"I realize that, Captain, but in this case I would prefer to. Defsat Five has orders to blast the Palace and its immediate surroundings unless I can defeat Thark within an hour of our landing. As I told Ranger Medart, the assault team will have at best a twenty percent chance of survival." Hobison nodded. "Right. Am I shielded?" "Yes." "Then you have one volunteer. Anyone else in the Command Crew eligible?" "There is Colonel Greggson. Only one of the others I have scanned so far has a usable shield, and I plan to speak to him shortly. That is why the whole crew must be informed of those facts. Ranger Medart and I will have to check everyone. Be sure to emphasize, please, that we will be checking only for shields; their private lives will remain their own." "Jim?" Hobison looked startled. "What's this all about? You mean you've got Talent like hers?" "Uh-huh." Medart was purposely informal, trying to ease Hobison's obvious shock. "You'd already left when I told His Majesty. There's no sense in trying to keep it a secret; she's trained me to be as good a telepath as she is, and she's teaching me darlas. I'll need volunteers, too, to practice on. They'll be in no danger, since she'll be monitoring everything I do until she's satisfied with my control." "I'll make the announcement," Hobison said after a few moments' silence. "But I was definitely right--captaining a Ranger's ship is anything but boring." "The same goes for being a Ranger," Medart said, smiling. "I've noticed. I'll get on it right away. Where do you want to start?" "Sherwood Forest," Corina decided, "then work our way south. I can sense the presence of shields with a shipwide scan, but not the precise strength, location, or most important, who is shielded." Then she corrected herself. "No, that is not precisely correct. If I already know the person, I can tell identity from the shield pattern, but even then, not the location. The `finding' aspect of my Talent, unfortunately, is limited to inanimate objects." She turned to Medart. "We had best start now. Our time is limited." IX In the shuttle heading for Sherwood Forest, Medart said, "I agree that speed's important, so why not split up? We could cover the ship faster that way." "I do not think that would be wise, Jim." Corina was a little uncomfortable with such familiarity, even in private and with the knowledge from his memory that it was now proper for her, but she felt she ought to accustom herself to it. "You cannot test a shield's strength without using darlas, and you do not yet have the control to do that safely." Getting brave, she chided herself. Making suggestions to the Emperor, giving orders to a battle cruiser's captain, and now telling a Ranger--a fellow Ranger, she reminded herself--there was a thing he could not do.