“I didn’t perceive the threat as imminent!” Leelson said emphatically.
“I don’t know what you call imminent, but the world you heard about was only the first. Several more Hermes Sector worlds have been wiped clean,” snarled Trompe.
Leelson looked up in astonishment. “When?”
“Just before Trompe and I were sent here,” Lutha said. “One of the colonists was an old friend of mine. The Procurator used her death as a goad to move me on this journey. God, Leelson! If I’d only known you were here!”
She fumed, her face set and hard, her anger—which had hottened with Leelson’s reference to the boy—warring with her exhaustion. I wondered which god she had invoked. We do not consider it polite to call upon a god as one would a servant. We are careful to use the correct names and polite address.
As for Leely, he had climbed onto the wall bench nearest me and lay there staring at the ceiling, murmuring over and over, “Dananana, Dananana.” I sat down beside him, drawing no attention to myself. We members of the sisterhood learn to do that.
“Did it never occur to you,” Lutha snarled, “that Alliance Prime needed to know where you were?”
“If this attack followed the same pattern as a century ago, there’d have been plenty of time to advise Prime.”
“And what pattern was that?” Trompe demanded.
“The first thing that went then was a supply facility on a moon near the far side of the Hermes Sector. It was a standard year before anything else happened, and another year went by before populations were removed from anywhere farther in.”
Trompe snarled, “Well, the Ularians didn’t follow the previous pattern. They’ve completely destroyed or transported colonies on three of the worlds closest to Dinadh. That’s what alerted Prime.” He sighed, running his fingers through his hair. “I suppose your intentions are understandable, though it would have saved a good deal of trouble if someone had known where you were.”
Leelson nodded glumly, accepting this assessment.
Trompe asked, “Since you’ve been here awhile, I suppose we should ask if you’ve found out anything useful.”
Leelson darted his eyes toward me and did not reply.
I rose and bowed, saying politely, “I will leave you now. Food stores have been augmented in anticipation of your arrival.”
“You knew they were coming?” Leelson demanded in outrage. “You didn’t tell me?”
“If you had asked, you would have been told,” I replied, turning away from him toward Lutha. “Other supplies should be adequate for your stay.”
I swept my pile of dust before me as I went out of the room and through the little hall to the door that connected with the hive. It, too, was made of wood, with a lock upon it. I swept my way through, shut the door loudly, then opened it a crack. No one noticed. I was able to hear everything they said.
“Damn them,” Leelson was muttering. “Insular, taciturn, withholding information like that! I could have forestalled your journey … ”
Trompe said, “Calm down, Leelson. We’re here now and we’re on the same mission you are, so there’ll be no conflict. Forget I asked any questions. We’re too tired to think about it now. I hope there’s space for all of us to sleep.”
I heard Lutha murmuring agreement, then scuffmgs and murmurs as they moved about, exploring the cells. There were plenty of wall benches, plenty of cotton sleeping pads. Bernesohn Famber had used one room for storage, but the other two rooms were large enough for all of them. In the hive, they would have housed a dozen of us, but evidently outlanders needed more privacy than we Dinadhi.
“Leely and I’ll take this room,” said Lutha from the back room where Leelson had been sleeping. “I presume there’s other sleeping space for you men.”
“Plenty of sleeping space,” Leelson murmured, moving in and out.
Though the dispenser could deliver hot food, I had cooked food for their evening meal and left it in food boxes on the shelf. Someone found the boxes, for I heard the sounds of their opening, the little homely noise of spoons and bowls. Those who were eating did so slowly and silently. Perhaps they were too tired to have appetite or enjoy flavor.