utes to spare?"

This time Medart managed to find his voice, though it was a little
shaky. "Yes, sir, of course." Dear gods, he thought numbly, an
Imperial Ranger. There were only ten in the entire Terran Empire, and
one had come looking for him. That was astonishing in itself--and if
cadet rumor was right about the reason for such a visit, it was also
intimidating.

To his surprise, Perry chuckled. That wasn't the sort of thing he'd
expected from one of His Majesty's personal representatives--it was too
ordinary. So was her grin when she said, "I gather from your reaction
that you've heard the rumors about a post-Test Week visit from one of
us."

Medart nodded. From Perry's tone and expression, she was trying to
give him time to adjust, but he wasn't sure that would help.

"The rumor's absolutely true," Perry said. "What do you think?"

His first impulse was to say she must be either joking or crazy, but he
knew better, and that kept him from answering right away. Of course
he'd had the usual daydreams of himself in the forest green uniform and
platinum badge, but he'd never seriously thought of himself as one of
this premier elite. He didn't feel qualified, and the idea of taking
on a Ranger's tremendous responsibilities terrified him. The authority
and prerogatives were tempting--dear gods, who wouldn't want to be
Imperial royalty, with unlimited money and power?--but it was the
responsibilities that were his primary concern. A military officer's
mistake could endanger a ship, maybe a fleet at the worst; a Ranger's
mistake could endanger anything from a world or system all the way to
the Empire itself. That was easily intimidating enough for him to want
to turn Perry down flat. It wasn't at all the sort of thing he cared
to have on his conscience.

After several minutes, he shook his head. "That's very flattering,
sir, but you have the wrong person. I don't think I have what it takes
to handle that kind of power."

Perry chuckled. "The classic answer. Jim, all your test results were
fed into the Empire Net and analyzed. The comps saw you had the kind
of profile we're interested in, so the Net kicked your records up to
the closest Ranger, who happened to be me. I agreed, so I brought them
to His Majesty's attention. He agreed, so I'm here. Care to argue
that combination?"

Medart took a deep breath. "With all due respect, sir, I don't have
any choice, since I can't agree. I think I kno