THE CASTLE SHIPS OF THRESYLCLOSE

By Keith ‘Doc’ Raymond

If the King’s face could go pale, then it would have. His answer was to take a speargun from one of his guards and shoot Takorus’ squire.”

“Parents teach respectful manners and children learn them in a decent family. Good citizenship follows. Civil society starts with the family. It…” Madrigal turned to Aroha, the enormous Melanesian woman sitting by his side, and grumbled, “Great, another crap assignment.” She grunted, “How do you know?” “By the tone of this orientation. Our next police post is clearly on a planet lacking any semblance of manners. For once, I’d like a tour of duty on a pleasure asteroid.” “Is there a problem, Officer Madrigal?” the AI paused in its speech, to address the Latino in the third row. “Yeah, how come Officer Tuatiaki and I are always getting the outpost assignments?” “Every planet in the Union is…” “Because you ain’t pretty enough,” cried a bruiser with a half plastic face. This caused a good deal of laughter in the squad room. “... important in the eyes of our leaders. Praise the Union.” “Praise the Union,” everyone answered and saluted, dully. “Can we cut to the chase?” Aroha bellowed. “Of course,” the AI answered. There was a sigh of relief in the room. “The duty roster is as follows…” The holograms above the transport portals, lining the walls of the squad room, displayed the planet or asteroid with a glowing assignment number. Madrigal and Aroha’s port assignment was number six.

They lifted their gear and humped it to the door. Laser scanner identified them and the door silvered, rippled, then swirled. They stepped through and entered the oppressive heat of a humid, Aggro planet. The waiting area was empty except for two police officers in sweat-soaked uniforms. Madrigal and Aroha looked pretty in comparison. “Welcome brothers! Cop shop is halfway down the Midway on your left. You’ll love it here. Have a better one…” the gal said, lifting her own gear and shuffling toward the portal. “Gotta love the sign out. Short and sarcastic,” Madrigal spouted, and headed toward the Midway. Aroha grunted and followed him. The departing guy turned to the gal and said, “She’s a big one. Guess someone at Central read my report. Good to know they can still read.” “Uh huh,” the other said with a shrug, then vanished in the silver whirlpool of the port. Madrigal looked at the hooded faces staring out at them from the shade beneath the overhangs on the Midway. Must be around noon, he figured, based on the position of the twin suns. “You feeling welcome? Be ready, bet they’ll try something.” The minute he said that, a tall twitchy woman with a lot of facial piercings and a hard tan stepped in their way. Madrigal could see the implants in her forearms pulsing, her muscles twitching. “Best we finish this here and now,” she croaked out with a deep whiskey voice. Aroha stepped in front of Madrigal and into the woman’s personal space, flexing her fists by her side. The woman’s hard tan paled and she crumpled to the ground. Mouths filled with ‘shh’ sounds from the shadows. “She’s got one of them Repulsor fields,” someone said. “Anybody else?” growled Aroha. She looked around and saw people drift back into their stores. The Maori cop lifted the woman and threw her over her shoulder. Turned to Madrigal and said, “I have a feeling I will like this place.” Then threw him a rare smile.

“I am OP 451, present ident!” “Get me out of these bars,” howled a drunk woman, locked in a cell at the back. “Officer Jose Madrigal and Officer Aroha Tuatiaki,” Madrigal answered, both lifting their warrant cards. This was unnecessary as the robot scanned them from head to toe, including their badges. “Precinct replacement team. What do you have back there?” “Drugged and disorderly. Ms. Maden partook a little too much of the local fungus, eh Parks?” OP’s last sentence spoken with the previous cop’s voice print. “How long for the effects to metabolize, 451?” “Total duration eighteen hours local. She has six more to go,” answered 451, in a mechanical voice. “Oh, please call me OP, I hate being called by my number.” “Wouldn’t want to hurt a robot’s feeling, now would we?” Aroha grumbled. “I’m not a robot! I’m a service warden for this precinct. Officer Madrigal, did you bring my updates?” “Got ‘em right here, OP. Just let me unpack and settle in first. Oh, and its just Madrigal, she likes Aroha.” “Noted.” “Where are we billeted?” “Your racks are upstairs. Conveniently located above the precinct. There’s a Defense Sniper Cannon in the steeple, behind armor.” “A DSC?” Aroha noted, “this just gets better and better. Must get hot here on the weekends.” “The ambient temperature remains the same during the growing season,” noted OP. “Not what she was talking about.” “Will someone let me roam free, be the perfect me!” howled the fungused female in the cell. “How long has she been going on like that, OP?” asked Aroha. “Her monologue has slowed somewhat as she comes down.” “I better go back there and shut her up,” Aroha muttered, “I’m not putting up with six more hours of psychedelic goop talk.” “I cannot allow you to harm the prisoner,” informed OP. “No harm, just a little sedation,” Aroha said, dropping her gear and winking at Madrigal. Back in the cells, the woman trapped between padded vertical bars looked like a piece of bread in a toaster. She vibrated, her hands and feet gyrating and swimming in the liquid soup of air. She was naked, having wiggled out of her coveralls. “Oh, your all kinds of big. I’m Venus. I’ll be your… Woman like you... Hey! You want to dance, sweet Mama?” Maden flirted and winked at Aroha. “I promise, if you promise to shut it.” “The things I’ll do to you!” “What part of ‘shut it’ is difficult?” With that, Aroha activated her repulsor field and approached the cage with an enormous smile. Venus froze, then went limp. “That ought to hold you.” OP rolled into the back and looked at the prisoner with several eyestalks and a scanner. “Stunned but unharmed,” the robot surmised. “As promised.” “I’ll be keeping a stalk on you, Officer Tuatiaki.” “You do that, tin can!” Aroha grumbled, brushing by the machine. She grabbed her gear and headed for their billet upstairs. Last thing she heard from OP was, “I’m not a can, and I’m not made of tin, in fact my magnesium alloy frame is…”

An hour later, Madrigal, while looking at the ceiling from his bed, said to Aroha, sitting on her bunk across from him, cleaning her weapons, “So far, not bad. This tour might turn out

okay.” “At least, we’re not in micro G dancing with motherboard scavengers.” “Remember that time when...” “Where’s my pretty bird?!” Maden yelled from downstairs. “Hey, you! Robot! Get me some water.” “You want me to deal with her, Aroha?” “No, I’ll sort it. I have a way with the altered ones.”

Coming out of Altairian space, the Castle ships suddenly floated motionless as their FTL drives went on standby. The twin torus making up the walls enclosing the castles slurped up all the exotic matter within. The exotic matter, when deployed, created a warp bubble around the city states. Compressed space-time in front, expanded space-time behind. The castle ships’ wake barely disturbed the vacuum in passing. Gently, the castles maneuvered out of their FTL yolk drives, steaming forward, and prepared for system insertion. Their standard fusion engines spooled up, preparing for normal thrust. Drive cones warmed as they split water to provide hydrogen for the thirsty engines. Serf engineers made ready, swimming through the labyrinth of pipes, making adjustments to the feeds in the fusion core. King Icthyonis lifted his fins, spreading webbed fingers, and felt the water in the grand hall command section. The slight vibration in the aqueous solution in which he and the crew lived told him the position of the fleet. By a sense alone the royals could detect if any of the nobles had gone astray, or lagged in transit. “How does he do that?” one midshipman whistled sub-sonically to the sailor beside him. “No one really knows. The accuracy is uncanny, though…” “Hail, Castle Dontanna,” thundered the King. The radio fish lifted one flipper to signal the connection. “My liege,” answered Sir Takorus, on the Dontanna. “Scout the system for biomass. We need all we can sieve.” “Already done, my King. The fifth planet appears ripe for the taking. Much cultivation in progress there. Huge agribusiness. Could feed us all. An alien species we have not yet encountered. Not surprising, they live in air.” “In air?” the midshipman gasped. “Steady on, youngling, stranger things we’ve seen. Brace yourself for the unknown,” answered the wizened sailor beside him. “Armaments?” bellowed the King. “Limited, no military to speak of.” “Ripe for the taking,” the King sputtered to Takorus. Opening a fleet wide channel, he ordered, “Make preparations to land the Kingdom. Castle ships rendezvous on the fifth planet. We descend!” “The entire Kingdom? Is that wise?” whispered the midshipman. “Who questions the orders of the King?!” thundered Icthyonis. The water shimmered over the deck plates as he bellowed. The midshipman was about to swim to attention, but the wizened sailor held her back. The King’s question was rhetorical. Total obedience was inherent in the question. The crew answered the call, or the marines speared them and hauled off their remains.

Aroha checked the satellite feed and choked on her noodles. She turned to Madrigal, and bleated, “Seems we are being invaded.” He swivelled in his chair and caught the swarm of ships inbound before the feed winked out. “What happened?” “The inbound fleet disabled or destroyed our satellite.” “How many of them?” “If it comes to a dust up, you and I will lose many times over.” “Not what I asked.” “It’s what you meant. But per the readout, looks to be thirty ships. All immense.” “Where they coming down?” “In the belly of the Southern Hem.” “The heartland?” Aroha nodded. “Can we call in the cavalry?” “Wouldn’t matter. Whatever this invasion force has planned, they’ll be done and gone before help arrives.” “I guess that means diplomacy. Who said this would be another crap assignment?” “That would be you, Madrigal.” “Best we put on our Union dress suits. Any ident on the ships?” “Nope.” “Great, first contact.” “Since we are being invaded, mind if I get home to my family,” asked Venus from the back. “OP, please scan the prisoner for residual fungus.” “She’s clear,” OP answered after checking the woman. “Okay, cut her loose, OP.” “Thanks, Officer Madrigal,” Venus said, giving a wide berth to Aroha, who stared at the woman with menace. “Don’t see any harm in you being back with your family if we face annihilation. Just watch yourself with that fungus in the future. If we have one.” “Yes, Officer. Oh, and it’s Venus, if we see each other again.” Aroha grunted as she watched the woman leave. Madrigal had a way of charming the locals she had yet to learn. At least with the sober ones. Maybe that’s why the Captain partnered them. “Okay Aroha, suit up! OP, where’s the squad sky car? Give the cruiser a charge and cleaning before we head out.” “Directly, Officer Madrigal. Should I augment the weapons array?” “Thanks for the vote of confidence, OP!” “My scans reveal you possess limited diplomatic skills.” “And remind me, what was your

number?” The robot rotated its eyestalks in irritation.

The Kingdom of Thresylclose landed in a wheat field fifty kilometers from the coast of the southern hemisphere. The castle ships dwarfed the field and were visible all the way to the shore. Not only did the angry farmers approach the Kingdom, but all the families came out to see the aliens. Many arrived in weaponized tractors, others in sky cars dragging sharpened ploughs, while classrooms full of kids swooped in on floating platforms to witness the invasion. The crowd waved powered pitchforks, blasters, and fists at the silent ships, not to mention their robotic tractors stamping the ground in frustration. A riot was inevitable. In these parts, neighbors protected neighbors, and farmers were not much for tolerating crop damage. A group of alderman yelled curses at the largest ship in the fleet. Little did they know that the castle they yelled at was a barn and cultivation center for the Kingdom. The King’s ship lay on the other side of the landing zone. When Madrigal and Aroha arrived, they hovered to deploy recording drones. The data feeds created a 3D site picture of the region. None of it was good. They had no reputation with the locals being brand new and had to insert themselves between the locals and a potentially hostile group of aliens. Aroha rubbed the back of her neck, and said, “No happy endings here, I’m afraid.” Madrigal answered, “Unlikely. But if we can start a dialogue, maybe we can take the wind out of everyone’s sails.” The castle ships took that very moment to deploy their large mechanical harvesters, dropping drawbridges the size of football pitches. The huge robots floated over the field, vacuuming up the biomass and leaving bare earth in their wake. The local farmers went from angry to livid, and from there moved directly to fury. Some even threw rocks at the castles. “We better get down there,” said Aroha. “One moment… okay. Park the sky car by that group of community elders. Maybe if we intervene, the aliens will come and talk to us.” “Yeah, right! Descending…”

Exactly ninety seconds later, Madrigal stood between the elders and the castle waving his arms, “All right, all right, settle down. Let’s see if we can sort this out and maybe set up trade with these aliens.” “Seems they took what they wanted without the asking,” a junior leader yelled. “Might be true, might be they just want to collect what they need, before they ask for a price. Did you think of that?” Madrigal shouted. “Where’s Parks, and who are you two?” Venus Maden asked. Her last twenty-four hours washed away in a mushroom haze. “We’re the new cops on the block. Nice to meet you again, Venus! Parks served his term and moved on,” Aroha answered. This got the elders muttering among themselves. They eyed the newcomers up and down, not liking what they saw. “Can we all just settle down, please? Antagonizing them before we know what they want might cause more harm than good,” said Madrigal. Several of the elders looked around. Venus answered, seeing the bare fields growing by the minute, hoovered up by the alien harvesters, “Looks like they are doing the antagonizing here.” As the elders argued with the cops, a group of aliens in spacesuits stumbled along, coming from the other side of the castles. Local teens followed them, some poking them with shovels from behind. The aliens took no notice, as they were having a hard time walking on the broken soil of the field. “Hey, you there, quit it, or I’ll take you in, yeah!” Aroha threatened, raising her left arm, making a fist at the kids in overalls with the shovels. The aliens thought she was waving her left fist at them. With her right arm, she gestured the aliens to come forward. She felt like a traffic cop from the old days on Platus three. The wary aliens stopped before the cops and the elders. All eyes drifted in the alien’s direction. They adjusted some dials on their suits. One seemed to open and close its mouth like a fish inside their liquid filled power armor. A moment later, a translator activated, “Greetings from King of Thresylclose, I am Sir Takorus, we want. We take.” “Yeah, we can see that,” said Venus. “How much?” the alien, Sir Takorus asked. “Now see,” said Madrigal, turning to the elders, “they are offering to pay.” The elders nodded, figuring their percentage of the sale. “No, not pay, we take. We take all. How much?”

Aroha

rolled her eyes, ‘this is where the fun starts,’ she thought, then said, “It’s asking how much grain you have.” “Yeah, no doubt!

Parks got us a real clever bunch of replacements!” one elder complained. The other elders would have laughed if the situation wasn’t so serious. Instead, the cops saw smirks. Madrigal didn’t mind, he had taken worse abuse in the past. “Now, hold on there, Sir Lavoris!” “Sir Takorus.” “Sorry,” Madrigal apologized. “Allow me to point out. If you take it all, we will starve.” “Not our problem.” “Not sure your King would be happy. Especially if you took it all and left us with nothing. How could we offer you repeat business?” “Repeat?” “Business?” the two aliens asked in sequence. “These farmers can provide you with grain every year if you allow them to live,” Madrigal offered. “If you take it all, we die. Wouldn’t you rather visit every year and get more grain each time instead of one and done?” “One and done?” “Human saying, means: you take it all, and you can’t return for more. If you take some, then there will always be more. Good idea?” “Except then we must trade for what we take,” said Sir Takorus.

“Yes, but what would your King want?” “More better!”

“Right…”

“What do you want?” asked the knight. It pleased the elders, but Madrigal was sweating. His diplomacy skills were being tested to the limit. He realized not only had he dodged a bullet, but he might have avoided an intergalactic war. Venus spoke up, requesting, “Tech. We could use some advanced tech. An FTL drive design for one. Robotics too, like those harvesters.” “We will pause. We will confer with King Ichthyonis.” Takorus turned to his squire and ordered, “Recall the harvesters.” The other alien lifted his suit covered fin and typed in an order to an embedded control panel. The huge harvesters stopped and reversed course back toward the castle ships. The farmers breathed a sigh of relief as their crops were no longer being decimated. Hoots and hollers went up. The aliens nodded, turned, and stumbled toward the King’s castle. Madrigal and Aroha shadowed them to protect the aliens from further harassment. The elders dispersed to share the excellent news with the other farmers. They still didn’t trust the aliens or the cops. For now, though, they had come to a stalemate, and the cops saved their crops. At least for now. That was something. The elders looked at the two cops in a fresh light. It gave them much to think about, as they joined the others, congregating away from the castle ships. After safely delivering the aliens to their ship, Aroha summoned the sky car to return to the precinct. Their next meeting with the aliens may not go as smoothly. Madrigal had his doubts and needed more alternatives.

Sir Takorus removed his suit in the King’s waiting chamber, gasping water, exhausted from his encounter with the humans. He found the black-suited fellows that stood apart from the others intelligent and amenable to compromise. As he swam into the throne room once summoned, he pondered how the King would react. “Well, Sir Takorus, explain yourself. Why have the harvesters stopped? My instruction was to collect all the biomass here for our granaries, then move on.” “Yes, my liege, but the aliens brought up a salient point. They suggested we take only a portion in exchange for technology, leaving the rest for them.” “And why would we do that?” “They pointed out we could return annually to collect more. Rather than ‘one and done’ we would have a limitless supply at our disposal. I know how difficult it is to find biomass on our travels.” If the King’s face could go pale, then it would have. His answer was to take a spear-gun from one of his guards and shoot Takorus’ squire. The carp-like fish froze in its incessant finning, leaked green blood from its spear wounds, and rose on the float, dead. Takorus jerked his head toward his stricken colleague. He wondered if he was next. Icthyonis pondered the offer. It seemed wise. Killing the squire was perfunctory. A royal answer for not carrying out his orders to the letter. He may or may not spare the knight based on a whim. He did, after all, disobey. The killing served as a warning to those in the chamber. “Only reason you’re still alive, Takorus, is that you didn’t take more matters into your own hands. While you violated orders, you also saw an opportunity. Opportunity that required royal consideration. I value loyalty above all, and you risked your life to bring this to me.” The knight swam up on his tail fin, anxious, yet reassured that his death was not imminent. “By your leave…” “No wait, I haven’t dismissed you.

We will honor their offer,” announced the King. “According to the Logistics guild, we will not need the entire biomass of this planet. As for payment, I will discuss with our knights different options. Takorus, you will remain my contact with the aliens, but I rescind your knighthood. Your castle is forfeit. We will absorb it, making it part of the royal coffers. Now you may go.” Takorus was thunderstruck, and the royal guard was quick to rip away his scales of knighthood. He wondered if he’d prefer death. What remained of his retinue stayed behind, awaiting the King’s decree.

Meanwhile, the farmers undermined the ground where the King’s castle sat. Deploying subterranean torpedo tillers, it would not be long before the soil would become unstable and give way. They thought if they toppled the ship, it might earn more payment by righting it to offset their destroyed crops. The King’s misfortune would be their gain. If the alien’s declined their offer, or failed to purchase the crops, then it could serve as a first act of war. Being a nuisance served them either way. As they stripped Takorus of his knighthood, the castle fell, or rather fell over. The King’s look of shock alarmed the court as he sensed the shift before they did. Then everyone was scrambling for a fin’s grip to avoid being thrown around inside the throne room. They sent things not anchored down flying, albeit in slow motion. Tapestries flew and guards flailed, shifting to protect their liege.

Madrigal sat at his desk staring at the elders arriving in his office. They were meeting to plan further alien negotiations. It was a long first day. Much longer than expected. The elders were putting forth their suggestions and demands, although they didn’t know what the aliens might offer in exchange. Madrigal would just be grateful to have his precinct the following morning. A drone feed from the landing zone of the Kingdom tore his attention from the group. He frowned in horror, focusing on the scene as the torpedoes surfaced. The castle ship fell, and the farmers cheered in silence on the feed. “What, what happened?” Venus stuttered, seeing Madrigal’s face. Her residual disorientation from the night before affected her speech. “Unbelievable! I can’t leave you folks for a second before you wreak havoc.” Aroha thundered down into the office from upstairs, “You seeing this, Madrigal?!” The mystified elders turned to Aroha for an explanation, “Your faithful followers just toppled the royal castle ship.” “They what?!” Now it was the elders turn to react. Just as things were going so well, the farmers pulled this stunt. Their jobs just became much harder. “We better get out there, Aroha. Before they wave signs and pelt the ships with cow patties!” “We’ll join you,” a few said, rising, the meeting adjourned. As the squad car made the transit, the farmers prepared their equipment to tow the castle upright. They looked a little too eager to help. Others tried to look sad, some shaking their heads, with an expression that said, ‘told you so.’ The aliens crowded the view ports, fishlike beings bobbing in the fluid medium, surprised. Farmers stared at them just as wide eyed. Alarms blared throughout the castle. Guards and engineers deployed to protect the King’s ship and assess the damage. The throne room was in chaos, while the King re-established order. The corpse, still impaled, floated about, ignored. For about an hour, nothing seemed to happen on either side. Then Takorus, accompanied by several crew in environment suits, emerged from the King’s ship, moving in their ponderous and stumbling gaits. They ignored the farmers as they assessed for the optimum method to right the castle. The humans followed them, curious if not antagonistic. One farmer used hand signals offering to help to lift the ship, but all the hand and arm waving worried the aliens. Takorus seemed relieved when he saw the uniformed Latino and his huge partner approach. The farmers looked to be yelling at the aliens and threatening them with all their arm waving and gestures. It put Takorus at ease, when Madrigal ignored the farmers in the same way he had. The elders raced to join the police. The three aliens squared off with the humans, staring ominously. As they began their second meeting, Aroha turned to the farmers behind her and asked, “Listen up, any of you responsible for spilling their ship?” Guilty faces turned away, avoiding her stare. Several shielded their eyes, embarrassed, while others blushed and gave small nods. “Just as I thought! You idiots trying to start a war? We were just making headway when you pulled this stunt! Now we will have to grovel and beg forgiveness.” “No reason they need to know,” said one woman farmer. “We just thought we could

sweeten the deal by helping them out,” offered a short man. “How about you just right that ship and forget the apology!” Aroha ordered. There were grunts and mutters. “From here on out, we’ll do the negotiating, and the rest of you keep your mouths shut,” Aroha finished, and turned to Madrigal with a wink. “Looks like the ground gave way under your ship. Anything we can do to help?” offered Madrigal to Takorus, trying to look innocent. “I heard what they said. It seems they are responsible for the damage. The King has lost face, and we demand reparations!” “How about we set things right, then talk about what you can do for us?”

Before Takorus could answer Madrigal, the cop whistled loud, waved his hand in a circle, and directed the farmers to correct the problem. The farmers went to their tractors, and the two alien engineers beside Takorus pointed at the chain piles. They helped direct the farmers to attach them to points on the castle. Setting up a pulley system, the farmers and alien engineers worked together to lift the ship back into its original position. Other mechs and bulldozers assisted by shifting earth so they could restore a stable pad under the King’s ship. There was a lot of work being done and undone. Meanwhile, Takorus and Madrigal kept looking at each other in silence, watching the commotion out of the corner of their eyes. Aroha herded together the elders, all wanting to talk with Takorus. Without diplomatic training, they would probably ruin whatever progress he made. Aroha paused and looked straight up, listening through her head piece. Others looked up, mimicking her like sheep. Though they could see nothing, Aroha knew a human military fleet had just entered orbit. It was a chance occurrence. She walked over to Madrigal and whispered in his ear. Takorus approximated curiosity with his limited facial muscles, but it was the other castles that answered his curiosity. Their weapons arrays sprouted from all ports. The elders and farmers, seeing the castles’ weapons priming, stepped back, as if distance would protect them. Takorus saw them panic and turned to look at the King’s ships. He called for more information on the aggressive stance and reassured the King negotiations were in hand. Madrigal contacted the fleet commander, “Sir, this is Officer Madrigal, Precinct 728, please stand down. We are successfully resolving issues with the alien fleet. If you fire, you will injure or kill many civilians.” “This is Admiral Negishi. Are you under duress? Do you make this request freely?” “I make this request freely, Veri-code 2768wf, commit.” Madrigal answered and held his breath, hoping the code and sequenced response was still valid.

On the bridge of the command battle cruiser, Admiral Negishi turned to his security officer. The woman answered, “It’s an older code, but it checks out.” The Admiral opened a fleet wide channel, “Fleet! Stand down. Terminate target lock. Remain in geosynchronous orbit.” Then he responded to Madrigal, “Code verified. Wilco. We will remain on station until we receive your all clear. Praise the Union.” “Praise the Union!” Madrigal responded completing the sequence. He wiped sweat from his brow and nodded at Takorus. In answer, the weapons array on the castle ships returned to their towers. Takorus nodded back, another crisis averted.

In due time, they negotiated a fair deal (one third of the planet’s crops for their harvester technology, but no FTL drive design), an ongoing contract, and a feast. The courtiers hovered around Aroha, fascinated by the islander. The elders and Madrigal struggled to eat while breathing through their re-breather systems in the liquid medium. The dolphin symphony played in squeaks and bellows, unpleasant to human ears, but delightful to the court. The King was solemn but pleased. He didn’t know if he would return to this planet, but at least he knew he could, and the Kingdom would thrive. A seahorse like entity kept rubbing up against Aroha, and she kept elbowing it away. Madrigal said, “Looks like you’ve attracted a lover, Aroha!” She laughed, and a blast of bubbles leaked around her regulator, “I suppose this assignment worked out better than expected, for an Aggro planet.” “Can’t complain, who knows? We might get a promotion for a well-managed first contact. I bet Negishi sent a complimentary report.” “At least, we won’t be on the bottom of the duty roster next time. I’d be happy with that. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a seahorse to entertain.” This time it was Madrigal’s turn to blast bubbles. The King looked at him as if he passed gas, which in a way, he did.