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“Thank you, Sirena. We bonded a month ago, but we were with Li’Orani’s family on Pelori, so no one got word of it until we returned to the ship.”

“They didn’t even tell me,” Kron said.

“And he’s still complaining,” Vor said, playfully shoving Kron back a few steps. “But the wait was all worth it. If that was what was needed for Li’Orani to fully recover and find herself again, I would do it all again.”

“I’m so happy for you both,” Vivian said.

“Thank you, Sirena,” Vor said.

“And how is Ginger?” Vivian asked.

“She is wonderful. Happy and excited about everything she encounters. She is loving her life aboard Command Warship 1,” Kron said. His expression became pinched for a moment and he looked at Vivian, knowing she’d understand. “She wants me to bring her a shraler, though. I’m not so sure about that.”

“It might be easier than you think. I haven’t seen Kitty in days. I’m told that when Bart went to find him for me Kitty forced him away.They think he’s busy making little kitties.”

“We’ve stopped removing the shralers from the outer edges of the palace grounds when they happen to wander in through the barriers since we met and fell in love with Kitty,” Eula said.

“You don’t want to bring a shraler home,” Quin said.

“I might. It could be the perfect gift for my Ginger,” Kron said.

“And if we do have kitties, you could take one for Ada Jane,” Vivian said to Kol.

“Oh, no. No, we have enough trouble keeping Billy and Bob from taking the ship down.”

“How is Ada Jane?” Vivian asked. “I know she was struggling a bit with leaving her home behind.”

“Zhuxi is taking care of it and maintaining it for us, until we can find someone who wishes to live there and will keep it as she would have. She’s come to see that boys need to be surroundedby males who understand them. We are considering our next step with them in mind, but it will be among the Cruestaci one way or another.”

Quin was listening closely as Kol spoke to Vivian. “I may have ideas to add to those you’ve already got for consideration.”

Kol looked up at Quin and nodded. “I am anxious to hear them.”

Quin smiled at his friend, very happy to have him nearby.

“How is Ba Re’?” Jhan asked, almost hesitantly.

“He’ll be glad to see you,” Vivian said.

“Do you think so?” Jhan asked.

“He seems a little less stressed, more at peace with who he is and finding his place in things.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Jhan said.

“You should pay him a visit before we get started,” Quin said.

“I will,” Jhan answered.

“Good. Allow me to express how very thankful and very glad we are that each of you are here.”

“Oh, it’s not just us, Quin. We’ve brought Elite team two with us. We’ve got enough males to assign a heavy security detail to your family, and enough to break into teams to search for however many people you think escaped, and enough to conduct evaluations of the warriors suspected of being involved, and then have some left over to rotate in and out on shifts. Tell us where you want us,” Kol said, from his spot kneeling on the floor in front of Sovereigna Eula and trading growls with Alexandrus.

“My thoughts are this,” Quin said, “We have more than enough warriors on site and I’m sure would wonder why I called in my own people from Command Warship 1, when I could have simply moved males around down here to create teams for what I wanted. The problem is, as I told Lo’San, I find myself wanting to kill them all and start fresh because though I trust some, I am not familiar with enough of them to blindly trust them with my family. My father appointed those who work in the palace, and that’s fine. But obviously there is some dissatisfaction with the exchange of power from our Sovereign to me, and even with thealliances we’ve formed with other planets through the Unified Consortium Defense. He warned me almost immediately upon arrival that there had been some intelligence feeding back to him regarding just that. He thought it would blow over as did I, but it’s obviously more of a threat than we anticipated. So, I believe that if we mix within the palace guard, it shouldn’t take long before it will be relatively clear who is working with us, and who is not.”

“If I may, Sire, I feel Sirena Vivian and Alexandrus would be best served with her own guard in place.”

“I agree. We do have Yaghn and Var don, who were originally the Sovereigna’s guard, but have sworn allegiance to my Ehlealah. They can help. We’ve also got Ban Lo, who is the male that admitted you. He is the head of my father’s guard and over all palace security. Ba Re’ is working with Ban Lo on rotation. We’ll give Kail, Rel, and Asl the choice to return to her side, or to continue the search. At the moment they are out for blood and with the Sovereigna’s guard and mine combined here at home with Ba Re’ and Ban Lo, it only made sense that they should be out there among the palace guard searching for those who attacked. Meanwhile, they may learn something of who is loyal and who is questionable while they’re at it, just as we will here as Elite Team Two integrates with the palace warriors.”

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