Renall strode to his chamber, his body tingling and his brain whirling. He’d made love to Clara! The long seated ache he had felt for her had not abated either. If he had not left when he had, he might very well have made love to her yet again!

What the hell was I thinking? I can’t stay with her, not without breaking that pact. Not without putting everything we have all worked so hard for at risk. His mind tussled with that, and his heart plummeted as a new thought occurred to him.

He didn’t want Laria. He wanted Clara. He was emotionally entangled with Clara, something he had not expected and something that was true and had been true before he had made love to her.

He felt nothing for Laria, and he doubted very seriously if she felt anything for him either. Other than duty and her obligation to her father.

Her father.

Renall realized that it was growing close to the time for that interface meeting. He quickly stripped and bathed then donned a fresh tunic and trousers. He didn’t bother with boots, just sat in front of the module and waited for the call. His mind kept going back to Clara though. To her ability to listen to him talk. To his willingness to talk to her about his past. To the way her skin had felt below his fingers and along his flesh.

The interface crackled. He took a deep breath then answered, “Hello, Morilan.”

Morilan frowned at him. He spoke without preamble. “Laria has stated that she has already told you about the temple costs.”

“She has.” His leg tightened, the muscles flexing hard. “I feel as if…” He paused. What did he feel?

Nothing. Not for Laria. Not for that far too expensive temple. Was that alliance truly worth the staggering amount of credits and, what was more, was it worth the cost of having to live with a being who saw him simply as a convenient piggy bank to redeem the temples on her home planet?

No, think. What you are really buying is the military mettle and might of their planet.

Morilan grunted. “You stopped speaking.” The implication that he clearly thought that Renall had stopped thinking was clear. Renall wasn’t thinking. At least not of the situation at hand. He was thinking of Clara.

The conflict just grew with each passing second.

He cleared his throat. “Forgive me. I seem to be overly tired. We had a problem with a Terestrial attacking one of my dealers.”

A dealer I feel strongly about and would not see harmed. A dealer, a carder, who makes me want so much more than the bargain I signed onto with you and your daughter.

Morilan grunted again. “I need at least a one hundred and twenty thousand credits to begin the work.”

Renall blinked. “To begin it?”

Morilan looked very pleased. “It will be the finest temple in all the system. That means it will be the costliest as well.’

It’s not worth it. Renall tried to tamp that thought down but couldn’t. Instead, he said, “I fear we have an issue. You see, I am already coming up short on purchasing the planet, even though all of my brothers and myself are combining our coffers. We will, of course, need a vast amount of credits even after the purchase. To keep spending in such a way, well. I fear I may not be able to afford the temple of your dreams.”

There was a warning in Renall’s voice when the words were spoken, but there was a larger one in Morilan’s. “Oh? Then perhaps we should rethink how soon you might purchase the planet.”

Renall’s anger rose. “I can’t. You see, the planet is highly coveted. It is but one of four remaining unsold private planets in the entire galaxy.”

And the others were not only not suitable for his race, but also expensive beyond his means. Not to mention he would have to do atmosphere work in order to live there if he did get one of them. Which would prove even more expensive.

“I do not understand why you are balking.”

Renall’s brows drew together at Morilan’s words. He spoke without thinking. “I am sure you do not. However, if I wish to have a planet, which I do, and must in order to keep faith with the pact I made with you, then I must have credits. I cannot give you any more for the temple.” A vein beat in his forehead. Rage spiked upward, heating his already volatile emotions. “I will not give you any more money for that temple. I agreed to three hundred thousand credits. You have exceeded that by three hundred percent as it is, and now you wish more?”

Morilan’s eyes narrowed, a sure sign that he was angered by Renall’s words. He said, “I do. I offer you my daughter. My army. Yet you balk at a small sum?”

“Small sum? We’re past a million credits now.” His anger kept his tongue moving long after he knew it should have halted. “I am not able to keep funding your temple.” A thought came. His breath hissed inward. Why had he not seen it before? He added, in a low and deadly voice. “I would hate to think that perhaps you have been storing my wealth away in the form of the temple, and in an effort to enrich yourself at my expense.”

Morilan recoiled, and in that instant, Renall knew that that was exactly what was happening. The planet was small and poor, and the people, while capable of great warfare, not part of the outer systems moneyed Federations. Morilan was obviously socking away the funds. So why?

Renall asked, in a sotto voice. “Are you unhappy with our pact, Morilan?”

Morilan’s lips compressed. His face paled. “No. I have but one daughter, however. She is worth much to me.”

The bastard. Renall said, “She may be less valuable to me.”

He hated negotiations, especially after a deal had already been struck. Morilan had changed the terms one time too many, and now Renall was considering life with Laria, and finding it to be a less than pleasant idea.

Morilan said, “The temple has no roof.”

“Then I would suggest you get your people to build one out of respect for your deities.”

That sentence resounded with finality. Renall meant every syllable too. He was not about to dish out a single credit more for that temple or for Laria. He was seriously tempted to tell Morilan that he had to break the pact, but he did not know the consequences of such an action and his mind was already weighing the risks and finding them unacceptable.

He’d lose a million credits. He’d lose an ally. It was one thing to refuse to renegotiate yet again. It was wholly another to refuse to wed Laria.

But how he wished he could do just that.

Morilan said, “I see. I understand, of course. The original agreement was rewritten so…”

“Several times. You cannot continue to garner my goodwill in such a way. I could break our pact for your failing to hold to the agreement, demand all my credits be returned, or that the temple be removed from your planet and placed elsewhere. It would have to be torn down and reconstructed, but it could be done.”

Morilan had obviously not expected that. He spoke quickly. “I understand. I see I have angered you. I did not assume you would balk so.”

No, you didn’t. Renall was angry, but mostly with himself. He had allowed Morilan to feel as if he could continue to keep taking credits from his coffers without concern. “I have to go.” He flicked off the interface before he could lose his temper and speak the truth.

The truth was he didn’t want to keep that pact.

He wanted Clara, and there was no way he could keep denying it.

The might of Morilan’s warriors were not the only concern, however. Morilan’s forebears had brought many beings with them when they had settled that planet of theirs. They had been wanderers of the system not yet claimed or even known for the most part. It still was not very well known, and getting to it even posed a risk as it sat just outside a strong grav-pull from a collapsed wormhole. The likelihood of it being plundered did not lessen because of that, however. Brigands and other wanderers, star-and-planet-less races, would risk much to have a home. The one thing the planet had going for it was its unsuitability for most races to live upon its surface and its primitive state. That and the fact that Morilan’s planet and the other populated one, in that tiny system of three planets, were not Federation territory, made it a less than desirable location for purchasers trying to buy a private planet.

Despite its not being part of the Federation, he could not simply go in and take the planet. The Federation must be given a price for it. It was not like it had been centuries before when unclaimed planets could just be taken. In order to keep the Federation out, he had to line the coffers of that Federation. In order to build a suitable habitat and to begin the hard task of taming the planet, he had to have many credits at his disposal.

There were things he had to have in place there, and those things would also take credits. He had to build docks for ships, and those were expensive. The list of the things he had to have credits for grew longer by the day.

And paying an army to help protect the place was not in his means. If it were, he could simply break that pact and go on, even if it meant fighting off Morilan’s warriors.

There was more to consider, however.

His entire race was gone but for a few.

The ones Morilan’s forbears had settled their planet with had been pureblooded, but they had eventually had to mix with the other beings in their landing party in order to survive. Only one family stayed pure no matter what, and now Laria was the only purebred female of his race in that entire side of the galaxy.

Purebred children. Children who would have blood not so easily diluted, who would continue his race. There were others, scattered across the galaxy, and he wanted to get them to that planet. His siblings, all of them as pure-blooded as he was himself, were in agreement with that. They wanted to save their race as much as possible, to keep their ways and genetics alive as long as they could in order to honor their ancestors and to remain upon the face of the galaxy.

But maybe that was foolish.

He paused, his heart beating too fast at the thought. Unbidden understanding hit hard. It would not matter how many children he had and then wed off to whatever purebred beings he could cull from the galaxy and convince to populate the new world. Sooner or later, they would mix, they would have to just as Morilan’s people had mixed. True, they could take the same road that Morilan’s family had and continue a pattern of breeding with real discrimination, but how healthy could their race remain under those circumstances?

And how much good was it doing him to want one being and wed another?

None.

Renall had spent centuries with one plan in mind, and now it seemed that that plan was no longer one he wanted to follow and that bemused him. He was used to being logical, to carefully registering his emotions and then setting them aside in order to make the most logical of decisions, in order to think through all of the possibilities so that he would take the road that would lead to the best and most rational result, the result that would fall in line with his plans.

He went to the window and stared out, not knowing that in her chamber, Clara was doing the very same thing, and thinking the same things he was at that moment.

He stood there staring at Orbitary. It felt like a beautiful prison, one designed to trap the unwary and then take as much from them as it could. He longed to be able to simply open a door and step into oxygenated air without worrying that each breath was being monitored and each carbon-laden exhale registered and weighted and considered for the final bill.

He sighed and turned away from the window.

He could not afford to set aside the dream that had been what had sustained him through so many terrible, bloody, and long and lonely centuries.

He couldn’t.

It was not just him that he was doing this all for. He had his siblings and his few remaining people to think of. Love was selfish, and it led people to do selfish things. Love was for humans and other races, not for his race. His race had always wed and mated according to what was best for the community and for their alliances.

How could he possibly do any less?

His thoughts were interrupted when the office door slid open, and Talon came walking across the office, his face showing fresh bruises. He gave Renall a tired smile. “Good news or bad news?”

“Bad.” Better to learn exactly what was happening. Talon sighed and ran his hands through his thick hair. “The Gorlites have declared open warfare on me.”

“That’s not so new. They’ve been hunting us ever since we took their first ship.”

Talon grinned, but there were faint lines of exhaustion on his face. “Good news is, there are five Gorlite ships left.”

Five. Talon and the rest of them had, many years ago, decided to get even with the beings that had taken their family and then sent them into the misery of the mines. Stripping Gorlite vessels was hardly profitable, but it was highly satisfactory on a personal level. Renall had long since stopped feeling that, but Talon had never tired of going after Gorlites. “That is good news.”

“I want to hunt them into extinction.”

Renall stiffened. “That’s…why?”

Talon’s mouth pursed. “Well, for one thing, until I do, none of us will be safe from them. For another, I happen to know for a fact that they are desperate for a homeland. They’re too well known for what they do, and people are starting to understand there are so few of them left now. They are still vengeful however, and still systematically taking ships that carry families and cargo for their own.”

Renall said, “As do we.”

“We allow those onboard to escape. True, we killed a few of the cargo women at that last strip job, but that was hardly our fault. They were not licensed to carry that kind of cargo, as witnessed by their cargo class numbers.”

Renall sighed. “We have other things to do right now, Talon.”

“You might.” Talon gave him a lopsided smile. “I just got word that the latest shipment of oreonium that I took and sold was worth nearly a million credits. I also hear that one of the Gorlite ships is carrying not just a colony of them but also a rich store of ore. I can take it and kill two birds with one stone in a very literal sense.”

A million credits? “That’s a big haul.”

“The biggest. A year’s worth, in fact. I also got a big shipment of other things we can sell. This was a huge take.”

Renall had to ask. “How many ships did you take?”

Talon said, “Two brigand and one Gorlite.”

Gorlites. Talong had seen their father die and he had been the one to try to protect their mother, but to no avail. Renall had been next on the scene and between them, he and Talon, later joined by Jeval and Marik, had fought for as long as they could. The crew had joined in, and many had died. Talon had never really recovered from that. He still lusted for revenge, and it would do no good to try to stop him.

Renall decided to say nothing and wait to hear what else Talon had to say. Talon answered that decision by saying. “Marik pulled the chips from the women we took.”

Renall tensed. “And?”

“They don’t match.”

Renall didn’t relax. “I see.”

“We have to take the carders chip.”

Yes, they did. The idea that she might be a cycle spy was hard to take. It meant she would not live long, and that he had been discovered in his illegal activities. The Federation could very well step in and try to reassign his credit accounts and the gaming hall, which would bankrupt him. Unless he had the planet, where there was no Federation regulations or control.

He sighed. “I know.”

But what if Clara, who was already angry with him over the delay of her mother’s arrival, decided to simply take advantage of the credits she had in her possession, the lack of a chip, and her current anger at him, and leave?

That was a distinct possibility. Once the chip was gone, she would have nothing to fear from her government and the crypto file he held would matter little if she got a genetic lift and some facial surgery.

She might too.

He said, “We can’t tell her why we are taking it out.”

“No.” Talon walked toward the small table and lifted out a short and sparkling bottle of water, the most expensive drink in the hall. He swallowed half the bottle at one gulp. He gasped for breath then added, “We need to do it today.”

“I will have her taken to the med bay at once.” No way was he going to face her. He shifted in the chair. “Please keep me informed.”

His heart thumped as he spoke the words. What if it was Clara? What if she was a cycle spy and he had to kill her out of sheer mercy?

Could he do that?

Could he?