“To hire you again, of course.”

  I explained at length about Morwyn and Dernel and their plight.

  “Another invasion? This kind of thing has to stop.”

  I shrugged. “That will take a war. A vast war of the kind none of us have ever seen.”

  He eyed me. “Are you talking about going all the way to the Chain? That’s madness.”

  “No, it isn’t. How else can we win? These aliens have already consumed perhaps a hundred human colonies in the Chain. If we don’t push back, they’ll keep coming here until they wipe us out.”

  “So peaceful coexistence is out of the question, huh?”

  I leaned back and downed my beer. “I think so. At least, not without a lot of bloodshed first. We’re talking about an alien species, not another pirate band of humans next door.”

  “You might be right. Damn… I’d hoped it wouldn’t go so far as that. What do you want to say to the governor when you meet him?”

  I blinked twice. “Meet him?”

  “That’s right. This ship has been underway back toward the inner planets since you came aboard.”

  “Ah… so I’m being kidnapped? Is that it?”

  “If you like. Your crew is trailing us, by the way, in that speedster you coated with ice. A nice move, that. It almost fooled me. If I hadn’t been expecting you—”

  “What are we going to do on Flamberge?”

  “I’m talking about what you are going to do. You’ll meet the governor, you’ll impress him, and you’ll help me get him to attack these aliens. I told him all about you. He wants to talk, to hold a council meeting. Are you in or not?”

  His voice was full of menace. Trask was used to being obeyed. He was often violent when anyone around him showed too much independent thinking.

  I forced a smile. “I’d be glad to meet this governor of yours, Trask.”

  He clapped me on the back and downed another beer. “I knew it! You’re a wild one, Gorman. A vicious fighter who loves battle almost as much as I do. You should have been born a Sword Brother rather than the clone of a two-bit smuggler. Let’s go up to the bridge.”

  He stood up and walked out. Faced with few options, I followed him.

  Chapter Nine

  Trask’s goon-squad followed right behind me. I ignored them. Henchmen were like guard dogs—it was important not to show fear.

  The baron led me up to the ship’s bridge, where an impressive array of unsavory officers slouched in chairs and drifted about the place.

  Suddenly, the gravity snapped back on. Most of the goons stumbled, and a few fell flat on their faces. Trask laughed. “We only had it turned off to make you easy to capture, Gorman—in case you were infected, that is.”

  The crew didn’t look like they’d enjoyed his joke—but no one complained. They didn’t dare.

  Trask waved me to the central console. A holographic display shimmered above it. The planet known as Flamberge was depicted in miniature. The image was only about the size of a man’s head, but it showed fantastic detail.

  Unlike Gladius, it was a cheery planet full of green forests, sparkling seas and rugged mountains. All those mountain ranges… the world must be frequently torn by tectonic shifts or impacts by objects from space.

  Trask made a spreading motion with his fingers, and we zoomed in. The planet suddenly filled an area several meters across.

  “You see this mountain range here? That’s called the World’s Spine. Most of the planet’s population lives up there, several thousand meters above the sea. At sea level the planet is lovely but too hot to get much work done.”

  I nodded. The world was larger than standard, and it had a higher pressure atmosphere than most. I knew that much from what I’d read on Royal Fortune’s atlas database. Walking those beaches required some ear-popping adjustments to cope with the pressure.

  “We’ll land here at the governor’s mansion,” Trask said, poking at the region known as the World’s Spine. “He’s a friendly man—unless you cross him. In that case, you’ll be dead before you notice his smile has faded.”

  “I’ll be sure to operate with the utmost integrity.”

  “Good. Now, let’s get our stories straight, shall we?”

  I blinked at him. “How so?”

  “Well… we both know that I demanded an opportunity to attack the Tulk personally at Barnard’s Star, right?”

  Anyone else’s instinct would have been to either laugh or launch into an angry tirade. The truth of the matter was Trask had shown considerable reluctance to face the enemy in person.

  But I understood the game. Baron Trask had boasted, telling a pack of lies to the governor. I was quick to realize it wasn’t the truth that mattered, but our political standing.

  “Of course,” I said. “I remember the moment well.”

  Trask smiled. “Very good…it’s important that our memories dovetail perfectly.”

  He reached out to his glowing sphere again and tapped the imaginary surface. The computer interpreted the gesture correctly, and a communications channel was opened.

  Governor Varrick eyed us sternly. He was a relatively thin man with a long tapering beard. Unlike the bulky men from Gladius, he seemed to be wiry and cunning rather than brutish and hulking.

  “Lord Trask?” Varrick demanded. “Why are you bothering me now, man? Do you have some fresh tale of a planet overrun by rabid badgers?”

  “Not at all, Governor Varrick. I’m here to introduce Captain William Gorman.”

  The governor swung his gaze in my direction. “That’s Gorman, huh? He’s even less impressive in person.”

  “But he’s the best runner in the region, sir. I’d stake my reputation on it!”

  “You already have... and you have precious little in the way of reputation here, Trask.” After eyeing me intensely for several moments, Varrick waved for me to speak.

  “Governor, I can be of use to you. I’m dedicated to stopping the aliens that are invading human worlds from the Faustian Chain.”

  “Which aliens? I’ve heard there’s more than one species involved...”

  “Yes, that’s true. There are the Tulk—and the others. The others come in a variety of strange forms.”

  “I wouldn’t believe you if I hadn’t seen the evidence myself. A dozen knight-captains had to be put down. Such a waste.”

  “Knight-Captains?” I asked. “Is that all you found?”

  Varrick shrugged. “That’s right. A few of their crewmen succumbed as well. Now that we’re clear of the infection, Baron Trask wants us to focus on his home planet.”

  I glanced at Trask. He nodded in return, but he said nothing. He was letting me carry the day.

  “Let me ask one other question, Governor. Did anyone else turn out to be in the employ of the Tulk?”

  “I already told you that!” Varrick boomed. “Didn’t you listen? We lost knight-captains and a few others… that’s all.”

  I nodded and kept on smiling. “I just wanted to be sure, sir. Thanks for the confirmation.”

  “Good. I don’t like to repeat myself. Further, I won’t deal with a man who doesn’t dare meet me in person. Therefore, I require you to come to my nest and land here. At that point, we’ll forge our bargain.”

  “Agreed, Governor!” Trask said, even as I opened my mouth to object. “We’re already underway.”

  I slid my eyes to him, then back to the governor. I forced a smile. “It will be an honor, sir.”

  “Good. I’ll see you both in thirty hours’ time.” So saying, he leaned forward and switched off the feed.

  Trask breathed a sigh of relief. “The man is difficult to like—but he has total authority here.”

  “Can we talk in private, Lord Trask?”

  He eyed me for a moment, then nodded. We retired to a cabin, and Trask tossed the door shut in the faces of his bodyguards.

  “What do you want, Gorman?”

  “Don’t you think it’s a little odd that he wants to meet us in person? That he insists upon it?”

  “Nonsense. You’re a fool to question him, Gorman. He’s essentially a warlord, ruling an entire planet of warriors.”

  “I get that, but he said only a few knight-captains were infected. What about the higher lords? The barons, the counts—”

  “I’ve been here for months. I believe the infection has been stopped. Is that good enough for you?”

  I made a show of considering it. At last, I nodded. “I’m sure you would have detected any odd behavior on the governor’s part by this time.”

  Trask smiled approvingly. “All right then, it’s time for you to leave me in peace. My men will assign you a cabin until we make planetfall over Flamberge.”

  “I’d prefer to stay aboard my own ship. It is still trailing us, isn’t it?”

  His smile soured. “Yes, but you’ll remain here as my guest until we reach the planet. I insist.”

  Shrugging, I stood up. Trask watched me, but he sat still. I moved to pass him by—and fell on him.

  At first, my movement appeared to be an accident. However, a sharp object, a stylus that I’d stolen from the bridge, led my fall. I jabbed it into his guts—on the correct side, of course.

  Baron Trask hissed in pain and rage. Then, he appeared to have a seizure. His eyes rolled up into his head, his mouth opened into a perfect O, and he wheezed foul breath.

  I drove the stylus deeper, stabbing in random spots, spinning it around—the Baron continued to shake and even his bladder let go. He pissed his pants and slumped over the table we’d both shared.

  A moment later, the cabin door crashed open. Several angry crewmen aimed shredders at me. I moved so that my body was directly in front of Trask. If they shot me—they’d very likely hit their captain as well.

  Baring their teeth, they rushed forward to grapple with me. I braced myself, expecting death or at least a rough beat-down. After all, I couldn’t hope to kill them all with a stylus.

  “No…” rasped a voice from behind me. “Leave him be… stand down.”

  Confused, the guards stopped their headlong charge.

  “Are you deaf?” Trask demanded in a strengthening voice. “We had a disagreement, a simple matter of lost honor. Don’t embarrass me further by interrupting.”

  Confused, the two guards shrugged and backed out. They waved their guns at me meaningfully as they left. If Trask turned up dead, I was sure, they would resolve our “disagreement” in a manner I wouldn’t enjoy.

  Straightening my spacer’s suit, I sat opposite Trask again. He winced in pain and lifted bloody fingers from his abdomen.

  “Did you have to swirl it around so much?” he asked.

  I shrugged. “I wanted to be sure.”

  Trask laughed, coughed, and laughed some more. He applied a smart-bandage to the wound, something that everyone in his service carried at all times.

  “How did you know I was a Tulk?” he asked while he worked on his bloody side.

  “Back when we first met—you jabbed me on the wrong side. That wasn’t an accident. If I was a Tulk, you didn’t want to kill your brother.”

  Trask nodded and continued to fuss over his bleeding gut. “This will take some nano-surgery to fix,” he complained. After a few minutes, he leaned back in his chair and sighed. “Thanks for killing my Tulk.”

  “No problem. I’m sure you would have done the same earlier if you hadn’t been infected yourself.”

  “I would have—but with even more digging of the tip and a bigger smile on my face.”

  We both laughed. He seemed to understand that I’d done the right thing.

  “You know…” he said, “being under an alien influence was… bizarre and unpleasant. Now that I’m free of the beast I find that I want to kill them all.”

  “An understandable but unlikely goal.”

  “Don’t I know it… So, what are we going to do now?” he asked.

  “About Governor Varrick, you mean? He’s obviously carrying a Tulk.”

  “Of course.”

  I frowned at the table between us. I placed the stylus there, and a trickle of blood ran from the sharp tip and across the surface of the table. “I’ve got a plan—in fact, I’m just coming up with it now.”

  Trask laughed painfully. “If Varrick is infected, there must be others. What do you think you’re going to do? Jab him and all his apes in the belly one by one? If that’s your plan, I’m out. I’ll take this ship to the next system and try my luck there.”

  “I don’t think we’ll have to. Let me tell you why I’m really here.”

  Trask listened, and his bloodshot eyes widened as I spoke.

  Chapter Ten

  “You’re insane, Gorman. I always knew it, mind you, but today you’ve confirmed all my worst fears.”

  “Hold on, Lord Trask. I was right about your state of mind today, wasn’t I?”

  “Yes, of course. You knew I had a Tulk in my guts, and you knew how to kill it. But this…”

  I heaved a sigh. “I get it. The topic is alarming. Most people prefer to hide from a real problem rather than solve it.”

  “Hmph,” Trask grunted. “You’re calling me a coward, aren’t you?”

  “Not at all. I’m calling you normal.”

  Trask glared at me for a moment. “You’re telling me you want to meet with the enemy and make a proposal? Do you really think you can tame an army of monsters?”

  “I’m telling you I spoke to the hive creature back on that space station we took over at Ceti. In its own twisted way, the Tulk wanted to help us against an even greater alien invasion.”

  “And you believed it?” Trask laughed, but his laugh turned into a coughing fit. He spat up a glob of blood. “Damn it, did you scratch my lungs?”

  “Uh… looks that way.”

  Grumbling, Trask heaved himself up and headed for the medical bay. He slapped away my hands when I tried to help him.

  I followed the bleeding old pirate down to the operating booths. He plugged himself into an autodoc box and hissed unpleasantly while the machines worked on him.

  “I’ll get even with you for this, Gorman.”

  “I have no doubt of it, Baron.”

  He refused any anesthetic, which impressed me. I guess showing weakness—such as admitting you were in pain—in front of a crew of Sword Brothers might result in an early “retirement” for a pirate like Trask.

  “All right,” he gasped after a time. “I can talk now.”

  As the robot removed the final scraps of the dead Tulk, Trask still winced and lurched his head now and then, but looked at me steadily enough. Needles and sutures flashed in the mechanical hands working on his injured gut. It was enough to turn my stomach, but I tried not to show my dismay. I guess I’d really done a number on his belly.

  “Let’s discuss how we’re going to talk one of his kind into being reasonable,” Trask said, when he could speak easily again.

  “It won’t be hard. They truly fear the Skaintz—that’s what they call these multi-formed aliens—more than they do us.”

  “I get that in theory—but then why are the Tulk invading our space?”

  I had to think about that one. He had a point. If they were at war with an enemy from the Faustian Chain, why were they so determined to leave their home star cluster and come to the Conclave?

  An answer struck me, but I didn’t like it much.

  “What if the Tulk are losing?” I asked. “What if they aren’t invading our territory, but instead, they’re being chased out of their home stars—retreating.”

  Trask looked up at me with squinched-up eyes. “You might have something there. That would make them refugees. A very special type of invader.”

  I paced the deck around him, thinking hard. “In nature, many species flee an area when their old habitat is destroyed. It’s not an uncommon situation. ”

  “All right. Let’s call them refugees. Does that make you a bleeding heart? When we killed them, were we doing the work of our real enemy? That’s what you’re trying to get at now, isn’t it Gorman?”

  “Yes, I guess so. We need to hold truce talks. We need to work together.”

  “Why?”

  I told him then of Morwyn’s world. Of an oasis in the middle of a desert of stars. A place between the Conclave and the Faustian Chain.

  Despite sweating and cursing in pain as I spoke, Trask listened closely. “So… the enemy really is at our gates. And you claim this enemy is much worse than the Tulk?”

  “I do. You know what happened at the Sardez system, right?”

  He glanced at me. “I’ve heard the rumors.”

  “They’re more than stories. I’ve seen the creatures out there with my own eyes. I've killed a few.”

  “Do you have any samples of their flesh?”

  I shook my head, and he hooted. “Very convenient! How do you expect us to fight invisible monsters with no DNA left behind to back up your story? You do realize how all of this sounds, don’t you, Gorman?”

  “Listen, something killed everyone at the Sardez system, and the Tulk are here for a reason. Morwyn’s people have been struggling with this ancient enemy for years. I believe in them—and you will soon.”

  “How so?”

  “I’m going to prove it to you.”

  Trask left the autodoc machine and staggered away from it, cursing my name and my family with each painful step. I took him to my ship over the loud complaints of his crewmen.

  They were unruly pirates by nature, but Trask kept a strict leash on them. He was allowed to go with me to my vessel.

  My crew was just as alarmed when we showed up and began rummaging through the ship’s computer files. At last, I found the vids Jort and I had made while struggling with a shrade.

  “A nasty ball of muscle,” Trask said. “It has no hands… and it looks like an intelligent snake. It can’t even hold a gun. Is this all we’re up against?”

  “Sadly, no. This is probably their least deadly form.”

  “Hmm... “

  By the time we were done reviewing what little evidence I could show him, Trask was willing to listen.

  “There’s a certain intellect in that thing’s movements, and those alien eyes…” he said, “ they give a man a chill.”