eciding he'd better get back
to the bridge; the Koslov's Captain--Navy Lieutenant Inga Sanchez--
should have the pre-landing surveillance reports for him by now.

She gave him a rueful shake of the head as he entered her small bridge.
"It's peaceful as Terra down there, Jase. No trace of active weaponry,
no civil disturbances our sensors can detect, no fires involving
artificial substances--no nothing."

Thompson grinned. "Sounds good to me, Inga. What about news reports,
entertainment broadcasts, that sort of thing?"

Sanchez grinned back. "Just as normal, except for a couple of
oddities. The holos aren't carrying any 'casts of contact sports, and
on a talk show, one of the guests had fangs; the others were acting a
little nervous, but she was telling them how harmless she and the other
`Kins of the Dragon' really were." Sanchez touched a control on the arm
of her command chair. "Watch."

The Captain's monitor screen lit up to show several people seated in a
group of comfortable-looking chairs around a low table, and Thompson
repressed a chuckle. Talk shows seemed to be the same everywhere, he
thought--then one of the guests caught his attention. She was
attractive, wearing the uniform of a System Security officer--Chief of
Detectives, from her badge--except that she was more than slim, she
looked damned near starved.

"How do you feel about the Kins who were killed, Chief Kaufman, and
what do you plan to do with the ones who killed them?" a man--Thompson
guessed him to be the show's host--asked.

The woman shrugged slightly. "My personal feelings have no bearing; I
plan to deal with them as I would with any other murderers, how else?
I am an officer of the law."

"You don't have any desire for revenge? After all, the killings were
rather . . . unpleasant."

The detective chief grimaced. "Yes, they were. But I can't take
revenge, any more than I can feed on someone who doesn't want me to--it
should be common knowledge by now that Kins feel any pain we
deliberately inflict."

"But you can feed on someone who's not willing, or kill; Kins have done
it."

"We can, yes; I've killed in the line of duty since I became a Kin,
which was bearable because I knew that not killing would cause more
harm later. And I did try to feed on someone who didn't want me,
once--I suppose most Kins have--but I'd rather starve into coma than try
that again. Thank the Prince I didn't really hurt him, but I did feel
eve