on that caused pain
without injuring its target sounded like an extremely useful tool for
an Inquisitor. "Does it cause actual unconsciousness, or is it the
pain itself that's incapacitating?"

"At standard intensity, it causes about four hours' unconsciousness.
The headache's just a side effect we can't seem to get rid of."

That was even more interesting, Cortin thought. If Kingdoms scientists
could isolate the "side effect" and eliminate the unconsciousness, the
severe migraine would do very nicely to intensify an Inquisitor's other
attentions. She didn't want to upset the young Imperial with that line
of thought, though. "I should be able to find a suitable test
subject," she said. "Not right now, though; I need to get to work.
Let's go back inside; you can explain the controls, then I can
familiarize myself with it if I get any breaks."

"Just a moment, please, Excellency," Odeon said. "I know you're busy,
but there are going to be a lot of troopers here soon, and if the
Imperials go into town, they may stop at the joyhouses; don't you think
they ought to know about our favorite plague?"

"Plague!" DeLayne exclaimed, his expression horrified.

Cortin chuckled. "Yes--the only one I know of that most people wanted
to catch. But you might not want to export it to the Empire, so
Captain Odeon's right; I ought to warn you. It's called the satyr
plague, which should give you some idea of its nature."

DeLayne nodded. "I think so--but I don't care to guess at the details,
so tell me about it, please. And what a large number of troopers has
to do with it."

"The troopers first," Cortin said. "Because of the hazardous nature of
our work, the Royal Enforcement Services have both Church and civil
dispensations from the sexual restrictions that apply to everyone
else--except their partners at the time, of course. So they won't have
any hesitation asking any of your people they find attractive, or
accepting offers from them. The joyhouses don't have that dispensation
yet, but since the plague appeared, working in or patronizing them's no
more than a venial sin and a misdemeanor the RES pays attention to only
if there's a complaint; we have far more serious crimes to worry about.

"The plague itself, of course, is sexually transmitted. There's no
danger of infection from casual contact, only about a one percent
chance from kissing, but the odds improve with the intimacy of contact.
As far as we can tell,