Conversation was briefly impossible as the shuttle got underway, falling from the launch bay of the Navarre like a diving falcon. Camilla braced herself with the familiarity of one who had spent years aboard ship, trying to tune out Jocasta’s continuing paean about the wonders of melta technology. Almost immediately the smooth descent became a vibrating rumble as they plunged into the atmosphere. The walls of the shuttle sweated condensate that abruptly blasted off in a minor rainstorm as the shuttle breached the atmosphere with a teeth rattling sonic boom.


Camilla waited several seconds for the turbulence to subside before turning her attention to Alcandar’s question. She supposed she couldn’t expect him to act as her Seneschal if didn’t keep him informed though she suspected he might have a harder time with this than another candidate might have.

“Well… I don’t want you to be mad, but you recall the Porphyrian mutiny?” she asked. Alcandars face darkened as she said it. He had, infact, been responsible for tracking down several of the mutineers who had jumped ship, it was one of his cases that had brought him to her attention.


“Some of the officers were executed of course, but the majority of them, as well as the ratings that survived the decimations, were sent here,” she made an airy gesture to indicate the world that the shuttle was bearing them down to.


Ye went to recruit a peck of merderin' creminals who terned on their oown ceptain?” Alcander asked dangerously. Camilla made another airy gesture. The reality was that she couldn’t wait years to train replacements for the bridge officers who had been killed. It wasn’t just a matter of training either, to put it crudely, she needed people with the right plugs. Proper augmentation was much harder to come by than training.

“I prefer to think of it as conducting job interviews with extreme prejudice,” she replied, having the decency to look a little guilty at the admission.


“I promise to give full weight to the opinions of my Seneschal on the matter,” she added in a mollifying tone.