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were unreachable from the decks the humans controlled but they could still
provide the pretext he sought.  Reason for our immediate assault, Foremost: denial
of human access to signaling equipment.
Mashkith sampled the upcoming meal, limiting his grimace to a private link.
 Quite excellent, he lied to the cook.  Compliments on your creativity.
Suddenly, the Foremost was all business.  Lothwer, a premise. Naval
dispatch contingent upon raiders signal. UP fleet absent because of lack of
human-usable comm gear.
 Agreement, Lothwer said. Had the Foremost no more to contribute than
paraphrasing?
 Scenario for assessment: preemptive disassembly of remaining long-range
comm gear. Proactive prevention of human replacement.
Lothwer considered. Raid if and when the humans tried to build. Raid
anything they choose to hide, lest they be building.  Scenario unwise, Foremost.
Concession of initiative to the enemy.
But the Foremost was persistent.  Casualties prediction?
 Dependent upon human actions. Best case: none. Worst case: full-out assault
without control of timing. Heavy casualties.
For a long time, Mashkith was silent.  Long-range antennae the key.
Placement of antenna necessarily on, or at least near, the hull exterior. Best case: raid
then. Worst case: bombardment from a clan warship.
If any activity might be an antenna deployment, destroy the region with
missiles. Rather than absorb a few casualties now for the sake of certainty, Mashkith
would risk major damage to this unique ship. Some would see such caution as
strategy. Lothwer knew it for lost nerve, and it pained him to witness such weakness
from one once so daring.  Acceptable, he admitted.  Implementation on priority
basis.
Acceptable, perhaps, but also imprudent and cowardly. Had the time come
again for a new Foremost?
* * * *
Yet another pseudo-random wobble struck Harmony, courtesy of T bck Ra.
The impulse wasn t much, only strong enough to keep the fusion-drive cutoffs from
resetting, but in micro-gravity it sufficed to detach goop from a spoon held at just
the wrong angle. Marines hooted at one of their own suddenly wearing a gray pasty
smear on his shirt.
Helmut was not yet hungry enough to try the synthesized glop, although it was
reassuring the Centaurs could produce stuff edible for humans. It was too soon to
gauge its nutritional completeness, but the stuff had yet to poison anyone. The
Snakes had not planned for many human  guests, nor the would-be rescuers for
this lengthy a stay. What few high-energy rations people had carried in their
spacesuits were mostly gone. The few human-processed foods the Snakes had
somehow obtained were mostly gone. There was a stock of terrestrial seeds, with a
small sample of which their new furry friends were already experimenting, but there
could be no food from that source for months. Helmut carefully rewrapped the
remains of an energy bar on which he had been picking. Any appetite he had had
vanished at the thought of being here long enough to help with the harvest.
 You look glum.
He looked up. Corinne floated in the corridor.  You don t. Quit it.
She snagged a ceiling rack to stop herself.  Hey, you re the spaceship
captain. If you could navigate worth spit, you d be far away from here. By net she
added,  And although I wish you were, I can t thank you enough for coming.
He thrust his half-eaten energy bar at her.  Don t forget the fine dining. All
part of the full service you have come to expect from Schiller Space Lines. And
privately,  So what brings you here, shipmate?
 Hallway gossip. If my eavesdropping skills are any good, there s a strategy
meeting coming up. She nabbed and carefully ate her drifting crumbs as she
snacked and spoke. It was from hunger, he guessed, not adult-onset neatness.
 True. Feel free to tag along. Don t be surprised if you re invited to leave.
To the unasked question that was plain on her face why are you welcome? he
offered only:  New job.
Corinne followed him up two decks to the summit meeting. The usual
suspects were mostly present: Carlos and Art; Maj. Kudrin and a few of his senior [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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