Thrr-mezaz looked across at the table. It was fairly close to where the darklight relay had been hanging. "Go to the interpreter room and find out for me what they were talking about."
"I can tell you right now, Commander: we don't know," the Elder said. "They'd accidentally covered over the darklight relay a few hunbeats earlier."
"What do you mean, accidentally covered it over?"
"The Mrachanis had hung out decorative cloths at various points along the walls," the Elder explained. "One of them happened to be over the relay."
Which meant the technics had no recording of the aliens' conversation. How very convenient for someone. "And you didn't think it worth telling one of the warriors about?"
The Elder was starting to look a little uncomfortable. "The alert had been sounded, Commander," he said. "Everyone's attention was out at the perimeter or on the approaching Human-Conqueror aircraft. I didn't think it was vital that it be fixed immediately. And anyway, I was watching them. They couldn't have done anything."
"Except that they could have—"
Thrr-mezaz broke off, his lungs tightening into an almost-gasp. Abruptly, for the briefest flicker of a shattered beat, a strange and dizzying tingle had splashed across his mind—
And in front of him the Elder screamed, his face contorted with agony and fear.
And suddenly Thrr-mezaz knew what had happened.
"Commander!" one of the warriors shouted from across the room. "What—?"
"Elderdeath weapon!" Thrr-mezaz shouted back, fighting off the residual disorientation. "Full alert: all warriors."
Another Elder appeared. "Commander, Second Commander Klnn-vavgi requests your presence immediately in the command/monitor room," he reported, his voice tightly controlled. "He asks permission to lift the Stingbirds into defensive positions."
Thrr-mezaz looked at the holes in the storehouse walls. "Give him permission," he told the Elder. "Then tell him to collect some warriors and meet me at the Optronics supply room."
The Human-Conqueror was standing against the back wall of his temporary cell when the Zhirrzh warriors arrived. Still alert, still fully dressed. Almost as if he'd been expecting them. "Tell me where it is," Thrr-mezaz said without preamble. "Now."
The Human-Conqueror's face changed as the translation came through, the ridges of short hairs over his eyes pressing closer together. "Where what is?" his reply came in Thrr-mezaz's ear slits.
Thrr-mezaz flicked his tongue in contempt. With the deceit unmasked he could have hoped the Human-Conqueror would at least be reasonable about it. "The Elderdeath weapon," he bit out. "The one you or your warriors just used against us. Is it aboard your aircraft, or are there other warriors nearby?"
The prisoner's face remained the same. "I heard the shouts, but whatever happened wasn't our doing. And I don't know anything about this—what did you call it? The Elderdeath weapon?"
"Don't act stupid," Klnn-vavgi snarled. "You know what the commander's talking about."
"And we know you know," Thrr-mezaz added. "Furthermore, we're prepared to do whatever is necessary to—"
And suddenly there it was again: an abrupt flicker of disorientation tingling through his head, sharper this time, with an edge of pain to it. He darted a hand to the door frame for support against the flash of dizziness, dimly aware of the Human-Conqueror still standing against his wall. Beside him Klnn-vavgi shouted something; a half-dozen laser rifles swung up toward the prisoner—
"Hold!" Thrr-mezaz snapped. "Don't fire."
The rifle muzzles paused uncertainly. "Commander?" Klnn-vavgi demanded.
"I said don't fire." The last of the dizziness faded away, and Thrr-mezaz straightened to face the prisoner again.
The Human-Conqueror was still standing there, making no move to take any advantage of his enemies' sudden weakness. Observing their reaction, perhaps? "By all rights I should kill you for that," Thrr-mezaz told him. "I should have let them shoot you down right there. I trust you realize that."
"Whatever happened to you wasn't my fault," the prisoner said, his voice quiet. Almost earnest. Almost believable.
Almost. "Fine," Thrr-mezaz said. "If that's the way you want to play it." He turned to Klnn-vavgi. "Second, I want you to collect some technics and go take another look at that aircraft. And give the healers a call—I want that device hidden under the skin on his face to be removed."
He turned back at the Human-Conqueror. "You can cooperate or not. It's your choice."
For a long beat the alien gazed back at him. Then his face seemed to twitch. "All right," he said. "But there's no need for healers."
He reached both hands up to his face, to the side where the Elders had discovered the hidden device. The laser rifles lifted again in warning as, slowly and carefully, he began to peel away a section of his skin.
Klnn-vavgi muttered an awed-sounding curse under his breath as the flap of loose skin grew larger. Thrr-mezaz nodded his agreement; Thrr-gilag had never mentioned anything about Human-Conquerors being able to do that.
The edge of the device was visible now: small and flat, very much the same color as the Human-Conqueror's skin but easily distinguishable by the differences in its darklight radiance. He finished with the flap of skin and dropped it onto the bed in front of him; then, just as carefully, he peeled the device itself from its place.
"Drop it on the bed," Thrr-mezaz ordered him. "And then stand away from it."
The prisoner did as instructed. Thrr-mezaz gestured, and one of the warriors gingerly retrieved both the device and the skin flap and handed them over.
"Ycch," Klnn-vavgi growled deep in his throat. "Did you see that, Commander? He just ripped it right off his—"
"It's not skin," Thrr-mezaz said.
"What?"
"It's not skin," Thrr-mezaz repeated, turning it over. "At least not his own skin. See? No blood anywhere."
"Well, I'll be cursed," Klnn-vavgi said, peering closer. "That's an incredibly good imitation."
"I'm sure that was the intent." Thrr-mezaz looked up at the prisoner. "This must have been pretty important for your technics to have gone to so much work to hide it," he commented, hefting the skin-colored device in his other hand. "What is it?"
The Human-Conqueror shook his head back and forth to the side. "It's not a weapon."
"What is it?"
The other remained silent. "Fine," Thrr-mezaz said. "We'll figure it out for ourselves."
He gestured, and together the warriors left the room, locking it securely behind them. "Guard posts as previously," he ordered the warriors when they were out in the cool latearc air again. "Well, Second. Comments?"
"Ten to one it's our Elderdeath weapon," Klnn-vavgi said sourly.
"Yes," Thrr-mezaz murmured, gazing down at the device in his hand. "Perhaps."
"You don't sound convinced."
Thrr-mezaz shrugged. "Oh, you're probably right. It's just that the whole exercise seems to have been pretty futile. Yes, they got us stirred up a little, but that's about it. There was no attack on us, no further attack on the Mrachanis, not even an attempt by the prisoner to break out. So what did it gain them?"
"Information, maybe," Klnn-vavgi suggested. "They know now what levels it takes to affect us."
"They knew that after the first battle," Thrr-mezaz countered. "No, there's something here we're not getting. I just wish we had some idea what it was."
For a beat they stood there in silence. Then, with a sigh, Thrr-mezaz dropped the device and fake skin flap into Klnn-vavgi's hand. "Anyway. See what the technics can make of these."