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Do you want the charter?
If there s this much trouble getting off the ground, you d better figure out
what we have to do to get off station before anything else. Next month might
be soon enough to go up.
AnyKaat thanked the woman, went to work trying to find passage to the
Barbican. Jo, here s five possibles the next five days. No direct passage.
Not unusual. We ll have to change ships at least twice. Three times by the
fastest combination.
Jo looked it over. The fastest way was the most convenient in relation to
shuttle availability. Book it.
You realize there s no guarantee we ll get anything but lounge space on
those next three ships? They can t know we re coming till we get there.
I learned that much on the Cholot Traveler. She checked her prizes. The Ku
watched her impassively. The artifact huddled behind him. The Ku was a mean
looking bastard. Next time you run off, WarAvocat can find you himself.
The Ku seemed amused. He will, I m sure.
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Lupo grinned as the information came in. We ve got them. And all the
investigators in the universe won t find a thing because we haven t done a
thing. Lupo, sometimes you re so clever you scare yourself.
Don t crow yet, Two cautioned. That woman may not understand the real
universe, and she may not be a genius, but she s stubborn. Don t underestimate
her.
I won t. Four. What were you so anxious to say a minute ago?
Valerena s Voyager broke off the Web. She wants to see you up there. She
wouldn t say why. She sounded scared. Station says she hasn t asked for
docking.
Odd. Tell her I ll be up soon. We have to go, anyway. See if Blessed has his
people ready.
They re headed for the port. Ours are, too. We can lift wheneveryou get
there.
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One of the Valerena Others met Lupo at the lock. She led him to the operating
bridge. Three more Valerenas there, exhausted from working ship. But no
Valerena Prime. What s going on?
Valerena is dead. We ve brought back information on the circumstances. Our
duty to the House. But we won t dock without assurances for our safety.
I couldn t get rid of you if I wanted. The situation here requires a
Valerena in charge. Blessed says he won t take over before his thirty-eighth
birthday. Guarantee me you won t try something like the Simon Other did and
you ve got twenty years sure. Your natural lives if you behave.
Lupo Provik s word was good.
Let me see what you ve got.
What Valerena had obtained impetuously she had squandered. That was a shot to
the heart. That Guardship had become the core of his vision of the future.
Come see me when you get down. We ll work out details. Right now I m running
an operation and can t take time. Don t tellanyone about this.
Lupo contacted One during the crossing to station, prepared him for the
Valerenas and their bad news.
Why go on? Nothing ever worked out.
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The gates of the repair bay unfolded. At last, WarAvocat murmured. On the
track of the villains at last.
He thought of the artifact. She haunted him even now. First stop, M.
Shrilica. Should have been something more from Haget. Long since.
A Guardship broke off the Web. WarAvocat. Signals fromXXVIII Fretensis .
Here it comes, he murmured. The end of a quiet passage. Before it began.
The air behind his shoulder whispered. Rogue.VI Adjutrix. IV Trajana andXII
Fulminata again! accepting destruction in order to take out the rogue and
ensureXXVIII Fretensis s escape into Canon space.VI Adjutrix s final
contrite act.
OpsAvocat asked if there would be a change in plans.
Of course. After M. Shrilica, we re headed Outside. There were riders that
couldn t be recovered. He began reviewing the data in detail.
M. Shrilica s outworks had been destroyed. Only gutted shells of stations
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remained, and an old capsule from Haget s Traveler that was useless. And, near
breakaway point, there was the hulk of a ship unlike anything seen before.
It took four days to extract a coherent story from survivors in Tregesser
Xylag.
Five ships had come. They had lain in wait for months. Someone had come,
finally, had blown one of them away, and had fled before the others could
close in. The survivors had destroyed the stations and gone in pursuit.
Haget, WarAvocat told the Deified. Who else would they be gunning for? He
left no message capsule. Or it was destroyed. I have no idea why he didn t run
to the Barbican.
The Deified Thaygos Mundt suggested, Maybe they didn t let him.
Perhaps. His first capsule is useless, too.
And the hulk?
They knew. But they wanted to make him tell it. The type hasn t been seen
before. The design is strictly combat. It contained no technical surprises
except a geometric inertial system the equal of ours.
And the creatures who operated it?
They did want him to state the impossible before the crew. They appear to be
of human stock. With differences science staff say can be explained by
isolation from the main gene pool for fourteen to twenty thousand years.
They wanted crew to know, but they did not make him remind them that known
history predated Canon s founding only a few thousand years.
The Deified Ansehl Ronygos asked, Explain your plan of campaign.
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