Aguilera ducked his head and led the other Terrans out of the office. After they had gone, Dau regarded him steadily with expectation in the lay of his ears. He intended Aille to do or say something, but he was not going to indicate what. It was to be wrem-fa all over again, apparently. Despite his respect for the kochanau, Aille found that a bit irritating.
“I am kroudh now,” Aille said brusquely, almost challengingly. “What I do no longer reflects upon Pluthrak.”
“Not officially.” The enigmatic black eyes swept the office, alighting finally upon Yaut. “But you will always be Pluthrak by birth. That cannot be altered.”
“If I die, my origin will no longer be an issue.” Aille turned back to the image tank and called up a cross-section of one of his space-going submersibles. The oblong black shape hung over his immense desk, rotating slowly, alien and fascinating. “Oppuk has demanded my life repeatedly, since he was removed and placed in captivity by the Bond. I have thus far refused to surrender it, of course, since he no longer possesses oudh. That will change though, if the Naukra assigns alternate leadership to this world. They may, after all, decide to return oudh to Narvo—and Narvo may then choose Oppuk as Governor again.”
Caught off-guard, Dau’s eyes flashed green. “That is hardly likely. And you will not surrender your life to that oaf, no matter what!”
Aille pitched his ears at an ironic angle. The elder had spoken in unaccustomed haste. Neither Dau, nor Pluthrak, had the authority to command him any longer, and they both knew it. That was in the nature of kroudh.
“Before I came here, I viewed his so-called ‘palace’! Where, apparently, he insists on spending his captivity while the Naukra assembles.” Dau snorted in disapproval. “Disgraceful! The monstrosity is surrounded by useless vegetation that can be neither eaten, nor made into any useful product. The building itself, though it appears Jao without, is riddled inside with windows, tiny enclosures, straight lines, and corners. It is positively hideous.”
His ears flattened. “And the state of disrepair on this world! We detected entire regions where the infrastructure has been left in ruins from our initial conquest. No wonder the natives are in a constant state of revolt! Their most basic needs have been ignored. Even animals have to be properly husbanded, or they produce nothing of value. That truth is widely known. Even to Narvo. Even to Dano!”
“And these are very far from animals,” Yaut said abruptly. The fraghta’s whiskers twitched and he turned away, appearing to study the approach to the refit facility through a single small, darkened window. “They are clever sentients, often shrewd. Sometimes, I even think, wise. True, they are lacking in many respects, compared to Jao, but they are highly advanced in others. More advanced than we are, in fact.”
Dau’s whiskers quivered with amusement. “You too, fraghta? You are referring to their famous ollnat, I suppose. They are obsessed with it, I am told.”
“A different form of ollnat,” Aille said. “Not the fanciful vagaries of a Jao mind, when it knows not what to do, but innovation of high quality, which thwarted not only Oppuk, but defeated the Ekhat.”
“A fluke,” Dau said. “The Ekhat will be prepared for such crude tactics the next time. It would not work again.” But his posture as he said it conveyed subtleties. He was asking a question as much as making a statement.
“It would certainly be more difficult,” Aille said. He leaned over his console and pulled up the image of the new design for a sunship; then, set the holoimage to rotating. “But my advisors are already developing something else, equally innovative. We will succeed—if the Naukra rules wisely, this time.”
“Your human advisors.”
“Human and Jao,” Aille said. “My personal service consists of both.” He gestured at the image above his desk. “This design, for instance, was initiated by humans, but since then is being drastically modified in light of the experience of such veterans as Chul and Hami.”
Aille found himself performing the difficult tripartite unashamed-steadfast-resolution. “You should trust in my training, in all you have given me. What I have done is best for us all, Pluthrak, Terran, and Narvo alike.”