Negasi watched on the vidscreen as Nova spoke with ground control at the Eridanus Delta star base. He and Jeridan had already activated their disguises, picking the handsome images they had chosen back on Luna's Layover.

In orbit he saw two destroyers that hadn't been there on his last visit. They were older models, but much better than what they had seen on their last visit, and probably better than anything the other two planets in this system had. Negasi wondered how that space battle was going.

"This is Nova Bradford, owner of the starship Antikythera and vice-director of the League of Concerned Archaeologists, requesting permission to land."

Vice director?

The middle-aged man on the other side of the screen, dressed in the vermillion robes of a high-ranking functionary, replied,

"Good to see you again, Mrs. Bradford. Please send us a passenger and crew manifest."

"Sending."

The manifest now included his and Jeridan's aliases. Nova had grumbled a lot about that.

"Thank you, Mrs. Bradford. Now I'll need a visual confirmation with each individual."

"My astronavigator won't like that. He's a S'ouzz."

"What's a S'ouzz?"

"You might not have heard of them because they are locally extinct. They're a reclusive species."

"I apologize, Mrs. Bradford, but the regulations are clear. I'll try and make it quick."

Negasi cocked his head. Customs officials on Eridanus Delta were infamous for their bluster and rudeness. He had never seen one act politely.

Just how well-known was Nova on this planet?

The customs official started having a brief videochat with each member of the crew, even the children. Negasi's turn came before Jeridan's.

Great, I'm the guinea pig.

His screen lit up and the customs official greeted him.

"You are the gunner Jabari Cheung?"

He had chosen an alias with a Swahili first name (meaning "brave," of course) and a Cantonese last name to hide his Sino-Amharic roots. He hoped the customs official knew the difference between the Mandarins on the rival planet and the Cantonese who made up the second largest Chinese ethnic group. He also hoped he knew the difference between the Amhara and Swahili speakers.

He did not.

"Are you Sino-Amharic?"

The fact that this was said as a negative thing made Negasi determined to rip off this man's king as much as possible.

Negasi put on a frown. "No, I'm Swahili Cantonese."

"I see. One moment."

A notice showed up on the lower righthand corner of the screen signaling a facial scan. He was being put in the database and scanned on all wavelengths the screen permitted. A pretty low-tech security feature. Nevertheless, Negasi felt a trickle of sweat run down his spine and pool on the small of his back.

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"Thank you, Mr. Cheung."

He switched to Jeridan.

"You're Captain James Nelson?"

"That's right."

"One moment, please."

Jeridan passed too. Negasi's back stopped making a credible impression of a rainstorm.

Next came Helen.

"You're Helen Wallace, Technical Advisor at the League of Concerned Archaeologists?"

Nice to know your last name.

"That's correct."

"One moment."

Negasi watched the scan with interest, but if the customs official discovered anything, he kept it to himself.

Last came the S'ouzz.

"You are the astronavigator … uh, sorry I can't pronounce this."

"G'rahzz'kk'l."

Negasi hoped he hadn't spit all over the viewscreen.

"One moment, please."

"Please hurry."

"I will."

The scan seemed to take ages. It certainly would seem that way to the S'ouzz. At last, the customs official spoke.

"You are clear to land. Proceed at once with your entire crew and all passengers for further security screening."

Uh-oh. Now comes the real test.

"Our astronavigator would find that very stressful," Nova said.

"We can give it a private room and make it as brief as possible, Mrs. Bradford."

"Thank you."

Negasi shook his head in amazement.

She sure has a lot of pull around here. They must not know her true nature. Although considering how Lothar VII is such a tyrant, maybe they know it and appreciate her for it.

A note came from the S'ouzz.

"Negasi, please examine all arrangements and make the necessary changes."

"I will," Negasi typed back.

Normally he wouldn't reply to the alien, but he had the feeling it needed some reassurance.

But who was going to reassure Negasi?

* * *

Eridanus Delta had a 0.98 Earth gravity, so Negasi felt little different than on board the ship other than a slight spring in his step. The air had trace elements unusual to standard human respiration but nothing with any long-term effects. The only real difference to Earth standard were two large moons and three smaller ones that meant there was no real nighttime and the tides were massive and changed in a complex constantly pattern understood only by specialists. Going to the beach was considered an adventure sport.

Negasi and the others walked across the tarmac from where Jeridan had landed the Antikythera toward a low building marked Customs. One of the larger moons hung above it like a pale orb. While no personnel were around except a distant ground crew working on a freighter, the snipers posted on the roof almost certainly had them in their sights. This was a medieval society with advanced technology. To manage feudalism in a civilization with mass communication and transportation required an iron hand, and King Lothar VII had two of them.

Negasi willed his back to stop sweating as they approached the building. The S'ouzz had remained inside the ship until Negasi had studied its security arrangements.

He glanced at Mason. The boy was holding his mother's hand and had that wide-eyed, childish look that told him he was in his own head again.

Don't want the king to know what you did, eh? Even he would hang you for that.

They came to the entrance, which opened with a motion detector. Such displays of technology were pretty rare on this planet. Negasi supposed it was to impress visitors.

He and Jeridan knew better. They had been out in the countryside. Primitive tractors run by fossil fuels. Houses with inadequate internal heating and only basic plumbing. Most families without motorized transport and having to rely on public systems designed to limit them to their home regions.

Parts of this world were twenty-second century or later. Others were early twentieth century. The aristocracy kept the best for themselves, and above them the king kept the very best for himself.

Inside the Customs building, they came to a small room through which soldiers studied them through a barrier of glassteel. A revolving door in the far wall allowed only one person through at a time.

Well, that's the first problem for the S'ouzz. It can't fit through that door.

They went through one by one, Nova going first, followed immediately by an intimidated-looking Mason. The wall was opaque and Negasi couldn't see what was going on.

Helen stood next to him.

"Excited?" she asked.

"That's one way of putting it."

"So am I."

"They know you here?" Negasi asked.

"They know the League and support it fully. We're among friends."

I haven't been among friends for a long, long time.

It became Negasi's turn. He passed through to a small room and his heart did a flip flop when he saw a guard standing there with a scanner. While Negasi didn't recognize the model, it looked pretty advanced.

If he can tell I'm wearing an electronic disguise, I'm sunk.

The soldier walked toward him, holding up the scanner. He studied the readout and frowned.

"One moment."

The soldier walked across the room and started whispering to his captain.

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