Страница 18 из 47
So that was what lay behind the maddening language problem! Lord Leighton's computer did its usual job on his brain, and the Teacher Globe no doubt did just as well for Riya
A few days later, more planes attacked the underground camp where Riya
«The Targans soon saw how little we knew about life in the woods. That did not make them trust us more. Then our leader Marocah died, and we buried him in the forest, far from home.» Riya
The fugitives eventually reached another underground camp, and were finally able to open negotiations with the underground's leaders. These negotiations didn't get far. Perhaps Chard's men had tracked the fugitives, perhaps they were just lucky. In any case, the second camp was also attacked, both from the air and on the ground. Riya
That was where Blade came in, and after that he and Riya
«We'd radioed to the asteroid base, and the two Menel ships you saw were on their way to pick us up. After they were destroyed, I knew I would have to return to the ship in the mountains to the north. It is so well hidden that I do not think Chard's men have found it. I trusted you not to kill me on the way, and after that-«She shrugged.
«Yes,» said Blade. «And after that?»
«If I didn't think it was safe to take you to the asteroid base, I was going to kill you. I wasn't sure I could, but I knew I had to be ready to try. Even if I died, I could still send the ship to the asteroid on automatic control. What happened to us and what we'd learned had to get to the base.»
What they'd learned was an important development in Loyun Chard's strategy. He was pouring material and manpower into building a monstrous starship nearly a mile long, heavily armed and armored, able to serve as a warship, exploration ship, and transport for colonists all at once.
«What it will do first is attack the asteroid base. It will certainly win, and the base will be destroyed. So will many of our ships and the Menel's, hundreds of our fighting people, and any hope of keeping the Targans in their own system. We will have to meet them out among the stars. The war will be far longer and more terrible if we must do that, and we may not win.»
Loyun Chard no doubt knew that just as well as the Kananites. So he was building the great starship, Dark Warrior. The man was a formidable opponent, and peace would be in danger as long as he lived.
«If the two Menel ships hadn't fallen,» said Riya
«And now?»
Riya
«How did you come to trust me?»
«I knew you could not be my enemy after you saved me from the bat-cats. Before that-you were still a mystery. You'd saved my life and killed Targan soldiers. Yet you looked like a Targan, spoke Targan well, and kept me from helping the Menel.»
«I did that to keep you from getting yourself killed, Riya
«I know that now. I didn't at the time. Also, you didn't seem to understand who the Menel were. That meant you could not be one of the Targan underground fighters.»
«And so I was a bigger mystery than before?» said Blade, stroking Riya
«Yes. Then the night after we came up the canyon, some of the mystery disappeared. I knew you could not be one of Loyun Chard's people.»
«How was that?»
Riya
Blade stiffened, put both hands on Riya
«A lightning bolt tattooed on the penis?»
«Yes. Down the middle. The officers have the triangle on the inside of the right thigh, the ordinary soldiers on the-«
«Riya
«I'm telling you the truth, Blade. If you'd looked at the bodies of the soldiers, you'd have seen it for yourself.»
Blade nodded slowly. «A tattoo on the penis,» he said, half to himself. Then he threw his head back and roared with laughter until the echoes rolled around the forest.
«A tattoo on the penis,» he gasped, tears ru
Then all the delicious sensations of making love to Riya
Chapter 10
Toward dawn Riya
The most important question was also the least easily answered. Was she telling the truth? If she wasn't, what if Blade went with her to Kanan? He might be signing his own death warrant, as well as helping the wrong side in a war. He would be alone, against the resources of a whole planet. He could be eliminated as easily as a swatted mosquito-more easily, if they didn't teach him the Kananite language.
That wasn't the only problem he might face if he went to Kanan and found its people hostile. So far Riya
Even assuming the Kananites didn't get the Dimension X secret, they still might get the location of Earth from him. Then a swarm of Menel and Kananite ships might descend on Earth, drawing it into a Kananite empire.
So much for what could happen if Riya
What if Riya
Where was he? Had he been hurled across the Dimensions to an alternate Earth, so that none of the people here could be any menace to Home Dimension as long as they could only travel in space? Or was he on another world in the same Dimension as the Earth he knew, separated from it only by light-years of space? He remembered the moment of cold and star-studded blackness all around him. Was that a leap between Dimensions, or across light-years within a single Dimension?