The Crucible of Empire (46 page)

"We are already preparing the few ships we have left," Grijo said. "You know that."

"They may be able to help, though," Jihan said, abandoning all attempts at propriety. She met his black gaze with her own, positively round-eyed with urgency. "They have many ships and are considering transporting all Lleix to safety."

"And what would they want in return for this?" Grijo said.

She looked away. "I do not know. They have never named any sort of price or trade."

"I will call the Han to the Hall of Decision tomorrow," Grijo said. "Perhaps older heads than yours can make sense of this."

"But," cried Jihan, "we should meet tonight! They are waiting and there is no time to waste! The Ekhat—"

"If you do not conduct yourself appropriately, little Eldest, no one will ever listen to you," Grijo said. "Surely, you know that."

With an effort, she bit back all the arguments she longed to make. Matters would proceed as they always did, in an orderly and precise and leisurely fashion. The Han would be called, everyone would dress properly, and then parade up the mountain. Only this time, her presence as Eldest of Jaolore would be expected.

"Go to your houses," Grijo said. "Partake of evening-meal. Bathe and prepare for tomorrow. The sun will rise soon enough and we will decide all the better for having eaten and rested."

Jihan dropped her gaze and then the three of them retreated.

Half an hour after Jihan departed, Caitlin put on a heavy coat and went back outside the ship with Tully and Nam. The red tinged light was fading with the setting sun, but enough lingered to illuminate their surroundings. This was her first chance to experience a new world and she wasn't going to waste a single minute skulking inside while they waited for Jihan to return.

The air, a bit thinner than humans liked, was dry and cold, close to freezing, and a stiff wind blasted down from the mountains to the west. The darkening sky had a greenish cast. She could see white blanketing the crests of the two tallest peaks. Evidently the Lleix were not sensitive to the chill because, from what she'd observed, they all went about quite barefoot. At any rate, the city had a pleasantly herbal scent, a bit like sage, she thought, with a hint of rosemary.

Before her, the Lleix buildings were low and squat, only a single story each, laid out in long rows and constructed of ugly gray stone, possibly mined from those nearby mountains. Waist-high posts were studded along the narrow "streets" and were now brightening with green-tinged light. She could see small leathery flyers fluttering about them as though chasing insects in the growing dusk.

"This place sure isn't much to look at," Tully muttered as the three of them walked down the assault craft's ramp. He shoved his hands into his pockets.

No, it wasn't, thought Caitlin. On the other hand, if this sort of high desert terrain and climate suited the Lleix, it would be easy to find a place for them in North America. The continent's southwest had lots of areas like this that were sparsely inhabited—or even completely uninhabited, if the Lleix could handle more severe conditions.

Taller buildings, which seemed to promise more interesting architecture, loomed in the distance. Caitlin wished they could explore, but didn't want to alarm the natives any more than necessary by setting off on their own. The Lleix must already be spooked by the arrival of five Ekhat ships in their system. Having three alien ships land right in their midst, filled with both humans and Jao, just added to the confusion.

"They've been in hiding for hundreds of years," she said. She'd filled Tully in on the history between the Jao and the Lleix on the way down from the
Lexington
. "I would imagine that design wasn't foremost on their minds. They may not even have been here very long or meant for this to be a permanent settlement." The wind gusted and she huddled into her coat. "I guess we'll learn more once Jihan arranges a meeting with their authorities."

Two figures rounded a corner, then hurried toward the assault craft. Squinting through the growing dimness, Caitlin thought she recognized Jihan, but not the other who was much slighter.

The Lleix stopped at the foot of the ramp. "Caitlin, Queen of the Universe," it said.

Really, this was going to get old very fast, Caitlin told herself. "Jihan?"

"The Han will meet next-sun," Jihan said softly, using the Jao term for tomorrow. "Nothing can be done before then."

Caitlin blinked in surprise. Alien ships land in the middle of their settlement after a huge battle in the solar system with their ancient enemies, and no one can be bothered to leave the dinner table long enough to say hi or even get off my grass? "I . . . see," she said, though she didn't, not at all.

"Humans come to Jaolore
elian
-house," Jihan said, its corona fluttering. "Stay through night there."

"No," Tully said in English. He had stepped closer and held his gun ready, angling to protect Caitlin. "You're better off here where we can seal the hatch. With their history, they have to be paranoid about contact with aliens. Who knows what's going on inside their heads? They might be planning to slaughter us the minute we leave the ship."

"I agree about making this our base," she said softly. "But I would like to at least see this
elian
-house. Leave the Jao here for now, but let's take a small armed company into the city and accompany Jihan for a short visit."

He shook his head, plainly not liking the idea. "You only have this creature's word that they mean you no harm," he said. "There's no telling what kind of reception we'll get."

A few Lleix emerged from one of the low buildings and walked toward the ship, their gray shifts fluttering in the stiff breeze. They looked strangely aimless. "We are here to help," Caitlin said. "I don't want to act guilty and make them think we have something to hide."

"We
do
have something to hide," Tully said, glancing back inside the ship at Kaln and Mallu, who, against his better judgment, were listening to Miller spin a highly improbable yarn about Pecos Bill. "And you darn well know it."

"Yes," Caitlin said to Jihan, "we would like to see the Jaolore
elian
-house, though we will come back here."

Tully sighed. "Burgeson, Reese, Murphy, Estrada, Fligor, fall in. Lieutenant Murphy, you're in charge here until we get back. Just sit tight." He checked the power indicator on his own rifle, then hefted it meaningfully.

More Lleix gathered as the armed party, with Caitlin maneuvered into its center, descended the ramp. The Lleix's coronas rippled like flowers waving in the wind and Caitlin thought the newcomers all looked cold, dressed only in those brief gray garments. How strange that none of them wore garments similar to Jihan's extravagantly decorated robes. Evidently their contact must hold high rank.

"Do you understand the concepts of male and female?" she asked Jihan as they drew together.

"Yes," the Lleix said, setting off down a crushed stone path, its face green-tinged from the artificial lights.

"Humans and Jao have both male and female genders," Caitlin said, hurrying to keep up with the Lleix's flowing stride. "Do Lleix have these same genders also?"

"Yes," Jihan said. "I am being female. Pyr—" She gestured at her slight companion. "—is being male. The heads of males are rounder, usually."

Pyr's corona flattened, making him seem embarrassed. He kept glancing at them, then looking away, as though their alienness was overwhelming.

Well, at least now Caitlin could stop thinking of Jihan as "it." She mulled over the information, wanting to know more about Lleix society so that her negotiations would be effective. Did gender play a part in determining who would rule? "Do males or females make the decisions for Lleix?" she asked finally as they walked.

"Eldests make decisions," Jihan said in her lyrical voice. "Male sometimes, sometimes female."

There were no stars visible overhead, though the evening sky was cloudless. Evidently, the nebula's dust and gas obscured such sights. How lonely to live here down through the centuries hiding from the Ekhat without even stars in the night sky.

More Lleix appeared in the narrow roadway, staring with their gleaming black eyes. Several approached Caitlin, four-fingered hands outstretched, speaking to her in soft fluting voices. Jihan answered sharply and they drew back, but then trailed after the humans once they'd passed.

"What do they want?" Caitlin asked, glancing back over her shoulder. Tully edged closer to her, his expression grim. None of them seemed to be armed, but still her heart raced. There were so very many. Maybe this hadn't been such a good idea after all. Should they perhaps turn back to the ship?

"Are they afraid of us?" she asked Jihan.

"Not afraid," Jihan said. "They wish—employment."

"Work?" Tully said. His brow creased and he glanced back at the following Lleix. "They want to work for us?"

"This is the
dochaya
," Jihan said, sweeping an arm toward the long rows of buildings. "Home for unassigned. They have no—" She thought for a moment as they walked, feet crunching over the crushed stone. "—no purpose, no reason for living. They want employment so they can leave."

Understanding formed. This was some kind of slum. Caitlin stopped in the roadway, surrounded by silver faces and inscrutable black eyes, all trained upon her as though she possessed the answer to the meaning of life. Five Ekhat ships had just blazed through this system, ready to extinguish these people. Then aliens had landed in the middle of their city, and all these poor wretches were worried about was a
job
?

Tully whistled in surprise, which startled the Lleix far worse than their ships had. The natives screeched, then scuttled back into the structures, coronas flattened. He stared after them. "You've got to be kidding," he said in English. "What the hell kind of place is this?"

Caitlin cleared her throat, trying to think how to proceed. "Do all Lleix feel this way?"

"No," Jihan said, "only those without an
elian
." She had held her ground, but she looked unnerved and kept glancing at Tully as though afraid he would whistle again. Pyr had ducked behind her and was staring at his feet. "Please not doing that—sound—again! Lleix find such—most alarming."

"Sorry," Tully said.

What in the blazes was an
elian
, Caitlin wondered, and why didn't these particular Lleix have one? Jihan set off again and the small party walked in silence, passing stone building after building until finally Lleix again emerged. The silvery forms shuffled together, mostly silent, jostling to get a better look at the strangers.

She could almost feel their hunger as though they yearned for—something. "Are we in danger?" she said, shivering in the cold wind. "Are they angry that we have come to Valeron?"

Jihan turned to her. "No, Caitlin, Queen of the Universe, Eldest of all Humans," she said. "They will not hurting you. They are being sad."

"I don't think I like this place," Tully said, gripping his rifle in both hands. "Let's go back to the ship before we get ourselves into real trouble."

"We came to meet the Lleix," Caitlin said, refusing to lose her composure. "And here they are." She was a diplomat now. Ronz was counting upon her. It would not do to impute human motivations to these people. They were another kind, as alien in their mind-set as Jao were to humans. The "unassigned" had not made any moves of aggression, after all.

"Yeah, great reception, isn't it?" Tully said, craning his head, apparently scanning the crowd for weapons. "Keep walking."

Jihan's small companion, Pyr, suddenly waved his arms and called out at the pressing mob. Startled, they milled, their coronas wilting, then turned away and retreated to their ugly buildings. Pyr darted after them, still shouting.

"What is he saying?" Caitlin asked Jihan.

"He say unassigned alarming Queen of Universe," Jihan said, shortening her long graceful strides to keep pace with Caitlin. "Telling them to go away."

About what it had seemed, she thought. Perhaps the cultural referents weren't that different after all. A moment later, Pyr returned. "They not meaning frighten," he said to her in mangled Jao. "Not understanding no work here."

Another speaker of the tongue of their ancient enemies. Caitlin suppressed her surprise, though she did wonder how many there actually were. "If we did request them to work for us, how would we pay them?"

"Pay?" Jihan said. "Not knowing this word."

"What—would they expect in return for working?" Caitlin said as they passed yet another long row of the dreary gray stone buildings.

"Better food," Pyr said. "Clean garments, reason to live, perhaps nice place to sleep, all that
elian
giving."

It sounded then like an
elian
was a sort of organization, perhaps even a clan, like a Jao kochan, but Jao were born into a kochan which nurtured their development and trained them for their future occupation. No matter how badly they behaved, they were never cast out, but there seemed to be an inordinate number of Lleix here with no
elian
.