filling in.

"At Grank, we have two ships. One is the _Northern Lights_, sister
ship of the _Northern Star_. The other is the cruiser _Procyon_, the
only real warship on Uller, with a main battery of four 200-mm guns.
How King Yoorkerk was able to get control of those ships I don't know,
but there will be a board of inquiry and maybe a couple of
courts-martial, when things get stabilized to a point where we can
afford such luxuries. As it is, we need those ships desperately, and
as soon as he gets in, I'm sending Hideyoshi O'Leary to Grank with
the _Northern Star_ and a load of Kragan Rifles, to pry them loose.
The audio-visual of which this is the last scene is going to be one of
the crowbars he's going to use."

"Oh! I get it!" Her eyes widened with pleasure at having finally
caught on; she accepted the cigarette and the light von Schlichten
offered. "Good old _nervenkrieg_!"

"Yes. A little idea I adapted from my Nazi ancestors of four hundred
and fifty years ago. Hideyoshi's going to treat King Yoorkerk to a
movie-show. Want to bet he won't loosen up and release _Procyon_ and
_Northern Lights_ and unblockade the Grank Residency after he sees
that shot of Firkked's head leering at him off the point of that
overgrown asagai? As I said, that's only the last scene, too. I've
been having scenes shot all through this fight; some of them are
really horrifying."

"But why did you have to fight Firkked yourself?" she asked. "You took
an awful chance, with two hands to his four."

"Not so awful, remember what I told you about the physical limitations
of Ullerans. But I had to kill him myself, with a sword; according to
local custom that makes me King of Skilk."

"Why, your Majesty!" She rose and curtsied mockingly. "But I thought
you were going to make Jonkvank King of Skilk."

He shook his head. "Just Viceroy," he corrected. "I'm handing the
Spear of State down to him, not up to him; he'll reign as my vassal,
and, consequently, as vassal of the Company, and before long, he won't
be much more at Krink either. That'll take a little longer--there'll
have to be military missions, and economic missions, and
trade-agreements, and all the rest of it, first--but he's on the way
to becoming a puppet-prince."

Half an hour later, a large and excessively ornate air-launch,
specially built at the Konkrook shipyards for King Jonkvank, was
sighted coming over the mountain from the east. An escort of
combat-cars was sent to meet