Devall shrugged. "I didn't say that. But look at it from my position.
I'm leader of a cultural and military mission. Our purpose is to live
among these people, learn their ways, guide them as much as we can
in our limited time here. We at least _try_ to make a pretense of
respecting their rights as individuals and as a species, you know.
"Well, now it's squarely on the line. Are we friends living among them
and helping them, or are we overlords grinding them under our thumbs?"
"Sir, I'd say that was an over-simplification," Leonards remarked
hesitantly.
"Maybe so. But the issue's clear enough. If we turn them down, it means
we're setting up a gulf of superiority between Earth and these aliens,
despite the big show we made about being brothers. And word will spread
to other planets. We try to sound like friends, but our actions in
the celebrated Leonards case reveal our true colors. We're arrogant,
imperialistic, patronizing, and--well, do you see?"
"So you're going to turn me over to them for trial, then," the boy said
quietly.
Devall shook his head. He felt old, very old, at fifty. "I don't know.
I haven't made up my mind yet. If I turn you over, it'll certainly set
a dangerous precedent. And if I don't--I'm not sure what will happen."
He shrugged. "I'm going to refer the case back to Earth. It isn't my
decision to make."
* * * * *
But it _was_ his decision to make, he thought, as he left the boy's
quarters and headed stiff-legged toward the communications shack. He
was on the spot, and only he could judge the complex of factors that
controlled the case. Earth would almost certainly pass the buck back to
him.
He was grateful for one thing, though: at least Leonards hadn't made
an appeal to him on family grounds. That was cause for pride, and some
relief. The fact that the boy was his nephew was something he'd have to
blot rigorously from his mind until all this was over.
The signalman was busy in the back of the shack, bent over a crowded
worktable. Devall waited a moment, cleared his throat gently, and said,
"Mr. Rory?"