The newlyweds had planned to go to Sea Cliff the next day. Not for a vacation; they both had far too much to do. But Sea Cliff was a better place to do what they intended. Sleekit and K'sthuump, and Sleekit's two packmates, had come to the firth, so that Juliassa could keep track of the sullsi volunteers through the Vrronnkiess telepathic network. That morning they'd started off swimming south to Sea Cliff.
The intention was for Brokols to get a good working knowledge of sullsit, so he could help oversee the sullsi in mining the Almaeic fleet.
They delayed leaving for three days though, because when Brokols approached to mount his kaabor, it kicked him in the leg and broke his shinbone. A clean break, fortunately. Casts hadn't been invented yet in Hrumma, and the technology for pinning broken bones was well beyond them. Such a break required leaving splints on for a dozen weeks or more, while crutches were used.
This meant a change in operating plans, of course. Now Brokols would stay behind when the schooners left. Jonkka would learn sullsit with him (a project that had the big guard worried), and he'd go with the minesetting flotilla in Brokols' place, to help Juliassa oversee the mining.
* * *
The three extra days in Theedalit were not wasted. An omission had occurred to Brokols, an overlooked opportunity. If the emperor's fleet had sailed, there should be at least occasional wireless traffic between its flagship and the rest. And if they'd left when he thought, they'd probably be near enough now for him to pick up their calls.
So he had his chair wheeled into the wireless room, prepared to spend as much time as it took, tuning up and down the shortwave band looking for wireless traffic. The first evening he'd gotten a surprise. He found traffic that proved to be between Kryger and the Gorrbian invasion base at the northern end of the isthmus. Either Kryger had given up his backup set, or he'd had a spare. Their language was Djezian, of course, and its alphabet was different from Almeon's. But the sounds were mostly similar, and Kryger had chosen to wireless Djezian messages with the Almaeic alphabet rather than develop and learn a wireless code for the Djezian.
It was a valuable frequency to know, and it made Brokols more willing to stay behind when the flotilla left. He could monitor the invasion headquarters' reports to Haipoor.
The next day he ran into wireless traffic near the edge of his instrument's ability to receive. (His was considerably less sensitive than Kryger's larger set.) But he got enough signal to know it was the fleet. His plans were not too advanced. Hopefully they were advanced enough; somehow he felt they were.