my shoes are killing me.”
    “Then you forgive me?”
    “There’s nothing to forgive.”
    We smiled at each other and parted. The exchange had reassured me by strengthening a theory. People can be easy to get along with providing they know more about you than you are normally inclined to tell. If they know your weakness as well as your strength.
    As with people, so with races.
    I would show the Lhassa more than the destructive might of Earth. I would show them why we needed it, show them how we had risen, driven by fear, unable to tell friend from enemy until, too often, it was too late. They were intelligent creatures. They would understand. And, in