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.It was a good, happy life.If this war ever ends, and it must end in victory, I know not what the world will be like.I do know it will be different.Let us just hope it will be different in a good way.and that we will live to see it.”“She’s up!” Clancy shouted, racing up Donaghey’s companionway.Matt and those gathered with him on the quarterdeck turned toward the exuberant outburst.Donaghey was moored a short distance from the rebuilding dock and many of the AEF’s officers were aboard for a conference of sorts.“She’s up and floating and there’re no leaks worth a mention! Walker’s off the bottom and Lieutenant Tucker sends her love!” There was a resounding cheer and Matt’s ears heated just a little.“Mr.Clancy,” he said, unable to summon a frown, “that’s wonderful news and I’m glad you shared it with us all, but the last part may have been meant as a private message.”Clancy halted his dash and his face went white.“Uh.oh.Ah, sorry, Skipper! I’m so sorry!”“Oh, shut up,” Garrett said, grinning.“That part isn’t news!” There was more laughter.“What’s the first part say?”Jim Ellis retrieved the message form and scanned it.He looked at Captain Reddy and Matt nodded.“It’s true.Walker’s been moved to the fitting-out pier and Big Sal’s gone in the tank.” He chuckled.“Ben saw fit to celebrate with a flyover.One plane had to land on the bay and be towed in! Let’s see.Tassat was launched and has been moved to the new fitting-out pier.The new generators are doing swell, but they’ve had a couple of engine casualties.” He looked at Matt.“Hmm.Hope we don’t have any out here.Says it wasn’t much of a deal, but still.” He looked back at the page.“Still no word from Laumer and ‘Task Force S-19.’ Palmer got that one signal that they were about to try the gizmo, then nothing.He figures it cooked the transmitter.” He glanced at Clancy, who’d suddenly stiffened.He and Palmer had argued a lot over the design.“Anyway, they’re probably fine.Saan-Kakja arrived safely at her brother’s city and they made a successful test transmission of their set—”“Yes, sir,” Clancy interrupted.“I picked it up.”“Wow,” said Jim.“Real long-distance comm.Why didn’t you tell us?”“Well, ah.you see, they were transmitting the raising of the ship in a kind of blow-by-blow sort of way.”“Anything else? What about our report of the Grik prisoners?” Matt asked.Jim looked down and chuckled.“Yeah, it’s got a postscript.‘Bradford excited.’ ”“Ha!”“I do wish we could speak to them,” Safir mused.“We can,” Alden said.“They just can’t talk to us.Maybe when we ship ’em home, Lawrence can talk to ’em.”“I doubt it,” said Matt.“Why not? Most of the ’Cats understand each other okay, except maybe a few of the ones from southern Australia.”“Yeah, but they’ve been in contact with one another.Look, we now know there’s Grik all over the place, or something like Grik.They seem to fill the niche humans did where we came from.There’s the Grik we fight, from Africa and Madagascar originally, but there’s Grik-like lizards just about everywhere.Lawrence says his people are ‘Tagranesi’ or something.We’ve managed to squeeze enough out of Rasik to know the dead aborigines we found here were snatched from Java and the neighboring islands as slave labor and, well, food.I’m sure they don’t call themselves Grik.”“I did not even know they were here,” Rolak admitted.“Maybe they haven’t been for long, or at least not in any numbers.Our first and only meeting with them on Bali proved to us they were pretty smart.They didn’t carry weapons, but then they didn’t really need them, did they? They may have been leaking over here from Bali or other islands for a long time and just staying to themselves.As primitive as they were, compared to our enemies, they actually displayed even better tactical sense.Courtney’s long believed that Grik behavior has more to do with societal conditioning than anything else.”“That might explain why the prisoners act so different,” Ellis speculated.“After we licked them here, they wandered on their own for a while.Maybe they had time to think things over a little.”There was silence for a moment while everyone contemplated the significance of that.“All the more reason we must not give the enemy more time to think things over,” Safir said.“If I were a member of this Alliance, I would tend to agree with the Queen Protector,” Harvey Jenks said with a touch of irony.It was the first time he’d spoken, beyond civilities, since he’d come aboard.Something had changed in his demeanor ever since he went ashore and saw the aftermath of the Grik occupation for himself.Aryaal and B’mbaado were unusual cities, perhaps unique among Lemurians.Even before the Grik came, they’d been built of stone with stout walls to protect the inhabitants.The devastated architecture was more similar to Imperial construction than any other he’d seen so far, or than he cared to admit.It was as though he’d experienced a premonition of what would happen if the Grik ever threatened his home.The rabidly gruesome nature of the enemy the Allies faced had been driven in to the hilt as well, and he felt he understood them and their motives much better now.The heads had been taken down and sent to the sky in the fires and much of the debris had been cleared, but the mental image remained.The thaw in his attitude toward the Allies, and Matt in particular, had continued at an accelerated pace.Still, he’d clearly been surprised to be included in this strategy session.He hadn’t given any assurances that he was at their disposal or that he’d help them in any way.He had begun to consider himself on their side just a little, however.“Jenks is right,” agreed Rolak.“We cannot linger here [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]