"You are becoming fat and lazy, Harka'aani. You sit here on a civilised planet, your girls go 'human' from time to time leaving you on your own and now you say we should do more--be more pro-active. You are almost completely inactive. What would you propose we do to change?"
"Raudu'aani, my friend. What are we doing? The aligned planets have become bureaucratic cankers, they are administrative black holes. The non-aligned planets are, mostly, drifting along satisfied with their lot as far as we know but we know very little in reality. There are still pirates out there who we let go because there is no political will to punish them, it is always 'someone else's jurisdiction'. We have become complacent, complacency breeds stagnation and stagnation is its own punishment. You say my girls are 'human' from time to time but yours are, what? Bored. Tullatta'aadu is not as sharp as she should be and Sangga'aadu is going witless through ennui while you do.... what? Travel around looking for something to do."
Raudu'aani shook his head not knowing how to respond. Harka'aani was right, he knew that. He spread his hands wide. "What do you suggest? Start a war or two?"
"Could do worse. It works on this planet." Harka'aani took another long swig of his hot tea and surveyed the scenery overlooking the Great Rift Valley. "We could do more exploration, see what else is out there. We could look in on the Non-Aligned Planets to see what they are doing. How long is it since we looked for any more of us that might be out there?"
"We've been through that a thousand times. No good will come of raking over burnt out embers. They are gone. We are all that remain."
The two Adepts sat quietly drinking their tea, their memories washing over them.
Raudu'aani's two girls watched them with growing curiosity. Sangga'aadu wanted something to stretch her considerable intellect while Tullatta'aadu just wanted to stretch her muscles and kill someone."
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