The Radiant War

Chapter 34

     In the end, it took very little time to hammer out an agreement. Since the Radiants didn't have a written language, anything like lawyers, or even laws, so far as they could tell, the agreement had to be simple enough to be contained in a handful of spoken sentences. The agreement that was finally worked out was this –

     1 - Radiants and Humans (The Hetin folk were classed as humans for the purposes of this treaty) shall do no harm to each other, with the cursing of an individual back to an earlier physical form being defined as harm.

     2 – Humans and Radiants shall refrain from entering each others territories, except for humans entering Radiant territory wishing to be adopted and except for ambassadors and their staff. Any human who enters Radiant territory wishing to be adopted does so at his own risk, and shall be considered to be committing suicide by the human authorities.

     3- Radiants will only adopt humans who enter their territories wishing to be adopted.

     4 – Any Radiant who has to pass across human territory in order to pass from one Radiant territory to another will do so at an altitude of at least a thousand feet above ground.

     5 – Radiants will ensure that there will always be good weather in human territories.

     6 – Radiants will not initiate any earthquakes whose epicentres are in human territories, or cause any volcano in human territories to erupt prematurely. It is understood that earthquakes and volcanic eruptions will happen from time to time, and humans will not blame Radiants for naturally occurring disasters.

     7 – Humans will not activate any piece of equipment that emits radio waves within a hundred miles of a Radiant city.

     8 – Humans and Radiants will establish embassies in each other’s territories, in order to settle any disputes not covered by the above agreements. The ambassadors will communicate with their governments by means of telegraph cables. Radiant embassies in human lands will be staffed by adoptees rather than by Radiants, and the adoptees will be subject to the same laws as the citizens of the countries in which they are based.

     9 – The Hetin folk acknowledge that all life forms raised from globs are lawful residents of the planet, and renounce all claims to sole ownership of the planet.

     Pettiwell looked down at the single sheet of paper in his hand, on which a copy of the agreement was written. “My government expects these talks to go on for at least six months,” he said to Richard Daerden, the man sitting at the next desk, “and they'll be expecting something that fills a thick book. The Emperor will have a fit when he sees this!”

     “It's possible that the Radiants and I have something in common after all,” the other diplomat replied. “When I see a long shelf full of law books, each one full of long winded verbage, the party of the first part and so forth, all I see are a lot of loop holes that a clever lawyer can drive a horse and carriage through. Long winded laws, to me, are just a form of deception perpetrated by lawyers on ordinary, decent folk. They can use them to control everyone else, but can always find a loophole to let themselves do whatever they want. Maybe the Radiants think the same way. I mean, look at rule number four. Radiants will ensure that there is always good weather in the human territories. It's simple, It’s obvious. There's no room for misunderstanding.”

     “Of course there is. Who decides what ‘good weather’ is? And good for who? Humans or Radiants?”

    “Humans, of course,” Daerden replied. “That's obvious from the context. And by good weather, it means good farming weather, for good harvests. It doesn’t need to be spelled out. It’s obvious.”