I spent a lot of time on the bridge of the Chieftain,where I had set up my comm station to monitor Dragoon communiques and ComStar broadcast channels. The cluttered channels in space are odd: you're always having to sort out the past from the present, when it's all really the past. Since nothing arrives instantaneously, you have to put everything you get into perspective. That can be hard. Sometimes last week's news from one system is more important than today's from the system where you're sitting in a JumpShip getting its interstellar drives recharged.

Sometimes I'd look up and find Michi watching me. He never said anything, though. He'd just bow politely when I noticed him and then go wandering off about his business. I didn't really understand why he'd come aboard with the other Kuritans; he didn't seem quite the same as them. It wasn't just that he was distant and aloof—that was typical for a Kuritan. It was more that he didn't seem to be there all the time. He rarely spoke and then only when spoken to directly. There was something strange about him, something faintly dangerous. Sometimes I thought about him as an unexploded mine. An expert might handle it safely, but a green troopie would do something wrong and that would be the end of the troopie. If I was sure of only one thing when around him, it was that I was definitely a greenie. So despite my curiosity about why he watched me, I never asked. It was probably just as well.

* * *

Dechan Fraser stayed aboard the Chieftainwhen Wolf, Vordel, and Cameron accompanied the Kuritans to the surface. He had recognized the cold blue face of the planet they were orbiting the moment he saw it on the bridge monitors. He had no desire ever to set foot on its ground again.

From snatches of conversation overheard among the Kuritans, he suspected he knew why they had come here, and it only gave him more reason to stay aboard. His suspicions were proven correct when the shuttle returned, bearing Michi Noketsuna alongside Wolf. Michi greeted Dechan and Jenette with a stiff formal bow, but he offered no spoken words. Though she said nothing at the time, Jenette had complained later. Dechan couldn't decide if he cared or not. Many years had gone by without words, what were a few minutes in a shuttle bay?

They saw little of Michi after that first encounter. He always seemed to be leaving a compartment just as they were entering, or vice versa. The other Kuritans were easier to talk to. After years in the Combine, Dechan found them more familiar companions than the Dragoons.

Still, it seemed strange to see Dragoon and Kurita uniforms sitting around the same conference table again. The byplay was slow at first, but the Ryuken veterans fell into it soon enough and the other Kuritans followed their lead. Dechan was reminded of the days when Iron Man Tetsuhara had sat across from Wolf. But Tetsuhara was dead and his son—well, his son wasn't the Iron Man. Michi Noketsuna had sat at the table in those days, too. He wasn't dead, but he wasn't at the table, either.

Dechan finally decided that the whole arrangement shouldn't be surprising. Things were different now. Even the Dragoons were different. That was obvious every time he saw Pilot Grane. Her overlarge head and slight build marked her instantly as a Clan-bred aerospace pilot. None of the Clans' extreme phenotypes had been a part of the Dragoons when Dechan had worn the uniform. Hellfire, he hadn't even known the Dragoons had come from the Clans. As a recruit from the Inner Sphere, he hadn't been trusted with that knowledge.

Jenette had known, though; she was one of them.

But somehow he couldn't find it in himself to hate her. She had never really lied to him, she just hadn't told him the whole story. But he knew her. And loved her. Maybe that made it different.

Jaime Wolf, on the other hand, was an enigma. He was a man who played his own game and damned to hell anyone who got in the way. Sort of like Dechan's once-friend Michi.

Dechan was through being a pawn. Now all he wanted to do was stay out of the way and keep Jenette safe. It wasn't really possible to do anything really constructive until their journey was complete anyway. Then, well, then he'd see what could be done to build a new life.

34

The honor guard, stood smartly at attention along the Chieftain'sramp. They were all Elementals, and though not all had been part of the bondsmen transfer at Luthien, they all wore Nova Cat badges as prominently as their Dragoon unit and rank insignia. Elson wondered what Wolf would make of that.

Wolf's wife and children waited at the foot of the ramp, MacKenzie's widow and daughter along with them. Marisha Dandridge had applied to the officer council for permission to be the one to tell Wolf of his son's death. Elson had seen no reason to deny that request, even though it violated the standard chain of command. It was another sign of the decadent weakness of the blood families. Wolf's family making a public display of their grief would only weaken his standing with the Clanners among the Dragoons.

The DropShip's personnel hatch hissed open to reveal a knot of black-uniformed soldiers. Elson recognized the uniforms. They would be the Kuritans Wolf was hauling home with him. They walked slowly down the ramp, backs stiff. At the foot, they all took turns bowing to Wolf's family before stepping aside. They remained clustered in the shadow of the DropShip, apparently reluctant to approach the group of Dragoon officers among whom Elson stood.

Wolf and his bodyguard were the next to exit the ship, with the commo officer Cameron following almost immediately. Wolf's reunion with his family was full of emotion. Elson checked on Alpin. The boy fidgeted, but remained where he was.

The reaction of the Elemental honor guard was just what Elson expected. They kept their eyes fixed firmly ahead, their expressions stony. The Kuritans also found it expedient to ignore the scene being played out before them. Though their culture honored the emotions, it looked down on public displays of feeling, so their distaste was only for the impropriety of the expression. Some of the officers around Elson were making comments, noting that Wolf's behavior was unbecoming a military man. Elson was pleased. His upbringing made him want to sneer at the wanton display and blatant lack of control just as the others did, but it was important that he not appear biased against Wolf today. His control was more than sufficient for the task.

Cameron slipped past the family and tapped Vordel on the shoulder. He leaned down to whisper something into the stocky bodyguard's ear, then the two of them stepped away from the ramp and headed toward Elson's group. The whispering among the officers ceased as they approached.

"Why aren't you with your family?" Vordel asked Alpin.

"I'm an officer," Alpin snapped. "My place is here."

Vordel eyed him suspiciously. "What's going on?"

"You'll find out soon enough, old man," Alpin said. "They will be telling him any time now."

"Telling who? What?"

Cameron looked even more concerned than Vordel sounded. He snatched a glance back over his shoulder at Wolf. A tremor ran through his body, as though he was thinking of running back to his master. The reaction told Elson that the communications blackout had been successful.

"I don't need to answer your questions," Alpin sneered at Vordel.

Hans' face screwed down tight. Elson recognized the danger sign that Alpin missed. Cameron caught it too and forestalled Vordel's response by putting a hand on the bodyguard's arm. Vordel relaxed, ever so slightly. His voice was hard when he spoke, and Elson was pleased that the bodyguard directed his question to Alicia Fancher, one of the safer officers. Colonel Fancher remembered Wolf's dismissing her from command years ago; it had taken very little for Elson to fan the coals of her resentment. She would not betray the plan.