Xyly gazed down at the sleeping man on her desk, and tried to ignore the buzzing of her pad.

She was never totally sure what she felt for Nonull. It was a sort of love, but not the sort of love that they write about in poetry. It was possessive, destructive, a malevolent force that was breaking them both.

She had told herself that when they stopped with the assassinations, and moved on to rebuilding her father’s empire, that things would change. That they would gain some measure of solace. That she would feel better. But the assassinations were in the past, and the thought of moving forward left her empty.

The pad started buzzing again, and she finally gave in and answered it. “What do you want,” she said.

“If you can meet, I’d like to discuss an offer for you to work on a project,” said an older man on the other end of the line.

“Not interested,” she said. “I’ve got my own project to work on.”

“I’m sure, but this is a potentially lucrative project,” the man continued. “Very important to my investors. You have no idea.”

In spite of herself, Xyly asked, “Exactly how important are we talking?”

“Well, the last project we hired you for was for four thousand credits. This one, I’m authorized to spend up to twenty-five thousand.”

The logical side of her mind, the part that was no longer flesh and blood, quickly calculated that the Ҧ25 million she was being offered was as much as she and Nonull had earned in all their work so far.

Whoever this was, they really, really wanted them dead.

“All right,” she said, “I’m in South Svek City….”

The man interrupted her, and what he said made her stomach drop.

“I am outside your apartment,” the man said. “I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

The call terminated. Xyly paused just for a moment, then grabbed a blaster. Taking a look back at Nonull, she headed out to the street.

* * *

Of the many paths this conversation could have gone down, this was not the one Rixie had expected.

Rixie had gone to Pryvani to discuss the article in Ganas; Rixie had been planning to ignore it, and if asked, simply reply that she didn’t care what bigots said, but it occurred to her that while that would work for Iron Maiden, it might not work for someone rumored to be a princess. She figured if anyone would know how to work the media, it was Pryvani, so she had gone to see her, and almost immediately, Pryvani had detoured the discussion down quite a different path.

“I really must insist, darling.”

“Insist all you want.” Rixie responded stubbornly. “I will not accept a bodyguard.”

“Rixie, be reasonable.” Pryvani sighed. “Whether you like it or not, you’re a part of the royal family, and at least some people must have figured it out – and thanks to Ganas, even people who don’t know for sure wukk think you might be. Like it or not, makes you a target.”

“I can handle it!” Rixie snapped irritably. “It’s not like I’m incapable of defending myself.”

“Don’t misunderstand me, darling.” Pryvani smiled gently. “I still would bet on you in any fight that’s one-on-one. Well…provided they didn’t have a stun baton at any rate.” Rixie glared at Pryvani, but it did nothing to dent the latter’s serene expression. “But,” Pryvani continued, “like it or not, my dear, you are no longer twenty-five.”

“Rude!” Rixie gasped.

“I merely speak the truth, dear.” Pryvani laughed. “So, again, while I would bet on you in any fair fight… someone intending to kill you will not fight fair. You. Need. A. Bodyguard.”

Rixie crossed her arms and glared at her employer, still feeling stubborn. “Absolutely not. I do not need a bodyguard. I am the bodyguard.”

Pryvani shook her head. “Not anymore you’re not.”

Rixie snorted derisively. “What are you going to do, Pryvani? Fire me?”

“Of course not.” Pryvani smiled serenely. “I’ll just have to promote you.”

Rixie blinked, the confident look on her face wavering. “…Excuse me?”

“Oh yes.” Pryvani continued. “I do own a lot of different companies, after all. I’m sure there’s bound to be one or two that have a vacant presidency. You’d be absolutely perfect for that!”

Rixie shuddered as visions of conference calls, investor meetings, and inter-departmental memos floated through her head. Still, she wasn’t ready to give in. “Do… do your worst.” She growled through gritted teeth.

Pryvani’s eyes narrowed. She leaned forward. It was time to play dirty. “All right, fine.” She pressed a button on her pad and the holographic emitter flared to life, throwing colored streams into the air between them. It began to resolve into an image.

“What….” Rixie muttered in confusion, before her eyes widened. She found herself staring at an image of her own daughter. “Pryvani…what are you doing…?”

“Now just imagine something for me dear. Look at this face and imagine having to tell her that something happened to Alex. Or Ryan.”

Rixie sucked air through her teeth. “But…”

“Now imagine Alex having to tell her that something happened to her mother.”

“That’s…that’s low, even for you!” Rixie grimaced.

“Look at her face, Rixie!” Pryvani snapped. “Look at her face and tell me you could do that to Alex. Do that to her.”

“I….but.…” Rixie’s resolve was cracking. She could feel it.

“Look. At. Her. Face!”

“No!” Rixie shook her head. “Damn it! I yield! Okay?! You win!”

Pryvani turned off the hologram and sat back in her chair, a satisfied smile on her face. “I always do.”

Rixie stared sullenly for a good long moment. “So what company do I have to go run?”

“Oh, your position is not changing,” said Pryvani with a smirk. “You’re too important to waste as a divisional CEO. No, you will remain my head of security. But you’re off the front lines. Think of yourself as a navarchos. You direct. You put people in place. You give them orders. And then you let them do their jobs. You don’t do it for them.”

“Aerti Bass was a navarchos,” Rixie grumbled.

“And Prince Antero gave his life up on Tau Ceti. There’s always a point when worse comes to worst. And like I said, I’d bet on you in a fair fight, and I’d usually bet on you in an unfair one. But Aerti didn’t throw himself and Niall at the Insectoids until he had no other choice, because he was too important to the fight. You are a phenomenal bodyguard, Rixie. But you are too important to risk. And you have been for quite a long time, long before you were Princess Hyrikken.”

“I’m still not sold on that name. ‘Riksa’ is okay, but Hyrikken….”

“If by some chance you end up Dronung, you can take a different regnal name. I’m sure Alex would have some ideas.”

“I’ve already vetoed Dronung Xena.”

“As well you should.”

Rixie finally turned her eyes upward to meet Pryvani’s. “I didn’t want this. I don’t want this. I don’t need to be the VIP behind the wall of meat. This isn’t me.”

“But it is, dear,” Pryvani said, stepping toward her. “Not ‘Princess Hyrikken,’ she’s not the important one. Rixie Carey is. And you have been for a long time. I should have demanded this years ago. But I knew you would not want to step back; you are fiercely loyal and as brave as anyone I have ever known. And you would have traded your life for mine, and been glad to make the sacrifice. And I know that more than worrying about having a bodyguard, you are worried about what happens if you are not on my wing.”

Pryvani put her hand on Rixie’s shoulder. “I am not worth your sacrifice, Rixie. The risk to me goes up when you are not defending me, how could it not? But….”

Rixie was surprised to see her boss and friend fumbling for words, to see her choking up. This was not something that Pryvani did. But Pryvani recovered, and said, “Rixie, it would be a grave wrong for you to give your life for mine. This universe needs you in it more than it needs me.”

“That isn’t true, not at all,” Rixie said. “I know it needs you, I think the universe might end if you weren’t in it. But if you think it needs me, I’m pretty sure it needs both of us. So I guess I’d better make sure we’re both guarded well, right?”

Pryvani smiled wide. “Spoken like a navarchos.”

Rixie sighed. “Okay, well, it’s not like I haven’t let Madag Hintho run point before. He’s good. I’ll promote him to Active Lead (CEO) – I’d want to give him director-level pay, so….”

“There are places to watch credits, and places to spend freely; good talent is worth good money. And that goes for anyone else you want to promote; I know that there will be something of a chain reaction.”

“Thanks. As for me…I can justify having some company protection, given my title, but…I’m not sure if that would cause problems with me,” Rixie winced, “being a princess. I mean, is this an ethical violation or something?”

“I am unsure,” Pryvani admitted. “I doubt it. Indeed, I would imagine you will be eligible for protection by 1^st Corps. I doubt they’d mind if you also use Tarsuss Corporation resources to add additional protection – and if they do mind, well…it wouldn’t be the first time I threw my weight around to get my way.”

“Annoyingly true, boss,” Rixie said. “But even if you’re right…going with 1^st Corps right away…would basically be admitting that I am the princess, and even with the Ganas story out there…it’s Ganas. Unless my mom planted the story, they don’t know this for sure, they’re trying to smoke me out. It’s best if I stick to my plan, which was to keep a low profile, just fly in normally on the Pygmalion.”

“Fly in normally, yes,” Pryvani said. “But they’ll be watching for any of my ships. And you should still have a bodyguard in place, even if one designed for a low profile.”

Rixie frowned, then sighed. “Okay. I think I know exactly who to talk with.”

* * *

Xyly exited her apartment building and saw him immediately. He didn’t immediately appear to present a threat; he was old and battered, bearing a robotic right hand – a cheaper model, one you might get if you were on an off-the-grid colony or a poorly-maintained warehouse ship, with a power pack attached to it. He also sported artificial eyes, set behind a mop of gray hair and a gray beard that only covered some of the scars that crisscrossed his face. He nodded as he saw her, and pushed himself off the wall he leaned against.

“You won’t need the blaster you grabbed,” he said, as she drew near. “I’m not the one you have to look out for.”

“You’ll forgive me if I don’t take you word for it,” Xyly replied. “How did you find me?”

The old man chuckled. “Did you honestly think they didn’t know who you were, Ms. Krasis? Where you were? Oh, certainly the couriers who worked with you didn’t – they don’t rate that kind of knowledge. But the people who hired you most certainly know who you are. And who your associate is…or rather, what he is.”

“I find that highly unlikely,” Xyly said, shivering in the cold. “I don’t think they’d be doing business with me if they did.”

“Ms. Krasis, the people who’ve been paying you are quite clear on the talents and the capabilities of humans. They wouldn’t view them as a threat if they weren’t. If he is happy killing for them, then they are happy to pay you and him. They don’t know exactly what method you use – but they will leave that your trade secret. Given your background, I’m sure it’s a concoction of your own devising. You are your father’s daughter, Fanira.”

“Fanira Krasis is dead,” Xyly said, pointedly. “And I didn’t catch your name.”

“Ah, well…I have gone by many. The first name I went by…he’s dead too, I suppose.” The man paused in their walk, and turned to her. She could see his scars clearly now; it was evident that however they’d been made, they had been sealed up none-too-carefully.

He turned to her, and noting that she was staring, he smiled.

It was not a pleasant smile.

“Take a good look,” he said. “Do you know how I got these scars?”

“No,” she admitted.

“Pryvani Tarsuss gave them to me. Indirectly, of course, she would not be so gauche as to give them to me herself.”

“Why…why would she do that?” Xyly asked. The old man shrugged.

“I made the mistake of trying to take some humans off her world. She viewed that as an insult. She sent me to the Overseer, knowing I owed them several million credits. She did not expect me to survive. Neither did I.”

The man took a deep breath. “Now, they ate my eyes. And they were…not careful about how they got them out of me. But it was determined that I might be of some value to someone else, someone who put up enough money on my behalf that I only lost my eyes. The same person who ultimately is paying you. Do you know where the money’s coming from, Polydix?”

“I….don’t know, honestly,” Xyly said. “And don’t really care.”

“Oh, you should. You really should.”

The man started walking again, and said, “The target is Rixie Carey. She is almost certainly an heir to the Carba Throne, and even if she isn’t…well, it is the considered opinion of everyone involved that our benefactor will be happy to see her dead. After all, Carey is the one who put her in prison.”

“Put who in prison?”

“Syon Fand.”

Xyly had been walking up until that point, but stopped. The man laughed, as he turned back to her. “Oh come now. You didn’t think this money was coming from small donations from people who dislike humans, did you? Before she was arrested, Syon managed to squirrel away about sixty million credits. And it was invested well. A nest egg of almost a quarter billion credits now. You have been working for Syon Fand, my dear. And you know what that is?”

“What?” Xyly asked.

“It’s an insult to Pryvani Tarsuss.”

* * *

“Anyhow, I’m willing to negotiate, but I’ll pay; if it’s too much, Pryvani can float me a loan until I can free up some investments. I know it may interfere with your plans….”

“I…it’s not…you’re a princess?”

Rixie sighed. “I mean, not on purpose. I….”

“No, I just…I’m sorry, I’m having a hard time getting my mind around this,” Liss said. “Why us? I mean, there are more reputable couriers out there. And why not just call in the Space Exploration Corps?”

“Pryvani trusts you, and so do I,” Rixie said. “So no, I’m not sure there are. And even though they think they’ve figure it out…there’s no way they know they’ve figured it out. My plan is to head out early, get into Naesavarna, and lay low. Pryvani’s fleet won’t go anywhere near Jotnarherath. I want them thinking that they’ve screwed up, that they got it wrong. And if they do figure out I’m on Jutuneim, I want it to be too late to organize anything. And if they do, well…that’s why I want Karral on point.”

Liss nodded. “And if they do attack…I mean, Karral can bring a few people, but if you’re trying to keep a low profile….”

“Oh, I get it, there’s risk. But there’s risk if I go in too big, too. I don’t know the peacekeepers that Rajenlif is going to arrange for me. I don’t know if any of them are paid off, and I don’t have time to check. I know the people Karral has working for him are checked out by Xele; I trust Xele, at least on things like that. Doesn’t mean I let her know my bank account numbers….”

“Xele wouldn’t steal from you,” Liss said. “We’re all well-aware that Pryvani would be angrier about that than us stealing from her. And I’m not stupid enough to cross Pryvani again. Once was too many times.”

Rixie nodded. “Like I said, Liss, you’re smart, and I trust your ability. Can I hire the Akelois? And how much will it cost me?”

Liss smiled. “First…standard rate from me, can’t speak for Karral but I’m sure he’ll agree. And I’ll waive the expedite charge. And I don’t need anything up front. You’re good for it, Pryvani would make good if you didn’t, and probably Jotnarherath would make good if she didn’t. Second, yes, but not the Akelois. I just bought a ship that is perfect for what you’re asking. More room for passengers, and faster, too. Jeju Aztar class. Just off the line.”

“You…actually bought a ship to replace the Akelois?” Rixie asked, shocked.

Liss laughed. “No, no, I’m never going to get rid of the Akelois, they’ll bury me in that thing. But I bought the WV White Shaar is going to be my fleet’s flagship, and…well, it’s my fleet, isn’t it?”

* * *

“So before you decide whether to take this job, you need to understand,” the man said, “that there are two people in this universe who you never cross. The first is Pryvani Tarsuss. The second is her mother, your employer. You have already crossed Pryvani. You dare not cross Syon.”

“You’re saying I don’t have a choice,” Xyly said.

“You don’t,” the man replied. “And that’s why I’m here personally, to let you know that you don’t. I know what you’re planning. I ran some errands for your father; brilliant man, and you’re his daughter. You want to rebuild his empire. If you turn me down…well, you won’t be able to get a cubic milliunit of soki onto the street. If you take this job…believe me, you will be rewarded. The money is the start. A quarter billion buys a lot of influence. And we will be very happy to have an ally well-positioned in the Interior.”

“Still…I’d be crossing Pryvani Tarsuss. And the Dronung,” Xele said.

The old man laughed. “You think you haven’t? Tursas Sjedi was Rajenlif’s cousin. Ljied Umbas was Tarsuss’s cousin. Look at my face, and tell me – do you think they’re going to be as kind to you as they were to me? You have a neural stabilizer. Do you think that Tarsuss doesn’t have people who can use that against you? She’s the patron of Dizmona, you know.”

Xyly looked at the man, and said, “I need to know your name. Not your current name. The first name, of the man who is dead now. And I need to know how we’re getting to Jutuneim.”

“Margu Peten,” the man said, holding out his artificial right hand. “And you’re riding with me.”