"It's - I'm seeing into a different high-tech planet, one that isn't dath ilan - definite magitech, not just tech - wide variety of aliens, I wish I had some way of showing them to you -"

And then Keltham runs out of ability to speak.  There's an almost painful wrenching at his heart, a sudden manifestation of the reverence and faith that a dath ilani feels when watching a personnel launch to the Moon base, but stronger than Keltham has ever felt it, this is the dream, what Civilization wants to be when it grows up, only something beyond that, something that only appears in science fiction movies, because dath ilan knows with high probability that they won't run into any aliens for another half to two billion years.  But if that wasn't true, if somehow it wasn't true and the explanation for why the aliens hadn't already appeared, wasn't anything bad, if somehow the aliens weren't already as unimaginably advanced as dath ilan will be in another hundred million years, then this would be the place, the dream, the symbol that can't exist, of dozens of species existing together in peace.

And - commerce.

He doesn't know how he knows, that the flying gondolae were bought and not just given away, but he knows it.  It's not because they couldn't make enough to give away, but because people doing things to benefit one another and be benefited in return is something holy in its right, to them.

"It's - I'm seeing into a different high-tech planet, one that isn't dath ilan - definite magitech, not just tech - wide variety of aliens, I wish I had some way of showing them to you -"

And then Keltham runs out of ability to speak.  There's an almost painful wrenching at his heart, a sudden manifestation of the reverence and faith that a dath ilani feels when watching a personnel launch to the Moon base, but stronger than Keltham has ever felt it, this is the dream, what Civilization wants to be when it grows up, only something beyond that, something that only appears in science fiction movies, because dath ilan knows with high probability that they won't run into any aliens for another half to two billion years.  But if that wasn't true, if somehow it wasn't true and the explanation for why the aliens hadn't already appeared, wasn't anything bad, if somehow the aliens weren't already as unimaginably advanced as dath ilan will be in another hundred million years, then this would be the place, the dream, the symbol that can't exist, of dozens of species existing together in peace.

And - commerce.

He doesn't know how he knows, that the flying gondolae were bought and not just given away, but he knows it.  It's not because they couldn't make enough to give away, but because people doing things to benefit one another and be benefited in return is something holy in its right, to them.

It lasts a very long, very short time, and then it ends.

"It's - I'm seeing into a different high-tech planet, one that isn't dath ilan - definite magitech, not just tech - wide variety of aliens, I wish I had some way of showing them to you -"

And then Keltham runs out of ability to speak.  There's an almost painful wrenching at his heart, a sudden manifestation of the reverence and faith that a dath ilani feels when watching a personnel launch to the Moon base, but stronger than Keltham has ever felt it, this is the dream, what Civilization wants to be when it grows up, only something beyond that, something that only appears in science fiction movies, because dath ilan knows with high probability that they won't run into any aliens for another half to two billion years.  But if that wasn't true, if somehow it wasn't true and the explanation for why the aliens hadn't already appeared, wasn't anything bad, if somehow the aliens weren't already as unimaginably advanced as dath ilan will be in another hundred million years, but only equals, then this would be that place, the dream, a symbol that can't exist, of dozens of species existing together in peace.

And - commerce.

He doesn't know how he knows, that the flying gondolae were bought and not just given away, but he knows it.  It's not because they couldn't make enough to give away, but because people doing things to benefit one another and be benefited in return is something holy in its right, to them.

It lasts a very long, very short time, and then it ends.

"It's - I'm seeing into a different high-tech planet, one that isn't dath ilan - definite magitech, not just tech - wide variety of aliens, I wish I had some way of showing them to you -"

And then Keltham runs out of ability to speak.  There's an almost painful wrenching at his heart, a sudden manifestation of the reverence and faith that a dath ilani feels when watching a personnel launch to the Moon base, but stronger than Keltham has ever felt it, this is the dream, what Civilization wants to be when it grows up, only something beyond that, something that only appears in science fiction movies, because dath ilan knows with high probability that they won't run into any aliens for another half to two billion years.  But if that wasn't true, if somehow it wasn't true and the explanation for why the aliens hadn't already appeared, wasn't anything bad, if somehow the aliens weren't already as unimaginably advanced as dath ilan will be in another hundred million years, but only equals, then this would be that place, the dream, a symbol that can't exist, of dozens of species existing together in peace.

And - commerce.

He doesn't know how he knows, that the flying gondolae were bought and not just given away, but he knows it.  It's not because they couldn't make enough to give away, but because people doing things to benefit one another and be benefited in return is something holy in itself, to them.

It lasts a very long, very short time, and then it ends.