human
Thank you, sir. Did you find the mining to be as I had said?
gpt
I found more than that. You know, don't you, that Y'Nor will return with the Occupation force a hundred days after leaving here?
human
Yes--I know that that is his intention.
gpt
I understand that you're going to try to build weapons while he's gone. Don't, if you think anything of your people, let them do it. Nothing you could build in a hundred days would last a minute against a cruiser's disintegrators.
human
I know, Brenn said.
gpt
We are supposed to choose between bloody, hopeless resistance and eternal slavery, aren't we? But why should either fate befall a peaceful race?
human
Why shouldn't it?
gpt
The laws of God have always been laws of justice and mercy. Not even the Vogarian State can change them.
human
You are skeptical and bitter, my son--but you will learn that a harmless old man can speak with wisdom.
gpt
No, he said.
human
There is neither justice nor mercy in the universe. I know from experience. A man can only choose between the lesser of two evils--and almost anything is less evil than Y'Nor when he's mad.