User Guide

not allow me to sleep, but otherwise did not harm me.”
“I was very worried, when I heard that you had been arrested.” Hassa’s eyes were dark and unread-
able, all pupil. “We were afraid that you would reveal what you know of the rebellion.”
He bristled at the implication of weakness. “Never! Even if they had tortured me, I would have
revealed nothing!”
“So they set you free.” Hassa’s claws extended and retracted nervously. “They set you free…why?”
In a way, that puzzled him too. “I assume, because they could not find anything, nor trick me into
giving them information. Because they believe that I am loyal to the emperor. Because I am Thrak’hra,
and a decorated ship’s captain. Prince Thrakhath himself attended my final interrogation, and ordered
them to release me.”
“I see.” Hassa was silent for a long moment, and then spoke. “The Council met last night, Ralgha,
while we were still uncertain as to your fate. They decided that if you survived the interrogation, they
would have a task for you.”
He flushed with the heat of excitement; his fur itched. After all this time — they had something
they wanted him to do.
“We must gain help for this rebellion against the emperor, if it is to succeed,” she continued. “You
will be our envoy, our ambassador…you will go to the humans and demand their assistance for us. We
will be their allies, but they must send us troops, weapons, starships. You will surrender your ship, the
Ras Nik’hra, to them as a gesture of good faith.”
“Surrender…my ship?” Ralgha stared at her, so stunned with shock, he felt like a tiny merdha must,
when the teeth of the hunter met in its neck. “Give it to the humans? My ship? How can you ask this of
me?”
Hassa’s face was fiercely adamant; he knew there would be no moving her. Though she cared for him
as an old and beloved friend, the rebellion was something like an offspring to her. As a mother would
abandon mate to fight for the life of a cub, she would give all to her cause. “You must! If you do not,
Ralgha nar Hhallas, you are an oathbreaker. You swore an oath to the Council that you would aid us in
overthrowing the emperor…how can you be forsworn now?”
He shook his head. “Not possible! The humans would destroy us on sight —”
She cut him off with a gesture. “We have communicated with the Terrans…there will be a ship wait-
ing for you in the Firekka System, the Tiger’s Claw. You will give the Ras Nik’hra to them, and tell them
of our rebellion.”
Silence hung between them for a long time, as Ralgha fought his emotions again, and considered
what she had said in as dispassionate a light as he could manage under the circumstances. “I will do
this,” Ralgha said slowly. “I must. I will not be forsworn. But I know what it means…I will never be
able to return. I will never see you, or my home of Hhallas again.” He looked up at the mountain above
them, the first stars beginning to appear in the night sky. “Sometimes I wonder if we should ever have
left our planet, Hassa. We were so happy there as children, we could have stayed there…perhaps I
should have claimed you as my mate and bearer of my children when I had the chance. Years ago, before
politics and soldiering claimed my life, and the Lord Sivar claimed yours.”
Hassa touched his face hesitantly. “Do you think we would have been happy, Ralgha? Living out our
lives in the mountains of Hhallas? A life without honor, without a future? I think not. Better to burn
brightly, if only for a short time, than never to have truly lived at all. I have no regrets.” She glanced up
at the entrance of the ampitheatre. “Where is that human child? She only had to cross the street to the
house, not run across the entire city!”
Hassa climbed the steps, looking out into the street. She turned back to Ralgha, too slowly to be
casual, and walked down to where he waited.
“There are Imperial soldiers outside my house,” she said quietly. “Ralgha, you must go. They will
doubtless search here next, when they realize I am not in my home. Something must have gone wrong.”
Fear for her, and anger, made his voice into a growl; his claws extended, and his neck-ruff rose. “But
what of you, Hassa?”
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