Valour's Choice by Tanya Huff Page A

local version of concrete stretched off into the distance until it met with a wall of what looked like the same material. Except for the lack of burns and pitting—the place had obviously been resurfaced for their arrival—it could have been any friendly landing field in the Confederation.
    Except for the giant lizards approaching at one o’clock, Torin amended. They were too far away for details, and she knew how the heavy gunners had felt about leaving their exoskeletons behind because she really missed her helmet. With its scanner, she could have counted the striations on each scale. Without it, she wasn’t entirely certain they had scales, although the claws protruding from each foot were uncomfortably large enough to see.
    They didn’t seem to be wearing much, but considering the damp heat that was hardly surprising. The heat would make the Krai happy and was within Human tolerances, but she’d have to see that the di’Taykan got extra water.
    A quick glance at Lieutenant Jarret showed his hair flat against his head and his nostrils flared. “When you can smell a planet over the landing fumes,” he said, stroking the temperature controls on his cuff down to their Iowest setting, “you know it’s going to be bad.”
    “Pity about the Human sense of smell, sir.” The di’Taykan made no secret of how useless they considered Human noses.
    He looked at her then. “Nobody likes a smartass, Staff.”
    “Very true, sir.”
    The Mictok were the first on the field, then the Rakva, then, to no one’s surprise, the Dornagain. By the time the Dornagain had lumbered off the ramp and the Third Squad had fallen in behind, the Silsviss welcoming committee had taken up position between two brilliantly colored banners and a formation of their own soldiers, matching the Marines exactly in numbers and mirroring their position.
    They knew how many of us were coming... One painfully constricted heartbeat later, she remembered this time that wasn’t a problem.
    Off to one side of the soldiers, a small cluster of what could only be reporters recorded the moment for posterity. Their technology might be unfamiliar, but their attitude was unmistakable.
    Beyond checking that her translation program was working properly, Torin didn’t actually pay much attention to the opening exchange. Nothing of substance would be discussed on the landing field anyway so, after catching Ressk’s eye and glaring at him until he brought his upper lip back down over his teeth, she used the time to size up their potential allies.
    The Dornagain were still the biggest species on the ground by a considerable margin. The Silsviss present were about as tall as a tall Human or an average di’Taykan, although Torin had no idea if this group was representative of the species as a whole. Maybe short Silsviss didn’t go into the army or the civil service. It did seem, however, that larger Silsviss went into the army, as only one or two of the civilians matched the size of the soldiers. They all had short muzzles, a little larger than those of the Krai, and thick necks with minor dorsal ridges. Like the two other reptilian species in the Confederation, they used their tongues a lot when they spoke, flicking them about an impressive array of teeth.
    Those present were a mottled shade of grayish-green— slightly more monochrome on the front—but Torin expected that this was merely the local coloring. They’d be making another four regional stops before the “all Silsvah” meeting and, unless the Silsviss were truly unique in the galaxy, there’d be a number of variations on the theme.
    Their tails were about as big around as their upper arms, not significantly larger at the base than the tip, and they never stopped moving. A number of the civilians wore bright metallic bands, and although the distance made it difficult to tell for certain, it seemed the soldiers wore duller bands not so much as decoration but to reinforce their tails as weapons.
    Hand to