common hallmark of planning creatures. For us it is a new thing.'
The timer on Creideiki's harness chimed. It was growing late. Tired as he was, he still had a meeting to attend, and he wanted to stop at the bridge to find out if there had been any word from Orley.
'How does a cetacean, whose heritage, whose very brain is built on intuitive thinking, learn to analyze a complex problem, piece by piece? Sometimes the key to an answer is found in the way you formulate the question. I'll leave you all today with an exercise for your idle moments.
'Try to state the problem of reflections from the surface of water in Trinary… in a way that demands not a single answer, or a three-level opposition, but a plain listing of the reflections that are possible.'
He saw several of the fen frown uncomfortably.
The captain smiled reassuringly. ' I know it sounds difficult, and I will not ask you to recite today. But just to show you it can be done, accept the echo of this dream.'
* A layer divides
sky-star — Sea-star
* What comes to us
At a narrow angle?
* The huntsqueaking starcatching octopus
Reflects!
* The night-calling, star following tern
Reflects!
* The star-twinkle in my lover's eye
Reflects!
* The sun, soundless, roaring showoff -
Reflects! *
Creideiki was adequately rewarded by the wide-eyed appreciation of his audience. As he turned to go, he noticed that even Takkata-Jim was shaking his head slowly, as if considering a thought that had never occurred to him before.
After the meeting broke up, K'tha-Jon persisted in his argument.
'You sssaw? You heard him, Takkata-Jim?'
'I saw and heard, Bosun. And, as usual, I was impressed. Creideiki is a geniusss. So what is it you wanted to point out to me?'
K'tha-Jon clapped his jaw, not the most polite gesture to make before a superior officer.
'He sayss nothing about the Galacticss! Nothing about the siege! Nothing at all about plans to get us away from here! Or, barring that, to fight-t!
'And meanwhile he ignores the growing split amongst the crew!'
Takkata-Jim let out a line of bubbles. 'A split you have busily been encouraging, K'tha-Jon. No, don't bother protesting your innocence. You've been subtle, and I know you've been doing it to build a power base for me. So I look away.
'But don't be sure Creideiki will always be too busy to notice! When he does notice, K'tha-Jon, watch your tail! For I won't have known a thing about your little tricks!'
K'tha-Jon blew quiet bubbles, not bothering to reply.
'As for Creideiki's plans, we'll see. We'll see if he's willing to listen to Dr. Metz and myself, or if he persisssts in this dream of carting his secrets back to Earth unopened.'
Takkata-Jim saw the giant Stenos was about to interrupt.
'Yesss, I know you think we should consider a third option, don't you? You'd like to see us head out and take on all the Galactics single-handed, wouldn't you, K'tha-Jon?'
The huge dolphin didn't answer, but his eyes gleamed back at the vice-captain.
Are you my Boswell, my Seaton, my Igor or my Iago? Takkata-Jim thought silently at the giant mutant. You serve me now, but in the long run, am I using you, or are you using
20 ::: Galactics
Battle screamed all around the flotilla of tiny Xappish warships.
'We have just lost the X'ktau and the X'klennu! That means almost a third of the Xappish armed might is gone!'
The elder Xappish lieutenant sighed. 'So? Young one, tell me news, not things I already know.'
'Our Xatinni patrons spend their clients like reaction gas, and commit their own forces miserly. Notice how they hang back, ready to flee if the battle gets too furious! Yet we they send into danger!'
'That is ever their way,' the other agreed.
'But if the Xappish fleet is destroyed here, in this futile fray, who will protect our three tiny worlds, and enforce our rights?'
'Is that not what we have patrons for?' The older lieutenant knew he was being ironic. He adjusted the screens to resist a sudden psionic attack, without even changing his tone of voice.
His junior did not dignify the reply with a comment. He grumbled instead. 'What did these Earthlings ever do to us, anyway? In what way do they threaten our patrons?'
A searing blast from a Tandu battle-cruiser just missed the left wing of the small Xappish scout. The junior lieutenant sent the ship into a wild evasive maneuver. The senior lieutenant replied to the question as if nothing at all had happened.
'I take it you don't believe the story that the Progenitors have returned?'
The other only snorted, while adjusting his torpedo sights.
'Aptly put. I, too, think this is merely part of a program to destroy the Earthlings. The senior patron races see the Terrans as a threat. They are wolflings, and therefore dangerous. They preach revolutionary uplift practices… more dangerous still. They are allies of the Tymbrimi, an insult beyond forbearance. And they proselytize — an unforgivable offense.'
The scoutship shuddered as the torpedo leapt toward the Tandu destroyer. Their tiny craft accelerated mightily to get away.
'Well I think we should listen to the Earthlings,' the junior lieutenant shouted. 'If all the client races in the galaxy rebelled at once…'
'It has already happened,' the elder interrupted. 'Study the Library records. Six times in Galactic history. And twice successfully.'
'No! What happened?'
'What do you think happened? The clients went on to become patrons of newer species, and treated them just the same as ever!'
'I do not believe it! I cannot believe it!'
The elder lieutenant sighed. 'Look it up.'
'I shall!'
But he never did. An undetected improbability mine lay across their path. The tiny scout departed the galaxy in a manner that was picturesque, if ultimately lethal.
21 ::: Dennie and Toshio
Dennie checked the charges one more time. It was dark and crowded in the close passage of the drill-tree root. Her helmet's beam cast stark shadows through the thick maze of rootlets.
She called upward. 'Are you almost finished, Toshio?'
He was planting his explosives in the upper section, near the surface of the metal-mound.
'Yeah, Dennie. If you're done, go back down now. I'll join you in a minute.'
She couldn't even see his flippered feet above her. His voice was distorted in the narrow, water-filled thicket. It was a relief to be allowed to leave.
She picked her way downward carefully, fighting back waves of claustrophobia. This was no job Dennie would ever have chosen. But it had to be done, and the two dolphins were by nature unqualified.
Halfway down, she snagged herself on a strand of creeper. It didn't let go when she tugged. Thrashing only entangled her further, and she vividly recalled Toshio's story of the killer weed. Panic almost closed in, but she forced herself to stop kicking, to take a deep breath and study the snare.
It was just a dead vine wrapped around one leg. The strand parted easily under her knife. She continued her descent more cautiously and escaped at last into the grotto beneath the metal-mound.
Keepiru and Sah'ot waited below. Hose-like breathers covered their blowmouths and wrapped around their torsos. The headlights of the two sleds diffracted through thousands of tiny threads that seemed to fill the chamber in a drifting fog. A dim light filtered into the grotto from the cave mouth through which they had entered.
