Morpheus bowed his head again.
>
I looked up at him curiously. I’d never been through this before, and neither had Morpheus.
> I asked suspiciously. He wasn’t a doctor. He had no reason to really pay attention to such things.
>
I smirked.
>
>
>
>
Morpheus bowed again and took his leave. I closed my eyes, reaching out for Jess, but if she were nearby, her mind wasclosed to telepathic connection. I returned to the bridge. Within minutes, reinforcements arrived. Not the Prince’s ship, but his sister’s.
Dhara and I had always been fond of each other. I got on with her better than with Titan, and I considered Prince Titan an old friend. Dhara was tall, scrappy, an excellent warrior and had a shrewd, emotionless face with sparkling, yellow eyes.
With communication channels open between our ships, she teleported to mine and joined me in my ready room.
“Congratulations, general on capturing a confederate vessel.”
“It wasn’t easy. The crew still had to deal with the intruders on our ship.”
Dhara spoke with a regal, Northern accent. The ridges on her nose drew your attention to her eyes, which were always on the verge of excitement.
“We shall hold the Taureans in custody and destroy their ship.”
“Destroy it?”
It wasn’t usually the policy of our people to destroy when we were given the chance.
“We’ve received intelligence from senators on Tau. The confederates will return for their vessel, whether or not it would mean suicide to do so. They’ll come back. If we destroy it and hold their people prisoner, we’ll stop them from taking further irresponsible action.”
“It seems a shame that this must come to war.”
“Not war,” the princess corrected me, “A battle, that is all.”
“You do not think this conflict will escalate, then?”
“First contact with the humans will have to be premature. But we will not allow them to fall to the Taurean confederates. Not now.”
“I never knew your position on outsiders to be so welcoming.”
Dhara grimaced. She hated the insinuation that she’d lost some of her edge. I wondered if she’d heard the rumors that I’d mated. Perhaps word on my personal life would not be so important to pass on to the home world. Dhara could sense it, of course. I’d known her long enough that I couldn’t keep secrets from her.
>
“I was not acting, m’lady.”
“All you men are going crazy now that you’ve found females willing to accept you. I say whatever it takes to get you to leave us alone.”
“I thought you were against the ‘intrusion of foreign blood’.”
