"Can't help it. That's all we have time for."
"Special instructions?"
"None. We leave the ship here and go down in separate landing craft. You can talk with me any time you want to through our communications, but don't unless you have to."
"They can't intercept the beams we use."
"They can't, and even if they did they wouldn't know what to do with our language. I want them to think that we don't need to talk things over."
"I get it. Makes us seem better than we are. They think we know exactly what we're doing even though we don't."
"If we're lucky they'll think that."
Bal looked out of the port at the planet below. "It's going to be cold where I'm going. You too. Sure we don't want to change our plans and land in the southern hemisphere? It's summer there."
"I'm afraid not. The great powers are in the north. They are the ones we have to reach to do the job."