Lord of Janissaries by Jerry Pournelle, Roland J. Green Page B

have been trouble.”
    Gwen shuddered, but not in fear. It was all so marvelous. Aliens. Spaceships. And they were so nice to her. Les had given her clothes and jewelry—not that the gifts meant anything, but he had got them for her. He cared. She knew that. He cared.
    “And you don’t come from anywhere on Earth?” she asked. “I still can’t believe that.”
    “It’s true, though,” he said. “My home is twenty light-years from here.”
    “How long have you been on Earth?”
    “Four years. A bit more than that.”
    “But you speak English so well! No wonder I couldn’t tell where you came from. How did you learn to speak English so well in four years?”
    “It’s a gift,” he said. “I speak a number of human languages. Four from your planet.”
    “A number of human languages—Les, what do you do for these—for the aliens?”
    “You can think of me as a civil servant,” he said. “I pilot ships, make studies of primitives, buy equipment and see that it gets aboard ship—any number of activities that the traders or the confederacy need done.”
    “A civil servant.”
    “Sort of,” Les told her. “That is, most humans work for the confederacy, but they sometimes rent us out to traders when the work involves other humans. Just now I’m doing some errands for the Shalnuksis .”
    “But why don’t you go to Washington and tell them? Or someone? Why such secrecy?”
    “Time enough for questions later,” he said. “We will have a lot of time. For the moment, we are together, and we have a few hours before we go to the other ship.”
    “Another ship?”
    “Yes. I’m supposed to take some people—human volunteers, soldiers—to another planet. I’ll have to brief them on the way.”
    “Soldiers. Volunteers. You mean mercenaries.” She made no attempt to disguise the contempt in her voice.
    He laughed. “You don’t like warriors? You ought to feel a bit sorry for these. They’ve got their work cut out. More than they know.”
    “Who will they fight? What are they going to be doing?”
    “All in good time. You’ll know more about them than you want to by the time we get to Tran. For now—” He reached for her.
    For a moment she resisted, but she could feel his urgency.
    Why resist? she thought. Why resent his need? A need for me. He cares. I can lose myself in him. And he keeps his promises.
    He’d already showed her marvels beyond her imagination. What more would there be? She shuddered in anticipation.
    * * *
    The screen came to life while the troops were cooking lunch. Rick Galloway went over carrying his new lists of equipment. There was a lot they needed, and they hadn’t received much of what they’d asked for.
    “No time,” Agzaral said. “No time at all. Gather your equipment. You must leave this cavern immediately. There is a ship outside, and you must be aboard it with everything you propose to take with you. You have two hours.” He seemed very excited. “You must hurry.”
    “Why? We can’t go now. We don’t have anything like the gear we asked for—”
    “Some is aboard the ship. The rest may be supplied later. But hurry. Those who remain behind will not be happy with the consequences.”
    “Why?”
    “You will learn,” Agzaral said. “But you will not go at all if you do not board the ship now. Recall the alternatives I gave you. They have not changed.”
    “This is ridiculous,” Rick said. “It makes no sense at all.”
    There was no reply. Agzaral continued to stare out from the screen.
    At least, Rick thought, he doesn’t look bored. Is that a good sign? It seems pretty frightening, actually.
    “I cannot say I care for this,” André Parsons said. “But I think of few alternatives.” He turned to the screen. “Why should we trust you?”
    “You would be surprised at how little that matters to me,” Agzaral said. “But you will regret not having boarded the ship.”
    Parsons shrugged, then looked to Rick. “I think we should do