She sighed and looked at the information pad he had given her. A highlighted route appeared, running through the Cactus Corridor and beyond, well into uncharted s.p.a.ce.

A small blue planet pulsed, begging her to touch the screen and enlarge the image.

She didn"t. Instead, she handed the pad back to Galland.

"A treasure map," she said. "How delightful. Am I acting as a member of the Patrol now or as part of a newly created piracy force? Should I wear an eye patch, get a peg leg, and start calling you matey?"

"You forget, Captain, that you are talking to your superior."

She let out a large sigh and let her shoulders relax. "No, I haven"t, sir. But frankly, you"re not acting like my superior here. You"re acting like a little boy who just found out that there"s gold at the end of the rainbow."

"And you, Captain, should take this a.s.signment more seriously."

"I would," she said, "if you had a reliable source. And if you were pursuing something that was possible.

They"re sending you-me, actually-on some kind of wild goose chase."

"I"ve heard enough about this universal translator to believe it"s something we have to investigate."

"Then have someone bring it here," she said. "What"s to stop someone from bringing the technology to us?"

"The Hacrim say that these creatures don"t want to sell it."

This mission was getting worse and worse. "Then why would you want me to go to this place?""To see if the rumors are true," Galland said.

"They aren"t," Roz said.

"Then find out."

"Through the Cactus Corridor. Into uncharted s.p.a.ce. Breaking G.o.d knows how many regulations to track down a rumor?"

"You"re an explorer, Captain."

"I"m a military officer, Admiral. I"m supposed to be patrolling a sector, not going on fantasy vacations in your stead."

"You"re being insubordinate, Captain."

"And you"re not acting like my superior officer, Admiral." Roz picked up the pad and looked at it one last time.

There was a lot of information missing from that route. The section of s.p.a.ce after the Cactus Corridor was empty- completely black. Then there was the pulsating planet, and nothing else.

s.p.a.ce was never empty and it never had nothing there. Especially over distances that vast.

"Let me remind you, Captain, who saved your b.u.t.t-"

"Yeah," Roz said. "In an incident that happened in the Cactus Corridor. No offense, Admiral, but I really don"t want to take my ship back there."

"You won"t be, Roz," Galland said, lowering his voice. "You"ll be taking a prototype vessel. A small one. One that can handle the p.r.i.c.kly nature of that nebula."

"And the Ba-am-as?" she asked.

"You let me worry about the Ba-am-as."

"No offense, sir, but I"m the one whose going to be taking a prototype ship through the Cactus Corridor, heavily mined and guarded by the Ba-am-as, into s.p.a.ce that isn"t properly charted, in search of something that"s scientifically impossible. I respectfully and forcefully decline."

Admiral Galland let out a small sigh. "Roz, I don"t think you"re in the position to argue-"

"Admiral," she said, putting her hands on his desk and leaning close. "Let me ask you a few questions."

He raised his dark eyes to hers. She thought she caught in them an expression of wary amus.e.m.e.nt. She didn"t like that at all.

"Fire, Captain." Back to captain, then, were they? None of that too-familiar Roz c.r.a.p any longer.

"Did the Dulacs speak English when they told you of this great find?"

"No," Galland started, but she didn"t let him finish.

"Did the Hacrim? How about the Crativ"n?"

"No.""Did they use one of these devices to communicate with you?"

"No," Galland said.

"So you had to speak to them through translators."

"Yes, but-"

"Human translators, trained at some university and hired by the Patrol, right?"

"Yes, but-"

"Don"t you find that somewhat suspicious?"

"No," Galland said.

She couldn"t believe he had just said that. "No?"

Galland nodded. "No."

She stood up. Now she was confused. "Why not?" And then she mentally kicked herself for asking the question.

"Because," he said, "they claim these creatures don"t want the translator in anyone else"s hands."

"So," she said, "on the off chance that this universal translator does exist, what am I supposed to do?

Steal the technology?"

"That"s your suggestion, Captain."

She let out a surprised laugh. "I was being sarcastic, Admiral."

"Really?" he said, "Somehow, I hadn"t noticed."

She stared at him, shocked. "You can"t be serious."

He grinned. "It was your suggestion."

She shook her head. How she hated the meetings with him. The thing was she knew she had little recourse. The Alliance let a lot of things slide, particularly if the end result benefited Alliance members.

And to think she had been idealistic when she joined up, believing that "for the good of all races" c.r.a.p that had been in the recruiting ads. To think that she once believed she and her crew would fly all over the galaxy doing good.

How naive was that?

Probably as naive as letting Admiral Galland help her avoid rea.s.signment.

"Admiral," she said, choosing her words carefully, "we couldn"t invent a universal translator for human languages. Human beings-the same species-don"t base our language on the same structure and concepts. How can there be a universal translator for humans and aliens? It"s not possible and you know it. You want me to risk my life and my crew"s for someone"s con.""It"s not a con," he said. "Three different kinds of aliens-"

"Yeah. They couldn"t all have been bought off." She put up her hands as if to ward off his next remark.

"That was sarcasm too, in case you didn"t catch it."

"Look, Captain. You and I have both seen a lot of strange things in our careers. That"s part of what s.p.a.ce is about." Galland was being serious now. Somehow that disconcerted her even more. "What if this translator works for some alien races? If it works forty percent of the time, then it"s better than anything we have."

"And if, in the remaining sixty percent, it mistranslates and we don"t know it, aren"t we setting ourselves up for something completely terrible?" she asked.

"Let"s find out if it exists first, Roz. Then we"ll worry about it."

"So I cross the Cactus Corridor, fight my way through an uncharted section of s.p.a.ce, find out the d.a.m.n thing exists, come back, tell you, and you"ll send me out again?"

"I"d rather take your first suggestion," Galland said.

"It wasn"t a suggestion," she said. "And I won"t steal for you or the Alliance. I"m not that dumb."

All the humor left Galland"s face. "Really, Roz?" he asked. "Your record suggests otherwise."

"It does not. I"ve been one of the best officers in this fleet, and you know it."

"I know it," he said. "But it doesn"t show in your record. In fact, the last eleven runs you did for me were off the books. Officially, Captain, you"re grounded."

Her mouth went dry. "What?"

He shrugged. "We"re pretty much an isolated outpost here, Roz. No one knows what happens out here unless we choose to tell them. For the past several years all your communications, all your a.s.signments, and all of your command decisions have been run through me."

Of course it had. That was standard policy. She was feeling light-headed. He had manipulated standard policy to his own advantage? That was even lower than she had expected him to go.

"There aren"t that many starships," she said. "Patrol Headquarters has to know that someone has been running the Millennium."

"Someone has," Galland said. "Just not you."

She licked her lips. They were dry, too. "What have I been doing then?"

"Penance, just like you were supposed to. Working dock-side with me."

"You son of a b.i.t.c.h!" She started across the desk at him, but he caught her by her shoulders.

"Don"t fly off, Roz," he said. "You don"t dare. Or I"ll report your usage of the Millennium. All of it illegal."

"That"s not true. We"ve done surveys for the Patrol. We"ve gone on a.s.signment-"

"True," he said. "All of it logged in under the new captain"s name. The only runs that bear your signatureare the eleven I asked for."

"All illegal," she said.

He shrugged. "All insurance."

She eased herself out of his grasp. "What about my crew?"

"Loyalty is a two-edged sword, Roz," Galland said. "They"ll say anything for you."

"You"d ruin their careers, too?" she asked.

He smiled. "It seems that you already have."

She clenched her fists and had to walk around the office once to keep herself from flattening him.

a.s.shole. She had been right. She should have trusted her instincts, should have believed in that feeling she had every time he gave her an a.s.signment.

But she had wanted her ship back so badly, she had been willing to believe him. Willing to become his patsy.

Dammit, this was her fault. She willingly blinded herself so that she could have the command she felt she deserved.

Now she wished she could go back in time. She wouldn"t refight the battle in the Cactus Corridor. She"d done that right. No. She"d report the entire thing to Headquarters when she got back to the base, just like she had planned.

But Admiral Galland had talked her out of it. He had said that he had taken care of the report, and he had told her to keep her information to herself because he thought he could save her command and maybe even give her the Millennium.

She remembered seeing the Millennium, brand new and sparkling, docked on the base"s secure ring.

She had wanted that ship. After the battles she fought, the risks she had taken, the way she had saved her crew and the mission, she felt she had deserved that ship.

And Galland had used those emotions. Used them all.

She made herself focus on the statue of a man on a horse on one of the bookshelves. It was a Remington, from Earth, twentieth century. She knew because Galland had told her. And she had looked it up one afternoon while lounging in her quarters. If the bronze statue was the original, it was priceless. It had once stood in the Oval Office of the White House, back when Ronald Reagan was president, centuries ago.

Had Galland stolen that, too? Or had he bought it?

She didn"t know. Anyone could get rich out here, and still serve in the Patrol. Getting rich wasn"t illegal.

It seemed like very little was any more.