aid, had passageways that
doubled as art galleries. At the Traiti squad's pace, he didn't have
time to examine the pictures, but he observed that all of them seemed
well-done and the subject matter was varied: landscapes, battle and
space scenes, figures. The Ranger couldn't help thinking of the
commonest subjects as Madonnas, although they didn't seem religious.
The ones with naked infants or nursing children made him uncomfortable;
on Terra and even in most of the older colonies, such things weren't
shown in public.

Despite his unease, Tarlac studied the pictures as well as he could
during the walk. Unlikely as it seemed, he might somehow return to the
Empire, and if that happened, any information he could bring back would
be valuable to the socio and anthro specialists. That included
information on Traiti art. He didn't have a specialist's training
himself, but Ranger Linda Ellman, who'd taught him to appreciate art,
had given him some understanding of how revealing artistic conventions
could be. He knew enough to wonder at the prevalence of Madonnas--and
at the total lack of abstract, impressionist, and other
non-representational art forms.

By the time he got that far, they were at the bridge. So many control
consoles grouped around what had to be a control central couldn't be
anything else. Yet even here, the surroundings were totally unwarlike--by
Terran standards, Tarlac reminded himself. The sunny yellow color
scheme was more noticeable now than it had been when he'd talked to
them from the Lindner. It made the Traiti uniforms, both the ship
crew's dark gray and the commandos' gray-green, seem even drabber by
comparison.

Tarlac and Hovan were the only two to enter the bridge itself; the rest
of the commandos, their guard duty done, left. Had it been an honor
guard? Tarlac wondered. There had been nothing to indicate the
contrary.

Arjen rose as the Ranger approached, inclining his head but not
repeating the full formal salute. Then he gestured toward the large
repeater screen, which showed Jean Willis, still wearing her grimmest
face. Tarlac had a good idea of what she was thinking. The Traiti had
the Ranger they wanted, for whatever their real purpose might be. It
didn't make sense for them to keep their word, release a fully-operational
enemy battle cruiser. But he couldn't have passed up even so remote a
chance . . .

Arjen turned, to face Willis' image directly. "The condition met