Councilman Ti New shuffled the readout sheets, the moist blue skin of his hands shimmering in the bright light over the table. The other Shylock Empire members of The Dode Planetary Council looked at him nervously. His Chief Assistant broke the awkward silence.  "How could we have known?" he squeaked in his nervous voice. "When we first met the Humes they seemed to be such fierce and terrible warriors. War with them would have been disastrous. The compromise seemed most acceptable.  Joint colonizations of suitable worlds on the bordering sectors, equal numbers of colonists, resources from the worlds being equally shared and needed goods being equally imported.
How were we to know The Humes were perverted?  Their ways were strange, we thought, but what we have discovered in only these short months is so appalling that if it spreads from this colony into the rest of The Empire, it will destroy our entire way of life."
Ton, the eldest councilman, slashed his hand through the air to get the attention and silence of the rest of his fellows.  All turned to hear his wisdom.
"There is nothing," he announced, "to discuss.  There is no alternative.  It may even be too late. Hume literature has already been dispersed through The Empire.  None of us can ever return home.  None of our wives can ever take these insane ideas back to their sisters.
Can you IMAGINE?  My wife says she's going to WORK!  Our children are raised.  She has nothing to do all day, and one of the Humes has offered her work!  And she's going to take it with or without my consent!  If the training of a woman my wife's age can be broken, how swiftly will this insanity spread through The Empire?"
"You think you have it bad," cried his assistant, "I have been planning to buy some new discs for my library for three months.  Yesterday my wife says I cannot order them, or at least ALL of them.  SHE wants some credits to order some things SHE wants!  And she says half of our income after expenses, is hers!  Have you ever heard of such insanity?"
Ti New slashed the air and the others fell silent. "Then we are agreed," he asked, "with the next supply ship we will begin enforcing the quarantine.  No more export of Hume literature.  From now on no crewman will be able to land.  Cargo pods will be brought down and sent up by remote control. All contact with The Humes for the sake of The Empire will be severed, except for us, here.  We are already so contaminated with their ideals that we can never return. We will have to live out our lives among these savages, sadly, accepting their way.
Our females give us no choice.  Their disobedience is so overwhelming that our own cultural identity has been lost."
Tick, the youngest councilman who had been silent through the whole discussion, slashed the air and all turned towards him. "I do not think," he added, "that the situation is really quite as bad as we perceive it.  The Hume system of equality among males and females seems to work quite well for them.  I have not met one man I would consider unmanly, nor have I met a woman that was not unwomanly in their own way.
We are threatened by their aggressiveness, their boisterous defiance. We are used to female servitude.  But once you get used to them you find beneath the surface the same male/female relationship is from a joint equality.  Perhaps it may even be better."
The elder councilman slashed the air then held out his hands, palms up, an age old expression nothing more could be said. One by one the other councilmen followed suit.
Councilman Ti New nodded, and signed the papers. "We will have to call a full council meeting," he announced, "and tell The Humes. I do not know how they will take it."
"They'll take it like they take everything," his assistant muttered, "with their usual understanding and calmness. Their understanding and calmness," he growled, "drives you out of your mind!  Just once I'd like to have one of them get mad at me about something!"
The other councilmen laughed, but their laughter was interrupted by a baby's sudden wailing.  "Oh, NOW what?" the councilman snapped. "I just fed her. What does she want NOW?"
Ti New sniffed.  "I've got a pretty good idea," he replied. "Gentlemen, this meeting is adjourned."
"Oh, no!"  his assistant whined, as the other councilmen left. "My wife showed me how, but I still can't get the hang of changing those things!"
His superior put his hand on his shoulder. "I'll help you," he comforted. "I used to do it once and a while for my children when they were little."
"Before we came here?" asked the assistant.
His superior smiled.  "I've always been a bit of the pervert,"  he said, "but just a little bit!"
Both men burst into a roar of laughter, as the assistant picked up the child.
"There's going to be a lot of changes!"  his superior announced.
"In more ways than one!"  the aide answered, continuing to chuckle, "In more ways than one!"

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