“And what do we do in return?” whispered Tanub.
“You could start by teaching us how you make superior glass,” said Orne. “I certainly hope you see things our way. We really don’t want to have to come down there and clean you out. It’d be a shame to have to blast that city into little pieces.”
Tanub wilted. Presently, he said: “Send me back. I will discuss this with ... our council.” He stared at Orne. “You I-A’s are too strong. We did not know.”
In the wardroom of Stetson’s scout cruiser, the lights were low, the leather chairs comfortable, the green beige table set with a decanter of Hochar brandy and two glasses.
Orne lifted his glass, sipped the liquor, smacked his lips. “For a while there, I thought I’d never be tasting anything like this again.”
Stetson took his own glass. “ComGO heard the whole thing over the general monitor net,” he said. “D’you know you’ve been breveted to senior field man?”
“Ah, they’ve already recognized my sterling worth,” said Orne.
The wolfish grin took over Stetson’s big features. “Senior field men last about half as long as the juniors,” he said. “Mortality’s terrific?”
“I might’ve known,” said Orne. He took another sip of the brandy.
Stetson flicked on the switch of a recorder beside him. “O.K. You can go ahead any time.”
“First, how’d you spot right away where they’d hidden the _Delphinus_?”
“Easy. Tanub’s word for his people was _Grazzi_. Most races call themselves something meaning _The People_. But in his tongue that’s _Ocheero_. _Grazzi_ wasn’t on the translated list. I started working on it. The most likely answer was that it had been adopted from another language, and meant _enemy_.”
“And _that_ told you where the _Delphinus_ was?”
“No. But it fitted my hunch about these Gienahns. I’d kind of felt from the first minute of meeting them that they had a culture like the Indians of ancient Terra.”
“They came in like a primitive raiding party. The leader dropped right onto the hood of my sled. An act of bravery, no less. Counting coup, you see?”
“Then he said he was High Path Chief. That wasn’t on the language list, either. But it was easy: _Raider Chief._ There’s a word in almost every language in history that means raider and derives from a word for road, path or highway.”