"I won't argue that point. But I want you to know the words weren't wasted." He took her hand. "It was something I've had in mind a long time."
Abruptly he realized the MA was no longer chipping away at the cave entrance. When he looked up, the robot was withdrawing toward a mound of tumbled boulders perhaps a hundred yards off.
He slumped down beside Carol, his sense of relief dulled by renewed concern over the nightmares. Had everything in his subconscious come to the surface? Could there be more?
Carol gripped his arm and he looked off in the direction of her extended finger. Seeping in through the entrance, the gathering light of day was dimmed by a dark form descending silently to the surface.
He lunged up. "The Tzarean ship!"
But it wasn't until several seconds later that he realized he had used two clicks of his teeth and a hiss to pronounce the strange word between "the" and "ship."
Chancellor Vrausot was even more imposing in his home-environment suit. The helmet made his head seem twice as large and the clear-plastic snout cup enormously magnified his craggy teeth.
Just inside the main hatch, Assemblyman Mittich regarded the other and swallowed a strong taste of neglected opportunity. He had soaked awake all night, trying desperately to muster the will to accuse Vrausot of malfeasance and assume command.
But he had to face the bitter fact that he lacked sufficient courage. And, even more distressing, his cowardice was something he would have to live with for the rest of his life—as he watched the destruction of many worlds and billions of their inhabitants.