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but followed her into the foyer. The black and white tiled spiral swirled to the center of the room. The large library off to the right was dark and quiet, no longer a military command post for her Grampas Ray and Trouble.
    King Ray had taken over a major hotel downtown for his court while the politicians debated how much of a palace he really needed. Grampa Ray would have been happy in a two-bedroom town house, but since the politicians of eighty planets had talked him into some kind of kingship over their cobbled-together United Sentients, he was having fun needling them with a full-court press. Or a press for a full court.
    Her Grampa Trouble was offering advice “purely as a consultant” to several planets as they struggled to form their own defense forces and meld them with the new United Sentients’ total force. That left Nuu House so empty it echoed.
    Except that standing at the foot of the stairs was a stranger. The woman, in a severe gray dress cut long and buttoned at the neck, stood, hands folded. She was Kris’s height, maybe a bit shorter, but she held herself so rigidly upright it made no difference. “Princess Longknife,” the woman said. “I am your new body servant.”
    Kris eyed the woman without slowing. Her face was free of makeup, her jet-black hair coiled in a tight bun. She’s going to give me a makeover? She needs one herself! “It’s Lieutenant Longknife,” Kris shot back, “and I don’t need any servants.”
    “Your mother disagrees.”
    “Add one more to the myriad things where we differ,” Kris said, adjusting her course for the stairs to be as far from the woman as possible. The woman let Kris pass but followed her up as silently and nearly invisible as Jack, until Kris turned on the second-floor landing to take the stairs to her third-floor room.
    Clearing her voice, the woman said, “Your quarters are now on the second floor.”
    “I’ve been moved!” Kris said softly, one foot on the stairs up.
    “Yes. Your room was too small for your new responsibilities. I have rearranged you in a second-floor suite.”
    Kris turned to face this new problem. “You moved me without asking!”
    “You have a ball tonight. There is much to do and no time to waste. Harvey suggested this suite.”
    “Harvey’s in on this.”
    “His wife, Lotty, agreed.”
    Which meant everyone living in Nuu House was backing this interloper. Drastic actions were called for. “Jack, shoot this trespasser.”
    Her security agent pursed his lips as he scratched his head. “Don’t think I can. They took that paragraph out of my job description last month after your old man freed the slaves.” He offered his hand. “I’m Jack Montoya. I didn’t get your name.”
    “Abby Nightengale,” the woman answered, then lowered her voice. “I was hired from an Earth agency. Did this planet just outlaw slavery?”
    Kris started to bark a laugh, then realized this poor woman had traveled a hundred light-years to take a job on a world she knew nothing about. Could Kris have even done that?
    “Rest assured, we are as modern as Earth in all our conveniences and vices,” Jack told Abby, adding power to his words with one of his gentle smiles.
    “They told me that when I signed the contract,” Abby said.
    “But you never can tell around the wild Rim of human space,” Jack finished.
    “Were you expecting your Princess in a fur bikini?” Kris snapped, feeling less sympathy in the light of all Jack’s concern for this new woman.
    Abby looked Kris up and down. “I had hoped her hair might be in better shape. Show me your nails,” Abby ordered, took two quick steps, reached out, and held Kris’s fingers up to the light. “I guess it could be worse. At least you don’t bite them.”
    Kris yanked her hands back. “I like me just the way I am. I don’t need someone wasting their day making me who I’m not.”
    Abby had no answer for that, or else she let Kris have the last say. Kris started to stomp down the