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determined to find out where.
"Now, you get back to your station, Lieutenant, and you are not to
leave it until you have found the answers I'm looking for! Have I
made myself perfectly clear?"
    The blood had drained from Petreit's face,
and his fingers quivered visibly around the clipboard. "Y-Y-Yes,
Sir! Right away, Sir!" His exit was more than hasty.
    When the door had slid closed once again,
Kindel motioned for Barrine to return. "Doctor, how long until you
can reproduce the stone in mass quantities?"
    The lanky man looked up from his desk with
lips pursed as though frustrated with the question. "As I said, I
need to examine the test hatchling before I can determine whether
or not the experiment was a success."
    "How long, Doctor?"
    Barrine sighed heavily, his unfocused eyes
softening as he thought. "Even if this experiment goes well, it
will still take months to produce the number you've requested."
    Thorus ground his teeth and headed for the
door. "That's not good enough, Doctor."
    "Sir, due to the sensitive nature of the
specimen and the complex analysis required to—" The door closed
behind Kindel, cutting the doctor off in mid-sentence. His
attention immediately shifted to his associates standing on either
side of the door. "Why was Lieutenant Petreit allowed to enter? I
ordered that no one be permitted access."
    "The information he possessed seemed
relevant, Master," Scimitar answered. "We thought you would want to
hear it."
    Kindel opened his mouth to admonish them, but
thought better of it. The information was important, if
there were any two members of the crew he'd share it with,
it would be his assistants. "Keep whatever he told you to
yourselves," he told them. "Come, we have one more stop to
make."
    The prison level was more quiet than usual,
though the addition of the new guards likely had a good deal to do
with that. Given the abilities of the most recent arrival to the
ship, it was necessary to take considerable precautions when seeing
to the security of his cell. Sartan Truce was a sorcerer; he could
easily blast through the prison bars without the proper defenses in
place. Placing two of his Zo'rhan soldiers beside his cell to hold
a magical energy barrier in place around the man was a necessity.
It would contain his magical abilities, and keep the ship's prison
level in one piece.
    The two soldiers, both Zo'rhan men uniformed
in grey and well versed in the magical arts of their people, nodded
slightly toward him as he and his assistants approached. They stood
completely still, hands held palm-up at either side and eyes locked
on Truce. The barrier would remain invisible unless attacked, but
there was no doubt Sartan knew it was there. "No trust between
allies, eh?" the bearded man laughed when he saw Kindel. "What, did
you think I was gonna try and blow up the ship or something?"
    "The thought had crossed my mind," Kindel
responded flatly. "Tell me more about this weapon of yours."
    Truce laughed again as he rose from the thin
bed against the wall. "And give you all the leverage you need? I
tell you everything, and then you don't need me anymore. Sorry, but
I'm not the fool you think I am."
    "You willingly walked into my prison,"
Thorus shot back. "Some would consider that foolish."
    "I call it a necessary risk," Sartan
countered. "Perhaps, if you agree to a partnership, I might
consider giving you limited schematics regarding the weapon. But
for now, all I'm prepared to tell you is that your Aeden pals have
it."
    Kindel swallowed a growl and forced away a
sneer. "I could easily kill you and then retrieve the weapon from
Aldoric myself."
    Truce's grin never faltered. "You could, but
you wouldn't have a clue of how to work it. If anything, it would
be more dangerous to you."
    "Why should I believe for a moment that an
alliance with you would be any less so?"
    Truce folded his arms and began pacing back
and forth. "I admit that it does require at least a period of
unconditional trust so that you can see