means that you decide what we do with Sins here. I would not recommend just letting him go!”

“No.” The Jig’s face had a curious inward expression that Dupaynil took to mean he was trying to catch up to events. “No, I can see that. But,” and he looked at Dupaynil, taking in his rank insignia. “But, sir, you’re senior.”

“Not on this vessel.” Curse the boy! Couldn’t he see that he had to take command? Sassinak would have, in a flash.

“Right.” It had taken him longer, but he came to the same decision; Dupaynil had to applaud that. “Then we need to get this fellow—Siris—into confinement.”

“May I suggest the escape pod he just came out of? As you know, the controls no longer respond normally. He won’t be able to get out, and he won’t be able to eject from the ship.”

“NO!” Dupaynil could not tell if it was fury or fright. “I’m not going back in there. I’d die before you get anywhere!”

“Frankly, I don’t much care,” Dupaynil said. “But you will have access to coldsleep. You know there’s a cabinet built in.”

Siris let fly the usual stream of curses, vicious and unimaginative. Dupaynil thought the senior mate would have done better, although he had no intention of letting him loose to try. Panis squirmed out of his awkward position, half-under the crewman, without losing his grip on the man’s shoulder and arm or getting between Du-paynil’s needier and Siris. Then he rolled clear, evading a last frantic snatch at his ankles. Dupaynil put all his weight on the trapped wrist for an instant, bringing a gasp of pain from Siris, then stepped back, covering him with the weapon. In any event, Siris went into the escape pod without more struggle, though threatening them both with the worst that his illicit colleagues could do.

“They’ll get you!” he said, as Panis closed the hatch, Dupaynil aiming through the narrowing crack just in case. “You don’t even know who it’ll’be. They’re in the Fleet, all through it, all the way up, and you’ll wish you’d never ...”