Kinder des Schicksals 4 (Xeelee 9): Resplendent

centuries, until Earth was freed.’
    ’A fascinating snippet of family history,’ Tahget said
contemptuously.
    Poole said, ’Just think about it, acolyte. These Hairy Folk have
been suspended between worlds for millennia. And that has shaped
them. They have lost much of what they don’t need - your
built-for-a-gravity-well body, your excessively large brain.’
    Futurity said, ’Given the situation, I don’t see how becoming less
intelligent would be an advantage.’
    ’Think, boy! You’re running a starship, not a home workshop.
You’re out there for ever. Everything is fixed, and the smallest
mistake could kill you. You can only maintain, not innovate.
Tinkering is one of your strongest taboos! You need absolute cultural
stasis, even over evolutionary time. And to get that you have to tap
into even more basic drivers. There’s only one force that could fix
hominids’ behaviour in such a way and for so long - and that’s
sex.’
    ’Sex?’
    ’Sex! Let me tell you a story. Once there was a kind of hominid -
a pre-human - called Homo erectus. They lived on old Earth, of
course. They had bodies like humans’, brains like apes’. I’ve always
imagined they were beautiful creatures. And they had a simple
technology. The cornerstone of it was a hand-axe: a teardrop-shape
with a fine edge, hacked out of stone or flint. You could use it to
shave your hair, butcher an animal, kill your rival; it was a good
tool.
    ’And the same design was used, with no significant modification,
for a million years. Think about it, acolyte! What an astonishing
stasis that is - why, the tool survived even across species
boundaries, even when one type of erectus replaced another. But do
you know what it was that imposed that stasis, over such an
astounding span of time?’
    ’Sex?’
    ’Exactly! Erectus used the technology, not just as a tool, but as
a way of impressing potential mates. Think about it: to find the raw
materials you have to show a knowledge of the environment; to make a
hand-axe you need to show hand-eye coordination and an ability for
abstract thought; to use it you need motor skills. If you can make a
hand-axe you’re showing you are a walking, talking expression of a
healthy set of genes.
    ’But there’s a downside. Once you have picked on the axe as your
way of impressing the opposite sex, the design has to freeze. This
isn’t a path to innovation! You can make your axes better than the
next guy - or bigger, or smaller even - but never different, because
you would run the risk of confusing the target of your charms. And
that is why the hand-axes didn’t change for a megayear - and that’s
why, I’ll wager, the technology of these spiky starships hasn’t
changed either for millennia.’
    Futurity started to see his point. ’You’re saying that the
Shipbuilders maintain their starships, as - as - ’
    ’As erectus once made his hand-axes. They do it, not for the
utility of the thing itself, but as a display of sexual status. It’s
no wonder I couldn’t figure out the function of that superstructure
of spines and scoops and nozzles. It has no utility! It has no
purpose but showing off for potential mates - but that sexual role
has served its purpose and frozen its design.’
    Futurity recalled hearing of another case like this - a generation
starship called the Mayflower, lost beyond the Galaxy, where the
selection pressures of a closed environment had overwhelmed the crew.
Evidently it hadn’t been an isolated instance.
    As usual Poole seemed delighted to have figured out something new.
’The Ask Politely is a starship, but it is also a peacock’s tail. How
strange it all is.’ He laughed. ’And it would appal a lot of my old
buddies that their dreams of interstellar domination would result in
this.’
    ’You’re very perceptive, Michael Poole,’ the Captain said with a
faint sneer.
    ’I always was,’ said Poole. ’And a fat lot of good it’s done
me.’
    Futurity turned to the Captain. ’Is this true?’
    Tahget shrugged. ’I wouldn’t have put it quite so coarsely as
Poole. We crew just get on with our jobs. Every so often you have to
let the Builders come to a gathering like this. They show off their
ships, their latest enhancements. Sometimes they fight. And they
throw those tubes between the ships, swarm across and screw their
heads off for a few days. When they’ve worn themselves out, you can
pass on your way.’
    Futurity asked, ’But why use these creatures and their