Dupaynil found something else to dislike. “We don’t have a Ssli interface, do we?”

“But I thought . . .” He stopped himsetf in mid-argument. He had seen a briefing item, mention of the ship classes that had IFTL, mention of those which would not get it because of “inherent design constraints.” And escorts were too small to carry a Ssli habitat. “That . . . that stinkerl” he said, as he realized suddenly what Sassinak had done.

“What?” asked Ollery.

“Nothing.” Dupaynil hoped his face didn’t show how he felt, torn between anger and admiration. That incredible woman had fooled him. Had fooled an experienced Security officer whose entire life had been spent fooling others. He had had a tap on her communications lines, a tap he was sure she’d never find, and somehow she’d found out. Decided to get rid of him. And how in Mulvaney’s Ghost had she managed to fake an incoming IFTL message? With that originating code?

He sank down on the one vacant seat in the escort’s bridge, and thought about it. Of course she could fake the code, if she could fake the message. That much was easy, if the other was possible. But nothing he’d been taught, in a long and devious life full of such instruction, suggested that an IFTL message could be faked. It would take ... he frowned, trying to think it through. It would take the cooperation of a Ssli: of two Ssli, at least. How would the captain of one ship enlist the aid of the Ssli on another? What land of hold did Sassinak have on her resident Ssli? It had never occurred to him that the Ssli were capable of anything like friendship with humans. Once installed, the sessile Ssli never experienced another environment, never “met” anyone except through a computer interface. Or so he’d thought.

He felt as if he’d sat down on an anthill. He fairly itched with new knowledge and had no way to convey it to anyone. Ssli could have relationships with humans beyond mere duty. Could they with other races? With Wefts? Were Ssli perhaps telepathic? No one had suspected that. Dupaynil glanced around the escort bridge and saw only human faces, now bent over their own