"Do that right away before we lose any trace." Ty mashed his intercom button. "Cia, could you come here for a moment?"

      Kade leaned over to Gage to relay the satellite orders as he heard the automatic door of Ty’s office hum open, and a moment later, Kade saw through Draycie’s glass desktop the giant white tigress nudge Ty in the ribs, then set her chin on his thigh as he reviewed the manifest. Ty gave the big cat an affectionate stroke of her head, and he passed the document over into the tigress’s view. "Cia, it appears that a teleport was used to take the children."

      Kade watched Draycie’s shapeshifting Mathari wife returning to her human form, a trick she’d reluctantly demonstrated for Kade few times. Always fascinated with the transformation though he pretended not to be, Kade watched as the Mathari priestess seemed to melt from a low-built and powerful hunting felina into a fluid kind of silver, like mercury reflecting and refracting light.

      Then the silver reshaped itself, grew in height, narrowed in width. The cat’s black stripes receded into coal-black and glossy tresses that fell down her back, and the cat’s white fur sank into her ivory-white flesh until she reformed into a tall young woman of stunning beauty. Her black hair highlighted her pink eyes, a trait all Pygrian women shared, and the pairing made both her hair and eyes glisten. Kade would one day have to admit he found Cia exotically beautiful, the priestess’s practice of the Mathari shapeshifting magic a mesmerizing sight to behold.

      But, by policy, Kade refused to like the Mathari witch who’d managed to snag his best friend into marriage, despite Ty’s insistence that he’d bribed Cia into becoming his wife. Another Pygrian enchantress now owned Joren’s heart and mind.

      Deep within his devious mind, Kade Quil wondered how much the Pygrians called the shots now that the two most influential men in ConsulateRhonta were now married to Pygrian spellcasters.

      Joren, Kade humphed. The man went from playboy prince to emperor before his own coronation as king of Rhonta. Kade thought Joren paid too much attention to a needy Pygras’s transformation from planetary sickness to good health, and Joren held too much reverence for the Mathari priestesses.

      Spellcasters, the priestesses were, Kade spitefully thought, watching the tigress disappear to be replaced by the Pygrian beauty Ty had put his name all over. Spellcasters who owed Joren their very lives, but still wouldn’t part with the secrets of their craft to the government that now ruled them. Kade believed the frigid little nuns owed ConsulateRhonta those secrets, after all Rhonta did and was doing to save their world from radiation poisoning.

      Only Joren’s expressed order from his empirical throne kept Kade from mapping out a step-by-step process to see that the Matharis give up their secrets, even if he needed to use the mind-sweep to do it. Still, as a daydream waste of time, Kade often formulated the task in his mind, plotting each step of the marauding of the Mathari magical secrets. The Rhontaian mind-sweep was cruel, but Kade seldom gave that a concern.

      Back to herself, Cia took up the document and scanned it until her eery pink eyes grew in size. "It’s Veena Canatar, Ty. We’d been raised in the temples together. You’ve met her sister Willa many times."

      "Yes, I remember Willa well," Ty replied. "Had recognized the last name but couldn’t place it."

      Kade became perturbed, and turned his gaze back onto his friend. "Ty, are we talking about Matharis here?"

      Ty nodded.

      Kade threw the manifest onto the floor, just pure irked. "Ty, you know I can’t stand those haughty little shapeshifting witches."

      Cia scowled at him, shot him her livid pink eyes. "Shut up, Kade Quil! Who asked you for your opinion anyway?"

      Ty intervened, "Kade, teleport over here right now." The screen went blank before the high commander could issue a dissent. Ty did it on purpose to cut Kade off.

      Kade turned to his assistant and grimaced. "Contact the satellite control room for travel. Pack your bags, Gage. I can already tell we’ll be the guys fixing this one. I can’t stand those haughty little witches."

      Gage’s brow rose and a light smile touched his face. "I think they’re kinda cute."

      Quil cast the young officer a sneer. "I haven’t heard a word from your mouth all day, and the first thing you say has to be a compliment to the Matharis?"

      A tall, good-looking youth of twenty-two summers possessing big brown eyes and two honor medals earned in duty, Gage just shrugged his shoulders.

      Two hours later, High Commander Quil and Lieutenant Waswaki stood in front of the governor’s desk, the governor’s Mathari wife at his side, ready with a disgusted look.

      "Cia, leave the room," Ty told her. Cia turned her pink glare onto him, and Ty offered her a serious expression. "Because I do not want you to hear the names I’m about to call him. Contact Willa and update her on what’s happened."

      Fists pressed to her sides, Cia turned a hateful expression onto Kade as she marched from the room, muttering something in Pygrian Kade was fairly sure meant that he was a despicable Rhontaian jerk. He was familiar with those specific words in Pygrian, a common phrase among the frigid little nuns when he was around.

      Draycie rubbed the furrows from his forehead. "I can just feel the love in the air."

      "Well maybe your wife should get a better attitude!" Kade spat.

      Draycie burst into a grin. "How odd. She’s a kittykat for me."

      "Very funny."

      Draycie appeared to issue a silent plea to MotherRhonta. "Kade, you’re the only one who brings it out of her. You, on the other hand, have yet to give up your prejudices against the Pygrians. You should both declare a truce."

      "Not in my lifetime."

      Draycie rolled his eyes, then looked to Gage, who smirked and shook his head.

      "All of this has just become much worse. Minutes ago, I received a call from Joren. The missing children belong to Vandartay."

      Kade’s brow bent. "Congressman Vandartay? Tell me this is a joke. I didn’t see his name on the manifest."

      Ty drew a troubled breath. "They are his sister’s children traveling to Rhonta to visit them. Different last name."

      Kade ran a hand through his overlong hair, hardly believing the teleport’s choice of victims. He gave the room a brief scan for a blunt object in which to bludgeon himself. He knew he couldn’t escape this problem. "I don’t know how it could have gotten worse."

      "I agree. We won’t have a residue analysis report from Breckin for several hours," Draycie notified them. "As soon as we get the report, we’ll talk to Joren. If we can get a fix on the technology involved, we’ll know where it came from. Breckin will be able to trace it."

***

     Four hours later, Kade and Gage stood again in Draycie’s office. The viewscreen showed Joren Deauxdaytryx, 12^th sovereign of Rhonta, first ruler of a three-world empire, going over the report already read by Ty, Kade, and Gage. Breckin Draycie, Ty’s cousin on his father’s side, stood beside the emperor, his brow bent and worried. Joren seemed very disappointed.

      Breckin reported, "I traced the residue, but I didn’t recognize the tech signature."

      Joren rubbed his brow. "I’d been counting on that."

      Ty pointed out, "I think the direction it came from says much, Joren. Two stellar systems over."

      Breckin, an expert on space weapons, gave an ominous nod.

      Kade blew out a breath, regretting having awakened this morning. "Cig."

      Joren shook his blue-black Deauxdaytryx mop of hair so like his cousin Ty’s mop. "We knew this would happen," the young emperor reminded them. "When we’d squashed the Black Watch five years ago, we’d known it would most likely draw the Cignite’s ugly attentions."

      Appearing unusually concerned, Breckin added, "It appears he’s making another move against the Matharis, wishes to see all of the priestesses dead because of a myth of Mathari magic ending his reign."

      Joren gave a smile of challenge, a sparkle in his eye. Kade recognized the look from memories of the emperor as a boy anticipating his win of some new competition, which he usually did win. Joren always was a cunning competitor, never to be underestimated, and always on a forward drive.

      "Let’s make the myth come true," the emperor tossed into the conversation. "Let’s attack his attack, eliminate the threat to the Matharis and the Consulate empire once and for all."

      Breckin was uncharacteristically silent, his white brow bent under a shock of white bangs. Ty’s brow rose in consideration.

      Kade loathed the idea.

      The office door opened, and Kade looked up from the residue report to see Cia lead a beautiful green-robed priestess into the room. The woman possessed a huge mane of long cookie-dough colored spirals highlighted with occasional almond-colored streaks, escaping and springing down her back and shoulders, despite the giant clip pinning the mass to her crown. Kade thought she possessed more hair than any woman should own. No mere hairclip could have tamed her tresses.

      Not wanting to break the serious mood, Kade suppressed a smile to notice she was gorgeous and bosomy. She was eye candy. What a concentration-breaker, she was.

      "Willa," Cia introduced, "you know the emperor and my husband, Ty. This is Director Breckin Draycie, the head of interstellar technology."

      The young woman cast her Pygrian-pink eyes to the viewscreen and bowed toward Joren. "Greetings, Your Excellency. My love to your wife and family."

      Joren returned a handsome smile. "Greetings, Willa. I’ll pass the message on. I appreciate your participation in solving this problem."

      "Greetings, Director." The priestess bowed to Breckin.

      Breckin gave an odd, thunderstruck nod, seemed caught in examining the girl. It looked clear to Kade that Breckin noticed the priestess’s quiet beauty. "Good to meet you, Willa. I’ve heard much about you."

      The pretty young Green Robe with pouty lips turned to Ty, and offered her hand. "Good day, Governor Draycie."

      Ty Draycie accepted her greeting. "Welcome, Willa. Unfortunate that you should return to my office under a sad calling."

      "Aye, my lord," the meek young lady replied, Kade watching her spiral locks bouncing to her every subtle movement. He thought her eyes a more mauve and demure shade of pink. The priestess pressed wrinkles from her green robe. "I’m glad to be placed where I may help find the children and Veena. She is my sister."

      Ty turned to Kade, and offered an introduction. "Willa Canatar, this is High Commander Kade Quil, and his assistant, Lieutenant Gage Waswaki. They’ll be going to Cig with you."

      Kade suffered a visual display of annoyance. "Oh, no. No, Ty. No."

      Kade overheard Cia whisper to the Green Robe, "He’s the one I told you about. Avoid him every moment you can."

      "No, Draycie," Kade said again, then he turned to the videoscreen showing Emperor Joren Deauxdaytryx I, and the high commander flatly refused. Kade was probably one of very few people who’d dream of telling Joren no. "I refuse the mission, Joren. Pick someone else."

      "I’ll go, Joren," Breckin put in.

      "No, Breckin, I need you here. You’ve got too much going in the labs, too many projects at crucial points. Besides, you’re too close to it. Kade’s going." Breckin appeared deflated.

      Joren turned back to the high commander. "You’re the best investigator I have, Kade. You’re the sneakiest bastard I know, and you have a nose for trouble like no one else. If anyone can find these missing people on Cig, it’s you."

      Kade posted his hands on his waist, objecting. Joren, Ty, Breckin, and Kade had attended Academy together, had known each other since forever. Kade had known Joren, the youngest of the four men, when he’d been no more than a measly dirt-faced crown prince scheduled to inherit the throne of most of their home planet.

      "No, Joren. I’ve no tolerance for dealing with the Pygrians. What about the other three million Consulate soldiers you could call upon? There’s bound to be one soldier who loathes the Pygrians less than I do."

      "I’ll go, Joren," Breckin said again, but Joren refused him.

      Those two Mathari witches began to whisper again in Pygrian, getting on the high commander’s nerves. Kade turned to them, and shouted, "Do you mind?"

      The women instantly hushed.

      "It’s you, Quil. Period," Joren stated, using his most caustic tone, putting his royal foot down to his friend’s rebellion. "Willa also needs Gage to talk to Cig’s computers, figure out their computer technology. He’ll be extracting digital secrets, if he can manage it."

      The high commander spat, "Then Gage and I’ll do the job on our own. I don’t need the noose of a Mathari around my neck."

      "I’ll go," Breckin insisted, for a third time, but got no response from the emperor.

      "Willa can track her sister," Joren told Kade. "Think of how much Cia helped Ty flush out the Desert Viper."

      Kade’s brow crashed into his sight, disbelieving Joren would strap him down with some Pygrian nun. "Cia got captured, Joren!"

      "And led Ty straight to the Black Watch’s lair."

      Kade laughed sardonically. "I don’t need help from the Mathari crash cadets."

      Cia scowled, took a pace forward to issue some snotty rebuke, when Ty stepped in front of her and the governor shook his head. "Step aside, Ty," Cia suggested. "I’ve an attitude adjustment for your friend."

      Kade snapped, "Is it the same attitude adjustment you’d given Ty the day you’d met him? I’ve seen what your dangerous little hands can do. I’ve never seen a blacker eye."

      Ty shook his head to his wife. "We’ve no time for the healing, Cia."

      Stripped of her purpose, Cia sent a cancerous stare to Kade, then she returned to her friend’s side. The pretty new Mathari witch joined Cia in her squinty glare.

      Kade cast a warning eye back.

      Joren informed him, "You and your mission partners leave tomorrow, Quil. Kemar says his new teleport trick is ready for service, will get you to Cig faster than you can imagine. Kade, while you’re there, study their military might, and come back with information that will defeat Cig. Good luck and good battle." Then Joren signed off, and the screen went blank.

      Kade closed his eyes, summoned calm, then reopened them onto his friend, the governor of Pygras. "This is what I get for doing my job so damned well? Some guys get pay raises."

      Ty only blinked under a risen eyebrow, tossed Kade a twisted smirk.

      So miffed, Kade paced to burn off the energy. He wanted nothing to do with Pygrians, especially Matharis. "Joren. I should never have listened to a word he’d said. Hand a guy three worlds and see what he does to you ..."

      Then, too angry, Kade Quil turned to address the new Green Robe, and sneered at the beautiful Mathari nun with whom he’d been saddled as a new responsibility. What was her name, Willa?

      "So, what do you change into?" Kade demanded to know, his gripes plain to see in his posture and hear in his voice.

      The Mathari shapeshifting, pink-eyed witch, Kade cursed in his thoughts, and fought to keep the words from spilling from his mouth. The cookie dough-tressed beauty didn’t answer him, but she did look as though she contemplated a slap which, taken along with Cia’s first stinging greeting to Ty, appeared to be a Pygrian mating ritual.

      Permanently livid now, Kade turned to Gage and pointed at him. "You! You’re fired!" Then the high commander stalked from the room, planning a hard workout at the gym.

***

      All four of them watched Kade Quil pound from the governor’s office, and Willa did not look forward to spending any time at all with that man. In fact, she disliked him immediately, and counted herself lucky the high commander’s more pleasant assistant was coming along for the ride, hoped the young man was less hot-headed than his boss. Rhontaians ... she snorted in thought.

      "I’ve never seen Quil so uptight," the governor stated, his comments cast to the young officer whose collar carried a single blue bar that told all he was a part of the civil arm of the Consulate military. Willa did well to recognize the Consulate rankage now.

      "Does Kade hate the Pygrians to such a great degree that the man is losing his focus?" the governor asked the lieutenant. Gage shrugged his shoulders. But Willa had felt the high commander’s hate for her people.

      "That could be dangerous," the governor commented.

      Cia sputtered, "That man hasn’t spouted a kind word since I met him."

      The governor only shook his head. "Kade could never be accused of being the nicest guy in town."

      "Let’s hope something changes that," Willa wished aloud.

      The governor turned to the testy high commander’s assistant, a handsome young man with chocolate pudding hair and eyes. "How often does he fire you?"

      Gage held out a hand and wiggled fingers in silent count, then replied, "About four times a week."

      Ty stroked his chin. "You’re doing well, Gage. The number’s going down."

      Gage nodded, setting his hair in motion. "I have the most secure job in town."

      Willa rolled her eyes, unexcited to have to drag this Kade Quil-person along the way to her sister’s retrieval. Willa could easily track her sister, didn’t need the Consulate officers past getting her to the right city. But then she thought of Gage, had read the young officer’s credentials and skills. Not only a trained Consulate soldier, Gage was also a computer prodigy, and she’d need that skill in any advanced society. She just hoped the despicable Rhontaian jerk doesn’t get in her way.

      "Kade will cool down," the governor assured her. "He’ll resign himself to the job, then he’ll be your best asset. Off with you, Gage. Take a room at our home. Tomorrow comes early." With a salute, the sharply pressed young officer spun, on his way to his evening.

      Willa regarded Cia, expressing a negative anticipation. "Who’s going to tell your fiery high commander that I’m the leader of this rescue mission?"

      Both the governor and Cia laughed in a way almost wary. "If you’re clever," her sister-priestess advised, "you’ll never let him know."

***