Dirge - Alan Dean Foster [59]
Kneeling down alongside the insectoid, Lee was caught up in a pervasive scent of gardenia. “Look, I want to apologize for my friends. You have to understand that every human, here and on all our worlds, is intensely frustrated at our inability to identify the people or peoples who were responsible for the horror that happened here.”
Glistening compound eyes considered the flexible, enigmatic alien face. Reldmuurtinjak could not decipher what might be hidden there, but he did detect the concern in the mammal’s voice. “We are frustrated too, but it does not lead us to make groundless accusations.”
An embarrassed Lee looked away. “It’s a human thing. In the absence of someone to blame, blame anyone. I’m afraid that’s not going to change until we find out what happened here.”
“Then relations between us are likely to be poisoned for some time.” The thranx’s voice was soft as always, the tone cool and uninflected. “Because my people have found nothing any more conclusive here than have yours.”
This time they were silent in tandem for a while before Lee spoke again. “It does strike some of us as peculiar that among the known sentient species capable of rendering assistance only the AAnn have declined to send research teams here to help with the search for leads.”
“Kil!!ck, that does not surprise us. The AAnn are a treacherous and dangerous people. They will kill when it is to their advantage and retreat in a confusion of apologies when strongly confronted. That is what makes dealing with them so infuriating. One moment they will be happy to trade keenly but fairly, the next they will ambush and destroy. If caught out, they are masters of repentance. In the absence of surety one must always be on guard against them.”
Lee considered thoughtfully. “You’re not the first to hint that the AAnn might be responsible for this. Until the puzzle is solved, everyone is suspect. Even apostate humans.”
That startled the thranx researcher. “You would suspect your own kind of such an atrocity?”
“Such things have happened in the past. In the First and Second Dark Ages.”
“But why? What possible motivation could there be?”
As his legs began to cramp, Lee settled himself into a more comfortable seated position. “You spoke of the xenophobes among your own kind who don’t want to have more than the most minimal contact with us. Ours are more zealous than yours. There are fanatics who’ll do anything to keep our respective species from growing closer together.” With a sweep of one arm he gestured at the devastation that surrounded them. “It’s not out of the realm of possibility that they might resort to measures as extreme as this so they could blame the result on the thranx, or on nonhumans in general.”
“Then you have motivation.” Although he spoke the words, the possibility that the scenario the human had just described might actually have taken place remained barely conceivable to Reldmuurtinjak.
“Motivation, yes, but seemingly insupportable means of acting on it.” Lee shifted his backside against the hard floor. “Though powerful, with many undeclared supporters, it’s hard to envision how the xenophobes could have mustered sufficient military-style strength to carry out such a devastating assault on another world—much less erase any and all evidence of their participation. What happened to the Amazon hive was one thing. Obliterating the population of an entire colony is something else again. If such was actually the case it would answer one question, though.”
“Which one?” Reldmuurtinjak executed a gesture of ongoing confusion. “There are so many.”
Lee was not sophisticated enough to catch the delicate hint of humor. “How the invaders were able to achieve such complete surprise. Battalions of arriving fellow humans, even heavily armed