On the Mother Ship, Dow was not a happy Master. While the humans had sayings about bad things coming in threes, or going from the frying pan into the fire, etc., the Ra had a similar one that had to do with free falling backside first into a planet's atmosphere without the advantages of a space ship or flight suit. The saying had applicability to the current situation. In the last few days they had failed to retrieve valuable Earth data, lost two Warrens of Ra and their ships, and 'blown their cover' Earth-wise, which could well lead to blowing their cover Galactic League-wise. And it all happened under his command; or at least that's what the records would show.
If he ever returned home from this mission, the Na'Ra Hierarchy would bust him to apprentice, if he has lucky, or, more likely, have him for lunch. Despite Ren'Ca's reassurances he had very little confidence that the Ca'Ra would intercede on his behalf. But it seemed to him far more likely that he wouldn't survive the mission itself anyway. Ren'Ca had told him just enough so that he could carry out his orders, but not enough for him to understand what the hidden Ca'Ra objective for the mission was. Even so, he reasoned that he knew too much insider Ca'Ra information already, and would probably not be allowed to survive this mission. He had a growing suspicion that Ren'Ca would survive in the remaining Warren ship, while he and the others would conveniently be destroyed by either the asteroid or by Ren'Ca himself.
The failures had all happened out of his control; that's what really bothered him most of all. First there had been the inept actions of Twig's Warren. After that, Renson was essentially in charge. It was Renson who ordered the Washington Bus chase and led the ill-fated attack on the humans of Enterprise City. And now it was Renson that was tying up the one remaining Warren Ship near the Dannos impact point, requiring the Mother Ship to be used inappropriately in operations within the Earth's atmosphere. He had been a full Group Master for 20 Earth years, and was used to giving orders. Steered this way or that by a Ca'Ra occasionally, yes, but not managed like an apprentice!
He had learned to fear and obey the Ca'Ra Order, and certainly he feared Ren'Ca. But he hadn't literally clawed his way up through the Na'Ra ranks just to be fodder for some secret Ca'Ra plot.
So he began to think the unthinkable. Was there a way to turn this mission around, and for his own protection do away with Ren'Ca in the process? It was an interesting problem, and the solution was bound to require cleverness and deceit, but those were traits that he had in abundance.
As he sat in the Mother Ship command seat, monitoring the effort being carried out to locate the Bus, but mostly working on his Ca’Ra problem, his disposition improved dramatically. Doubt and despair changed to genuine enjoyment of the challenging task at hand. Out of the myriad range of possibilities a viable plan started to form in his mind, and a wide grin broke on his face, and he gave a loud snort.
The emotions in the room, which were dominated by Dow and felt empathically by his assistants, suddenly shifted to confidence and vitality. The two assistants in the control room exchanged knowing glances, and also smiled. Each had been extremely apprehensive about the way the mission was going. Now they snorted in resonance with the positive feelings emanating from Dow. Obviously the Master had a plan!