Chapter 10: Pact
The historic Pact between the Stone-Coats, the United States Government as represented by Jerry, and the jants was quickly completed and agreed to. Jerry had apparently written a draft of it over the last few months in anticipation of reaching the agreement. It was written in plain English as a plain-text electronic format file that the Stone-Coats could access directly.
As Ed was quick to point out it was merely a framework of principles, not a detailed agreement for all specific activities, but everyone agreed that it would provide a sound philosophical-level foundation for a lasting Stone-Coat/human relationship.
Stone-Coats would for example mine minerals for humans, create machines, and repair and build structures for human use. In return humans would facilitate the spread of Stone-Coats to everywhere there was exposed rock and help supply carbon and other substances when requested. Basically the treaty between the Stone-Coats and the Tribe had been extended to the rest of humanity, as the humans were obligated to extend the agreement world-wide, starting with the United States.
The space exploration project was included explicitly in the Pact. Stone-Coats were to help build and use spaceships in cooperation with humans. Together they would colonize other worlds. To Ed it seemed farfetched, but maybe no more farfetched than the rest of the pact.
Jant provisions were hastily added into the agreement, as they were not a part of the original document developed by Jerry.
Jerry was very pleased with the outcome, but Ed and the other Tribe members had many concerns that they openly voiced. "I know that you are a very powerful man in our Federal Government, Jerry, but this Pact reads like it is a world-wide agreement between the entirety of the three species involved," noted Ed. "We don't know if Stone-Coats and jants have the authority to speak for themselves, but we know full well that we don't have the authority to speak for all of humanity. You can't even speak for the United States, Jerry; most Americans don't even know who you are."
"And they won't," said Jerry. "I will continue to control things from behind the scenes, but will see that this Pact holds to the extent of my powers."
"But the Pact defines a very extensive and necessarily public relationship," noted Running Bear. "I can envision hundreds of Stone-Coat Ice Giants in New York City, Chicago, and hundreds of other cities, battling scared pissed-off Americans that have guns and dynamite, and news outlets and politicians ready to sensationalize and twist to their own advantage everything that can go wrong. And make no mistake, things will go wrong. The things outlined by the Pact are huge and will probably take several human generations to implement."
"We have computed all of those difficulties and more," said Rocky. "Yet we also compute that having this Pact is probably significantly better than not having one."
"Stone-Coats will be endangered by unscrupulous humans when their existence becomes known," warned Running Bear. "Human thugs will realize that just a single small Stone-Coat like Rocky is composed of millions of dollars' worth of diamonds and other gems."
"But such gems will become dirt-cheap when the Stone-Coats give us tons of them," Ed noted. "Perhaps we should flood the market with them even before we go public with the Stone-Coats."
"We have computed the dangers that humans pose and concluded that humans do not pose an existential threat to us," said Rocky. "We are located throughout the world and imbedded in hundreds of mountains. Humans could do little to threaten our existence, but a small tribe of humans here at Giants' Rest Mountain annoyingly halted our spread for several thousand years. Now with their cooperation our spread has greatly accelerated. Cooperation with humans is preferred but not necessary. For humans, cooperation can be very valuable. The humans are adapting to jants. We conclude that their adaptation to Stone-Coats is also possible."
Ed wasn't convinced of that. A new type of ants in the backyard somehow seemed like a more natural thing to accept than sixty-foot tall nightmarish giants of rock that could crush a human like a bug.
"In sum our potential to further accelerate your spread is huge," noted Jerry. "And your potential to aid us is similarly huge. Our mutual cooperation can greatly aid our mutual survival. This enormous potential for our mutual benefit is what we should try to exploit."
"Agreed," said Rocky.
"And what about the jants?" asked Running Bear.
Ed relayed the jant thoughts aloud: "We generally have no interest in the affairs of Stone-Coats, but are intrigued by the concept of spreading ourselves to other planets. For now we want humans to acknowledge that they share this world with us and with other creatures. Their population reached nine billion and has now started to decline. We encourage this development. Humans consume too many resources. We will live cooperatively with humans and follow this Pact if humans continue to decline in numbers and further reduce their resource use."
"And if they don't?" asked Running Bear.
"They will," stated the jants through Ed. "We will help them live up to this Pact."
Ed wasn't sure that he liked that response. The jants seemed too sure of themselves and what humans would do. What did they mean when they said that they would help humans live up to the Pact?
"Both Stone-Coats and the Pact with them will need to become known to the human public," said Talking Owl. "That will also expose the Tribe and our role in all of this. We will likely be denounced by many to be traitors to humanity. Expect droves of reporters, diplomats, and other busy-bodies, as well as verbal, legal, and physical attacks from political and religious nut-cases. We could even be attacked by paramilitary or even military forces."
"I can provide Government protection," said Jerry.
"Or perhaps in the view of society and history we'll be immediate heroes," said Mary, "depending on how well this all turns out."
"We will need some damn good publicity, that's for damn sure," said Running Bear. "I think our Chief should work on that problem."
They all turned to stare at Ed. "Swell," he said.
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