"I suppose I do not fully understand ComStar and its relationship with the Clans. Explain, Demi-Precentor."

Truit signed, as if the question had come up too often for her liking. "Do you wish the lecture I give to school children?"

"No, the short version is fine. Give me, say, the kind of precis you deliver to your own superiors."

Truit nodded. "Centuries ago ComStar was founded as an administrative arm of the Star League to maintain the vast interstellar communications network that made it possible for a single government to rule over the three thousand inhabited worlds of the Inner Sphere. It was no more than a minor bureaucracy until the young First Lord Cameron died and the usurper Amaris claimed the mantle of First Lord of the Star League."

"And then the great Aleksandr Kerensky led the Star League Defense Forces to crush the usurper Stefan Amaris. You tell me nothing new, Demi-Precentor," Aidan interrupted.

Truit looked at him calmly. "If you are to understand ComStar, you must understand the conditions of our birth," she said. "And, yes, as you state, General Kerensky crushed Amaris, without the aid or support of the League's other High Council Lords. With Amaris out of the way, the Council Lords met to choose a new First Lord from among their number. As you might imagine, each believed that only he or she was the fittest to don the mantle of the First Lord's power. The only point on which they could agree was the decision for General Kerensky to disband the Star League Army."

"The unity of the Star League was destroyed by the avarice of the House Lords," Aidan intoned, almost on cue. "But its heart was protected by the Great Kerensky as he led his followers into the blackness beyond."

Truit looked surprised. "That was very poetic, Star Colonel."

"Those are lines from The Remembrance,the chronicle of our birth and life as Clans."

Truit smiled and continued. "Again, as you say, General Kerensky led the Star League Army, your ancestors, out from the Inner Sphere, escaping from the civil war that erupted between the Great Houses of Steiner, Marik, Liao, Davion, and Kurita. That conflict has lasted several hundred years—what we call the Succession Wars. Only ComStar remained faithful to the vision that shaped the Star League. In fact we are the last surviving remnants of the League government here in the Inner Sphere.

"Jerome Blake, our first Primus, realized that the undreamed-of ferocity of the Succession Wars threatened to destroy interstellar communications as well as the very existence of human civilization. And so he proclaimed ComStar's neutrality, offering all governments equal access to the hyperpulse communications network in exchange for the promise that our facilities would remain inviolate. Thus it was that for some three hundred years ComStar has served as the neutral arbitrator between the Great Houses of the Successor States, as well as maintaining and protecting the precious knowledge that stands between humanity and the abyss of barbarism."

"Now you wax poetic, Demi-Precentor," Aidan said. "But how does ComStar view the Clans' return? Some on Quarell brand ComStar a traitor to the Inner Sphere. Does that not concern you?"

"The primary concern of ComStar has always been the survival of human civilization."

"But you are more than mere bureaucrats and communications specialists. You have military troops, and your organization holds Terra."

Truit seemed offended by Aidan's comment. "The troops are trained merely to defend the integrity of our communications facilities and to serve as a deterrent against aggression. Twenty years ago the Fourth Succession War almost brought the Inner Sphere down in flames. The leaders of the Great Houses seized some of our stations, and we had reason to believe that House Davion was preparing to attack Terra. We only armed ourselves out of sheer necessity. Fortunately the Com Guards have admirably fulfilled their mission of deterrence. They have yet to fight a major battle."

Aidan shook his head in puzzlement. "A curious custom, that. Warriors who cannot war. It is unnatural."

Truit's new smile was somewhat sly. "There are those among ComStar's leaders who might just agree with you. Privately, of course."

"And you are one of those, Melanie Truit?"

"I am not allowed to say, as you well know."

"If ComStar is so neutral, why do you collect the bondsmen from the villages for us?"

"If I am ordered to obtain bondsmen, that is what I do," Truit said matter-of-factly. "My work is to administer the planet's affairs, but I may not violate the customs and rules of those whom I serve, especially when I am doing my job for conquerors."

"Conquerors who, from a certain point of view, are practicing a slave trade?"

"You must understand, Star Colonel, that some people would prefer not to be slaves. They might like to be a warrior, like you, but not a slave."

"Most of them do not have the bloodlines to be good warriors," Aidan said."But as bondsmen, they would have a chance to prove their abilities, and some might actually achieve warrior status. It has happened that a freeborn bondsman has done exactly that."

"I must accept your word on that, Star Colonel, for there is still much about the Clans that I do not know. All I am trying to explain is that it is not strange for the people of Quarell to object to being taken by force, thrown first into a DropShip and then into a JumpShip, to be taken away back to the Clan worlds, wherever that may be."

Aidan knew that Melanie Truit was fishing for information on the location of the Clan worlds—a fact in which ComStar was very interested—but he made no reply. During this whole conversation, Horse had been providing him with updates on the Vreeport crisis, through messages transmitted onto the screen of Aidan's personal monitor. Seeing that events were heating up, he reopened communications with Joanna.

"Do you have a link with the insurgents?" he asked.

"Well, one of them seems willing to talk to us. In fact, he has not stopped talking since we opened a line. He apparently has some kind of bullhorn."

"Patch me into your commline," Aidan said. "I will speak with him over your external speakers."

"Done, Star Colonel."

"Commtech Caton!"

"Sir?"

"Set the viewing holo for the scene at Vreeport, and enlarge it. I want to see the rebel to whom I am speaking. I want to see every pore, every drop of sweat."

"As you wish, sir."

In the viewing area above the array of control panels in the Command Center there suddenly appeared the face of a middle-aged man with excessively red skin and an expression of slight bewilderment. He was staring warily over the top of the city wall, apparently at the quintet of BattleMechs arrayed against Vreeport. Aidan thought the man's thin, unshaven face and narrow eyes made him resemble an ice ferret cub, a creature that sometimes ripped open the throat of its own mother. Not a good omen for negotiation. Aidan could also see the sweat on the man's face. Indeed, it was pouring off his forehead in rivulets.

"This is Star Colonel Aidan Pryde of the Nega Garrison Cluster," Aidan announced. He could see by the man's startled reaction that Joanna must have turned the speakers up to full volume so that his voice would no doubt resound across the clearing, shaking buildings and unsettling eardrums. It was a good ploy and might help achieve Aidan's goal of ending this uprising bloodlessly.