The Crucible of Empire (48 page)

The Ekhat could come back tonight or tomorrow, or it might not be for weeks, but they would come. Even she had enough experience now to know that. The Lleix had to know it too, with even more certainty, given their history, and yet still the colony slumbered.

"Let's go," she told Tully, bundling back into her coat, and the seven of them headed out into the frigid night.

Just before dawn, Jihan presented herself at the lead assault ship. Caitlin had already risen and was as ready as she could be, given the limited sanitary facilities, to go out and make interstellar history. Combing her fingers through her short blond hair, she gazed at the viewscreen with its image of the Lleix waiting outside by the ramp. Compared to the elder, Grijo, Jihan looked almost childlike.

She sighed. Wrot should be here, or Aille, or Ronz, someone with experience who had the authority to promise these people what they needed. She felt like a little girl playing at dress-up.

"All right," she said to Tully. "I'm ready."

The temperature had dropped even lower than the night before. It was so cold outside that she could see her breath. Frost rimed the rocks scattered about the ramp. Just beyond, Lleix were emerging from the squat buildings of the
dochaya
, which looked even more shabby now that she'd toured the main city and seen its handsome wooden houses.

She stood at the top of the ramp, thinking. It would be best to lay all their cards on the table, so to speak. The Jao were a major factor in this situation. They could not be left out. "Bring one of the Jao," she said. "Nam, or Mallu, perhaps."

"Not Kaln?" Tully said with an upward quirk of his lips.

Kaln, who prattled incessantly these days of Pool Buntyam, Bab the Green Ox, Pay-cose Bill, ships that had jumped wrong and turned inside out, and Caitlin, Queen of the Universe? "No," she said, crossing her arms. "We've got enough problems as it is."

"Krant-Captain Mallu!" Tully called.

The Krant's dark bay face appeared in the hatch.

"Come with us to this Han, whatever that is," Tully said.

"Please make haste," Jihan said in Jao. The Lleix kept glancing toward the mountains. "We have far to go."

They set off trailing the Lleix. Caitlin's security escort numbered ten, including Tully and Mallu. She wasn't sure what the Lleix authorities would make of them bringing along a Jao, but the truth would come out, sooner or later. The Lleix might as well get accustomed to Jao faces from the start.

Unassigned, identifiable by their simple gray shifts, were already wandering the city, in search of a day's employment, Jihan explained.

The silver faces glanced at the little party, but did not speak. Their coronas were limp, suggesting a dispirited attitude. "How many of them will find work today?" Caitlin asked as they walked.

Jihan's own corona fluttered. "I do not know, Queen of the Universe," she said. "Not many, I think."

The Lleix's syntax seemed improved. "Did you work on your Jao last night?" she asked.

"Yes, yes," Jihan said. "It is important now to speak well between us, and as there are no records of English, I listened again to the Jao interviews, few though they are."

Good God
, Caitlin thought. If they survived, Lleix could find employment wherever they went simply as translators.

They wove back through the city and she found the houses with their peaked roofs even more lovely in the gray morning light. Unlike the Jao, the Lleix had an artistic bent, carving elongated faces into the posts and beams of their homes, flying colorful flags, and weaving fanciful patterns into the fabric of their clothing. In some ways, humans might be able to understand them more easily than the Jao, who disdained such fancies.

From time to time, wheeled vehicles, open to the air and loaded with crates, crowded them off the narrow roadway. They all seemed to be headed toward the outskirts of the city. "Vehicles take supplies to the ships," Jihan explained when she saw Caitlin staring after them.

"What ships?" Caitlin asked.

"Ships to leave, to escape Ekhat," Jihan said.

When they reached the far edge of the city, they boarded a wheeled transport and sat on padded rows of seats with other high-ranking Lleix, every single one of them larger than Jihan. In some fashion here, size equalled rank, Caitlin realized, and wondered if her stature would lessen her authority in their eyes.

This vehicle, like the others, was also open so that the wind blasted through. The chassis creaked and shuddered, as though it might break down at any moment, creeping up the mountain ever so slowly. Caitlin huddled between Mallu, who did not seem to feel the chill bite, and Tully, trying not to shiver.

The other Lleix passengers glanced aside at her, eyes severely narrowed, then spent the rest of the short trip ignoring Caitlin, fussing instead with the hang of their robes as though the activity ordered their minds.

They all exited the transport halfway up a low mountain. The wind gusted, whining against the rocks. Leaden gray clouds boiled over the peaks above them and flakes of snow with a strange bluish cast pelted Caitlin's cheeks. Tully took her arm as the other Lleix fell into a column and trudged barefoot over the naked granite up toward an ornate building built into the mountain itself.

"Hall of Decision," Jihan said, bowing her head. "We must go there for much discuss."

Caitlin turned and looked back down the mountain. From here, she could see the sprawling city below with its ordered gardens, the squalid
dochaya
at the eastern edge, their own three ships, and to the south, a field of Lleix vessels, all woefully small. If they had to depend upon those to escape, she thought, their reduced numbers would not support genetic viability. The Lleix would not survive as a species.

The air was so cold up here, it took her breath away. She pulled her scarf tighter, then lowered her head and joined the line of Lleix, surrounded by Mallu, Tully, and the armed jinau. Before her, the Lleix strode with their graceful flowing stride, heads up, robes arranged just so, as though they had all the time in the universe to see to this little matter of survival.

Her escort probably wasn't necessary, she thought. So far, the ethereal Lleix with their long graceful necks didn't seem to get worked up about anything, even defending themselves against certain extinction.

Jihan was painfully young, compared to the other Eldests, and, of course, they all knew full well that she had broken
sensho
upon her last appearance here. That she had been at least partially correct and the Jao had indeed returned was no defense for her shocking behavior. She had branded herself graceless in their eyes. No one would heed anything she had to say, no matter how important.

Even worse, the Queen of the Universe had seen fit to bring one of the hated Jao along to the Han. The furred creature was behaving itself, for the moment, and did not appear dangerous. Perhaps Caitlin was right and these Jao were different from the barbarians who had hunted them long ago. If so, humans had done a credible job of civilizing the brutes.

Grijo had already taken his ornate seat when they appeared in the open doorway. Out of respect, Jihan made herself small, which seemed hardly necessary when she was but half his magnificent size no matter how she stood. "Esteemed Eldest," she said above the reproving whispers, "may I present the leader of the humans, whose vessel destroyed the five Ekhat ships seeking to attack our colony?"

Head tilted back, Jihan spoke to the huge individual seated in the chair on a central dais. Her tone seemed plaintive. Caitlin hung back by the oversized doorway, shivering, fairly certain the leader was Grijo, the same elder she had met the night before. At least, the patterns on his garment seemed the same.

She tucked her gloved hands under her arms, trying in vain to keep warm, and surveyed the echoing hall. Most of the benches toward the back were empty, suggesting that the drafty building had originally been constructed to hold more attendees.

Jihan turned to Caitlin. "Tell them of humans," the Lleix said in her fluting voice. "Tell them of Jao slaves."

Caitlin glanced back at Mallu, who was waiting patiently among the jinau retinue, his body communicating simple unadorned
attentiveness
. Jao slaves, yes, she was going to have to do something about
that
and soon. The longer the lie went on, the harder it would be to rebuild trust after the facts came out.

She raised her head, standing tall and straight, but still feeling like a child among the tall Lleix, then breathed deeply of the shockingly icy air, nerving herself for this shameful skirting of the truth. "Humans learned from the Jao how once the Lleix suggested that they free themselves from their masters, the terrible Ekhat," she said, pausing to allow Jihan to translate. "This was an immense kindness for which the Lleix afterward suffered greatly at the hands of those same Jao."

Jihan related her words and the coronas of the listening assemblage stirred as though a wind had gusted through a field of flowers.

"The Jao were not ready to heed such advice when it was first offered," Caitlin said, her heart pounding. This was so damned important. They should have sent someone else! "But the Lleix's suggestion stayed with them, and finally, a very long time later, they realized the Lleix had given them wisdom. By then, though, it was too late. The Lleix were all dead, or so the Jao thought."

Grijo leaned forward, black eyes glittering, waiting for her to continue.

"Now we find the Lleix here, in danger once again from the Ekhat. To honor your ancestors, who attempted to help the Jao so long ago at great personal cost, humans may be able to offer assistance. I have sent the
Lexington
, the great ship that brought us here, back to Terra to learn what can be done."

She fell silent then and waited to see what they would make of that explanation. At least none of it was a lie.

Discussion broke out among the fancily robed Lleix. Jihan stood before Grijo in the open middle, head bowed, as the words flew back and forth, not even trying to translate. Delegate after delegate spoke, often gesturing at Caitlin and her escort. The frigid mountain wind sang through the open doors, scattering flakes of unmelting snow across the stone floor. Caitlin's feet felt like blocks of frozen granite. She'd never been so cold in her entire life.

Finally Grijo gazed at her and spoke in mangled Jao. "Why humans would helping Lleix?"

Her eyes widened and she fought to maintain her composure. Did everyone on this isolated world speak their ancient enemy's language? "Because the Jao owe the Lleix a great debt," she said carefully, "and because humans are sympathetic with those who suffer from the persecution of the Ekhat. Terra too has been attacked. We understand your peril."

None of that was a lie either, she thought, feeling shaky. Did all diplomats have to dance around the truth like this?

Finally Grijo spoke to Jihan. The Jaolore listened, then motioned to her. "You go back now," the Lleix said, her corona rippling. "Much discuss here. Last all day, more maybe."

They had to
decide
whether it would be okay if someone saved their lives? Caitlin shook her head. They were like a bunch of old fire fighters squabbling over seniority and who got to hold the hose while the city burned down around their ears. "Very well," she said with a rueful shake of her head. Tully and his men fell in around her, faces grim, and they hiked back down the mountain trail to the transports.

The Han went on and on after the humans left, so Jihan did not return to the city until after the sun had set. She walked past the silent houses, watching servants scurry on errands, heads lowered, aureoles flattened. Everyone down to the least unassigned was upset. Last-of-Days had arrived. She herself did not speak with anyone until she presented herself at the humans' ship and was allowed to enter.

"What did they decide?" diminutive Caitlin asked, taking a seat on a long bench close to the outer hatch. Her fellow humans crowded in.

"Not decide yet," Jihan said, remaining on her feet. Narrow human seats were not made for Lleix proportions. "They not understand why humans wish to help."

"Why did the Lleix wish to help the Jao long ago?" Caitlin said.

"So the Jao would not kill them," Jihan said.

Caitlin exhaled a long slow breath. Her face curiously
reddened
. "Yes, there was that."

"Do not stay here," Jihan said, gesturing at the assault craft. She had been thinking about this matter all the way down the mountain. Such cramped, fusty quarters were not fit for the Human Queen of the Universe. "Come to Jaolore
elian
-house until your great ship returns."

"Thank you," Caitlin said, glancing at the one called Tully. "I—"

Tully broke out in a string of English words, talking too fast for Jihan to parse. If Caitlin came to Jaolore, though, Jihan was confident she would acquire more English very quickly.