Damage Control - ARC Read Online Free PDF Page A

He and
the Intelligence keev had worked together on several missions over
the years and become close friends. He had no doubt that she knew
the situation. She had probably even made a few very accurate
guesses about what Chegg was doing to correct the problem. But he
wasn't concerned about her. She had the good sense to see why these
measures were necessary, and he could count on her to keep her
mouth shut. It was some of the others who worried him.
    The last five keevs swam in together, and
everyone but the Kirove stood in a semi-circle near the railing.
There were 11 other keevs there; that was to be expected. Deet's
surveillance zirode stood four spots to Chegg's left. He must have
been there to make a report.
    The appointed time for the meeting arrived,
and everyone stopped talking and faced the Kirove, who stood just
outside the railing at the front of the oval.
    "I understand two of you have staff recently
returned from Earth," he said, acknowledging Deet's zirode with a
nod, then looking at Chegg with raised eyebrows.
    "Mine has not returned yet," Chegg said.
    "Find out if he can come directly here and
give his report to all of us."
    Chegg pulled out his Personal Device.
    "Earth," said the Kirove, as a spinning blue
and green planet appeared on the wall behind him. "It's where
sandfruit comes from, but up until now, that's just about all we've
known about it."
    The Medical keev , Chegg thought. She'll assume someone else from the Medical Command took
standard outbreak-control measures as soon as that kid exposed
Earth to our microbes. I'd better alter the records to match that
assumption.
    "This planet is home to seven or eight
billion people," the Kirove continued. "They are extremely
disorganized and without interstellar travel. Contact will almost
certainly lead to war. Your job, if the Committee chooses, will be
to make contact with a culture group that calls itself Aberica.
Zirode Goke Dak of the Intelligence Command will brief us."
    Zirode Goke tapped his Personal Device, and a
Supply Command messenger swam in, towing a string of drink
cylinders. She passed the string to Goke and left.
    "This is coffee." Goke held up one of the
cylinders, leaving the rest to wave in the gentle currents of the
room. "I brought enough for all of us." He pulled the cylinder free
of the string and handed it to Keev Bekk, who stood beside him.
Then he swam around the semicircle, passing out the cylinders.
    When Chegg got his, he tried it right away.
Drinking underwater was inconvenient, to say the least, but it was
considered a luxury among water people, since it was completely
unnecessary. This way of opening the briefing—the gift of an exotic
drink—was obviously a calculated effort to ingratiate the boss.
    Chegg put his mouth on the cylinder's
built-in straw and gave it a hard drag to activate the one-way
valve. He liked the flavor immediately, but thought he would have
liked it better if it had been stronger.
    He finished his coffee and tethered the empty
cylinder to the railing while Goke talked about Aberikekk
satellites and nuclear weapons. His Personal Device vibrated, and
he checked it and nodded to the Kirove: his own surveillance zirode
would be briefing them today, too.
    Goke finished his report, and the Kirove
asked for strategy ideas for defeating the Aberikekks if war broke
out. This was essentially a discussion for the War Command, and
Chegg just stood there and listened, trying not to count all the
wrong assumptions the keevs were making about Human physiology and
culture. They were good at their jobs and would find these details
out in time.
    Luak, Chegg's surveillance zirode, slipped
in, took a spot at the rail beside Goke, and turned to watch the
war plans.
    They had a map on the wall, showing some
place in Arkansas. "We can lure the rest of the Aberikekks here,
here and here," said one of the keevs, and tapped a few keys on his
Personal Device to move the map before continuing. "Then you can
see how, despite