Part 3 (2/2)

Rala's pulse slowed down for the second time in as many minutes. He was talking about Telgora.

”Soo tells me he is headed to Earth?” Truk's question was more of statement. Soo had apparently informed Truk who had ordered him to abandon the siege of Telgora and move against the humans on Earth. Knowing her mate's brother, he had probably laid the entire plan at her feet to save his own hide. The fact that it was her plan made no difference to Rala.

”Yes, sir.” She fought the urge to flick her ears; the movement would let Truk know she was caught off guard by his questioning. ”As you know, humans landed on Telgora. They helped the natives defeat our forces and take over the agsel mines there.”

”Yes,” Truk acknowledged. ”But that does not explain why you sent my general and four mothers.h.i.+ps to the end of the galaxy.”

”Governor Truk, I sent General Soo to Earth because the humans obviously control the Telgorans now. Those idiots could not have taken our mines without their interference.”

”How does sending Soo to Earth get our mines back?” The volume of Truk's voice increased with each word. Rala was on shaky ground. She could not tell the male about the Zrthn influence on the decision. He did not need to know, nor would he ever understand. But she could tell him the reasoning behind the directive. That still made sense.

”Governor Truk, the humans are weak. And they are protective of their people. I felt the best way-no, the only way-to get the mines back would be through the humans. If we crush them where they live, the few who control the natives on Telgora will be forced to cede the mines to us.”

Truk stared at her, but said nothing. Rala wondered what he was thinking, but he gave no clue.

”You are dismissed for now,” he stated. Rala nodded. As she started to rise, Truk bowed his head back to his desk. Without hesitating, she reached her right hand down and pressed the small, flat listening device to the underside of the chair.

Oiloo had insisted it would attach itself with minimal pressure, and he was right.

The Zrthn listened to the entire exchange with interest. He had told Rala that once the device was in place, she would be able to listen to everything that happened in Truk's office. That was true.

He had not informed her that he would be listening in as well.

CHAPTER 5.

The mothers.h.i.+p rattled like a pieced-together jalopy bouncing along the roughest dirt road Grant could imagine at a hundred miles an hour. He clutched the console with all his might and fought to keep his teeth tightly clenched. The brutal shuddering threatened to dislodge every nut, bolt, and weld that held the laboring vessel together. A rising explosion of distress and anger filled the command center as the s.h.i.+p's engines fought to slow the behemoth's pa.s.sage through the vacuum of s.p.a.ce.

The noise and quaking grew in their intensity long after Grant knew they couldn't get any worse. The lights in the s.h.i.+p flickered, dimmed, finally went dark. An occasional spark thrown from the control panel or ceiling provided the only light, and during these brief flashes, Grant spied Gee's bouncing form struggling to keep his place at the controls. The warrior worried that he had demanded too much of the engineer. He worried that they had demanded too much from the mothers.h.i.+p.

They were asking her to stop on a dime, and she was p.i.s.sed.

The s.h.i.+p's anger and rebellion finally reached the point where death seemed unavoidable. In that brief moment, Grant offered silent goodbyes to Avery and Eli. He sent thoughts of apology, love, and regret to the men, women, and Telgorans who would soon die with him. He thought of the billions on Earth who would have to stand up to the Minith. Finally, he sent a prayer to the G.o.d he had abandoned in his youth.

And then he waited for the end.

But the end never came. Instead, the s.h.i.+p took a breath. Then she took another.

It took a few minutes for Grant to notice the change in her att.i.tude. At first he wasn't quite sure, but when the lights flickered and returned, he knew they had pa.s.sed the worst of the storm. The mothers.h.i.+p was relaxing, shaking off the remnants of her anger and resistance.

When the normal hum of the engines returned, Grant looked at the time.

Twenty minutes had pa.s.sed in mere hours.

”Amazing,” Gee said.

Patahbay felt the tingling in his head moments after the s.h.i.+p stopped shaking. He reached out to the Family surrounding him and found concurrence.

No words were required. The fifty Telgoran fighters joined minds and reached out as a single unit.

The effort was sufficient.

They received instructions from the planet and nodded in s.h.i.+ale.

As the spokesperson for their group, Patahbay rose from the circle of Family and set off to find the general.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Although a uniquely human expression, the Minith would have understood its meaning perfectly.

When the mothers.h.i.+p appeared on their detection systems unexpectedly, and-more importantly-only thirty thousand miles away, the well-trained operators knew they were facing trouble. They did not know the extent of the problem, or its source, but it did not matter. The training and protocols established by General Soo to protect the planet and their people from a potential Zrthn invasion kicked in.

The Minith took immediate action.

It took less than sixty seconds for the operators to notify the top Minith commander on Waa, General Spaak, of the mothers.h.i.+p's appearance.

As General Soo's handpicked replacement during his absence, Spaak knew his duty and carried it out with similar efficiency. Within three minutes, every military force across the planet was notified and mobilized. Once that was completed, the general set off to notify his governor of the situation.

Between the initial moment of the s.h.i.+p's detection and Spaak's verbal notification to Governor Truk, less than ten minutes had elapsed.

Thanks to the device the Minith female had planted, Oiloo received the report at the same time as Governor Truk. His surprise was nearly as great as that of the Minith leader. He had not expected the humans-who else could it be?-to be so bold.

There was obviously more to these pale bi-peds than he had previously considered. Who knew these formerly mild-mannered inhabitants from the farthest outpost in the galaxy could be so complex, or could behave so far outside the norms of their natural character?

Oiloo was accustomed to having more information than his opponents. He was used to knowing their moves and their motivations as soon or sooner than they themselves did. This nugget of information about the arrival of the humans near Waa was a perfect example.

Every Zrthn was raised on the premise that knowledge is power. It is a given that he who has the most knowledge of a situation is always in the best position to come out ahead. It was why he and his people expended so much of their resources on intelligence techniques and data gathering.

The Zrthn trade arranger sent off a quick message to the administrators, alerting them to the latest developments. Hopefully, they would recognize the danger and allow him to take direct action. He was more convinced than ever that these humans were a threat to Zrthn interests.

They were an unknown, and Oiloo's beliefs regarding interplanetary political-economic norms did not allow for unknowns.

”Let me get this straight,” Grant said. ”The Waa told you we needed to land there?”

”Yes, General.” Patahbay stood unmoving. As usual, his long, alien face revealed nothing of his internal emotions or thoughts. ”They are preparing for our arrival.”

”So you can communicate with the Waa telepathically?”

”We share a form of Ma.s.s Mind with the Waa, General. It is unlike what we share with the Family, but more than we can share with humans.”

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