And there was the bewildering job of understanding the alien Sentinels themselves. As the ship drew closer and closer to Karbarra, Lron and Crysta and their people became more and more withdrawn and morose. Veidt was puzzled by it, too.
Normally, as Rick understood it, the gloomy Karbarrans-preoccupied with the tragedy of fate and the ultimate futility of things-made Earth's teutonic types look giddy by comparison; but the prospect of battle was one of the few things that made the big ursinoids cheerful. That wasn't true now, though, and none of them would explain why.
Rick tried to put it from his mind, along with things like this business about Haydon.
Apparently, Haydon was some sort of extraordinarily important historical figure or deity or something, but beliefs and convictions varied among the Sentinels and led to sharp disputes. And so part of their pact had been to avoid all mention of Haydon. Lang was desperate for more information concerning the matter, but the Sentinels had clammed up about it.
Those were Rick's lesser problems. Bigger ones included trying to make things more efficient and organized, and constantly being stymied by explanations he couldn't quite grasp.
One of his first ideas had been to automate the feeding of the Ur-Flower peat-Sekiton, it was called-into the furnaces, freeing up the stoker gangs for other work. Lron and Crysta had given him a long explanation, which he didn't comprehend in the least.
They seemed to be saying that the Sekiton had to be physically touched and handled by Karbarrans to be of any use. If relegated to robotic handling, its affinity for Karbarran life-forms thus frustrated, Sekiton would have its feelings hurt or sulk or whatever, and refuse to yield up its energy properly.
It had to be a translation problem, Rick decided. Didn't it?
He just hoped that he had understood the Karbarrans' intelligence assessments properly.
When they had left their homeworld, the Invid were maintaining a relatively small occupation force, and it sounded like something the Sentinels could cope with. Rick's plan was to use the production facilities on Karbarra-famous for their adaptability and output-to begin assembly lines to turn out mecha and ships with which to arm native recruits, increasing the Sentinels' strength perhaps tenfold.
Lron and his folk were disinclined to comment much about the idea, and apparently held the conviction that fate would bring what it would bring. That gave Rick reservations about the plan, and so he convinced the other Sentinel leaders to scout out the situation carefully before beginning any offensive.
To that end, the starship resumed sublight speed drive far out from the planet itself. Lisa, in her capacity as captain, gave the command to carry out the maneuver.
She had left behind the more formal REF uniform with its tailcoat and skirt. Now she wore the tight-fitting unisex bodysuit that seemed more appropriate for the Sentinels' rough-and-ready style, the group's insignia high on the left breast of her yokelike torso harness, just as it was on all the other Humans. The starship made its transition.
And found itself, all in an instant, practically in the lap of Senep's task force.
Lisa turned and yelled for battle stations.
As for Crysta and Lron, they had taken advantage of the preoccupation of most of the ship's company with the return to sublight speed to find their way to the hold in which Tesla was being kept.
The Praxians who were on guard were only too glad to let the Karbarrans relieve them long enough for the amazons to go get something to eat. Besides, it lay well within Lron's authority to conduct an interrogation.
When they were alone with him, the ursinoids went over to where the Invid scientist sat, shackled, behind bars. "You begged us to spare you," Crysta said in a growl. "You said you would be of use. Well, now you can be. Tell us what you know of the prison, and of its…its captives. How are they guarded? How may they be freed?"
Tesla had been watching her almost indifferently, Crysta thought, though it was difficult to tell any Invid mood by appearance. But when the scientist spoke, it was with an almost saintly kindness.
"Ah, Madam Crysta! If only I knew these things, I could tell them to you, and atone at least in some small part for the crimes I've committed against your race back when my will was enslaved by the Regent! But I know nothing of such military arrangements, you see."
His chains rattled as he struggled to his feet. "However, another idea occurs to me. Release me, that I may go down to the surface of Karbarra and negotiate for you at once. The Invid commander, without the Regent there to contradict, will listen to me."
Lron showed his teeth. "I told you asking this slime-thing was useless," he told his wife. And to Tesla, he added, "Now we try a different approach. Let us see how much you can remember with one of those antennae twisted off your snout!"
Tesla shrank back, even though he was the larger of the two. "Keep your distance! Your leadership circle said I was not to be tampered with. Have you forgotten so soon?"
"But the others aren't here now," Lron pointed out, putting one hand on the lock. "And I am."
Crysta, worried that this possible key to the Karbarran dilemma might not survive her mate's vigorous questioning, was just saying, "Lron, perhaps he's telling the truth-" Just then the alarms went off, exotic ululations and crystal gongs and warhorns and the various other calls to arms of the assorted Sentinel races.
Lron made sure the cage was secure, then he and Crysta pounded off for the bridge. As they rounded a corner in the passageway, they were unaware that they were being watched from the shadows.
Burak stayed back until the two were out of sight, then stared thoughtfully at the door to the compartment holding Tesla's cage. At last, the sounding of the alarms drew him slowly, unwillingly, off toward his battle station. Then he began to run, to run as if something were chasing him.
"They haven't fired on us out of hand; that's a piece of luck we didn't have coming," Lisa conceded. "Rick, I suggest we not scramble the VTs, at least not yet."
Rick met her gaze for a moment, then nodded.
There were far fewer of the enemy than the SDF-3 had confronted over Tirol. Four of the rust-colored Invid troopships, shaped like gigantic clams, were deploying around a much more modest version of the Invid command ship the Humans had glimpsed-the one Cabell had pronounced to be the royal flagship of the Regent himself. If the troop carriers were clams, this thing was an ominous starfish.
The Sentinel leadership was piling onto the bridge now, reacting or not according to the fashion of their species. "They've got the drop on us," Rick said softly.
Lisa shook her head. "I don't think so, or they would've opened up right away; the Invid are the shoot-first type." But I don't understand.
Aboard Senep's flagship, the task-force command finally got some results from the vessel's Living Computer. It seemed that most of the components of the unidentified craft matched with space vehicles from many Invid-controlled worlds, and the central structure to which they had been joined fit the profile of an outlandish craft that the scientist Tesla had had under construction.
Senep's antennae shone with anger. That blithering idiot! But-if it was Telsa, why hadn't he identified himself? Perhaps something was wrong.
Senep queried the Living Computer about the offensive capabilities of the newcomer. Of the weapons that could be identified from memory banks, none could match the range or power of the flagship.