Gah, I've held out long enough, can't STAND it when I don't put down what I have



"Milord, the Protectors have failed to detain the escaping Darksprays." Kroys glared at the wall behind his Fleet Commander. He did a lot of that lately. . .

"Where are they?"

"M-milord, three were d-destroyed and one survived."

"Where is the survivor?"

"W-we c-could not g-g-give him access, m-milord! T-the shields w-were t-t-too low to let him e-enter!"

"Where is he?"

"W-we b-b-believe he w-went t-t-t-to the s-small moon of- of Shilarloh, m-milord," the terrified turtle trembled.

"No," Kroys breathed. "You know." The Commander cowered away. He hated that. Flairang never did that. . . But if the magic-users were to be believed, Flairang had been as much a traitor as the mercenary Claw. Now this idiot was Commander.

"Where did he go?"

"W-we don't know, milord! He could be anywhere!"

"Find him. I need every Protector."

"Yes, milord."

"Dismissed."



"Okay, he's here," Blacksheep yelled in the general direction of the cockpit as Zanzibar leapt up the stairs. The Assassin's engines hummed and they lifted off.

"What took you so long?" Phoebe demanded. Zanzibar sighed.

"My fool brother was not where he was supposed to be."

"Oh?"

"Uh-huh. He's convinced that Kroys is not what we think he is. . . I hope I have cured him of that."

"Oh."

"Yesss. . ." And the squirrel could get no more out of him.



"Good work, Kaz," Copper congratulated. "I've never seen a smoother lift off."

"Thanks. Um, what's THIS button for?"

"Don't touch that!. . ."

"Why not?"

"'Cause it's the eject button," Claw offered dryly.

"Ah," Kaz nodded wisely. "That's a good reason. I understand everything but the explanation." Copper looked at him for a second, and then whacked him.

"Ouch!"

"So there. Ah. . . don't touch that. The last thing we need is to enter hyperspace right here."

"We haven't gone in hyperspace yet," Kaz commented.

"Good. Keep it that way."

"Okie."

Then, "uh. . . where are we going?"

"To the Conquerer. Go get Shinyso."

"Okie."



"Permission denied. Shilarloh is temporarily closed due to the large amount of, uh, space debris," the Shilarloh towerman replied nervously. Shonar understood perfectly.

"Wrong type of space debris, huh?"

"Um, yeah."

It figures. With all those mercenaries and all, and with all the restrictions. . . He wheeled the Protector around and headed for Kilanphor. He had to get powered up again, or else the Protector would be space dust. And he'd better not mention the growing Empire. . .