"Clever," Idaho whispered.
A gentle tapping on his door was followed by a female voice saying: "Commander? Moneo is here."
Idaho glanced out at the sunburnt colors on the distant cliff.
"Commander?" The voice was a bit louder.
"Come in," Idaho called.
Moneo entered, closing the door behind him. He wore tunic and trousers of chalk-white which forced the eyes to concentrate on his face. Moneo glanced once around the room.
"So this is where they put you. Those damned women! I suppose they thought they were being kind, but they ought to know better."
"How do you know what I like?" Idaho demanded. Even as he asked it, he realized it was a foolish question.
I'm not the first Duncan Idaho that Moneo has seen.
Moneo merely smiled and shrugged.
"I did not mean to offend you, Commander. Will you keep these quarters, then?"
"I like the view."
"But not the furnishings." It was a statement.
"Those can be changed," Idaho said.
"I will see to it."
"I suppose you're here to explain my duties."
"As much as I can. I know how strange everything must appear to you at first. This civilization is profoundly different from the one you knew."
"I can see that. How did my... predecessor die?"
Moneo shrugged. It appeared to be his standard gesture, but there was nothing self-effacing about it.
"He was not fast enough to escape the consequences of a decision he had made," Moneo said.
"Be specific."
Moneo sighed. The Duncans were always like this-so demanding.
"The rebellion killed him. Do you wish the details?"
"Would they be useful to me?"
"No."
"I'll want a complete briefing on this rebellion today, but first: why are there no men in Leto's army?"
"He has you."
"You know what I mean."
"He has a curious theory about armies. I have discussed it with him on many occasions. But do you not want to breakfast before I explain?"
"Can't we have both at the same time?"
Moneo turned toward the door and called out a single word: "Now!"
The effect was immediate and fascinating to Idaho. A troop of young Fish Speakers swarmed into the room. Two of them took a folding table and chairs from behind a panel and placed them on the balcony. Others set the table for two people. More brought food-fresh fruit, hot rolls and a steaming drink which smelled faintly of spice and caffeine. It was all done with a swift and silent efficiency which spoke of long practice. They left as they had come, without a word.
Idaho found himself seated across from Moneo at the table within a minute after the start of this curious performance.
"Every morning like that?" Idaho asked.
"Only if you wish it."
Idaho sampled the drink: melange-coffee. He recognized the fruit, the soft Caladan melon called paradan.
My favorite.
"You know me pretty well," Idaho said.
Moneo smiled. "We've had some practice. Now, about your question."
"And Leto's curious theory."
"Yes. He says that the all-male army was too dangerous to its civilian support base."
"That's crazy! Without the army, there would've been no...
"I know the argument. But he says that the male army was a survival of the screening function delegated to the nonbreeding males in the prehistoric pack. He says it was a curiously consistent fact that it was always the older males who sent the younger males into battle."
"What does that mean, screening function?"
"The ones who were always out on the dangerous perimeter protecting the core of breeding males, females and the young. The ones who first encountered the predator."
"How is that dangerous to the... civilians?"
Idaho took a bite of the melon, found it ripened perfectly.
"The Lord Leto says that when it was denied an external enemy, the all-male army always turned against its own population. Always."
"Contending for the females?"
"Perhaps. He obviously does not believe, however, that it was that simple."
"I don't find this a curious theory."
"You have not heard all of it."
"There's more?"
"Oh, yes. He says that the all-male army has a strong tendency toward homosexual activities."
Idaho glared across the table at Moneo. "I never..."
"Of course not. He is speaking about sublimation, about deflected energies and all the rest of it."
"The rest of what?" Idaho was prickly with anger at what he saw as an attack on his male self-image.
"Adolescent attitudes, just boys together, jokes designed purely to cause pain, loyalty only to your pack-mates... things of that nature."
Idaho spoke coldly. "What's your opinion?"
"I remind myself=" Moneo turned and spoke while looking out at the view='of something which he has said and which I am sure is true. He is every soldier in human history. He offered to parade for me a series of examples-famous military figures who were frozen in adolescence. I declined the offer. I have read my history with care and have recognized this characteristic for myself."
Moneo turned and looked directly into Idaho's eyes.
"Think about it, Commander."
Idaho prided himself on self-honesty and this hit him. Cults of youth and adolescence preserved in the military? It had the ring of truth. There were examples in his own experience...
Moneo nodded. "The homosexual, latent or otherwise, who maintains that condition for reasons which could be called purely psychological, tends to indulge in pain-causing behavior-seeking it for himself and inflicting it upon others. Lord Leto says this goes back to the testing behavior in the prehistoric pack."