Free The Voyage of the Star Wolf by David Gerrold Page B

correct?”
    â€œYes, it is. Go on.”
    â€œWhile we do not have a great deal of statistical history of Morthan space encounters to rely on for precedent, we can use internal Morthan disagreements as a model of the Morthan ethical paradigm and extrapolate from there. As you know, the Morthans have developed an extremely ritualized culture; their caste system is very strict, determined by breeding, augmentation, training, and a quality which they call alpha , but which bears some correspondence to the Terran belief in mana . As a result, the Morthan culture demands a rigid standard of behavior. Elaborate courtesies and protocols are necessary for every aspect of life. At the same time, they value the quality of amok , the berserker; the one who is so dangerous, so possessed of mana and power that he transcends the rules, that he invents his own new qualities of power. There is intense competition at the topmost levels of the Morthan pyramid. Excuse me, I am distracted—the point is that if we were to extrapolate from Morthan land-battles, we should assume that they will not stay around the battlefield wasting time killing the enemy wounded. Once defeated, an enemy is unimportant. Irrelevant.”
    Leen shot Korie a triumphant look.
    â€œOn the other hand,” HARLIE continued, “this has not been the usual Morthan battle, and our intelligence has suggested that there has been considerable attention on long-range strategy and tactics in the Morthan war councils. If that intelligence is reliable, it would make sense for them to spend the extra time seeking out and destroying any enemy vessel that is damaged, but still capable of crawling home.”
    â€œIn other words,” said Korie, “you don’t know.”
    â€œThat is correct,” said HARLIE. “It is possible to argue both sides of the issue. But if I may offer a suggestion, I would suggest that we not place too much reliance on reading future Morthan behavior out of past examples. This attack is not in character; therefore I suspect that something major has happened to shift the Morthan identity from one of internal self-discipline to external aggression. It is possible that one of their leaders has introduced a psychotic motivation into the cultural paradigm. There are historical precedents in human cultures.”
    Korie realized he was tensing up. He forced himself to relax in the air, allowing himself to float as loosely as possible. “Tell me about our own situation,” he said.
    â€œWe are drifting. You have rigged the ship for silent running. I presume that we are deliberately hiding from Morthan detection. This is a very cautious course of action, but under the circumstances, it is perhaps the wisest. If I may offer a suggestion of my own, you might wish to consider the use of a scanning lens for a more precise view of the immediate neighborhood. If a local scan suggests that there are no Morthan vessels in range to detect us, we might initiate a very low level acceleration with our mass-drivers. It would be painfully slow, but it might allow us to move out of range without being detected.”
    Korie folded his arms across his chest and nodded. “That thought had occurred to me too, HARLIE. Thank you for the confirmation. Now tell me this. What happens if we are detected?”
    â€œThe obvious thing to do would be to initiate our own envelope and attempt to run for it. I’m not sure that this would be the wisest course of action, however. Due to their basic inefficiency, the Morthan vessels need to have larger hyperstate envelopes. I doubt we could outrun a Morthan cruiser. Certainly not in our present state of reduced efficiency. It would be best if we could avoid detection.”
    â€œCan we do that?”
    â€œFrankly, Mr. Korie, I doubt it. If I were a Morthan cruiser, I would want to personally inspect every singularity remaining in the battle area, to see if it’s an enemy ship lurking