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do is stick your head outside any hatch to be
heard from engineering to the bridge.”
    “Because I do not want you heard from engineering to the
bridge,” Vi’ya retorted. “I want you in the habit of communicating anything but
the most superficial chatter through your boswells, which the Panarchists will
not be allowed, or you will spend the duration of this war, however long it
lasts, confined to Dis along with the Telvarna . In fact, I am not sure
we should land at Dis at all.”
    “We don’t have enough fuel to get to our other caches,” Jaim
said, briefly looking up.
    “I know,” Vi’ya said his way. “I am considering stopping
only long enough to refuel at the cache off Dis, make contact with Norton, and
then continue on.”
    Lokri drawled, “What’s the worry? We escaped the
Dol’jharians. I think they’re too busy to send an armada after a ship crewed by
seven. Now six. With two canine and five sophont passengers. Even if one is a
royal stray.”
    Vi’ya’s slanted black eyes narrowed. Lokri’s challenging
grin didn’t abate a whit, but his knuckles betrayed his tension. “You have not sufficiently
considered that fact,” she said softly. “I think you should, before we emerge
from skip. We departed with from Dis with a royal stray, but if what the old
man revealed is true, he is no longer the most useless of the two spare heirs.
He is the heir. Maybe the Panarch is dead. Whether he is or not, the
Arkad asleep aft is now the most sought-after person by both sides.”
    “So we sell him to whoever offers us the most!” Marim threw
up her hands.
    “The only thing the Dol’jharians would pay is a protracted
death, whatever they promised,” Vi’ya said. “The Panarchists won’t be much
better.”
    “Their Bourse having been taken over,” Lokri drawled. “The
nicks won’t have anything to pay with .”
    “Either side would string us up and pick the insides of our
skulls dry,” Vi’ya stated. “I hope Norton and the others haven’t left Dis yet,
in spite of my orders. We are going to have to change our plans. Until then, no
stray bits of information in front of either of the Omilovs or the Arkad. And
be on the watch for whatever they might try.”
    “Schoolboy is too stiff-rumped to try anything,” Marim
scoffed. “And Brandon has a pretty face, but he’s a party boy.”
    Montrose shook his head silently, and noticed Lokri’s
tightened lips.
    Vi’ya gave her head that odd twisting nod and said, “Markham
always claimed that Brandon was smarter than he was.”
    Montrose was surprised. Vi’ya seldom brought up the name of
their former captain.
    “Markham thought everyone was interesting, and all his
friends smart,” Marim said, hitching her elbows over the back of her chair.
“That’s why he was so interesting.”
    Lokri gave a tight shrug, and said, “The Arkad did get us
free of the Palace. But it was his home ground. Whether he has brains or just a
knack at games remains to be seen.”
    “Until then,” Vi’ya said, “boswells.” She touched her wrist.
    “So you don’t want us talkin’ to ‘em?” Marim jerked her
thumb toward the cabins aft of the rec room. “Soon’s I see Schoolboy’s ugly mug
I’ve got to poke at him for his own good. And Brandon’s too pretty not to bunny
with.”
    “Poke and bunny all you like,” continued Vi’ya. “Bozzing or
your cabins, hatches closed, for any other communication.”
    “You’re not going to have time for that anyway, Marim,” said
Jaim. “You and I, and anyone else I can grab, will be spending every spare
minute on inspection and whatever repairs we can accomplish before we get to
Dis.”
    Marim flipped an obscene gesture at Jaim, then followed the captain
as she walked out. As she passed Lokri, the little blond tech grinned up at him,
a grin that faded to speculation when Lokri bowed ironically to the captain’s
back.
    o0o
    There’s going to be trouble , Montrose thought as Jaim
got to his feet, and shambled