“They had to. They did well by me, love. What bothers me is, they’ll never be sure I’m not a murderer. Neither will the police. This is a wonderful planet for getting rid of a corpse. I’ll be looking over my shoulder for that kzinti cop—”

“No, Bey—”

“He smelled our fear.”

“They smell everyone’s fear. They make wonderful police, but they can’t react every time a kzin makes a human nervous. He may have pegged you as an outworlder, though.”

“Oop. Why?”

“Bey, the kzinti are everywhere on Fafnir, mostly on the mainland, but they’re on site at the fishing sources too. Fafnir sea life feeds the whole Patriarchy, and it’s strictly a kzinti operation. Shashters are used to kzin. But kids and wimps and outworlders all get twitchy around them, and they’re used to that.”

He might have smelled more than our fear, I thought. Our genetic makeup, our diet…but we’d been eating Fafnir fish for over a month, and Fafnir’s people were every breed of man.

“Stet. Shall we deal with the Hand of Allah?”

Now she looked nervous. “I must have driven them half crazy. And worried them sick. It’s a good gift, isn’t it? Shorfy and Isfahan were constantly complaining about fish, fish, fish—”

“They’ll love it. It’s about five ounces of red meat per crewman—I suppose that’s—”

“Free-range life-forms from the hunting parks.”

“And fresh vegetables to match. I bet the kzinti don’t grow those. Okay, take one—”

Sharrol: “Captain Muh’mad, I was a long time recovering my memory. I expect the ’docs did more repair work every time I went under. My husband’s found me, we both have jobs, and this is to entertain you and your crew in my absence.”

Me: “For my wife’s life, blessings and thanks.” I turned it off. “Now Carlos.”

Her hand stopped me. “I can’t leave, you know,” Sharrol said. “I’m not a coward—”

“Feather learned that!”

“It’s just…overkill. I’ve been through too much.”

“It’s all right. Carlos has Louis and Tanya for awhile, and that’s fine, they love him. We’re free of the UN. Everything went just as we planned it, more or less, except from Feather’s viewpoint.”

“Do you mind? Do you like it here?”

“There are transfer booths if I want to go anywhere. Sharrol, I was raised underground. It feels just like home if I don’t look out a window. I wouldn’t mind spending the rest of our lives here. Now, this is for Ms. Machti at Outbound, not to mention any watching ARMs. Ready? Take one.”

Me: “Hi, John! Hello, kids! We’ve got a more or less happy ending here, brought to you with some effort.”

Sharrol: “I’m pregnant. It happened yesterday morning. That’s why we waited to call.”