Tobolsky was a far more sophisticated politician than I was, and that was his idea, which he came up with on the fly, which I thought was a good one. Not only did it remove from the agenda a host of questions that might have arisen about the bizarre status of the quargs as citizens of the Federation, it should have been much more comfortable for the quargs themselves. So I just had one more question for Tobolsky.

“Mr President, may I inform Governor-General Lit-ta of the contact with the Empire and of her invitation to the talks, or is it better that this information passes through diplomatic channels?”

The question got Tobolsky thinking.

“Igor Yakovlevich,” said he a few seconds later, “The information will go through the official channels, but you will inform the lizards as my designated head of delegation. You can’t directly address the Senior because it doesn’t fit your status, so Governor General Lit-ta would be the perfect contact.”

* * *

Lit-ta listened to me without interruption.

“Igor,” said she after a little pause, “thank you for informing us immediately of your contact with the Empire. I appreciate it, and I’m sure the Senior will appreciate it, too. I once invited you into my system, and you promised to come as soon as you could. It seems to me that now is the time to do that, especially since this visit is not too much of a burden for you, because you have set up a transport ring here.”

I didn’t think for long. Why not? Lit-ta obviously wanted to discuss something in person, and she promised to show me something interesting…

“I’m ready. When will you get a chance to spend time with me?”

“Fly in. I’ll always have time for you.”

“Then wait for me tomorrow. We shouldn’t delay our visit to the Empire.”

* * *

Lit-ta didn’t invite me to one of the giant quasi-living cities raised by the lizards on the surface and partly beneath the surface of the planets of Iota Persei. Apparently, she thought the lizards’ habitat might not be entirely comfortable for humans. We met on board Dragon’s Tail. This battleship was originally built for a crew of humans and the lizards, and was therefore well equipped to provide comfort for both races.

Lit-ta has been aboard my flagship several times and felt quite free on the ship.

“We have some very serious matters to discuss, Admiral,” after completion of the formalities the lizard moved on to business, “I invited you into my system for a reason – we can talk in peace here. I’d like to show you something, but to do that, we have to fly into the outer belt of asteroids.”

“That’s great, we’ll have a few hours for a thoughtful conversation.”

We set up in the study of my Admiral’s cabin, where there was a comfortable chair for me and some very specific furniture for my guest, as soon as a tail, especially as massive as the lizard’s tail, had certain requirements for furniture.

“Aren’t you afraid, Admiral?” asked Lit-ta suddenly.

I knew exactly what she was asking about, but I chose to ask her a follow-up question, “Are you afraid to let them in here?”

“I was with you in the Kappa Ceti system, and I remember perfectly well what protective fields and plasma cannons are. Your ships were somehow able to resist them, though at great cost, and our dreadnoughts were powerless until your guns knocked down the power shields of the enemy cruisers. And there were only two smaller ships facing us. Now imagine letting an entire fleet in here, armed much better than the local toads. They’ll be able to dictate any terms they want to us. Admiral, are you aware of that? The Empire has transport rings, too, and once we let them in, they won’t need us anymore.”

“They’re humans, like us, Lit-ta, and I’m sure we can make a deal. They’re at war there, and they’re not very successful either, which means we’ll need each other.”

“You’re humans, and it gives you a chance to come to an agreement, I won’t argue, although there may be options. But why would the Empire want us, Admiral? Now, in our alliance with the Federation, there is a certain balance of power, for which, by the way, we thank you again – hybrid ships with mixed crews have indeed become an excellent unifying factor. But now the balance would be lost. Humans will become much stronger than us, and lizards will cease to be full partners in the new alliance.”

“I believe it will be different, Lit-ta. Our interests don’t conflict with yours. The galaxy is huge and there’s enough room for us and you. Your biotechnologies far outpaced not only the Federation science, but the Empire science as well, so you’ll have something to offer the new allies.”

“What makes you think their bioengineering is inferior to ours?”

“Because they developed along our path, Lit-ta. Let me tell you a little secret. Our analysts believe that if humanity’s progress continues on the same path as it does now, we can reach your level of working with living matter no sooner than 300 years from now, if not more. The thing is, we’re used to solving all problems with the help of machinery, and that’s how it’s going to be. Bioengineering is evolving as a purely complementary activity, so it is not progressing so fast. In the Empire, the situation is exactly the same. Your technology will be a revelation to them, though perhaps less so than to us.

Think of the same hybrid battleships. If you hadn’t grown armor and engines in space, we would have been working on building each ship for at least six months. And Dragon’s Tail was built in three months, and this is far from the limit. The last battleship of this type was commissioned 48 days after it was laid.

And the reconnaisance?! Can you imagine the effect of combining Imperial camouflage fields with your engines? Think of Yoon Gao hybrid recon ship. It seemed like a real breakthrough compared to everything we and you had before we met, and our electronic warfare systems are nothing compared to what the Empire has. I’m counting on your technologies as one of the great trumps in the coming negotiations, Lit-ta. Now we have a unique situation where we all need each other. Perhaps, in time, even the quargs will find a place in the new alliance, though it will be more difficult with them, but it is not a question of today.”

The lizard began to think, looking at me with an unblinking gaze.

“You’re going to do us a favor again, Igor,” finally said she. “You informed me immediately of your contact with the Empire, and now you’re offering us a real way to integrate ourselves into a new alliance that will allow us to play a prominent role in it. Why are you doing this, man?”

“Because I see good for us all, Lit-ta. Lizards are very convenient allies for humans, just as humans are for lizards, and I want this situation to last as long as possible. Do you remember a world without war, Governor General?”

“I do,” responded Lit-ta after a little pause, but she didn’t go into details.

“And I don’t. But I’ve been told a lot about how it was, and you know, I hope to see this for myself as soon as possible. My children should not lead battleships and aircraft carriers into battle. I want a completely different fate for them, and for that to become a reality, I believe it is right to lay the foundations of mutual benefit in relations between our races.”

“I’ll tell the Senior what you’ve said, and I don’t think there will be any delay or difficulty with our decision to negotiate with the Empire. As I understand it, we’re almost there on our journey,” Lit-ta’s changed her subject, “Have you forgotten what a space suit looks like, Admiral? We’re going to have to walk on the surface of one of the asteroids.”

* * *

The asteroid looked, frankly, peculiar on the projection screen. In fact, it wasn’t really an asteroid, but rather an asteroid stump. Once upon a time, this massive rock block had almost a spherical shape and a diameter of about 300 kilometers, but now there was only a little more than half of it left, and it seemed that once, quite a long time ago, a stone ball had been cut in half with a very sharp and hard object, leaving behind a perfectly plane surface resembling a petrographic cut. It was unclear where the other half of the asteroid had gone, at least, the scanners did not see it in the immediate vicinity. It’s been clearly not a year or two since the event that gave the asteroid its current appearance. The surface of the cut, which had once been smooth, was now covered by numerous traces left by the impact of rock fragments of various shapes and sizes, which were abundant in the outer Iota Persei belt. There was no doubt that the asteroid was being used extensively by someone at the time of the accident. On the surface of the cut, in many places there were stains of the entrances to the tunnels going deep into the rock, which were almost identical in shape and size. The asteroid was pitted with these passages, but the lizards have been unable to determine their purpose.

“It’s a pretty old story,” said Lit-ta looking at the screen. “About 120 years ago, some 30 years before we started to develop Iota Persei, a rather nontrivial astronomical event took place here, I would even call it extremely nontrivial.”

“What happened here?” I asked with genuine interest.

“Our observers near Lambda Aurigae have recorded the appearance of a new star system consisting of three low-mass sub-brown dwarfs, one light month from Iota Persei.”

“I’m sorry, Lit-ta, did I hear you correctly? Did you say «appearance»? Maybe you meant that previously unknown stars were discovered?”

“That’s the thing. They did appear, there’s no doubt about it. They weren’t there before. Even 150 years ago, we couldn’t overlook a triple star system, even though it was made up of these little brown stars, right in front of us, in less than two dozen light years away. Naturally, this phenomenon aroused great interest among our ancestors, but at that time, flying this distance was still a difficult business, and while the expedition was being prepared, its purpose disappeared instantly and without a trace. However, it did not disappear completely – here is the trace. This asteroid is the only material evidence of the events of those years. It came from the direction of the vanished sub-brown dwarfs and was captured by the gravity of Iota Persei, becoming part of the outer belt of the system.”

“I take it this is only part of the story?” said I with a slight smile, “I’m sure you found there something worthy of attention.”

“Yes, we did,” confirmed Lit-ta, “but it’s better if you see it with your own eyes.”

* * *

“Once upon a time, something of value was clearly mined here, but what was it? ” The asteroid was pitted with tunnels that diverged in the most unexpected places and also ended suddenly in dead ends. Sometimes the rock had strange cavities, as if part of it had suddenly disappeared into nowhere, leaving behind a cavity of unpredictable shape and size.

“We’ve been through all the drifts, but we haven’t found any valuable minerals,” Lit-ta’s voice sounded in my helmet headphones. “Perhaps by the time of the catastrophe, the deposit of what was mined here had probably been exhausted and the asteroid was being used for other purposes. Come on, you haven’t seen the best part yet.”

Some of the tunnels in the surviving part of the asteroid were filled with equipment of unclear purpose, often embedded in walls. Only one thing was beyond doubt: the civilization that used these devices was developing along the path of technological progress.

“We didn’t touch anything here,” Litta continued her story, “It was obvious to us that we wouldn’t figure out the purpose of all this iron stuff anyway – it was too alien to us.”

“Why didn’t you tell us this before, Lit-ta? Our scientists could do a lot to understand what happened here 120 years ago.”

“I wanted to do it, but there were so many more pressing matters. Do you remember when I invited you during my first visit to the Federation? I wanted to show you this place, but then you didn’t find the time, which was natural in that situation. Come on, the most interesting find still awaits us.”

The tunnel we were walking through made another turn and suddenly led us into a rather spacious room cut down in the rock. I changed the pace at which I’ve been going, there were machines in front of me whose purpose was beyond doubt.

I stood there silently and looked at dozens of combat robots, which remained stationary in neat rows along the walls of the cave. They looked sort of like insects. This impression was caused by joint limbs, which for every combat machine were between six and ten, and scaly segmented armor. The largest of them were equipped with cannons, the barrels of which jutted out of the front of their bodies in such a way that they started an involuntary association with mandibles of arthropods. Smaller machines were grouped around each big robot, apparently, they were supposed to act on the battlefield with it, doing reconnaissance and destroying minor targets, although I wouldn’t say that with full confidence.

In my long service to the planetary commandos, I have encountered various robots, or as they were called in my first world, walking tanks. This was the first time I saw such a design, but I was paying attention to all the little things and details that were saying a lot to the man who had often seen such creatures in battle. Latticed emitters of protective fields were only visible on the bodies of large machines. Missile launchers were mostly hidden inside the hulls, but the launchers of small robots partially protruded outward, forming a characteristic hump on its «back». In general, I suspected that in combat these machines would be stronger than our Bisons and Goannas, but they could hardly compete with the walking tanks I controlled in my last battle in the body of General Dean.

“And what is your impression of this?” Lit-ta interrupted a prolonged silence.

“It’s a very dangerous adversary. I think you’re lucky those sub-brown dwarfs disappeared as quickly as they came. If they would have stayed here, and something like this would have got out of them,” I made a gesture around the cave, “you and I wouldn’t be talking right now.”

“Our scientists came to the same conclusion,” Lit-ta agreed with me, “but despite their best efforts, there is still no explanation for what happened.”

“Have these specimens been standing here since they were discovered without any activity?”

“When we found this place, it was hopelessly dead. No energy, no living things, not even the corpses of the owners of these machines – nothing. There is a far-fetched hypothesis that our world was somehow not suited to those who had come here in such an unusual way, but that’s just a vague assumption, which, by the way, doesn’t explain the origin of that split-in-half asteroid.”

“What do you think those who built these robots looked like, Lit-ta?”

“We’ve been wondering the same thing. As you know, we’re pretty good at everything with natural and artificial evolution of living things, but the conclusions of our bioengineers have been mixed. They were definitely not lizards, toads, humans, or quargs. So we have the paradoxical view that these machines had evolved on their own for some time, without the help of their creators, as unbelievable as this may sound. By the way, we gave them a name, and I’m curious if our perception matches yours. What would you call the civilization that created these robots?”

I thought for a few seconds, but I finally decided that the first association that came to my head was the best thing to designate what I saw.

“This is Swarm, a swarm of insects who built war machines in their own image. I have no basis for this opinion – it’s just a first impression that I’m used to trust.”

“Perhaps Igor, humans and lizards are not as different as they seem at first glance,” Lit-ta spoke thoughtfully, “We gave them the name «Hive».”