place. But don't worry about it; as I told
Colonel Cortin, we aren't monsters, and we don't force ourselves on
anyone. If she does decide the Systems should join the Empire, we'll
offer but not impose education about us and our science. Also whatever
you need to bring yourselves to our level."

"Like you offered to teach me?"

"Exactly. Ready to get started?"

"Definitely." Odeon allowed himself a brief smile as he stood. "Let's
go see one of these 'teaching tapes' you mentioned. Are they anything
like a book?"

"Nothing at all. They aren't really tapes, either; they just got
called that, back when they were invented, and the name stuck. Let's
go to my cabin, and I'll introduce you to them. Admiral Columbus,
please have a reader and basic-language tape waiting in my fabricator."

"Yes, Captain."

"Fabricator?" Odeon asked as they left Sickbay, going deeper into the
ship.

"Yes. Do you know anything about molecular physics?"

"No." Odeon sighed. "I'm really in over my head, aren't I?"

DeLayne chuckled. "Not really; that's one of my degrees, is all, and I
enjoy discussing it when I get the chance. Most people haven't the
faintest idea how fabricators work; they just use them. We don't
manufacture small items any more; once a prototype's developed, the
pattern is scanned and recorded. When you want one of that item, you
code it into your fabricator, and the fabricator constructs it, with
any modifications you specify in the coding, from reconstituted raw
materials. When you're done with it, you feed it back into the
fabricator's raw material storage for re-use."

Odeon whistled. "That's incredible. Things like your uniform?"

"Among others, yes."

"And I thought the plague and Families were causing a major social
upheaval. What you're going to do to us . . . Maybe Colonel Cortin's
right to be afraid of you after all, though not for the reason she
thinks."

"I can't deny there'll be stress," DeLayne said soberly. "You won't
have to join, and you won't have to accept anything from us that you
don't want--but just making open contact will cause changes, yes. It's
a good thing for your Systems that Colonel Cortin was able to get
Ranger Medart, too. Any Ranger would be good, but he's the Empire's
best at anything involving cultural differences--which we don't try to
destroy, as you probably already know. To quote a twentieth-century
writer by the name of O'Sullivan, our aim is to 'pr