[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
And with that set of instructions, the Colonel beat a hasty retreat.
"But " Hunter said desperately after the Colonel's retreating back.
"But I "
Too late.
K'Kai and her entire crew surrounded him, gabbling at the tops of their
lungs, until he finally lost patience with them all.
"Shut UP!" he roared. A blessed silence descended, as the Firekkans
rolled wide, startled eyes at him. He turned to K'Kai. "Right. What
happened? What's wrong?"
K'Kai shook her feathers, and stared at him out of wide, half-stunned
eyes. A couple of the others made little meeping noises, but he ignored
them. Finally she clacked her beak a couple of times, and began speaking.
Slower, this time.
Even so, it took Hunter several tries and a lot of cross-questioning to
get the whole story out of her. When he did, he didn't blame her or her
flock for being upset.
The Kilrathi had taken hostages not something they did, normally, but
evidently the ambitious Prince Thrakhath had thought it would be
advantageous to his plans to have hostages& or perhaps they were only
prized slaves. In view of the disastrous Sivar Eshrad ceremony, the total
subjugation of Firekka had been the Prince's only remaining means of
saving face.
One of those nests was K'Kai's family, and one of the hostages her
young niece Rikik. Rikik's mother had been killed during the battle to
rescue the hostages, and that he'd made Rikik, young as she was, the
titular head of the flock. Her very youth made her a good hostage; she was
so frightened and vulnerable that no adult Firekkan would resist the
Kilrathi Prince's orders, knowing that she would suffer if they rebelled.
One of the first orders had been to pinion every adult so that they could
not fly. K'Kai had the bright notion to make the Kilrathi think that
removing only the first two secondaries on each wing would make
Firekkans ground-bound and once she sped the idea through the nests,
the rest went along with the ruse. They planted the misinformation in
their own records, and feigned their loss of flight when the feathers were
removed, taking to the air only within the nest, or where they were certain
no Kilrathi could observe them.
The Kilrathi Prince neither knew nor cared that pinioning every adult
would cripple them, make it impossible for them to reach
feeding-platforms and sleep-perches within the nest. His orders grew
progressively cruder, but with their leaders in Kilrathi hands, there was
nothing the avians could do but obey, and fight a covert battle to retake
their world, letting the Kilrathi think that the fighters were from outside
the city, as Hunter had seen for himself.
"And they departed from Firekka," K'Kai concluded. She shook her
head. "But the first ship off-world took with it not only the Prince, but his
hostages. They took our flock leaders with them! They said that if Firekka
could not be theirs to conquer, then they would see to it that it would not
ally with you! That was what I came here to tell you those leaders who
are left will cancel the treaty! They will not risk the lives of our flock
leaders!"
With each sentence, she grew shriller and shriller, until at last she was
shrieking again. As Hunter tried to calm her down, his mind was really on
her alarming news.
The Confederation needed Firekka. Not for any strategic reason& the
planet was too isolated from the rest of Terran space to make any real
difference in the war& but for political reasons. The Confed had sworn to
protect Firekka against the Kilrathi, and hadn't. If the Firekkans broke the
treaty, how many other Confed planets would follow?
"Come on, K'Kai," he said. "You and me have a sudden date with
Captain Thorn."
He bullied and wheedled his way to the Captain, but once there, Thorn
made it clear that this was not a matter for a lowly pilot, flock-friend or
not. So he had to leave K'Kai there, without knowing what Thorn would do
for her.
But he had confidence in the Captain, and as much in K'Kai. She was in
good hands. Thorn would get her to Confed High Command, and see that
she spoke to the right people.
Something would be done.
Something would be done!
CHAPTER NINE
"Meal time, kitty," the human voice said, shoving a bowl and a mug
through the slot in his cell door.
The human's words and a terrible smell awakened Kirha from a sound
sleep on the floor. The smell was coming from the mug, which smelled of
rotting plants of some kind. He moved closer to the door and stared at the
contents of the mug, a foul bubbling yellow liquid, then at the bowl. It was
filled with a strange mixture of plants and roots, not real food. He could
see some meat mixed in with it, but the meat was brown and looked
terrible, nothing that he could eat.
What had happened to those humans from the ship, the ones who had
known what a Kilrathi warrior needed? From decent food and decent
quarters, he had come to this burned trash and treatment he would not
have given to a slave.
He heard the footsteps walking away, and held back his rage. A warrior
of Kilrah did not lose his dignity by shrieking at empty walls. Kirha sat
back on his haunches, steadfastly ignoring the hunger gnawing at his
innards, and waited.
It had been like this since the Kilrathi retreat, and their arrival at Sol,
when they had separated him from Ralgha. He had not seen Ralgha, nor
his lord the human called Hunter, since.
Where is my liege lord? he wondered. How can he leave me here in
this awful place ?
Has he completely forgotten me?
He leaped to his feet and stalked the length of his cell, padding angrily.
The cell was tiny, and empty but for a white plastic source of water in the
corner, another odd plastic fixture attached to the wall, and a strange
elevated pile of compressed fabric in the corner, which he assumed was
the necessary, since nothing else in the cell even vaguely looked usable for
that purpose. The place he and Ralgha had shared had a necessary, one
recognizable as such. This cell had nothing of the sort. The end result was
a foul odor that Kirha could do nothing about, but which only added to
the humiliation of his incarceration.
Lord Ralgha would have been kinder to let me die, he thought sadly,
curling up on the floor for another nap.
Another sound awakened him, and he blinked at the bright light
streaming in from the hallway. Someone was standing in the open cell
doorway, a tall human. This human had longer head-fur than most of the
humans, a tawny gold fur that was nearly the same color as the fur of
Major H'hristy Mar'kss, but he also had fur on his face. His chin was bare,
but there was a small line of golden fur beneath his nose that extended
down the sides of his mouth. That mouth was frowning now, as he stepped
into the cell.
"I'faith, it reeks like the devil in here!" the human said, his words oddly
accented and more difficult for Kirha to understand. "Dinna someone ever
come in to clean this place, laddie?"
Was this another interrogation? He thought they had ended with that,
since no one had come to take him to the interrogation room for several
eights of hours. He hated it every time they came to take him away. The
drugs they gave him made him dizzy and sick, and they always asked the
same questions, over and over again. Kirha knew none of the answers to
them. Fleet movements, battle plans, any of it.
This human, though, seemed different. Instead of the pair of human
guards that always tied his arms behind him before taking him to the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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And with that set of instructions, the Colonel beat a hasty retreat.
"But " Hunter said desperately after the Colonel's retreating back.
"But I "
Too late.
K'Kai and her entire crew surrounded him, gabbling at the tops of their
lungs, until he finally lost patience with them all.
"Shut UP!" he roared. A blessed silence descended, as the Firekkans
rolled wide, startled eyes at him. He turned to K'Kai. "Right. What
happened? What's wrong?"
K'Kai shook her feathers, and stared at him out of wide, half-stunned
eyes. A couple of the others made little meeping noises, but he ignored
them. Finally she clacked her beak a couple of times, and began speaking.
Slower, this time.
Even so, it took Hunter several tries and a lot of cross-questioning to
get the whole story out of her. When he did, he didn't blame her or her
flock for being upset.
The Kilrathi had taken hostages not something they did, normally, but
evidently the ambitious Prince Thrakhath had thought it would be
advantageous to his plans to have hostages& or perhaps they were only
prized slaves. In view of the disastrous Sivar Eshrad ceremony, the total
subjugation of Firekka had been the Prince's only remaining means of
saving face.
One of those nests was K'Kai's family, and one of the hostages her
young niece Rikik. Rikik's mother had been killed during the battle to
rescue the hostages, and that he'd made Rikik, young as she was, the
titular head of the flock. Her very youth made her a good hostage; she was
so frightened and vulnerable that no adult Firekkan would resist the
Kilrathi Prince's orders, knowing that she would suffer if they rebelled.
One of the first orders had been to pinion every adult so that they could
not fly. K'Kai had the bright notion to make the Kilrathi think that
removing only the first two secondaries on each wing would make
Firekkans ground-bound and once she sped the idea through the nests,
the rest went along with the ruse. They planted the misinformation in
their own records, and feigned their loss of flight when the feathers were
removed, taking to the air only within the nest, or where they were certain
no Kilrathi could observe them.
The Kilrathi Prince neither knew nor cared that pinioning every adult
would cripple them, make it impossible for them to reach
feeding-platforms and sleep-perches within the nest. His orders grew
progressively cruder, but with their leaders in Kilrathi hands, there was
nothing the avians could do but obey, and fight a covert battle to retake
their world, letting the Kilrathi think that the fighters were from outside
the city, as Hunter had seen for himself.
"And they departed from Firekka," K'Kai concluded. She shook her
head. "But the first ship off-world took with it not only the Prince, but his
hostages. They took our flock leaders with them! They said that if Firekka
could not be theirs to conquer, then they would see to it that it would not
ally with you! That was what I came here to tell you those leaders who
are left will cancel the treaty! They will not risk the lives of our flock
leaders!"
With each sentence, she grew shriller and shriller, until at last she was
shrieking again. As Hunter tried to calm her down, his mind was really on
her alarming news.
The Confederation needed Firekka. Not for any strategic reason& the
planet was too isolated from the rest of Terran space to make any real
difference in the war& but for political reasons. The Confed had sworn to
protect Firekka against the Kilrathi, and hadn't. If the Firekkans broke the
treaty, how many other Confed planets would follow?
"Come on, K'Kai," he said. "You and me have a sudden date with
Captain Thorn."
He bullied and wheedled his way to the Captain, but once there, Thorn
made it clear that this was not a matter for a lowly pilot, flock-friend or
not. So he had to leave K'Kai there, without knowing what Thorn would do
for her.
But he had confidence in the Captain, and as much in K'Kai. She was in
good hands. Thorn would get her to Confed High Command, and see that
she spoke to the right people.
Something would be done.
Something would be done!
CHAPTER NINE
"Meal time, kitty," the human voice said, shoving a bowl and a mug
through the slot in his cell door.
The human's words and a terrible smell awakened Kirha from a sound
sleep on the floor. The smell was coming from the mug, which smelled of
rotting plants of some kind. He moved closer to the door and stared at the
contents of the mug, a foul bubbling yellow liquid, then at the bowl. It was
filled with a strange mixture of plants and roots, not real food. He could
see some meat mixed in with it, but the meat was brown and looked
terrible, nothing that he could eat.
What had happened to those humans from the ship, the ones who had
known what a Kilrathi warrior needed? From decent food and decent
quarters, he had come to this burned trash and treatment he would not
have given to a slave.
He heard the footsteps walking away, and held back his rage. A warrior
of Kilrah did not lose his dignity by shrieking at empty walls. Kirha sat
back on his haunches, steadfastly ignoring the hunger gnawing at his
innards, and waited.
It had been like this since the Kilrathi retreat, and their arrival at Sol,
when they had separated him from Ralgha. He had not seen Ralgha, nor
his lord the human called Hunter, since.
Where is my liege lord? he wondered. How can he leave me here in
this awful place ?
Has he completely forgotten me?
He leaped to his feet and stalked the length of his cell, padding angrily.
The cell was tiny, and empty but for a white plastic source of water in the
corner, another odd plastic fixture attached to the wall, and a strange
elevated pile of compressed fabric in the corner, which he assumed was
the necessary, since nothing else in the cell even vaguely looked usable for
that purpose. The place he and Ralgha had shared had a necessary, one
recognizable as such. This cell had nothing of the sort. The end result was
a foul odor that Kirha could do nothing about, but which only added to
the humiliation of his incarceration.
Lord Ralgha would have been kinder to let me die, he thought sadly,
curling up on the floor for another nap.
Another sound awakened him, and he blinked at the bright light
streaming in from the hallway. Someone was standing in the open cell
doorway, a tall human. This human had longer head-fur than most of the
humans, a tawny gold fur that was nearly the same color as the fur of
Major H'hristy Mar'kss, but he also had fur on his face. His chin was bare,
but there was a small line of golden fur beneath his nose that extended
down the sides of his mouth. That mouth was frowning now, as he stepped
into the cell.
"I'faith, it reeks like the devil in here!" the human said, his words oddly
accented and more difficult for Kirha to understand. "Dinna someone ever
come in to clean this place, laddie?"
Was this another interrogation? He thought they had ended with that,
since no one had come to take him to the interrogation room for several
eights of hours. He hated it every time they came to take him away. The
drugs they gave him made him dizzy and sick, and they always asked the
same questions, over and over again. Kirha knew none of the answers to
them. Fleet movements, battle plans, any of it.
This human, though, seemed different. Instead of the pair of human
guards that always tied his arms behind him before taking him to the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]