VI
"We've never tried to make a secret of it," Tove said. "But we haven't advertised it, either."
"It really isn't much," Bo Bergman said. "Not a mutant ability, our scholars say. Rather, it's a skill we've stumbled on, a closer empathy. We are few, and far from the old home world. We've had to learn to break down the walls we had built around our minds."
"Can you read the Soetti?" Retief asked.
Tove shook his head. "They're very different from us. It's painful to touch their minds. We can only sense the sub-vocalized thoughts of a human mind."
"We've seen very few of the Soetti," Bo Bergman said. "Their ships have landed and taken on stores. They say little to us, but we've felt their contempt. They envy us our worlds. They come from a cold land."
"Anne-Marie says you have a plan of defense," Retief said. "A sort of suicide squadron idea, followed by guerrilla warfare."
"It's the best we can devise, Retief. If there aren't too many of them, it might work."
Retief shook his head. "It might delay matters—but not much."