The Mrachanis' storehouse.
"Communicators: full attack alert," he shouted as a third explosion flashed reflected light from the nearby buildings, the sound hammering into his ear slits. "Tell the warriors guarding the Mrachanis to get them out of there and to cover."
He got a faint shout of acknowledgment and threw a quick look around him. Two of the Zhirrzh warriors had the Human-Conqueror facedown on the ground; the others had unslung their laser rifles and were kneeling around the base of the aircraft, weapons swinging around uncertainly as they searched for something to use them on. Thrr-mezaz looked back toward the storehouse, wondering how in the eighteen worlds the Human-Conquerors had slipped this much attack power past his aircraft and Elders. From another edge of the landing field one of the ground defenses opened fire, sizzling rapid-fire laser pulses into the air in half a dozen directions. Somewhere in the distance he could hear the faint sound of laser rifles joining in-
"Commander!" An Elder appeared in front of Thrr-mezaz. "The warriors at the Mrachani storehouse are down!"
Thrr-mezaz swore under his breath. "Second, stay here and watch the prisoner," he ordered Klnn-vavgi. "Keep one warrior. The rest of you, come with me. Elders, find out where this cursed attack is coming from."
A fourth explosion lit up the landscape as he ducked under the beak of the aircraft and headed at a stooped-over run toward the Mrachanis' storehouse, the warriors fanning out around him on both sides. A pretty stupid tactic, running straight-out toward an obvious target zone this way, but there was no time for subtlety or finesse. Locked in their storehouse, the Mrachanis were as helpless as sleeping nornins before the Human-Conqueror assault. They wouldn't stand a chance if someone didn't get them out of there immediately.
No more explosions came before they made it to the storehouse. Bracing himself, trying to watch the sky in all directions, Thrr-mezaz led the way around the corner to the east wall where the building's doors were located.
Or rather, where the building's doors had once been located. One of the twin panels was hanging loosely by its top hinge, its lower section bent and blackened. The other door was on the ground, shattered into a hundred metal shards.
And sprawled amid the wreckage were the bodies of the two warriors who'd been on guard duty.
Raised to Eldership.
Thrr-mezaz grimaced. Two more early newcomers for the family shrines. Something else for Speaker Cvv-panav and the Dhaa'rr to blame him for. "Come on," he told his warriors. Picking his way through the splinters, preparing himself for the worst, he went inside.
It was bad, but not nearly as bad as he'd feared. There were three good-sized holes in the north wall, and the storehouse itself was filled with smoke and dust. But aside from that there seemed to be little damage. More important, the two Mrachanis were huddled together beneath a table, obviously shaken but apparently unharmed.
They caught sight of the Zhirrzh and called something, their voices trembling oddly. Thrr-mezaz stepped toward them, waiting for the translation-
"Relay's gone," one of the warriors spoke up, pointing toward the spot on the wall where the darklight relay had been hanging.
"Probably knocked down by the vibrations," Thrr-mezaz said. "Go see if you can find it. The rest of you, get the Mrachanis out of here."
The warriors moved off toward their tasks. Thrr-mezaz took a last look around and then stepped outside the broken doors again. "Communicator?" he called.
An Elder appeared. "Report," Thrr-mezaz said.
"We've found no sign of any Human-Conqueror warriors," the Elder said, his voice tight. "But-"
"What do you mean, no sign?" Thrr-mezaz demanded. "None at all?"
"None at all," the Elder said. "No Human-Conquerors, no weapons emplacements, no vehicles."
Thrr-mezaz looked around. "What were the warriors shooting at, then?"
"I don't know, Commander," the Elder said tartly. "Possibly their own shadows. Wherever the Human-Conquerors were, though, they seem to have gone."
Thrr-mezaz frowned, listening. The Elder was right; there hadn't been anything since that fourth explosion. "We must have scared them off."
"Or else they just didn't want to give us enough time to locate their attack site," the Elder said darkly. "Conveniently allowing them to use it again."
Thrr-mezaz eyed the Elder. He was angry, all right. Angry down to his core, and impatient and frustrated besides. One of those Zhirrzh warrior veterans who selectively remembered his own service to be exemplary and perfect, and fully expected the warriors who'd followed him to be likewise. "Perhaps," Thrr-mezaz said. "On the other hand, maybe the explanation is much simpler. Alert all aircraft and perimeter warriors to continue to keep watch."
"I obey," the Elder growled.
Thrr-mezaz glanced back across the landing field. "And tell the technics to get the interpreter going again."
The Elder vanished. A beat later the warriors and Mrachanis emerged from the damaged storehouse, the latter still gabbling in that same trembling tone of voice as they came toward Thrr-mezaz.
"We've got their luggage together, too, Commander," one of the warriors spoke up. "Where do you want us to take them?"
"There's a small subroom in the northwest corner of the aircraft service building," Thrr-mezaz said. "Take them there and put them under full guard. And I meanfall guard."
"I obey, Commander."
From the corner of his eye he saw a darklight beam flick on from across the landing field: the interpreter was back in operation. "Hold it a beat," he told the warriors, turning to the chief Mrachani. "Lahettilas, the warriors are taking you to a new building. You should be safe there."
The chief Mrachani didn't even wait for the translation to come. He clutched at Thrr-mezaz's arm, babbling in that same trembling voice. "Did you see what the Humans did?" the translation demanded in Thrr-mezaz's ear slits. "They tried to destroy us."
"Yes, I saw," Thrr-mezaz agreed. "But they're no longer here, and we're-"
"We are not safe here, Commander of the Zhirrzh," Lahettilas cut him off. "Not anywhere on Dorcas. The Humans must know of our mission to the Zhirrzh. They will try again to kill us. Unless we are taken out of their reach. Commander of the Zhirrzh, I insist we be taken to a Zhirrzh world immediately."
"I understand your concerns, Lahettilas," Thrr-mezaz said, striving for patience. "But for right now, that's impossible. I'll speak to the Overclan Prime, though, and see what can be done."
"That will do no good," the Mrachani insisted. "I insist you send word to your homeworld."
Thrr-mezaz stared hard into the soft, alien face. "Let's get one thing straight right now, Lahettilas," he said coldly. "You and your companion are not in any position to insist on anything."
The alien face changed. More strikingly, so did his voice. Instead of the trembling tone, it was suddenly quiet and soothing. "I am sorry, Commander of the Zhirrzh," the translation came. "We understand that we are at your complete (something). I am (something) because I am afraid that we will die."
"I understand that," Thrr-mezaz said. Somehow this new voice of his was more irritating than the previous one had been. It reminded him of the condescending tone one of his teachers had used back in school whenever someone got the answer wrong. "We'll do whatever we can to protect you."
Lahettilas bowed half-over. "I understand, Commander of the Zhirrzh. We will trust you."
"Someone will be in to talk to you later," Thrr-mezaz said, catching the eye of one of the warriors and gesturing toward the aircraft service building. The warrior nodded and gestured to the others, and together they steered the Mrachanis across the landing field. Keeping the bulk of his attention on the sky, Thrr-mezaz headed off at an angle from their path back toward the Human-Conqueror aircraft.
Srgent-janovetz was sitting on the ground when he arrived, watching the Mrachanis out of the corner of his eye. "Is the attack over?" Klnn-vavgi asked.
"It seems to be," Thrr-mezaz said, reaching a hand up to block the darklight interpreter-link. "For now, anyway. Prisoner give you any trouble?"
"None," Klnn-vavgi said. "He stayed right where he was told to the whole time. Didn't even sit up, in fact, until I prodded him to do so."
Srgent-janovetz was looking up at him now. "Was he doing anything that maybe didn't really qualify as trouble?" Thrr-mezaz asked. "Any hand or leg movements, for example?"
"Nothing that I noticed," Klnn-vavgi said.
"Um." Thrr-mezaz withdrew his hand from the interpreter-link. "As you can see," he said to Srgent-janovetz, pointing across at the Mrachanis, "your warriors missed their target. They're still alive."
The Human-Conqueror's face changed as the translation came through. He spoke-"I know nothing about that attack. I came here to speak about (something) terms."
"So you said," Klnn-vavgi said. "Events seem to be indicating otherwise. Why do you want to kill the Mrachanis?"
"We don't," Srgent-janovetz protested. "The Mrachanis aren't our enemies."
Thrr-mezaz reached a hand to the interpreter-link again. "What do you think?" he asked Klnn-vavgi.
"What's there to think?" Klnn-vavgi countered, blocking his own link. "Those sure weren'tour explosives raining down on us."
Thrr-mezaz glanced back at the damaged storehouse. "Yes, but how did they do it? Neither the Elders nor anyone else was able to find any trace of an attack site. Nor did they see anything coming in across the village perimeter."
Klnn-vavgi shrugged. "Maybe you were right about the Human-Conquerors having a network of underground tunnels, and the Elders just haven't found them yet." He looked pointedly up at the aircraft beside them. "Or maybe they had everything they needed already inside the perimeter."
"Yes, I was thinking the same thing a hunbeat ago," Thrr-mezaz told him, eying the aircraft. "Problem is, we're southwest of the building right here, but all four explosions were on the east and north walls. How could they have gotten their projectiles to go around corners that way? Especially projectiles small enough that we couldn't spot them?"
"I don't know." Klnn-vavgi looked down at the Human-Conqueror still sitting on the ground. "I do know, though, that we shouldn't be discussing this in front of the prisoner. They may have picked up more of our language than we know."
"Good point." Thrr-mezaz gestured a pair of warriors over. "Any suggestions on where to put him?"
"The storehouse springs to mind," Klnn-vavgi said dryly. "Let's see how he likes it there when his friends start firing again."
"Tempting, but impractical," Thrr-mezaz said. "The place has no doors left. Not to mention three brand-new exits."
"How about the Optronics supply room, then?" Klnn-vavgi suggested. "After we've pulled all the Optronics out of it, of course."
Thrr-mezaz considered. It was a little risky-the room was in the same building as the interpreter and was near other sensitive equipment. But the prisoner should be safe enough there until they could come up with something a little more permanent. "Fine," he told Klnn-vavgi. "Go ahead and get that set up for him. And detail some warriors to start converting some of the private homes in the village into guest quarters. Seal over the windows and secondary exits-you know what I mean."
Klnn-vavgi nodded. "I'll get right to it. If we're going to keep getting company, I suppose we might as well have a real place to put them."
"Right." Thrr-mezaz looked up at the aircraft. "And while they're doing that, have the technics start on this thing. I want to know about everything that's in there. Especially anything that could possibly be a weapon."
The sun had set in the west, and the long shadows were fading into a general dimness along the ground. Thrr-mezaz stepped carefully across the broken storehouse door, wincing as the shards crackled beneath his feet. Two Zhirrzh warriors had been raised to Eldership at this spot. Two warriors under his command...
He stepped into the storehouse, lowlight pupils widening to adjust to the gloom. A half-dozen warriors were at work inside, cleaning up the wreckage. The one he was looking for was over by one of the holes in the north wall: Vstii-suuv, one of his two climbing companions on that abortive attempt to penetrate Human-Conqueror territory two fullarcs ago.
Thrr-mezaz walked over to him. "Rather a mess, isn't it?" he commented.
Vstii-suuv straightened up from where he'd been crouching. "It certainly is," he agreed.
Thrr-mezaz gestured to take in the room. "So what's the consensus? Any ideas how the Human-Conquerors did it?"
"Not really." Vstii-suuv flicked his tongue in an annoyed negative. "I suppose it's possible they could have used missiles or projectiles that were small enough to sneak in without any of us seeing them. But I really don't like that theory."
"I know what you mean," Thrr-mezaz agreed, looking at the debris around the blast hole. "If they had an explosive this powerful, why haven't we seen them use it before?"
"Right," Vstii-suuv nodded. "And it's not nuclear, either. It would have left radiation behind."
"Still, just because they haven't used it before doesn't mean they don't have it," Thrr-mezaz said, gingerly touching the splintered wood at the edge of the hole. Fairly thin wood, actually, but the damage was still impressive. "We'll have to check and see if any of the other beachheads has come under this kind of attack. Should there be that many wood splinters out there?"
"I have no idea," Vstii-suuv said, stepping closer to the hole and peering at the ground outside. "But you can see there are a lot of splinters inside, too."
"True," Thrr-mezaz agreed, stepping back away from the hole. "One of the few halfway positive side effects of warfare: everyone learns so much along the way. We're certainly going to learn a lot about explosions and explosives by the time this is over."
"How about talking to the guards who were raised to Eldership when the door was destroyed?" Vstii-suuv suggested. "They might be able to tell you more about what happened."
"I've already tried getting a pathway to them," Thrr-mezaz said. "Unfortunately, they're both still twisted in anchoring shock. No telling when they'll come out of it, either-we're a long way from the eighteen worlds." He lowered his voice a bit. "The main reason I stopped by was to let you know that we're going to be doing another climb soon. Probably sometime in the next four or five fullarcs."
Vstii-suuv's midlight pupils narrowed. "You have something to take up there?"
"We will soon," Thrr-mezaz said, mindful of the other Zhirrzh in the room and the Elders floating around nearby. However Thrr-gilag had managed to pull off his illegal cutting of Prr't-zevisti'sfsss, the theft seemed to be undetected as yet. He wanted to keep it that way as long as possible. "Anyway, pass the word on to Qlaa-nuur."