The Service of the Sword

"I'LL GO . . ."

"Impressing the girls with our stories of how we were in on the kill of the Salamander . . ."

"I said I'LL GO! Okay, enough. I give. You're right!"

"I knew you'd see it my way old boy."

"Thanks."

"And it really is lovely in the spring."

CHAPTER 2

SUPPLY AND COMPROMISES

"Hallo, Q! Beautiful day isn't it?"

The position of covert operative supply officer had been known as "Q" since time immemorial. The reason was lost in the mists of time, but various reasons, most dependent on the nature of the current holder, had been suggested over the years. "Quality officer" was one. The current holder of the title suggested "Queer Bastard" to most who had to deal with him.

"You don't have a mission scheduled," Q said, waving at the door. The severely overweight supply officer was bent over what appeared to be a beer flask, picking at the base with a dental tool. Whatever was involved must have been very small because he had a video loupe slipped over his right eye. "And I don't have any interest in listening to your whining. Get out."

"Oh, is that any way to treat a friend?" Charles continued. "We're just here to pick up a few items for our leave."

"And what makes you think I'd let you have anything to take on leave?" Q asked, straightening up.

Joh

"Oh, nothing old boy, just these," Charles said, handing the supply officer an envelope.

Q accepted it suspiciously and opened it with a closed expression. After a moment he took off the loupe and went to his computer. A few taps later he was rubbing his jaw.

"These were obviously planted on my system," the supply officer said with a questioning tone.

"Don't think so," Mullins interjected. "Files are logged onto secure systems."

Q made a moue of distaste and tapped a couple more keys. Only then did his expression start to become more waxen.

"I took the liberty of locking down the evidence while I was in there, old boy," Charles said. "Just doing my job as a good citizen. Those pictures are illegal just about everywhere but New Las Vegas; and they're questionable even there. What that fellow is doing with the goat . . . tch, tch, tch . . ."

"Err . . ."

"And that picture of you and the sheep . . ."

"What picture???!" Q said then hit a series of other keys. His head tilted to the side and an unfathomable expression crossed his face. "Hmmm . . . . But that's definitely a fake!"

"Hard to prove, old boy," Charles said. "What with all the others . . . I mean, you're not even a Marine."

"Hey!" Joh

"Sorry old boy."

"Bastard," the supply officer said, giving up.

"Definitely," Gonzalvez said, handing him another envelope.

Q opened this one with a great deal more trepidation and his eyes widened as he read the list. "What in the hell do you want with these?"

"Going on leave, old boy," Joh

With Q's more than willing support, getting to Prague was remarkably easy. With their bags marked as "Secure Material: Courier Only" they got a ride on a destroyer headed for Basilisk easily enough. Once there they changed identities to Silesian diplomats and, again, cleared customs without incident. A tramp freighter to Chosan, another change of clothes and in less than two weeks they were sitting in a bar in downtown Prague.

"You were right, Charles," Joh

One of the oddities that had led the then Private John Mullins from the Marines to the insertion teams was his ease with languages. What oddity of genetics had permitted a farm boy from Gryphon to smoothly learn nine languages, and he was working on Egyptian, was unsure. All that he knew was that he only had to hear one for a few days and before he even realized it, he was idiomatic.

Stranger things had happened in the universe. But not many.

"So are the girls old boy," Charles said, slipping a ten credit coin into the thong of the dancer in front of him. "So are the girls."

Prague had been settled by a society of Aryan racial homongenists from old Earth. The planet itself was a paradise with a temperature and weather regime remarkably similar to Earth's and the residents were among the "prettiest" to be found in the human settled worlds. Soon after landing the initial nutcases that had founded the colony were tossed out and a more realistic social structure based upon constitutional democracy was installed. The colony, which had been rather small to start and well off the main trade lanes, was nonetheless undergoing a real renaissance when the Peeps landed.

Since then it had been turned into just another Peep slave planet. Albeit with very pretty blond and red-headed hookers.

The People's Republic of Haven was, technically, the most egalitarian society in all the galaxy. Or at least that was what their Ministry of Information would have the rest of the galaxy believe. In reality, the social stratification, especially on subject planets such as Prague, was horrible. There were a few Peep senior officials who lived like Roman emperors, their StateSec and Navy officers who enforced the peace and lived like barons and knights, and the common people. The last group survived however they could and many of the females survived in the oldest profession in history. Any of the remarkably good-looking girls in the room could be had for less than an hour's pay of the State Security captains he and Gonzalvez were dressed as.

Charles watched the dancer step down off the stage and into the arms of a StateSec major and sighed. "Story of my life, really." Then he gasped at the sight of the next girl up.

Her hair was red and long enough that the braid was woven into her minimal clothing, a half bra and a thong that left very little to the imagination. Her breasts were high and almost u

"A girl like that should be in videos," Charles said, nudging his partner. "Not dancing in a cheap strip-joint."

When there wasn't a response he looked over at Joh

"She's good looking, my friend, but not that good looking," Charles said.

"Ugah . . ." was the only response he got.

"Are you all right, Joh

"Oh, God," Mullins finally gasped. "I'm dead."

"What's wrong?"

"Never mind," Mullins said, starting to stand up. "Maybe she hasn't . . ." but before he could leave his chair the girl had danced her way across the raised stage and now was dancing directly in front of him.

To top off her looks, she was an extraordinary dancer.

"I think I need a cold shower," Charles said as she entered a series of complicated sinuosities. "Several cold showers."

"Hi, Rachel," Joh

"Hi, Joh

"So you used to date her?" Charles asked when the dancer had left the stage.

"It's a long story," Joh