by Timothy Zahn
"Most of it," Melinda said. "Some parts I had to work out on my own because of the language barrier."
"So it's really just speculation."
"There's very little speculation to it, Colonel," Melinda said tartly. "The bottom line is that Prr't-zevisti thinks this war is a terrible mistake, and he wants very much to get it stopped. That's why he opened a dialogue with me in the first place, and why he's been so candid about himself and his people."
"What does he mean, a mistake?" Takara put in. "Did they think we were someone else?"
Melinda shook her head. "It was the communication package theJutland transmitted to them. Apparently, radio waves play havoc with the Zhirrzh sense of balance and also cause tremendous pain to Elders via theirfsss organs or cuttings. So much so that radio transmitters were used once-just once-in a Zhirrzh war. They're still called Elderdeath weapons."
For a minute both men were silent. "No," Holloway said at last. "It's all very interesting, but it doesn't hold together. You might be able to explain that first battle with theJutland by saying they thought the contact package was an attack, but that doesn't explain their subsequent invasion of the Commonwealth."
"Prr't-zevisti doesn't understand that either," Melinda said. "Though he does concede the Zhirrzh have always moved swiftly to crush races they thought had attacked them without provocation."
"They certainly seem experienced at it," Holloway said sourly. "So what does Prr't-zevisti suggest we do? Set him free to go proclaim peace to his people?"
"More or less," Melinda said. "Though I'm not sure I would have put it quite so cynically."
"Being cynical runs inmy family," Holloway countered.
"Being cynical is also part of our job, Doctor," Takara added. "I agree with Colonel Holloway that this Elderdeath thing is intriguing. But with comm lasers next to useless out here in the wilds, this could just as easily be some kind of Zhirrzh sympathy ploy to get us to limit our use of short-range radios."
"Not to mention the whole Elder concept being a little hard to swallow in the first place," Holloway agreed. "I hope you realize we can't simply give in on this."
"I wouldn't want you to," Melinda said. "The Cavanagh genes lean to conceit, not na‹vet‚. What Iwould suggest is that you have all this ready to upload the next time one of those Peacekeeper surveillance ships comes into the system. If there's even a chance Prr't-zevisti is telling the truth, the Commonwealth needs to know about it."
Holloway and Takara exchanged glances. "That's a reasonable idea," Holloway said. "Unfortunately, the only laser we've got that's able to punch a signal that far out is currently in service as a perimeter defense weapon."
"Can't it be reaimed upward?" Melinda asked.
"Reaiming isn't the problem," Takara said. "The problem is that the frequencies used for communication are nothing like those used in combat. It would have to be retuned, and that would take time."
"More time than any surveillance ship would likely want to hang around the system," Holloway said. "Though there might be some kind of modular tuner we could cobble together. Check with the techs, Fuji, and see what they can do."
"Right," Takara said, making a note on his plate.
"In the meantime, what do we do about Prr't-zevisti?" Melinda asked.
"Colonel!" one of the Peacekeepers called across the cavern. "Report from Spotter Three: the enemy's on the move. Six or seven Zhirrzh on foot, moving north from Point Zero."
For a heartbeat Melinda looked at Holloway, an odd sense of unnamed dread pricking at her. Why did north from the village seem significant?
Then, abruptly, it clicked: the underground tectonic-monitoring station, where she and Holloway had speculated one of the CIRCE components might be hidden. "Colonel-"
"Must have found the tectonic station," Holloway cut her off, his eyes flashing a warning as he got to his feet. Melinda nodded: clearly, he hadn't shared their private suspicions about the station with the rest of his troops.
For obvious reasons. Whenever the Zhirrzh finally got around to launching their attack, the last thing Holloway would want potential captives knowing was that there might be more to the tectonic station than met the eye. "What do you want me to do?" she asked.
"Go back to the infirmary and get prepped," Holloway told her. "There's a good chance you'll be getting some new patients soon."
The door to the underground structure was well hidden, built into the surface of one of the many hills that dotted the area. They'd located it, and Klnn-dawan-a had succeeded in opening it, when the alert came.
"Report from Commander Thrr-mezaz," the Elder said urgently. "TheImperative has spotted Human-Conqueror warcraft coming this way."
"Arrival time?" Warrior First Tbv-ohnor asked.
The Elder vanished, returned a pair of beats later. "Two or three hunbeats," he said.
Klnn-dawan-a felt her tail speed up. "That's not much time," she said, trying to keep her voice calm.
"No, it's not," Tbv-ohnor agreed, looking around them.
Klnn-dawan-a looked around, too. It was not, to her mind, a particularly auspicious location for a battle. The heavy tree canopy overhead would hide them from sight, but it would do little to shield them against enemy weapons. The only Zhirrzh weapons powerful enough to stop the warcraft were in the ground defense stations protecting the village, the nearest of which was a good three thoustrides away. At ground level the trees and other hills in the area also offered some protection against long-range weapons, but they similarly limited the range of the Zhirrzh warriors' own laser rifles. Worse, they would provide cover for advancing Human-Conqueror ground warriors should the enemy choose to attack that way.
Which left the underground structure.
She peered inside. Behind the door was a short entrance chamber, perhaps two strides wide by three strides long, unlit except for the dim sunlight filtering down through the trees. At the end of the entrance chamber was a stairway, disappearing downward into darkness. If they went down there...
"Risky," Tbv-ohnor said quietly from beside her. "Enough metal around us in the stairway-certainly enough in the underground structure itself-that we'd be completely cut off from Elder communication."
Klnn-dawan-a felt her tail twitch as a horrible thought struck her. Cut off from Elders meant they would also be isolated from theirfsss organs. If their bodies were destroyed down there, it wouldn't be simply a matter of being raised to Eldership. They would all be dead.
"But, then, that's what we came here to see," Tbv-ohnor continued, stepping cautiously through the doorway. "Everyone: inside. You three"-he flicked his tongue at three of the warriors-"stay up here. Use this room for cover and have the Elders target your shots for you-maybe we can turn the poor visibility to our advantage. You two: come with Searcher Klnn-dawan-a and me." Taking Klnn-dawan-a's arm, he headed down into the cool darkness of the stairwell-
And abruptly Klnn-dawan-a was thrown off balance as the thundercrack of a shock wave hammered them from behind.
Her free hand flailed for balance, caught the guide rail fastened to the stairwell wall more by good luck than deliberate intent. Tbv-ohnor tightened his grip on her other arm, and she managed to stay on her feet. "Keep moving!" Tbv-ohnor shouted. "They'll be back any beat."
Together they stumbled down, the two warriors close behind them. The stairway ahead faded disconcertingly into the gloom, but as Klnn-dawan-a's lowlight pupils widened, she found there was enough light filtering down for her to see the end.
From above came another thunderclap, sounding almost as loud as the first had in the close confines of the stairwell. Klnn-dawan-a grabbed the guide rail again, and as she did so, her sensitized sight caught a rapid multiple flicker of reflected light against the walls: the warriors in the entrance chamber, firing at the Human-Conqueror warcraft shooting past overhead.
"Looks like another door at the end there," Tbv-ohnor said as the last reverberations faded away. "You think it'll have the same type of opening mechanism?"
"We can hope so," Klnn-dawan-a said, grateful for the warrior's obvious effort to take her mind off the danger. "Odd, though-that outer door didn't seem very secure. Not like something the Human-Conquerors really wanted to keep intruders out of."
"Maybe this is the secure one," Tbv-ohnor said as they reached the bottom of the stairs. "See if you can open it quickly; if not, we'll burn it."
"Right."
Klnn-dawan-a squatted down beside the door; and as she studied the mechanism, she heard a new set of footsteps hurrying down the stairs behind them. "Warrior First?" one of the three warriors Tbv-ohnor had left in the entrance chamber called down. "Report from the Elders: one of the warcraft has landed and is discharging Human-Conqueror ground warriors. Commander Thrr-mezaz is dispatching the Stingbirds and more warriors."
"Understood," Tbv-ohnor said grimly. "Keep me informed."
"I obey," the warrior said. Turning, he hurried up the stairs again.
"Looks like we've sliced open a real maggot-filledkavra on this one," one of the warriors standing beside Klnn-dawan-a muttered under his breath.
"Looks like it," Tbv-ohnor agreed. "The Human-Conquerors don't want us down here, that's for sure."
"You wouldn't know it from their locks," Klnn-dawan-a said. Standing up, she released the latching mechanism-
And with only a single high-pitched squeak, the door swung gently open.
"Troop carrier's on the ground, Colonel," Crane reported as he sat at the situation monitor. "No opposition yet. Aircars still reporting minor laser fire from the target zone; no damage."
"What about the copters?" Holloway asked.
"Spotter Two reports they're prepping for flight," Crane said. "At the moment they're still on the ground."
"Probably going for a simultaneous jump-off," Takara muttered.
"Most likely," Holloway agreed, restlessly fingering the short-range radio comm in his hand as he studied the panoramic view of the village and target zone being relayed via comm laser from the spotters' nose cameras. The enemy force had definitely made it to the tectonic station; the laser fire coming at the aircar overflights showed that much. The question was, had they gotten inside yet?
"The copters have lifted," Crane reported. "Heading northward, treetop height. Spotters tally six of them; one appears to be carrying a belly payload."
Six of the Conquerors' deadly combat helicopters, against three moderately armed Peacekeeper aircars and one troop carrier. The smart thing to do, Holloway knew, would be to order his people back aboard and get them out of there while he still could.
But that would mean abandoning the tectonic station to the enemy. A place with no military value whatsoever... unless it was in fact the hiding place for one of CIRCE's components.
And if it was, his job above all else was to keep that component from falling into enemy hands. Even if it cost the lives of his entire command.
He raised the comm and clicked it to the Copperheads' channel. "Copperheads: launch."
"Yes, sir," the calm voice of Lieutenant Bethmann acknowledged. A moment later, quiet and almost harmless-sounding in the distance, Holloway heard the rumble as the two Corvine fighters shot from concealment into the air.
Takara moved a step closer to his side. "You're taking one hell of a risk here, Cass," he murmured. "I hope you realize that."
"We have to take a stand somewhere, Fuji," Holloway said. "We're taking it here."
Takara seemed to digest that. "If you're looking for a showdown with those copters, I recommend we try to draw them out here into the mountains," he said. "The Corvines seem to have the edge in target ranging and blind-corner maneuvering-"
"I said we're taking our stand here."
A muscle in Takara's cheek twitched as he stepped back. "Yes, sir."
Holloway looked back at the monitor. "Tactical overlay," he ordered.
"Yes, sir." Crane keyed in the overlay, and a multicolored vector graph appeared superimposed on the nose-camera composite. The six enemy copters were hauling bear for the tectonic station, all right. Holloway did a quick mental calculation-
"They're going to beat the Copperheads there," Takara said tightly. "Probably by a good minute."
And a minute would be all it would take for those six copters to methodically slaughter every one of the Peacekeepers deploying from the troop carrier and possibly take out the aircars as well. Holloway clenched a hand into a fist, torn between the military necessity of driving the enemy away and his own instinctive protectiveness toward his troops-
And then, only a few hundred meters from their goal, the six red vectors abruptly shortened and shifted direction. "Copters slowing," Crane snapped. "Check that: faltering-looks like they're going to land right there in the trees. No; there they go again. Veering east... now veering east and south."
"I'll be dumped to a desk job," Takara said, a note of incredulity in his voice. "They're running back home."
Holloway let out a silent sigh of relief. He'd gambled his irreplaceable Copperheads and won.
Or at least hadn't yet lost. "Maybe their commander thinks like you do, Fuji," he said. "Trying to lure the Copperheads into range of his ground-based weapons."
Takara threw him a slightly uneasy look. "I trust you're not going to take him up on the invitation."
"Don't worry," Holloway assured him. "I'm not interested in any high-noon showdowns. If I can push the Zhirrzh out of the tectonic station, I'll be happy."
Takara grunted, looking back at the copter vectors, now definitely heading back toward the village. "Doesn't say much for their commander that he'd just abandon seven of his troops out there without a fight."
"Perhaps," Holloway said. On the other hand, if that tame ghost of Melinda Cavanagh's had been telling the truth about Zhirrzh life cycles, they might not even care all that much about physical death. "To me it says those copters are as valuable to him as our Copperheads are to us."
Takara cocked an eyebrow. "And as irreplaceable?"
"Could be," Holloway agreed thoughtfully. And if true, that might be the best flicker of hopeful news they'd had since the invasion. If the ground troops here were having trouble getting resupplied, it might mean the Zhirrzh invasion of the Commonwealth had stretched their war machine dangerously thin.
Or else it could mean they were having too much fun stomping Earth or Centauri to bother with this military equivalent of a flea bite. "Let's see just how nervous he is about losing them," he said, clicking on his comm again. "Copperheads: veer to intercept those copters. Don't actually pursue-just scare them a little. Be sure you stay out of range of those ground lasers."
"Acknowledged."
Holloway clicked off and peered at the monitor. The two Corvines, which had been flying a parallel close-wingtip formation at treetop height, shifted smoothly into high-low pursuit mode. Holloway shifted his attention to the copters and their superimposed vectors, watching closely for any sign of reaction-
And without warning a blaze of light flashed upward from the forest.
Catching the lower of the two Corvines directly across its nose.
7
Tbv-ohnor had insisted on going first into the underground structure, an order Klnn-dawan-a had put up only token resistance to. Standing away from the half-opened door, she watched as the three warriors cautiously slipped through. There were a few flickers of light as the beams from their hand lights reflected off the walls and doorjamb; and then Tbv-ohnor was back, poking his head around the edge of the door. "Looks clear, Searcher," he said. "Come on in."
The room was a large one, probably encompassing the entire underground structure, though measurements would have to be taken to confirm that. The beams from the hand lights swept across Human-Conqueror-style chairs and tables, a curved desk with a ring of darkened monitors facing an empty chair, and walls lined with tall, slender equipment cabinets. Some of the cabinets hummed softly, with small rows of colored lights set into their fronts, which glowed steadily or flicked on and off i
n complex patterns. Other cabinets stood quietly, with no indication as to whether or not they were functioning.
"Looks like some sort of command room," one of the warriors commented.
"Perhaps," Klnn-dawan-a said, looking behind her. There was a hand-sized panel with two small blue lights set into the wall just beside the door. She waved her hand over them without effect, then gingerly touched the rightmost light with a fingertip. She'd guessed correctly: abruptly the room was filled with a soft white glow radiating from hidden sources behind the cabinets.
A strange multiple stuttering sound came faintly from the direction of the stairway. "What was that?" she asked.
"Human-Conqueror projectile weapons," one of the warriors told her, moving to the door and looking up. "Better hurry, Searcher-I don't think we're going to have much time."
