Prologue

"You okay?"

Victor Brandt looked up at the officer who had interrupted his grim contemplation, "I don't know," he responded.

"You don't know?" he asked, "Well, what's the matter."

Victor handed over the PDA from which he had been reading the morning news just moments before, "That's the matter," he said softly.

Puzzled, the officer looked down at the little computer and after reading a few lines gasped, "Victor! This isn't good!"

Sighing, Victor nodded, "I have an appointment up at the personnel office at noon."

"Good luck," the officer said, shaking his head, "There have been purges over a whole hell of a lot less than this."

"Thanks Ed, but I'm not sure luck will be able to salvage anything for me." Victor said with a grimace.

Ed handed back the PDA and frowned in thought, "I'll make some calls; maybe we can mitigate some of the damage."

Victor gave his friend a weak smile, "I'd appreciate it," he said, then looking at his watch he added, "It's about time I got ready for my appointment."

Ed nodded and said, "Don't worry about the tab, I've got it."

Victor nodded his thanks. Getting up and putting on his jacket, he looked at the screen of the PDA one last time before pocketing it. Sometimes a little blue blood can make a man, he thought to himself, and sometimes it can break him.

"Captain Tens will see you now, sir, he's in the third door on the left," said the receptionist.

Victor raised an eyebrow and said, "Tens?"

"Yes, sir," the receptionist replied with a nod towards the office hallway.

Victor took the hint and ambled on towards the offices. Coming to the indicated door, he knocked.

"Come in," he heard.

"Hello, sir," Victor said, stepping into the office, "I didn't know you were in Personnel."

"Oh, I got transferred in a few months back, right after I made Captain," Tens said with a sour chuckle, "Didn't even have enough time to get a proper ship command under my belt."

Victor sat down nodding sympathetically, "Looks like I won't either, sir," he said, with a note of sorrow in his voice.

Captain Tens took a deep breath, and then exhaled slowly, thoughtfully, "I don't know, they can't really tie anything to you. He's just your cousin after all. You share a great grandfather. That's it, hell, the old Duke was a great man, a loyal man; there isn't anything wrong with your blood, not anything!"

Victor nodded, "You don't need to convince me. Richard is just a bad apple," he said.

Sobering, Tens leaned back in his chair and said, "Even so, treason is serious business. I've got a mandatory leave order here for you."

Victor sighed and said, "I expected as much."

Brightening, Tens speculated, "Hey, it could be that in ten, twenty, maybe thirty years, this thing will all blow over and you can come back and have all of that counting as seniority."

"Thirty years is a long time, and by then our whole class will outrank me." Victor countered, "But I suppose its something; it's not a discharge at least."

Captain Tens took on a smug smile and said, "I took the liberty of bending some ears and I was able to get your leave to be with half pay, and on top of that they'll sell you your current crew at a rather substantial discount. You play your cards right and you could live a perfectly satisfactory life from now till then."

Victor smiled at that, "I suppose I owe you one then."

"Well, you've all been together for so long, it'd be a shame to split up such a well oiled machine, and to not much benefit either. It was an easy concession," Captain Tens admitted and chuckled before adding, "They'd spend so much maintaining and retraining them, I told them they could get away with dumping them on you for only half your salary and they thought it was a steal!"

"Your one-thirty is here, Captain," the receptionist's voice said from Captain Tens' computer.

"Thank you, Holly," Tens said, looking at the clock, "Give me a minute to wrap this up, and then send him in after Commander Brandt leaves."

"Yes, sir," Holly replied.

"Ok Victor," Tens said and handed Victor a folder, "In there are your copies of the leave order, the new registrations for your crew, instructions for handing over command of your ship, and some other documents in hard copy and data chip."

Victor took the folder, stood up and said, "Thank you, sir."

Captain Tens stood up, offered his hand and said, "Good luck, and keep in touch."

"I will, and good luck to you, sir," Victor replied shaking the captain's hand.