The Crucible of Empire (52 page)

A diminutive gray-clad servant emerged to take the just delivered box from Pyr. It looked far too heavy for its slight frame. Though the Lleix were on the whole quite a bit taller than most humans, this one would not have topped Caitlin. Debra Fligor appeared in the doorway and the soldier reached for the box too. "Let me take that," she said in Jao. The little servant backed off and hung its head. Its corona, a grayish-black, drooped around its face like a wilted flower.

"Much badness if you not let her do work," Pyr said. "No work, must go back to
dochaya
."

"But—" Fligor backed off and looked confused.

"Go inside with her," Tully said, exasperated. "Oversee the unpacking. Show her where to put things. Maybe that will make her happy."

"Yes, yes, give directions!" Pyr said, his gray corona fluttering. "That will be goodness."

"But none of these servants speak Jao," Fligor said.

"You can damn well point, can't you?" Tully said in English.

Fligor flushed to the roots of her sandy hair. "Yes, sir!" The good-natured sergeant saluted, then edged aside so the servant could struggle through the entrance beneath the oversized box like an ant with a pebble.

"Besides," Tully said as Fligor followed her, "she'll probably speak both Jao and English by dusk."

"Yes, yes, all servants listen very hard," Pyr said in Jao. "Learn Jao and English soon."

Tully had no doubt that was true. These people seemed to sop up language like a sponge. He pulled his cap off and scratched his head. The Lleix were amazing in some areas, totally backwards in others. Just like humans, he thought, whose factionalism had been their downfall, and even like Jao who counted innovation and individual ambition to be of no consequence. Each of the three species had its strengths and blind spots.

Shivering, he watched servants scurry past carrying shattered benches and rickety stools and pile them in a heap at the street's edge for removal. The Lleix were missing a bet with so much willing manpower wasted. Obviously they had a work ethic. If these
dochaya
residents were all educated and then given something useful to do, instead of just sitting around and pining for status, this city would not be half-abandoned and falling to bits.

And the Lleix would not be sitting here, easy targets, waiting for the Ekhat to come back and finish them off.

Still stationed at the Jaolore
elian
-house, Mallu heard his com crackle to life. Tully's code appeared on the small screen. "Major?" he said, stepping outside into the chill air.

"Tully here," a human voice answered. "I learned from Jihan last night that the Lleix techs, called Shipservicers and Enginetuners, are busy repairing what ships the Lleix have left, but they only have a few experts."

Mallu's ears rose. He could hear several Jao squabbling inside the house. It sounded like Kaln and someone unfamiliar, probably one of the jinau. There were no pools here and they were all prickly with boredom. He rubbed a weary hand over his whiskers. "Yes?"

"I want you to take our jinau and Krant techs down to the landing field and offer assistance while we wait for the
Lexington
to return."

Something crashed inside the
elian
-house. Mallu hoped it was not valuable. "I doubt our techs could be effective without extensive instruction. Lleix concepts and design are bound to differ from our own, perhaps radically so. Also, none of their experts are likely to speak Jao and it will not help if we just get in the way."

"Perhaps," Tully said. "Perhaps not. We will not know though until we try. At any rate, it would be interesting to get a look at their technology and see if we can pick up some new ideas."

Mallu grimaced. Humans were so endlessly preoccupied with
ollnat
. What point was there in learning something new and different? Jao tech had served the kochan for a long time and they already knew how to make it operate quite well.

"Besides, Krant-Captain, the troops need something to do, especially the Jao. Soldiers just get into trouble sitting around all the time. I have put a number of them to work rehabilitating these two abandoned houses, but Jaolore does not need work and it seems to me that the techs' time would be better spent helping the Lleix get ready to flee."

Mallu's appreciation for Tully's cross-species leadership skills rose another notch. Having accepted a number of Jao into his jinau unit, the major obviously understood just how restless they would be without direction and useful occupation.

"Take the techs down to the field and see what, if anything, you can accomplish. I will send Pyr along as translator." Tully hesitated. "Just keep an eye out for trouble from the locals. Caitlin Kralik told Jihan the truth of the matter between humans and Jao last-dark, and now our young Lleix contact has gone back up to the Han. Once she tells them that Caitlin is not Queen of the Universe and the Jao are not our slaves, they are likely to come back down that mountain really angry."

Mallu started to punch the com off, then it crackled again.

"And, Krant-Captain?"

Mallu canted a single ear forward. "Yes?"

"Keep an especially close eye on Senior-Tech Kaln," Tully said. "You know how she can get."

Indeed, Mallu did. "Yes, Major Tully." The connection clicked off. Mallu stared at the small black device in his hand, his whiskers bristling in
respect
, though there was no one to see. Tully, for all that he was human, dealt with Jao amazingly well. From the beginning of this assignment he had forged association with Mallu's Krant crew under difficult circumstances. Kaln, who, despite her brilliance as a tech, had always been exceedingly difficult to manage, positively preened whenever Tully was near these days simply because the human had allowed her to tinker with the gun's loading hoist.

He had come to his decision. When this mission was over, he was going to propose that the kochan seek association with Terra Taif as Tully had suggested. Unlike the more powerful kochan, these Terrans judged individuals upon their performance, not their preexisting status. For Krant, consigned always to the backwaters of kochan politics and little regarded, it might be a way to advance.

But—this idea of working on alien ships was crazy. Most likely the aging hulks would have to be abandoned, if the Bond did decide to render the colony aid. He wished fervently the
Lexington
would come back and put an end to all this pointless waiting, but from what he could feel from the flow of the situation, it would not be today. He just hoped it would be soon.

Something, or someone, crashed again inside the
elian
-house. Mallu shook himself, longing for a swim, then headed inside to round up the techs, or at least those who had not killed each other yet.

Upon her return from the Han, Jihan found Caitlin and Tully in the Application Chamber of the second
elian
-house, overseeing its refurbishment. The Pennantmakers had evidently been consulted, most likely by Pyr, and outside a row of gaily colored flags now adorned the roof's crest. Inside, the floors had been polished, the rubbish swept out, and a line of
dochaya
servants was trooping in, bearing newly repaired benches and stools, pots and bowls. The air smelled pleasantly of red-seed oil.

The old house was quite lovely, the interior's exposed beams covered with elegantly carved
Boh
-faces. She could see how it must have looked long ago when it had been home to the Watercrafters, who had once designed the winding streams and ornamental ponds that still gave grace to the city.

The building would be abandoned all over again if the humans took the Lleix away to safety, and then certainly destroyed when the Ekhat swept back through the system. Sadness overwhelmed her. Though this was just a colony, still this world had been home to the Lleix for many generations, harboring them for a very long time.

They would have to flee their refuge, barren of resources though it was, and who knew if they might ever find anyplace half so pleasant again? Study of the old records revealed that the Lleix had taken shelter on far less hospitable worlds than Valeron during their endless flight from the Ekhat.

"Caitlin," Jihan said, approaching the diminutive human, who was bundled into thick layers of cloth despite being indoors. The human had even pulled a fold of fabric over her head so that it looked something like a Lleix aureole. "The Han will accept the humans' offer of assistance, if they feel able to offer upon their return."

"You told them then, about the humans and the Jao?" Caitlin said.

Jihan stared at her feet, so much larger than those of a human. "No, no," she said. "I did not tell." She raised her gaze and looked into the round blue-gray eyes of the human Eldest. "If I tell, then they will not come. I see that for a certainty. Once the Lleix are safe, then we must explain." She inhaled, her mind with filled the implications of that decision and her part in such a momentous deception.

"Very well," Caitlin said, pushing back the fold of fabric. "I am sure you know far better than we do how to handle the situation. Now, we must make sure your population is ready to leave when they return."

"There is just one problem," Tully said, glancing down at Caitlin with his odd green and white eyes. He pulled up one of the refurbished benches and sat. "What about the
dochaya
?"

Jihan blinked. "When the Lleix flee a world, the
dochaya
remains behind. There is no room for unassigned."

Tully crossed one leg over the other, an awkward pose. He looked as though he might tip over. "That is not acceptable to us."

"But they are our unassigned, not yours," Jihan said. "What can it matter to humans who goes from Valeron and who does not?"

"We—" Tully began, but Caitlin put a hand on his arm and sat down beside him on the bench.

"Let us just say that it does matter to us," Caitlin said. She interlaced her fingers. "So then what can be done about this?"

Jihan bowed her head, thoughts spinning like leaves in a whirlwind. "The matter—would have to be taken before the Han," she said slowly. "There would be discussion, much discussion, perhaps even endless, of such an issue. This is part of
sensho
, the way things are always done. No one would understand why humans would believe survival of the
dochaya
to be necessary or even desirable. The
elian
bear all the culture, training, and knowledge of our kind, everything that is necessary to start again somewhere else. The
dochaya
contains only the rejected, the unnecessary, who would just consume resources without being able to give anything back at a point when we will have nothing extra."

The two humans stared at one another. Caitlin inhaled deeply. "What about Pyr? Is he unnecessary?"

"He has made himself useful when I could not wait for the Festival of Choosing and recruit properly from the season's youth," she said. "But even he has said that he will remain behind with the
dochaya
when the moment comes to leave Valeron. He does not feel worthy to travel with the
elian
."

Tully shook his head and turned away with a muffled exclamation she could not translate.

"And you would just abandon him here to die?" Caitlin said quietly.

Jihan could not understand why they were so preoccupied with the matter. "Things are as they have always been," she said. "Each time we had to flee home after home, we took with us little more than who we are. Such knowledge is all we have and we keep that inviolate. If we give up the way matters are conducted, even in the smallest measure, we will lose ourselves." Her aureole stiffened. "I do not know how to explain better."

"We will not leave the
dochaya
behind!" Tully said. One of his hands was knotted into a fist as if he wanted to strike something.

Caitlin looked into his tight face, shaking her head. "Not now, Gabe," she said in English. "Later."

"You cannot say this to the Han," Jihan said. Her fingers were fluttering with distress. She had worked too hard to let a foolish misunderstanding ruin everything now. "The Eldests argued for days before deciding to decide to accept the humans' assistance, which had few drawbacks. Demanding that they ignore
sensho
to do what has never been done will only make them turn away again."

"You broke
sensho
," Caitlin said. "Once, for a good reason. This is a good reason too. Humans value life, all life, not only the
elian
. We cannot just fly away and leave the unassigned to die."

"The shame of that day when I broke
sensho
will be upon me forever," Jihan said hoarsely, reliving the terrible moment when she had gainsaid Sayr at the Han and the assembled Eldests had looked upon her with such unmitigated contempt. She shuddered. "Such things can never be made right. Perhaps I should also remain behind and blot out my disgrace that way."

"No," Caitlin said. "No one should be left behind!"