“Yes. They’re intelligent and deadly.”

  “If we show this to Governor Varrick, do you think he’ll deal with us?”

  I shrugged. “It’s worth a shot.”

  Trask eyed me thoughtfully. “But if he doesn’t... we’ll be dead—or worse, I’ll be his slave again.”

  “I’ve got an idea in that department as well.” I told him my idea, and he grinned. It was a grim expression, with no mirth in it. “So, we’ll go in as terrorists, eh? But will we be bluffing?”

  “With luck, we won’t even have to make any threats.”

  Grunting, Trask stood up. I could tell his sutures were painful. “Give me a few hours. I know which of my crewmen are infected with Tulk. I’ll remove them one by one. When I’m done, we’ll set our course and move on to the next step in the plan.”

  “You’re agreeing to do things my way then?”

  Trask glowered. “I’m willing to give it a shot. But make no mistake, I’m still in command here!”

  I spread my hands widely. “Not a problem. You’ve got a much bigger ship than I do.”

  After that, Trask sent me back to my ship via the docking tube. I climbed painfully out of it, still holding my injured side. It had begun stinging again.

  “Are you hurt?” Rose asked immediately.

  “I’ll be fine,” I said, facing my very curious crew.

  “You were gone for a long time!” Jort complained. “I wanted to fire on that ship, but Sosa begged me not to.”

  “I never beg for anything,” Sosa objected.

  “Okay, okay, fine,” Jort returned. “You pleaded with me. I will accept this description.”

  I stopped listening to their bickering and left the bridge. I had to fix up my guts. After a few minutes in the medical bay, I was still burning inside, but I was no longer worried about internal bleeding or getting an infection.

  Rose had followed me into the bay, and she fussed over me excessively. If anyone else had been around, I would have stopped her. Since we were alone, I let her do it.

  “That man, Trask—he’s awful, William,” she told me. “Why did we come here? It’s madness.”

  “Maybe so, but he’s the only man I know who’s familiar with these aliens and who can field an army at will.”

  “An army? We’re going to war, then?”

  “Absolutely. That’s why you recruit an army in the first place, isn’t it?”

  Rose put a gentle hand on my shoulder. I looked up at her.

  “William, we’re supposed to be smugglers, remember? Not soldiers. We provide weapons so others can sort out their differences with them.”

  I snorted. “It’s not so clear cut this time. Aliens have taken over an entire world out here—one of the Sword Worlds no less. There are nine planets in this society. What if the Tulk have half of them—or all of them? Do you think they’ll sit here contentedly?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “All right. Let’s take another logical step. Why do you think they came here first?”

  Rose shrugged and removed her hand from my shoulder. “I guess… I guess to neutralize some of our best fighters out here on the Fringe.”

  “Exactly.” I pointed a finger at her and stood up. My side hurt a bit, but I ignored it. “The Tulk found out about the Sword World troops when we drove them out of Ceti. After failing at Baden and Ceti, they went for Gladius. That’s their first victory—that we know of.”

  Rose looked worried. “You think they might be busy taking other planets?”

  I shrugged helplessly. “Maybe. How can we know? What I’m certain about is the fact we have to stop them—and not just by force. I think we need to give them a new direction to go. A reason not to continue.”

  “You’re talking about Morwyn’s planet, right?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Have you talked to her about it?”

  “Talked to me about what?” Morwyn asked from the doorway.

  Rose and I both eyed her for a moment, and then I waved her into the room.

  Rose seemed to find this offensive. “I’ve got to go check on some equipment.” She left quickly.

  Morwyn’s eyes followed her. “She doesn’t like me, does she?”

  “Why would you say that?”

  “Because she always runs out of the room when I enter.”

  I couldn’t come up with any happy bullshit to cover for that, so I changed the subject. “Hey, Morwyn, there’s something we need to discuss. We’re not going to be able to hire Trask and his troops immediately. We’re going to have to do a little legwork first.”

  “Legwork?”

  Confused, she slid one of her shapely blue-skinned legs out from her loose clothing. I hadn’t even known she could do that. My eyes were drawn over the length of her calf—I couldn’t help but look.

  Maybe that’s what she’d planned all along. It was hard to tell with Morwyn. She seemed innocent one moment then conniving the next.

  “Ah… no, I didn’t mean we were doing something to our legs. I meant we’ll have to do things the difficult, thorough, methodical way.”

  “I don’t know of any other approach.”

  “Excellent. Let’s go talk to your father about it.”

  I led the way to their private cabin. Dernel was behaving oddly, as was often the case. He had constructed several large frozen objects. I squinted my eyes and puzzled over them.

  “Don’t touch the effigies!” he exclaimed as I drew close and ran my hand over the ice. It was indeed large pieces and blocks… if I wasn’t mistaken, they were somewhat man-shaped. As if they were ice carvings, things created to look like a man’s body.

  “Did you make these? They’re so detailed. I even see the faint traceries of veins and body hair… so odd.”

  “There’s nothing odd about making an ice body-cast of oneself before anointing and blessing the most important man aboard.”

  “A body-cast? Seriously? But it’s not to scale…”

  Dernel pursed his lips. I could tell he’d had about enough of my complaints about his odd ways—but I didn’t care.

  “How did you do it? I mean… how did you make a miniature cast of your body with ice?”

  He shrugged. “It was a simple matter. I found a field-generator designed to protect a human spacer from radiation. After wetting down my appendages, I simply exposed one limb at a time to outer space using the airlock. The water coating froze immediately, I reapplied a thicker coat each time until satisfied. A computer scanned the entirety, and once it had finished, it was simple to use the frozen shells as molds and—”

  “All right. I shouldn’t have asked. But I’m puzzling over one thing—I only see your arms and legs here. Where are the… ah… more sensitive bits?”

  Dernel pouted. “The process is painful and somewhat dangerous, I’ll admit. I was only able to endure exposure to my extremities thus far. Frostbite is a serious matter. Perhaps with a further bout of deep meditation and—”

  “Look, Dernel, whatever you’re doing will have to wait. We’ve got a bigger problem to discuss.”

  Dernel almost looked grateful to have an excuse to abandon his project. He listened avidly to my tale about the Tulk being present aboard the Baron’s ship.

  “The aliens are right here? Why don’t we kill them?”

  “Because… I think we’re going to need their help.”

  I explained at length to both Morwyn and Dernel. They appeared thoughtful when I’d finished. Dernel’s icy castings dripped on the deck, but no one seemed to notice.

  “So… the Tulk are possible allies? Against the Skaintz?”

  “Yes. That’s what I believe. I’ve talked with them about it in the past. They want nothing more than to destroy the aliens that drove them from the Chain. They’ve come here to escape them, in fact.”

  “What about the humans living on the colonies the Tulk are fleeing?” Morwyn asked. “There must be a hundred planets… surely, they aren’t all lost?”

  I shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know. Maybe the Tulk does—or maybe they don’t. They’ve never told me.”

  Everyone was disturbed, but at the idea of diplomacy, the two Vindari were easy to convince. They wanted to talk to the Tulk. After all, if we could form an alliance with them—even temporarily—humanity’s odds would be greatly improved.

  I signaled Trask that our ship would follow his, and that my crew had signed on to the idea of speaking with the local governor. This wasn’t entirely true, of course. Jort and Sosa were in a state of near rebellion—but they could be bent to my will. I was their captain, after all.

  As the doctor bot worked, stapling and gluing the skin under my ribs, I felt the ship lurch and shudder under me.

  We were following Trask’s ship down to Flamberge.

  Chapter Eleven

  Flamberge was a jewel of a planet. Emerald forests, sapphire seas—it was as lovely as Gladius was stark.

  There were steep mountain ranges and deep, deep oceans between them. The mountain ranges formed islands that shot up into the sky. It wasn’t uncommon to find an ocean trench ten thousand meters deep a few kilometers from a row of mountain peaks ten thousand meters tall.

  Our ship’s navigational encyclopedia explained these geographical features by saying the world was a young one, fresh from the early turbulence of the star system’s formation. Great collisions with massive meteors had combined with a highly active tectonic system unlike any I could recall seeing.

  As a result, the place appeared to be both perfect and horribly flawed. There were frequent trembling earthquakes and tidal waves, both of which might strike at any time with very little warning.

  “It’s like a cracked piece of glass,” Rose said. “It’s lovely but dangerous at the same time.”

  “Like you!” Jort said loudly.

  Everyone glanced over their shoulders at him in confusion. Rose was, after all, easily the least dangerous person aboard Royal Fortune. She’d been raised on a planet that was ignorant of crime and especially violence. Even deceit came with difficulty to people like her.

  Jort grinned at us all like a hopeful dog. At last, I got it: he was trying to compliment Rose, to flatter and possibly flirt with her. Never mind that it was a miserable effort, I felt sorry for him, so I laughed and covered for him.

  “Well played, Jort. Very funny!”

  The rest of my crew chuckled politely, but they seemed confused. At last, they all turned back to their consoles.

  “Take us down to that mountain range on the largest island. They call it the World’s Spine.”

  “Sounds charming,” Sosa told me, but her voice didn’t carry any enthusiasm with it.

  We slid into orbit, waited for permission, then dipped down into the atmosphere. As we did so, Sosa put her hand on top of mine.

  I eased off the guiding jets and looked at her questioningly. “What is it, Sosa?”

  “This is our last chance. Once we enter their atmosphere, we won’t be able to outrun their weaponry, or the ships that still ride high above us in orbit.”

  “What would you suggest, then?”

  “Let’s ditch this place. There are seven more Sword Worlds to choose from. Let’s find one that hasn’t yet met any alien invaders. They’ll give us the troops we want, and we’ll be on our way.”

  I shook my head. “We need more troops than we can buy with a few loads of weapons. This is going to be a larger campaign. We need support from an interested party.”

  Reluctantly, she lifted her hand from mine. I pushed the stick forward, and we began a steep descent into the atmosphere. We were committed now.

  “Gorman!”

  A voice squawked on a private channel. It was Baron Trask.

  “What is it, Lord Trask? I’m about to go down to the—”

  “I’m not sending my ship down there. You’ll take me with you aboard your vessel.”

  I hesitated, becoming concerned. Had his officers had the same sort of conversation Sosa had just had with me? Maybe Sosa had a stronger point than I’d imagined.

  “Gorman? Can you hear me?” Trask continued. “Release an emergency docking chute. I’ll come aboard, and I’ll ride down with you.”

  I frowned at the console, but after a long moment’s hesitation, I eased back on the reentry jets. Reaching out a finger and thumb, I flicked a recessed switch. Unlike most of the controls that operated through touchscreens, this rarely used control was physical.

  “What are you doing?” Sosa asked.

  “Take the helm. Keep her steady.”

  I climbed out of my seat and went aft. Jort gaped at first, then scrambled up to join me. He wasn’t going to allow me to face possible danger alone.

  “It’s a bomb, isn’t it?” he asked me as we traveled down various shafts to the rearmost airlock. “He’ll grab our tube and insert a bomb. It will fall down here like a warhead in a pipe—straight into our ship!”

  “Jort, if Trask had wanted to destroy this ship he could have done so at any moment over the last forty hours. He has a half-dozen cannons that—”

  “But that is proof of his genius! Our defenses are down now. We can’t run or complain to others. We’re suspecting nothing!”

  Not bothering to argue further, I uncoupled some emergency gear and let it go out into the atmosphere. The ship didn’t shudder, as we weren’t that deep in the atmosphere—not yet. It was too thin out there still to cause much drag.

  “Thanks Gorman,” Trask said in my ear. “I’ll be right down.”

  Distractingly, Jort spelled the letters B-O-O-M with exaggerated movements of his thick lips.

  I did my best to ignore him. I waited until the indicator lights showed that something had entered the airlock. A few moments later the air cycled and the inner door automatically released when it was finished. All of this took just under a minute.

  Trask stepped aboard my ship. He looked warily at Jort, who was aiming a pistol at him.

  I pushed the muzzle of the pistol downward toward the deck.

  “Welcome aboard, Lord Trask. To what do I owe the honor of your arrival here?”

  “My crew… they didn’t want to land. I’ve been busy rooting out various infiltrators, you see. Several of my key officers had been compromised. I tried to keep it quiet, but… the crew found out.”

  My eyebrows shot high. “It was a mutiny then, Baron?”

  “Nothing so dramatic. When I insisted that they follow my orders to descend, I was informed that I could return to Flamberge on my own.”

  I nodded, trying not to point out this sounded exactly like a mutiny to me. I could see the opportunity clearly in my mind. Every Sword World leader lived at the sufferance of his underlings. If they ever felt he was leading them into a suicidal situation, anyone with ambition among them might take command in his place.

  “In any case,” I said, “we’re honored to have you aboard, Baron.”

  Trask nodded and lifted his nose a trifle higher. We walked together back to the bridge. There, Trask took a seat with the passengers. He studied Morwyn with interest.

  “Take us down into the atmosphere now, Sosa.”

  With a surly expression, she did as I ordered. We felt the ship shudder and lurch as the pressure on the stubby wings grew more intense. The heat-shields were getting a workout as the thickening air currents buffeted the outer hull.

  Soon, twin contacts rose up from the ground to meet us.

  “Two high atmospheric fighters,” Sosa said. “They’re going to escort us down.”

  “How charming,” Dernel remarked excitedly, but no one bothered to correct him.

  Soon, one of the deadly aircraft appeared on each of my ships’ wings, and they didn’t bother to signal us in any way. They just hugged up close and wouldn’t get off my wings. I pretended it was all normal to calm my crewmen.

  Sosa, being our navigator, complained continuously—but I didn’t listen. As the commanding officer, I had better things to do. The primary one of these was to convince Varrick to allow us to land safely.

  “Governor,” I said loudly to a blank screen. “Please confirm our meeting. We’re descending now and—”

  The screen flickered. A holographic head appeared. It was Varrick himself.

  “Why has the other ship broken off and returned to high orbit? What treachery is this, Gorman? Be it known to you and all your crewmen, I won’t allow a suicidal attack to strike home on my ground base. Already, I’ve retreated into a bunker deep inside my mountain fortress. Not even a fusion warhead—”

  This couldn’t be Varrick talking. It was clearly the ravings of the paranoid Tulk. Either way, signals lit up all over my ship’s bridge.

  “Tracking sensors are hitting us with long-range target-locks, sir,” Sosa told me. “Lidar, gravimetrics—the works.”

  On the holotank, we saw the governor shift in his seat. “My missiles are being deployed. You’re too close now to escape. Will you submit to my demands, Gorman? Or will you be destroyed?”

  “Whoa, whoa!” I laughed. “Governor, the only trouble here was with Baron Trask’s crew. They refused your generous invitation. Trask himself, however, is with me.”

  I tilted the camera pickup to show Trask in the back of my bridge.

  “This is highly irregular,” Varrick complained. “I ordered both your ships to come down.”

  I shrugged. “Well sir, you should know better than anyone that the Sword Brothers have minds of their own.”

  Varrick grumbled for a minute or so longer, but at last he ordered that we be allowed to land and enter his fortress without delay.

  We landed a few minutes later. A paranoid color guard of frowning pilots met us at the bottom of my short landing ramp. Only Trask and I exited the ship, then the ramp whirred its way back up and snicked closed.

  “Sosa is taking no chances, eh?” Trask laughed at me. “Looks like you might have a mutiny of your own to worry about in the near future, Gorman.”

  “She’s a cautious one, that’s true.”

  While Trask joked at my expense, we walked down into a wide tunnel. As we entered Varrick’s lair, each step seemed to thicken the sense of doom I felt.