danger from the Kingdom or any officer in the Fleet, but that time had come to an end. He’d seen the video Jorg had sent to Casmir—to ensure his compliance—of bruised and battered Qin in the brig of the Chivalrous. Jorg didn’t deserve to command a ship with that name. Or any ship at all.
“I’ve heard the Osprey is going to Stardust Palace.” His father wiped his face with the towel. “The sultan has agreed not to fire on us, but he doesn’t yet know we have orders to take his slydar detector.”
“We do?” Asger hadn’t officially been kicked out of the knighthood yet—he’d been hoping vainly that helping to defeat Dubashi and thwart his plans might ultimately put him back in better standing—but he wasn’t in the loop. This was a reminder of that.
“Dabrowski has those orders, specifically, but Captain Ishii already told me the Osprey is going in to back him. Jorg and the Chivalrous are heading elsewhere.” He clenched his jaw. “To gather more allies. Or take more prisoners. Who knows?”
Asger switched to the privacy of messaging via his chip to ask, Are you thinking about trying to do something about Jorg’s prisoners?
I’m thinking about it, yes. If I want to rescue them, it would have to be soon. His father closed his eyes, his face pained. It would mean the end of my career, maybe the end of my citizenship in the Kingdom and the loss of our family land, but I don’t trust that Jorg won’t kill them. His jaw tightened again. They’re not Kingdom citizens. What are they to him?
I’ll go with you if we can figure out a way to get invited to his ship.
His father shook his head. I’ll go alone. Better to lose one career than two.
My career is already at its end. And it’s not like I wouldn’t be suspect even if you acted alone.
His father grimaced but didn’t deny it.
Once, his father never would have questioned the crown. But times had changed. Asger was a little glad that his father understood now, but he never would have chosen these circumstances as a way to make that happen.
The gym door opened. Asger wouldn’t have thought anything of it, since crewmen in exercise togs had been in and out, but Ishii strode toward them in uniform, a lieutenant with Intel tabs on his collars walking at his side.
“Are we in trouble?” Asger muttered, wondering if Intel was monitoring their chip communications somehow.
If so, they’d reacted to that conversation quickly.
Asger’s father draped the towel over his shoulder, folded his muscular arms over his chest, and lifted his chin as the officers approached.
Asger, deciding to appear formidable and unconcerned, as befitting a knight, adopted a similar pose. It probably wasn’t the time for it, but he noticed as they stood side by side that his arms were more muscular. His father was still as fit as any knight, but he’d either lost some of his mass as he approached sixty, or he wasn’t as large as he’d always been in Asger’s mind. Memories etched in boyhood were hard to alter, after all.
“Sir Asger, Sir Asger.” Ishii nodded at both of them. “Lieutenant Meister has a few questions for Bjarke.”
“Does that mean I’m not the one in trouble for once?” Asger smiled, though nerves pounced in his stomach.
“Neither of you is in trouble with me,” Ishii said. “How Prince Jorg and your knightly superiors feel about you is up for debate.”
“Our knightly superiors are all on the other side of two blocked wormholes,” Asger’s father said. “We’re the only representatives of the Order in this system.”
That was true, since Tristan—formerly Sir Tristan Tremayne—had been kicked out of the knighthood. Asger didn’t bring him up. He had remained on the Stellar Dragon during repairs, and Asger didn’t know if Ishii or Intelligence even knew about him.
“Since I’m a loyal officer of the crown,” Ishii said, “I won’t say that I wish the prince was.”
Meister frowned at his captain, then led Asger’s father away.
Asger caught the name Druckers as the lieutenant started to speak. That wasn’t what he’d expected the questioning to involve.
“What’s that about?” Asger asked Ishii.
“There’s a big queue of ships waiting at the gate while scientists and engineers from a few of the system’s governments attempt to figure out what’s wrong,” Ishii said. “Among the waiting craft are two of the five Drucker pirate warships. Since your father worked for them for a year, Meister is asking him about them.”
“Do we care about