"Very well put," agreed Jindigar. His pride in Frey's brilliance had grown with each day. "But it only leaves us with a moral dilemma. How much damage can we allow the Squadron to do to this" world in our name?"
"You sayin' we gotta surrender?" asked Viradel.
"No," said Jindigar, and rose to get the caravan moving.
After the burial that night, while they were all sitting around the cook fire and Jindigar was off tending the native, Adina tried to drag Krinata into the controversy. "Compassion is all very fine, but why didn't you stop Jindigar from picking up that native? You wouldn't have been caught by the Imperials then!"
Krinata retorted, "I suppose you could have just left him there?" But something about the whole thing bothered her. Even though she'd have bullied Jindigar and Gibson to take the native back with them, she seethed at Jindigar for not even thinking to consult her or anyone before deciding.
"I don't know what else you could have done," Terab put in, "but I wish you'd thought of it. It's too late now, though. Anyone want to vote to abandon the waif?" She glanced around, listening to the mumbled negatives.
Shorwh said, "No, but he scares me."
"You probably scare him too," said Irnils.
"Actually," said Jindigar, joining them, "Shorwh would seem more familiar to him than I do. Could I convince you to take a turn nursing him?"
Shorwh looked at Jindigar, stunned. Then, in perfect imitation of Terab's manner, he said, "I'll think about it."
Jindigar took a bowl of stew and sat beside Krinata. Before he ate, though, he surveyed them all. Silence grew as they realized he'd heard Terab's question about voting to abandon the native. "I want you all to realize that if you vote to abandon Chinchee, you'll go on without me."
Into sudden, strained silence Krinata said, "And without me." Storm and his co-husbands added themselves, then Shorwh, Irnils, and Terab joined in.
Viradel bowed her head, but Krinata saw the sullen fire in her eyes. To change the subject, she asked, "Chinchee? You've given him a name?"
"No. He told me his name."
"Might have known Jindigar would start to talk to him!" said Storm. "Jindigar can talk to a babbling brook and understand the answer!"
They all chuckled, and that broke the tension, so when Fenwick said, "We oughta elect a new leader. Charlie would want it that way," it didn't seem like an attack on Jindigar.
Immediately Shorwh piped up, "I nominate Krinata!"
"I decline," said Krinata quickly, but already there was a murmur of agreement among the Holot and the Lehiroh.
"You'd make a good leader!" protested Terab.
"So would you!" retorted Krinata. "I nominate Terab."
The usual furious debate erupted, and before long, Krinata noticed that the Dushau had left. When it was all over, Terab was elected and issued her first order. "Remind me every once in a while, I'm not the Captain here."
Later, Krinata went to volunteer to sit up with the patient and found Jindigar giving a language lesson to the children. Shorwh immediately stood up and volunteered for the same job. Jindigar accepted, asking, "Shorwh, why don't you take the first watch, and then Krinata can relieve you?"
"Agreed," said Shorwh, and climbed onto the sled where Frey was with the native.
Krinata watched him going to confront his fears, wondering what it was about Jindigar that triggered her fears. It wasn't just how he acted without asking, it was the way his "striking" made her feel helpless. That night the nightmares were worse, and she relieved Shorwh early.
The next morning, they were off with the sunrise. Jindigar led the group forward while Frey and the other two Lehiroh explored. Then Jindigar took off with Storm and Ruff while Frey led. During the rests Krinata tended their patient together with whichever Dushau was present. They had a time getting him down to let him eliminate—he wouldn't use a bedpan—and then he fainted and had to be raised by the two Lehiroh and Frey using the litter and a rope.
The next day, the piols befriended the native, bringing him small fish from a nearby brook. At that, the two young Cassrians overcame their fear of Chinchee to ride with him, for he was awake more now, though still weak. He took to the Cassrians as Jindigar had predicted, seeming to understand that they were children and as frightened as he, though he had a harder time grasping that the piols were pets. Soon, however, he was sleeping amid the pile of four small bodies.
Two more days they headed east along the ridge, spotting no energy usage. They almost believed themselves clear of the Imperial penetration zone when Jindigar returned from one foray with the news. "The Squadron is on our trail."
Alarm rippled up and down the line, the mood alternating between panic and despair. "How sure are you?" asked Terab when they'd gathered everyone.
"There's a slight chance we could be mistaken," Jindigar allowed, looking at Frey.
"We have nothing to lose," said Krinata. "Let's turn southeast, across the hive territory, as planned."
They stirred and objected, but in the end the motion carried. Jindigar went scouting as Frey turned them along a streambed. They hiked in the dim shallows, avoiding the water creatures with stingers and poisonous bites, taking care not to disturb the hives of the creatures that were all teeth and stomach. But Krinata, depressed, wondered why they bothered to run. All the harrowing chances, miraculous escapes, and satisfying triumphs that had begun when she rescued Jindigar were about to come to nothing.
At nightfall they broke out of the edge of the woods and made camp. Frey and Jindigar, conferring, added to their map. "We saw troopers here, here, and here," Jindigar said, marking the paper. "We've got to go this way, but there's a large hive here. We don't think they have any nocturnal hunters, like some of the other hives, but the duad can't be certain." He looked around grimly. "Do we try to pass them at night? We can't use lightsticks—but there's a moon tonight."
As they discussed it Krinata saw Chinchee peering over the edge of the sled where he rode with the children. He moved more freely now. Krinata was amazed at his swift recovery, for they'd had no real medication for him. She watched his saucer eyes scan them as they argued and finally voted to press on that night.
Jindigar set their course wide of the hive's position, and he and Frey stayed with the caravan to pull the sleds faster. The pace picked up until Krinata's legs ached miserably, and she was sipping from her canteen too often because her throat was dry from panting. Their lives might depend on being well clear of the hive's ground by dawn.
The moon set way off to their right over the grassland. The plain here was composed of long, lazy swells. The rises and the hip-high grass hid all but the top of the hive and a curl of rising smoke. She was falling into the stupor of long-haul endurance when Jindigar called, "Down!"
Out of nowhere a low-flying skimmer screamed by over the distant hive and disappeared over the horizon. There was no place to hide. "It was a remote," called Jindigar, "but they'll send troops if the telemetry reported us."
They moved on, hoping to keep their fight clear of the hive. But they were about even with the bulbous crown of the huge structure when Chinchee scrambled down from the sled and, despite his injuries, ran to Jindigar at the lead sled.
At first Krinata thought the native was offering to help pull the sled faster, scared out of his wits by the flyer. But then she saw him talking to Jindigar, pulling the harness ropes aside toward the hive. Jindigar resisted, straining for a few phrases in the new language.