you,
but we've just captured an Imperial scoutship, and he would like you to
be ready to interrogate the prisoners as soon as they're brought in.
That should be about two hours."

"So they finally got this far out. Damn. Is His Majesty still on the
phone?"

"No, Excellency; he was confident of your response." Matthew smiled.
"Breakfast will be ready as soon as you finish Mass--shall I wake
Captain Odeon to assist?"

"What time is it?"

"Five o'clock, Excellency."

"Late enough he'd be upset if I didn't--go ahead." As her butler left,
Cortin scowled. The Kingdom Systems couldn't avoid Imperial notice
forever--they'd been lucky to get the roughly four hundred years they'd
had--but she wasn't at all sure she cared to live under the Terran
Empire's rule.

Not, she thought as she showered and got into uniform, that they'd
probably have much choice in the matter. The Empire claimed to be a
benevolent umbrella government, that it didn't interfere in local
affairs unless absolutely necessary, which Mike's studies of comm
intercepts tended to confirm--but it was hard to believe that their
non-interference policy could stretch to include the Kingdoms. Well,
she'd find out--at least she'd find out whatever the scoutship's crew
knew or believed about it.

She got her usual deep pleasure out of saying Mass, assisted by both
Mike Odeon and Dave Bain, who claimed he'd been awake anyway. Cortin
had her suspicions of the reason, with Sis at the unusually early Mass,
and approved heartily. Sis was five months pregnant, but that was no
reason to deny herself the pleasures of any of the Family's husbands,
and Cortin was of the opinion that Dave was good for her.

After Mass, the clean-up that had recently become necessary afterward,
and breakfast, Cortin, Odeon, Chang, and Bain went to her ground-floor
office to wait for the prisoner. They were silent at first, but at
last Bain said, "Joanie?"

"Hmm?"

"We're in trouble, aren't we?"

Cortin sighed. "I can't be sure, but I think so. That's because they
scare me for some reason--even though there's no evidence I can point
to that'll justify that fear. But I'm the wrong person to ask about
the Empire; Mike's the one who's been studying them."

Bain turned to his co-husband. "Mike?"

"I can't agree with Joanie on that issue," Odeon said. "As I told her
a few months ago, I'm only able to scratch the surface--comm intercepts
and the little bit of the Founders' rec