Jeridan was just dozing off on a soft bed of grass with a warm, nude body beside him when an explosion jerked him awake.

He was up on his hands and knees in a flash, peering through the greenery of the coppice where they had made love, searching for threats.

"What the hell was that?" he whispered.

"It sounded like it came from the compound," Patricia whispered back.

They got dressed as quickly as they could, urged on by distant shouts. A few shots from primitive rifles crackled in the air.

"Cack, why would the king attack the compound?" Jeridan asked.

Patricia didn't reply.

Once dressed, Jeridan still felt naked. Eridanus Delta, being a monarchy, did not allow visitors to carry arms. All their weapons were back on the ship. Jeridan hadn't even dared to try to sneak his mini flechette pistol through spaceport screening.

They crept to the edge of the coppice, keeping behind a tree, and peered out.

They could see nothing except for a thin curl of smoke dissipating above the compound. The high wall blocked their view of everything else.

They watched for a minute. The shots had stopped, replaced by the sounds of shouts from within. Jeridan couldn't make out the words. It sounded like someone issuing orders.

Then in the road beyond he saw two large vans with barred windows approach the compound.

Prison vans. They're going to take everyone away.

The vans moved out of sight behind the compound. A squad of five Royal guardsmen came around the corner and stopped at the back door. Jeridan shrank down as they looked out at the surrounding countryside.

Patricia stood up.

"Get down," Jeridan whispered.

"Over here!" she shouted. "I got one of them."

"What the—" Jeridan turned and found himself staring down the muzzle of a snub-nosed pistol. It was a primitive model, but it looked deadly enough.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Patricia smiled. "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm taking you prisoner. Now get up. Slowly."

Jeridan rose. Patricia took a step back. The soldiers were staring in the direction of the coppice. One of them pointed. Patricia gestured for them to come.

"Why?" Jeridan asked.

Patricia laughed. "Greed. I'll get a reward for catching you. And I'll get an even bigger reward for giving them the codes to the computer systems."

"What's going on?"

"Move forward with your hands over your head."

"I can't believe this," Jeridan grumbled, doing as he was told.

Patricia smiled at him. "If it's any consolation, I had a good time."

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"That's not a consolation."

Well, maybe a little bit.

They walked across the field toward the Royal guards. Two of the five went forward to meet them, the other three spreading out and watching the surrounding fields. They looked like they were expecting trouble.

Good. Maybe they'll get some.

"Nice job, Dr. Metcalf," one said as he came up to them.

"He got spooked by the armored cars. I caught him sneaking out the back way. Nova must have given him the code for the back door. He was probably going to steal a vehicle and sneak back to his ship."

"You'll get a bonus for that, doctor."

So this was all really a ploy to get more money? Damn.

The revelation hurt a lot more than Jeridan thought something like that might.

"The ship might still have valuable data they haven't transferred to the research center," Patricia said.

"We have another unit securing the spaceport."

Jeridan cocked his head, confused. Why would they need to secure the spaceport?

"What's going on?"

The guard's face brightened. "A new day for Eridanus Delta!"

"Is this a coup?"

The soldier looked insulted. "This isn't a coup, it's the first day of liberation. We're overthrowing a despot and installing a transition government that will prepare the planet for democratic elections."

Jeridan said nothing. He'd heard that line before.

They marched him across the field, Jeridan in front with his hands over his head.

"Did you search him for weapons?" the guard asked.

"Of course. He's clean." Patricia held up his personal communicator. "All he had was this."

Jeridan didn't realize she had taken it. Had she slipped it out of his pocket before, during, or after?

He was too embarrassed to ask.

"We'll hack into that later."

"Any trouble in the compound?" Patricia asked.

"No. We're rounding everybody up."

They were approaching the other three soldiers now. Jeridan looked all around, searching for a way out and finding none.

They circled around to the front. The firing had stopped but he could still hear shouting within the compound.

Negasi wouldn't have let himself get captured. He'll be hiding out somewhere, waiting for his chance.

Unless some floozy seduced him into letting his guard down. Damn, he's going to rib me for ages about this!

Assuming we get out of here alive.

At the front entrance, they saw a team of royal guards hauling the twisted wreck of the gate to one side. The two prison vehicles and one of the armored cars were parked nearby, their engines idling. A radio crackled in one of the vehicles.

Several guards stood around, weapons at the ready. Jeridan counted more than twenty of them. A thin curl of smoke rose from a couple of kilometers to the southeast.

The direction of the capital city. Something was burning over there.

Patricia and the soldiers marched Jeridan through the gate to the open area in front of the research building. The other armored car was parked there, its cannon aiming at the building entrance. He didn't see any of the staff outside and thankfully no casualties.

Patricia peeled off and headed back outside as the two guards led him toward the main building.

"You don't want to face your coworkers?" Jeridan called over his shoulder. "I'll be sure to tell them!"

Patricia didn't turn around and didn't reply. Jeridan seethed with rage.

The scene in the main lobby was nothing like how he had left it less than an hour before. Instead of a crowd mingling and laughing, everyone sat hunched on the floor with their hands on their heads, the banner reading, "Welcome home, heroes!" now a mockery. Guards helped themselves to the food and champagne, laughing and joking.

Jeridan studied them. None of them were drunk yet, and enough of them maintained discipline, keeping a sober eye on the prisoners, that their merrymaking wasn't the chance he was hoping for.

Maybe discipline will deteriorate later.

He scanned the crowd and saw Nova and Aurora huddled together near the center. He did not see Negasi, which reassured him, and he did not see Helen or Mason, which worried him.

Negasi could handle himself, but a ten-year-old boy? Even if Derren took control, he would have the body of a child.

Jeridan moved toward them. One of the guards jabbed him with the muzzle of his gun.

"Sit down right here."

"I want to sit with my daughter," he said, pointing at Aurora. "She's terrified."

"Oh, all right."

The guard escorted him through the crowd.

"We're not criminals, you know," the guard told him. "We're liberators. This in an important installation and we have to make sure it's secure from a Royal counterattack."

Jeridan didn't reply.

He sat down next to Nova and Aurora. The guard moved away.

"Where are the others?" he whispered once the guard was gone.

"I haven't seen Negasi. I don't think they have him," Nova whispered back.

"Good."

They kept their faces turned away from each other so it didn't look like they were talking.

Nova shuddered, a sign of emotion so rare in her.

"Helen and Mason they took somewhere else."

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