The rods had been used on those warriors and had even worked on most of them, making them forget that they had come there to find Shanelle. The process had failed on Falon, however, because he had refused to learn the Sunderan language before coming down to their planet and for the rods to work, it was necessary for the targets to understand what was being said to them.

The other warriors who had come down didn't have Falon's deep distrust of all things unnatural to Sha-Ka'an, and since almost any ship computer could analyze a new language and create a Sublim so that the language could be learned in just a few hours, the old universal language that was so frustrating had long since become obsolete. Sublims made it possible to communicate with newly discovered worlds with ease. There were a few glitches, like some words not having an immediate association and so needing a visual or verbal explanation to make sense. But basically, Sublims worked amazingly well and were used by all world traders and discoverers.

"So what happened?"

"The visitors were honored, given the royal treatment, actually, being who they were. But the rods are naturally a sore subject with Ferrill. He refused to discuss selling them, and said only that the rods were locked away in our strongest vault and would never see use again."

"Why weren't they just destroyed after you stopped using them?"

"Because the men realized the day might come when they would find a good use for them."

"As in Armoru knocking on your doors with weapons in hand?" Tedra guessed.

"Exactly," Donilla replied. "Besides, quite a few women know how to make them now, and since they don't work on women, those women can't be made to forget how to make them. So the men felt that locking them away was sufficient. After all, our strongest vault is guarded by the military night and day, impossible for anyone on our world to break into."

"But not for someone from another world, obviously."

"No, indeed. They used some kind of gas that put everyone to sleep and an explosive unknown to us that easily opened our vault. They left the planet immediately thereafter, and were gone before the theft was even discovered."

"When was this?"

"Yesterday.

Tedra sighed and pushed the button on her computer-link unit. "Martha, I know you've been listening. What's the worst-case scenario on these stolen rods?"

"If they were stolen for profit, they could end up distributed throughout the galaxies and well-established policies could suddenly end up changing with no one the wiser as to why or how. Entire economies could be destroyed, wars would result, the League of Confederated Planets could topple."

That got a low growl and the demand, "How high is that on your list of probables?"

"Not very," Martha replied in one of her bored tones. "Considering who stole them, it's more likely that a single planet will be a target for takeover, pretty much in the same way it was done here. Quiet, efficient, without bloodshed, and without most of the populace even aware that they have been taken over."

"Considering who?" Tedra frowned. "And how do you know who our culprit is, when that hasn't been mentioned yet? Probables doesn't come close to dissecting a simple phrase like 'they were honored'."

That resulted in a bit of computer chuckling, a sound Martha had created to perfection. "That's debatable, but the fact that there is only one ship within a day's travel of here does manage to narrow things down."

Tedra rolled her eyes. "A known race I hope, so we at least know what we're dealing with?"

"Better than that, you know them personally. It's Jorran of Century III, the very same High King who tried to make mincemeat of our Falon in the competitions last year."

"Farden hell."

Shanelle noticed Donilla's blush over her mother's swearing and whispered to her, "That's just the Kystrani word for bloody, pretty mild when you consider mother has seventy-eight languages to draw on for serious cussing."

Donilla grinned, but Martha, who had no trouble picking up whispers, said, "She's in shock. Give her a moment, she'll get around to some serious swearing."

Since everyone there could hear Martha, including her mother who was raising an annoyed brow at her, Shanelle was now the one blushing.

« ^ »

TEDRA WALKED OUTSIDE THE MILITARY COMPOUND where General Ferrill's office was located. Dalden was deeply distracted and not paying much attention to anything other than walking. Shanelle was waiting to hear what Tedra would decide.

As far as Shanelle was concerned, having been apprised of the situation, they couldn't do anything but help. And that had nothing to do with Sunder or her liking for the Sunderan Donilla Vand, nor even her strong dislike of the High King Jorran, who had wanted to make her his queen by underhanded means. No, her concern was that an entire planet of unsuspecting people could become the victims of Jorran's tyranny. But Tedra might not see it that way and being more familiar with the policies of the Centura League, otherwise known as the League of Confederated Planets which strived to keep peace among all known planets, might be wrestling with good reasons why they shouldn't get involved.

Martha was being unusually quiet, even though her link was still open. But then, Martha only interfered when she knew that something might adversely affect Tedra. Otherwise, she let Tedra make her own decisions. That it often seemed otherwise was only because Martha covered all possibilities when she dissected a problem, from the most obvious to the least likely, and every variable in between.

Tedra finally stopped walking, and the frown she was now wearing said she wasn't happy with her own decision, but had made it nonetheless. "We need to get back to the ship and be on our way."

"You aren't going to help?"

"I retired from 'saving planets' twenty-one years ago," Tedra said matter-of-factly. "And the sooner we get home, the sooner we can notify the proper authorities to deal with this problem."

"Even though that might be too late? Once war is begun, the League won't get involved."

"I doubt Jorran's intention is to make war," Tedra replied. "Is it, Martha?"

"Highly improbable." Martha was using her bored tone again, which, unfortunately, usually precluded a bomb, which she dropped now. "Subjugation and utter domination are what he'll be looking for."

Tedra made a face. Subjugation was a word she seriously disliked; it was what the Sha-Ka'ari had tried to do to her own people. The Sha-Ka'ari were originally from Sha-ka'an, but had been taken some three hundred years ago to a mining colony in the Centura star system to be used as slave labor. But they were still incredibly huge warriors, and it didn't take them long to take over that colony and subjugate those people and any others they happened to conquer. They had lost touch with most of their old beliefs, didn't even know where they originally came from, and had developed much differently than the Sha-Ka'ani on the mother planet.

They were still considered barbarians, though, were still swordwielding, slave-holding warriors, just a smaller variety, having interbred with their slaves for hundreds of years. But unlike Challen and his people, also considered barbarians, who pretty much snubbed their collective noses at the wonder that could be had from advanced planets, the Sha-Ka'ari weren't averse to using whatever was obtainable if they could put it to good use, nor averse to space travel.