Intrepid

''So we've been led to expect,'' Captain Drago said. ''Does that mean you didn't find them?''

''I didn't say that, but I want you to know that any team less than the superb one I put together would still be hunting.''

Captain Drago raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Sulwan had finally found the Abdicators with the aid of the bridge crew and Chief Beni. Kris would prefer not to have her two brain trusts at dagger points.

''How did you find them?'' should get the briefing going.

''They can hide, but they cannot make their heat vanish. The laws of thermodynamics apply even to the Great Guides.''

That was the Achilles' heel that Sulwan had spotted, too.

''It didn't help them that it is winter in the northern hemisphere, where they are,'' mFumbo said, activating a screen. ''Usually, you spot an inhabited planet by the vast areas of plowed or fallow fields. Not here. No corn, no potatoes, no wheat fields in stubble. I don't know what they are growing, but it's some kind of perennial that they can harvest calories from and leave the roots in place.''

''I've heard about that,'' Kris said. ''Some of the drier areas of Wardhaven are planted in that for soil conservation.''

''But would you want just bread to eat, meal after meal?'' mFumbo asked.

''They could have bioengineered other crops to have similar root systems,'' Jack said.

''Enough farming,'' Kris said. ''How did you find the farms?''

''The houses are sod, half-buried in the soil. So are the barns and other outbuildings. But the sod houses are heated and showed up on infrared. We also spotted trails where trucks had traveled recently. The grass under the trails also gave back a different signature than the crop areas.

''And right smack in the middle of the hinterlands, just where you'd expect a city to be, was one. All warm and cozy, with a whole lot more of that road grass,'' mFumbo said, with a proud flourish.

''The buildings here are low, grass-covered knolls. Some bigger, some smaller. And then there's this mountain. Big, with rock pinnacles coming off it like spires. A real eye-catcher. I think we found the Assembly for the Great Guides.''

''Any other towns like that one?'' Penny, Kris's intelligence chief, asked.

''Everything else is smaller. Oh, they all have a larger hill in the middle, but nothing nearly as grand as this one, and none is more than a quarter its size.''

''It has a large river for shuttles to land in,'' Kris observed. ''It looks like you found what we're looking for.''

Jack was shaking his head. ''They are clearly very security conscious. Would they really put their most important people in the largest target?''

Kris gave Jack a pat on the back. ''You are being properly paranoid, my chief of security, but you are not thinking like a top-dog politician. You are the greatest because you have the biggest and most wealthy trappings of power. They may have a bolt-hole somewhere, just in case. But while they are ruling, they must impress the serfs.''

''Did you learn that from your daddy?'' Abby asked.

''No, from my first nanny,'' Kris said dryly.

''Do we know enough to make contact?'' Penny asked, keeping them on track.

''I think we know about all we're going to know. I'm assuming that if the professor spent all his time talking about the heat signatures, he didn't find any news channels or other broadcasts on the electromagnetic bands.''

''We didn't even find the power plants or power lines. Someone is really shielding them.''

''Well, let's go see if anyone is on guard channel,'' Kris said, and tapped her commlink. ''Chief Beni, please broadcast this on as many frequencies as possible. ‘Greetings, this is the United Sentient ship Wasp in orbit over you. I am Princess Kristine Longknife, empowered to make contact with you.' ''

Chief Beni did. His message was followed by a long silence.

Kris shrugged and reached for the mike. ''Hi, I am—''

''I heard who you were the first time.'' The speaker sounded like a very cranky young man. ''Would you please shut up and go away. We, the chosen, have no desire to have our eyeballs ripped out and fried before our eyes like you the damned will have done to you.''

''If they ripped out our eyeballs to fry them, how are we going to see them do it?'' Abby asked.

''Shush. Do not debate ideology or theology with zealots.''

Kris flicked on her commlink. ''I have come to speak with your Assembly of Great Guides.''

''They don't waste time with the doubting damned. Go away.''

''I am not going away.''

''You have been warned. I have spent enough time sending out a radio beacon for the hordes. We are done here.''

''I am going to land and march my Marines straight to your Great Guides.''

''You don't know where they are.''

''I think you are wrong.''

''We will wipe you out.''

''I doubt you can massacre a full company of Marines armed with the latest in human weapons.''

There was a scraping sound, the kind you might get if a very old type of microphone was being removed from one speaker and taken over by another.