"Yes," Klnn-dawan-a said. "They're in with the general supplies in the shuttle's cargo area."

"I'm sure the warriors will be pleased to receive them," he said, throwing her a thoughtful look. "I'm a little surprised you came all this way here yourself for such a trivial errand."

"Comfort for warriors in a war zone is hardly a trivial errand," Klnn-dawan-a said mildly.

"It is when there are other priorities involved," Klnn-vavgi said. "In the middle of a war against an alien race, an expert on aliens and alien cultures should have more pressing demands on her time."

"Specializing in a field does not necessarily make one an expert in it," Klnn-dawan-a pointed out. "I'm sure Warrior Command is indeed keeping the true experts busy."

"Of course they are," Klnn-vavgi said. "Still, Commander Thrr-mezaz seemed very insistent that you be allowed to personally come down to the surface. He even had to argue a little with Supreme Ship Commander Dkll-kumvit about it."

"I imagine he's anxious to hear about his brother and what happened at the bond-engagement hearings," Klnn-dawan-a said, fighting to keep her voice steady. Clearly, Klnn-vavgi hadn't been taken in by this personal-messages ploy of hers.

And if he wasn't fooled, others probably weren't, either. And if one of them was suspicious enough to order the Elders to do a thorough examination of the waist pouch hanging at her side...

"It's none of my business, of course," Klnn-vavgi said with a shrug. "But there are some here who think everything that happens on Dorcas is their business. I just wanted to warn you about that. Here we are."

"Thank you," Klnn-dawan-a murmured as they stepped between the two warriors guarding the door and went inside. Yes; the Elders would be trying to put the pieces together, all right. What else did they have to do?

Though, on the other side, that might not be such a bad thing. If they thought she'd come here to talk to Thrr-mezaz about her bond-engagement to Thrr-gilag, maybe they'd be less inclined to dig for another motive. Maybe for once the Elder preoccupation with gossip was going to work in their favor.

At first glance the room they walked into reminded Klnn-dawan-a of a sample testing room for some important and well-funded alien-studies group. A circle of optronic-equipment racks and monitors lined three of the four walls, with a Zhirrzh busy in front of each of them. Other Zhirrzh were moving back and forth between the stations, and a quiet buzz of low conversation filled the room. Hanging over all of it was a cloud of fifteen or twenty Elders, some moving around between the racks, most grouped together around one particular station.

Standing in the middle of the group, gesturing to the display in one of the racks, was Thrr-mezaz.

"Yes, it's been mentioned on several occasions that the rocks in that area are rich in metal ores," he was saying as Klnn-vavgi led her over to the edge of the crowd of Elders. "I'm not interested in hearing it mentioned again. This is the first solid lead we've had, and we're going to follow up on it. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Commander," one of the Elders said, in a tone that Klnn-dawan-a suspected was bordering on insubordination. "We'll do whatever we can."

"You'll do whatever it takes," Thrr-mezaz corrected him quietly. "You have your orders."

"I obey, Commander," the Elder growled. He half turned to the other Elders, gestured impatiently with his tongue. "You heard the commander," he said. "Let's get to it."

The whole group flickered and vanished. "They found something?" Klnn-vavgi asked.

"That appears to be a matter of opinion," Thrr-mezaz said, flicking his tongue in a grimace. "The Elders searching the area north of the village ran into a slender nonmetallic cable about four strides underground. Definitely of Human-Conqueror origin."

"Sounds promising," Klnn-vavgi said. "What's the problem?"

"The problem is that it's going to be difficult to trace through the ore-bearing rocks in the region," Thrr-mezaz said. "Several of the Elders are balking at the task, especially since they're half-convinced it's nothing but a control cable for the Elderdeath weapon we destroyed when we first attacked the planet." He shifted his eyes to Klnn-dawan-a. "Welcome to Dorcas, Klnn-dawan-a. You've come at a busy time—I'm afraid our hospitality isn't going to be quite as generous as I'd like."

"You forget I'm used to temporary field shelters on alien worlds, Thrr-mezaz," Klnn-dawan-a said dryly. "Anyway, I'm not here for a vacation."

Thrr-mezaz's tongue twitched. "No, indeed. Let's step into my office."

A hunbeat later they were alone, the office door closed to the warriors in the room outside. "I'm glad you made it here safely," Thrr-mezaz said, gesturing her to one of the couches as he sank onto the couch behind the desk. "I don't mind telling you I was pretty worried when I heard about the Human-Conqueror attack on Shamanv."

"I was pretty worried myself," Klnn-dawan-a said, feeling her tail twitch at the memory. "I was standing right out in the open when three of those black-and-white Human-Conqueror spacecraft flew past overhead. Good luck must have been with me."

"Immense good luck," Thrr-mezaz agreed. "The reports indicated those were probably Copperhead warcraft. The most dangerous the Human-Conquerors have to offer."

Klnn-dawan-a's tail twitched again. "Just as well I didn't know."

"Probably." Thrr-mezaz paused. "You have the package with you?"

"Yes," Klnn-dawan-a said, looking around the room. "Is it safe to talk here?"

"As safe as anywhere in the encampment," Thrr-mezaz said, also looking around. "All the Elders should be either on sentry duty, searching that area north of the village, or acting as communicators out in the command/monitor room. I wish I'd thought to have you pick up a hummer before you left Dharanv, though. Either you or Thrr-gilag."

"It wouldn't have helped to tell Thrr-gilag," Klnn-dawan-a said. "By now he should be well on his way to the Mrachani homeworld."

Thrr-mezaz threw her an odd look. "That's right—you probably don't know. He was taken off the Mrachani mission. He's on his way here instead."

"Here?" Klnn-dawan-a echoed. "What for?"

"He didn't want to say, even on that secure Elder pathway Prr't-casst-a set up for us," Thrr-mezaz said. "But he's only about a fullarc behind you, so we'll be able to ask him ourselves soon enough."

"I see," Klnn-dawan-a murmured. "What do we do first?"

Thrr-mezaz looked around the room again. "First you'd better give me the package."

"Gladly," Klnn-dawan-a said, opening her waist pouch and digging down toward the bottom. "I've been terrified ever since we got it that some Elder would happen to run into it and be suspicious enough to alert someone."

"That problem I can guard against, anyway," Thrr-mezaz said, standing up and walking around the corner of the desk. "There's a metal box in one end of that cabinet over there in the corner, probably the Human-Conqueror commander's safe. It can't be sealed anymore—we burned off the lock to see if there was anything inside—but it should at least keep the package safe from accidental discovery."

"Good," Klnn-dawan-a said, producing the case containing the slender tissue sampler she'd used at the Prr-family shrine. "We'd still better get it where it needs to go as quickly as possible."

"There are many other reasons to do that," Thrr-mezaz reminded her grimly as he took the case and opened it. "Prr't-zevisti's life, for starters. Is this really it?"

"That's really it," Klnn-dawan-a assured him. "I know it looks strange, but it ought to work as well as any normal cutting."

"We'll find out soon enough," Thrr-mezaz said, crossing the room to the cabinet and swinging open an outer wooden door. "Some fullarc you're going to have to tell me how you two got hold of this." He squatted down, pulled open the warped metal door of the safe itself, and set the case inside—