“Welcome,” the man said as they reached him. He had the glowing skin of an adoptee, but his hair was greying and he stood with a slight stoop as if he had a pain in his lower back. “Brigadier. It's good to see you again.”

     “Daniel,” replied the Brigadier. “They've still got you doing the reception duty, then?”

     “It's been my duty for the past hundred years, and probably for the next hundred as well. One of the benefits of being an adoptee is that the ageing process slows considerably. If my adoption were to be cancelled, it would be at least that long before I went back into the ground.”

     “You know this man, Brigadier?” asked Pettiwell.

     “It's all in my report, which I presume you've read,” replied the Brigadier. “This is where I first learned the truth about the Radiants.” He turned back to Daniel. “Are you going to be our interpreter?”

     “I would be happy to perform the role, if I'm acceptable to you.”

     “One person is as good as another. I assume that that creature is the one we will actually be conversing with.” He looked up, at where a Radiant had left the city and was approaching them, low enough that the tips of its tentacles were almost touching the ground.

     “That is correct.”

     “I assume he has a position of authority in Radiant society?”

     “They don't have leaders the way humans do. Among Radiants, tasks are allotted to the individual best able to perform them. That Radiant has taken an interest in human culture and history, and so was judged by the others to be best suited to deal with you.”

     “And will the others abide by whatever agreement he reaches with us?”

     “They will. Every Radiant in the city will be listening in, by means of their telepathy. In a sense, you will be negotiating with the entire city.”

     “And what about the other cities? Do they have a single government, or does every city rule itself?”

     Daniel had to think for a moment before answering. “They're not like humans,” he said at last. “They don't compete against each other. All Radiants do what is best for the entire Radiant race, even if it means sacrificing their own lives. If one city thinks it’s in their best interests to come to an agreement with you, then all the others will as well.”

     “Then I suppose that will have to do,” said the Brigadier. “Where would you like the meeting to take place?”

     “There is only one place where humans and Radiants can meet ‘face to face’, as it were. The Museum of the Hetin Folk.”

     The Brigadier nodded. He'd been about to suggest that very place. He looked around and saw the building about half a mile away, across the cultivated farmland that surrounded the city. “Lead on,” he said, therefore, and Daniel nodded, turning to lead the way.

☆☆☆

     Shanks stared around the interior of the building; a nobleman’s mansion raised a hundred feet above the ground with open ceilings and floors to allow Radiants to float within it with their eyes level with the exhibits.

     “My people created all this?” he asked with something like religious awe. He picked up a piece of equipment whose back had been removed to reveal a dusty clutter of tiny components linked with rubber-coated wires. He had no idea what it was, but it was clearly the product of a manufacturing process far more advanced than anything possessed by humans today. The surfaces and shelves were crowded with similar artefacts, many of them bizarre beyond comprehension but all indicative of a culture and civilisation that had risen to heights that nobody today could even imagine.

     “This is what they stole from us!” he snarled, glaring at the Radiant that was lowering itself in through the hole in the ceiling. “They say we walked on the moon! Who knows what we might have accomplished if they hadn't... Hadn't done what they did!”

     “The Radiant says that your civilisation was doomed to destroy itself,” said Daniel. “They were consuming non renewable resources at an ever increasing rate. Polluting the planet with the waste products of their industries. Building ever more powerful weapons; weapons of such violence that all life in the world was threatened. Either by war or social collapse, their civilisation would certainly have ended by now.”

     “They don't know that! They're lying to justify their crimes!”

     “It says they have no reason to lie. It also says that you should be grateful for their intervention, that you are only alive because of it.”

     “It says what?” His hand flew to the pistol at his belt, but the Brigadier’s hand lashed out to grasp his wrist and hold it tight. “We're only here to talk,” he said in a soft voice. “Just talk.”

     “The Radiants estimate that there are several thousand Hetin folk still living among normal humans,” Daniel continued. “If they had not intervened, though, the Hetin folk would undoubtedly be completely extinct by now. You owe your continued existence to their...”

     “That's a lie!”

     “Mister Shanks,” said the Brigadier, “I have warned you before. If you cannot control yourself, I shall have to ask you to leave.”

     “You don't know what it’s like! To see all this...” He waved his hand around at the artefacts surrounding them. “To see all this evidence of what we once were...”

     “It was clearly a mistake to come here,” said Daniel. “If we'd had more advance warning, another venue could have been found...”

     “No, this will be fine,” said the Brigadier. “Mister Shanks, although his anger is quite justified and understandable, will hold himself in restraint. Isn't that right, Mister Shanks?”

     He gave the scientist a warning glare until the other man nodded reluctantly. He took his hand away from his pistol, but continued to glare at the Radiant as if he could kill it by willpower alone. The Brigadier looked around at the assembled diplomats, who had all seated themselves in the chairs provided and were arranging papers on the desks in front of them; desks of all different sizes and designs as if their hosts had had to search around at short notice for any item of furniture that might serve the function.

     Another adoptee, a young woman with long hair tied back in a ponytail, was moving from desk to desk, placing a pitcher of water and a small glass on each one. “Food will be served at around midday,” she said with a bright smile, but the Brigadier frowned. Did they think their fury would be averted with a few sandwiches and glasses of wine? He was relieved to see similar frowns on the faces of the diplomats, though. These are all professional negotiators, he reminded himself. They know their jobs. I must trust them to do it.

     Since the only negotiating any of the delegates had ever done had been with other humans, they decided to proceed as if the Radiants were merely another human nation. The diplomats took turns to introduce themselves, therefore, naming themselves and the country they represented, and then they waited for the Radiant to do the same. After a few moments had gone by without the creature replying, though, the Brigadier, who had decided to play the part of neutral invigilator, cleared his throat softly. “Traditionally, this is where your master introduces himself,” he said to Daniel.

     “Radiants don't have names, as such,” the adoptee replied, though. “They have...” He paused as he searched for the right words. “Mental labels. Like, if you were so see someone you recognised but whose name you didn’t know, you might think of him as ‘The tall man with the pimple on his nose who seemed nice because he made way for me at the bar in the tavern’, except that Radiant names are much longer and can encompass hundreds of years of shared experiences. I suppose that the closest he could come to having a name would be to call him Alpha, which means that he is the one who knows the most about human civilisation and so has been chosen to take the lead in this endeavour. He is only Alpha for these negotiations, though. Tomorrow, they might be debating the new grazing lands for a herd of cattle and another Radiant would be Alpha because he knows the most on that subject.”

     “What name did he have when he was human?” asked Richard Daerden, the Helberian delegate.

     “Radiants have no memory of having been human,” replied Daniel. “Any more than you have any memories of being the animal you were raised from.”

     “Doesn’t that bother you? I mean, being adopted must be like dying, then. Everything you are now being lost as if it never were. That's a horrific concept!”

     “Not at all, because we become something far greater, and it will still be me, even though I have no memories of what came before. There are unfortunate people who lose their memories as a result of a head injury. Do you consider them to no longer be people?”

     “Of course not, but no-one would choose to lose their memories.”

     “Let's not get sidetracked, please,’ said the Brigadier. He turned back to Daniel. “Alpha it is, then. Is there anything else your client would like to say before we get started?”

     “I'd like to ask something, if I may,” interrupted Richard Daerden, though, anger visibly rising within him. “I would like to know whether this Alpha took part in the attack on Marboll.”

     “We cannot get into that,” said the Brigadier, though. “We are here to make peace, not continue the war. The only way we will make progress here is if we draw a line under all that has gone before and look forward, to the future. We have to forgive the attacks they have made upon us in order to make a new beginning.”

     “They destroyed our whole civilisation!” said Shanks, half rising from his chair. “Killed millions! That's a lot to forgive!”

     “Nevertheless we have to try, if there is to be a future for any of us.”

     “Before we go any further,” said Daniel, “Alpha wishes me to say something to you. You came here thinking that you hold all the cards, to use a human analogy, and that you have us as your mercy, but the Radiants have a weapon they have not used yet. A weapon they would rather not use, as it would impact their civilisation almost as hard as it would yours. They will use it, though, if the terms you try to impose on them are deemed unacceptable.”

     “What is the nature of this weapon?” asked Pettiwell.

     “You know that the Radiants can cause volcanoes to erupt.”

     “Yes, but there are very few volcanoes in human lands, and none close to major cities. We have no reason to fear Radiant volcanoes.”

     “That is not true. There are few volcanoes there today, but that was not always the case. Long, long ago, the lands in which humans live now were the site of the most extensive volcanic activity this planet has ever known. Millions of cubic miles of molten rock were erupted..."

     “Preposterous!” exclaimed Pettiwell.

     “Not at all. We have scholarly books written by the Hetin folk that testify to this fact, and you can see the evidence for yourselves. Almost everywhere in human lands, if you dig down deep enough, you will find basalt and other volcanic rocks, in places a mile thick. Your own cities are built from basalt. The Hetin books say that almost all life was extinguished from this planet during this time. The fires responsible for this extreme natural disaster have long since grown cold, of course, but they can be rekindled and they will be if we fail to come to an understanding here today.”

     The delegates stared aghast at the Radiant, floating, seemingly serene, in the centre of the room. “As you say,” said Pettiwell, “that would have as great an impact upon them as upon us.”

     “Not as great,” replied the adoptee. “You humans are to be found only on this continent, but there are Radiants all across the world, on every continent. They will simply relocate to other continents, where the impact of the eruptions will be less, for the duration, taking some humans with them with which to reseed your race afterwards. A far smaller population, under strict control. Denied any form of technology whatsoever. The impact upon the Radiants would still be massive, of course, but the end result, centuries from now, would be far more favourable to them. There are those among them who suggest that they should do this anyway, no matter what the outcome of these talks.”

     “He's bluffing!” exclaimed one of the delegates. The one from Erestin, the Brigadier thought. It annoyed him that he didn't know for sure.

     “No, I don’t think he is,” said Pettiwell, though. “We know that they can control volcanoes. Given enough time, and the right incentive, we have to assume that they really can do what they claim. Very well, then. We have to come to an agreement that is agreeable to all of us. Human and Radiant alike. Are we agreed?” Heads nodded reluctantly around the table. “Then let’s get on with it.”