"Did you want me to?"

"Didn't figure you as believing in coincidence."

"I believe in it," Torin told him. "I don't trust it. Was Pedro able to add anything to Page's background?"

"Haven't heard from him yet. Alia says he took the smaller ship out to do some second tagging at 772ST4."

Still only halfway to the new salvage, Torin had time to run over the CSO's debris field designations. "The Kertack and the Cameroonian?"

"That's the one."

The two Confederation battleships as well as three cruisers and nearly equal representation from the Primacy had faced off about eighteen months ago. Torin had been tanked at the time but heard about it when she got out because one of her physical therapists had a thytrin on the cruiser that had been blown with all hands. The other ships had taken twenty-five to thirty percent casualties. Torin didn't know what the Primacy's loses had been, but they'd definitely contributed to the debris. More importantly… "That's almost to the edge."

"Yeah, but there's an ace chance of pulling in pieces of enemy tech."

"There's a good chance of attracting enemy attention."

"War's over."

She sighed and flipped around to begin decelerating. "He's got kids."

"To provide for."

"Yeah, I get that." And she did. But when she thought of Pedro out on the edge, she couldn't stop herself from thinking of Jeremy without one of his fathers. "Dargonar had her engines on, Captain." Huirre transferred his slate to his right foot so he could spread both hands in a fukked if I know gesture. "But there's no way of knowing if Captain Firrg used the equations I sent her until we're out of Susumi space and she's either there or she isn't."

"She'll be there," Cho growled. "I don't trust her as far as you could spit a spleen, but she screws us over and she screws over Big Bill."

"She could turn on us on the other side. Lie to Big Bill about it."

"Why would she do that?" Dysun asked, most of her attention on shutting down the communications board.

"Firrg hates Humans." Huirre's nose ridges flared. "Captain's Human. So's Nat and Doc."

Dysun shrugged, hair rising and falling in time with her shoulders-both the Taykan and Krai had adopted the gesture, but only the Taykan had really mastered it. "So's Big Bill."

"Doesn't count."

She looked up at that. "Why doesn't…"

"Enough!" Cho snapped. Huirre had made the only relevant point-the Dargonar would be there when they emerged or she wouldn't; they couldn't do shit about it either way, and he was sick to death of the constant speculation. "Go fuk your thytrins or something."

"Aye, aye, Captain!" As the last of the board locked down, Dysun tossed off an enthusiastic salute and ran from the control room.

"Like there was a chance of or something. You'd think she hadn't got any for a tenday instead of a couple of hours," Huirre snorted. Then he snapped his teeth together and added, "Serley di'Taykan."

"So join them," Cho sighed, sliding down in his chair until his spine barely maintained contact. Inside Susumi space, the ship didn't require a captain and, as long as the crew managed to keep from killing each other, he didn't give a shit what they got up to.

"It's not…"

He could read the reason for Huirre's recent ill humor in the pause. "Firrg wouldn't have you if you were the last Krai in known space. You've been contaminated by contact with Humans. You want to go crawling to her and beg her to take you on so you can be horny and frustrated in her presence, be my guest."

"That's harsh, Captain." His nose ridges opened and closed a couple of times. "You'd just let me go?"

"Better than you being horny and frustrated on my boat. Go or get over her."

He shifted his slate from foot to hand and back to foot again. "Not too many female Krai out here, Captain."

"That's why the universe gave us the di'Taykan."

"It'd make me feel better if I got to dispose of the next CSO we pick up."

"No." Cho didn't care how fukking frustrated his helmsman got, the last thing he wanted, given what had sent Huirre out into the deep, was to indulge the Krai's taste for Human flesh. Sure, running Page through Huirre's gut would have removed any evidence of the way he'd died, but it wasn't like the Wardens would stumble over the CSO's body anytime soon. OutSector Wardens were about as much of a threat as a pouched H'san.

"So, Captain…" Huirre's nose ridges began opening and closing slowly. Cho figured he was breathing himself into a better mood. "… seems like this equation's going to take us pretty damned close to the edge."

"We need a younger salvage operator. The young take chances. The edge is all about taking chances. We've got a line on a single ship, and I don't want a repeat of Page."

"Ah." Huirre nodded. "Suppose it doesn't hurt that the Wardens never get out that far."

"No," Cho agreed in a tone that said the conversation was over, "it doesn't."

The Dargonar had come out of Susumi space three seconds before the Heart of Stone, having made no changes in the equations Huirre had sent. Cho chose to take that as a good sign.

"Move in at one eighty to our zero." Cho frowned down at the ship locked into his long-range scanners. "Don't worry about being seen, just tag the pen. When they dump, they'll hit their aft thrusters." Fukking predictable. The first thing a CSO did after dumping their pen was hit the aft thrusters every damned time. Surged straight ahead until they could fold into Susumi space. It was like every one of them forgot normal space had three dimensions. "We'll be waiting to grapple the ship in. Make sure the operator is in the ship before you tag."

"Gre ta ejough geyko. You just do your job and leave us to do ours. We keep what's in the pen. Firrg out."

Cho glared at the back of Huirre's head. "Translation."

"Roughly, sit on it and rotate." Huirre kept his gaze locked on his board. "She's moving out."

"Take us into position."

"We can't just let her have the pen, Captain!" Dysun protested.

"We can if I say we can," Cho told her shortly. Let Firrg have the pen. He had a Marine armory with all the promise of a great and glorious future it contained, and the Krai captain didn't have a hope in hell of scoring anything that even came close to matching it.

As Huirre maneuvered the Heart of Stone into position, her signature masked by the static emitted by a pair of lopsided rings circling an equally lopsided planetoid, he split his attention between the salvage ship and the empty space beyond it, waiting for Firrg to appear.

"Captain, the salvage ship's engines have come on-line." Dysun transferred the information to Cho's screen. "I think they're getting ready to move out."

"No one asked for your opinion," Huirre growled, hands and feet ready over his board.

The di'Taykan's hair flipped up on the side closest to the Krai. "Who tied your kayt in a knot?"

"Gren sa talamec!"

"If someone stuffed it up yours, you'd be in a better mood," she snorted.

"Shut up. Both of you." Fingers digging into the edge of his screen, Cho willed Firrg to make her move.

"Net's are away, Captain!"

"I don't see them."

"We're not picking them up on visuals, but there's a ripple in the data." Hair flicking quickly back and forth, Dysun bent over her board. I'm boosting magnification. Give them a minute or two to show… There!"

"I see them."

She drummed her fingers on the inert edging. "If that ship starts to move before the nets…"

"We know," Huirre interrupted. "For horon's sake, we all know."

Twenty kilometers.

Fifteen kilometers.

Five.

Contact.

"Anchor lines have caught. Dargonar has powered the buoys. They've dumped their pen, Captain! They're moving!"

"Get them, Huirre."

"Aye, aye, Captain."