Free Triplet by Timothy Zahn Page A

long?”
    â€œI have no idea how long they’ve been here,” he shrugged. “Neither does anyone else, no matter how confidently they throw figures back and forth in the journals. Certainly there’s never been any physical evidence found, and if the people themselves have legends about their arrival, I’ve never heard them.”
    â€œBut it is certain they were brought here from Earth, isn’t it?” she persisted. “I’ve read that they are true humans, not some close copycat alien race.”
    Ravagin turned a patient look on her. “Danae, one of the first things you need to learn is that we don’t know nearly as much about the Hidden Worlds as we pretend we do. Yes, the people of both seem human enough; yes, all their organs and nerve centers are in the right places; yes, a Dreya’s Womb seems to work as well on someone from the Twenty Worlds as it does on a Shamsheer native. But the definition of human boils down to genetic structure, and the only way we’re ever going to find that out for sure will be to kidnap someone and drag him naked and screaming through the Tunnel for a complete DNA scan. At the moment that’s what’s called an unacceptable procedure.”
    â€œEven if you drugged him so that he didn’t realize he’d been anywhere? That way—”
    â€œDrugged him with what?”
    â€œWith—” She snapped her mouth firmly shut. “Right. Damn; I keep forgetting about the telefold.”
    â€œEveryone does. Don’t worry about it.” Ravagin nodded ahead at the row of jagged peaks cutting across their path. “Those are the Ordarl Mountains up there—well be crossing the western border of Ordarl Protectorate as we pass over the foothills and skating just inside the northwest edge of the hexagon for an hour or so.”
    Danae nodded; she’d already noticed that the foothills coincided with the abrupt return of civilization. Half a dozen small villages could be seen clustered along the line there, their inhabitants no longer needing to rely solely on numbers or barricades for defense against robber gangs from the Tweens. “It still seems like they should have been able to build up a bigger population than this after even a couple of thousand years. Especially with such advanced medical facilities as Dreya’s Wombs available.”
    Ravagin snorted, his eyes giving the area around them a slow sweep. “What is this, a two-person seminar on unanswerable questions? Do us both a favor and save them for the last chapter of your dissertation, all right? We’re going to have enough practical questions to keep us busy.”
    Danae gritted her teeth against the sarcasm that wanted to get out. Don’t get mad girl, she told herself firmly. So he’s lost whatever academic curiosity he ever had—file the fact and drop the subject. “All right, then—let’s hear one of these big practical questions of yours,” she said.
    â€œLet’s start with how well you can imitate a demure Shamsheer-bred woman,” he said. He had risen up on his knees and was gazing over her shoulder with a tight expression on his face. “Because in about half a minute you’re going to have to be one.”
    Startled, she twisted around to follow his gaze. Behind them, two men on another sky-plane were rising swiftly up to intercept them.
    Robbers! She inhaled sharply through clenched teeth, hands curling into impotent fists at her sides. “What are we going to do?”
    â€œWhatever they say, of course,” Ravagin told her. “Look at their tunics: blue/red/gold. They’re soldiers from Castle Ordarleal.”
    â€œBut—”
    â€œNo buts, Danae.” He shifted his eyes back to her face. “And I meant what I said about being quiet and demure—especially the quiet part. Ordarl’s castle-lord doesn’t much care for strangers, female strangers in