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consequences, I swear.
    “One night I had my men act as bawds and fetch the Fanzoy to my cabin. They obeyed, but eyed me with disgust. They left us alone.
    “Not to mince words, I took the alien carnally, upon the very bunk she sat on so mockingly while you were there.
    “She did not resist at all.
    “It was like yet unlike sex with a human woman. I will say no more than that. What is crucial is what happened after.
    “I found myself bonded psychically to the Fanzoy.”
    Merino assumed a contemplative air for a second, as if he had long considered this part of his gruesome experiences in a detached way, insofar as it applied to his whole culture.
    “We know so little about them, having ignored them all these centuries of our uneasy coexistence. Apparently, from what I later learned, the Fanzoii—highly telepathic among themselves—mate but once, and for life, forging a special mental link between couples.
    “Among Fanzoii, the bond is a two-way union between equals.
    “Between a human and a Fanzoy, it is a chain binding slave and master.
    “I was now subject to Tess’s compulsions. Although I could fight them for a time, I always caved in. She proved that during the first night. Also, a vague conceptual link sprang up between us. Tess could easily project her thoughts to me, but had trouble reading mine.
    “I was forced to keep Tess in my cabin all the next day. The men spoke of it behind my back, uneasy and afraid. When the next night came, Tess had me free all her comrades from belowdecks, promising that my men would not be hurt.
    “But there was instant carnage. The Fanzoii broke open the armory and lasered all my men, save for Sadler and the Sanctus, who hid in the galley.
    “One man—I know not who—had the presence of mind before being hunted down to wreck the solarcells and command many of the robots to hurl themselves overboard.
    “When dawn broke the Cockerel was a bloody abattoir, under complete control of the Fanzoii.
    “With their savagery dissipated, the Fanzoii let Sadler and Purslen live. But they wanted them under their control. So another Fanzoy female raped Sadler. When they stripped Purslen they found him to be a capon. They almost killed him outright, but he begged so piteously they relented, deeming him harmless, which he proved indeed to be.
    “Three days later the storm truly came upon us. Without men or bots, we sustained the damage you saw.
    “In the storm, Sadler received a concussion from a falling spar. He never awoke from it, and would normally have died, I believe, save for the bond with the Fanzoy female. She kept his autonomic nervous system functioning. They used him like a toy, as you saw. He was held rigid, barely breathing, under the sheet in my cabin, as you sat unknowing, not two meters away.”
    Merino’s tale of horror made my stomach and mind revolt. Yet I longed to hear it through to its end. As I watched the shriveled man speak, clearly a husk of his former elegant self, the same mix of pity and repugnance I had felt for him earlier swept over me.
    “The next months were a torpid living hell. The Fanzoii, as I understood through the thoughts of Tess, longed to return to Carambriole, or, failing that, to make landfall elsewhere. Many times they were so frustrated by their situation that Monteagle and I were nearly put to death.
    “But always they saved us to be their go-betweens, should we ever sight another ship.
    “And then you hailed us.
    “When you and your mate came aboard, you nearly died. Outside my cabin, the Fanzoii were ready to set upon you, despite their prior plans. Through Tess, I saved your lives. I convinced her that we could get all we wanted through subterfuge, and that if we killed you it would alert your ship, which would sail away.
    “The rest you know. I emerged and made my show of commanding those who commanded me. Then fell to me the task of convincing you of our innocent need. Every second you were on the Cockerel , death hovered at