“Many more EDF ships were damaged in battle here. Right now, hundreds of wrecks remain in orbit. Since your robots function perfectly well in space, I want you to rebuild those damaged ships. Give me my fleet back, and — provided you perform satisfactory work — I will direct some of our compy facilities to build your robots, but only under the most stringent supervision. We’ll exchange a certain number of robots for a certain number of recommissioned ships.” He shrugged, an imitation of benevolence. “You can even use some of the useless components in orbit to build your own vessels. if only to let your robots leave here as swiftly as possible.”

Cain could restrain himself no longer. “Mr. Chairman, you know what Freedom’s Sword will say when they hear of this. There’ll be rioting in the streets!”

Basil scowled; the very existence of the dissident group was like a personal affront to him. “There are always whiners and naysayers. I need to do what is best for the Hansa. And this may be an opportunity we can’t afford to pass up.”

Though the black robot showed no emotions, Basil felt that even Sirix was surprised by the easy agreement. Basil offered him his most trustworthy smile.

57

Rlinda Kett

It had been a long trip, with too many stops. Though she enjoyed sneaking through the Hansa’s supposed “security” measures and dealing with black-market merchants, both on Earth and their few holdout colony worlds, Rlinda was glad to get back to the Confederation, to the Osquivel shipyards. and to BeBob.

When she landed theCuriosity, BeBob was there with a huge grin on his face. He greeted Rlinda with enough enthusiasm to satisfy even her. “I’ve been waiting for you! I got my ship back, good as new, and I’ve already put her through her paces. We can fly out together again, theBlind Faith and theVoracious Curiosity, just like old times.”

“Not exactly like old times, BeBob.” She kept her arms locked around him, refusing to release him from the hug. She had already gleaned reports of General Lanyan’s clumsy attack on the shipyards here, as well as BeBob’s encounter with the Klikiss at Relleker. “Not until the Chairman gets his head out of his ass and lets us get back to business as usual.”

He looked deeply serious. “So is it bad on Earth?”

“Not so much bad as annoying. I met with Sarein, and even she’s fed up, but I’m pretty sure she’s too scared to do anything about it. She thinks she has a chance to keep the Chairman on the straight and narrow. I actually feel sorry for the poor girl.”

BeBob snorted. “She chose the Chairman as her playmate. Now she has to live with him.”

“Excuse me, Mr. Holier-Than-Thou Roberts? I chose a few bad partners in my life, too. Didn’t mean I couldn’t get over it.”

BeBob was unable to cover his smile. “And sometimes you find yourself back with somebody who was a good idea in the first place. You can be taught.”

“I’m still reserving judgment, so make sure you keep behaving yourself. Now, then, would you prefer a squabble, or are you going to offer me a shower and a bed, preferably large enough to fit the two of us?”

“You mean the shower or the bed?”

“Both.”

Later, they went together to the mess hall. Rlinda sniffed the air. “I want to make sure these shipyard chefs still remember how to cook.”

“It always tasted good enough to me,” BeBob said.

“Cardboard tastes good enough to you. That’s why you need me around.”

While BeBob accepted his plate of noodles and protein cubes mixed with the sauce of the day, Rlinda leaned her elbows on the serving counter and consulted the chefs about the spices they used, how they stretched their ingredients, what they could produce directly from hydroponics labs and what had to be imported.

“Well, it just so happens that while I investigated trade opportunities on Earth, I stocked my cargo hold with certain items, such as fresh chili peppers, ginger root, long curls of cinnamon bark, and saffron — I have akilo of saffron that cost almost as much as a tankful of ekti. Ever had saffron?” The server shook her head, overwhelmed by Rlinda’s enthusiasm. “I’d be willing to part with some of my stash, so long as I’m here to make sure everything is prepared properly. Your cafeteria food will never taste the same.”

Rlinda followed BeBob to a table and took a seat across from Tasia Tamblyn and Robb Brindle. Instead of EDF uniforms, the pair now wore Roamer jumpsuits on which they had embroidered the new logo of the Confederation. While she wasn’t close with Brindle or Tamblyn, Rlinda had met them back on Theroc while consulting with King Peter on setting up the new government.

Rlinda inhaled deeply of her plate of food, took several bites, and pronounced the meal “adequate.” Tamblyn, as usual (according to BeBob), needed little incentive to get on her soapbox about the threat of the Klikiss. She and Brindle seemed to have personal axes to grind. “So, then, I take it you’ve both had some personal experience with the bugs?” Rlinda asked.

“Shizz, you could say that,” Tamblyn said. “Too damned much experience.”

“As hosts, they’re about as pleasant as the hydrogues were,” Brindle added. They described their struggles on Llaro and how only a few of them had gotten away. “Davlin Lotze and Margaret Colicos bought us time to escape.”

Rlinda looked quickly at BeBob. “Did you say Davlin?” The last they had seen of the “specialist in obscure details,” he’d been aboard BeBob’s originalBlind Faith when the EDF destroyed it. “I knew it was a trick! He got away. He’s still alive.”

“He was alive when we left him on Llaro,” Tamblyn said, her expression glum. “But he didn’t have a chance against the bugs. He went into the main hive to slow them down so the rest of us could get away.”

“He’s dead,” Robb added, swallowing hard.

BeBob shook his head sadly. “Poor Davlin.”

Rlinda found herself growing both angry and stubborn. “Right. I’ve heard that one before. We saw theBlind Faith destroyed before our very eyes, and he managed to survive.” Rlinda leaned across the table, scowling at Tamblyn and Brindle. “I can’t believe you just left him there! What were you thinking?”

Tamblyn didn’t flinch. “Davlin did it to buy our freedom, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to let him waste the sacrifice.”

“Thanks to him, we saved almost a hundred other people,” Brindle added.

Rlinda sat back, crossed her heavy arms over her breasts, and clung to her optimism. “Some people have a knack for getting out of desperate situations. After all I’ve been through with that man, I know not to underestimate Davlin Lotze.”

58

Caleb Tamblyn