“You don’t understand the way they think,” Tully said. “Make a big deal about it, and I guarantee they’ll get rid of the whales just to make a point about who’s in control. Remember Mount Everest? Don’t make this worth their trouble!”
News didn’t always travel fast these days, with many rural areas isolated. But almost everyone had heard of Everest and seen pictures of the truncated cauldron of rock where the world’s most famous peak had once stood.
“From the Jao’s viewpoint, you’re just a handful of native peons who are getting above themselves,” Tully said. “Peons are cheap at the price. It wouldn’t take Oppuk ten minutes to order a ship from orbit to target the entire Tillamook Bay area and after that you simply wouldn’t be a problem any more.”
A stunned silence fell over the crowd.
“Ever see the crater where Chicago used to be?” Aguilera asked conversationally. “I saw it happen. Fortunately, I was just far enough away from the blast radius.”
The old woman turned away, her eyes bright with unshed tears. Her male companion put an arm around her and led her back toward the cars. After a moment, the red-haired woman followed. Tully watched them go, feeling the black band around his wrist like a lead weight. He wanted to go with them. Goddammit, he belonged with them, not here. He had become a Jao lapdog, just like they said.
“You did a good thing,” Aguilera said in a low voice at his shoulder. “Probably saved more than a few lives here today.”
“Yeah, I’m a real prince,” Tully muttered as he watched the townspeople straggle away in twos and threes. “Guess that’s why I feel so dirty.”
* * *
Vermin! Oppuk thought, pacing the perfect curves of his new receiving chamber. This entire world was infested with vermin! Clever vermin, yes, with a great deal of fight in them, but useless in the end. They couldn’t be trained to anything practical, never behaved as manners and protocol required, and their breeding habits were simply appalling. No wonder the genotype varied so wildly. If the Jao could establish a eugenics program, then in a thousand generations they might make something useful of them. Contemplating it, he felt a rare sympathy for the difficulties the Ekhat must have faced back when they had first crafted the Jao from primitive semi-sentient stock.
He dropped into the newly installed pool, which had been filled with local ocean water, then floated on his back, staring at the whorls across the black ceiling. The Naukra Krith Ludh did not understand what this world was really like. If they had, they would have just incinerated it, despite its resources, to keep it out of the hands of the Ehkat, and moved on to something with more promise.
Twenty orbital cycles ago, he had arrived full of enthusiasm, proud at having been chosen by Narvo for the much-prized Terran posting. Today . . .
His greatest hope left was simply that, if the Naukra grew wise and commanded the destruction of the planet, they would permit Oppuk to supervise the ending of what he had begun. Everest was still a moment he remembered with pleasure. With so much more pleasure, would he do the same to Terra itself.
“The crowd has been dispersed,” Drinn’s dispassionate voice said from behind.
“How many were put down?” he asked, hoping the answer was “all.”
“None,” Drinn said. “Several members of the Subcommandant’s service persuaded them to leave.”
He splashed upright. “The female bodyguard?”
“No, the two human males. They spoke briefly and then the natives stuffed themselves back into their vehicles and departed.”
Oppuk ducked under the water to clear his head, and calm his sudden fury. He’d thought this predilection of Aille’s to take humans into his service the foolish fancy of one newly released from the kochanata, but perhaps not. The Pluthrak might be bold enough, even so young, to plan an open contest with Narvo. If so, his humans might indeed have their uses.
Still, it would have been wiser to kill all who had dared to protest. Such soft-headedness, common when you allowed humans to deal with their own species, was always a mistake and sent the wrong message. The Subcommandant had avoided trouble now only at the cost of more recalcitrant discord later. Humans were incorrigible. Oppuk knew that like he had once known the currents of his own birthpool.