The Dragon Never Sleeps

— 125 —

WarAvocat let Klass's decrypted report scroll a few lines, stopped it. He glanced over to see how they were doing rounding up the chunks of the Pioyugov Traveler, to see if they were keeping that in the Guardship's shadow relative to the Outsider, which had broken off the Web again. Then he looked up.

The Deified had abandoned their screens. All but the Deified Kole Marmigus, who grinned a monster of a grin. Marmigus winked.

WarAvocat rolled the message back to start. "Aleas. Read this with me."

She did not look pleased but joined him. He let the message scroll. It ran a half hour at his reading speed, hitting the high points of Klass's adventures.

Aleas had nothing to say.

If it stunned her, how much more impact on those Deified after his gonads? "Access, OpsAvocat. WarAvocat here. We'll be returning to Canon space as soon as we've completed recovery. Destination is P. Benetonica 3. Out."

Aleas said, "So. You win a big round with the Deified."

"I sure do. May take them weeks to start aggravating me again." He rose, confident that his power never had been greater or more secure, faced a ragged and badly aged Lieutenant Klass, who'd come into WarCentral with the other survivors from the Pioyugov Traveler.

Aleas asked, "What'll you do about the other Klass?"

Jo nearly lost it when she saw WarAvocat. AnyKaat caught her arm and steadied her. "Not yet, Jo. We're almost there."

Seeker touched her with a similar sentiment, though most of his attention was on Amber Soul, who was on her way to Hospital with several injured Pioyugovs.

Even the crew had been lucky, relatively. Only eight were missing.

Jo got hold of herself, advanced toward Strate, pleased that he was still in charge. Could she keep from smashing his face if he came up with some typical tight-ass officer's crap about her appearance?

He came to meet her. He wrapped his arms around her and held her. Must be shipwide cameras watching, she thought. "Welcome home, Colonel."

The bastard had her confused with Haget!

But she accepted his welcome, and enjoyed it till she collapsed.