"That is correct."
"And you control Eakins and the others? You speak through Eakins' mouth?"
"Also correct. But that doesn't mean that the personalities of the others are obliterated. Quite the contrary, the Quedak state is a federation in which the various member parts retain their idiosyncrasies, their individual needs and desires. They give their knowledge, their power, their special outlook to the Quedak whole. The Quedak is the coordinating and command center; but the individual parts supply the knowledge, the insights, the special skills. And together we form the Great Cooperation."
"Cooperation?" Drake said. "But you did all this by force!"
"It was necessary in the beginning. Otherwise, how would other creatures have known about the Great Cooperation?"
"Would they stay if you released your control over them?" Drake asked.
"That is a meaningless question. We form a single indivisible entity now. Would your arm return to you if you cut it off?"
"It isn't the same thing."
"It is," Eakins' voice said. "We are a single organism. We are still growing. And we welcome you wholeheartedly into the Great Cooperation."
"To hell with that," Drake said.