by Timothy Zahn
"What are you go(something) to do?" Doctor-Cavan-a asked.
"Unless they keep come(something), I'm go(something) to let them go," the Human commander said. His voice, Prr't-zevisti noted, was growing louder, as if he were moving closer to the fsss cutting. "I'd like to find out what they want (something) here. (Something), we (something) them to try it again."
"You don't think it was just (something)?" Doctor-Cavan-a said.
There was a gentle click: the lid of the box holding his fsss cutting being opened. "No," the Human commander said, so close now that Prr't-zevisti could feel the puffs of warm air from his breath. "No, I think it had some(something) to do with this thing. Try (something) to position themselves where they could (something) with it, perhaps."
"The (something) idea?"
"Why not? All we really know about their tech (something) is that it's (something) different from ours."
"But here in the (something) (something)? I thought it block (something) all (something)."
"(Something), yes. Maybe that's why the others out there were climb(something). Try (something) to get into range." The commander exhaled loudly, his breath tickling uncomfortably across the fsss cutting. "This is the key, Doctor-Cavan-a. Right here. I know it is. You any closer to figure (something) out what it is?"
"It's (something) (something)," Doctor-Cavan-a said. "That much I know for sure. It's also (something) with (something) and (something). But the really interest (something) part, at least from a (something) point of view, is that the hard (something) is hard only on the outside. The rest of it is soft and even somewhat (something) active."
"What do you mean, (something) active?" the commander asked. "It's dead. How can it be (something) active?"
"I haven't the (something) idea," Doctor-Cavan-a said. "But here's the other interest(something) part of it. When you take a new sample, the outer (something) slowly hard (something) up again. It must be trigger (something) by (something) to air."
"But then we're not talk (something) any kind of ordinary (something)," the commander said. "This is a more active (something)."
"Right," Doctor-Cavan-a said. "Though what sort of (something) could do that, I don't know."
"And (something) active in the (something)," the commander murmured. "Interest (something). Very interest (something)."
He stopped talking, and for a few beats there was nothing but the sound and feel of his breath on Prr't-zevisti's fsss cutting. "Well, keep at it," he said at last, his breath and voice turning away. "At the (something), it's about all we have to go on."
"I know," Doctor-Cavan-a agreed. "I'll get back to work right away."
"I (something) you wait a few (something) first," the commander said, his voice accompanied by the sound of the metal door opening. "If the Zhirrzh out there decide to (something), we may have other (something) work for you."
He left, closing the door behind him. Carefully, choosing a different corner this time, Prr't-zevisti eased back to the edge of the lightworld.
Doctor-Cavan-a was standing beside the shelves, gazing down at the fsss cutting in its box. "What are you for?" she asked softly. "Why do the Zhirrzh take you out of their (something)?"
For a pair of beats Prr't-zevisti was almost tempted to answer her. They had him trapped, and at this point they surely knew that. There really wasn't a lot to be gained by skulking around pretending he wasn't there.
But he stayed quiet. His long-past warrior training, perhaps, and those dire warnings about the dangers of voluntary communication and cooperation with the enemy. Or maybe it was just the irrational hope that they didn't really know he was trapped there.
Because once they knew they had him trapped, there would be no reason for them not to start a serious interrogation. Accompanied by their Elderdeath weapons.
Doctor-Cavan-a picked up the box and moved it to the worktable. Prr't-zevisti watched her, wincing with the always unpleasant anticipation of the unknown. He'd never felt a real Elderdeath weapon, but the histories were very clear about the catastrophic effects their use had had on Zhirrzh culture. The first - and last - Elderdeath weapons had been created by the Svrr family of the Flii'rr clan at the height of the Second Eldership War eight hundred cyclics ago. All sides of the war had called on the Svrr to halt their use of the weapons, which had only a minor dizzying effect on warriors but which could be lethal to Elders and children. But the Svrr had refused. Ultimately, when the war was over, that refusal had cost the family its existence.
The Zhirrzh had never used the weapons again. But every alien race they came upon had done so: deliberately, viciously, and without a twinge of conscience. Every race, from the Chig to the Isintorxi and now to the Humans.
A twinge make him jerk. Doctor-Cavan-a, taking yet another sample from his fsss cutting. But that would end soon enough. Eventually, he knew, she would get tired of these preliminaries.
And then the real interrogation would begin. Prr't-zevisti could only hope he would find death before he betrayed his people.
They'd all made it down to the ten-stride height Thrr-mezaz had specified without the Human-Conquerors making any move. And it was time for the Zhirrzh to make theirs.
"All right," Thrr-mezaz said, glancing down at the tree- and rock-littered terrain below them. "Here we go. Vstii-suuv, you'll go first, pulling Qlaa-nuur and me down along behind you. If the Human-Conquerors think the fall was accidental, it might gain us a few extra beats. Take it whenever you're ready, and try not to hit us too hard on your way down."
"Right," Vstii-suuv said. "Here goes."
There was a sudden flurry above him, a brief shower of broken stone; and then Vstii-suuv shot past, one foot caroming off Thrr-mezaz's left shoulder along the way. The rope snapped tight at Thrr-mezaz's harness, yanking him away from the cliff face. He managed to miss Qlaa-nuur as he fell - bounced painfully against the cliff with the same sore shoulder - twisted half over as he clawed at the rock to try to get himself vertical -
And then one foot hit the ground, and he was fighting a losing battle for balance. He dropped to one knee, falling over on his side and rolling awkwardly back again to his knees. "Report," he snapped, fumbling for the rope and release rings with one hand as he unslung his laser rifle with the other.
"I'm all right, Commander," Vstii-suuv said, breathing heavily. "Just a little winded."
"Same here," Qlaa-nuur said. "Those friction grabs work better than I thought."
"Good," Thrr-mezaz said, getting up into a crouch and looking around. Still no ground warriors in sight, though in a wooded area like this that didn't mean much. Now, if the Zhirrzh could just get in the first shot against the Human-Conqueror aircraft before it swooped around the trees for a clear shot and shredded all three of them. He looked up into the sky -
To find that the aircraft hadn't moved.
Thrr-mezaz frowned up at it. It was still right there, bits of it visible through the trees. Still hovering in the same spot. Not making any attempt at all to attack.
"Commander?" Vstii-suuv hissed urgently. "Shall we take it down?"
Thrr-mezaz looked around them again. No ground warriors; no further air support that he could see; the one aircraft on the scene inexplicably not moving to attack position. It was as if -
As if the Human-Conqueror commander was letting them go.
He took a deep breath. "Hold your fire," he told the two warriors. "Keep your weapons ready, but I don't think we're going to need them. They're letting us go."
"Letting us go?" Qlaa-nuur echoed, looking around. "I don't believe it."
"No, they just haven't reacted yet," Vstii-suuv agreed tightly. "This is our one chance, Commander. I strongly recommend we take it."
Thrr-mezaz looked back up at the aircraft, an eerie feeling pricking at the base of his tongue. The Human-Conqueror commander was letting them go. Just as he himself had allowed that Human-Conqueror ground-warrior team to escape four fullarcs ago north of the village.
"Hold your fire," he told the
others. "That's an order." He took one last look around and started down the steep slope. "Come on, let's get back to the transport."
They didn't believe him, of course. Neither of them did. Not until they were airborne again with no sign of pursuit.
Vstii-suuv was the first to put it into words. "I don't believe it," he said, staring out the back of the transport at the Human-Conqueror aircraft, still on guard, fading into the distance behind them. "They let us go. Why in the eighteen worlds would they do a thing like that?"
"Maybe as a payback for our not slaughtering their ground warriors when we had the chance," Thrr-mezaz suggested.
"With all due respect, Commander, that's highly dangerous thinking," Qlaa-nuur growled. "These aren't civilized beings we're talking about here. They're vicious barbarian killers. Ascribing Zhirrzh-like characteristics to them will do nothing but tempt us into blocked-street thinking."
"Perhaps," Thrr-mezaz said. "Perhaps not. They have a highly advanced technology; they must have a certain degree of civilization to go along with it. And if appreciation toward an enemy is beyond them, then perhaps their commander let us go for the same reason I let his warriors go: because he wants to find out what we were doing out there. Maybe that will also induce him to let us get back inside his territory. Assuming, of course, that we're able to get a new cutting from Warrior Command."
"Or from the Dhaa'rr," Vstii-suuv murmured, his voice thoughtful.
Thrr-mezaz looked at him, frowning in mild surprise. Vstii-suuv had been decidedly hostile about the whole Prr't-zevisti cutting idea back on the climb. Yet he'd now brought the subject up on his own. And not as a prelude to an argument, either, from the tone.
And then he understood. "You saw it," he said. "Didn't you?"
"I think so," Vstii-suuv admitted. "You did, too?"
"About the same as you," Thrr-mezaz nodded. "I saw something. I'm not sure what."
"What are you talking about?" Qlaa-nuur asked. "What did you see?"
"Maybe nothing," Vstii-suuv said hesitantly. "Maybe - well, maybe Prr't-zevisti."
Qlaa-nuur looked back and forth between the two of them. "Are you sure?"
"No, we're not sure at all," Thrr-mezaz told him. "Which is why I don't want either of you telling anyone else about this. Most won't believe us; the rest will assume we're spinning the story for political reasons."
"We are going to do something, though, aren't we?" Vstii-suuv asked.
"Oh, you can bet on that," Thrr-mezaz assured him. "One way or the other, we're going to get back up there and find out what's going on."
Vstii-suuv straightened a little. "We'll be ready whenever you want us, Commander," he said, his voice brisk and professional. "You can count on us."
And he could, Thrr-mezaz realized. He really could. The reluctant warriors who'd flown up there with him - the even more reluctant and distrustful climbing companions who'd hurried down the mountain behind him under the hostile eyes of the Human-Conquerors - those two were gone. With even a hint of a possibility that Prr't-zevisti might still be alive, they had suddenly turned instead into staunch allies.
But then, the Aree'rr clan had always had a long and proud warrior tradition. And Prr't-zevisti had once been a warrior.
Whether that tradition and their newfound enthusiasm would survive another trip into the heart of enemy territory was something else again. Thrr-mezaz would just have to hope the Dhaa'rr leaders would give them all an opportunity to find out.
15
There were two Zhirrzh standing there when Thrr-pifix-a answered her door: young males, dressed in conservative outfits, smiling cordially yet with a serious undertone to their expressions. As near as she could remember, she'd never seen either of them before. "Yes?" she said.
"Good postmidarc to you," the taller, slightly older of the two said. His voice matched his smile: friendly, yet serious. "We're looking for a lady named Thrr-pifix-a; Kee'rr."
"I'm she," Thrr-pifix-a said. Door-doors, probably, here to try to sell her something she didn't need at a price she couldn't afford. But that was all right. She'd already finished her garden work for this fullarc, and she always enjoyed the mental challenge of a good argument over someone's sales spiel. "And you?"
"Call me Korthe," he invited. "This is Dornt, my associate. May we come in?"
Thrr-pifix-a looked at them, the first twinges of uneasiness tugging at her. First names only, with no indication of family or even clan. Certainly not door-doors, then. Certainly not casual visitors of any sort. "I'm really rather busy - "
"It's all right," the younger Zhirrzh, Dornt, assured her. "Really. We're here to help you with your problem."
"What problem is that?"
"We'd prefer to discuss it indoors," Korthe said. "May we come in?"
Thrr-pifix-a took a careful breath. They could be robbers or undesirables of any sort; and if so, she would be foolish to let them past her doorway. But on the other side, considering her age and her isolation out here, robbers would hardly need to ask her permission to get inside. More likely, they were just some sort of religious cultists. "All right," she said, stepping aside. "The conversation room is straight ahead."
They all went in and sat down on the couches. "Now," Thrr-pifix-a said, looking between them. "What's all this about?"
"Another hunbeat, please," Dornt said, fiddling with a small device he'd pulled from a waist pouch. "We want to make sure this conversation is private. There."
Thrr-pifix-a frowned, straining to hear. There was a new sound in the room, one that her failing ear slits could just barely pick up. A sort of high-pitched humming sound.
"Excellent," Korthe said, his earlier smile completely submerged in seriousness now. "We know you're busy, Thrr-pifix-a, so with your permission we'll get directly to business. Have you ever heard of an organization called Freedom of Decision for All?"
She'd called it, all right: religious cultists. "No, I don't believe I have."
"I'm not really surprised," Korthe said. "We're still fairly new to this area of Oaccanv. And certainly the various clan and family leaders who do know about us are working hard to keep us quiet. Very simply, FoDfA is composed of people who, just like you, believe strongly that each and every Zhirrzh should have the right to choose whether or not to accept Eldership."
Thrr-pifix-a frowned at him. "I'm sorry. What did you say?"
"You heard correctly," Korthe said. "We believe Eldership should be your own personal choice. No one else's."
Thrr-pifix-a took a deep breath, a rush of surprise and an odd sense of relief flooding through her. So she wasn't alone in this. Thrr-tulkoj had been right: there were indeed others who believed the same way she did. "You don't know how it feels to hear you say that," she said quietly. "I thought I was the only one."
"Hardly," Korthe said with a faint smile. "Our organization consists of over two million Zhirrzh."
Thrr-pifix-a felt her midlight pupils narrow in surprise. "Two million?"
"Two million," he confirmed. "And that doesn't count those sympathetic to our philosophy who for one reason or another don't want to join. Rest assured, Thrr-pifix-a; you have plenty of company out there."
"How else do you think we knew about you?" Korthe shrugged. "We have information sources all over the eighteen worlds."
"And," Dornt added quietly, "we stand ready to assist you in putting your choice into action."
"That's very kind of you," Thrr-pifix-a said. "And I'd certainly appreciate any help you can give me. I've tried talking to the family leaders, but the clan leaders have so far refused even to grant me a hearing - "
"Excuse me, Thrr-pifix-a," Korthe interrupted gently. "But I don't think you quite understand. Our group doesn't focus on advocacy or negotiation. We concentrate on, shall we say, more direct methods."
Thrr-pifix-a frowned, looking back and forth between them. "What do you mean?"
"You seem a straightforward person," Korthe said. "Allow me to be equally so. What we propose to do is retrieve y
our fsss organ from your family shrine and deliver it here to you. Where you may do with it whatever you choose."
For a long beat Thrr-pifix-a stared at him, replaying that sentence over and over again in her mind. "You're not serious," she said at last. "You mean... steal my fsss organ?"
"Why not?" Dornt shrugged. "You tried to do the same thing just three fullarcs ago, didn't you?"
"Yes, but that was me," Thrr-pifix-a said. "My risk, for my gain. I can't ask you to commit such a crime for me."
"You don't have to ask," Dornt said. "We're volunteering."
"Besides, you prejudice yourself when you use the word steal," Korthe added. "In actual fact your fsss was stolen from you, back when you were ten. It doesn't belong to the Kee'rr clan or the Thrr family. It belongs to you."
Thrr-pifix-a felt her tail twitching nervously. The same argument - many of the same words, in fact - that she'd used in trying to persuade Thrr-gilag to her point of view a few fullarcs ago. But to hear it being argued in her own home by total strangers was more than a little disconcerting. "What about the risks?" she asked. "I'm sorry to keep coming back to this, but you're talking about committing a major crime here. And for no gain for yourselves."
"On the contrary," Korthe said. "We stand to gain a great deal: an incredible measure of freedom for all Zhirrzh. The family and clan leaders know perfectly well what they're doing - why else would they have such heavy guard around the shrines? It's the common people who don't know or don't understand what's been done to them. Every time we of FoDfA take action like this, we're injecting another tiny bit of awareness into Zhirrzh culture. Eventually, we'll prevail... and then we all win."
Thrr-pifix-a nodded slowly. It still felt odd. All of it did. But they were here, and they were offering their help.
And it was for certain that she would never be able to do it on her own. "How would you go about it?" she asked. "How exactly, I mean."
"That's nothing you need to worry about," Dornt soothed her. "We'll handle all the details."
"No, that's not what I meant," Thrr-pifix-a said, flicking her tongue in a negative. "I meant would you have to hurt anyone to do it. Because I wouldn't be able to accept that. The chief protector at our shrine, Thrr-tulkoj, is a personal friend of my son's - "
