speeds."

"All very true," said Thane, "but it still doesn't explain a thing to
me. About your place in this or Candar's."

Reine hardly noticed the interruption. He went on, professorially.
"The solution has always seemed clear. In order to travel at will
through space, at faster-than-light speeds all we needed to do was to
create our own Field with its own warp-line. If a ship could generate
its own electro-gravitic warp it would be able to travel in almost
unlimited directions with no time lapse except for pauses at each
warp-line crossed. The power factors were such that an entirely new
principle of operation was needed. We have found it in the so-called
gold catalyst principle, and we now have a practical, economical
second-stage drive."

Thane frowned. "But that would seem to make Onzar less important. Why
do we need to worry about them now?"

Reine was about to answer but the door opened and Pyuf was there. "How
goes it, duellist?"

"It was a great fight," Thane said, "until you decided to tear up the
rules. You forgot to tell me that you included 'kidnapper' in your
list of trades."

Reine smiled. "That's just one of many that Pyuf forgot to mention.
Forger, propagandist, and political theorist might also have been
added." He turned to Pyuf. "I've about covered the technology. Why
don't you give our friend the politics?"

"Sure." Pyuf sat on the desk swinging his short legs. "First, though,
I'm sorry about the duel, Thane. We had to do it."

"Reine's already assured me of that once or twice," Thane said drily.
"I would like to know, though, just how you did it."

"That's simple enough. For months now we've been using the duelling
court on Kadenar as an exchange point in the underground. It's been
very helpful because of the ease that duellists have in getting
through customs. In your case we were lucky. Or I should say that
Astrid was quick and intelligent enough to take advantage of a
fortunate situation. A few words from her were enough to instigate the
Onzarian officer to challenge you. Remember that Onzarians have a
tradition of duelling, and you had insulted him. Furthermore, he was
still confused from the stoltz artillery."

"Clear enough. But may I ask why you bothered to let the duel go on at
all? Why not just take me when we got to the court?"

"We wanted to explain your disappearance. At the same time that you
were unconscious, your opponent and the other junior officer were also
out. W