"Brownies," Jennifer said.
Glenda Ruth peered close. The little ones were chocolate brown, darker than an Engineer; and each of these had four arms. Watchmakers, "brownies," the Class that had destroyed MacArthur. All but one. The fourth was crawling carefully along the wall, toward the bridge. It was a different color, cream and pale brown, and it had three arms.
It launched from the wall, impacted against Jennifer, and clung. It chirped at her and waited for a response.
Glenda Ruth spoke to the big Motie. "Hello? Can you speak?"
The Motie watched her. "We come in peace for all mankind, and for your sake, too." Glenda Ruth said. "Can you understand me? We carry trade goods. We have the right to make binding treaties."
The newest Motie disappeared through the hole. Ignoring her.
"I can't really tell, but that thing doesn't move like it has anything to say. I don't think it's a Mediator," Glenda Ruth said. "Freddy, don't touch any controls."
"Brace yourselves," Terry said.
Glenda Ruth asked, "Why?" before she noticed that the Warrior had anchored itself with three limbs out of five. A moment later the cabin shuddered and rocked.
Freddy said, "That's torn it. Glenda Ruth, you-"
There was thrust. It built up smoothly over six or seven seconds to a tenth of a gravity and stopped.
Freddy said, "My readings don't connect to the rest of the ship. They've disconnected the cabin."
Jennifer began to laugh. "Maybe they'll bring the rest separately," she said, "and give it back."
"Oh, thank you very much. Nevertheless I fear Hecate's racing days are over. Any idea what's happening?"
Glenda Ruth said carefully, "Ooyay ohknay apingtay us eythey areay"
"What? Ah. What else?'
"Henry Hudson and the Medina Traders believed themselves in control here," she said. "Clearly they aren't."
"Who is?"
"I don't know, but it changes everything, doesn't it? The Empire will make no important deals with anyone who doesn't speak for all of the Moties."
"Oh. All right. Now what just happened?"
"We've been captured by a warship. They don't understand what they have, but they can see it's valuable, so they'll be asking for orders. Eventually they'll send a Mediator. Who may or may not know Anglic, Freddy."
"There's air," Freddy said. "Best open up the suits to save the air tanks."
Jennifer tentatively opened her faceplate. "Smells all right- hey!"
Terry Kakumi swiveled toward her. "What?"
"It's a Mediator pup!" Jennifer said. "It has to be. Look, brown and white, and not much bigger than a Watchmaker, that's what it is. Glenda Ruth-"
"Figures," Glenda Ruth said. "As soon as they knew they'd be dealing with humans, they bred a Mediator. Jennifer, I think you've got a friend for life."
Jennifer and the Mediator pup considered each other wonderful. Jennifer cradled it in her arms and answered when it talked. The sounds it made were nonsense, but gradually they began to sound like Jennifer herself.
When she handed the creature to Terry, it cried and tore itself free and jumped off Terry's chin to reach her again. The pup wanted no part of other humans.
So the waiting was hard for the rest of them, and the entertainment thin. Glenda Ruth considered running a history flick on the monitors. Were the other classes, the Warriors and Engineers, really so specialized that they wouldn't watch?
"They've plugged all the holes in the cabin," Freddy said. "Near as I can tell, this is normal Hecate air."
"Temperature's all right, too," Jennifer said. She fondled the pups's ear.
"Obvious. They tore the cabin loose and sealed it and gave us our own life support system back. We're alive but helpless. They'll have time to copy our gear before anything stops working," Glenda Ruth said. "Air doesn't worry me as much as..."
"Yes?"
"Freddy, there may be more battles. Over us."
"Good news from all over," Jennifer Banda said. "I always wondered what the crown felt like when the lion and the unicorn fought over it."
Eudoxus seemed calm. "My Master has been informed. She will set other Mediators to the task of regaining your companions. Our observations show that the inhabited portions of Hecate have been detached from the rest of the ship. The life support systems appear to be intact. Meanwhile, there is heavy message traffic throughout that region. I'll pass on more information as it develops."
Renner said, "But you can at least tell me who's involved, can't you?"
"I can tell you what we have learned of the Crimean Tartars. They were among the powers in the moon system of Mote Beta until they were cast out in a complicated contest with the major Mote Beta clan we call Persia. The Tartar group then subsisted on trade and service to other powers until they were swallowed by the Khanate. They're much smaller now, of course, and as nothing has been heard of them, we thought they must have been successfully integrated into the Khanate families. In light of their capture of your ship we must conclude that they retained some independent identity."
Renner considered the death rate implicit in the phrase they're much smaller now among a people who die if they can't get pregnant. "Okay. East India?"
"Please reassure me that His Excellency is listening."
Horace Bury sighed. "Put me on."
Kevin turned off his mike. "You sure?"
"We will learn from each other. If I can't catch him in a lie, perhaps"-he jerked his head at Chris Blaine-"another can."
Kevin nodded and swiveled the camera. Bury said, "Greetings, Eudoxus."
The Motie bowed; the one ear folded flat, then extended.
"You spoke of the year we spent in Mote system as Period One, Period Two you spent sending ships to break the Empire blockade at Murcheson's Eye. Is it so?"
"Yes, Excellency. Period One began as MacArthur intercepted a miner belonging to Medina Trading. Thereafter a Mote Prime group headed by a powerful planetary Master who called himself King Peter took control of communications with the human expedition."
"Was there a battle?" Renner asked.
"None that you were intended to notice."
"I saw none." Renner said.
"His Excellency noticed the change," Eudoxus said. "I know because-"
"Yes, of course," Bury said. "What I saw was that the Mote Prime group had no interest at all in the creature we had aboard- and although that Engineer had sent a message to its home, nothing came of that."
"Bloody Hell," Renner muttered. "The Skipper never thought of that, and neither did I."
"That also was clear," Eudoxus said. "Only His Excellency understood the true situation." He looked expectantly at Bury. "So. Period One ended with MacArthur destroyed and your battleship Lenin departing Mote system. The ship and its recorded observations sent back by our Engineer you took aboard gave Medina knowledge of how to build an energy shield... Langston Field? Name of a human inventor?'
Kevin said, "Right."
The Motie was amused. Naming a tool for an Engineer! "Our wanderings began shortly after. Our Master saw that there would be great changes, and Medina Traders would not be powerful enough to hold where we were. Thus we traded what we had to Persia: they would take our territory and give us ships. Then during our withdrawal from the Mote Beta Trailing Trojans," she said, "our Engineers developed a working Langston Field and traded it to Persia for more assistance in withdrawing to the Comets.
"It was bad timing. If we had been larger and more powerful, we need not have abandoned our base at all. With what we gave them and what they had, Persia came to rule the Mote Beta moons. They didn't merely arm ships with your Field. They skimmed through the remains of the Mote Beta Ring. After a million years of mining, the planet retained only a narrow ring of dust, but that was megatons of dust. One pass and Persia had it all. We could have had that ourselves... but we were too far away and might not have held it, and in any case we had set our sights further."