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Updated: June 28, 2025
The lean Hawaikan arms, the thin Hawaikan face, drawn of feature, painfully blank of expression Loketh under the same dread spell as had held the warriors in the citadel courtyard. Could the aliens be using this Hawaikan captive as a defense shield, moving up behind him? Loketh's head turned, those blank eyes regarded Ross. And their depths were troubled, recognition of a sort returning.
"Rosss !" From behind a tumbled wall crept a Hawaikan who did not wear the guard armor of the others. Gill-pack, flippers, diver's belt, had been stripped from him. There was a bleeding gash down the side of his face, and he held his left arm against his body, supported by his right hand. "Baleku!" The Rover pulled himself up to his feet and stood swaying.
Thus Ross came face to face with his first representative of the third party in the Hawaikan tangle of power a Rover. The seaman was tall, with a heavier development of shoulder and upper arms than the landsmen. Like the guards he wore supple armor, but this had been colored or overlaid with a pearly hue in which other tints wove opaline lines.
For that was a game the Hawaikan seafarers understood: Take an enemy ship and turn its armament against its companions in a fleet. But that plan would not work out. Ross had a healthy respect for the technical knowledge of the galactic invaders. Of course he, Karara, even Loketh might be able to reach the sub. Whether they could then board her was an entirely different matter.
The Hawaikan watched the Terrans eat before he bit into the wafer, chewing it with vigor, turning the bulb around in his fingers with alert interest before he sucked at its contents. As Ross chewed and swallowed, mechanically and certainly with no relish, he fitted one fact to another to make a picture of this Hawaikan time period in which they were now marooned.
Then they flashed up and away. The dragon was rising in turn, but coming to meet the Hawaikan creature was a ball giving off light, bringing sharp vision and color with it. Ross's arm swung up to shield his eyes. There was a flash; such answering vibration carried through the waves that even his nerves, far less sensitive than those of the life about him, reacted. He blinked behind his mask.
A murmur of applause from the crew answered that mild taunt. Ross thought it time for a countermove. "I see you do not come too close to those teeth." He used the most defiant words his limited Hawaikan vocabulary offered. There was a moment of silence, and then the officer clapped his hands together with a sharp explosion of sound.
She relayed the question. Ross saw the prisoner's head jerk around. The Hawaikan looked from Karara to her companion, a shade of speculation in his expression. "He wants to know why you ask about the Foanna? Surely you must well know what manner of beings they are."
"Zahur " Loketh breathed in Ross's ear, his pointed finger indicating the speaker. Ross longed vainly for the ability to ask questions, a chance to know what was in progress. That the meeting of the two Hawaikan factions was important he did not doubt. There was an interval of silence after the castle lord finished speaking. To the Terran this spun on and on and he sensed the mounting tension.
Like the Foanna, the Terran Agent wore a cloak of gray, but his did not shift color from time to time as did those of the Hawaikan enigmas. And now Gordon shoved back its folds, revealing supple body armor. Questions gathered in Ross. He wanted to know needed desperately to know Ashe's standing with the Foanna.
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