Heaven's Reach

PART FOUR. CANDIDATES OF TRANSCENDENCE

OUR UNIVERSE of linked starlanes — the Five Galaxies — consists of countless hierarchies. Some species are ancient, experienced in the ways of wisdom and power. Others have just begun trodding the paths of self-awareness. And there are innumerable levels in between.

THESE are not conditions in which nature would produce fairness. There would be no justice for the weak, unless some code moderated the raw impulses of pure might.

WITH this aim, we inherit from the Great Progenitors many traditions and regulations, formalizing the relationships between patrons and their clients, or between colonists and the nonsapient creatures that inhabit life-worlds. Sometimes these rules seem so complex and arbitrary that it taxes our patience. We lose sight of what it is all about. Recently, a savant of the Terran starfaring clan — (a dolphin) — suggested that the matter be viewed quite simply, in terms of respect for the food chain.

ANOTHER Earthling sage — (a human) — put it even more simply, expressing what he called the Meta Golden Rule.

“TREAT your inferiors as you would have your superiors treat you.”