Part 17 (1/2)

Because, presumably, other prisoners had eaten such fare. ”I cannot live on this indefinitely.”

”No, I suppose not.” Sigmund crossed his arms across his chest. ”Not without tree-of-life, too.”

Other prisoners, clearly.

Thssthfok turned to look behind him and point to the world below. ”In the city from which I was taken, there is an orchard. I will need a supply of the root.”

”You got tree-of-life to grow out here?”

Sigmund sounded surprised. Why? And what was the context of ”out here”? Then Sigmund continued, shocking Thssthfok speechless.

Sigmund said, ”Phssthpok thought he had the solution. Did you get the cultivation technique from him?”

28.

”Go down fighting” was not a plan.

Oh, Sabrina and her senior ministers, consulting over hyperwave radio, entertained other options. Volunteers would be shuttled to other worlds, yet to be identified, to live lives hopefully primitive enough to escape Pak notice. On New Terra itself the government would dig deep shelters, in the unlikely event sensors spotted the inward plunging planet-buster with enough warning for an evacuation.

Neither precaution could save more than a few thousand lives.

No one had liked the idea of exposing childless volunteers to tree-of-life root, and that made Sigmund proud. Human protectors would be scary smart. If anyone could find a way to defeat the Pak, they they would. But afterward, would New Terra be a human world? Better to rebuild a shattered world as humans than to become the enemy. would. But afterward, would New Terra be a human world? Better to rebuild a shattered world as humans than to become the enemy.

So going down fighting was the best anyone could offer. Sigmund stood in awe of the courage to confront such overwhelming odds. To fight at all was to triumph over centuries of Puppeteer conditioning.

It was all so futile.

Sigmund shook off the depression that threatened to overwhelm him. He squared his shoulders, took a deep breath, and looked straight into the camera. ”Sabrina, you and I need to speak alone.” He sat in stubborn silence until her advisors, looking grim and relieved at the same time, shuffled from her cabinet room. The secure secure cabinet room, in the undisclosed location in which Sigmund's people did not allow bugs. cabinet room, in the undisclosed location in which Sigmund's people did not allow bugs.

”We can't defeat the Pak, Sabrina. We don't begin to have the resources. The Puppeteers might have the resources, but they don't have the will.” Baedeker, the last time he had emerged from his cabin, was a twitchy ma.s.s of reflexes, his mane long collapsed into the tangle at which he had plucked compulsively. Yet for a Puppeteer, Baedeker was crazy/brave. He could not otherwise have left home and herd. ”If we have can't defeat the Pak, Sabrina. We don't begin to have the resources. The Puppeteers might have the resources, but they don't have the will.” Baedeker, the last time he had emerged from his cabin, was a twitchy ma.s.s of reflexes, his mane long collapsed into the tangle at which he had plucked compulsively. Yet for a Puppeteer, Baedeker was crazy/brave. He could not otherwise have left home and herd. ”If we have any any chance, it's by our worlds working together. It's time we bring Concordance authorities into the loop.” chance, it's by our worlds working together. It's time we bring Concordance authorities into the loop.”

”Do you believe we can convince them to provide s.h.i.+ps?” Sabrina asked. ”From past dealings, I fear this news will be more than they can handle. I picture them going catatonic.”

”They might rise to the occasion,” Sigmund said.

And pigs might fly. The slightly more hopeful scenario was that enough Puppeteer s.h.i.+ps could be stolen for use by New Terran pilots. For that gambit, Sigmund needed lots lots of intel. It could only be gathered on the ground, among the worlds of the Fleet. of intel. It could only be gathered on the ground, among the worlds of the Fleet.

He respected Sabrina too much to involve her in such a harebrained scheme.

”You were right to want everyone to leave, Sigmund. We'll have to get an audience with the Hindmost himself, and that's always a most sensitive matter.” Lost in thought, Sabrina brushed a strand of loose gray hair from her forehead. ”Maybe Nessus can help us.”

The last time Nessus wanted to help New Terra, he had kidnapped Sigmund and poked holes in his memory.

Sigmund shook his head. ”I need to do this in person, Sabrina. It's best the Puppeteers not speculate uselessly until I get there.”

That meant appearing with little warning. Hearth's safety had long lain in stealth and secrecy, but the home world's location was hardly a secret from its former colony. In the years since New Terra won its freedom, the Concordance had surrounded Hearth with conventional planetary defenses. Not nearly enough to inconvenience the hordes of Pak, but Don Quixote Don Quixote alone? Despite an ”invulnerable” hull, they would not stand a chance. alone? Despite an ”invulnerable” hull, they would not stand a chance.

”On second thought, Sabrina, once we're back to the Fleet”-months from now-”maybe you should give Nessus a heads-up. You can hint that we're all in danger and I need an audience with the Hindmost.”

HATING THE TOO-FAMILIAR RELAX ROOM, hating the too-familiar s.h.i.+p s.h.i.+p, hating-impersonally and without reservation-everyone else aboard, Baedeker waited. And waited some more. His mane, unattended, had long ago dissolved into the snarl at which he now plucked listlessly. All the herd pheromone in the world could no longer comfort him.

Those with whom he waited were as despairing. Kirsten clearly had not slept in days. Eric's cheeks were hollow and his eyes dull; he had stopped shaving days ago. The Gw'oth partic.i.p.ated by comm link and did their waiting remotely. Baedeker could not read their body language, anyway, a.s.suming they had any.

A holo of the improvised prison hung over the relax-room table. Thssthfok was in one of his accustomed places: amid the empty storage units of the repurposed cargo hold. Privacy mattered to him, Baedeker presumed, as it did for his distant human cousins. Not that Thssthfok had privacy. Even seated as he was, on the deck between rows of empty shelves, two of the fiber-optic cables that penetrated the cell ceiling caught glimpses of his head and neck.

Sigmund, when he arrived, quite late, was as desperate as anyone. Oh, not outwardly: He was too proud, too duty bound, to project anything but serene a.s.surance.

But after so many months together, Baedeker knew the stoic exterior for the facade that it was. That confident att.i.tude must be harder and harder to maintain. Almost certainly, that was why Sigmund came late. He was as close to the edge as any of them. If he he cracked, it was hard to imagine how any of them would ever get home. cracked, it was hard to imagine how any of them would ever get home.

Not that Hearth would be a haven much longer.

”You know why we're here,” Sigmund began abruptly. No one commented, nor even met his gaze. ”There's one bit of unfinished business before we can head home.”

Everyone turned to the holo that floated over the table. The unfinished business they kept putting off: what to do with Thssthfok.

Sigmund was hindmost of the mission. What he decided would happen. To give credit, Sigmund solicited opinions before he chose. A hindmost could do worse.

”Thssthfok goes,” Baedeker said. ”We all know that he must.”

Kirsten cleared her throat. ”Goes where? Back to the flying squirrels?”

With a mind of its own, one of Baedeker's paws began sc.r.a.ping at the deck. ”The prisoner knows about us. Maybe not much, but some things. That we have stars.h.i.+ps. He knows enough to make our worlds prime targets.”

”So kill him, you mean,” Kirsten snapped. ”At least admit it.”

Yes! Killing the Pak was the only safe option. But Baedeker had not said it, had he? Even a Citizen found it hard to kill in-what was the human expression?-cold blood. ”Regrettably, I see no option,” Baedeker finally said.

Sigmund looked at Eric. ”What do you think?”

”If a Pak s.h.i.+p rescued Thssthfok today, it wouldn't matter. We're too many light-years behind the vanguard here. The lead s.h.i.+ps will have attacked our various home worlds, or pa.s.sed them by, long before any light-speed signal from here could reach them.”

As Sigmund nodded agreement, Baedeker's paw ceased its scratching. This was insanity! ”Suppose that, for some reason, the front wave does pa.s.s by our homes. However unlikely, it is possible. We must do nothing to risk the attention of later waves.”

Kirsten stood to pace, fists jammed in her jumpsuit pockets. ”Thssthfok's clan is near the front of the pack, among the first to escape Pakhome. Clans are bitter enemies. Why would he signal another-”

”He says says his clan is near the front,” Baedeker interrupted. ”a.s.sume it was. He cannot know what happened since he was marooned. He has to allow for the possibility his clan lost a skirmish and fell back, or delayed to gather supplies. You cannot know Thssthfok his clan is near the front,” Baedeker interrupted. ”a.s.sume it was. He cannot know what happened since he was marooned. He has to allow for the possibility his clan lost a skirmish and fell back, or delayed to gather supplies. You cannot know Thssthfok won't won't signal ahead if he can.” signal ahead if he can.”

And of course the prisoner lied! Only naivete could say otherwise. The only mystery was on which topics.

Conflict among clans was the only disclosure Baedeker truly believed-not for the stubborn skill of Sigmund's interrogation, or anything about how or why Thssthfok revealed the detail, but because, for once, they had corroborating data. The cone of destruction that marked the Pak incursion grew wider the farther the aliens traveled from home. Such dispersal was only logical as a consequence of battles among the Pak. Some would break away from the rest to replenish supplies, or scatter after a defeat, or to find shelter behind a convenient dust cloud. They fled from each other as much as from the deadly radiation that pursued them.