“You came,” he said, taking both her hands in his.
Her smile made his knees flutter. “I hoped you’d be here. Hector.”
“I … well,” he was grinning like an idiot, “I’m here.”
“I’m glad.”
They stood there at the air lock entrance, looking at each other, while people elbowed their way around them to get into the party.
“Hector, shouldn’t we move away from the air lock?” Geri suggested gently.
“Huh? Oh, sure….” He walked her toward a slightly sweaty servant (one of the posse who had chased Hector across the satellite) and then took a stabilizer belt from him.
“You’ll need one of these belts before you try to float. Otherwise it’s, eh, kind of tricky trying to maneuver.”
The servant gritted his teeth and glared.
Geri blinked her large brown eyes at Hector. “Will you show me how it works? I’m terribly poor at things like this.”
Restraining an impulse to leap off the floor and do a triple somersault, Hector said simply, “Oh, there’s really nothing to it…” He glanced at the sweaty-faced servant, then added, “Once you get the hang of it.”
Spencer was saying, with some edge to his voice, “But when you defeated Kerak, you had the Szamo Confederacy and several other star-nations on your side. Now your old alliances are gone. You are alone against Kerak.”
Martine sighed like a man being forced to exert great patience. “I repeat. Sir Harold, that Acquatainia is strong enough to defeat any Kerak attack without Star Watch assistance.”
Leoh shook his head, but said nothing.
Lal Ponte, floating beside his Prime Minister and looking like a small satellite near a large planet, said, “The Prime Minister is making plans for an impenetrable defense system, a network of fortified planets and starship fleets so strong that Kerak would never dare to attack it.”