* * * * *
"We're going to take up a tight orbit. Out beyond us will be five
transports full of I-A marines and a Class IX Monitor with one
planet-buster. You're calling the shots, God help you! First, we want to
know if they have the _Delphinus_ ... and if so, where it is. Next, we
want to know just how warlike these goons are. Can we control them if
they're bloodthirsty. What's their potential?"
"In five days?"
"Not a second more."
"What do we know about them?"
"Not much. They look something like an ancient Terran chimpanzee ...
only with blue fur. Face is hairless, pink-skinned." Stetson snapped a
switch. The translite map became a screen with a figure frozen on it.
"Like that. This is life size."
"Looks like the missing link they're always hunting for," said Orne.
"Yeah, but you've got a different kind of a missing link."
"Vertical-slit pupils in their eyes," said Orne. He studied the figure.
It had been caught from the front by a mini-sneaker camera. About five
feet tall. The stance was slightly bent forward, long arms. Two vertical
nose slits. A flat, lipless mouth. Receding chin. Four-fingered hands.
It wore a wide belt from which dangled neat pouches and what looked like
tools, although their use was obscure. There appeared to be the tip of a
tail protruding from behind one of the squat legs. Behind the creature
towered the faery spires of the city they'd observed from the air.
"Tails?" asked Orne.
"Yeah. They're arboreal. Not a road on the whole planet that we can
find. But there are lots of vine lanes through the jungles." Stetson's
face hardened. "Match _that_ with a city as advanced as that one."
"Slave culture?"
"Probably."
"How many cities have they?"
"We've found two. This one and another on the other side of the planet.
But the other one's a ruin."
"A ruin? Why?"
"You tell us. Lots of mysteries here."
"What's the planet like?"
"Mostly jungle. There are polar oceans, lakes and rivers. One low
mountain chain follows the equatorial belt about two thirds around the
planet."
"But only two cities. Are you sure?"
"Reasonably so. It'd be pretty hard to miss something the size of that
thing we flew over. It must be fifty kilometers long and at least ten
wide. Swarming with these creatures, too. We've got a zone-count
estimate that places the city's population at over thirty million."
"Whee-ew! Those are tall buildings, too."
"We don't know much about this place, Orne. And unless you bring them
into the fold, there'll be nothing but ashes for our archaeologists to
pick over."
"Seems a dirty shame."
"I agree, but--"
The call bell jangled.
* * * * *