As soon as the hooktenders pronounced the tank settled into place, the welders swarmed over it and began to work. Meanwhile, working from within the submarine hulls, other technicians began installing the environmental and communication conduits and links.
Aguilera waved at one of the foremen, Scott Cupton, up on the scaffolding. “Hey, Scott, come down! I want to go over these specs with you.”
Cupton waved back, dragged a forearm over his sweaty face, then began clambering down the ladder attached to the scaffolding.
Rafe Aguilera laughed. He was going to make this work, going to be “of use,” as the Jao liked to put it—and it was such a rush, that, for just a second, he thought he finally understood how their furry brains worked. Sort of.
* * *
Early the next morning, before daylight had fully asserted itself, Aille wrapped up the final details of their pieced-together defense in Oppuk’s command center in Oklahoma City, then piloted his courier ship back to Pascagoula. Yaut, Caitlin Stockwell, Wrot, and Willard Belk accompanied him.
Aille could feel the moment drawing near when they must take what assets they had gathered and launch for the system’s framepoint. Events raced like the swift center current of an ever deepening river, a sure sign they must go soon.
He thought Oppuk must feel it too. All Jao must be aware how close the moment was. He wondered who among them were more nervous, humans stumbling through this timeblind, or the Jao, who knew only too well how short time was.
It was midmorning, as humans liked to term it, when his courier ship set down again on the tarmac at Pascagoula. He sat at the boards longer than necessary, relishing the feeling of the controls in his own hands. The sensation of his senses extended throughout the ship as though its hull were an extension of his own body. Sometimes he regretted that the needs of Pluthrak determined he would be of more use as a military officer rather than a pilot. He would have been satisfied to be no more.
A groundcar pulled up even before the five of them had time to descend the ramp. Aguilera jumped out, his face flushed with strong feeling. “Subcommandant!” he cried. “Come to the refit floor. I want you to see this!”
Caitlin and Wrot hastily stepped before Aille, as did Belk. Yaut’s ears waggled at the unseemly exuberance of Aguilera’s greeting, but Aille chose not to notice.
Aille slid into the vehicle, which was, as always, meant for lesser dimensions than his. Yaut squeezed in after him, but Caitlin balked. “There’s not enough room for all of us, and this isn’t my area of expertise anyway. With your permission, I’ll catch up later.”
“Nor is it mine,” Belk said, his shoulders expressing polite-reticence quite well, for a human. “I will follow you to the refit facility.”
Aguilera was strangely agitated, glancing from one to the other, his brown eyes dancing. Even Aille could decipher that much of his emotional state, though nothing more precise. The dark-haired human didn’t even seem aware he had provided insufficient transport for Aille’s party.
Caitlin, he was sure, wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to visit Kralik, who had come down here the night before. Belk, as always, was simply being practical.
“Yes, that seems sensible,” Aille said.
Aguilera threw himself back into the front seat and motioned to the driver, a human female. “Take us to the refit floor and don’t spare the ponies!”
Aille was still puzzling over exactly what “ponies” were and why he hadn’t seen any up until now, when they pulled up before the huge, hangerlike building.
“Okay,” Aguilera said, leaping out to open Aille’s door before he could do it himself. “I wanted you to see this, now that we’ve gotten a number of them installed. I know it looks absolutely crazy, but I really think it will work.”
Nath and Chul met them at the entrance, and they wound their way through the cradles holding the oblong, dull-black ships. The pace of work had heightened to what he might term a “frenzy.” Lights gleamed, cables and power conduits snaked across the floor and up through the scaffolding. Humans scrambled over the great hulls, intent on different tasks, calling to one another. As they neared the first ship, Aille studied the tank being welded onto the back of the hull.