“They killed two sisters to get out,” said Vreaith flatly.
The whisper erupted into a cacophony of shouts. Sisters jumped to their feet. Ears and hands flapped wildly. The journalists tried to point their noters in six directions at once.
Byvant climbed to her feet and drew herself up to her full height. “Sisters! Please!” she bellowed. Silence descended like a heavy blanket over the room.
Very good, Sister, thought Ishth. Now, salvage this. Please.
“The Humans and the devna killed two of our sister-defenders?” said Byvant with perfect calm. “And who sent them out to die? Who held the Humans until they had to escape? To whose names do those deaths ready go, Citizen Sisters? Who ready owes their families for their lives?”
The shouts changed pitch and direction and the hand-and-ear-waving grew less. Byvant glanced down at Ishth. Ishth dipped her ears in approval.
Vreaith's face tightened up. She had evidently counted on that news to shock the whole room into confusion. Which went to show that she not only had no taste in clothes, she had no real understanding of how good Byvant was.
Ishth lowered her ears a little closer to her scalp. “Do you have any idea where your prisoners escaped to?”
Pem's ears sagged. There was no escaping the fact that Byvant's few words had swung the room against them again.
“We assume they are heading for the Human outpost near Mrant Chavan.”
“And there are more sisters sent to intercept?” prompted Ishth.
“They may have them by now.”
Ishth dipped her ears. “Good. It will be that much more convenient for you to escort them to the Human outpost.”
A look of incredulity flickered through Vreaith's eyes.
“Understand me clearly,” said Ishth. “The Humans are already scouring the Hundred Isles for their missing sisters. They can either find them soon, or they can continue to search for whatever they can find. Which may include the truth of what your sisters aboard the Ur are planning. What do you think the Humans will do if they find that?”
Now, what are you going to do? Are you nervous enough to give it all up now, or are you going to try to buy time for your sisters aboard the Ur?
Pem dropped her gaze to the floor. “We'll have to send some messages to find out what the situation is.”
Buying time. Good. You'll buy it for us, too. As long as the Humans think we can't manage for ourselves, they'll be willing to take you on for us.
And when you must die, it is not we who kill you.
Chapter XIV
Commander Keale, wake up! Commander Keale, wake up!”
Keale surfaced slowly from sleep. It took a minute to realize be was being bailed by the room voice.
“Commander Keale, wake up!”
“Room voice, what's the emergency?” Keale knuckled his eyes. “Lights!”
The lights rose, just a little, to give his eyes time to adjust, and the voice answered, “A priority red call is on your comm station.”
The words jolted Keale fully awake. He scrambled out of the sheets and snatched a pair of shorts off the bedside chair.
“Room voice, open comm station. I'm coming!” he called to the station as he yanked the shorts on.
The lights came up to full. Keale hurried out of the bedroom and into his spartan living room. The main comm station was alive and Lieutenant Ryan's face looked anxiously out at him from the screen.
“What is it?” Keale dropped into the station chair. Ryan was tousled and rumpled. Whatever he'd been doing, it wasn't sleeping.
“We've got trouble,” Ryan answered. “We got this from a pilot who was flying back to base late after doing a pass over Vshlanl and Prentanl Islands.”
Ryan's face blanked out and was replaced by a green-and-brown blur of woods and fields, punctuated by towns and homesteads. Then, in a clump of trees, an unexpected glint caught the light.
“What's that?” asked Keale.
“That's what the pilot wondered,” said Ryan's voice from behind the scene. “He went back for another look.” The ground tilted and rotated as the pilot banked his craft and angled his flight path over whatever in the grove was catching the light.
The plane flew over, the cameras looked down, and showed a tubular construction topped with a shining lens.
“A telescope?” Keale scratched his chin. “What are the Getesaph doing with a telescope so close to the port?”
“I went in and asked.” The flyover video cut out and Keale faced Ryan again. “There were five soldiers that we saw: a couple trindt, and three ivrth.” Captains and engineers, Keale translated mentally. Ryan's face was replaced by a new scene. This was a square room, small by Getesaph standards. It looked like one of the white, prefab buildings they were so good at putting up at a moment's notice. Two uniformed Getesaph with the trindt's red bands on their cuffs stood in front of whoever's eyes had made this recording.