The Course of Empire(129)

"You, of course." Aille stepped out into the glaring yellow sunlight streaming out of the west. "And General Kralik, Tully, and Caitlin Stockwell."



Aguilera stiffened and his face reddened. "Why not me, Subcommandant?"



"You are injured," Aille said, "and your specialty is the refit of ground assault vehicles. I want you to stay here in the refit facility and make sure preparation and deployment are proceeding as ordered. You have my authority to make whatever changes are needed. Speak to Nath. She will provide you with the necessary assistance."



Tamt's ears waggled with shamed-distress. "I am Caitlin Stockwell's bodyguard," she said. "She will be in great danger facing our most deadly enemies. Should you not take me?"



"If one bodyguard, however excellent, could stand between one human and the Ekhat, we would not need armies and fleets here," Aille said. "I wish you and Wrot to go instead with Aguilera and help Nath to swell his prestige. There are some here who will be distressed that a human has been given such authority."



Kralik cleared his throat. His hands were clasped behind his back and his carriage stiff. "Miss Stockwell is injured, sir."



"But not badly," Aille said. "I want Tully and Caitlin to see for themselves what we face. They both have important contacts here on Terra. So, if they see and believe, then it will be easier for those others as well. Most on this world will be required to fight without seeing. It is necessary someone they trust sees first for them."



"I don't understand," Tully said. "Caitlin is important because of her father, but I'm nobody."



"Of the many things you are," Aille said, "that is not one of them. I think it is more important for you to go than anyone else. You are a part—whatever the details, which I have never asked—of what humans on this world call the 'Resistance.' Indeed, you have been demonstrating its philosophy and arguments for my education every day since I first encountered you."



"Does vithrik not demand that you see for yourself?" Yaut demanded, his ears and whiskers stiff with impugned-honor. "If you believe we Jao are distorting the truth about the threat imposed by the Ekhat, here is your chance to test it."



"I do want to know the truth," Tully said. "We all do."



Aille turned to Yaut. "Summon Caitlin Stockwell. We leave as soon as the ship is ready."



The blood thrummed in his ears. Few of his kind had ever stood whisker to whisker with an Ekhat and lived to tell about it. They were notoriously unpredictable and given to actions that made no sense to ordinary sentient beings. He had much to do before leaving, files to review, protocol to absorb, preparations back here on Terra to direct.



An entire world to save. In the end, it was for this that Pluthrak had shaped him, not quarrels with the Narvo.

* * *



Tully preceded Aille and Yaut out of the command center and onto what humans would have called a "parking lot," as inappropriate as the term was here. Jao construction was all irregular curves, like everything of Jao origin, and lacked even a level surface to walk on. When Tully looked at the "pavement" closely, he could see slim flickers of green and blue deep inside, like fish darting in the black depths of some alien ocean.



The two Jao, bent over the fraghta's comboard, stopped at the edge to wait for the groundcars and ignored him. They seemed to be reviewing downloaded files from their database on the Ekhat, making last minute comparisons and notes.



He still couldn't get over it—the Ekhat were actually coming. It seemed these reputedly monstrous alien aggressors were not just a fiction, used by the Jao to compel obedience, much like a human parent invoked the bogeyman to send fractious children to bed. But there was no way this could be a pretense.Sweat rolled down his temples and pooled between his shoulders as the two Jao consulted. The late afternoon heat was intense, but, as always, it didn't affect them. If their concern was an act, he thought, it was a damn good one, and in all his time masquerading as a jinau, he had never known Jao to be any kind of actors, good or bad. What they felt was always written all over them, if one knew how to read their body language.



He certainly wasn't as accomplished as Caitlin Stockwell, but he could interpret well enough now to get the gist of what was going on. Aille, Yaut, Wrot, and Tamt were definitely worried. Before she'd been dispatched back to Aille's rooms to fetch Caitlin, the curve of Tamt's spine had even suggested fear. But then, Tamt seemed a simple soul, who saw things in bright, unalloyed colors and reacted accordingly.