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race can do everything,” Davis reminded them. “But we do need a glue to hold the others together, more than just our philosophy and technology. I’d wager hardly anyone knows all the different races we have in the empire, including those in this room. I do, and we keep adding more every decade as we discover them. Human is a race they all know. Humans are the psychological glue for the identity of the empire, and where you see a Human you see Star Force. But Humans are not the best genetic template we have. The Knight races are. And we hardly see any problems with them. Their slackers make the average Human look lazy, and it’s not because the individuals inside are better. It’s because their default programming is better.”

“Limiting reproduction is wise,” Wilson said, “but eliminating it is folly. We could be throwing away advantages that will occur down the road in some of the weaker races as they advance. We need quadrupeds for a lot of things, and avians, and aquatics, etc. But while they can help each other as a team to cover each other’s weaknesses, the empire needs a spine to which everything else can attach. A spine that may not be the best in everything, but a spine that has no weaknesses to exploit. A spine of steal that will support the specialists in the empire and let their best attributes shine. If we split up by races, as we have on many planets, we can be blindsided. The Zen’zat were small, but could they ever be blindsided? We need a central race, one who is dependable and resilient, and right now we do not have one.”

“We need a ubiquitous one,” Jason said, then raised a finger as his eyes began to roll. “Talk to you later.”

He slumped back in his chair intentionally so his head was supported, then he too passed out, unable to stave off the next upgrade any longer.

“Ubiquitous is the right word,” Wilson said, looking at Davis. “And if we do expand to other galaxies at some point, we need a control rod.”

“Way ahead of you on that problem,” the Director said, also leaning back in his chair, but only to get in a more relaxed position, for along with Kara and Cal-com, he was not at risk of blacking out. “Training is only so good by remote. Some things you need to interact with others to learn, and if we expand too far we could end up with the telephone distortion of what the lightside actually is, and we cannot allow that.”

“Telephone?” Paul asked.

“Old game, before your time. Tell one person a word only once, then they tell the next and it continues on down the line. By the end the word that is spoken is usually not the word that began it, because of mishearings down the chain of succession. We’ve prevented most of that with the use of recordings and standards, but we cannot let Star Force be watered down into a symbol with no substance, and every new race and planet we annex that is exactly what happens. We manage because there are other planets firmly Star Force, and by osmosis the new ones learn over time what cannot be learned through their indoctrination training. Human is what Star Force is, and other races have assimilated to. But what if we have a galaxy with no Humans in it, and the new races have to pattern off the Bsidd or Calavari?”

“It gets watered down,” Paul said, seeing the problem. “Maturias should fix most of that, but if you’re integrating them into an existing population there’s going to be a melt factor involved.”

“Not just that,” Davis corrected, “but each race has its own proclivities. Will avians go into the water to save aquatics? Can aquatics take to the air to help avians? Will races that have little empathy really embrace the lightside, or will the overly aggressive ones pull back enough to not squash all the lessers in their path? Humans are the control rod, and as you know, our Human population is rather pathetic despite all the improvements made over time. From them we pull individuals that become the spine of the empire, but if we’re going to have a large enough spine to support far larger expansions, we need to skew the odds in our favor more than you realize.”

“If it works the way you hope,” Morgan cautioned.

“If I’m disappointed what is the downside? Do we have an Elf problem?”

“Not since you stopped their reproduction too.”

“And those that are still alive we helped teach them to be more individualistic. We betrayed no one.”

“But we’re still responsible for the Elves being Elves,” Morgan argued. “It was our mistake.”

“Do you want to randomly take what the universe throws at us? Or do you want to try and do better than that?”

“It’s not our fault if we don’t mess it up.”

“That doesn’t help the people in those messed up avatars,” Davis lectured. “They’re still stuck, and while I used to share your caution, I’m sick of the universe screwing people over in its massive version of the Hunger Games. I’ve been trying to fight the game itself, and these new upgrades…if they are derived from the customizations you have all done to your own bodies…should be better than anything the universe will provide. We’re not going darkside on this, so what are you concerned about?”

“We don’t have an instruction manual,” she answered pithily.

Paul looked at her with an ironic eyebrow raise.

“Yes, yes I know,” Morgan deflected. “We don’t use them anyway. I’m just used to the universe causing the damage and us helping to improve people’s lives. I don’t like the idea that we might be the one causing the damage to helpless newbs.”

“We’re not talking about altering the genetics,” Paul reminded her. “Just regular reproduction minus