Arms akimbo, Linder faced the alien unflinchingly. "Space voyagers don't worry about their personal safety. I demand," his voice rose to a shout that reverberated unpleasantly through the soaring vault, "I demand we get the respect, the total attention, due to a delegation from Glia. We are not here in search of violence and you know it. Glia missions have always been peaceful and to help our fellows. But there is such a thing as carrying matters too far and you Nodarians are threatening to do it with your disrespect for what we represent!"
They were receiving many more glances, all filled with distaste, from members of the audience. But the glances remained brief and Barnes shouted in an equally stentorian voice, "We demand your attention! Contact must be resumed!"
Now some shouts echoed back at them. "You're boring us!" "Stop your yawnmaking!" "Nothing worse than an inferior level of intelligence!"
Jackson, never taking his hypnotic gaze from his guests, gracefully waved his hands and the Nodarians fell silent. Many of them returned to their former activities but about fifteen formed a circle about the visitors. "We are agreed?" the greeter said to his compatriots. They all nodded.
"Good." He turned to Linder and Barnes. "As I said before to you, you're really not ready yet for what we are hoping to tell you and we have our own work to continue, work that will never menace anyone. Some day, in fact, gratitude will ring from one end of the Galaxy to the other."
"But I don't see," Stern wondered aloud, "why you have to withdraw from contact with all the other planets if your plans are so innocuous."
"At this point," Jackson smiled, "it doesn't matter one way or the other so we have not bothered. Our isolation did minimize the danger of interference. We are not afraid of contact—we just don't need it now."
"Isn't that a rather selfish attitude?"
"Not at all. We're working to something which will, as I said, widen the scope of everyone everywhere. We don't threaten you and you cannot threaten us."
"Keep out of this, Stern." The Commander moved closer to the other man. "As for you, Jackson, I view this ingathering of your friends as a kind of threat."