“You mean collaborate!”
“I mean, as Patton once said, ‘no one ever served his country by dying. You serve by making the other dumb bastard die for his country.’ The first rule here is to survive and get as much out of the Jao as we can in the process.”
Tully glanced over his shoulder, but the Jao guard had wandered to the far end of the row. “Then you think the day will come when we boot the Jao off Earth?”
“I do.” Aguilera straightened, then grimaced at a kink in his back. “Maybe not in my lifetime, or yours, but at some point; history has proved that empires always fall. Hell, when you get right down to it, we Americans thought we were on top of the world—and then the Jao came.”
“But all those empires, Rome and England and even America, were human,” Tully said. “You can’t count on the Jao being the same.”
“No,” Aguilera said, “but it’s all we’ve got left to hope for. Until then, we have to survive.”
Chapter 12
“Miss Stockwell,” a gravelly Jao voice said as a pair of immense oak doors swung open and Caitlin’s party entered the palace.
How strange, she thought, glancing back over her shoulder at the surprising wooden panels. Jao ordinarily preferred doorfields to crude physical barriers such as these.
“I am pleased,” the voice continued, “that you and Dr. Kinsey accepted my invitation.”
The “invitation,” of course, had been a command. She ran fingers back through her short wind-blown hair as an excuse to hide her expression. The entrance hall, constructed of cool gray stone and a ceiling that loomed far overhead, was dim, as Jao quarters so often were, but also unexpectedly primitive. It had actual corners and huge pillars framing the doorway carved in the likeness of ceremonial bau. Like the flowers outside, they were a form of human decoration, adapted to Jao sensibilities. Jao just didn’t do that, in her experience.
“Governor Oppuk,” she said with a feeling of dread as she waited for her eyes to adjust.
Kinsey stepped forward, a smile on his face. “This is an extraordinary opportunity, being allowed to put together a history of the Jao! I can’t thank you enough for giving me permission to do so!”
Oppuk krinnu ava Narvo, the Governor of Terra, was dressed in customary Jao dark-blue trousers with the halfcape draped over one shoulder so many of the conquerors affected. Its insignia, meaningless squiggles to human eyes, had been worked in a bright, fierce scarlet.
“It is perhaps time Terrans knew more of the Jao,” he said in accented English. One of his ears swiveled lazily. “They are like ignorant children, understanding nothing of the dangers awaiting them beyond this solar system, dangers which require us, your protectors, to expend great amounts of resources and energy.”
“To be sure,” Kinsey said, “but my book should remedy that. I’m eager to get started.”
Narvo turned to Caitlin. “It has been long since flow brought us together,” he said. “Are you now considered emerged?”
Her father had struggled to keep his family sequestered from his job as much as possible, not wanting them to come to the attention of their powerful overlords. This one, in particular.
“Yes,” she said, though she had no idea what “emerged” actually meant. Jao were notoriously close-mouthed on the subject of their biology and development.
The Governor was massive, even for a Jao, the velvety nap covering his skin a rich red-gold. His vai camiti was composed of three uneven stripes slanted at forty-five-degree angles across nose and eyes, rather like a zebra. He occupied the middle of the spacious foyer as though he were an ornamental statue and regarded them in a perfect attitude of amused-disdain.
Caitlin had known Jao as far back as she could remember. There had even been times—thankfully long past—when Banle had remained in her bedroom when she slept. She’d begun learning bodyspeech at the age of four, almost as soon as she’d started to learn English. The Governor apparently wished to appear magnanimous and accepting, coming to meet them personally like this, but his body betrayed his inner thoughts: he was far from respecting humans and their ways.