He rested his head back against the seat as the groundcar lurched forward, then gained speed. The base slipped past with its strange conglomeration of poured black crystal Jao buildings mingled with stiff-looking human structures.
” ‘The woods are lovely, dark and deep,’ ” he murmured, quoting an old Robert Frost poem. ” ‘But I have promises to keep.’ ”
Caitlin nestled in the hollow of his shoulder and sighed. Her fingers stroked his cheek, scraping across stubble. ” ‘And miles to go before I sleep,’ ” she said, finishing the lines for him. ” ‘Miles to go before I sleep.’ ”
“I need to shave,” he said, apologetically.
“No, don’t.” She chuckled softly into his ear. “Your beard looks like it’d be all gray. It’ll make you look like a distinguished cradle robber, so I can tell everybody I was bowled over by your suave mature charm.”
Kralik thought about it. “Nobody will believe that for an instant,” he predicted. “I drink beer, just for starters.”
” ‘Course not,” she murmured happily. “They’ll think I’m an airhead for saying it, but that’ll still keep them from nattering at me. Nobody gives unwanted advice to a blond airhead. What’s the point, since she’s obviously got the brains of a carrot anyway?”
* * *
Aille had thought, upon returning to Terra, that flow would ease. But it was swifter than ever, rushing with such urgency that he had to tighten his timesense and slow perception by several degrees in order to be able to think.
It was Oppuk, he realized. The Governor’s flotilla had suffered losses fighting the one surviving Ekhat ship, but enough ships had survived for Oppuk to order them to begin outfitting bolides for planetary bombardment. Hami had told him that when she tried to speak to the Governor he simply broke off the comm signal.
Down here on Terra, humans were going about the remediation of the environmental damage in an orderly, methodical manner. Ben Stockwell had taken responsibility, as ordered, reaching out to other political moieties, though the affected areas were not contiguous with his own. Since it was obvious that a native would understand both what was needed and available much more thoroughly than a Jao, Aille allowed Stockwell’s efforts to proceed unimpeded. He was well aware, though, that Oppuk was furious with that also—and would present it as further evidence before the Naukra that Aille was leading a rebellion. Not simply kroudh, but a traitor.
Nath had appropriated the Commandant’s quarters on the Pascagoula base for Aille’s use. Kaul krinnu ava Dano had vacated them to command a ship in the battle above Terra. Although he was numbered among the survivors, Kaul had not yet returned and it was unclear if he would return at all. Dano’s stance in Oppuk’s preparations for a planetary bombardment was still unknown. Indeed, no one even seemed to know his whereabouts.
Nath thus felt that until the Commandant returned, he had no use for these quarters with their intricate command systems. But Aille did. Finding no fault with her logic, he took possession, appreciative of her typical forethought and practicality. Nath’s splendid vai camiti, he had long since realized, was no illusion. Had the female come from a more prestigious clan, she would have advanced much farther in rank by now.
He sat now in the dimness, considering his possible options.
They were few, and none good. Aille now held the allegiance of all the Jao forces on the planet itself—as well as the jinau, of course. But the only spacecraft he had at his disposal, other than his own small ship, were the converted submarines. Those, he dismissed with hardly any thought. The submersibles had done splendidly against the Ekhat fighting under the special conditions which obtained in the solar photosphere, but they would be hopelessly overmatched in an open space battle with Oppuk’s flotilla. They were not mounted with lasers, and the human missiles could not be used against Jao electronic countermeasures. Not, at least, without a great deal of time spent in upgrading them—time which did not exist. Oppuk would be ready to begin his bombardment within a few solar cycles.
* * *
“Subcommandant?” a Terran voice said.