again.'
Metz frowned. K'tha-Jon was only a bosun, and not expected to be as refined as Takkata-Jim. Still, there were limits, even considering the giant's hidden background.
I will have to talk to this fellow, he reminded himself. This kind of attitude will never do.
'Please inform Dr. Dart that I'm on my way,' he told the fin. 'I'm finished here for now'
11 ::: Creideiki Orley
'So we're armed again,' Creideiki sighed. 'After a fashion.'
Thomas Orley looked up from the newly repaired missile tubes and nodded. 'It's about as good as we're going to get, Creideiki. We weren't expecting any trouble when we popped out into a battle at the Morgran transfer point. We were lucky to get away with as little damage as we took.'
Creideiki agreed.
'Just ssso,' he sighed moodily. 'If only I had reacted faster.'
Orley noticed his friend's mood. He pursed his lips and whistled. His breather mask amplified a faint sound-shadow picture. The little echo danced and hopped like a mad elf from corner to corner in the oxywater-filled chamber. Workers in the weapons pod lifted their narrow, sound-sensitive jaws to follow the skipping sonar image as it scampered unseen, chittering in mock sympathy.
* When one commands,
One is envied by people -
But, oh! the demands! *
The sound-wraith vanished, but laughter remained. The crew of the weapons pod spluttered and squawled.
Creideiki let the mirth settle. Then, from his brow came a pattern of chamber-filling clicks that merged to mimic the sounds of thunderclouds gathering. In the closed room those present heard raindrops blown before the wind. Tom closed his eyes to let the sound-image of a sea squall close over him.
* They stand in my road,
The mad, ancient, nasty things
Tell them 'move, or else!' *
Orley bowed his head, acknowledging defeat. No one had ever beaten Creideiki at Trinary haiku. The admiring sighs of the fen only confirmed this.
Nothing had changed, of course. As Orley and Creideiki turned to leave the weapons pod, they knew that defiance alone would not get this crew through the crisis. There had to be hope, as well.
Hope was scarce. Tom knew that Creideiki was desperately worried about Hikahi, though he hid it well.
When they were out of earshot, the captain asked, 'Has Gillian made any progressss studying that thing we found… the cause of all this trouble?'
Tom shook his head. ' I haven't spent more than an hour with her in two days, so I don't know. Last I checked, the ship's micro-Library still claims nothing like Herbie ever existed.'
Creideiki sighed. 'It would have been nice to know what the Galacticsss think we found. Ah, well…'
They were stopped by a sudden whistle behind them. Tsh't, the ship's fourth officer, flew into the hallway in a cloud of bubbles.
'Creideiki! Tom! Sonar reports a dolphin at long range, far to the eassst, but apparently swimming this way at high speed!'
Creideiki and Orley looked at each other. Then Tom nodded at the captain's unspoken command.
'Can I take Tsh't and twenty fen?'
'Yesss. Get a team ready. But don't leave until we find out who this is. You may want to take more than twenty. Or it may be hopelesss to go at all.'
Tom saw pain in the captain's eye. The next hour or so of waiting would be hard.
Orley motioned for Lieutenant Tsh't to follow him, then he turned to swim at top speed down the flooded corridor toward the outlock.
12 ::: Galactics
Feeling the joy of patronhood and command, the Soro, Krat, watched the creatures, the Gello, the Paha, the Pila, her creatures, as they guided the Soro, fleet toward battle once more.
'Mistress,' the Gello detection officer announced. 'We are approaching the water world at one-quarter of light speed per your instructions.'
Krat acknowledged with a bare flick of her tongue, but secretly she was happy. Her egg was healthy. When they won here she would be due to go home and mate once more. And the crew of her flagship was working together like a finely tuned machine.
'The fleet is one paktaar ahead of timetable, mistress,' the detection officer announced.
Of all the client species owing allegiance to the Soro, the Gello were special to Krat. They were her own species' first clients, uplifted by the Soro long ago. The Gello had in their turn become patrons as well, and brought two more client races into the clan. They had made the Soro proud. The chain of uplift went on.
Deep in the past had been the Progenitors, who began Galactic Law. Since then, race had aided race to sentience, taking indentured service as payment.
Many millions of years ago, the ancient Luber had uplifted the Puber or so the Library said. The Luber were now long extinct. The Puber still existed, somewhere, though now degenerate and decadent.
Before their decadence, though, the Puber raised up the Hui, who in turn made clients of Krat's stone-chopping, Soro ancestors. Shortly thereafter, the Hui retired to their homeworld to become philosophers.
Now the Soro themselves had many clients. Their most successful upspring were the Gello, the Paha, and the Pila.
Krat could hear the high voice of the Pila tactician Cubber-cabub, haranguing its subordinates in planning section. It was insisting they strive harder to coax the information she had requested from the shipboard mini-Library. Cubber-cabub sounded frightened. Good. It would try harder if it feared her.
Alone of those aboard, the Pila were mammals, short bipeds from a high-gravity world. They had become a powerful race in many Galaxy-wide bureaucratic organizations, including the important Library Institute. The Pila had raised clients of their own, bringing credit to the clan.
Still, it was too bad the Pila were no longer indentured clients. It would have been nice to meddle with their genes again. The furry little sophonts shed, and had a bothersome odor.
No client race was perfect. Only two hundred years ago, the Pila had been thoroughly embarrassed by the humans of Earth. The affair had been difficult and expensive to cover up. Krat did not know all of the facts, but it had something to do with the Earthlings' sun. Since that time, the Pila had hated humans passionately.
Krat's mating claw throbbed as she thought of Earthlings. In only three hundred of their years they had become almost as great a nuisance as the sanctimonious Kanten, or the devil-trickster Tymbrimi!
The Soro race patiently awaited the right opportunity to erase the blot on their clan honor. Fortunately, the humans were almost pathetically ignorant and vulnerable. Perhaps the chance had already come!
How delicious it would be to have Homo sapiens assigned to the Soro as indentured foster clients. It could happen! Then what changes could be made! How humans could be molded!
Krat looked at her crew and wished she were free to meddle, to alter, to shape at will even these adult species. So much could be done with them! But that would require changing the rules.
If the upstart water-mammals from Earth had discovered what she thought they had, then the rules might be changed… if the Progenitors had, indeed, come back. How ironic that the newest spacefaring race should discover this derelict fleet! She almost forgave them for existing, for giving those humans the status of patrons.
'Mistress!' the tall Gello announced. 'The Jophur-Thennanin alliance has broken up. They are fighting amongst themselves. This means they are no longer pre- eminent!'
'Maintain vigilance.' Krat sighed. The Gello shouldn't make a big deal out of one little act of treachery. It was not unusual. Alliances would form and dissolve until one force emerged supreme. She intended that that force be Soro. When the battle was won she would collect the prize.
The dolphins must be here! When she won this battle, she would pry the handless ones out from their underwater sanctuary and make them tell all!
With a languid wave of her left paw, she summoned the Pil Librarian from his niche.
'Look into the data on these water creatures we pursue,' she told it. 'I want to know more about their habits, what they like and dislike. It is said their bonds to their human patrons are weak and corruptible. Give me a lever to pervert these… dolphins.'
Cubber-cabub bowed and withdrew into the Library section, the sector with the rayed spiral glyph above its opening.
Krat felt destiny all around her. This place in space was a fulcrum of power. She didn't need instruments to tell her that.
'I will have them! The rules will be changed!'
