Puzzled, he asked, "You heard that, too? I'm sorry." He gazed at his hands, awkward and embarrassed. And then a peculiar look suffused his face, and he glanced over his shoulder at Frey. Frey shuddered and drew in on himself. "No. No, it would never work." Another Shockwave passed over him, and the look of wild surmise swept back to Krinata. "How did you know cooperating would make Zinzik stop it?"

"It was the most peculiar thing, but then I have this wild imagination. I suppose years of imagining such things coupled with the strain must have—"

"What things?"

Now it was her turn to be embarrassed. She tried to evade, but he pursued until she explained how she often imagined she was an Oliat officer. "Under stress, I guess my mind was playing tricks on me, trying to escape reality. Human minds do come up with intuitive solutions to impossible problems while trying to escape into fantasy." Increasingly embarrassed, she told him of every nuance of her experience evaluating Zinzik. "I must have put it all together from some unconsciously noted details around the palace."

That was the standard explanation, and Krinata felt he was about to deny it when Rita, cluttering and puffing, dragged an object over and deposited it on Jindigar's lap, then sat up and preened herself, expecting a reward. Jindigar looked at the oblong box blankly. Then his whole demeanor changed, his eyes lit, and he grabbed the box. Then he saw the piol, set the box in Krinata's hands, and swept the piol to his chest, murmuring reassuringly.

Krinata turned the thing over and discovered it had a screen on one end. A comunit! Gradually, it came to her, and she wrapped a fold of sheet over it. "Arlai!"

The unit came to life. "I can't see anything. Krinata, is that you? Jindigar?"

Jindigar tucked the piol under Krinata's pillow and swept the unit around to face him. "Arlai, listen." And he reprised their situation in a few terse words. "I'd estimate we have no more than six or seven hours before Zinzik has what he wants of Desdinda and kills her."

"Kills—" started Krinata.

Jindigar waved her to silence. "You didn't think he meant any of those lavish promises, did you? How could he turn loose somebody who'll repudiate every word of that forced confession? Besides, imagine what awaits on Dushaun for anyone who'd make that recording for him!"

She hadn't thought of that.

Suddenly, Jindigar leaned forward, his head coming down on Krinata's shoulder as he made a hissing sound.

Krinata froze, and a moment later realized it must be the spy-eye check. Jindigar was hiding the instrument from them. She surreptitiously checked to make sure Rita was asleep under the pillow with all her limbs covered.

A moment later, Jindigar straightened hastily when Storm said, "Uh, I must have dozed. What's going on?"

Jindigar explained, ending, "Come, you too, Frey, listen to Arlai."

Engrossed, Krinata didn't even notice that the Dushau had invited a very humanoid male to share her bed when she was stark naked. They huddled over the comunit, discovering that Arlai had appropriated one of the scurries belonging to Spindrift, Timespike's Sentient, fabricated this unit in Timespike's lab and tuned it only to himself. They were private, as long as the spy eye was off.

As Bell slept peacefully, Arlai told them, "My orbit intersects yours every ninety-three minutes, and in six hours twenty minutes, I'll pass within easy thruster-suit distance. That will be more than halfway through Timespike's night, and the duty crew will be lax."

"Can you open these bars?" asked Jindigar.

"Well, that's the problem. Spindrift is young, passionately

dedicated to the Emperor. I got the scurry by a ruse. He doesn't

know I've got it. But if I use the scurry to open the cells, he'll

know, and trigger all the alarms."v

"You could block that, take over—"

"Jindigar, do you want me to destroy Spindrift?"

Surprisingly, Jindigar thought hard. Krinata saw Storm glance worriedly at him. But Jindigar said, "No. No, Arlai, we'll find another way. Let's assume we get out of the cells. Where are the thruster suits stored?"

Arlai threw a schematic of Timespike's interior on the screen and showed them the route.

Storm said, "But look, this is shorter—to the hangar bay. And not all of us are checked out on thruster suits."

Krinata had been suppressing an urge to yell, No thruster suits!, telling herself not to allow a stupid phobia to develop. Now she seized the rational excuse. "What about the children? Does a battleship carry Cassrian child-sized thruster suits?"

Glumly, Arlai said, "No, but—"

"So what about the hangar bay?" asked Storm, "It's so close, and time's our worst enemy in this kind of operation. Those in the other cells will be caught by surprise when we move, and we'll have to drag them—"

"Storm," interrupted Arlai, "that bay contains the Emperor’s own yacht!"

"So?" asked the Lehiroh. "After what he's done, stealing his yacht seems a mild form of justice. I hope his favorite art objects are aboard!"

"You don't understand," argued Arlai. "It's a rebuilt seeker craft, with a class-one Sentient. You'd never be able to get aboard, let alone break the security seals."

"Arlai, you've got that yacht's modified schematics," said Krinata. "Surely—"

"He does?" asked Storm. He looked to Jindigar.

"He does. But he's right, that Sentient is programmed for absolute security. And the Emperor's own yacht's Sentient– there'd be nothing to do but enthrall it."

Krinata saw Arlai's simulacrum don a stricken expression. "Jindigar," he pleaded.

"What do you mean, enthrall?" asked Krinata with a sickening feeling she knew. Bogey man stories out of the Corporate League's downfall came to her: Sentients run wild, fighting among themselves and for various factions.

Jindigar examined his hands in his lap. She could feel the bed vibrating under them with his suppressed emotion, but she couldn't divine what that emotion was.

Arlai asked for the unit to be turned so he could get a better view of Jindigar. "Krinata, is Jindigar shaking?"

Jindigar said, "No," as Krinata said, "Yes."

Without warning, the screen went blank.

The carrier beam was still there, for the thing emitted light. But Krinata felt a surge of panic and had to strangle back a cry of despair. Then Arlai returned, apologizing. Very formally, he said, "I, too, feel a sense of urgency. The technicians have just broken into my starboard inrational circuits. They're working from my original schematics, mapping the modifications as they go. They've already done considerable damage, but when they reach the Oversee-and-Command branching, they'll mindwipe me and mechanically reimplant Allegiancy conditioning."

"Oh, Arlai," groaned Jindigar.

"Your troubles are by far worse," said Arlai staunchly, "but I tell you this so you may understand why—Jindigar, I wouldn't—I don't want to—if there's any other way—" He stopped, as if realizing he was sounding most un-Sentient. "Jindigar, if you order it, I'll enthrall the yacht's Sentient. But don't ask me to sear-out Spindrift."

"I kept you out of the wars, Arlai—" started Jindigar. But then he seemed to recover, weighing alternatives. The shaking became worse as he came to a decision. "All right, on my responsibility, at my command, enthrall. But do it carefully. Don't harm."

Storm chewed his lower lip, regarding Jindigar warily. But

Krinata thought he was evaluating the Dushau's remaining strength, not fearing him as anyone else might after hearing such an order. Storm asked, "We still have the problem of getting out of these cells."

Jindigar put his face in his hands as if to wipe away something vile, men faced Arlai squarely.

Softly Frey said, "Jindigar, no."