Chapter 26

Exceptions to Euclid's 23rd definition

Gi entered the house followed by Eric, who only saw the questioning look on Gaia's face, but not the worry on Gi's.

"Go fetch Rodrigo," said Gaia. "You'd better take off soon."

"Any last thing I should know?"

"About what?" asked Gaia.

"Well, sometimes it's the stupid deed that saves your neck, but it's not the first one you should try."

"I don't follow."

"Neither Rodrigo nor I have had anything resembling decent battle training. Some lessons would be nice. Frak, even a bulletproof vest will do."

"I'm not sending you to fight. This is strictly a mission of exploration."

"Great, but the enemy doesn't know that. Plus we'll be flying over seriously dirty water, which means I'll be at an abysmal disadvantage if anything goes wrong. Do you have a Magical Ring of Myocardial Infarction somewhere?"

Gi almost wanted to say they'd be carrying a spare ring of Fire, but reminded herself this was the guy who had suggested to combine his and Rodrigo's powers to provide Hope Island with air conditioning. "If you keep the stupid deeds to a reasonable minimum, there shouldn't be any surprises," she said instead. He looked at her like she was a murder suspect and went inside to look for Rodrigo. When he was out of earshot, Gi said to Gaia, "He's not the only one who thinks this is too dangerous for the two of them. He has already passed every test you may want to impose on him."

"This was not a test for Eric, but for Ahimsa."

"How?"

"Just after I gave him this assignment, I sent Ahimsa a vision of how dire things are off the Australian coast. Compared to his initial enthusiasm, now Eric is scared of going there. I'm sure she has already contacted him."

"Now that you mention it, I think I saw him in a trance after I finished talking to Kwame."

"That must have been her warning him. Now we know she's on our side."

"Why don't you bring her here?"

"She already has her own agenda. From all possible ecovillains, she has picked our old enemies, which means she's acting on information provided by either Lakshmi or Ma-Ti. She may be more helpful if we let her gain some experience on her own."

"Her agenda may not coincide with yours."

"She has already made a move toward helping Eric. Eventually, they'll converge."

"Are you seriously planning to send Eric to a site of severe water contamination? The ring will be useless."

Gaia noticed how Gi explicitly avoided calling it his ring, but let it pass. "He'll be with Rodrigo."

"That's what worries me. Eric has already started to notice how Rodrigo can get more things done. As long as Rodrigo has the ring of Fire and Eric doesn't know about it, he may get the idea that Rodrigo is simply more talented. They need to find someone to give that ring to before Eric gets so demoralized that he puts the team in danger."

"I wouldn't worry about any damage to Eric's pride."

"His pride is the entire reason to worry."

Gaia gave that point a moment of thought, then asked, "How did it go with Kwame?"

"He sounded relieved to hear my voice, but he still doesn't feel able to come here."

"Why? He surely knows we all understand Wheeler's death was not his fault at all."

"Well, you know how he expects more from himself than from anybody else."

"Yes, I noticed that in the old days. The Planeteers were never meant to have an actual leader, but the way he held himself to a stricter standard brought you all to follow him implicitly. It didn't matter to him that he was taking more pressure than he needed."

"Is this new team intended to work that way too?"

"We'll have to see how things sort out as they meet the rest of the members. Eric has great ideas, but a team also needs a more grounded perspective. Did you tell Kwame about the new team?"

"Yes, and that brings another problem. He lost his ring."

"What?"

"When he regained his senses after being under Dr. Blight's control, he threw the ring away, disgusted with himself. He doesn't know where it is now."

Eric's head appeared from behind the door to Rodrigo's room.

"We're going out. Now."

"Yes, sir," replied Rodrigo with a mocking salute.

"What's that?"

"My manners, sir."

"Don't do that. We're not an army."

"Oh. What changed your mind so suddenly?"

"If I have understood Gaia correctly, the ideal Planeteer is a multiclass Druid/Paladin/Apostle of Peace, with a mandatory Vow of Nonviolence and a Mark of Justice spell to enforce it."

"And in English?"

"Now I understand why MAL was allowed to live every time."

"You don't look satisfied with the discovery."

Eric went closer and whispered, "I already knew that Gaia got lots of things about humanity wrong, but what alarms me now is that she has no idea how war works at all. And it figures: war is a human invention. But her complete lack of malice will be the end of us."

"Do you think you can do anything about that? She runs this business."

"But she doesn't operate it. When she sees that more sensible methods give better results, she'll come to accept that we need to get more aggressive. Eventually, she'll agree with me."

"Wait a second. In Sint Maarten you said we had to treat Gaia's gifts with respect."

"I still believe that, but we're being threatened by an artificial entity, not a chipmunk."

"So your point is that the different nature of the enemy justifies a complete redefinition of the Planeteers."

"As long as it gets the job done."

Rodrigo shook his head. "We don't get to define when the job's done. What if Gaia doesn't want to kill MAL? What if killing the Planeteers' enemies has never been the mission?"

"Then why doesn't she tell us what she wants us to do? Why doesn't she show us the alternative? No, mate: ending MAL is the mission, even if Gaia hasn't realized it. Whatever her hidden purpose is, ending MAL will certainly help achieve it. Therefore, our goals converge."

"And you're planning to do the same with every new enemy we find?"

"Not every new enemy will be a mad, overpowered computer. For the ordinary ones we may actually need the Magical Ring of Myocardial Infarction. We'll worry about that when the situation arises."

"You're evading the question. You don't want to have to think of what will happen if you face a human enemy after you've gotten too comfortable with the aggressive approach."

Eric stared at him, and finally admitted, "In an ideal scenario, negotiation would be highly preferable. And in the most extreme case, you can always delete a computer and give it a new set of preferences. But you can't do that with people. You can't get inside their heads and influence their personalities at will."

Except you can, he suddenly realized. Whoever talked to me today has that power. And is on our side, fortunately. Whoever that was, we share the same enemies.

Eventually, we will meet.

And anyone who threatens this world shall become dust.

"Gaia, it has been an honor to be a guest at your house."

"From now on, it's your house too, Eric."

"Thank you. If it can only boast an unlimited scrying mirror, it's still an impressive base of operations." The boys took turns hugging Gi and Gaia, and Eric went on, "It ought to make all the difference in the world whether you decided to save Gi before or after I got mad at you, but in either scenario, you came a step closer to actually understanding humanity. So I'm happy with whichever of the two is true."

"Why is it so important to you that I understand humanity?"

"Well, the dinosaurs didn't have Planeteers. Wow. Note to self: steal that idea. Anyway, the Planeteers are your response to what humans have done with your world. But still, you chose humans for the job. You may think you did it to teach us something, but in the process, you're also learning from us."

"You think I need to learn from humans?"

"I still don't know whether you think humans are the best or the worst thing that has happened to this planet. I hope to convince you we're not your enemy."

"I have never thought that."

"But you haven't made your existence known to more humans. Their demands combined may prove an irritating burden on your generosity."

"What's the point you're trying to reach at, Eric?"

"We can come up with solutions you've never imagined. Please allow that to happen."

"For the moment, I can only promise to consider it."

"Thanks. Eventually, all our differences may end up being meaningless."

A few minutes later, aboard the Geocruiser:

"What was that speech about?"

Eric chuckled and savored the look of cluelessness on Rodrigo's face. "How would you prefer people learned that greenhouse gases are bad: by showing them the scientific facts and all the expert predictions, or by letting the poles melt and destroy hundreds of cities?"

"I would naturally choose the method that involved the least number of deaths."

"And how would you prefer people learned to respect wild creatures: with political controls and law enforcement, or with the broken ecosystems ruining our entire way of life?"

"The painless way, please."

"Good. That's what that speech was about: I trust the human way of doing things."

"Which is?"

"Never leaving them to Gaia."