“But what about E.C. Tally? A computer, even an embodied computer, can’t lie. He should have had more to say than anyone — his original body was torn to bits by the Zardalu.”

“Try and prove that, when you don’t have one tangible scrap of evidence that all the Zardalu didn’t become extinct eleven thousand years ago, and stay extinct. A computer can’t lie, true enough — but it can sure as hell be reprogrammed with a false set of memories.”

“Why would anyone want to do that?”

“That’s not the Council’s worry. And old E.C. didn’t help his case at all. Halfway through his testimony he started to lecture the Council about the inadequacies of the Fourth Alliance central data banks, and the nonsense that had been pumped into him from those banks about the other clades of the spiral arm before he was sent to the Phemus Circle. The Council data specialist interrupted E.C. to say that was ridiculous, her data banks contained nothing but accurate data. She insisted on doing a high-level correlation between E.C.’s brain and what’s in the central banks. That’s what convinced the Council that Tally’s brain had been tampered with. His memory bank shows that Cecropians believe themselves superior to humans and all other species, and that a Lo’tfian interpreter for a Cecropian can when necessary operate quite independently of his Cecropian dominatrix. It shows that Hymenopts are intelligent too — probably more intelligent than humans. It shows that there exist sentient Builder constructs, millions of years old but able to communicate with humans. It shows that instantaneous travel is possible, even without the use of the Bose Network.”

“But that’s true — we did it, when we traveled to Serenity. It’s all true. Every one of the statements you just made is accurate!”

“Not according to your great and wonderful Alliance Council.” Rebka’s voice was bitter. “According to them, Serenity doesn’t even exist, because it’s not in their data banks. The information there is holy writ, something you just don’t argue with, and what’s not there isn’t knowledge. It’s the same problem I’ve suffered all my life: somebody a hundred or a thousand light-years from the problem thinks they can have better facts than the workers on the spot. But they can’t, and they don’t.”