Startide Rising (The Uplift Saga, #2) - David Brin Page 0,25
were now long extinct. The Puber still existed, somewhere, though now degenerate and decadent.
Before their decadence, though, the Puber raised up the Hul, who in turn made clients of Krat’s stone-chopping, Soro ancestors. Shortly thereafter, the Hul retired to their homeworld to become philosophers.
Now the Soro themselves had many clients. Their most successful upspring were the Gello, the Paha, and the Pila.
Krat could hear the high voice of the Pila tactician Cubber-cabub, haranguing its subordinates, to coax information she wanted from the shipboard mini-Library. Cubber-cabub sounded frightened. Good. It would try harder if it feared her.
Alone of those aboard, the Pila were mammals, short bipeds from a high-gravity world. They had become a powerful race in many Galaxy-wide bureaucratic organizations, including the important Library Institute. The Pila had raised clients of their own, bringing credit to the clan.
Still, too bad the Pila were no longer indentured clients. It would have been nice to meddle with their genes again. The furry little sophonts shed, and had a bothersome odor.
No client race was perfect. Only two hundred years ago, the Pila had been thoroughly embarrassed by the humans of Earth. The affair was difficult and expensive to cover up. Krat did not know all of the facts, but it had something to do with the Earthlings’ sun. Since then, the Pila had hated humans passionately.
Krat’s mating claw throbbed as she thought of Earthlings. In just a few generations, they had become almost as great a nuisance as the sanctimonious Kanten, or the devil-trickster Tymbrimi! The Soro patiently awaited an opportunity to erase the blot on their clan honor. Fortunately, humans were pathetically ignorant and vulnerable. Perhaps the chance had already come!
How delicious it would be to have Homo sapiens assigned to the Soro as indentured foster clients. It could happen! Then what changes could be made! How humans might be molded!
Krat looked at her crew and wished she were free to meddle, alter, shape at will even these adult species. So much could be done with them! But that would require changing the rules.
If the upstart water-mammals from Earth had discovered what she thought they had, then the rules might be changed … if the Progenitors had, indeed, come back from the mists of time. How ironic that the newest spacefaring race should discover this derelict fleet! She almost forgave dolphins for existing, for giving those humans the status of patrons.
“Mistress!” a tall Gello announced. “The Jophur-Thennanin alliance has broken up, fighting among themselves. This means they are no longer pre-eminent!”
“Maintain vigilance.” Krat sighed. The Gello shouldn’t make too much out of one little act of treachery. Alliances would form and dissolve until one emerged supreme. She intended that that force be Soro.
The dolphins must be here! When she won this battle, she would pry the handless ones out from their underwater sanctuary and make them tell all!
With a languid wave of her left paw, she summoned the Pil Librarian from its niche.
“Look into the data on these water creatures we pursue,” she told it. “I want to know more about their habits, what they like and dislike. It is said their bonds to their human patrons are weak and corruptible. Give me a lever to pervert these … dolphins.”
Cubber-cabub bowed and withdrew into the Library section, with the rayed spiral glyph above its opening.
Krat felt destiny all around her. This place in space was a fulcrum of power. She didn’t need instruments to tell her that.
“I will have them! The rules will be changed!”
13
Toshio
Toshio found Ssattatta by the bole of the giant drill-tree. The fin had been thrown against the monstrous plant and crushed. Her harness was a jumble of broken pieces.
Toshio stumbled through the ruined undergrowth, whistling a Trinary call when he felt able. Mostly he tried very hard to stay on his feet. He hadn’t walked much since leaving Earth. Bruises and nausea didn’t help much.
He found K’Hith lying on a soft bed of grass-like growth. His harness was intact, but the dolphin planetologist had already bled to death from three deep gashes in his belly. Toshio made a mental note of the spot and moved on.
Closer to the shore he found Satima. The little female was bleeding and hysterical, but alive. Toshio bound her wounds with fleshfoam and repair tape. Then he took the manipulator arms of her harness and used a large rock to pound them into the loam. It was the best he could do to bind her to the ground before the fifth wave hit.