“Yes.” He almost reached for her too, then stopped and took Dr. Kinsey’s hand instead, then hers, shaking them firmly. “Good of you to come, both of you. The Naukra is apparently convening a hearing—or however Jao think of it—tomorrow morning, we think, to examine the Subcommandant’s actions here on Earth and decide what response to make. Narvo has lodged formal charges against him.”
The wind blew a strand of hair in her face and she brushed it back. “Is Oppuk here?”
“He’s on his way, apparently, and will be present in person at the hearing.” Ed hesitated, then said softly: “Aille insisted that you come, Caitlin. But I warn you, he also thinks it will be dangerous for you.”
“I figured that out myself, Ed. Whatever else he is, Aille is also a great schemer. He plans to wave me in front of Oppuk like a red flag before a bull.” She appreciated the concern in his voice—even more, that in his stance—but simply shrugged. Then, smiled wryly. “It’ll probably work, too. Although I’ll admit I’d rather be of use some way other than a punching bag. But—whatever works, as they say.”
Kralik pulled up a camp stool for her and gestured for the older man and Tamt to sit in other ones nearby. “You’ll have to forgive these arrangements. So many Jao have piled into the command center over the past two days that we scruffy humans found it easier to set up shop here. And it’s a lot less unsettling, to be honest, given that most of the newly arrived Jao seem none too fond of us and some of them seem almost trigger-happy.”
He was half-lying, she suddenly realized, after spotting Tully in a corner of the tent. Tully gave her a friendly nod of recognition but then immediately resumed his conversation with the man he was standing beside. An older man, about Kinsey’s age as well as Kinsey’s approximate skin color, but looking far more physically fit than the professor. Caitlin had never seen a photograph of the man, but she was quite certain this was the legendary Rob Wiley, once a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, and, in the many years since the conquest, the military leader of the Resistance in the Rockies.
Ed, she knew, had wanted privacy, not simply breathing room. She gave him an uncertain look.
Kralik’s gray eyes hardened and he seemed to stand taller, straighter, as though granite suddenly pervaded his being. He glanced at Tamt, for an instant, then apparently decided her loyalties were clear enough.
“Don’t ask for the details, Caitlin. Colonel Wiley—General Wiley now, officially—is willing to try it our way. But if that doesn’t work, I told him we’d do it his way. If the Naukra restores Oppuk, we’ll have no choice.”
Tamt grunted. “Any fool understands that much. Even the Narvo veterans have informed their kochan elders they will no longer serve on Terra if the situation is not resolved properly. They specified the removal of Oppuk.”
She grunted again, adding a whisker-waggle of amusement. “Their kochan elders were outraged at the effrontery—and they were already outraged by the new insignia in the kochan hall.”
All the humans stared at her.
“It is true,” she insisted. “I was told by one of the Sant, who was present. She said the veterans had made it a point, before the elders arrived, to have the Star of Terra prominently displayed on one of the walls of the association hall.”
The Jao bodyguard, though still seated on her stool, bestowed upon them a quite good reproof-of-crechelings. The mildest version, Caitlin recognized, the one reserved for humorous chiding rather than more serious forms of reproof.
“Do you really think your preparations have gone unnoticed, General?” Tamt demanded. She glanced at Riley and Tully. “From the officers, perhaps. Not from the soldiers.”
Kralik sighed. “Well . . . I’d hoped. Rob told me it wouldn’t work, not with so many Jao troops still stationed near the mountain shelters.”
Tamt now did a respectable version of a human shrug. “You all worry too much. The Naukra will perhaps not act wisely. But they are not outright fools. Whatever else, Narvo will not have oudh returned to them here. Certainly not Oppuk! And the attitude of the veterans—all of them, you can be sure, with even Narvo taking that posture—has made clear enough that whatever kochan takes Narvo’s place it will either have to rule lightly, or it will need to bring in entirely new soldiers to rule at all. And soldiers with no experience dealing with humans will suffer massive casualties.”