“And you think there’s more evidence in the ship’s computer?”

“Yes, you heard what they said. Probably even more in their personal gear. But you’re the captain, Panis. You’re in legal command. I believe that you recognize we’re both in a very tricky situation. We have one dead former captain and eleven live crew imprisoned in escape pods. If we should run into some of the other renegades, especially some of Ollery’s friends, we could be shot for mutiny and murder before we ever got that evidence to a court martial.”

Panis touched his swelling face gingerly, then grinned. “Then we’d better not get caught.”

In the time it took to lug Ollery’s body to a storage bay and to disable the controls on the last occupied pod, Dupaynil figured out what to do about his faked orders. He could blame them on the traitor in the Inspector General’s office. Sassinak would never reveal the real source. He was fairly sure he could never get Ssli testimony incriminating her. In feet, it was only a guess that she had done it. It was not in the interest of Fleet or the FSP that she be blamed, even though