Recycled by Selina Rosen

now."
     
    Jurak moved to sit beside her and whispered in her ear."You are a good leader."
     
    She smiled, and patted him on the back."And you're a great lackey. I won't tell if you don't." She took a deep breath as she looked at the army waiting on the shore getting ready to board water crafts to come to their rescue.
     
    "All right, people, listen up." She cleared her throat."The king didn't actually want me here, so I have no idea what sort of reception we can expect. You are all going on a long overdue shore leave. Jurak and I will be the only ones going to the palace."
     
    "But my queen, our loyalty is to you, not the king," said wet raft inflating boy."If you are in danger, we will protect you." The others all mumbled their agreement.
     
    "Gee, that's great, guys," Drew said, acting all choked up. Then she glared at them all in turn and hissed, "Listen up you sentimental dumb asses." She flicked raft boy on the head with her forefinger for good measure. She made her hands look like a scale."Look: big, ugly, well trained army with weapons in this hand. Small starship crew that has been mostly drunk and screwing for weeks—admittedly on my orders—possessed of three hand-held blasters between us, and riding in a rubber raft, in this hand. Big army, boat full of idiots; big army, boat full of idiots. Oh! Oh, oh! Look! I think the fucking scale is tipping, and the boat full of idiots is sinking." She took a deep breath and counted to ten. Life was so much easier when you were too drunk to make decisions.
     
    "Once again. Here's the plan. I'm going to tell them you're going on shore leave. Jurak and I will go to the palace, and I will try to fuck Zarco into submission. In the meantime you will all go to Hepron Station and tell the morons there to put double security on my—as it turns out, not-so-secret—vault. As soon as communications are back up you will send for my old ship, the Garbage Scow. Wait there and hole up. I will call you if I need you. It's a simple plan. You idiots don't have to do anything. Nothing. You can do that, can't you?"
     
    "Yes, my Queen," they all said.
     
    They were about fifty feet from shore when the army boats came out to "save" them. The young captain who addressed her said, "My queen! Thank all the gods that you are alive."
     
    "Good to see you, too. Have we screwed? Because you don't look familiar to me."
     
     
     
    After three days locked in a cell, with the three of them sharing the same small bed and toilet, and with no word or sight of Zarco, Stasha had given up all hope.
     
    She sat on the wooden bed and groaned."We are fucked, we are so fucked."
     
    "Stasha!" Facto said in shock."You have to quit saying that. Do you even know what it means?"
     
    "No."
     
    To spare his lady wife he walked over and whispered the meaning in Stasha's ear.
     
    "All right, but now I really don't get why it's a bad thing to say," Stasha said with confusion.
     
    Facto looked thoughtful, then confused."Well, I suppose it has something to do with the way in which you do it." He shrugged."Or say it."
     
    "We mustn't give up hope, Stasha," Margot said, stopping her pacing to sit beside Stasha on the hard bed.
     
    "Why? Why mustn't we? We have been caged up like animals. Zarco swore that he loved me, and now I have been locked up so that he can pursue my sister."
     
    "Well, she is his wife," Margot reminded her gently.
     
    "Only in name. Drewcila Qwah isn't Taralin. She'd be the first one to tell you that. I can't believe you're defending Zarco. Look what he's done to us . . . and for what crime?"
     
    "I wasn't defending him. Just, well . . . he never did really belong to you. You have to look at this realistically . . ."
     
    "I am. That's why I said we're so fucked!"
     
    "Calm down, ladies," Facto said, although right then he didn't really feel like being the voice of reason. In fact, he had to agree with Stasha."Let us not lose sight of the real horror. Zarco has started a war.