She got her usual deep pleasure out of saying Mass, assisted by both Mike Odeon and Dave Bain, who claimed he'd been awake anyway. Cortin had her suspicions of the reason, with Sis at the unusually early Mass, and approved heartily. Sis was five months pregnant, but that was no reason to deny herself the pleasures of any of the Family's husbands, and Cortin was of the opinion that Dave was good for her. After Mass, the clean-up that had recently become necessary afterward, and breakfast, Cortin, Odeon, Chang, and Bain went to her ground-floor office to wait for the prisoner. They were silent at first, but at last Bain said, "Joanie?" "Hmm?" "We're in trouble, aren't we?" Cortin sighed. "I can't be sure, but I think so. That's because they scare me for some reason--even though there's no evidence I can point to that'll justify that fear. But I'm the wrong person to ask about the Empire; Mike's the one who's been studying them." Bain turned to his co-husband. "Mike?" "I can't agree with Joanie on that issue," Odeon said. "As I told her a few months ago, I'm only able to scratch the surface--comm intercepts and the little bit of the Founders' records that survived the Final War don't give you much. Still, what I've seen in those don't scare me at all--truth to tell, I think it's reassuring. You know they ended a ten-year-long war about three years ago?" "Vaguely. Some sort of non-humans surrendered, didn't they?" "Not exactly. The Traiti were losing badly, but if I'm reading the intercepts right, they have a psychological block against surrender. Instead, they took a Ranger prisoner, and a couple of months later, their leaders petitioned for membership in the Empire." "Huh?" Cortin looked at him in astonishment. "They petitioned to join their enemy?" "That's how I read it," Odeon confirmed. "My point, though, is that the Empire accepted them and is in the process of integrating their worlds and military--to the point where the Traiti leaders are now Imperial nobles, and quite a few of their fighters have transferred to the Navy and Marines. They kept their previous ranks--hard to believe, but since a couple are now in command of Imperial warships, that part has to be true." "One of them's the non-human Ranger I heard about?" Cortin asked. Odeon shook his head. "No. You're thinking of the felinoid--I can't remember the race's name, though hers is Losinj--who reported a rebellion and was found to have the abilities one of those needs. I can't tell you what the abilities are, unfortunately; I'm not sure they've ever been mentioned." Cortin started to say something, but the familiar sounds of a prisoner-escort team interrupted; seconds later, the team brought half a dozen handcuffed men and women in Imperial Navy working khaki into her office. "The first group of prisoners, Excellency," the officer in charge said. "Would you like us to stay?"