IronStar (55 page)

“Talam welcomes the Regnum Draconis
presence and declares its intent to enter into trade where mutually beneficial,
while reserving the right to limit such trade as it sees fit to protect its
cultural sovereignty and citizens´ well-being.

“Ladies and gentlemen, is that a
complete and accurate statement of our intent?” More nods of agreement. “Lord
Tsano, are you prepared to ratify this treaty on behalf of Talam at this time?”
Now we’re seeing a few raised Regnum eyebrows
, Kirrah noted.

“I am,” said the King.

“Ahhh, excuse me,” Garth Pennington
was looking a little oddly around the table: “am I to understand that you are
empowered to speak for this entire nation, and prepared to consummate this
agreement immediately?”

“Yes, are you not?” The
ex-blacksmith’ eyes narrowed slightly, and whatever he was about to say died as
Kirrah raised her hand.

“Dr. Pennington, you will find the
Talamae do things a little more …directly, than you may be used to. I find it
rather refreshing, do you not?”

“I certainly do! But do you not
need time to, to… study the wording? Time to consult… I mean to say, isn’t
there a committee looking into this or …something?”

“We have already had several months
to ‘consult’, Dr. Pennington. There is nothing in this agreement that I have
not already discussed with the Talamae leadership and found agreement on. In
exchange for Navy bases in this system, the Regnum defends Talam off-planet.
The rest will develop as we live with one another and study mutual benefit. Why
make it complex?”

“Excuse me, ma’am, sir,” said
Ensign Auracotta, the Contact Specialist. “But the Regnum is a new culture to
the Talamae. Frankly, ma’am, how do they know they can trust us?”

“Oh, we don’t trust
you
,”
said Slaetra with a hint of impatience. “We trust
Kirrah
, and
she
trusts you. That is the job of a ‘guide into friendship’.” Several negotiators
at the Talamae side of the table were looking a little puzzled, slightly
discomfited.
Except Issthe, who was just looking
…

“There is a Talamae expression,”
Kirrah replied. “You will have trouble translating it properly. The words are
‘two lives balanced’. It means a bond, a kinship, a trusted partnership, a
mutual defense agreement, and more. It means your enemies are our enemies, and
ours are yours, live or die. It means that, in all things, while not becoming
subject to one another, we seek ways of cooperating which make us both
stronger… power
with
one another, not power
over
. Look up my
notes on the word ‘
kaetha'sha
’.

“
This
is what is being
offered in this treaty, and all you need to do to accept it - no, to
join
with Talam
in it - is to state your intent and clasp the hand of that large
gentleman in the blue robes. But you had better
mean
it, because they
will not break it,
even if you do
. They would quite literally die first,
every one of them.” Kirrah’s gaze moved from one to the other of the Regnum
guests, challenging, probing. Admiral Dunning’s eyes met hers with an almost
audible
snick!
, like a magazine sliding into the power socket of a heavy
beamer. Dr. Pennington was staring from Kirrah to Admiral Dunning, and the
other Mercantiles were looking puzzled or embarrassed. Elizabeth was looking
quite boggled, but her camera was steady. After an awkward pause, Dr.
Pennington said:

“I’m afraid this is rather beyond
my scope as King’s Counsel, Admiral… if it’s not beyond yours as well.” The
Admiral looked at him thoughtfully for a moment, gazed back across the table to
Kirrah, let her eyes linger over Lord Tsano, Slaetra, Issthe.

“Garth, do you see any way the
proposed treaty is to the Regnum’s
dis
-advantage?”

“Well, no, but…”

“Is it, in any legal or ethical
sense, taking unfair advantage of these fine indegenes?”

“Well, knowing our needs here, no,
it gives us both exactly what we rather badly want, it just seems so…” his
hands waved in the air before him.

“So fast?” Kirrah prompted. “So
easy? So
sane
?”

“So
kaetha'sha
,” Admiral
Dunning said, standing decisively and walking around the table. She offered her
hand to Lord Tsano, in the Talamae style of handshake. “On behalf of the Regnum
Draconis, I join with Talam in these terms. So be it.” When the two returned to
their seats, the atmosphere of the room had shifted palpably.

“I
told
you we needn’t spend
the entire meeting on the basics, Dr. Pennington,” Kirrah said lightly. “Now,
here’s a list of things I believe would be of immediate trade interest to the
Talamae…”

Twenty minutes later, things did
not seem quite so rosy.

“Ms. Roehl, I understood you to say
that we were
allies
, looking for ways to cooperate. Yet not one of
Planetation’s generous proposals has elicited the slightest bit of interest,
aside from a few med facilities and a bit of comm gear. This is simply
frustrating, when we have
so
much to offer!”

“Apparently, Mr. Baldwin, the idea
of ‘
kaetha'sha
’ has not been communicated clearly,” Kirrah replied. “It
is a subtle concept for us who were raised in Regnum capitalism, but perfectly
simple. The problem is not what you offer, but what you want in return. And
Talam agreed to be your
ally
, not your
market
.”

“But what’s wrong with our offer?
We supply tools, farm implements, power, data grid, basic fabricators, cheap
housing, and in return we simply ask for mining rights on a few asteroids Talam
will not be ready to reach for a generation! And what’s wrong with Regnum
capitalism, it has served us very well!”

“If you look around, do you see a
city starving, lacking shelter, desperate for a place to plug in their
info-consoles and 3V’s? No, Mr. Baldwin. These people are
already
happy. Start from there. And there’s nothing wrong with
capitalism. You are sitting in a city full of capitalists. Every city block, we
call them a ‘
vai'atho
’, has its own business. Everyone in the block
participates. Anyone is free to start their own block. If it looks like a good
idea, others will join. If it takes off, it will grow and divide and there’ll
be two of them. If it falls on hard times, its neighbors will help, up to a
point, then its people will be absorbed by other, more successful businesses.

“You look at this city and see a
simple people in a primitive economy, Mr. Baldwin. So did I, at first. But what
is actually here, when you’ve had time to notice, is one of the most
sophisticated models of civic cooperation I have ever heard of, and it’s all
driven by nothing more than enlightened self-interest, evolved over generations
and both stable and flexible. Would you tell this gentleman again please,
Guildmaster Delima, why you are not interested in his ‘fabricators’?”

“But I am
very
interested in
his fabricators, Kirrah Warmaster. They sound like a craftsman’s dream. They
can make many wonderful things. But to start immediately with a new tool we
have not used before, and do not understand, would be foolish. Our carpenters
and smiths and tanners and jewelers would see this device do all their labor,
and within a tenday half our
vai'athoz
would be empty and the entire
city would be in an uproar, no one knowing where to put themselves. We simply
need to introduce this
technology
rather more carefully, not refuse it.

“Furthermore we would be exporting
metals and minerals from our sky, which we have never seen, yet which we may
someday need, and which we surely do not know the new value of. Your
Reg’num
has many wonders. I believe in some ways it is made of the same threads as
our little nation, but the
weave
is very different. We must learn what
is valued and what is cheap, otherwise we are as children at the market,
spending our small family’s food allotment on sweets and pretty feathers.”
At least Baldwin had the decency to look a little abashed
, Kirrah thought.
A
tonne of cadmium for a two-hundred-credit fabricator,
really
!

“In contrast,” said Taiwi
shu'Wdatha in his mild, medium-toned voice, “I am rather interested in what
Marissa shu’Taggart had to say about new crops for our farmers. We could
benefit not only our own nation but our trading partners, by growing new kinds
of produce.”

“United Dominion would be delighted
to sell seedstock to Talam, Mister Wdatha,” said Madam Taggart. To Kirrah’s
relief, the translation program was handling the names and titles without
offending anyone.

Ms. Taggart’s next words were
interrupted by a rising howl coming from some distance outside, through the
windows and walls of the palace. The howl rose to a roar, then added a basso
ripping-cloth growl. Windows shook, two drinking flasks on the table rattled
together, tiny bits of dust shook loose from the ceiling and drifted down.
Several semi-alarmed looks were exchanged, not just among the Talamae.
Gradually the sounds faded.

“My,
my
! I apologize for the interruption, everyone,” said Admiral
Dunning. “That was one of our shuttles taking off, and by the way, one less
Kruss on your planet. I assure you, once we get a chance to install a proper
SkyLift system, things will be a lot quieter. Even commercial shuttles make
less noise than that.

“Meanwhile I’ll get some basic noise
abatement procedures in place for the pilots. No one likes noisy neighbors. You
were saying, Madame Taggart?”

“Yes, thank you, Admiral. I was
saying that while we’d be delighted to sell seedstock to Talam, most of the
value of what we sell is not simply the seed, but the benefits we have built
into
the seed. Thus if we sell a fruit plant which is easy to grow and resists
disease, it is sold only to Talam, and its fruit but not its viable seeds may
be traded to other nations. We reserve the exclusive right to trade its seeds,
since we created them. It is a concept which may be new to Talam, we call it
‘Designer’s Rights’.”

Slaetra responded, “Indeed we have
a similar concept, Marissa shu’Taggart. We value the one who creates a new
design, or art, or type of business. One of the most common ways a new
vai'atho
starts, is by selling the right to some fresh creation, to others who wish to
manufacture it. If I remember, the Oven Maker’s Block was started by the family
that made the first of those little pastries your Fleetmaster is so fond of.”

“What we are hearing,” said Dr.
Pennington to his fellow Mercantiles, “is a sale of Designer’s Rights to raise
capital for the creation of a new business. As Guildmaster Delima said, ‘same
threads - different weave’. May I ask,” he turned back to the Talamae, “how
does the government of Talam enforce these rights to protect a new designer’s
ideas?” A few blank looks, seeming to converge on Lord Tsano. He replied:

“Why would the
government
need to protect a new idea?
Everyone
benefits from those who create, it
is a treasured gift. It would not be in our interest to simply steal from
someone. If that happened, everyone would soon cease to create, and we would
all be poorer.” Looking confused and a little anxious, Dr. Pennington replied:

“Surely it is good for Talam, but
if you do not prohibit it by law, what would prevent anyone from starting a
rival business using the same idea, and profiting from it as well?”

“Why, of course we
all
would
prevent it,” said Lord Tsano, as though explaining a most elementary fact of
economic and social life. “Once the real creator let it be known that another
was stealing his idea, no one would conduct business with the thief.
Any
kind
of business. To do so, would be to vote for thievery.”

“And you do this, this ‘Designer’s
Rights’ enforcement, simply by consensus, without a formal law?” To Kirrah’s
eye, the Regnum lawyer was actually cringing at the thought. Although Admiral
Dunning was looking very interested.

“Not enforcement, but
kaetha'sha
,”
Lord Tsano responded. “We all want the power of new ideas, thus we all give the
benefit to their creator. When the young couple who created those pastries
found they were very popular, they traded the creation of it to the city of
Talameths'cha, so every bakery could make them. In exchange the city gave them
part ownership of a new
vai'atho
. The rest of the building cost was
supplied by a family moving out of another
vai'atho
with too many stone
masons, and they united with the bakers. The masons built the rest of the
building, and then together they started making improved ovens and selling them
to other bakeries, another new idea. The Oven Maker’s Block became even more
prosperous when the baker’s daughter married an ironsmith, my great-uncle
actually, and they could make and sell improved metal baking tools as well.
Since then their children have started three or four new
vai'athoz
.”

“This is very interesting, Lord
Tsano,” said Madame Taggart, “and we have much to admire and learn about your
ways. But we simply cannot trade seedstock with Talam, unless for those seeds
your government makes and enforces laws that protect the concept of ‘Designers
Rights’ as the Regnum does. Otherwise we could see a valuable seed line traded
to other nations on this planet, and then possibly to another Regnum
Mercantile, and from there to any other Mercantile or business in the entire
Regnum. We could lose tremendously valuable rights over a single sale.”
Now!
,
Kirrah fairly beamed the thought at the King.
Ask her now!

As though reading her mind, Lord
Tsano answered, “If that is what we must do to benefit from your people’s
creations, Madam Taggart, then we have been advised by our friend and Warmaster
that that is what we should do.” Looks of relief began to creep into the faces
opposite.