ur Excellency."

Cortin chuckled, amused at the man's insolent tone.

"Excellency--" Odeon said behind her, sounding angry.

"Take it easy, Captain," Cortin said, smiling. "He doesn't know any
better." She studied the Imperials for a moment, then said, "But I
should caution you that my team is more protective of my position than
I am myself, Captain DeLayne. It would be wise not to agitate them
unnecessarily."

DeLayne stood silent, and Cortin nodded. He wasn't going to carry on a
conversation, lest he inadvertently give her some information he didn't
want to--but he wasn't reckoning with her truthsense. She didn't want
to go to extreme measures with him unless she had no other choice--he
wasn't a criminal, after all--but she did need some basic information,
and yes-or-no questions would give her that whether he cooperated or
not. "Were you looking for our worlds in particular?"

No answer, of course, but his reactions were clearly negative.

"No. All right." She turned to the troopers guarding the Imperials.
"How far into our space did they get?"

"We caught them a parsec from St. Michael, Excellency. They sent off a
message shortly after we came into sensor range, before we could
destroy their transmitting antennas."

"Damn. So the Empire knows we exist." Cortin sighed, not bothering to
hide it.

"What's so bad about that?" a young Imperial asked. "There's no reason
to be afraid of the Empire!"

"Shut up, Conley!" DeLayne ordered.

"I don't think she ought to," Cortin said quietly. The other members
of her team were entering by then, replacing the regular troopers.
"Miss Conley--I can't read your rank insigne, to use your proper
title--although my second in command disagrees, I believe we have every
reason to fear an Empire we fled from some four centuries ago because
our religious views were condemned. A number of conditions we've
encountered since, causing changes in our way of life, can only make
that condemnation worse, possibly--even probably--causing persecution
that would wipe out the Kingdom Systems. Three ships held us then;
now, we don't have enough to carry a tenth of our population to safety."

"Should you be telling them that, Excellency?" Odeon asked.

Cortin shrugged. "What can it hurt, Captain? They weren't looking for
us in particular--but they did send off a message, so more Imperial
ships will be coming. Which could doom most of our people, whether I
talk to these