time, to repay it. You were honorable and kept
our secret; such honor should be rewarded. However, if we give you a
bearing home, it will also give you a fix on this position, and we had
hopes of using this system for a few hundred more years.
38 Perhaps we can repay your kindness in another way. I sense something
else. Why is your mind so dark? Why is there no….oh! Oh, my! The
urgency of my thought appears to be even more necessary than before.
Kindly shut down all your engines and do not be alarmed. We are going
to draw you near us, to hold you in our fields."
39 "No!" came another voice, "I forbid it! We are not permitted to
interfere. We cannot change other's destinies. It is forbidden. Will
you forsake our Ancient Law? Will you violate The First Teaching? Yes,
we owe a debt, but we cannot break that which we hold sacred to repay
it."
40 "Objector," answered the first voice, "I am Command elected by this
crew. Do you question my authority? Will you take my seat?"
41 "Never be it considered," continued the second voice, "even if the
Command of The Most Highs took you from your seat, I would refuse to
take it. For there is none on this ship more worthy.
But I am the objector too, and it is my duty to speak when
the Law is endangered.
42 If they continue as they go,
they will find their home. They do not need our help. Just leave them
to depart on their own. Perhaps they will make it past The Eaters and
the empty places to find the outskirts of their own people."
43 The first voice laughed. "If The Eaters come upon these ones, they
will retreat with many dead and dying, with no meals to satisfy their
hunger but their own kind. As for the dark places, ones with as much
light as these ones have fear no darkness. It is