The ne' squirrel s.n.a.t.c.hed one last nut from Kault's open hand and then decided it had enough. With a swish of its fan-shaped tail it scooted off into the undergrowth. Kault turned to look at Uthacalthing, his throat slits flapping as he breathed.

"I have studied genome reports gathered by the Earth-ling ecologists," the Thennanin Consul said. "This planet had impressive potential, only a few millennia ago. It should never have been ceded to the Bururalli. The loss of Garth's higher life forms was a terrible tragedy."

"The Nahalli were punished for what their clients did, weren't they?" Uthacalthing asked, though he already knew the answer.

"Aye. They were reverted to client status and put under foster care to a responsible elder patron clan. My own, in fact. It is a most sad case."

"Why is that?"

"Because the Nahalli are actually quite a mature and elegant people. They simply did not understand the nuances required in uplifting pure carnivores and so failed horribly with their Bururalli clients. But the error was not theirs alone. The Galactic Uplift Inst.i.tute must take part in the blame."

Uthacalthing suppressed a human-style smile. Instead his corona spiraled out a faint glyph, invisible to Kault. "Would good news here on Garth help the Nahalli?" he asked.

"Certainly." Kauh expressed the equivalent of a shrug with his flapping crest. "We Thennanin were not in any way a.s.sociated with the Nahalli when the catastrophe occurred, of course, but that changed when they were demoted and given under our guidance. Now, by adoption, my clan shares responsibility for this wounded place. It is why a consul was sent here, to make certain the Earthlings do not do even more harm to this sorry world."

"And have they?"

Kault's eyes closed and opened again. "Have they what?"

"Have the Earthlings done a bad job, here?"

Kault's crest flapped again. "No. Our peoples may be at war, theirs and mine, but I have found no new grievances here to tally against them. Their ecological management program was exemplary.

"However, I do plan to file a report concerning the activities of the Gubru."

Uthacalthing believed he could interpret bitterness in Kault's voice inflection*. They had already seen signs of the collapse of the environmental recovery effort. Two days ago they had pa.s.sed a reclamation station, now abandoned, its sampling traps and test cages rusting. The gene-storage bins had gone rancid after refrigeration failed.

An agonized note had been left behind, telling of the choice of a neo-chimpanzee ecology aide-who had decided to abandon his post in order to help a sick human colleague. It would be a long journey to the coast for an antidote to the coercion gas.

Uthacalthing wondered if they ever made it. Clearly the facility had been thoroughly dosed. The nearest outpost of civilization was very far from here, even by hover car.

Obviously, the Gubru were content to leave the station unmanned. "If this pattern holds, it must be doc.u.mented," Kault said. "I am glad you allowed me to persuade you to lead us back toward inhabited regions, so we can collect more data on these crimes."

This time Uthacalthing did smile at Kault's choice of words. "Perhaps we will find something of interest," he agreed.

They resumed their journey when the sun, Gimelhai, had slipped down somewhat from its burning zenith.

The plains southeast of the Mulun range stretched like the undulating wavetops of a gently rolling sea, frozen in place by the solidity of earth. Unlike the Vale of Sind and the open lands on the other side of the mountains, here there were no signs of plant and animal life forms introduced by Earth's ecologists, only native Garth creatures.

And empty niches.

Uthacalthing felt the spa.r.s.eness of species types as a gaping emptiness in the aura of this land. The metaphor that came to mind was that of a musical instrument missing half its strings.

Yes. Apt. Poetically appropriate. He hoped Athaclena was taking his advice and studying this Earthling way of viewing the worM.

Deep, on. the level of nahakieri, he had dreamt of his daughter last night. Dream-picted her with her corona reaching, kenning the threatening, frightening beauty of a visitation by tutsunucann. Trembling, Uthacalthing had awakened against his will, as if instinct had driven him to flee that glyph.

Through anything other than tutstmucann he might have learned more of Athaclena, of how she fared and what she did. But tutsunucann only shimmered-the essence of dreadful expectation. From that glimmer he knew only that she still lived. Nothing more.

That will have to do, for now.

Kault carried most of their supplies. The big Thennanin walked at an even pace, not too difficult to follow. Uthacalthing suppressed body changes that would have made the trek easier for a short while but cost him in the long run. He settled for a loosening in his gait, a wide flaring of his nostrils -- making them flat but broad to let in more air yet keep out the ever-present dust.

Ahead, a series of small, tree-lined hummocks lay by a streambed, just off their path toward the distant ruddy mountains. Uthacalthing checked his compa.s.s and wondered if the hills should look familiar. He regretted the loss of his inertial guidance recorder in the crash. If only he could be sure . . .

There. He blinked. Had he imagined a faint blue flash?

"Kault."

The Thennanin lumbered to a stop. "Mmm?" He turned around to face Uthacalthing. "Did you speak, colleague?"

"Kault, I think we should head that way. We can reach those hills in time to make camp and forage before dark."

"Mmm. It is somewhat off our path." Kault puffed for a moment. "Very well. I will defer to you in this." Without delay he bent and began striding toward the three green-topped mounds.

It was about an hour before sunset when they arrived by the watercourse and began setting camp. While Kault erected their camouflaged shelter, Uthacalthing tested pulpy, reddish, oblong fruits plucked from the branches of nearby trees. His portable meter declared them nutritious. They had a sweet, tangy taste.

The seeds inside, though, were hard, obdurate, obviously evolved to withstand stomach acids, to pa.s.s through an animal's digestive system and scatter on the ground with its feces. It was a common adaptation for fruit-bearing trees on many worlds.

Probably some large, omnivorous creature had once depended on the fruit as a food source and repaid the favor by spreading the seeds far and wide. If it climbed for its meals it probably had the rudiments of hands. Perhaps it even had Potential. The creatures might have someday become pre-sentient, entered into the cycle of Uplift, and eventually become a race of sophisticated people.

But all that ended with the Bururalli. And not only the large animals died. The tree's fruit now fell too close to the parent. Few embryos could break out of tough seeds that had evolved to be etched away in the stomachs of the missing symbionts. Those saplings that did germinate languished in their parents' shade.

There should have been a forest here instead of a tiny, scrabbling woody patch.

I wonder if this is the place, Uthacalthing thought. There were so few landmarks out on this rolling plain. He looked around, but there were no more tantalizing flashes of blue.

Kault sat in the entrance of their shelter and whistled low, atonal melodies through his breathing slits. Uthacalthing dropped an armload of fruit in front of the Thennanin and wandered down toward the gurgling water. The stream rolled over a bank of semi-clear stones, taking up the reddening hues of twilight.

That was where Uthacalthing found the artifact.

He bent and picked it up. Examined it.

Native chert, chipped and rubbed, flaked along sharp, gla.s.sy-edged lines, dull and round on one side where a hand could find a grip. ...

Uthacalthing's corona waved. Lurrunanu took form again, wafting among his silvery tendrils. The glyph rotated slowly as Uthacalthing turned the little stone axe in his hand. He contemplated the primitive tool, and lurrunanu regarded Kault, still whistling to himself higher up the hillside.

The' glyph tensed and launched itself toward the hulking Thennanin.

Stone tools-among the hallmarks of pre-sentience, Uthacalthing thought. He had asked Athaclena to watch out for signs, for there were rumors . . . tales that told of sight-ings in the wild back country of Garth . . .

"Uthacalthing!"

He swiveled, shifting to hide the artifact behind his back as he faced the big Thennanin. "Yes, Kault?"

"I ..." Kault appeared uncertain. "Metoh kanmi, b'twuil'ph ... I ..." Kault shook his head. His eyes closed and opened again. "I wonder if you have tested these fruits for my needs, as well as yours."

Uthacalthing sighed. What does it take? Do Thennanin have any curiosity at all?

He let the crude artifact slip out of his hand, to drop into the river mud where he had found it. "Aye, my colleague. They are nutritious, so long as you remember to take your supplements."

He walked back to join his companion for a fireless supper by the growing sparkle of the galaxies' light.

52 Athaclena Gorillas dropped over both sharp rims of the narrow canyon, lowering themselves on stripped forest vines. They slipped carefully past smoking crevices where recent explosions had torn the escarpment. Landslides were still a danger. Nevertheless, they hurried.

On their way down they pa.s.sed through shimmering rainbows. The gorillas' fur glistened under coatings of tiny water droplets.

A terrible growling accompanied their descent, echoing from the cliff faces and covering their labored breathing. It had hidden the noise of battle, smothering the bellow of death that had raged here only minutes before. Briefly, the dinsome waterfall had had compet.i.tion but not for long.

Where its fremescent torrent had formerly fallen to crash upon glistening smooth stones, it now splattered and spumed against torn metal and polymers. Boulders'dislodged from the cliffsides had pounded the new debris at the foot of the falls. Now the water worked it flatter still.

Athaclena watched from atop the overlooking bluffs. "We do not want them to know how we managed this," she said to Benjamin.

"The filament we bunched up under the falls was pretreated to decay. It'll all wash away within a few hours, ser. When the enemy gets a relief party in here, they won't know what ruse we used to trap this bunch."

They watched the gorillas join a party of chim warriors poking through the wreckage of three Gubru hover tanks. Finally satisfied that all was clear, the chims slung their crossbows and began pulling out bits of salvage, directing the gorillas to lift this boulder or that shattered piece of armor plate out of the way.

The enemy patrol had come in fast, following the scent of hidden prey. Their instruments told them that someone had taken refuge behind the waterfall. And it was a perfectly logical place for such a hideaway-a barrier hard for their normal detectors to penetrate. Only their special resonance scanners had flared, betraying the Earthlings who had taken technology under there.

In order to take those hiding by surprise, the tanks had flown directly up the canyon, covered overhead by swarming battle drones of the highest quality, ready for combat.

Only they did not find much of a battle awaiting them. There were, in fact, no Earthlings at all behind the torrent. Only bundles of thin, spider-silk fiber.

And a trip wire.

And-planted all through the cliffsides-a few hundred kilos of homemade nitroglycerin.

Water spray had cleared away the dust, and swirling eddies had carried off myriad tiny pieces. Still the greater part of the Gubru strike force lay where it had been when explosions rocked the overhanging walls, filling the sky with a rain of dark volcanic stone. Athaclena watched a chim emerge from the wreckage. He hooted and held up a small, deadly Gubru missile. Soon a stream of alien munitions found its way into the packs of the waiting gorillas. The large pre-sentients began climbing out again through the multi-hued spray.

Athaclena scanned the narrow streaks of blue sky that could be seen through the forest canopy. In minutes the invader would have its fighters here. The colonial irregulars must be gone by then, or their fate would be the same as the poor chims who rose last week in the Vale of Sind.

A few refugees had made it to the mountains after that debacle. Fiben Bolger was not one of them. No messenger had come with Gailet Jones's promised notes. For lack of information, Athaclena's staff could only guess how long it would take for the Gubru to respond to this latest ambush.

"Pace, Benjamin." Athaclena glanced meaningfully at her timepiece.

Her aide nodded. "I'll go hurry 'em up, ser." He sidled over next to their signaler. The young chimmie began waving flapping flags.

More gorillas and chims appeared at the cliff edge, scrambling up onto the wet, glistening gra.s.s. As the chim scavengers climbed out of the water-carved chasm, they grinned at Athaclena and hurried off, guiding their larger cousins toward secret paths through the forest.

Now she no longer needed to coax and persuade., For Athaclena had become an honorary Earthling. Even those who had earlier resented taking orders "from an Eatee" now obeyed her quickly, cheerfully.

It was ironic. In signing the articles that made them consorts, she and Robert had made it so that they now saw less of each other than ever. She no longer needed his authority as the sole free adult human, so he had set forth to raise havoc of his own elsewhere.

I wish I had studied such things better, she pondered. She was unsure just what was legally implied by signing such a doc.u.ment before witnesses. Interspecies "marriages" tended to be more for official convenience than anything else. Partners in a business enterprise might "marry," even though they came from totally different genetic lines. A reptiloid Bi-Gle might enter into consort with a chitinous F'ruthian. One did not expect issue from such joinings. But it was generally expected that the partners appreciate each other's company.

She felt funny about the whole thing. In a special sense, she now had a "husband." And he was not here. So it was for Mathicluanna, all those long, lonely years, Athaclena thought, fingering the locket that hung from a chain around her throat. Uthacalthing's message thread had joined her mother's in there. Perhaps their laylacllapt'n spirits wound together in there, close as their bond had been in life.

Perhaps I begin to comprehend something I never understood about them, she wondered.

"Ser? . . . Uh, ma'am?"

Athaclena blinked and looked up. Benjamin was motioning to her from the trailhead, where one of the ubiquitous vine cl.u.s.ters came together around a small pool of pinkish water. A chimmie technician squatted by an opening in the crowded vines, adjusting a delicate instrument.

Athaclena approached. "You have word from Robert?"

"Yesser," the chimmie said. "I definitely am detecting one of th' trace chemicals he took along with him."

"Which is it?" she asked tensely.

The chimmie grinned. "Th' one with th' left-handed adenine spiral. It's the one we'd agreed would mean victory."

Athaclena breathed a little easier. So, Robert's party, too, had met with success. His group had gone to attack a small enemy observation post, north of Lome Pa.s.s, and must have engaged the enemy yesterday. Two minor successes in as many days. At this rate they might wear the Gubru down in, say, a million years or so.

"Reply that we, also, have met our goals."

Benjamin smiled as he handed the signaler a vial of clear fluid, which was poured into the pool. Within hours the tagged molecules would be detectable many miles away. Tomorrow, probably, Robert's signaler would report her message.

The method was slow. But she imagined the Gubru would have absolutely no inkling of it-for a while, at least.

"They're finished with the salvage, general. We'd better scoot."

She nodded. "Yes. Scoot we shall, Benjamin."

In a minute they were running together up the verdant trail toward the pa.s.s and home.

A little while later, the trees behind them rattled and thunder shook the sky. Clamorous booms pealed, and for a time the waterfall's roar fell away under a raptor's scream of frustrated vengeance.

Too late, she cast contemptuously at the enemy fighters.

This time.

53 Robert The enemy had started using better drones. This time the added expense saved them from annihilation.

The battered Gubru patrol retreated through dense jungle, blasting a ruined path on all sides for two hundred meters. Trees blew apart, and sinuous vines whipped like tortured worms. The hover tanks kept this up until they arrived at an area open enough for heavy lifters to land. There the remaining vehicles circled, facing outward, and kept up nearly continuous fire in all directions.

Robert watched as one party of chims ventured too close with their hand catapults and chemical grenades. They were caught in the exploding trees, cut down in a hail of wooden splinters, torn to shreds in the indisciminate scything.

Robert used hand signals to send the withdraw-and-disperse order rippling from squad to squad. No more could be done to this convoy, not with the full force of the Gubru military no doubt already on its way here. His bodyguards cradled their captured saber rifles and darted into the shadows ahead of him and to the flanks.

Robert hated the way the chims kept this web of protection around him, forbidding him to approach a skirmish site until all was safe. There was just no helping it though. They were right, dammit.

Clients were expected to protect their patrons as individuals-and the patron race, in turn, protected the client race as a species.

Athaclena seemed better able to handle this sort of thing. She was from a culture that had come into existence from the start a.s.suming that this was the way things were. Also, he admitted, she doesn't worry about machismo. One of his problems was that he seldom got to see or touch the enemy. And he so wanted to touch the Gubru.

"The withdrawal was executed successfully before the sky filled with alien battlecraft. His company of Earthling irregulars split up into small groups, to make their separate ways to dispersed encampments until they received the call to arms again over the forest vine network. Only Robert's squad headed back toward the heights wherein their cave headquarters lay.

That required taking a wide detour, for they were far east in the Mulun range, and the enemy had set up outposts on several mountain peaks, easily supplied by air and defended with s.p.a.ce-based weaponry. One of these stood along their most direct path home, so the chim scouts led Robert's group down a jungle crevice, just north of Lome Pa.s.s.