In the back of Krinata's mind, alarm bells sounded at the news that Nodrial was creating alliances and massing an attack force against Zinzik. Nodrial, aggressive, ambitious, ruthless, might be no better than Zinzik on the imperial throne. The Nineteen Stars didn't have the industrial base to field a fleet to be reckoned with. He'd never trust the support of other Dukes or a King. Nodrial must have some secret advantage, to think he had a chance at the throne.

When she voiced these misgivings, Jindigar agreed. "I'll be very glad of your observant company."

She tried her best dazzling smile on him. "It's just that, secretly I've always wanted to be escorted to a Lehiroh wedding by a Lehrtrili!"

The smile was lost on him, but she did win a chuckle.

Over the next few days, she stood bridge watches, trying to be there when Jindigar wasn't so Arlai would always have someone with decision authority on his bridge. But Jindigar came and went at odd hours, still checking Arlai's circuits. When all Arlai's scurries were busy, Jindigar sent her to his cabin to drop off or fetch tools or documents. He pored over old schematics, heavily modified by changes made in Arlai's systems over the years.

Once, he accidentally refrigerated the bridge air, and while he was shivering and frying to get the connections reset, he sent her to fetch a winter robe. As she was coming out of Jindigar's cabin wearing the robe so she could also carry the tools he'd asked for, she met one of the human men. He appraised her, nodded as if comprehending something that had puzzled him and went on his way.

She was halfway to the bridge before she realized what a sight she presented: hair disheveled from hanging upside-down handing Jindigar tools as he crawled through an access tunnel, feet bare because her boots had made her too clumsy, and wearing Jindigar's robe which concealed her clothing. She caught her breath to call after the man, but he was gone. She had no time for it, and later had forgotten the incident.

When she wasn't helping Jindigar, she holed up with one of Arlai's terminals researching Razum's splinter Lehiroh group, helping Arlai create a new persona for her. She knew the basics of Lehiroh biology. The male extracted the egg cell from the female, fertilized it and returned it to the female. This process triggered lactation in the male, and it was the male who settled down for the requisite number of years to raise the young while the female, after giving birth, was the breadwinner of the family.

On this process, many cultures and religions had imposed limitations. That was one thing Lehiroh and humans had in common, a plethora of cultures and religions, intermingling and fighting it out for dominance. But in recent centuries, the Lehiroh worlds which had become prominent in the Empire had eschewed all their religions, embracing a kind of agnosticism, and abandoning every form of marriage.

That hadn't impaired their fertility at all. Children were usually raised by crèche professionals, paid by the parents equally. As far as Krinata knew, they were the only species to adopt such an arrangement without producing a generation of juvenile delinquents.

Delving now into material new to her, Krinata discovered that the Ensyvians, the religious Lehiroh who had settled Ra-zum. claimed a direct revelation from Eternal and Infinite God proscribing such behavior. And alone among Lehiroh cultures, the Ensyvians still practiced not only marriage but sexual exclusivity in marriage. Not monogamy but a polyandry of exactly four males to each female.

Monogamy was a perverted concept to the Ensyvians, who claimed that psychological stability could be achieved only by the group of five, and such stability was the absolute prerequisite to raising healthy children.

Biologically, it worked well, for the short pregnancy and birth were hardly debilitating to the Lehiroh female, and she could present a child once a year and still hold a job. Practically, though, the norm was for two of the husbands to be tied down with an infant while the wife and other two husbands worked to support the unit. Families tended to form multi-generation pyramids, and as a result the small Lehiroh population of Razum Two controlled more than seventy percent of the wealth.

They often bragged that the incidence of stress diseases was phenomenally lower among the devout Ensyvians, but that statistic was blurred by the large and growing number of very nondevout members of the sect. However, the last thing the drifters seemed to surrender was their marriage practice.

She asked Jindigar about his four friends.

"You're right, Krinata, they're not at all devout practitioners. But I understand this marriage is very important to them. The four of them have been together for a long time, and I know they've felt the lack of a female. But they'd pledged to marry the same woman. Only now have they found someone who pleases them all and will accept them. I just hope life will go well for them. They deserve it."

"You've worked with them?"

"Many times. They're a top unit of Oliat Outriders. Their field survival skills are second to none, and their learned reflexes keep them from intruding on a constituted Oliat. I've trusted them with my life many times over, and I'm still here. But I don't really know them personally. We've never had a chance to talk, you understand. I was surprised and very pleased to be invited to the wedding."

Researching the implications of that, she discovered that there were no onlookers or "witnesses" at an Ensyvian wedding. Everyone there assumed familial ties to the wedded group. Now she wasn't so sure she wanted to go.

When she discussed it with Arlai, he replied, "But the identity we worked out for you is unchallengeable!"

Pacing, grasping at straws, she said, instantly regretting it, "Can we really trust your judgment until we find that malfunction?"

But Arlai's feelings weren't hurt. He materialized in front of her, stopping her in her tracks. "Krinata, will you promise not to tell Jindigar something until you're settled on your new planet?"

"Promise not to tell Jindigar?" she asked, incredulous. She still couldn't get used to such a sentient Sentient.

"I knew you would," he accepted complacently. "Listen. There was no malfunction in my circuits. It was Jindigar's error. He must have misheard me. I told him suit seven and he gave you suit jive. I only noticed it after you were gone. I was too overloaded, and had cut back on routine safety checks. Right now Jindigar is under so much pressure between Grisnilter and Desdinda, and all he's been through, he's driving himself too hard, judging himself too harshly. If he knew he'd made such an error, he'd start doubting his sanity again, and you know what that does to him."

"Jindigar's been leery of you, tearing your guts apart and rebuilding them, triple-checking everything you do, and you've—"

"He'll be satisfied after a while. But I think this has been the best therapy for him. It's been centuries since he's done circuitry work. He's losing himself in it. It's a small price to pay. I don't want you to distrust me, too. You've got to go with him, and take risks on my performance. You're the only one aboard he'd trust down there with him."

Well, if Jindigar can join the family, so can I. She wondered if that would make them in-laws. But she had no time to research it. They were approaching Razum Two orbit.

Arlai provided her with an ankle-length black gown and cowl cut as if for a postulant of the Sisters of Jacob, a Terran-based nursing order known for its broadmindedness. With inserts in her shoes to change her walk, a dental appliance which changed her speech as well as her cheek line, she became Sister Marietta, accompanying Rrrelloleh, a wealthy eccentric Lehrtrili with dire health problems.