Systematic. Routine. Too much time left to think about the chain of chance that had brought VII Gemina here, point ship in a war no one understood but that looked likely to persist for years. VI Adjutrix's data had been incomplete.

There were a hundred gas giants, as reported, but VI Adjutrix had failed to mention the other species the colonial creatures dominated.

The Guardships focused on the methane breathers, but the other side's dying was done by subject species. WarAvocat hoped that with continued fleet successes the subject races would shift allegiances.

All this because VII Gemina had stumbled over a krekelen shapechanger.

WarAvocat smiled gently. Some House had set that up hoping to grab a Guardship. They had enlisted Outside help without realizing what they were getting. They would have lost VII Gemina instantly had they taken it.

The artifact crossed his thoughts. What had become of her? Had Haget caught the Ku? The Ku haunted him.

The new Haget was a staff officer with one of the ridership squadrons. Klass was in the pits, an apprentice Twist Master. The civilians were in storage.

Space behind VII Gemina turned purplish. The barrage pounding the fortress had sparked a self-sustaining Hellspinner reaction.

So damned tired. He really should consider stepping down.

— 100 —

Lupo asked, "Are you stupid, Szydlow?"

The Canon legate dropped the hand he had begun to extend.

"Five months ago we told you you would be given dockage only if you invoked Article Ninety-One. You did. But Ninety-One wasn't written to support the ambitions of itinerant bureaucrats. We've soaked you the limit for dockage and service fees, and we've refused you exit from your Traveler. No one will take your calls."

Szydlow sputtered.

"Don't sit down. I didn't invite you. We haven't been subtle. We don't want what you're selling. Go away. Stop taking up dock space. Your credentials have been rejected. You have no immunity. If I offed you, the Chair would pardon me." Lupo produced a hairsplitter. "Whump. The asshole quotient of the universe drops a point. Goodbye, Szydlow."

"I shouldn't have threatened him. I don't let people provoke me."

The Valerena said, "You don't scare his kind with threats. You frame them for child molesting. Bad press deflects career trajectories and destroys retirement points."

"Hoo! Should have thought of that. Frame him, try him, give him twenty years on a labor gang. I'll do it if he makes a pest of himself."

A year fled. Canon legate Szydlow returned to Capitola Primagenia. An expected tide of commerce raiders came and receded. The War had no impact on the lives of most people and little upon commerce. House Tregesser noticed it because Provik spent fortunes keeping track.

He suspected the Guardship fleet had gotten bogged down. The Ku agreed. Big doings near Starbase suggested the deadlock would be broken soon.

Then three Outsider humans walked into Lupo's office.

He had expected that since VII Gemina issued its fleet directive.

He gathered the usual group. Blessed brought a recovered Cable Shike and had his new Other listen in.

Two of the Outsiders were lean, slight, with narrow skulls. Their features were sharp. They were dusky. Their hair was a glossy black. They wore it identically. Their eyes were a startling blue. They wore black. They seemed emotionless. Lupo guessed them to be in their thirties.

The third man, twenty years older, shared their height, hair color, and eyes, but weighed more. His clothing was stark but would have drawn second glances nowhere in Canon.

Two announced him as "Gif the Hand, Voice Appointive to the Godspeakers of the Shadowed Way, Master of A Hundred Torches." When Lupo lifted an eyebrow, she added, "Don't ask me. The clown said to introduce him that way."

Gif the Et Cetera snapped, "You're an arrogant and obstreperous breed." His speech had an odd cadence. "The Godspeakers directed that you be disabused of false notions of who is master."

Those two men were fast.

Two shot one through the arm. The Ku caught the other by the back of the neck, lifted him overhead. Cable Shike placed the snout of a hairsplitter under Gif's chin. Two's man looked more astonished than hurt. She gestured for him to get down on his face. He refused.

She blew his brains out.

Lupo said, "Mind telling me what other lessons you have, Gif?"

Gif looked at the corpse. "That's impossible."

"If you say so. So. The Guardships are kicking butt and they're getting desperate out yon. They sneaked you in to twist our arms."

"Grace of the Godspeakers, the Guardships have been stopped. The counterattack will begin soon."

"The Godspeakers those things that look like a puddle of raw guts?"

"Soon you will speak of them in pure terror."

"I doubt it. Your bosses smell the fleet getting ready for the killing push, which is why you're here. But House Tregesser won't go down with you."

"You have no choice. There's your role in the ambush of three Guardships."

"Right. And if we help we'll harvest wonderful rewards."

"Yes."

"Liar. Gif, your side won't win. Unless I let it."

Gif gave him a bug-eyed look.

"The Guardships are going to squish those gut piles till there aren't any left. Then they'll stomp whoever worked for them. You ought to be trying to cut a deal with the fleet."

"You are an enemy of the Guardships."

"Sure. And before that I'm an agent of House Tregesser. You're only offering a chance to trade an unpleasant status for something worse. Why do you think we'd be willing? Two, take friend Gif to Research. Send somebody to clean up."

Two left. The Valerena said, "You're sure about this?"

"It was a high risk mission for them. So on the record they didn't get through. Right? It'll be months before they're sure the mission failed."

Events Outside prevented the appearance of another mission for a year and a month. The second followed the routine of the first. Tregesser security invaded the Hauler that brought the envoys. A methane breather was found in what should have been a refrigerated hold. They killed it. There were witnesses. The incident had to be reported.

The raids started a month later. Every Tregesser system suffered at least one. A new level of pressure. None of the raids did serious damage. The Ku had had two years to prepare.

— 101 —

VII Gemina took no part in the operation that broke the deadlock. That was the greatest strike ever launched. Ten Guardships assailed the world where the methane breathers had evolved.

They thought highly of it. They shielded it with an unimaginable array of war machines. It took the Guardships six months to clear those and sterilize the planet.

Till then no Guardship had been lost. In that struggle seven perished.

In the end, Guardship soldiers stormed and captured a huge orbital fortress. They degraded its orbit. Four Guardships hammered it with Hellspinners till a self-sustaining reaction started. They let it go down to start a world afire.

There were no offers of surrender, no pleas for an armistice. Plainly, the struggle would go on for years.