Kaspar's Box

"Yes. But as with others over the eons they did not get everyone. It is a brute force approach. But, sooner or later, they will find your people, or, accidentally, your people will find them. That is why the route to the Three Kings was kept so secret after we were accidentally discovered. When a second expedition found us, we knew that our safe haven here could not last forever. So we sent back some of us as sentinels, as listeners, and we used the fringe, the cults, to minimize our obvious presence. We needed our arms and legs as usual, so that if and when the others come the secret yet findable route here can be sealed and our sentinels recalled. It will give us time to move again."

"There's nothing we can do to stop them?" Maslovic asked. "I mean, you said they were mortal. If they're mortal…"

"We know what you are thinking, but you would not get the chance. We have been working the problem now for two billion years. It is not hopeless, but it has not yet been solved. Until then, we hide, and we move."

"Then at least let us return to try and prepare our people, even if you won't help in a defense," the sergeant almost pleaded.

"We are sorry, but no. You are in the Three Kings. You must remain. The passage is deliberately controlled. In a word, you know too much to be allowed to fall back into the hands of the coming enemy."

"But you just told us there was hope!" Randi protested.

Ann sighed. "Don't you get it, Doctor? They've all but come out and told us why the others hate them so much, will destroy the universe rather than let them be. It's the corrolary of the fact that they are like gods but can die. Get it now?"

"Well, I sure don't," Murphy grumped.

"Consider what happened to me, Captain," Ann prompted. "I was on Balshazzar, watching a horror through these very transceivers, unable to help and wanting desperately to do so. They allowed it. With pride, I thought Doc and I had figured it out and managed it on our own, but we'd never done anything like that before. Not loading consciousness into another body somewhere else, let alone him into my old one. We just thought we did. These people did it. Or, they understood what we desperately wanted, made a decision to help, and it was done. The result was that I not only changed my gender I also lost almost a century and a half in age. A century and a half, Captain. You understand it now?"

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! I'm an old con man, lass! I ain't no brain!"

"They're immortal," Randi said, almost too soft to hear. "These people simply grow something new and move in, probably automatically. The memories, the intellect, who knows what? It all keeps." She turned to the wall. "That's it, isn't it? They might have been able to stomach a limited rival in power, but the only thing worse than them being able to die is to discover that you don't!"

There was no immediate reply, and it allowed the stunned others to recover somewhat.

"I got an inkling right off, when they said that everything that Li was was still there," she went on. "I'm right, aren't I?"

"Yes," came the answer at last. "And it is a limited gift that can be shared. Those who help us and work with us can have it if they want it. Not everyone does."

"Sweet Jesus! Me three empty-headed darlin's can dance till Doomsday?" Murphy muttered.

"My people are still stuck on Balshazzar," Ann pointed out. "What good will they do you?"