"But Jindigar said we mustn't try to go to Dushaun."

"He's trying to talk them out of it right now. I wish he'd concentrate on becoming Lehrtrili."

The astrogation projection showed numerous other commercial ships surrounding them in solar orbit perpendicular to the ecliptic. As long as they stayed silent and obeyed the Flag Sentient of that eight-ship fleet, they were anonymous, relatively safe. And she couldn't think of anything they could do to help.

"Krinata!" Arlai registered shock. "Go to Jindigar's cabin. Now!"

"What?" She wasn't accustomed to the Sentient issuing orders. "Is he asking for me? I should stay at my post."

"Please, Krinata!" Arlai seemed to vibrate with suppressed hysteria.

She cast a glance at the slowly changing display, decided there was nothing she had to do here, and took off for Jindigar's cabin with Trassle gazing after her, a high multivoiced twitter escaping him in place of Standard.

She'd never been inside Jindigar's residence before, and she hadn't actually been invited by him this time. She found her heart pounding in an odd cadence with her steps. Her feet seemed to have an embarrassed reluctance of their own, but she finally found the hatch marked "1" in Dushau notation: the owner's cabin. Before she could touch the signal, the hatch flew aside with a pressurized sigh.

It was more apartment than cabin. Hatches opened off the huge main room which was divided by trellis screens, some festooned with plants she couldn't identify. The deck was a spongy white surface which absorbed the sound of her steps. Overhead, odd shapes swung from rafter beams. Stairs led to a kind of loft above the far end of the room, but it was dark up there. The furniture was all dense foam, in the low shapes Dushau favored. Colors and lighting strained her eyes and made little sense.

Arlai materialized under the loft and beckoned. "Here."

Seeing visions of Jindigar unconscious from a nasty fall. she followed hastily.

Beyond the hatch was a room of yellow and pink tile, anonymous projects strewn on workbenches, sinks and a huge bathtub filled with water, plants and fish. Imp sat in a nest on the lip of the tub. When he saw Krinata, he shrieked and flung himself through the air, landing at her feet. Then, remembering his manners, he sat up, begging politely to be picked up and petted. Absently, she complied, eyes roving curiously over Jindigar's private dressing room while she pretended to herself that she was only getting her bearings.

One wall was folded back to reveal a wardrobe. Arlai had surrounded the half-costumed Dushau with three mirror fields. Several small scurries with precision manipulators were applying dark indigo feathers to Jindigar's body. He turned when he heard her steps on the tile.

She didn't like the look in his eyes, but couldn't read his expression for the jutting green beak that covered nose, mouth and chin. The beak opened, showing a slender pink tongue. Jindigar's own voice asked, "What are you doing here, Krinata?"

"I asked her to come," said Arlai from behind her.

"I thought..." she started breathlessly. "From Arlai's panic, I thought something awful had happened to you."

Jindigar turned so the scurries could continue to cover and reshape his body. "Arlai," he began as if angry. Then he subsided. "No, you're right. Krinata, Terab is captain of the rearguard ship. Her husband and two of her children are aboard." He turned away from the scurries and came to tower over her. "When you walked onto the bridge, Grisnilter was trying to get me to cut out of orbit and pace the Dushau ship, to follow it home, help them as needed, and forget Terab. I wasn't going to—but now you see what kind of person Terab is. She's rescued herself and dozens of others! Or she would have if their ships were in any better condition. As it is, they're not going to make it, and I'm desperate enough to try a wild plan. Arlai doesn't want to."

"It's suicide!" said the Sentient.

She looked from one to the other. "What's the plan?"

"We develop a malfunction, a real one. Their sensors would detect a fake one. Truth is now identified as Hyperbird, Zitur registry, and Arlai has a Lehrtrili simulacrum. We careen out of control into the zone between the seekers and the ships. We're legitimate. They dare not fire on us. If we give Terab enough of a lead, she and the other ships can detime before the seekers can get a shot off. Once they're detimed, even seeker craft can't follow them."

"Don't bet on it," said Arlai morosely.

Krinata put that down to the odd emotionality Arlai had shown since Jindigar had freed him. But she also felt his alarm. Holot were notorious for a bull-like pursuit of their goals, disregarding all logical reasons to desist. Yet she wasn't sure Jindigar was wholly rational, considering the pressure Grisnilter was putting on him. Could it drive him into Renewal? But she shoved that aside. "Jindigar, do we have the right to make a decision like this without consulting the others?"

"The Dushau won't like it," said Jindigar, "but morally, they can't refuse. Trassle, though, has children aboard. Even though he and his female have known for days we were going to take risks, they may be too Cassrian to be able to say yes now as they did before. Trassle would hate himself forever for yielding to instinct."

"This isn't a risk," said Arlai, "it's a sacrifice. Those are seeker craft!"

Krinata said, "I don't know anything about seeker craft except that they're new and highly experimental. But if the Holot have orders to get those fugitives before they can detime, they just might blow us up to get at them. Arlai, couldn't you use your projectors to confuse them?"

"No. Their sensors are too sophisticated."

"Why are you being so defeatist, Arlai?"

"He's scared," said Jindigar. "The Allegiancy programming kept him from experiencing raw fear for so long, his nerves aren't up to it."

"That's part of it," admitted the Sentient. "But I also have the specs of the seeker craft design here, and I know what Truth's made of. We can't withstand those guns!"

"You have the seeker craft design?!" exclaimed Krinata.

Sheepishly, the Sentient admitted, "I stole the plans to the Emperor's yacht when we were in orbit at Cassr. Thought it might come in handy. And it's a modified seeker."

"There has to be a way to use those plans to increase our odds to an acceptable level," said Krinata, sweating with sudden nervous tension. "Jindigar, let them dress you. You may yet need that disguise to buy us some time."

Krinata turned and paced, trying to think. Then it came to her. "Truth's landers! Arlai, are the landers disguised as Hyperbird's?"

"Just two of them. I can convert the others—"

"What about the lifeboat from Intentional Act?" asked Krinata, suddenly excited. "It's got legitimate Ducal ID. Would they fire on an envoy from Duke Lavov here to trade knowledge of a fatal design flaw in the seeker craft for Dushau prisoners? We swoop in, negotiate a trade, squirt them some nonsense about their ships blowing up if they detime or fire weapons, and assure them we'll catch their fugitives, destroy two of the ships and take the all-Dushau one for the Duke's experiments? If they've heard of our escapade with Mercer's Folly, they'll know Lavov would want more Dushau prisoners. It would seem just plausible enough to make them hesitate."

"Why didn't I think of that?" asked Jindigar. "Seekers have disappeared mysteriously." The top of his mask had been put in place, so that now his wideset eyes peered awkwardly through close-set beady ones of an evolved predator. 'Terab can get them all away in the time we can give them."

Krinata turned to Arlai, sure she knew why Jindigar hadn't been able to think, and trying not to use some of the glowing Skhe invective she'd learned from Rndeel on Grisnilter. "What are the odds on this plan, Arlai?"