Her body spasmed, and was still.
“Mahz,” I beamed, “status report”
“No visual contact, but instruments still show the two groups. No activity since the last report. They seem to be waiting for something.”
“Estimated arrival of shuttlecraft?”
“The transport is in a bad orbital position. If they send it out it won’t have enough power to lift off again. Earliest possible arrival is just after sunset”
“Update status as conditions change, but report directly to Zur.”
“Confirmed, Commander.”
“Zome!” I called softly.
“Here, Commander.”
“Examine Kor and stand by to report.”
“Confirmed.”
He moved to Kor’s body.
“Ihr! Analysis of Kor’s report.”
There was no response.
“Ihr!”
“Yes, Commander. I…in a moment.”
I started to press her, then realized she was taking Kor’s death badly.
“Ignore it,” I beamed to her. “Make your report. You are acting head of the Technicians.
“But Commander,” she beamed back, “the last thing I said to Kor…before she was captured…I said I thought the Warriors-“
“Warrior or Technician, she was a Tzen. So are you. Now report.”
“But-“
“She’s dead…and the rest of us could be the same unless we learn from her report. Now give your analysis!”
“The Ant’s technology is apparently inferior to our own. The View Screen described indicates two things. First, they have not yet mastered direct input methods. Stick figures as opposed to full visuals indicate a display of manually input statistics. It is possible that there are several input stations, and also the possibility of several viewing screens displaying common data. It seems unlikely, however, that they would content themselves with representative figures if full visuals were possible.