"That is good to hear," the woman said. Her human-style smile-a suggestive baring of teeth-was one of their easier gestures to interpret. One as experienced with Galactic affairs as the legendary Helene Alvarez surely knew the effect the wolfling expression often had on others. She must have made a conscious decision to use it.

Well, such subtle intimidations played an acceptable role in the complex game of bluff and negotiation. Buoult was honest enough to admit that he did it too. It was why he had inflated his towering crest before entering.

"It will be good to see Garth again," Alvarez added. "I only hope we aren't the proximate cause of yet another holocaust on that unfortunate world."

"Indeed, we shall endeavor to avoid that at all costs. And if the worst happens-if this band of Gubru are completely out of control-then their entire nasty clan shall pay for it."

"I care little about penalties and compensation. There are people and an entire frail ecosphere at risk here."

Buoult withheld comment. I must be more careful, he thought. It is not meet for others to remind Thennanin -- defenders of all Potential-of the duty to protect such places as Garth.

It was especially galling to be chided righteously by wolflings.

And from now on they mil be at our elbows, carping and criticizing, and we will have to listen, for they will be stage consorts to one of our clients. It is only one price we must pay for this treasure Kault found for us.

The humans were pressing negotiations hard, as was to be expected from a clan as desperate for allies as they. Already Thennanin forces had withdrawn from all areas of conflict with Earth and Tymbrim. But the Terragens were demanding much more than that in exchange for help managing and uplifting the new client race called "Gorilla."

In effect, they were demanding that the great clan of the Thennanin ally itself with forlorn and despised wolflings and bad-boy prankster Tymbrimi! This at a time when the horrible Soro-Tandu alliance appeared to be unstoppable out on the starlanes. Why, to do so might conceivably risk annihilation for the Thennanin themselves!

If it were up to Buoult, who had had enough of Earthlings to last him a lifetime, the choice would be to tell them to go to Ifni's h.e.l.l and seek their allies there.

But it was not up to Buoult. There had long been a strong minority streak of sympathy for Earthiclan, back home. Kault's coup, allowing the Great Clan to achieve another treasured laurel of patronhood, could win that faction government soon. Under such circ.u.mstances, Buoult figured it wise to keep his own opinions to himself.

One of his undercommanders approached and saluted. "We have determined the positions taken up by the Gubru defense flotilla," he reported. "They are cl.u.s.tered quite close to the planet. Their dispers.e.m.e.nt is unusual. Our battle computers are finding it very hard to crack."

Hrnm, yes, Buoult thought on examining the close-in display. A brilliant arrangement of limited forces. Even original, perhaps. How unlike the Gubru.

"No matter," he huffed. "Even if there is no subtle way, they will nonetheless see that we came with more than adequate firepower to do the job by brute force if necessary. They will concede. They must concede."

"Of course they must," the human admiral agreed. But she did not sound convinced. In fact, she seemed worried.

"We are ready to approach to fail-safe envelopment," the orficer of the deck reported.

Buoult nodded quickly. "Good. Proceed. From there we can contact the enemy and announce our intentions."

Tension built as the armada advanced closer to the system's modest yellow sun. Although the Thennanin claimed proudly to possess no psychic powers, Buoult seemed to feel the gaze of the Earthling woman upon him, and he wondered how it was possible that he found her so intimidating.

She is only a wolfling, he reminded himself.

"Shall we resume our discussions, commander?" Admiral Alvarez asked at last.

He had no choice but to comply, of course. It would be best if much was decided before they arrived and the siege manifesto was read aloud.

Still, Buoult planned to sign no agreements until he had-a chance to confer with Kault. That Thennanin had a reputation for vulgarity and, well, frivolity, that had won him exile to this backwater world. But now he appeared to have achieved unprecedented miracles. His political power back home would be great.

Buoult wanted to tap Kault's expertise, his apparent knack at dealing with these infuriating creatures.

His aides and the human delegation filed out of the bridge toward the meeting room. But before Buoult left he glanced one more time back at the situation tank and the deadly-looking Gubru battle array. Air noisily escaped his breathing slits.

What are the avians planning? he wondered. What shall I do if these Gubru prove to be insane?

105 Robert In some parts of Port Helenia, there were more guard drones than ever, protecting their masters' domains rigorously, lashing out at anyone who pa.s.sed too near.

Elsewhere, however, it was almost as if a revolution had already taken place..The invader's posters lay tattered in the gutters. Above one busy street corner Robert glimpsed a new mural that had recently been erected in place of Gubru propaganda. Painted in the style called Focalist Realism, it depicted a family of gorillas staring with dawning but hopeful sentience oat upon a glowing horizon. Protectively standing beside them, showing the way to that wonderful future, was a pair of idealized, high-browed neo-chimpanzees.

Oh, yes, there had also been a human and a Thennanin in the picture, vague and in the background. Robert thought it really nice of the artist to have remembered to include them.

The heavily guarded shuttle he was in pa.s.sed through the intersection too quickly to see much detail, but he thought the rendering of the female chim hadn't quite done Gailet justice. Fiben, on the other hand, ought to be flattered.

Soon the "free" parts of town were behind them, and they pa.s.sed westward into areas patrolled with strict military discipline. When they landed their Talon Soldier guards hurried outside and stood watch as Robert and Uthacalthing left the shuttle to climb the ramp leading to the shining new Branch Library.

"This is an expensive setup, isn't it?" he asked the Tymbrimi Amba.s.sador. "Do we get to keep it if the Thennanin manage to kick the birds out?"

Uthacalthing shrugged. "Probably. And maybe the Ceremonial Mound as well. Your clan is due reparations, certainly."

"But you have your doubts."

Uthacalthing stood in the vast entranceway surveying the vaulted chamber and the towering cubic data store within. "It is just that I think it would be unwise to count your chickens before they have met the rooster."

Robert understood Uthacalthing's point. Even defeat for the Gubru might come at unthinkable cost.

"It's counting one's eggs before they're laid," he told the Tymbrimi, who was always anxious to improve his grasp of Anglic metaphors. This time, however, Uthacalthing didn't thank Robert. His wide-spread eyes seemed to flash as he looked back, sidelong. "Think about it," he said.

Soon Uthacalthing was deep in conversation with the Kanten Chief Librarian. At a loss to follow their rapid, inflected Galactic, Robert started a circuit of the new Library, taking its measure and looking at its current users.

Except for a few members of the Grand Examiner's team, all of the occupants were avians. The Gubru present were divided by a gulf he could henn, as well as see. Nearly two thirds of them cl.u.s.tered over to the left. They cooed and cast disapproving glances at the smaller group, which consisted almost entirely of soldiers. The military did not give off happy vibrations, but they hid it well, strutting about their tasks with crisp efficiency, returning their peers' disapproval with arrogant disdain.

Robert made no effort to avoid being seen. The wave of stares he attracted was pleasing. They obviously knew who he was. If just pa.s.sing near caused an interruption in their work, so much the better.

Approaching one cl.u.s.ter of Gubru-by their ribbons obviously members of the priestly Caste of Propriety-he bowed to an angle he hoped was correct and grinned as the entire offended gaggle was forced to form up and reply in kind.

Finally Robert came upon a data station formatted in a way he understood. Uthacalthing was still immersed in con-versaticn vith the Librarian, so Robert decided to see what he couk; ::.;d out on his own.

He made very little progress. The enemy had obviously set up safeguards to prevent the unauthorized from accessing information about near-s.p.a.ce, or the presumably converging battle fleets of the Thennanin. Still, Robert kept on trying. Time pa.s.sed as he explored the current data net, finding out where the invaders had set up their blocks.

So intense was his concentration that it took a while before he grew aware that something had changed in the Library. Automatic sound dampers had kept the growing hubbub from intruding on his concentration, but when he looked up at last Robert saw that the Gubru were in an uproar. They waved their downy arms and formed tight cl.u.s.ters around holo-tanks. Most of the soldiers had simply vanished, from sight.

What on Garth has gotten into them? he wondered.

Robert didn't imagine the Gubru would welcome him peering over their shoulders. He felt frustrated. Whatever was happening, it sure had them perturbed!

Hey! Robert thought. Maybe it's on the local news.

Quickly he used his own screen to access a public video station. Until recently censorship had been severe, but during the last few days, as soldiers were called away to combat duty, the networks had fallen under the control of the Caste of Cost and Caution. Those glum, apathetic bureaucrats now hardly enforced even modest discipline.

The tank flickered, then cleared to show an excited chim reporter.

_"... and so, at latest reports, it seems the surprise offensive from the Mulun hasn't yet engaged the occupation forces. The Gubru seem unable to agree on how to answer the manifesto of the approaching forces. ..."

Robert wondered, had the Thennanin made their p.r.o.nouncement of intent already? That had not been expected for a couple of days at least. Then one word caught in his mind.

From the Mulun?

"... We'll now rebroadcast the statement read just five minutes ago by the joint commanders of the army right now marching on Port Helenia."

The view in the holo-tank shifted. The chim announcer was replaced by a recently recorded image showing three figures standing against a forest background. Robert blinked. He knew these faces, two of them intimately. One was a chen named Benjamin. The other two were women he loved.

"... and so we challenge our oppressors. In combat we have behaved well, under the dicta of the Galactic Inst.i.tute for Civilized Warfare. This cannot be said of our enemies. They have used criminal means and have allowed harm to noncombatant fallow species native to a fragile world.

"Worst of all, they have cheated."

Robert gaped. The image panned back to show platoons of chims-bearing a motley a.s.sortment of weapons-trooping forth from the forest out into the open, accompanied by a few fierce-eyed humans. The one speaking into the camera was Lydia McCue, Robert's human lover. But Athaclena stood next to her, and in his alien consort's eyes he saw and knew who had written the words.

And he knew, without any doubt, whose idea this was.

"We demand, therefore, that they send forth their best soldiers, armed as we are armed, to meet our champions out in the open, in the Valley of the Sind...."

"Uthacalthing," he said, hoa.r.s.ely. Then again, louder. "Uthacalthing!"

The noise suppressors had been developed by a hundred million generations of librarians. But in all that time there had been only a few wolfling races. For just an instant the vast chamber echoed before dampers shut down the impolite vibrations and imposed hushed quiet once again.

There was nothing, however, to be done about running in the halls.

106 Gailet "Recombinant Rats!" Fiben cried upon hearing the beginnings of the declaration. They watched a portable holo set up on the slopes of the Ceremonial Mound.

Gailet gestured for silence. "Be quiet, Fiben. Let me hear the rest of it."

But the meaning of the message had been obvious from the first few sentences. Columns of irregulars, wearing makeshift uniforms of homespun cloth, marched steadily across open, winter-barren fields. Two squads of horse cavalry skirted the ragged army's perimeter, like escapees from some pre-Contact flatmovie. The marching chims grinned nervously and watched the skies, fondling their captured or mountain-made weapons. But there was no mistaking their att.i.tude of grim resolve.

As the cameras panned back, Fiben did a quick count. "That's everybody," he said in awe. "I mean, allowing for recent casualties, it's everybody who's had any training or would be any good at all in a fight. It's all or nothing." He shook his head. "Clip my blue card if I can figure what she hopes to accomplish."

Gailet glanced up at him. "Some blue card," she sniffed. "And I'd have to say she knows exactly what she's doing, Fiben."

"But the city rebels were slaughtered out on the Sind."

She shook her head. "That was then. We didn't know the score. We hadn't achieved any respect or status. Anyway, there weren't any witnesses.

"But the mountain forces have won victories. They've been acknowledged. And now the Five Galaxies are watching."

Gailet frowned. "Oh, Athaclena knows what she's doing. I just didn't know things were this desperate."

They sat quietly for a moment longer, watching the insurgents advance slowly across orchards and winter-barren fields. Then Fiben let out another exclamation. "What?" Gailet asked. She looked where he pointed in the tank, and it was her turn to hiss in surprise.

There, carrying a saber rifle along with the other chim soldiers, strode someone they both knew. Sylvie did not seem uncomfortable with her weapon. In fact, she appeared an island of almost zenlike calm in the sea of nervous neo-chimpanzees.

Who would've figured it? Gailet thought. Who would've thought that about her?

They watched together. There was little else they could do.

107 Galactics "This must be handled with delicacy, care, rect.i.tude!" the Suzerain of Propriety proclaimed. "If necessary, we must meet them one on one."

"But the expense!" wailed the Suzerain of Cost and Caution. "The losses to be expected!"

Gently, the high priest bent over from her perch and crooned to her junior.

"Consensus, consensus. . . . Share with me a vision of harmony and wisdom. Our clan has lost much here, and stands in dire jeopardy of losing far more. But we have not yet forfeited the one thing that will maintain us even at night, even in darkness-our n.o.bility. Our honor."

Together, they began to sway. A melody rose, one with a single lyric. , , "Zoooon. ..."

Now if only their strong third were here! Coalescence seemed so near. A message had been sent to the Suzerain of Beam and Talon urging that he return to them, join them, become one with them at last.

How, she wondered. How could he resist knowing, concluding, realizing at last that it is his fate to be my male? Can an individual be so obstinate?

The three of us can yet be happy!

But a messenger arrived with news that brought despair. The battle cruises in the bay had lifted off and was heading inland with its escorts. The Suzerain of Beam and Talon had decided to act. No consensus would restrain him.

The high priest mourned.

We could have been happy.

108 Athaclena "Well, this may be our answer," Lydia commented resignedly.

Athaclena looked up from the awkward, unfamiliar task of controlling a horse. Mostly, she let her beast simply follow the others. Fortunately, it was a gentle creature who responded well to her coronal singing.

She peered in the direction pointed out by Lydia McCue, where scattered clouds and haze partially obscured the western horizon. Already many of the chims were gesturing that way. Then Athaclena also saw the glint of flying craft. And she kenned the approaching forces. Confusion . . . determination . . . fanaticism . . . regret . . . loathing ... a turmoil of alien-tinged feelings bombarded her from the ships. But one thing was clear above all.

The Gubru were coming with vast and overwhelming strength.

The distant dots took shape. "I believe you are right, Lydia," Athaclena told her friend. "It seems we have our answer."

The woman Marine swallowed. "Shall I order a dispersal? Maybe a few of us can get away." She sounded doubtful.

Athaclena shook her head. A sad glyph formed. "No. We must play this out. Call all units together. Have the cavalry bring everyone to yonder hilltop."

"Any particular reason we should make things easy for them?"

Above Athaclena's waving tendrils the glyph refused to become one of despair. "Yes," she answered. "There is a reason. The best reason in all the world."

109 Galactics The stoop-colonel of Talon Soldiers watched the ragged army of insurgents on a holo-screen and listened as its high commander screamed in delight.

"They shall burn, shall smoke, shall curl into cinders under our fire!"

The stoop-colonel felt miserable. This was intemperate language, bereft of proper consideration of consequences. The stoop-colonel knew, deep within, that even the most brilliant military plans would eventually come to nothing if they did not take into account such matters as cost, caution, and propriety. Balance was the essence of consensus, the foundation of survival.

And yet the Earthlings' challenge had been honorable! It might be ignored. Or even met with a decent excess of force. But what the leader of the military now planned was unpleasant, his methods extreme.

The stoop-colonel noted that it had already come to think of the Suzerain of Beam and Talon as "he." The Suzerain of Beam and Talon was a brilliant leader who had inspired his followers, but now, as a prince, he seemed blind to the truth.