Cortin smiled. "I never thought I'd be saying this, but thank you. This whole thing is a great relief to me--the real Protector coming, the Brotherhood ordered disbanded even if most of it won't obey, you supporting the Families and promoting devotion to the Protector . . . I wouldn't have believed any of it a day ago. Everything coming together so well, and so suddenly--a much better ending than I'd dared hope for." "Ending, Colonel?" Lucius shook his head, his expression grim. "An end to this phase, perhaps, and some time to prepare for the next--but this phase has been nothing but a preliminary. We have not yet even reached the decision point--which will, by the way, not be the sort of confrontation you fear; no one will come to harm there. The decision made at that point will be the true beginning, and the best-case outcome will be a war more destructive of life than any so far in this universe's history." 26. Imperial Contact St. Thomas, Monday, 27 July 2572 CE A soft knock on the door and a barely-audible "Excellency?" from outside it woke her. It was Matthew's voice, so she let the gun stay under her pillow and got up, grumbling to herself as she put on a bathrobe and went to open the door. "What is it, Matthew?" "A call from His Majesty, Excellency. He apologizes for waking you, but we've just captured an Imperial scoutship, and he would like you to be ready to interrogate the prisoners as soon as they're brought in. That should be about two hours." "So they finally got this far out. Damn. Is His Majesty still on the phone?" "No, Excellency; he was confident of your response." Matthew smiled. "Breakfast will be ready as soon as you finish Mass--shall I wake Captain Odeon to assist?" "What time is it?" "Five o'clock, Excellency." "Late enough he'd be upset if I didn't--go ahead." As her butler left, Cortin scowled. The Kingdom Systems couldn't avoid Imperial notice forever--they'd been lucky to get the roughly four hundred years they'd had--but she wasn't at all sure she cared to live under the Terran Empire's rule. Not, she thought as she showered and got into uniform, that they'd probably have much choice in the matter. The Empire claimed to be a benevolent umbrella government, that it didn't interfere in local affairs unless absolutely necessary, which Mike's studies of comm intercepts tended to confirm--but it was hard to believe that their non-interference policy could stretch to include the Kingdoms. Well, she'd find out--at least she'd find out whatever the scoutship's crew knew or believed about it.