"Not really," I said. "The thing is, when you took out our satellite with your ship, that meant the satellite couldn't signal a skip drone we had out there. That drone was programmed to skip only if it didn't receive a signal. Where it went, there were some skip-capable missiles waiting. Those missiles popped into Roanoke space, found your ship and killed it."

"Where did the missiles come from?" Eser demanded.

"It's difficult to say," I said. "The missiles were of Nouri manufacture. And you know the Nouri. They'll sell to just about anyone."

Eser sat there and glowered. "I don't believe you," he finally said.

I turned to Jane. "He doesn't believe me," I said.

Jane flipped me something. "It's his communicator," she said.

I handed it to him. "Call your ship," I said.

Several minutes and some very angry screees later, Eser flung his communicator into the dirt. "Why haven't you just killed me?" he asked. "You've killed everyone else."

"You were told that if you left all of your soldiers would live," I said.

"By your secretary," Eser spat.

"Actually, she's not my secretary anymore," I said.

"Answer my question," Eser said.

"You're worth more to us alive than dead," I said. "We have someone who is quite interested in keeping you alive. And we were led to believe that turning you over to him in that condition would be useful to us."

"General Gau," Eser said.

"Right you are," I said. "I don't know what Gau has planned for you, but after an assassination attempt and a play to take over the Conclave, I can't imagine it will be very pleasant."

"Perhaps we—" Eser began.

"Let's not even pretend we are going to have that conversation," I said. "You don't get to go from planning to kill everyone on the planet to cutting a deal with me."

"General Gau has," Eser said.

"Very nice," I said. "The difference is that I don't believe you ever planned to spare any of my colonists, while Gau went out of his way to assure that they could be spared. It matters. Now. What's going to happen is that I'm going to hand this translation device over to my wife here, and she's going to tell you what to do. You're going to listen tc her, because if you don't, she won't kill you but you'll probably wish she had. Do you understand?"

"I understand," Eser said

"Good," I said, and stood up to hand the translation to Jane. "Jam him into that cargo hold we use for a jail."

"Way ahead of you," Jane said.

"We still have the skip drone set up to deliver a message to General Gau?" I asked.

"We do," Jane said. "I'll send it once I get Eser squared away. What do we want to tell the Colonial Union?'

"I haven't the slightest idea," I said. "I suppose when they haven't gotten any skip drones for a couple of days that they'll realize something has happened. And then they'll be pissed off we're still here. I'm inclined at the moment to say 'screw them.'"

"That's not a real plan," Jane said.

"I know, but that's what I've got at the moment," I said. "In other news, holy shit. We pulled this off."

"We pulled it off because our enemy was arrogant and incompetent," Jane said.

"We pulled it off because we had you," I said. "You planned it. You pulled it off. You made it work. And as much as I hate to say this to you, your being a fully-functional Special Forces soldier made a difference."

"I know it has," Jane said. "I'm not ready to think about that yet."

In the distance we heard someone crying.

"That sounds like Beata," Jane said. I took off toward the sound of the crying, leaving Jane to deal with Eser. I found Beata a couple hundred meters later, hunched over someone.

It was Kranjic. Two of the Arrisians' bullets had hit him, in the collarbone and in the chest. Blood had soaked out into the ground beneath him.

"You dumb son of a bitch," Beata said, holding Kranjic's hand. "You always had to chase a story."

She leaned over to kiss his forehead, and to close his eyes.

"You know you can't stay on Roanoke," General Gau said.

I smiled and looked across at him in the tiny conference room of his flagship, the Gentle Star. ''Why on earth not?" I said.

Gau paused for a moment; the expression was new to him. "Because you survived," he said, eventually. "Because your colony survived, no doubt to the surprise and irritation of the Colonial Union. Because you gave the enemy information vital to his survival, and because you accepted information from him vital to yours. Because you allowed me to come here to retrieve Nerbros Eser. Because you're here on this ship now, talking to me."

"I'm a traitor," I said.

"I didn't say that," Gau said.

"You wouldn't say that," I said. "You're alive because of me."

"Fair point," Gau said. "But that's not what I meant. I meant you're net a traitor because your allegiance was to your colony. To your peoole. You've never betrayed them."

"Thanks," I said. "Although I don't think the Colonial Union will like that argument much."

"No," Gau said. "I don't expect they would. Which brings me back to my original point."

"What are you going to do with Eser?" I asked.

"My current plan is to put him on trial," Gau said.

"You could just throw him out of an air lock," I said.

"That would give me a great deal of personal satisfaction," Gau said. "But I don't think it would be good for the Conclave."

"But from what Zoe tells me, you've started making people give you personal loyalty oaths," I said. "It's just a short jump from that to having the right to space those who annoy you."

"All the more reason for the trial, wouldn't you say," Gau said. "I would prefer not to have had the loyalty oaths. But apparently there's only so much humility people will take out of their leaders, especially when their leaders have had their fleets blown out from under them."

"Don't blame me," I said.

"I don't," Gau said. "Whether I blame the Colonial Union is another matter entirely."

"What do you plan to do about the Colonial Union now?" I asked.

"The same thing I originally planned to do," Gau said. "Contain it."

"Not attack it," I said.

"No," Gau said. "All the Conclave's internal rebellions are tamped down. Eser isn't the only one facing a trial. But I think it's clear to the Colonial Union now that the Conclave is not easily eradicated. I'd hope they wouldn't try to break out of their box again."

"You haven't learned much about humans," I said.

"On the contrary," Gau said. "If you think I'm simply going back to my old plan, you're a fool. I'm not planning to attack the

"I could do that," I said. "But only three humans wouldn't be enough."

"The Conclave would still be happy to admit the Colonial Union," Gau said. "Or any of the individual colony worlds. Or even just Roanoke."

"I don't think tha: idea will get much traction on Roanoke," I said. "Or with the Colonial Union. And as far as the individual colonies go, I think they're still officially in the dark about the Conclave."

"Yes, the Colonial Union's informational stranglehold," Gau said. "I have to tell you that I've given very serious thought to skipping satellites orer the Colonial Union worlds and simply blasting down a data stream on the Conclave until the satellite is shot down. It wouldn't be efficient. But at least then the Conclave could be heard."

I thought about that for a moment. "No," I said. "A data feed wouldn't do."

"Then what would you suggest?" Gau said.

"I'm not sure yet," I said. I looked directly at Gau. "General, I may want to propose something to you."

"What is it?" Gau said.

"Something big," I said. "Something expensive."

"That's not really an answer," Gau said.