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without being detected had worried her for days.  The act itself was anticlimactic.  But the listening unit was now in her right hand, which she lowered slowly.  She only needed to affix it to the bottom of her chair and she would—
    "Rala, what do you think you are doing?"
    The question cut the air and she yanked her hand back to her lap. 
    Governor Truk's eyes were still focused on the monitor he sat behind.  There was no way he could have seen the movement. 
    "Um," she said.  Rarely was she at a loss for what words were needed in any situation, but that was the case now.  "I don't understand, Governor."
    Truk looked up from the monitor, his eyes suddenly fixed on hers.
    "Telgora, Rala.  General Soo.  Earth?"
    Rala's pulse slowed down for the second time in as many minutes.  He was talking about Telgora. 
    "Soo tells me he is headed to Earth ?"  Truk's question was more of statement.  Soo had apparently informed Truk who had ordered him to abandon the siege of Telgora and move against the humans on Earth.  Knowing her mate's brother, he had probably laid the entire plan at her feet to save his own hide.  The fact that it was her plan made no difference to Rala.
    "Yes, sir."  She fought the urge to flick her ears; the movement would let Truk know she was caught off guard by his questioning.  "As you know, humans landed on Telgora.  They helped the natives defeat our forces and take over the agsel mines there."
    "Yes," Truk acknowledged.  "But that does not explain why you sent my general and four motherships to the end of the galaxy."
    "Governor Truk, I sent General Soo to Earth because the humans obviously control the Telgorans now.  Those idiots could not have taken our mines without their interference."
    "How does sending Soo to Earth get our mines back?"  The volume of Truk's voice increased with each word.  Rala was on shaky ground.  She could not tell the male about the Zrthn influence on the decision.  He did not need to know, nor would he ever understand.  But she could tell him the reasoning behind the directive.  That still made sense.
    "Governor Truk, the humans are weak. And they are protective of their people.  I felt the best way—no, the only way—to get the mines back would be through the humans.  If we crush them where they live, the few who control the natives on Telgora will be forced to cede the mines to us."
    Truk stared at her, but said nothing.  Rala wondered what he was thinking, but he gave no clue.
    "You are dismissed for now," he stated.  Rala nodded.  As she started to rise, Truk bowed his head back to his desk.  Without hesitating, she reached her right hand down and pressed the small, flat listening device to the underside of the chair. 
    Oiloo had insisted it would attach itself with minimal pressure, and he was right.
     
     *     *     *
     
    The Zrthn listened to the entire exchange with interest.  He had told Rala that once the device was in place, she would be able to listen to everything that happened in Truk's office.  That was true.
    He had not informed her that he would be listening in as well.

 
     
    CHAPTER 5
     
     
    The mothership rattled like a pieced-together jalopy bouncing along the roughest dirt road Grant could imagine at a hundred miles an hour.  He clutched the console with all his might and fought to keep his teeth tightly clenched.  The brutal shuddering threatened to dislodge every nut, bolt, and weld that held the laboring vessel together.  A rising explosion of distress and anger filled the command center as the ship's engines fought to slow the behemoth's passage through the vacuum of space. 
    The noise and quaking grew in their intensity long after Grant knew they couldn't get any worse.  The lights in the ship flickered, dimmed, finally went dark.  An occasional spark thrown from the control panel or ceiling provided the only light, and during these brief flashes, Grant spied Gee's bouncing form struggling to