ut that," Willis snapped. "You have your duty, I have
mine. Tell me."

"As you wish, ka'naya." Arjen sighed again, this time to himself. She
did sound much like Ka'ruchaya Noriy . . . He opened his shirt,
exposing his massive chest. "See you these?" he asked, tracing the
scars that ran from the base of his throat to just above his belt.

"I see them," Willis said grimly. Similar scars, found on maybe ten
percent of recovered Traiti bodies, had Imperial experts puzzled. They
had to be significant, and deliberately inflicted--they were far too
regular to be accidental--but no one had been able to venture a
reasonable guess at what they meant.

"I them in my Ordeal of Honor earned. Too much we have of Rangers
heard; the truth we must know. That can best through the Ordeal
learned be. When we on Homeworld are, and a clan have found that will
him adopt, the Supreme will ask that he it try. If Rangers truly as
prisoners claim are, he will agree."

"That's not a condition of releasing the ship, then," Tarlac said.

"No, Ranger. The Ordeal must freely chosen be. Those who it try
unwilling, die. We ask not certain death of you, but if you the Ordeal
survive, the First Speaker says you will this war with honor end."

That possibility, Jean Willis knew, was something no Ranger could
ignore. Unable to let him go without some objection, she spoke quietly
enough that the comm pickups wouldn't transmit her words. "Anything
that would leave scars like that on one of them . . . Steve, it's
suicide, even if he says it isn't--or a trick so they can take you
alive for interrogation, then blow the Lindner out of space. You don't
have any reason to trust them."

"Trust doesn't have anything to do with it," Tarlac replied, just as
quietly. "It's a case of trying to minimize the Empire's losses. I
don't think it's suicide, but if it is, so what? I won't be any deader
than if I refuse and his fleet destroys the Lindner. If he's being
honest, you can get word back to Terra. If he's not, and they do try
interrogation, well," Tarlac smiled slightly and shrugged, "I'll make
sure I'm no use to them except as a warm body."

"Yeah." Willis knew what he meant, and her voice was bitter. Senior
Imperials, or those in sensitive positions, could be given protection
against questioning; she had it herself. If the Ranger chose, a code
phrase in his own voice would turn him into a mental blank. It would
do nothing to him phy