“I know. I’ve heard your line of reasoning before. About five hundred times, in fact.”

“Destruction! Am I really that much of a bore?” He came up behind her and laid his hands on her shoulders. “I don’t mean to be. Honest. I’m not used to talking to women, that’s all.”

“And I’m not used to being shut away like a prize fish, except when you want to exhibit me,” she said sharply.

He kissed her neck. His whiskers tickled. “It’ll be different on Vaynamo. When we’re settled down. I’ll be governor of the planet. The Directorate has as good as promised me. Then I can do as I want. And so can you.”

“I doubt that. Why should I believe anything you say? When I told you I’d made Ivalo talk by promising you would exchange him, you wouldn’t keep the promise.” She tried to wriggle free, but his grip was too strong. She contented herself with going rigid. “Now, when I tell you the prisoners we brought back this time are to be treated like human beings, you whine about your damned Directorate—”

“But the Directorate makes policy!”

“You’re the Fleet Admiral, as you never lose a chance to remind me. You can certainly bring pressure to bear. You can insist the Vaynamoans be taken out of those kennels and given honorable detention—”

“Awww, now.” His lips nibbled along her cheek. She turned her head away and continued:

“—and you can get what you insist on. They’re your own prisoners, aren’t they? I’ve listened enough to you, and your dreary officers when you brought them home. I’ve read books, hundreds of books. What else have I got to do, day after day and week after week?”

“But I’m busy! I’d like to take you out, honest, but—”

“So I understand the power structure on Chertkoi just as well as you do, Bors Golyev. If not better. If you don’t know how to use your influence, then slough off some of that conceit, sit down and listen while I tell you how.”

“Well, uh, I never denied, sweetling, you’ve given me some useful advice from time to time.”

“So listen to me. I say all the Vaynamoans you hold are to be given decent quarters, recreation, and respect. What did you capture them for, if not to get some use out of them? And the proper use is not to titillate yourself by kicking them around. A dog would serve that purpose better.

“Furthermore, the fleet has to carry them back to Vaynamo. All of them.”

“What? You don’t know what you’re talking about! The logistics is tough enough without—”

“I do so know what I’m talking about. Which is more than I can say for you. You want guides, intermediaries, puppet leaders, don’t you? Not by the score, a few cowards and traitors, as you have hitherto. You need hundreds. Well, there they are, right in your hands.”

“And hating my guts.”

“Give them reasonable living conditions and they won’t Not quite so much, anyhow. Then bring them back home—a generation after they left, all their friends aged or dead, everything altered once you’ve conquered the planet. And let me deal with them. You’ll get helpers.”