Conquerors' Heritage by Timothy Zahn Read Free Book Online Page A

to go," Thrr-mezaz suggested. "Is anything specifically wrong?"

The Elder nodded again and was gone. Reaching to his desk, Thrr-mezaz activated his reader and called up the most recent update from the encirclement warships orbiting the planet. Another small Human-Conqueror spacecraft had come into the system about twenty hunbeats ago, too far away for the Zhirrzh warships to reach before it left again. It had sent laser communications at the planet, though, obviously intended for the Human-Conqueror stronghold. The messages had been unintelligible; the language experts and translators were still trying to decipher them.

The Elder returned. " 'I'm not exactly wild about going, naturally. But what bothers me most is that the Speaker for Dhaa'rr has insisted on Gll-borgiv going as Dhaa'rr alien specialist. With the unquestioning acquiescence of the Overclan Prime, I might add.' "

Gll-borgiv; Dhaa'rr. The name didn't mean anything to Thrr-mezaz. "Is this Gll-borgiv incompetent?" he asked.

He was rereading the report for the second time when the Elder returned. " 'Not incompetent as such, but nowhere near the best the Dhaa'rr have. Klnn-dawan-a could slice circles around him on her worst fullarc, just to name one.' "

Thrr-mezaz had to smile at that one. "There wouldn't be any personal bias mixed into that assessment, would there?" he asked blandly.

" 'None at all,' " the somewhat indignant answer came back a hunbeat later. " 'I've seen Klnn-dawan-a at work. She's a highly capable searcher.' "

And even if she wasn't, Thrr-mezaz suspected, Thrr-gilag would defend her abilities just as passionately. Love was like that. "Maybe she's just too far away from Oaccanv or too embroiled in some other study right now," he soothed. "That could be why the Speaker for Dhaa'rr didn't pick her."

" 'She's on Gree studying the Chig,' " the answer came back. " 'That's only a fullarc's spaceflight away. I guess what bothers me most is that my part in the fiasco on Base World Twelve may have influenced Speaker Cvv-panav's decision. It feels like the Dhaa'rr are trying to put as much distance as possible between them and me, even if it means sending less than their best to the Mrachanis.' "

Thrr-mezaz slid his tongue gently around the inside of his mouth. "Well, don't go all paranoid before you absolutely have to," he advised his brother. "Don't forget that the main reason you were assigned to this mission in the first place was that you were the only Kee'rr alien specialist close enough to Base World Twelve to get there before the Human-Conqueror prisoner arrived. Decisions get made for lots of different reasons."

The Elder nodded and vanished. Reaching to his reader, Thrr-mezaz called up the reports of the last four intrusions by Human-Conqueror spacecraft and arrayed them side by side. Four intrusions in two fullarcs, three of them in the past fullarc alone. It was surveillance, all right; surveillance and communication with the Human-Conquerors in the mountains. But in preparation for what?

Whatever it was, he doubted he was going to like it.

The Elder reappeared. " 'I suppose you're right. And I suppose I'd better let you get back to your work, too. Are you doing all right?' "

"No worse than any warrior does in enemy territory," Thrr-mezaz said dryly. "It comes with the ranking threads. But we get by." He hesitated. "Incidentally, were you planning to see Mother while you're on Oaccanv?"

The pause this time was longer, and Thrr-mezaz was picturing a puzzled frown on his brother's face when the Elder finally returned. " 'I was hoping to see her and Father both. Why? Is anything wrong?' "

"She's been having some problems," Thrr-mezaz said evasively, wishing he hadn't had to bring this up. Thrr-gilag had been with that archaeology group on Study World 15 half a cyclic ago when the whole problem really started, and it hadn't been something either he or their father, Thrr't-rokik, had wanted to trust to the gossiping of the Elder