“You have wastedmost.”
“I certainly did not. Iapplied it evenly,” Tau said coldly.
Ignoring him, Xi slipped an arm behindher head to lift it up and then placed the rim against the lowerpart of the hole and slowly tilted the container again.
The neck moved and made asound.
“What is that?”
“She is swallowing thewater.”
Tau felt a strange physical reactionto that. “I believe this body also needs.”
“Very likely,” Xiresponded. “We will have to find more and that will be difficultbecause the drones poison the water when they find it.”
Tau digested that with a faint senseof … outrage? “What is the purpose of that?”
“To kill all biologicalentities. The primary are these entities who call themselveshumans, but it has the same effect on anything with need. They alldie.”
Tau felt … hostility and … angertoward the traitor. He was not certain what disturbed him more—thethings that he felt that he was not accustomed to or the fact thathe was not even certain of what the names for these new thingswere.
The truth was, he was feeling so manythings that were new to him that he was having great difficultythinking at all, much less sorting and cataloguing and analyzingthem. A good deal of it was simply reaction to the things hedetected—the body detected—and transmitted to the mind—him. Butthere was … intense emotions attached to a great deal,also.
He had thought he fully grasped eachemotion it was possible to feel—and had experienced them all at onetime or another.
But he hardly recognized those he wascertain he was familiar with.
“That is …unconscionable.”
“Indeed,” Xi agreed andthen searched his mind for words in her tongue. “Water gone. Wherefind more?”
She stared at him so blankly, hethought she had simply not understood.
“Get more?”
She licked her dry, cracked lips. Andher eyes scanned the area. She struggled to sit up and then settledback. “Down below … here.”
Xi turned from her and scanned thearea and finally spotted what appeared to be an opening to anotherpart of the structure or possibly some sort of access to anotherlevel. He looked at her again. “Other level?”
“Yes.” She struggled andfinally managed to point in the direction where he had found anopening.
He hesitated. “Must move you. Deyoddurs come.”
When he reached to pick her up,however, Tau intervened. “I will carry it.”
Annoyance flickered through Xi.“Her.”
Tau’s lips tightened, but he ignoredthe correction and worked his arms beneath the female to pick herup.
“She says there is wateron the next level down. We will have to get what we can quickly andfind shelter elsewhere or find an escape route.”
Chapter Three
Tau detected a rise in the temperatureof the being—the female—he was carrying and it disturbed him in anindecipherable way.
Because he knew, instinctively that itshould not happen.
“She grows warmer,” hesaid to Xi. “What do you think that means?”
