Lake shrugged. 'The things crawl up on the beach in early morning, and then seem to forget the way back to the sea. Since they live well out of water, they often march inland for days. It is to their credit, I might add, that if they do find moving water, they will follow it to the sea.
'Now, let me see.' The Councilor, glass in hand, turned to the two Starwolves. 'I remember that you are Velmeran. But you I cannot recall… '
'Dveyella,' she answered.
'De-vay-ella.' Lake did his best with the name, and shook his head. 'That's not an easy one for a native speaker of Terran.'
Just then Javarns appeared from the kitchen, pushing a small cart that bore their plates. He served the two Starwolves with obvious reluctance, almost as if he expected a bitten hand for his reward. He clearly disapproved of their gloves lined up around their plates like the towers of a fortress wall, reaching skyward as they stood upright on their metal cuffs.
They, in turn, eyed their dinner with much the same hesitation, and for better reason. Follycrab, cooked in the shell, nearly filled an entire plate. Their blunt, thick bodies were carried on two sets of legs, and they were armed with two pairs of powerful pincers. Shell plates as intricately articulated as Starwolf armor covered a large swimming tail, half the creature's total length.
'Will there be anything else?' Javarns asked.
'No, not for the moment,' the Councilor replied.
'Very well, sir,' the servant said as he departed. 'I will be in the kitchen, hiding the good silver.'
'Good man, that Javarns. Been with me for years. I should have replaced him with a robot long ago,' Lake muttered. Then he noticed that the two Starwolves were staring at the creatures on their plates. 'Well, what do you think?'
'Icky-poo!' Dveyella declared, simple and to the point.
'Oh, trust me to be a better host than that!' Councilor Lake declared, laughing. 'You must realize that in all the time you people have been coming here on leave, we have watched you very closely. It is the only part of your lives that we ever see. I looked up those records and found that Starwolves do eat follycrab, and they appear to like it. I am also aware of how much you eat, so do not fear. There are two more crabs for each of you.'
The poor Starwolves did not know whether to count their blessings or curse their ill fortune. Dveyella had lived long enough and been on enough port leaves to have developed a healthy caution. Her rule was to be wary of anything hidden in a stew, under gravy or sauce, had eyes to stare back from the plate or came recommended by humans. Follycrab ran afoul of the final two of those rules, and she feared that the folly would be her own. Velmeran was still young enough to like taking a chance. After a moment of observing the tactics of the Sector Commander, he set about uncrating his own.
'Ah, yes! One of my finest efforts,' Lake declared. 'Do you not agree?'
'It is all right,' Dveyella reluctantly agreed.
'What did I say?' Lake insisted jovially. The two Starwolves were becoming entranced, for the Councilor had a rubbery face that could change instantly to a wide variety of exaggerated expressions. 'Though far be it for me to neglect my duties as a proper host, Iwas wondering if you would mind answering a few silly and possibly personal questions?'
'Not at all,' Velmeran replied. 'Ask whatever you wish, although we may not answer.'
Lake considered that and shrugged. 'Fair enough. First, let me see if I have this right. You are Velmeran, and you are Devayella. Male and female?'
'As far as I know,' he answered. 'Is it so hard to tell?'
'Well, yes,' he admitted. 'Starwolves may look very different to other Starwolves, but you all look very much alike to me. I will grant that your armor hides the more telling features. Your height, your appearance, even the length of your hair is the same.'
Velmeran glanced at his companion, surprised. 'The differences are very obvious to me. If I had to guess, you are misled by looking for the wrong things. Do we both look female to you?'
'Strictly speaking, neither of you look either male or female,' Lake said, looking hard at first one and then the other. 'There are certain childlike qualities to your features… '
'Velmeran is hardly more than a child,' Dveyella said. 'But I am nearly as old as you are.'
'Is that so? I have seen seventy-three planet years. About seventy-eight or so standard years.'
'I am sixty-seven myself,' she replied.
'If I may,' Commander Trace interrupted. 'From what you have said — or how you have said it — I take it that you do not consider yourself human.'
'Of course not,' Velmeran said. 'Why should we?'
'But if you are not human, what are you?'
'We are Kelvessan,' he insisted. 'Our race is of artificial origin. But we have been around for fifty thousand years, which means that our history is nearly as old as your own. Surely we have earned the right to consider ourselves our own people.'
'You will do as you wish, I am sure,' Donalt said, still distracted by his own thoughts. 'It just never occurred to me that you might think of yourselves as a wholly independent race with a history and culture of your own.'
'You were always the first to point out that they are not human,' Councilor Lake reminded him. 'The only thing that surprises you is finding that they agree with you.'
Trace nodded absently, although he kept his true thoughts to himself.
'Perhaps you still hold the mistaken idea that we were bred out of human stock,' Dveyella said. 'But that is not so. We were generated out of an entirely artificial reserve of genetic stock. Culturally we share a part of the same heritage. Physiologically we are so unrelated that we can barely share the same environment or eat the same food.'
'Yes, I can see that,' Trace agreed. 'As you may know, legend has it that Starwolves were created by interbreeding humans with wolfish traits.'
'No, our name refers only to our manner of attack,' she explained. 'We began by calling our fighter groups 'wolf packs'; you were the ones who gave us the name Starwolves. Besides, we are in general agreement that the wolf was a legendary creature that never actually existed.'
Councilor Lake stared at her in surprise. 'Is that so?'
'It is only a theory, but a sound one,' she said. 'Wolves were described throughout ancient legend and literature as possessing a wide variety of magical traits. They were given the power of speech in every old legend that I can recall. Shakespeare placed them firmly among all other magical creatures. Tolkien went so far as to suggest that they were only spirits of darkness who could not bear the light of day.'
'You certainly seem knowledgeable of scholarly matters,' Lake observed, seemingly amused. 'Hardly what I would expect of a warrior.'
'We all have selective total recall,' she explained. 'When you have been around for a few years, you tend to accumulate an amazing volume of facts and information. Nor have we ever been under the impression that ignorance is necessarily a soldierly attribute.'
The old Councilor nearly choked on his wine, especially when it became apparent that the Sector Commander was unaware that he had been insulted.
Dinner and dessert were soon past and Councilor Lake retired with his guests to the game room. The Councilor was able, with Dveyella's help, to convince Velmeran to meet his challenge in a game of chess. The Starwolf was not at all certain that he wanted to cross wits with the Councilor in so direct a manner, especially since he was under the disadvantage of having no familiarity with the game. He was no more pleased when Donalt Trace took his uncle's place at the game table. Councilor Lake quickly recited the rules, plainly dubious that even a Starwolf's absolute recall was up to such a challenge.
'Are you ready?' Trace asked, equally dubious.
'Yes, of course,' Velmeran assured him.
'Oh? Then proceed.'
'After you,' Velmeran offered in return. The Sector Commander sat in silence for a long moment as he contemplated his strategy, carefully selecting a pawn and moving it forward in bold attack. Velmeran casually sent out a pawn of his own, and the battle continued briskly for several moves to come. After that the Sector
