The simulacrum blinked. "Sixty-three percent chance of success if I could find a design flaw."

"Fake one," said Krinata.

"I can't do that!" objected Arlai, offended. He was an onboard Sentient. Ships were sacred to him.

Some part of Krinata was relieved she'd found some skullduggery forbidden to the Sentient. Jindigar came to the rescue. "I can, and I can order you to use the misinformation. Arlai, it won't harm them. I'll see to that."

"Agreed," said the simulacrum. "I've already started stripping the lifeboat of its Mercer's Folly ID. It'll be a diplomatic skiff at least from the outside. What next?"

Krinata said, "I'll go back to the bridge, warn Trassle and prepare to become Duke Lavov's envoy. Jindigar will finish dressing and figure out a plausible design flaw."

"Good enough," agreed Jindigar. He seemed steadier now, so she handed him the piol, spun on her heel and left.

Forty minutes later, Jindigar's Lehrtrili persona, Rrrelloleh, came onto the bridge, twittering musically, vestigial wings fluttering expressively. He was wearing a translater voder on his bright red chest. Most of him was dark indigo feathers, though wings and crown were bright yellow. It was the last color combination the fugitive Prince Jindigar would ever choose to hide himself.

Arlai had warned the resistance ships to be prepared to detime the moment they were free, but Jindigar had ordered him not to give them the details of the plan just in case communications weren't really secure.

As they were going over the plan one more time before breaking their assigned orbit and calling attention to themselves, Rinperee, lightning calculator and Sentient educator, came onto the bridge. She stopped to bend over Rrrelloleh and whisper, "Don't pay too much attention to Grisnilter. We'll make it." Then she stood up and said, "Arlai, let me handle our maneuvers. This may take a little more creativity than you've got."

"Agreed. You've got primary control on board nine." That was the helm station next to Jindigar's astrogation console and would be out of line when Krinata was on screen.

Since Arlai could run the ship alone, Krinata had often wondered why the bridge was rigged for incarnate supervision at all. Now she knew. Arlai was better than any Sentient at routine chores, or backing up a plan. But he wasn't a planner, and he knew it. She began really to trust him.

"Standby," said Arlai in his ship's business tone. Then he proclaimed, "The Duke Lavov's Envoy, The Right Honorable Katherine Minogue!"

There was a suitable drum roll, short of ambassadorial rank but more than a mere messenger would get. She claimed no title and wore only a simple black tunic with silver piping, indicating space service, retired. Arlai had aged her face and toned her hair more toward gray. She spoke in her lowest register when the screen image cleared to show a crisp military bridge, Holot officers dripping braid and honors bending over the scopes and controls.

They looked around shocked as she came onto their main screen. "I am breaking orbit," she announced. "Do not fire upon my craft. I bring information vital to your security."

From the side, one of the officers called, "Captain, one of the civilians is moving in. It's discharged something."

"My personal skiff. I carry diplomatic immunity."

The com officer confirmed, reading out the Ducal ID with some frills Arlai had improvised. The captain was impressed.

The lifeboat was actually empty, but Arlai had arranged for it to appear as if their communication was coming from there, complete with emanating lifereadings.

"Captain," continued Krinata before the Holot could say anything, "I regret it's taken me so long to understand what this scene is all about, but my sensors have just discerned that the center one of those three passenger ships is loaded with nothing but Dushau. Duke Lavov knew you must have some Dushau left on Khol, and he sent me to trade with you. It seems I've arrived in the nick of time." She was inordinately proud when she thought of using that Terrains.

The captain drew himself up on his hind feet, leaving all four upper limbs to dance over the controls before him. "State your business, Right Honorable Envoy. We are not empowered to treat with diplomatic..."

She cut him off with a wave. "I've come to trade news of a design flaw in the seeker craft for some of your surplus Dushau. If you fire on those ships, chances are three-to-two you'll blow up your own ship. If you want that information, yield your fleeing prisoners to me. I'll see none escape."

"Your ship is old, Envoy."

"They are unarmed passenger crates! Do not insult Duke Lavov's honor."

"I'd never!" the Holot gibbered.

Krinata had never heard a Holot gibber. She marveled, but kept a straight face and declared, "Let us conclude our business then, before we both lose them."

"I'm not actually empowered to—"

"Are you empowered to commit suicide?"

"No, but..."

"Then certify your prisoners to the custody of The Right Honorable Katherine Minogue, signing for Duke Lavov. Do it via your Sentient. By the time you can take my skiff aboard, tile prisoners will have escaped you. I must authorize my vessel to give chase and tow the Dushau back. I understand they lack an onboard Sentient. All you could do is destroy them. We can capture them. I shall clear up any difficulties with your superiors when I arrive."

The captain consulted with his bridge crew, the sound transmission off. Then he turned back to her, saying into a loud silence, "I agree to a simultaneous exchange of data. I will send the authorization to take custody of our prisoners. You will send details of this design flaw you claim can destroy us. If my Sentient decides your data is spurious, she will not complete the transmission, and we will blow your ship out of space."

"Agreed," snapped Krinata. But her mouth was dry.

Arlai announced, "Exchange begun." Almost immediately, he added, "Exchange completed."

Truth had already committed to pursuit of their quarry. The flag seeker craft was diverting to meet the empty skiff. Suddenly, the screen and scope images blurred, rippling as the three ships detimed in dangerously close formation.

Krinata slumped. The ships were free. There was no way to track a ship through a warp. Now for their own escape.

"After them!" said Rrrelloleh through his voder.

"Steady, Arlai... now!" Rinperee's nailless indigo fingers stroked the board and Truth detimed.

The screens showed rippling fog as always in the nowhere of untime. But there were three flecks amid the clouds. Arlai whispered, "By all the gods of time, she did it!"

Rinperee had indeed tracked the three fugitives into untime. They apparently spotted the pursuit and in an attempt to lose them, retimed. Arlai barely grunted a warning before Rinperee's fingers moved and Truth dropped back into normal space beside the fugitives.

Instantly, the screen lit with a very dark Dushau. "We refuse to surrender to Duke Lavov's laboratories!"

Jindigar rose and came up behind Krinata removing both halves of his mask and dropping back into his own character. "Thellarue, we're not from Lavov."

"Jindigar?" His cautious wonder was almost comic after the searing tension. "But Kamminth's... I thought Arlai..."

Jindigar said in grief-wrenched tones, "I am the only survivor."

In Thellarue's agonized silence, Trassle asked, "You know each other?"

Aside to Trassle, Jindigar said, "Thellarue's Oliat has been trying to enlist me for many years." Then he asked the Dushau, "You're Dissolved?"

"Adjourned," corrected Thellarue. "We're in need of a first-class Emulator. You'd be welcomed."

Krinata saw Jindigar fight off temptation. He was Oliat, through and through, raw from recent loss. His wanting glowed in his swirling indigo eyes. But he answered, steadily, "I'm flattered, but I have other obligations."