Conquerors' Legacy

6

Or perhaps it was simply that the smells were flavored by her own fear and anxiety. Here, in the middle of a war zone, carrying the dreadfully illegal sample she and Thrr-gilag had taken from Prr't-zevisti's fsss organ, there was certainly plenty to be afraid of.

But she was here, and Second Commander Klnn-vavgi was waiting for her at the foot of the shuttle ramp as a good cousin ought to, and this was no time for second thoughts. Keeping her head held high, trying not to let her nervousness show, she continued down.

"Greetings to you, third cousin in the family of Klnn," Klnn-vavgi gave the formal clan salutation as she reached the ground. "I am Second Commander Klnn-vavgi; Dhaa'rr."

"I am Searcher Klnn-dawan-a; Dhaa'rr," Klnn-dawan-a said, giving the appropriate response. "I greet you in turn, third cousin, and ask for your hospitality."

"My hospitality is yours," Klnn-vavgi said, flicking his tongue in a smile. "Welcome, Klnn-dawan-a. It's good to see you again."

"And you, Klnn-vavgi," she said, studying his face as she returned the smile. They had met only rarely over the past few cyclics—their two particular branches of the family had never been especially close. But her memories of him were strong enough that she was able to see that the stresses of warfare had added new strains to his face. "You're looking well," she said aloud. "It's been, what, two cyclics since we last saw each other?"

"More like one and two-thirds," Klnn-vavgi said, flicking his tongue toward the rack of kavra fruit set up beside him. Generally, the rite of the kavra was dispensed with between such close family members; obviously, procedures at warrior bases were more stringent. "It was at Kylre Point, at the bonding ceremony of Klnn-poroo and Rka-felmib."

Klnn-dawan-a looked at him sharply, her tongue pressing hard against the roof of her mouth. But there was none of the sly taunting in his expression that she'd half expected. "I presume you've heard that the Dhaa'rr-clan leaders have annulled my bond-engagement to Thrr-gilag."

"Yes," Klnn-vavgi said, not looking at her as he chose one of the kavra from the rack. "We have a couple of Dhaa'rr Elders here who keep up on the gossip from home."

Klnn-dawan-a picked up her own kavra, her tongue pressed hard against the side of her mouth. Gossip. Her love for Thrr-gilag—his love for her—their hoped-for, longed-for, pleaded-for future together. All of it reduced to nothing more important than gossip.

Klnn-vavgi must have seen something in her expression. "I'm sorry," he said hastily. "I didn't mean that the way it sounded."

"It's all right," Klnn-dawan-a said. "I suppose to anyone else that's all it is." She held up the kavra fruit and slashed through it twice with the edges of her tongue, with perhaps more force than was really necessary.

Klnn-vavgi followed with his part of the ceremony, and they dropped their lacerated fruit into the disposal container. "Commander Thrr-mezaz wanted me to bring you to him as soon as you arrived," he said, gesturing the way toward one of the buildings near the landing area. "I understand you've brought some personal messages and items from Dharanv for the Dhaa'rr warriors here."

"Yes," Klnn-dawan-a said. "They're in with the general supplies in the shuttle's cargo area."

"I'm sure the warriors will be pleased to receive them," he said, throwing her a thoughtful look. "I'm a little surprised you came all this way here yourself for such a trivial errand."

"Comfort for warriors in a war zone is hardly a trivial errand," Klnn-dawan-a said mildly.

"It is when there are other priorities involved," Klnn-vavgi said. "In the middle of a war against an alien race, an expert on aliens and alien cultures should have more pressing demands on her time."

"Specializing in a field does not necessarily make one an expert in it," Klnn-dawan-a pointed out. "I'm sure Warrior Command is indeed keeping the true experts busy."

"Of course they are," Klnn-vavgi said. "Still, Commander Thrr-mezaz seemed very insistent that you be allowed to personally come down to the surface. He even had to argue a little with Supreme Ship Commander Dkll-kumvit about it."

"I imagine he's anxious to hear about his brother and what happened at the bond-engagement hearings," Klnn-dawan-a said, fighting to keep her voice steady. Clearly, Klnn-vavgi hadn't been taken in by this personal-messages ploy of hers.

And if he wasn't fooled, others probably weren't, either. And if one of them was suspicious enough to order the Elders to do a thorough examination of the waist pouch hanging at her side...

"It's none of my business, of course," Klnn-vavgi said with a shrug. "But there are some here who think everything that happens on Dorcas is their business. I just wanted to warn you about that. Here we are."

"Thank you," Klnn-dawan-a murmured as they stepped between the two warriors guarding the door and went inside. Yes; the Elders would be trying to put the pieces together, all right. What else did they have to do?

Though, on the other side, that might not be such a bad thing. If they thought she'd come here to talk to Thrr-mezaz about her bond-engagement to Thrr-gilag, maybe they'd be less inclined to dig for another motive. Maybe for once the Elder preoccupation with gossip was going to work in their favor.

At first glance the room they walked into reminded Klnn-dawan-a of a sample testing room for some important and well-funded alien-studies group. A circle of optronic-equipment racks and monitors lined three of the four walls, with a Zhirrzh busy in front of each of them. Other Zhirrzh were moving back and forth between the stations, and a quiet buzz of low conversation filled the room. Hanging over all of it was a cloud of fifteen or twenty Elders, some moving around between the racks, most grouped together around one particular station.

Standing in the middle of the group, gesturing to the display in one of the racks, was Thrr-mezaz.

"Yes, it's been mentioned on several occasions that the rocks in that area are rich in metal ores," he was saying as Klnn-vavgi led her over to the edge of the crowd of Elders. "I'm not interested in hearing it mentioned again. This is the first solid lead we've had, and we're going to follow up on it. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Commander," one of the Elders said, in a tone that Klnn-dawan-a suspected was bordering on insubordination. "We'll do whatever we can."

"You'll do whatever it takes," Thrr-mezaz corrected him quietly. "You have your orders."

"I obey, Commander," the Elder growled. He half turned to the other Elders, gestured impatiently with his tongue. "You heard the commander," he said. "Let's get to it."

The whole group flickered and vanished. "They found something?" Klnn-vavgi asked.

"That appears to be a matter of opinion," Thrr-mezaz said, flicking his tongue in a grimace. "The Elders searching the area north of the village ran into a slender nonmetallic cable about four strides underground. Definitely of Human-Conqueror origin."

"Sounds promising," Klnn-vavgi said. "What's the problem?"

"The problem is that it's going to be difficult to trace through the ore-bearing rocks in the region," Thrr-mezaz said. "Several of the Elders are balking at the task, especially since they're half-convinced it's nothing but a control cable for the Elderdeath weapon we destroyed when we first attacked the planet." He shifted his eyes to Klnn-dawan-a. "Welcome to Dorcas, Klnn-dawan-a. You've come at a busy time—I'm afraid our hospitality isn't going to be quite as generous as I'd like."

"You forget I'm used to temporary field shelters on alien worlds, Thrr-mezaz," Klnn-dawan-a said dryly. "Anyway, I'm not here for a vacation."

Thrr-mezaz's tongue twitched. "No, indeed. Let's step into my office."

A hunbeat later they were alone, the office door closed to the warriors in the room outside. "I'm glad you made it here safely," Thrr-mezaz said, gesturing her to one of the couches as he sank onto the couch behind the desk. "I don't mind telling you I was pretty worried when I heard about the Human-Conqueror attack on Shamanv."

"I was pretty worried myself," Klnn-dawan-a said, feeling her tail twitch at the memory. "I was standing right out in the open when three of those black-and-white Human-Conqueror spacecraft flew past overhead. Good luck must have been with me."

"Immense good luck," Thrr-mezaz agreed. "The reports indicated those were probably Copperhead warcraft. The most dangerous the Human-Conquerors have to offer."

Klnn-dawan-a's tail twitched again. "Just as well I didn't know."

"Probably." Thrr-mezaz paused. "You have the package with you?"

"Yes," Klnn-dawan-a said, looking around the room. "Is it safe to talk here?"

"As safe as anywhere in the encampment," Thrr-mezaz said, also looking around. "All the Elders should be either on sentry duty, searching that area north of the village, or acting as communicators out in the command/monitor room. I wish I'd thought to have you pick up a hummer before you left Dharanv, though. Either you or Thrr-gilag."

"It wouldn't have helped to tell Thrr-gilag," Klnn-dawan-a said. "By now he should be well on his way to the Mrachani homeworld."

Thrr-mezaz threw her an odd look. "That's right—you probably don't know. He was taken off the Mrachani mission. He's on his way here instead."

"Here?" Klnn-dawan-a echoed. "What for?"

"He didn't want to say, even on that secure Elder pathway Prr't-casst-a set up for us," Thrr-mezaz said. "But he's only about a fullarc behind you, so we'll be able to ask him ourselves soon enough."

"I see," Klnn-dawan-a murmured. "What do we do first?"

Thrr-mezaz looked around the room again. "First you'd better give me the package."

"Gladly," Klnn-dawan-a said, opening her waist pouch and digging down toward the bottom. "I've been terrified ever since we got it that some Elder would happen to run into it and be suspicious enough to alert someone."

"That problem I can guard against, anyway," Thrr-mezaz said, standing up and walking around the corner of the desk. "There's a metal box in one end of that cabinet over there in the corner, probably the Human-Conqueror commander's safe. It can't be sealed anymore—we burned off the lock to see if there was anything inside—but it should at least keep the package safe from accidental discovery."

"Good," Klnn-dawan-a said, producing the case containing the slender tissue sampler she'd used at the Prr-family shrine. "We'd still better get it where it needs to go as quickly as possible."

"There are many other reasons to do that," Thrr-mezaz reminded her grimly as he took the case and opened it. "Prr't-zevisti's life, for starters. Is this really it?"

"That's really it," Klnn-dawan-a assured him. "I know it looks strange, but it ought to work as well as any normal cutting."

"We'll find out soon enough," Thrr-mezaz said, crossing the room to the cabinet and swinging open an outer wooden door. "Some fullarc you're going to have to tell me how you two got hold of this." He squatted down, pulled open the warped metal door of the safe itself, and set the case inside—

And suddenly an Elder appeared in front of the desk.

A small gasp escaped Klnn-dawan-a's mouth before she could stifle it. Thrr-mezaz didn't even flinch. "Yes?" he demanded, half turning around.

"We've found something, Commander," the Elder said, his voice pulsating with excitement. "A large underground structure, perhaps fifteen strides across at its largest, buried twenty strides below the surface."

"Have you looked inside yet?" Thrr-mezaz asked, swinging the safe door closed and straightening up again.

"We can't get in," the Elder said. "There's an inner lining of metal."

Behind Klnn-dawan-a the door opened, and she turned as Klnn-vavgi hurried into the room. "Commander, we've—ah; you've heard."

"I've heard the first part, anyway," Thrr-mezaz said, crossing over to him. "Have they found the way in?"

"There's an angled tunnel leading down into it," Klnn-vavgi said. "At the end are a camouflaged doorway and entrance chamber built into a hillside. The Elders are still searching for the opening mechanism."

"We'll burn it open if we have to," Thrr-mezaz said. "Get a sectrene of warriors together, Second. We're going in for a look."

"I obey, Commander," Klnn-vavgi said, heading back into the command/monitor room. "Communicator?"

"Shouldn't you send some technics too?" Klnn-dawan-a asked Thrr-mezaz.

"I wish I could," the other said, flicking his tongue. "Unfortunately, every technic on Dorcas—and most of the ones from the encirclement ships, too—are up to their tonguetips looking through the spacecraft the Mrachanis came in. The Overclan Seating's contact mission is due to hit the Mrachani homeworld in about a fullarc, and Warrior Command wants to know as much about Mrachani technology as possible before they land."

"Wouldn't Warrior Command be willing to reassign some of them for this?"

"They might," Thrr-mezaz said, throwing a quick look around the room. "On the other side, they might also order me to stay away from that underground structure entirely. In fact, they may do that anyway—there are probably Elders who'll be reporting this discovery whether I do directly or not."

Klnn-dawan-a looked around the room, too. No Elders were visible, but that didn't prove anything. "Why wouldn't Warrior Command want you investigating the structure?"

"Call it a hunch," Thrr-mezaz said, taking a step toward the door. "If you'll excuse me, I'd better get those warriors moving."

Klnn-dawan-a made a quick decision. "Let me go with them."

Thrr-mezaz flicked his tongue in a negative. "Not a good idea," he said. "It could be dangerous."

"So could having warriors blundering around not knowing what they're doing," she countered. "I know a fair amount about alien artifacts."

He gazed hard at her, indecision flicking across his face. "Thrr-gilag will raise me to Eldership personally if anything happens to you."

"He has no say in it," Klnn-dawan-a said, tasting bitterness beneath her tongue. "Our bond-engagement has been annulled, remember?"

"Yes, but—"

"And the only way we're going to get together again," she went on quietly, "is if we make such a contribution to the war effort that the clan leaders have no choice but to reconsider. Could this underground structure be such a contribution?"

Thrr-mezaz's tongue flicked. "Yes. It could indeed."

"Then I'm going," she said, standing up. "Do I have time to change into field clothing first?"

"I think so, yes." Thrr-mezaz's tongue flicked again. "Klnn-dawan-a—"

"I'll be fine, Thrr-mezaz," Klnn-dawan-a assured him, touching his cheek gently with her tongue. "Really. Just let me get my bags from the shuttle, and then you can show me where I can change."

It was odd, Melinda Cavanagh had thought more than once during the past twenty days, how the twin tensions of warfare and forced confinement worked so effectively together to bring out both the very best and the very worst in people.

She'd seen a pair of Peacekeeper soldiers stoically endure enemy laser burns that should have had them screaming in agony, insisting that she give her attention first to fellow soldiers whose injuries were worse than theirs; yet barely two days later she'd had to rebandage some of those same burns after a casual insult had precipitated a brief but vicious fight in one of the hillside bivouacs. She'd watched civilians uncomplainingly take their turns standing watch at the perimeter sentry posts in the icy mountain air, knowing full well that those posts would be the first to go when the inevitable Zhirrzh attack came; yet those same men so calmly facing death could launch into five minutes of swearing at the news they'd been tapped for latrine-digging duty. Melinda had experienced the same paradoxical tugs on her own psyche, working straight through the night to treat burns and abrasions and frostbite, yet nearly going ballistic one evening when her meal ration was one meat strip short.

All of which had made Lieutenant Colonel Castor Holloway's conduct over those same twenty days stand that much further above the crowd. In her multiple roles as physician, microbiology researcher, and occasional idea sounding board, Melinda had spent a fair amount of time with Holloway or in close proximity to him, and she had been thoroughly impressed by his consistent professionalism and self-control. She'd seen him grim, tired, amused, thoughtful, even frustrated; but never angry, brusque, or insulting to the troops or civilians under his command.

Apparently, it took a lot to make Colonel Holloway really angry. Just as apparently, Melinda had managed to find the winning combination.

"I don't believe what I'm hearing," Holloway snarled, his cheeks tinged with red as he glared at her. "You, of all people, Cavanagh. Of all people."

"I'm sorry, Colonel," Melinda said, trying to keep her voice steady and quiet. Especially quiet. There was precious little privacy there in the huge, cavernlike area that served as Peacekeeper HQ, and it was embarrassing getting chewed out in public. "But I don't think it's that serious a problem."

"Oh, you don't, do you?" he asked icily. "Communication with the enemy isn't that serious a problem? Unauthorized, unsupervised, uncensored communication with the enemy isn't that serious a problem?"

"It's not communication with the enemy," Melinda insisted, feeling some anger of her own starting to simmer. "It's one civilian talking to one prisoner. Prr't-zevisti can't get to any of his people—that metal room has him completely trapped."

"We only have his word for that," Holloway shot back, jabbing his stylus toward her for emphasis. "For all we know, the whole Zhirrzh task force out there could have been listening in."

"Which is one reason I thought I should be the one to talk to him first," Melinda said. "I don't have any military knowledge they could use against us."

"That's not the point," Holloway insisted. "The point is that you had no business pulling something like this without consulting with me first."

"And what would you have said if I had?" Melinda countered. "That no one was to talk to him until you'd taken a close look at who and what this incorporeal creature was who'd taken up residence in your camp? Fine. Who exactly would you have picked to do that study?"

"That's irrelevant," Holloway growled. "And damn conceited, besides."

"I'm sorry," Melinda said stiffly. "Being irrelevant and damn conceited runs in my family."

There was an almost-chuckle from the side, instantly strangled off. "You have something to add, Major?" Holloway demanded, glaring at his second in command.

"No, sir," Major Fujita Takara said, his face straightening instantly back to serious. "I was just agreeing with Dr. Cavanagh that those qualities do indeed run in her family."

For a long moment Holloway held the glare, the muscles of his throat and cheeks working, but his reddish color slowly beginning to fade. Finally, with a long and thoroughly exasperated sigh, he turned back to Melinda. "I'd have you court-martialed, Doctor," he said, tossing the stylus in disgust onto the desk, "except that that's what you technically are anyway. All right—let's hear it."

"Yes, sir," Melinda said, turning on her plate and setting it on the desk where Holloway could see it. "To begin with, Prr't-zevisti seems to represent a stage of Zhirrzh existence that has no real analogue in the human life cycle. At the point of physical death, their spirits—or personalities, or whatever—are drawn back to and anchored at the site of an organ that had been earlier removed and preserved. These fsss organs are taken from beneath the brain when the Zhirrzh are children—that's where that scar at the back of the skull comes from. The organs are then stored in huge pyramid-shaped structures maintained by the various Zhirrzh families."

"Ghost retirement homes," Takara murmured, hitching his chair closer to the desk for a better look at the plate.

"Something like that," Melinda agreed. "Except that they're called Elders, not ghosts. Anyway, it seems that if you then take a slice from one of these fsss organs, the Elder attached to it can move back and forth between the main organ and the cutting. Supposedly instantaneously, even if the two pieces are light-years apart."

"I'll be damned," Takara said quietly. "There it is, Cass. That's their instantaneous communication method."

"Maybe," Holloway said, frowning suspiciously at Melinda. "And he just told you all this?"

"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 the Jutland transmitted to them. Apparently, radio waves play havoc with the Zhirrzh sense of balance and also cause tremendous pain to Elders via their fsss 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 the Jutland 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 in my 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 naïveté. What I would 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. "The Imperative 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 their fsss 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-filled kavra 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.