"I guess I am," he agrees, his smile slightly apologetic. His tone, though, is mild and his expression easygoing, with a moment's pause before he gives a faint nod and a momentary lift of the eyebrows. "It's just a strange attitude to me that because one group did something no genetic enhancements are allowed."
He shakes his head.
"The war the Nietzscheans launched against the Commonwealth destroyed civilization as I knew it. Left the Known Worlds in chaos and darkness for three hundred years. Killed ..." His voice trails off, and his head shakes, again, sadly. "I don't think anyone knows how many people the war killed, or the occupation of planets that came after it."
Of course, he'd played his part in the casualties of that war. A hundred thousand Nietzschean lives is a hard thing to bear on his conscience, even knowing why he'd done it and how many lives he might have saved from oppression at their hands by preserving history's account of Witchhead.
"There are people who hold that against them," he admits, quietly, because there have been times when he was one of those people. Times when anger at Rhade's betrayal and the then too-fresh, too-close pain of losing his entire world had made him want to wipe out entire Prides. But that's not him. Not at heart. It was only ever a darkness born of anger and hurt.
He knows better. Especially after Witchhead.
"But the idea of holding that against anyone genetically engineered is ridiculous to me. Even against all Nietzscheans. I've got allies, a crew member, even, who are Nietzschean. And I'd like to think your world could take the same attitude."
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He shakes his head.
"The war the Nietzscheans launched against the Commonwealth destroyed civilization as I knew it. Left the Known Worlds in chaos and darkness for three hundred years. Killed ..." His voice trails off, and his head shakes, again, sadly. "I don't think anyone knows how many people the war killed, or the occupation of planets that came after it."
Of course, he'd played his part in the casualties of that war. A hundred thousand Nietzschean lives is a hard thing to bear on his conscience, even knowing why he'd done it and how many lives he might have saved from oppression at their hands by preserving history's account of Witchhead.
"There are people who hold that against them," he admits, quietly, because there have been times when he was one of those people. Times when anger at Rhade's betrayal and the then too-fresh, too-close pain of losing his entire world had made him want to wipe out entire Prides. But that's not him. Not at heart. It was only ever a darkness born of anger and hurt.
He knows better. Especially after Witchhead.
"But the idea of holding that against anyone genetically engineered is ridiculous to me. Even against all Nietzscheans. I've got allies, a crew member, even, who are Nietzschean. And I'd like to think your world could take the same attitude."