All in all, it was very different than what any of them had expected.

“I do recommend this dish,” Lady Tarsuss said. “It’s called ‘Ravioli.’ It’s a version of an Earth dish.”

“It would be better if Titans had managed to pick up tomatoes on one of your visits to Earth. Huipippa gets close, but it’s still a bit spicy.”

“Well, I think it’s delightful, Alex,” Pryvani said. “And I think the three of you should eat! Honestly, you were just stunned, you should be hungry.”

“I’m…sorry, Lady Tarsuss,” Liss said, poking at her ravioli. “It’s just….”

“We’re a bit…well,” Xele added.

“It’s very good,” Vilum said. “We’re just wondering when you’re going to bring the hammer down on us.”

“Ah, yes,” Pryvani said. “Well, if I am going to, you should want to eat all the more. You won’t get a better last meal, I assure you!”

“I suspect that’s my cue to leave,” Alex said. “We’ll be back in a bit with dessert; Pryvani, you know how to get service.”

“Yes, darling, and Alex?”

“Yes?”

“Leave the cake. Bring the cannoli.”

Alex grinned. “Yes, Godmother,” he said, bending down and kissing Pryvani’s ring.

“’Godmother.’ Right.”

“You’re Ryan’s Godmother!” Alex said, with a wink. “And should you need a favor….”

“Out!” Pryvani said, with a laugh. Alex bowed slightly, and took his leave.

“So,” she said, after a moment, “did you notice?”

“Notice what?” Liss asked.

“If you’re referring to the holosuite, it’s amazing,” Xele said. “I haven’t seen anything this complex. It’s almost indistinguishable from reality. The programming load must be intense.”

“It’s not as bad as one might fear, or so I am told. But then, I have very good people in my employ. That is, indeed, part of what I wondered if you’d noticed. There’s another part.”

Liss thought for a moment, then blinked. “That was a human.”

“Indeed it was,” Pryvani said. “He’s a human from Earth. Alex Carey. One of my dearest friends, and a braver person than I.”

“A human is your personal chef?” Xele asked.

“Heavens, no! Alex is far too bright to be confined to simply cooking for me and my family. He’s the CEO of a restaurant chain that operates throughout the Empire, one I’m deeply invested in. It’s far from the most lucrative part of my portfolio, but it’s one of the most satisfying.”

“I should stop being surprised,” Vilum said, “Their military was professional and precise. They could have targeted us, killed us immediately. They targeted our collection devices, tried to subdue Xele without killing her. They had good unit discipline, and knew how to improvise – at least the soldier Liss worked with did. They were better-trained than some Planetary Defense units. And they’re running that on their own?”

“They are,” Pryvani said. “My security chief has helped in setting up some training scenarios – it’s hard for them to simulate a Titan, and pointless, given that there are some here who can help. But their organization is human, from the bottom to the top – indeed, beyond the top, their military answers to their government.”

“They have a functional government, a capable military,” Liss said. “They’re different than the pets in the Empire, aren’t they?”

Pryvani shook her head. “I thought so, when I was younger. But no, there are no significant differences between the pets of the Empire and the people of Avalon. We know this, because many of the people of Avalon began their lives as pets. What limits the pets in the Empire is not their ability, but their liberty.”

Liss looked down at her plate. “Emperor’s balls. And Margu wanted us to crash the Akelois into the city.”

“You would not have made it there. They called in once you surrendered. Rixie had the orbital cannons locked on you, and we were planning to follow you into orbit. Had you tried to attack Paletine, I expect they would have requested we take your ship down. And we would have, without hesitation.”

“Rixie…that’s your security chief? The Jotnar?” Xele asked. “Did she design the orbital defense?”

“Yes,” Pryvani said.

“Tell her it was amazing. I’ve never run into a system that protected. Anywhere.”

“Rixie is paranoid, which makes her very good at her job,” Pryvani said. “However, you very nearly made it through without raising any alarm, which has Rixie quite annoyed. I told her, though, that her system stood up to Dizmona. That’s no mean feat.”

“How did you know?” Xele said. “I mean, I know some people know, but I don’t…it’s not like I advertise on the newsfeeds.”

Pryvani leaned back. “I am quite a wealthy woman,” she said. “And that makes me a target of enemies from competitors to my own mother. I have managed to avoid catastrophe by doing something unusual: I pay attention.”

Pryvani looked at Xele. “A lot of people noticed Dizmona hacking into the New Trantor stock exchange. The chair of the exchange, for one, was quite annoyed with you. It shut down trading for two hours, and while it was seen as just a prank, it was still embarrassing. That was supposed to be an impregnable system. What if you’d actually tried to compromise data, instead of just posting some rude slogans?”

Pryvani smiled. “So yes, annoying. But no harm done. Or so they thought. What nobody seemed to notice was that after the attack, shares of six key Federation companies began to fall. Not significantly, mind you – not so much as to draw attention to it. But they have fallen steadily, in ways that do not track with their performance. And all six of those stocks are held in the publicly disclosed portfolio of Jota Cesil. In less than half a year, you’ve shaved three million credits off of his net worth.”

“I’d shave it all off,” Xele said, “but people would notice.”

“They would. Incidentally, having noticed this, I’ve bet heavily against those stocks, and made additional plays based on how their weakness would affect the market. Your hack has made me about one hundred million credits. I’d go stronger in, but I’d start drawing attention to your handiwork, and I wouldn’t want that; after all, hurting Jota Cesil is a noble cause.”

“Your mother…you know,” Xele said. “I heard she killed your dad, they say she wanted to kill you once she took your company from you. That’s worse than Jota. He’s just…he doesn’t care about me. Or my dad.”

“My mother, to borrow a phrase from an Earth movie, likes her evil turned up to eleven. But your father is probably more destructive to more people. I think neither one of us did well in that respect.”

“So you’re not going to turn me in?” Xele asked. Pryvani laughed.

“Turn you in? Goodness, no, no. You’re far too valuable. I want you to work for me. Not directly, of course. But as a contractor. You’ll have a company that’s yours, officially, focusing on cybersecurity. You can even freelance if it doesn’t interfere with my business interests. And I will spread the word – discreetly – that this cybersecurity expert just might be Dizmona – or maybe not? – but maybe! You’ll have plenty of work whenever you want it. I simply ask that when tell you to drop what you’re doing, you do so. I am always your highest priority.”

Xele blinked. “You…I….”

“Captain Peten,” Pryvani said, turning. “You are a very good smuggler. Too good. Your ‘White Shaar’ moniker is tied directly to you. I imagine that you can’t so much as sneeze at a port without six guards handing you a tissue.”

“I still manage,” Liss said.

“That is the remarkable thing,” Pryvani agreed. “You do. Your reputation is exemplary, and the Neith incident, well…that was Margu’s fault. He talked too big to one too many people. I’m sure he’s tried to blame your getting to Neith toward the end of the window as the reason the operation failed. He’s lying. The peacekeepers had him dead to rights, and were ready to move. You’re lucky you weren’t grounded already.”

Liss nodded. “I know,” she said. “I got tipped off by a friend on the ground there. Just in time, too.”

“Smart. Now, you know that I have some interests that are…well, not precisely legal,” Pryvani said. “Some of these interests I have inherited from my mother. I shut down the truly abhorrent ones, but there are several that I have kept going. Do you know why?”

“It has to pay well,” Vilum said.

“It does, but I don’t need the income,” Pryvani said. “I’ve made more on Ms. Cesil’s hack in three months than I have in the smuggling operations.”

“But it keeps you tied in,” Liss said. “To the community. You know…you get a sense of who’s moving what.”

“Information,” Pryvani said. “Like I said, I pay attention. I keep most of the transactions at arm’s length. But there are a few very rare ones that I cannot. A few, a very unusual few, that I must manage personally. These are, as you can imagine, very dangerous to my reputation. What I have needed, for some time, is a personal courier, one who can pick up the prototype that is stolen from a competitor and bring it to my people in the Kokinit Restriction Zone. One who can quietly move the stolen shipment of human pets to Avalon, no questions asked. One who can move a pallet of credit chits to a warehouse on Eighteenth-Colony-of-the-People without talking, and without one single credit out of place. Can you do that for me, Captain Peten?”

Liss blinked. “Lady Tarsuss, given what you’ve just told me…I have a feeling if I say no, I won’t be leaving this world alive.”

Pryvani smiled. “This is, as they say, an offer you can’t refuse.”

“Even if I could…I wouldn’t,” Liss said. “But I want Vilum.”

“Do you?” Pryvani asked.

“You do?” Xele said, at the same time.

“I need muscle. More than that, I need a co-pilot, and a guy who’s calm in a crisis. Plus, he’s a fellow Jotnar. We have to look out for each other.”

“The funny thing is, I was going to ask you to take him on in just that role. I suppose it would be odd for the son of Sarrahkka Vilum to be working for a Tarsuss, even indirectly, but I think you’d manage, Karral.”

Karral smiled tightly. “I doubt my mother considers me her son anymore.”

“You might be surprised,” Pryvani said. “Now, we haven’t discussed compensation, but I am willing to pay well for good talent, and all three of you are good talent. I’ll have an attorney draw up the business structure; you’ll actually meet her en route.”

“Okay,” Liss said. “Wait, en route where?”

“You’re going to take Margu to Kaol. And you’re going to deliver a message for me,” Pryvani said, taking a sip of wine.

* * *

“So it’s just geometry, then.”

“A lot more than geometry,” Vilum said. “Geometry is what you need to plot your course. Taking the controls is another matter.”

“So no letting her land,” Liss said. “Bierdna, you take us down.”

“I’d like to survive landing,” Karral agreed. “Not that we won’t have Xele ready to land eventually.”

“You will. All right, I’m going to check on our guests. Bierdna, you have the stick.”

Liss walked off the bridge of the Akelois, and hopped down the ladder. Kaol, for obvious reasons, didn’t have a nav beacon, but to be honest, Vilum was probably a better pure pilot than she was. Of course, there was a lot more to smuggling than just holding the stick. Just as he was trying to teach Xele how to pilot, she’d teach him about the best routes, the dead spots in the grid, the stations where a hundred credits could get your ship through inspection quickly.

She would do this because she thought he’d be a good second, and maybe, someone to run his own ship for her one day. This was different than the reason he was training Xele, which was mostly down to them being extremely attracted to one another.

Liss chuckled. She kind of hoped it would get back to the Federation that Jota Cesil’s kid was messing around with a Blueface. That’s the kind of thing that could give an old racist a heart attack. Hopefully.

“We’ll be landing in fifteen minutes,” Liss said to the woman sitting at the table in the common room. “Is there anything you need?”

The tall, smartly-dressed woman tapped at her pad. “No,” she said. “Though you do have breathing filters ready?”

“As I told you several times, Ms. Mirendy, yes, we have them ready.”

“Good. Good,” Yvenna said. “I take it you’re planning to check the cargo bay one last time?”

“I thought I would,” Liss said.

“Fair enough. The guards will need to remain on the ship, you know.”

Liss rolled her eyes. Lady Tarsuss had warned her that Mirendy might be a bit controlling; she said that the attorney didn’t have much to do these days, and tended to obsess when she got the opportunity to be useful. Something in the way Lady Tarsuss had said it had made Liss think she was quite pleased with this.

“They are planning to,” Liss said, keying in the code to the cargo bay.

The door slid open, and Liss saw her cargo; a single man, sitting in a chair, drinking a hustain.

“Care for a drink?” he asked, as Liss crossed to the couch-slash-bunk beside it.

“On duty,” Liss said.

“Lady Tarsuss has good taste in hustain. Tell her, when you get back, that I appreciate it.”

“I will,” Liss said.

Margu sighed. “So you’re not gonna turn and run, for old time’s sake?”

“No, Margu,” Liss said. “For one thing, they’d notice.”

“They” were the guards, who were both up, as they were approaching the end of their duty. They stood at a relaxed attention, both with weapons ready, but not shouldered. They’d be ready if they had to be.

“He hasn’t been giving you any trouble, has he?” Liss asked.

“No, Captain Peten,” the senior guard said. “He offered us a drink, too, but like you…we’re on duty.”

“It wouldn’t have made much of a dent in the bottle,” Margu said. “And Palemst Themego here says he’s had hustain, but it’s a bit spicy for him.”

Nest smiled. “Rixie’s has a hustain drinking challenge. I got through most of one before I gave up. The owner claims to love the stuff, but he also claims to have invented pizza, which is, according to Secretary Xanthopolous, ‘bullshit.’”

“I’m with you,” Liss said, nodding to the tiny figure on a raised platform a few meters away. “I’m Jotnar. I’ll take a glass now and then, but I much prefer sima myself.”

“Sweet urine, that’s all sima is,” Margu grumbled, but he smiled slightly as he did.

Liss sighed. She started to say, “I’m sorry,” but Margu waved her down.

“No no no, none of that,” Margu said. “Tarsuss was right. This is the business we’ve chosen. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still try to talk my way out of it. They said it would be a mek run, and frak if it was.”

“You certainly have always been able to talk,” Liss agreed.

They were silent for a good minute, before Liss asked, quietly, “Do you want me to give a message to Dama?”

Margu looked down at his glass. “Remind him that his business was built on money I had because I was a smuggler. Remind him that he’s not innocent. Remind him….”

He sighed, and shook his head. “Tell him I’m sorry,” he said, at long last. “I wish he’d had a dad he could have been proud of, too.”

“I will,” Liss said. “And I’ll tell him, whatever he may think of you…you went out with honor.”

“Don’t know if that’ll matter to him,” Margu said, finishing his drink. “But it matters to you. And that’s something, ain’t it?”

Liss nodded. “It is.”

* * *

Kaol’s central landing pier finished its long descent, carrying the Akelois along with it. It wasn’t a big ship by cargo standards, but it was about at the limit of what Kaol could handle; of course, if they’d built up the infrastructure to handle anything larger, it would have drawn the attention of the Imperial Military, and they certainly didn’t want that.

The cargo bay’s gangplank opened, and five masked people walked off the ship, and out into the cool air. Though the settlement at Kaol was usually dry, wind from the light side of the planet had pushed a rare rain shower into the area, and a slightly fizzy rain was slowly falling onto the group.

“Nice landing, bierdna. You put us within a couple centiiunits of square,” Liss said, her voice slightly distorted by her rebreather.

“Not the prettiest world,” Xele commented.

“No,” Vilum said. “If it was pretty, it would be too easy to live on, and the Imperials would notice.”

Margu didn’t say anything as he walked down the ramp toward the two people waiting there. He kept his head down.

“Where’s the shipment, Margu?” asked a thin, older man through his rebreather.

“I’d think you’d say hello, Siabo,” Mirendy said.

“Yvenna? I didn’t recognize you with the mask…it’s been what, ten years?”

“At least,” Yvenna said. “There is no shipment, Siabo.”

“You’re representing Tarsuss, then. So you four failed?”

“You said it was easy, Siabo,” Margu said. “You didn’t tell us they’d armed the humans.”

“Armed…they’ve armed the humans? Interesting,” Siabo said. “My client was curious as to how much resistance they would give you. Evidently enough to kill the attempt. Alas, I will have to ask for your advance back. And I would ask that Margu remain with me…we have some things we need to discuss.”

“We assumed as much. But that is not all,” Yvenna said. “Lady Tarsuss has a message for you.”

“Did you ever think you’d be Pryvani Tarsuss’s errand girl, Yvenna?”

Mirendy shot Siabo a look that she rarely got to use anymore. “Syon’s disgrace, and Lady Tarsuss’s victory, gave me little choice. We all pick our sides, after all. If you pick the wrong one, it has consequences. Remember that, Salaha; your father assumes the Overseer will remain powerful for years to come. I have my doubts.”

The woman standing beside Siabo shifted, but said nothing.

“What is the message?” Siabo said impatiently.

“It is a message in two parts. The first is simple: If Avalon is ever again attacked by an agent of the Hive, she will hold you personally responsible,” Yvenna said. “She wants me to tell you that death will look like a kindness compared to what she will do to you.”

“Does she now? Does she want the Overseer against her, really?”

Yvenna sighed. “The second part of the message is that on the fourth day of the fifteenth month of 2097, you were in New Trantor. You met with three people. These are their names.”

Yvenna handed Snyusia a pad. He looked down at it, and blinked. “So what?”

“Come now, Siabo. You know what this means. Pryvani Tarsuss knows.”

“Does she know your part of it?”

“Of course she does,” Yvenna said.

“And she hasn’t killed you?”

“She’s made me into a nobody,” Yvenna said. “An attorney who sits in her office with her thumb up her arse all day, hoping that maybe her pad will ring, and the woman who’s got her ovaries in a vice will let her run an errand, or maybe file corporate documents. I get paid to do nothing, and I’ve thought about quitting, more than once, but Lady Tarsuss has made very clear that this is not an option. I worked for you. You introduced me to Syon. You know what I hoped to be. And you know gorram well that Pryvani Tarsuss has done far worse than to simply kill me. That’s why I’m here, telling you this. Because Lady Tarsuss wants me to tell you that she knows, and she’s watching your actions very, very carefully.”

“Are these two messages linked?” Siabo said.

“You are smart enough to know the answer to that,” Yvenna said. She turned to Margu. “Mr. Peten, I am sorry to say goodbye in these circumstances.”

“Like you said, Ms. Mirendy…you pick your side, and you accept the consequences. Liss…the side you just picked…I don’t know if it’s the right one. But I do think it’s the smart one.”

“I think so, too,” Liss said. “Mr. Snyusia, is there anything else? If not, the Akelois needs to lift.”

“No,” Snyusia said. “Yvenna…it was good to see you. I would like to talk…and soon.”

“I will discuss it with my employer,” Yvenna said. “All right, let’s go,” she said, and four people walked back onto the Akelois.

The ship’s gangplank raised, and the central pier began to lift.

“Mr. Peten,” Siabo said, “my client will be disappointed not to get the food shipment.”

“I know,” Margu said. “Lady Tarsuss sent me to you with the assumption that it was a death sentence.”

“It should be, given what you owe. However…there may be a way for me to at least mitigate things. I’m not guaranteeing that you can come out of this alive, but…well, my client was not merely interested in food. They also want information on the defensive capabilities of Avalon, and specifically, the humans.”

“Whatever you want,” Margu said. “I am happy to give you.”

“Good,” Siabo said. “Come with me. If your information is useful, well…I can’t guarantee that it is enough to save you. But perhaps it will be enough to keep my client from consuming you.”

“Well,” Margu said, “it could be worse. And if your client is thinking of ever going after humans again, my advice is that they’d better bring an army.”

“If my client decides to do so, they most certainly will,” Siabo said.