Part 76 (1/2)

He could try writing them a message, except that he had nothing to write with, or on. The Seti had not brought any of his kit from his compartment; he had only the clothes and pressure suit he stood up in.

It really wasn't so bad, he told himself, forcing cheerfulness. The Seti hadn't killed them yet. Didn't seem to be starving them, though he wondered if that slab of elementary sulfur was really enough for the Lethi clinging to it. He found a water dispenser, and even a recessed cabinet with oddly shaped bowls to put the water in. He poured himself a bowl and drank it down. Something nudged his arm and he found the Bronthin looking sorrowfully at the bowl. It gave a low, grunting moo.

Ah. Bronthin had never been good with small tools. He poured water for the Bronthin and held the bowl for it to drink. It swiped his face with a rough, corrugated lavendar tongue when it was done, leaving behind a faintly sweet odor. A nervous chitter across the compartment was the Ryxi, standing now with feathers afluff and stubby wings outspread. Dupaynil interpreted this as a request and filled another bowl. The Ryxi s.n.a.t.c.hed it away from him with its wing-claws and drank thirstily.

”They for us water pour but one time daily,” the Ryxi twittered, dropping the empty bowl. Dupaynil picked it up with less graciousness than he'd filled it. He had never been the nurturing type. Still, it was communica- .

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tion. The Ryxi went on. ”Food at that time, only enough for life. Waste removal.”

”Did they tell you where we're headed?” ' An ear-spitting screech made him wince. The Ryxi began bouncing off the walls, cras.h.i.+ng into one after another of them, shrieking something in Ryxi. The Bronthin huddled down in a large lump, leaving Dupaynil the Ryxi's path. He tried to tackle it but a k.n.o.bbed ' foot got him in the ribs. The Ryxi flipped its crest up and down, keening, and drew back for another kick, Dupaynil rolled behind the Ssli tank. ”Take it easy,” he said, knowing it would do no good. never took it easy. This one calmed slightly, sides ”lieaving, crest only halfway up.

”They told,” came the sorrowful low groan of the Bronthin. Dupaynil had never heard one speak Stan-<jard before.=”” ”wickedly=”” dangerous=”” meat-eaters.=”” we=”” told=”” what=”” would=”” come=”” of=”” it.=”” those=”” who=”” sweep=”” tails=”” *across=”” the=”” sand=”” of=”” reason,=”” where=”” proofs=”” of=”” wisdom=”” abound.”=”” the=”” bronthin=”” had=”” accomplished=”” advanced=”” math-^ematics=”” without=”” paper=”” or=”” computers,=”” using=”” smooth=”” pbtretches=”” of=”” sand=”” or=”” clay=”” to=”” scribe=”” their=”” equations.=”” al-=”” though=”” their=”” three=”” stubby=”” fingers=”” could=”” not=”” manipulate=”” fltae=”” tools,=”” they=”” had=”” developed=”” an=”” elegant=”” mathematical=”” ^calligraphy.=”” and=”” a=”” very=”” formal=”” courtesy=”” involving=”” the=”” f%se=”” of=”” the=”” ”sands=”” of=”” reason.”=”” a=”” colt=”” (the=”” human=”” term)=”” ;=”” who=”” used=”” its=”” whisk=”” of=”” a=”” tail=”” on=”” someone=”” else's=”” calcula-=”” kms=”” would=”” be=”” severely=”” punished.=”” bronthin=”” were=”” also=”” vegetarians=”” -=”” browsers=”” on=”” their=”” world=”” which=”” had=”” nall=”” and=”” witless=”” carnivores.=”” they=”” were=””></jard>< p=””>

Dupaynil eyed the calming Ryxi warily. His ribs hurt. didn't need another kick. ”Do you have any plan?” asked the Bronthin.

”The probability of escape from this s.h.i.+p, in a nonvia-e state, is less than 0.1 percent. The probability of

scape from this s.h.i.+p in a viable state is less than 0.0001 percent. The factors used to arrive at this include ”Never mind,” said Dupaynil, softening it with an >logy. ”My mathematical skill is insufficient to appre-te the beauty of your calculations.”

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”How land to save me the trouble of converting to Standard that which can only be properly expressed in the language of eternal law.” The Bronthin Heaved a sigh, which Dupaynil took to mean the conversation was over.

The Ryxi, however, was eager to talk, once it had calmed enough to remember its Standard.

”Unspeakable reptiles,” it twittered. ”Unworthy to be egg-layers!” Not again, thought Dupaynil, not antic.i.p.ating the Ryxi side of that argument. ”Thick-sh.e.l.led, they are. You can't even see a Seti in its sh.e.l.l. Not that it makes any difference, because even if something's wrong, they won't do anything. Just let the hatchlings die if they can't make it on their own. Some of them don't even tend their nests. Not even to warn away predators. They say that's giving Holy Luck the choice. I'd call it criminal negligence.”

”Despiccable,” said Dupaynil, edging farther away from the dance of those powerful feet. Then a bell-like voice rang out, its source unidentifiable.

Sa.s.sinak friend?

Dupaynil tried to control his start of surprise, and glanced around. The Bronthin looked half-asleep which is the way Bronthins usually looked and the Ryxi had begun grooming its feathers with jerky strokes of its beak. The two Lethi were still stuck to each other and the slab of sulfur.

Do not look ... in the tank. He managed to stare at the blank s.p.a.ce above the Bronthin, while the voice continued and his own mind s.h.i.+vered away from it. He had never liked descriptions of telepathy and he liked the reality less. Sa.s.sinak friend you are. We greet you. We are more and less than we seem.

Of course. Ssli. So Ssli larvae could communicate! He could not ”feel” anything in his mind when the voice fell silent, but that didn't mean it, or they, were not reading him.

No time to investigate your dark secrets. We must plan.

They were reading his surface thoughts, at least, to have picked up that distaste for internal snooping. He recognized the irony of that, someone whose profession was snooping on others, now being turned inside out by f: aliens. He tried to organize his thoughts, make a clear message.

”You stare at wall for a reason?” the Ryxi asked, its ,-Jeathers now sleeked down.

Dupaynil could have strangled the Ryxi for breaking 'his concentration, and then he did feel a featherlight I touch, soothing, and a bubble of amus.e.m.e.nt.

”I'm very tired,” he said honestly. ”I need to rest.”

With that, he found a clear s.p.a.ce of floor, between wall and the Ssli tank, and curled up, helmet era-fdied in his arms. The Ryxi sniffed, then tucked its head j-back over its shoulders into the back feathers. Dupaynil Ijdosed his eyes and projected against the screen of his ^eyelids.

What can you do?

Nothing alone. We hoped they would bring a -, What did you mean, 'more and less'?

Again the mental gurgle of amus.e.m.e.nt. We are loot both Ssli.

The voice said nothing more and Dupaynil thought >ut it. If they were reading his thoughts, they were ^welcome. Not both Ssli? Another alien marine race? iddenly he realized what it had to be and almost laughed aloud.

A Weft?

Seemed safer this way. Seti hate Wefts enough to them before the coup. But with this form come Poertain . . . limitations.

Which humans don't have?

Precisely.

Sorry, but I don't think they'll let me push that Etank to wherever they keep the escape pods. a.s.suming 'they have any.

< not=”” the=”” plan.=”” may=”” we=”” share?=”” i*=”” it=”” seemed=”” an=”” odd=”” question=”” from=”” beings=”” who=”” could=””>rce mental intimacy, and already had, but Dupaynil in the mood to accept any courtesy offered.

Go ahead.

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He tensed, bracing himself for some unimaginable sensation, and felt nothing. Only information began to knit itself into his existing cognitive matrix, as if he were learning it so fast that it was safely in long-term memory before it pa.s.sed his eyes. The Bronthin, he learned, had been hired by the Seti to provide them with mathematical expertise. On the basis of its calculations and models, they had defined the best time to attempt the coup.

And the Bronthin had had no way to warn the Federation. Bronthins could not manipulate Seti communications equipment, were not telepathic, and suffered severe depression when kept isolated from their social herds. As for the Ssli, it had been delivered, in its tank, after it had been stolen from a Fleet recruit depot. The Weft, a Fleet guard at the depot, had been shot in the burglary and survived only by shapechanging into the Ssli tank in a larval form. The thieves had not known the difference between Weft and Ssli larvae and had apparently supposed that two or more larvae were in each tank, in case one died.

But what can we do? Dupaynil asked.

You can talk to the Bronthin, and find out more of what it knows about this fleet. It had the information to make models with. It must know. It's depressed. That's why it won't talk. Later, when we drop out of FTL, you can see the viewscreen. We have no such eyes. But the Ssli can link with other Ssli on a Fleet vessel, and that Ssli has a biolink to the captain.

Cheering up the Bronthin took all of DupaymTs considerable charm. It turned away at first, muttering number series, but the offer of another bowl of water helped. He watered the Ryxi, too, automatically, and this time the feathered alien handed the bowl back rather than dropping it. But it took many bowls of water, and a couple of sessions of picking the burrs from the dry gra.s.s the Seti tossed in for its feed, before the alien showed much response.

Finally it scrubbed its heavy head up and down his arm, took his hands in its muscular lips, and said, ”I ... will try to speak Standard ... in thanks for your kindness ...”

”Inaccurate as Standard is, and unsuited to your genius, would it be possible to recall how many s.h.i.+ps this size the Seti have with them?”