"Our—prisoners," said Linna, as though the word stuck to her tongue. "Come on."
She seemed in a great hurry to get away from that bulkhead. Price said, "What's the matter, aren't they human, or something?"
She gave him a look. "You still think it's all a great joke."
"I didn't say that."
"You mean it, though. You still believe the Ei are something we made up to shift the blame from ourselves. Probably you believe we are staging this whole matter to impress you and your chief, so that you will go back and assure your tribesmen it is all true."
This was so uncomfortably close to what Price was thinking that he said involuntarily, "You're entirely too smart for such a pretty girl."
"Sometimes I think," she said between her teeth, "that there is no hope for you people, no hope at all."
Price nodded toward the bulkhead. "The solution is simple enough, isn't it? Let me see them. Then I'll have to believe you."
"Simple enough," said Linna, echoing his words. "Do you think you could stand against them? We have fought them for generations, we have knowledge and experience, and even for us, with all our safe-guards, it is difficult. Only a few, like Arrin, would attempt it, and I saw him this morning. He looks like a ghost."
"And that's why you've never let any Earthmen see an Ei—because they're too dangerous."