"Yes, your highness." The servant bowed and turned away.

A familiar gravelly voice spoke from behind them:

"Ah ... an unscheduled little meeting, I see!"

It was Narf, anger on his face, already within the doorway as the
servant went out it.

"We were going to talk about the Space Guard," Lyla said in an
emotionless tone. "Lieutenant Hunter has promised to show how Space
Patrol methods will improve it and--"

"By a coincidence, Sonig and I were discussing military matters only a
few minutes ago," Narf said. He looked at Hunter. "I'm afraid that Sonig
and I agree that the Terran Space Guard is quite out of date, now.
_The_ fighting force of the galaxy is the Verdam's Peoples Guards."

Narf spoke to Lyla, "You may go ahead and talk with this lieutenant if
you wish to, but it's a waste of time. I'm arranging to have Sonig send
Peoples Guards officers here to supervise the rebuilding of the Space
Guard.

"And now"--there was insinuation in Narf's tone as he spoke to
Hunter--"I have to give Sonig a demonstration of my skill with weapons.
He insists on it--he has heard of several of my modest feats."

Narf left the door open behind him so that by turning his head as he
walked, he could see the two inside.

"I suppose I might as well go," Hunter said.

Lyla did not answer. She sat motionless, staring unseeingly before her,
and he wondered if she was thinking of how very soon Narf would be king
and his authority as great as hers.

She did not notice when he quietly left the room.

* * * * *
* * * *

Rockford was waiting in the cabin, still in the easy-chair.

"Well," Rockford said, "what do you think of her?"

Hunter tried to keep the personal dislike out of his coldly formal
reply:

"If you refer to your suggestion that I not make love to her, sir, I can
assure you that such a suggestion was never necessary. I happen to have
a code of ethics."

"I didn't say 'make love'. I said, 'fall in love'. That's quite ethical.
Did you complete your discussion with her?"

"Well ... no."

"You must do that this afternoon, then. Can't let anything as important
as that be delayed."

Hunter stared at him, trying to find one small grain of sanity in
Rockford's actions. The Verdam empire already had Jardeen within its
grasp, and Vesta, and the end for Earth was inevitable. And Rockford
slept, and drank beer, and regarded it as very important that the Vesta