"Why?"

"Because the raw material was there. The Dragoons needed another Jaime to get them through the change that was coming."

"So you madeher." She was almost what the sibs called a retread, what a layman might call a clone. I was terrified. We had all been taught that the reuse of a genetic blueprint was not moral. But it had been done.

"She is no less human than any womb-born individual."

He was right. She was a person. My terror abated when I remembered just how human she was, and suddenly his revelation really didn't make any difference to me. She was Maeve. My Maeve. "Oh, I know how human she is."

Schlomo smiled indulgently. "I know you do. I've seen you two together. That's why I am trusting you. I believe you have the strength to carry the knowledge and keep it to yourself. The other scientists of my group are dead, and I won't live forever."

"Then the Wolf really doesn't know? He didn't set up the rank trial to favor her?"

"I don't believe so. He knew the preliminary scores and he saw her in battle. He would have known she was a prime candidate. I do not believe that he would have let her compete if he had known her origin."

"Should I tell her?"

"That I will leave to you."

"Schlomo, you can't put this on me."

But he did.

* * *

In many ways I was thankful that the next weeks continued to be full of duty for both Maeve and me. I had to handle an enormous volume of communications traffic, and I saw more of the ComStar Precentor than I did of Maeve. She was overseeing the restructuring of the fighting units, putting us in shape to hire out more than just Alpha and Delta, who had missed the fighting on Outreach. The Dragoons needed the income.

I saw a lot of Jaime Wolf, but I never dared bring up the subject of Maeve.

In late September, the council forced a resolution on the Commander. Over his objections, the name Wolf was added to the Honornames of the Dragoons. He and his surviving offspring would of course retain the name, but the council wanted competitions to be held in MacKenzie's and Alpin's ageframes now and in all succeeding ageframes to come. The council believed that the institutionalization of the name Wolf would help heal the wounds. Jaime protested, but to no avail. The call went out announcing the competition.

When the day of the competition came, I stood outside Wolf Hall and watched the crowd assemble for the final naming of the competitors. As was my place, I stood beside Commander Wolf. The rest of his staff stood with us. Ranked several steps before us were the Honornamed. The Loremaster stood on a podium and faced the crowd as he read the proclamation establishing the new Honorname.

As he finished, Maeve stepped out from the front row of the crowd and shouted, "I call to challenge! The name Wolf shall be mine!"

A stir swept through the crowd as Elson shouldered his way forward. He was at the upper limit of the eligible ageframe. What he said surprised me. I even saw the Wolf raise an eyebrow.

"I support the challenge of Maeve. I withdraw."

Voices roared in agreement.

Tolling his bell for silence, the Loremaster called for other competitors. MechWarrior Jovell stepped forward and shouted, "I withdraw from the challenge." Lydia came forward and said the same, then Harold, his broad Elemental shoulders square, withdrew as well. One by one all the contestants advanced up the steps, announced their withdrawal and retreated back to the crowd.

For a long minute, the Loremaster waited. The word spread through the amazed crowd. Never had an Hon-orname gone uncontested.

"You must finish the ritual," the Loremaster said to Maeve.

"I call to challenge!" she shouted. Her expression was in turmoil. I knew how much she wanted the name, and I knew she was prepared to fight for it. She wantedto fight for it.

But no voice rose in challenge.

Maeve shouted for a third time. "I call to challenge!"

And again no one spoke.

"Let it be known that none stand to contest Maeve," the Loremaster said. He called her to the podium. Once she was at his side, he addressed her, "Maeve, you are the sole contender in the ageframe of Alpin Wolf. None are willing to oppose you for the name. You are Wolf."

The cheers and chants of "Wolf! Wolf!" boomed and echoed across Harlech. Maeve stood stunned by the roar of approval. I stood silent as well. Only I and one other knew how truly she had been named.

* * *

Under Commander Jaime Wolf and General Maeve Wolf, the Dragoons have been reorganized in both lifestyle and military force, taking full advantage of what we learned from the infighting that almost destroyed us. Our units are well under-strength for our new table of organization because we lost many who could not accept the new order. Their departure weakened us, but the effect is only temporary. We have new recruits in training and new sibkos on the way up. All will be carefully, and fully, made to understand that we are something new. The Dragoons are not just mercenaries, not just warriors, we are a family. The Wolf Pack nickname has become popular with astonishing rapidity, sticking even as Maeve had predicted it would.

Until we reach full complement, we'll make do. And why not? We're all veterans now. The Dragoons are tougher and stronger than ever. We started as the best the Inner Sphere had ever seen, and we have become better. To my thinking, we're hardier and more skilful than any of the Clans. What can we do now except keep on getting better?

The Hiring Hall is open again, friends.

The Wolf Pack is on the prowl.

Glossary

CULTURAL/POLITICAL TERMS

After the fall of the Star League General Aleksandr Kerensky, commander of the Regular Star League army, led his forces out of the Inner Sphere in what is known as the first Exodus. After making their way beyond the Periphery, more than 1,300 light years away from Terra, Kerensky and his followers settled in a group of marginally habitable star systems near a large globular cluster that hid them from the Inner Sphere. Within fifteen years, Civil War erupted among these exiles, threatening to destroy everything they had worked so hard to build. In a second Exodus, Nicholas Kerensky, son of Aleksandr, led his followers to one of the worlds of the globular cluster to escape the new war. It was there on Strana Mechty that Kerensky first conceived and organized the system that would one day become known as the Clans.

Though Wolf's Dragoons originated among the Clans, they have repudiated their allegiance to the Wolf Clan. Nevertheless many Clan traditions, concepts, and customs still prevail among the Dragoons, as described below.

BLOODNAME

The Clans have approximately 760 Bloodnames. These are the surnames of the 800 warriors who stood with Nicholas Kerensky during the Exodus Civil War. These warriors were the first contributors to the elaborate eugenics program by which the Clans create their elite warrior caste in each generation. A warrior earns the right to bear one of these surnames only if he succeeds in a series of grueling competitions known as the Trial of Bloodright; only twenty-five warriors are permitted to bear any one Bloodname at a given time.

When one of the twenty-five Bloodnamed warriors dies, a Trial is held to determine who will assume that Bloodname. A contender must prove his Bloodname lineage, then win the Trial of Bloodright against the other contenders. Only Bloodnamed warriors may sit on the Clan Councils or are eligible to become a Khan or ilKhan. Clan Bloodnames are determined matrilin-eally, at least after the original generation. Because a warrior can only inherit from his or her female parent, he or she has a claim to only one Bloodname. Forty of the original 800 Bloodnames were eliminated after one of the Clans was annihilated for committing a grievous crime against the Clans as a whole.