Valthyrra Methryn did not believe that she should be made to endure confusion or be forced to assemble what she could of the story from bits and pieces. She considered that an accounting of that evening with Councilor Lake was very much her business, and she sent a probe, the most formidable of her remotes, to Velmeran's cabin to demand, entice or beg an explanation. As it turned out, she had no need to worry. While Velmeran and Dveyella were not willing to discuss such matters with the rest of the crew, they were willing to tell her anything she wanted to know about the time they had spent with Councilor Lake and his nephew. And since they had each committed most of those two conversations to selective recall, they were able to report to the very words.
For the most part, Velmeran related the story himself, since most of the two conversations had been directed at him. He sat, together with Dveyella, in the two large chairs in his cabin. Valthyrra's probe was perched precariously atop Velmeran's desk, so that its relatively short neck could place its camera pod on a level with the others. Velmeran was not entirely pleased to have her there, since the desk was of real wood, purchased on port leave months earlier, and the probe weighed over an eighth of a ton.
The probe's camera pod looked thoughtful. "What I wonder is if this was something Lake has been calculating for some time or if it was just spur-of-the-moment, because he was so impressed with the two of you and, as Dveyella so eloquently phrases it, well into his cups."
"Do you suppose that he might regret what he did and warn the Sector Commander?" Dveyella asked, then paused. "No, he cannot do that, can he?"
Valthyrra laughed. "I do not see how he can possibly explain that he told all the Union's best secrets to Starwolves over dinner. For better or worse, he cannot change what he has done."
"But do you think that he did tell us the truth?" Velmeran asked.
"Yes, I believe that he was completely honest with you — as far as he knew," she answered thoughtfully. "As I indicated before, I think that he is mistaken on a few points. But after careful thought, I believe that I now understand his motives a little better."
"How is that?"
"Councilor Lake is interested in saving as much as he can of many things: his race, his civilization and the wealth and power of the sector families. Yes, they will fight only so far and sue for peace, making the best deal they can in the process. Dethroned emperors of worlds, they would at least live on as merchant princes."
"Councilor Lake will not be there to negotiate that surrender," Dveyella pointed out.
"True, but he has trained his replacement well. It is a shame that the younger Lake — Richart, I believe — could not have been there as well." Her camera pod made some ambiguous gesture that might have been anything from a symbolic appeal to fate to a helpless shrug. "You, Velmeran, will live to see an end to this war. Perhaps you will even win it for us."
"What about the prophecy?" Dveyella asked suddenly.
Valthyrra's camera pod regarded her with a decidedly wide-eyed stare. "In my experience, there is no such thing as prophecy. Just educated guesses, wild guesses and things that never come to pass."
"And which do you suppose this to be?"
"This is the case of an educated guess," she explained. "We want the Vardon's memory cell in the hope that it will show us the way to lost Terra. Have you ever wondered how that was supposed to win the war for us?"
"How?"
"Because Terra holds the original Home Base of the Kelvessan Fleet. Terra and her moon have the construction docks and support factories for the assembly of Starwolf carriers — ships so technically advanced that they make me look like an antiquated hulk. Can you not see how the possession of such ships could win this war for us?"
"Yes, if there were crews for them," Velmeran said.
"Our ships operate at only a fraction of their fighter capacity now."
"Because that is all we have been able to use for some time now," Valthyrra said. "Five thousand years ago your race was in danger of dying out. At that time there were only eighteen thousand Kelvessan divided between twenty carriers and one freighter. Now there are sixty thousand divided between twenty-seven ships. And, as you ship-born ones are inclined to forget, there are now five and a half million Kelvessan who do not call themselves Starwolves but live in our stations and on human worlds. We can recruit a few shiploads of pilots and crewmembers from their numbers. And the rest are surely ready for a world of their own."
The idea obviously appealed to Velmeran, who smiled broadly. "Just imagine, the cradle of human civilization becoming the home world of the Kelvessan. But where would we live? There are few portions of the planet that we would find comfortable."
"Yes, there is that," Dveyella agreed. "And I wonder if there is anything left. We have no idea what forced the evacuation of the planet."
"Well, we will have to see," Valthyrra said. "We have to find it first. And for that, someone has to go after the Vardon's memory cell."
Velmeran was so deep in his own thoughts that he did not notice both Valthyrra and Dveyella staring at him expectantly. Although his qualities as a leader were beginning to manifest themselves quickly, he was still very much a child in one respect. Although he could make decisions in a hurry in an emergency, he still waited for his elders to initiate any spontaneous action. Since he did not comment on this idea, there was no way to tell what he thought about it. Valthyrra realized that the time had not yet come.
"I also wonder about these new weapons," Velmeran said after a long moment. "I wish that we did not have to just wait until those weapons are used against us."
"If we had some idea of what those weapons are or where they are being built and tested, we could strike first," Valthyrra agreed. "Once we know what a weapon is, we are always able to neutralize it or guard against it. That is why all this talk of new, secret weapons does not worry me greatly. Those weapons tend to work well, if at all, only the first time they are used. Also the Union is in a constant cycle of forgetting and reinventing technology, so that they seldom come up with anything we have never seen before. You say that these are designs that Commander Trace himself worked out?"
"That is what Councilor Lake said," Velmeran answered.
"According to my intelligence work, Trace has had years of training in various fields of engineering," Valthyrra mused. "Because he is of undeteriorated human stock, he is much smarter than anyone who works under him and; so he does it all himself. Engineering computers must take his finished plans for conversion into working designs."
"And can we take anything that he throws against us?"
"Yes, if we are careful. The effectiveness of a weapon depends most upon the cleverness of the user and the carelessness of the victim. You know yourself that carriers have been destroyed by simple means when they are caught unprepared, while at times the best of plans have gone awry for no apparent reason."
"And if Commander Trace has a fault, I suspect that it is his own impatience to act when he is sure that he is right," Velmeran mused.
"His second fault is that he believes that he is right until proven otherwise," Dveyella added.
"As well as the two of you have him figured out, we have nothing to worry about," Valthyrra said, amused. "It is strange to think that this ancient war is finally coming to an end. It will be nice, never again running this endless patrol."