The ground floor of the house had been cleared of whatever it might have contained. Two portal outlines flickered on the walls, and a variety of instruments stood about, apparently hastily assembled. Kolki Ming said, “Ellorad and Sartes won’t be back for a while. Sit down while I check on my duties.”
“There’s one thing I’d like to know,” Telzey said.
“Yes?”
“How old are you?”
The Alatta glanced over at her.
“So you learned about that,” she said. “I’m twenty-seven of your standard years. As for the rest of it, there may be time to talk later.”
Telzey sat down on an empty instrument case, while Kolki Ming spoke briefly into a communicator. She seemed to listen then to a reply which remained inaudible to Telzey, and turned to a panel of scanning devices.
Presently they had time to talk.
* * *
The Elaigar’s transition to the Sattaram form at maturity was connected with a death gene the Grisand cult on Nalakia had designed to help keep the mutation under control. The Elaigar didn’t know it. After they destroyed the Grisands, they developed no biological science of their own, and to allow serf scientists to experiment physically with the masters was unthinkable under their code system.
But an early group had broken that rule. They set alien researchers the task of finding a method of prolonging their lives. They were told that for them as individuals there was no method, but that the gene could be deleted for their offspring. They settled for that—the Alattas came into existence. They remained Otessans in physical structure and had regained a normal human life span. With it, they presently regained lost interests and goals. They had time to learn, and learned very quickly because they could draw in the Elaigar manner on alien science and technology. Now they began making both their own.
Most of the Elaigar despised them equally for having abandoned the majestic structure of the mature Lion People and for degrading themselves with serf labor. They did their best to wipe out the new strain, but the Alattas drew ahead from the start.
“That was centuries ago, of course,” said Kolki Ming. “We have our own civilization now and no longer need to borrow from others—though the Federation of the Hub was still one of our teachers on occasion as little as eighty years ago. The Elaigar remain dependent on their slave people and are no longer a match for us. And their codes limit them mentally. Some join us of their own accord, and while we can do nothing for them, their children acquire our life span. Otherwise, we collect the Elaigar at every opportunity, and whether they want it or not, any children of those we collect are also born as Alattas. They hate us for that, but they’ve become divided among themselves. In part, that’s what led them to risk everything on this operation in the Hub. Bringing the old human enemy under control seemed a project great enough to unite them again. When we discovered what they were doing, we came back to the Federation ourselves.”
Telzey said, “You’ve been trying to get them out of the Federation before we found out they were around?”
“That was the plan. We want no revival of that ancient trouble. It hasn’t been a simple undertaking, but we’ve worked very carefully, and our preparations are complete. We three had the assignment to secure the central control section of the Tinokti circuit at a given moment. If we can do it now, most of the Sattaram leadership in the Hub will be trapped. We’ve waited months for the opportunity. We’re prepared to move simultaneously against all other Elaigar positions in the Federation. So there’s a great deal at stake. If we can’t get the Elaigar out unnoticed before human forces contact them, it may become disastrous enough for all sides. To expect Federation warships to distinguish neatly between Alattas and Elaigar after the shooting begins would be expecting too much. And it would be no one-sided matter. We have heavy armament, as do the Elaigar.”
She added, “The Elaigar are essentially our problem, not that of the Federation. We’re still too close to them to regard them as enemies. My parents were of their kind and didn’t elect to have their gene patterns modified. If they hadn’t been captured and forced to it, I might have fought for Suan Uwin rank in my time as ruthlessly as Boragost or Stiltik—and, as I judge you now, so might you if your ancestors had happened to be Grisand research subjects on Nalakia. But we’re gaining control of the Elaigar everywhere. If we succeed here, the last Sattaram will be dead less than thirty years from now.”
She broke off, studied a set of indicators for a moment, picked up the communicator. Voice murmuring reached Telzey. It went on for perhaps two minutes. Kolki Ming set the communicator aside without replying. One of the other Alattas evidently had recorded a message for her.
She stood up, face thoughtful, fastened on a gun belt.
“We’ve been trying to force Boragost and Stiltik to open the Lion Game with us,” she said. “It’ll be the quickest way to accomplish our purpose. Perhaps the only way left at present! It seems we’ve succeeded.” She indicated the street door. “We’ll go outside. The first move should be made shortly. I must call in Scag.”
Telzey came to her feet. “What’s the Lion Game?”
“The one you’re playing, I think,” said Kolki Ming. “I don’t believe you’ve been entirely candid with me. But whether it was your purpose or not, it seems you’re involved in the Game now.”
Chapter 11
Kolki Ming had set up a light outside the house which brought full visibility to a hundred yard stretch of the dismal street and its house fronts. She and Telzey remained near the entrance. Scag now appeared abruptly in the illuminated area, stared coldly at them, glanced back bristling over his shoulder and was gone again.
Telzey had done the Alattas a greater favor than she knew in eliminating Stiltik’s dagen. When they learned of it, they’d been able to go about their work more freely. A situation involving the possible use of dagens became so dangerously complicated that those threatened by them had to direct their primary efforts to getting the beasts out of the way. Scag had killed several of Stiltik’s people during their surprise attack in the sealed areas; so it was known the three Alattas had brought a mind hound in with them.
There were two other dagens at present in the circuit, Boragost’s and one whose handler was a Sattaram leader who had arrived with his beast during the week. Predictably, if Boragost was to take action against the Alattas, as it now seemed he would, his first step would be to use the pair to get rid of Scag. If the Elaigar dagens could be finished off at the same time, it would be worth the loss of Scag to the Alattas. They could go ahead immediately then with their plans.
That was the part of the game being played at present. Scag came and went. His kind could sense and track each other—he knew he was being sought by hunters as savage as he was. He wasn’t trying to evade them. His role simply was to make sure the encounter took place here. The gun Kolki Ming held had been designed for use against dagens, who weren’t easy creatures to kill.
Now Scag was back, and remained, half crouched, great head turning from side to side.
“They’re coming!” Kolki Ming started forward. “Stay here and don’t move!”
Abruptly, two other dagens appeared, to right and left of Scag. He hurled himself on the nearest one.
It became a wild blur of noise and motion. The street filled with the deep howling voices of the mind hounds, sounding like peals of insane laughter. They grappled and slashed, flicked in and out of sight, seeking advantage. Yellow blood smears began to appear on the paving behind them. Scag seemed not at all daunted by the fact that he was fighting two; they were lesser beasts, though one wasn’t much smaller than he. For moments, it looked to Telzey as if he might kill them unaided. But he was getting help. Kolki Ming shifted this way and that about that spinning tangle, gun in sporadic action, perilously close to the struggle. But the dagens ignored her.
Then one of Scag’s opponents lay on the paving, neck twisted back, unmoving. Scag and the other rolled, locked together, across the street toward Telzey; she watched yellow blood pumping from the side of Scag’s neck and through his jaws. The Alatta followed, gun muzzle now almost touching the back of the other dagen. The beast jerked around toward her, jaws gaping. Scag came to his feet, stood swaying a moment, head lowered, made a gurgling noise, fell.