The Crucible of Empire (11 page)

Kaln bristled. "You criticize Krant now!"

"Actually," Wrot said, "I am only criticizing
you
, unless all Krants behave this badly." He studied her, his eyes flickering green. "Do they?"

The shame of this day's actions came back to her, losing control and injuring her captain, being sent off to swim away her anger by a human as though she were a child too young to have emerged into society. What would her kochan-parents have said about all this? Her hands clenched. "No," she said in a strangled voice. "Krant is an honorable kochan. I was taught better."

"You cannot make yourself of use here," Wrot said, "unless you are able to work closely with humans. Tully, who at one time had quite a bit to learn himself about working with Jao, will assist you. The three of you should listen carefully to him."

Him—it was male, then. She hadn't been sure about that. She batted at her bad ear, frustrated. Those many service bars meant that this Wrot outranked both of them. "I—shall—endeavor to do so," she said grudgingly.

The native made a strangled noise, shook his head and said something in his native language.

"Speak only Jao in the hearing of your new charges," Wrot said. "That is respectful, and besides how else will they learn?"

"I said—" The human appeared to struggle with the translation. "I will be—
damned
."

The last word had still been in his own indecipherable tongue. She glared at him, whiskers bristling.

"The term—does not translate easily," he said. "It means something like 'doomed to eternal punishment.' "

"Well," Kaln said, somewhat mollified, "that would be proper."

And then the stub-earred creature led them to a food hall for something to eat.

The next morning, Caitlin moved into her quarters on the
Lexington
. Ed was morose when he dropped her off, kissing her right there on the tarmac in front of Jao and human alike with a passion that curled her toes. She felt her cheeks heat.

"Damn Jao," he muttered against her neck as supply trucks rumbled past just a few feet away. His warm breath tickled all the way down to her knees. "Spiriting a guy's wife off to the far reaches of the galaxy on a whim just when he's gotten used to having her around!"

She laughed, though her heart was racing. Facing east, the morning sun was in her eyes and made it difficult to focus on his face. "Maybe you're just a little too used to having me around." She pressed her cheek to the broad expanse of his chest and drank in the sense of calm strength he always exuded. He smelled of aftershave, as usual, laundry detergent, and, for some reason, orange juice. Must have spilled some on his jacket that morning. She sighed and clung to him, her fingers smoothing a wrinkle in his shirt over and over. "Maybe you'll appreciate me even more when I come back."

If
I come back, she thought, and knew that he was thinking the same thing. They'd both traveled to that Ekhat ship two years ago, had stood together in that terrible ear-splitting place and heard the insanity of what the aliens had to say—right before the pair had ripped themselves to shreds for having been defiled by non-Ekhat contact. There had been at least one Ekhat ship in the nebula where the
Lexington
was headed. The Krant ships had destroyed it, but there could be more.

Ed's arms tightened until she couldn't breathe, but then he released her and stepped back, his shoulders resigned. Above all, he was a soldier, she thought. He knew where a soldier's duty lay, both his and hers. She was just as much a warrior as he was these days, only her weapons were papers and words.

His gray eyes narrowed. "Just see that you do come back," he said in his officer's voice.

Caitlin smiled tremulously, her toes still curled from that kiss. "Like anyone could keep me from it!" She hoisted her travel bag's strap onto her shoulder, then watched him climb into their black car and drive away without looking back. As one of the top commanders of the jinau, he had meetings in New Chicago over the next three days. The
Lexington
was scheduled to lift before he could return.

At least, humans had calculated that was when it would leave. The Jao, who disliked the notion of chopping time into discrete bits and then fussily counting them, were talking about "flow being very close to completion." Somewhere in the middle of the two widely disparate attitudes about time lay the truth. The
Lexington
would take off when all supplies were loaded and personnel were in place, in other words, when the vast ship was ready, and not a single second before.

Caitlin passed through Security to enter the refit facility, then again at the ship herself. Such a grand lady, Caitlin thought, as she walked up the ramp, the
Lexington
's massive gray ribbed hull obscuring the sky. So many hopes were riding with her. Earth had been lucky last time in the battle with the Ekhat, cobbling together a ramshackle defense that proved mostly effective, but the Chinese people had paid the price. And luck could only take them so far before it gave out. Preparation was a much better ally.

At the top of the ramp, she encountered the ship's captain, Dannet krinnu ava Terra, a middle-aged Jao female with a great deal of Ekhat combat under her belt.

"Mrs. Kralik," Dannet said. Her stance declared this meeting an
irritated-distraction
to the human's experienced eyes. "I felt you would come soon."

Dannet was handsome by Jao standards with a powerful frame as well as a strongly marked
vai camiti
that boldly stated her origin, despite her adoption of her new taif's designation. The three broad stripes slanted across her nose and eyes at that precise angle indicated "Narvo," to anyone with much knowledge of Jao culture.

Narvo had also been the kochan of Oppuk, the late and unlamented governor of Earth, who had abandoned Earth to the Ekhat when the attack came. Years before, he had murdered Caitlin's brother in a fit of pique because his Jao accent had been lacking, then later broken her arm as casually as one snaps a twig. He was dead now, but his kochan was very highly ranked. Members of it worked at various positions all over Earth. She often wondered how much they blamed her for Oppuk's disgrace and death.

To deepen the fragile new association between Pluthrak and Narvo, the current governor, Aille, a former Pluthrak, had applied to Narvo for an experienced captain, once the
Lexington
was under construction, with the understanding that he or she must join Earth's new taif. Dannet had come, apparently willing, but seeing that
vai camiti
was always chilling. It was like looking back through time into Oppuk's unsane face. Though she had no idea how closely the two were related, Caitlin avoided the Narvo female whenever possible.

"Call me Caitlin," Caitlin said, summoning her diplomatic skills. She let her angles assume
wishing-to-be-of-use
. "We are crewmates now. Formality will not be necessary."

"Formality has its uses," Dannet said, regarding her with an indecipherable expression. Her body had now gone classically
neutral
. "Do you know the way to your quarters?"

Thank the gods, she did, having inspected them several days before. "Yes."

"Then I will leave you," Dannet said. "I have much to oversee." She continued on down the ramp, her stride businesslike, resplendent in Terra-blue trousers and gleaming blue harness.

"Gives you the willies, don't she?" a voice said out of the shadows just beyond the great hatch. A hand extended.

"Rob!" Caitlin took the proffered hand. "I didn't know you'd come aboard."

The dark face of Rob Wiley, former Resistance leader, grinned back at her, sporting a gold front tooth. Good dental work was nonexistent back in the mountains and he'd been taking advantage of its availability since accepting the position of one of the two subcommanders heading
Lexington's
ground force complement. "Boarded most of my troops this morning."

"How's that going?" she asked as the hatch closed behind them.

"Damned weird," Wiley said, slinging Caitlin's bag over his own shoulder and then falling into step beside her. "If anyone had told me two years ago that I would share command of anything with a freaking Jao, I'd have sliced their liver out and served it to them for breakfast."

"Is Brel making it difficult?" Their footsteps echoed across a patch of bare deck plating. Busy crew members, human and Jao, bustled past in both directions, paying them no attention. He directed her to the nearest lift station and punched for the car.

"Not on purpose, but I never know what that rascal is thinking," Wiley said as they waited. "He says almost nothing, and I can't figure out what all that stupid dancing around means. I've tried to learn a few of the basics, but I think you have to be born to it."

Or at least exposed at a very early age, Caitlin thought. She'd acquired a Jao guard when she was three, not a positive experience, since it meant she'd been a virtual political prisoner a good deal of her life. But it had left her the Earth's most fluent human in Jao bodyspeak.

"I can tutor you," she said. "We're bound to have some downtime on our hands during the voyage. From what I hear, it takes a few days on the trip out to set up frame travel and then jump."

The door opened and they stepped into the blue-lighted space. It was much larger than the standard human elevator, probably one of the heavy-duty lifts for handling combat equipment and troops, spare parts and supplies. The doors whooshed shut.

"Deck Forty-Six," she said. Her stomach lurched as they shot upwards, faster than humans liked, just one of the many Jao influences in this huge ship. Why set the lift to half-speed just to make humans a tiny bit more comfortable?

She wondered how long it would take her to get used to it, or if indeed she ever would.

Mallu was feeling somewhat improved, but the human medician wouldn't discharge him from her care.

"I want to swim," he said, restless in the hard human-style bed, rather than curled up in a proper soft pile of
dehabia
. The medical bay was never quiet, with beeps and hisses and attendants fussing about him all the time. He longed for solitude. His chest ached, though he was trying to disregard it.

The female regarded him with an indecipherable expression. "You need to stay here for—" She broke off and muttered a few words to herself in her own language as though peeved. "—for some time longer." She crossed her arms over her chest. "I will let you know when that particular flow is complete."

A Jao stuck his head into the room and glanced over at Mallu. "He looks better, Dr. Ames."

"No thanks to our Krant-captain," she said with a flick of her head that was almost meaningful. "He wants to be out and about, in fact, insists upon it."

"We Jao are tough," the newcomer said. "Perhaps he is ready."

Mallu realized he recognized him from that meeting with Preceptor Ronz and Earth's young governor, Aille krinnu ava Terra. He lay back against the pillow and chased the name around his foggy brain. They had not been introduced, but he'd picked up the name from the others' comments. Wram? Wral? No, Wrot krinnu ava Terra. That was it. A scarred old veteran of the original battle to take this planet, and now a member of its nascent taif.

"Not that tough," the medician said. "The original injury he suffered in the battle with the Ekhat was never adequately treated. It was just a matter of time until he collapsed. The Krant-captain needs a bit longer to heal."

Wrot crossed the room to stand by the human-style bed. Mallu got a good look at the numerous bars of service incised on his cheek. Impressive. He sat up, though the motion wrung a sharp jolt from his healing ribs.

"Two days, then?" Wrot asked.

"I cannot answer that with any certainty," she said. Her alien face contorted into a startling display of naked teeth. "I am good at this, but not that good." She twitched the thin white cloth back over Mallu's legs. "Just not yet."

"Flow feels almost complete," Mallu said, lying back again to ease the stabbing pain in his chest. Urgency teased at him. The situation was about to complete itself. "This ship will lift soon. I can feel it. We must get our crewmates aboard and situated."

"I will handle that," Wrot said. "Is there anything else?"

"Check on Senior-Tech Kaln and Terniary-Commander Jalta," he said. "I have not seen them since—" He broke off, then gestured at his chest. "—since this happened. The loss of our ships and then the summons that diverted us to this world rather than returning home has affected them both. Kaln suffered a head injury in the battle which seems to have impacted her judgment. I fear she needs close supervision."

"They accompanied you here when you were brought in," the medician said. "Both seemed agitated so I sent them off to swim."

And they had no doubt been wandering the vast ship on their own ever since, Mallu realized. Not good. Kaln was so moody since the battle with the Ekhat, she might do or say almost anything. If another human offended her or even just got in her way, there might be dire consequences. What if she killed one? Even though they were a conquered race, the local authorities seemed to set great store by these spindly creatures. There would be repercussions and even more shame. Without conscious volition, his body assumed the lines of
distress
.