The Voice of the Emperor

by Gaunt With The Wind

Ex-guardsman Garmon just wanted to lead a quiet life in a forgotten rimworld drinking away his memories. But a moment of ill-advised chivalry has him running from local thugs and constables as well as the Inquisition, a bewildered pregnant woman in tow. To get offworld, he'll need to strike a bargain with one of the Imperium's oldest enemies. If he can stay alive that long.

DAVID BENZ WARHAMMER 40,000

From: Adventures in the Outer Worlds – Vacations on the Edge By Hagnus Octillian

History: Originally named Freyr (pronounced "FREY-ur), after an ancient Terran god known for fertility, bountiful harvests and an enormous phallus. While it never caught on as an agricultural world due to its severe heat and variety of biting insects, a smattering of industries have developed, mostly centered around a ferny little plant called Hypnos Folium, or hyp as it's more commonly called, which when ingested in any number of ways produces feelings of euphoria and enhanced sexual prowess.

Over the years, the name evolved into simply Faire, although the original name is still occasionally employed. For instance, it's a common colloquialism to this day to say that one has jumped out of the frying pan and into the Freyr. Today, the population is centered at the second largest continent, up near the pole, boasting one fair-sized population center, the steaming coastal town of Barbary. There are no settlements farther south, where temperatures never drop below 100 degrees, Earth Standard, rendering much of the planet essentially uninhabitable.

Travel: This largely aquatic world on the very edge of the Empire can be dangerous for those who wander out of the more populous sections, or into lower income areas. Despite its remoteness (and being uncomfortably close to Tau space), this sparsely populated planet does offer some interesting diversions. After securing transport in an armored vehicle, the ambitious traveler can find vast swatches of beautiful beaches, verdant forests and stunning mountain ranges, though all largely lacking in amenities. Swimming is not recommended due to a high concentration of salt and zinc in the seas, and a variety of nasty carnivores in the rivers.

Nightlife: Harvesting and packaging hyp for sale offworld is Faire's main industry, followed closely by prostitution. Perhaps as a direct result of both of these, and the absence of any effective police force, the capital Barbary can be rather dangerous after dark. Those in the mood for nightlife should avoid all beverages poured from open bottles and should seriously consider hiring an armed bodyguard.

Food and Drink: Eating off the street or in smaller restaurants is not recommended. A wise traveler will always note the whereabouts of the closest reasonably clean bathroom. Some local dishes can be worth the dare, particularly cuts of meat from a local marsupial known as a ponnsym, usually served with large slices of a mushroom-like fungus called agarisus. In addition, never, under any circumstances, drink water from the tap.

Tips: Visitors to Faire would be well advised to take extra precautions. Waterproof clothing, bug spray, and good shoes are essential. Staying in the most central part of Barbary is recommended. Also, be advised that the passenger flights in and out of Faire are sporadic, as the warp currents can be unpredictable.

THE VOICE OF THE EMPEROR

Faire, 981.M35

The air stank of sweat, mold and hyp smoke. The piped in music droned a hypnotic dirge of bass and drums fronted by indecipherable chanting. I squinted in the haze, seeing the long molded plastic bar, dim, flickering luminators, a dozen rickety tables and a card game in the corner. I sat with my back to the wall, dreaming of an ice cube in my drink, and maybe one underneath my hat. But this joint had no ice, and nothing was going to make that rotgut taste any better or cool down the swampy interior of the disreputable bar known as The Barrier Reef.

I looked up from my third watered-down drink and saw her come in, bone thin, dark-haired with darting eyes. After briefly hesitating by at the door, she walked up to the bar, ordered a drink and scanned the joint with uneasy eyes. The bartender slapped down her drink and she paid without looking at him. She and the drink sat there untouched for a while. I glanced her way now and then, passively interested but not intrigued. I found it more curious to watch the patrons as they brazenly looked her up and down. It was a tough crowd – the Reef caters to the roughest locals and off-worlders: pirates, bounty hunters, scavengers, rim-runners and hyp dealers. With lank hair and a long nose, she was no beauty, hardly a woman worth dying for. But in that joint, she stuck out like a rose blooming atop a dung heap.

I was laying book in my mind, placing odds on who would accost her first. Maybe that one-eyed longhair in the corner, or better yet, that bald giant with the tattooed face and the augmented arm three seats down from her at the bar. But she surprised me and everyone else by picking up her untouched drink, walking over to the table next to mine and standing there looking like a schoolgirl about to give an oral report on a subject she hadn't researched. The three thugs sitting there looked at her with a mix of curiosity and desire in their eyes.

One set down his drink, wiped his mouth with the back of one hand, and said, "Well, well, what do we have here?"

She held her bag in front of her, clutching it like a shield. "I'm looking for a man called Stivik," she said, her voice shaking.

"That'd be me, missy," the guy in the middle said with snort, an unlit lho stick hanging from his cracked lips.

I knew Stivik; everyone knew Stivik. A local tough with a scarred face who made his living promising things he cannot or will not ever deliver. I continued to eavesdrop, trying not to look too conspicuous.

"Um," she said, shifting uncomfortably. "I was told you might be able to help me."

Stivik set down his lho stick and adjusted his eye patch. "So, what you're proposing is a business transaction? How much money you got?"

Before she could answer him, I leaned around on my stool and faced them. "It's customary to ask what services are required before settling on a price."

Stivik glared at me. "Stay out of this, Garmon. Don't be sticking your nose where it don't belong."

My nose has always led the way, and usually straight into trouble. I ignored him and gave the young woman as pleasant a smile as I could muster. "Mamsel, this crook will take every Throne you have and then some, and then still won't do whatever it is you need."

They both spoke at the same time; Stivik vividly describing various acts I could carry out with my mother while she quietly said, "I need to get offworld. Urgently."

"Offworld? Why deal with this grox breath?" I nodded at Stivik, who was now describing the acts that he intended to carry out with my mother. "Just use the money you have and buy a ticket."

She shook her head. "I need offworld, right way. With no record, no trace."

"Ah, you wanna disappear," said Stivik, displaying a remarkable mastery of the obvious. He smiled, showing hyp-stained teeth. "You came to the right place. But'll it cost you, say, fifty thousand, cash."

She clutched her purse tighter. "I…but...I don't have that much."

One of Stivik's henchman, a fat gak-head with a bald head covered in ritualistic tattoos belched and gave her a lewd smile. "The boss is always willing to accept alternate forms of payment," he said with oily grin while his eyes made their way up and down her thin frame.

She blushed and clutched her purse tighter.

"Like my cohort here says, I'm sure we can work something out, said Stivik."

A little voice inside my head was screaming at me, telling not to get involved, but even though I didn't know her from Horus, I couldn't let an animal like Stivik take advantage of her. "Keep you money in your purse," I told her before turning to look at the next table. "You gak-heads don't have any way to get this young lady out of Barbary, much less offworld."

Stivik stood up, all two-plus meters of him and stared at me wickedly. "I already warned you – what in Throne's name?"

He stopped midsentence to stare open-mouthed at a tall man dressed completely in black who had stomped in through the door and walked straight toward us, a chrome bolt pistol in his hand. We all sat there dumbfounded as he blew the brains out of Stivik's henchmen, first one, then the other, before pointing the gun at Stivik. While this happened, I did what everyone else in the bar did – I dove under my table. Everyone but the woman and Stivik, that is. She stood there, frozen. He reached for the laspistol in his coat.

It all happened so fast time seemed to slow down. That only makes sense to someone who's been in that type of situation, the surreal sensation that it's all taking place underwater, before jumping to fast forward in the blink of an eye.

The man in black shot Stivik in the chest. Stivik slumped down out of his chair and plopped onto the floor, still holding the pistol. The tall man took a quick look around the place before shoving the bolt pistol into his belt and grabbing the girl. She snapped out of her stupor and screamed. He nonchalantly threw her over his shoulder and headed toward the door, oblivious to her kicking and screaming. He kicked open the door but before he could step out, Stivik raised his laspistol and punched a perfect kill shot through the stranger's head, a fountain of pink gore splattering the wall. The women tumbled to the ground, screamed again, and scooted on her backside away from the still smoking and mostly headless corpse beside her. Stivik coughed twice, dropped the gun and collapsed.

I'd like to say that I came right to my senses, but it might have taken me a few seconds to collect myself. I see it as a small consolation that I reacted sooner than anyone else in the bar. I stood up and took a careful look around, focusing mostly on the bodies because no matter how often you come face to face with it, death is a terrible thing. And in this case, particularly messy.

In another second I heard the sirens and that snapped me into action, along with everyone else in the bar, the Reef being the kind of place where everyone has something to hide, or is hiding from someone. But before joining the exodus to the back door, I stepped over the gore splattered around the bodies slumped near the table and ran over to the corpse in the doorway. Fighting back my revulsion at the splatter of jelly-like brain matter all over the floor and walls, I reached down and grabbed the pistol out of the dead man's hand. When I did, something fell out of his great coat. I snatched it up and pocketed it, then grabbed the woman by the arm, snapping her out of her trance. She screamed again, gouging my arm with her nails, which I wryly noted was more than she did to the man in black when he grabbed her.

"We need to get out of here, and fast," I told her. The constables in Barbary are known for rounding up everyone they can get their hands on and charging the lot of them. And don't get me started on the judicial system.

She looked at me like I was a warp-spawned daemon. "Who are you?"

"We can do the introductions later," I said, nervously listening to the roar of engines outside followed by the screech of brakes. She had less than a second to make up her mind or I was out of there. She didn't say anything, but she didn't object when I took her arm and tugged her toward the back door. We'd only taken two steps before I stopped. The local constabulary had shown a little more brains than usual, having sent a team to secure the back. I could hear them wrestling a couple of unlucky patrons to the ground, accompanied by a couple of forceful whacks from their truncheons.

"This way," I said, pulling on her arm again.

She allowed me to drag her along, the violence reducing her to somnambulistic state. I led her quickly around the bar and into the kitchen area. Our shoes slid and shimmied on the grease-laden floor as we maneuvered around crates, sinks, a grill and a metal table browned with meat stains and on toward the delivery entrance, which amounted to little more than a hatch in the wall with a decrepit gravity roller for receiving goods. I helped her up onto the rollers, which were caked with grime and grease, and gave her a gentle shove toward the opening before sliding on behind her, losing my cap in the process. After ducking through some thick flaps in an even more disgusting condition, we emerged into a narrow alley strewn with garbage and oily, foul-smelling puddles of viscous liquid. A collection of meter high bins lined one side; by crouching down and scampering through the trash and ooze we were able to stay out of sight of the constables at the back door. At the end of the alley, I guided her to the left and ducked quickly into another alley. From there we jogged onto a side street over to an arterial packed with smoke-belching vehicles.

I slowed to a walk then, hoping we were far away enough from the bar to appear like just another wayward couple out for a stroll, albeit through a hardscrabble neighborhood not fit for the faint of heart. And in searing heat while an oleaginous drizzle fell from the low clouds which perpetually plagued Barbary.

My flat was only a half-kilometer away, my habit for never straying farther than necessary for a drink once again coming in handy. We made it to my front door none the worse for wear save for the grease stains on our clothing and soaked from the now steady rain.

I stepped inside and she followed. She blinked in the darkness but I left the luminator off; we seemed to have made it out without being followed but I wasn't taking any chances. I helped her into a chair, shrugged off my wet coat and set the bolt pistol on the table.

I bent down in front of her and looked into her vacant eyes. "I'm going to make us something to drink. Then we're gonna have a talk, you and me."

She looked me in the eyes for an instant, a brief look of incredulity flashing across her face before she slipped back into shock again.

I shrugged and heated the water. My hab is tiny, just a small kitchen area, a sitting room and an alcove with a sagging bed. From the stove I could see her, knees pulled up to her chin, a slight tremor in her shoulders. I couldn't blame her – I was doing my best to fight off a case of the shakes myself. And it wasn't just the violence, not just the narrow escape from death, it was not knowing the how or the why of it. And looking at her, I wondered if I'd be getting any answers out of her any time soon. It left me knowing practically nothing about what I'd seen with my own two eyes. But there was one thing I knew, even if it didn't shed any more light on the situation. Quite the opposite, actually. I reached into my pocket and took out the object I had taken from the dead man and glanced at it in the dim light of the stove, turning it over in my hand while a shiver of dread crept down my spine:

An inquisitor's rosette.

"They broke into our house and took my husband three days ago."

At my bidding, the woman (I had since learned that her name was Marni) began to tell her story in a low, quavering voice. She sat on an old chair, sipping a cup of recaf, one hand on her belly. "They stormed the house in the middle of the night."

"Who did?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. Thugs or gangsters, I guess."

On an essentially lawless world like Faire, that would be everyone's first assumption. "What did they look like?"

She shrugged. "Men wearing black, with guns and swords."

"Are you certain they carried swords?"

She nodded. "Yes, I mean no. Well, one of them did, at least."

I studied her diminutive frame and nervously fingered the rosette in my pocket; with her thin shoulders and haunted eyes, she hardly looked the part of a heretic. Why would the Inquisition be after her? And how was I going to break it to her just how deep in trouble she was?

"Can you think of any reason why anyone would want to detain your husband?"

"They didn't detain him, they killed him, I'm sure of it," she said, showing real emotion for the first time since I'd foolishly interceded on her behalf.

I certainly wasn't going to dispute that, the Inquisition not being known for its restraint. I closed my eyes and the memory of the dead inquisitor came unbidden to my mind's eye. It was time to tell her the truth. "That man last night, the one who grabbed you."

She nodded. "The dead guy."

Well, there were four dead guys lying on that grimy floor last night, but I didn't correct her. "Yeah, that one. He wasn't just some random thug – and neither were the men who abducted your husband."

"You know who they are?"

"I don't know who they are, but I have a pretty good idea what they are." I held out the rosette out for her to see. "The Inquisition. Ordo Hereticus." I tried to imagine how a normal bloke like her husband, one of thousands on the planet and one of billions in the Empire could have possibly drawn the attention of the Inquisition. "You can't think of anything he did that could be misconstrued as heretical?"

She blinked at me in disbelief. "My husband isn't…wasn't a heretic. He worked as clerk for a local shipping company. He was a gentle, unassuming citizen who selflessly served the Emperor."

She was laying it on a little thick, or maybe she really thought that the Emperor watches over us all, something I stopped believing soon after my first deployment with the Guard. But I also knew well enough that you don't cross the Inquisition. Somehow her husband – and apparently she – had given those zealots reason to suspect them. "Can you think of anything strange that's happened recently, anything at all?"

At first she said no, of course not, but then she stopped and scratched her head. "There is one thing."

Ah ha, I thought, here we go. "When did this happen?"

"A week ago. I remember because it's the same day I found out I was pregnant."

"Tell me exactly what happened."

"We were in the surgery office."

"Who all was there?"

She scrunched up her eyebrows. "Me and the physio, of course. And then Roak, that's my husband's name, and the nurse."

"Go on."

"Well, the physio had just finished running his tests, confirming what we already expected, that I was pregnant, when the room suddenly got really cold."

"How do you mean?"

"The temperature dropped, just like that. I could see my breath, and there was a little frost on the windows."

I didn't like where this was going. "Anything else?"

"Yes, um, the doctor and the nurse both got bloody noses."

I had a strange feeling of suddenly knowing exactly what was going on while at the same time becoming even more confused. "And then what happened?"

Marni shrugged. "Roak and I left."

"Just like that?"

"Well, looking back it does seem like they rushed us out of there. I barely had time to get dressed. I remember because when I was pulling on my clothes the baby kicked – that was the first time."

I rubbed my head and tried to put all the pieces of this puzzle together, but I didn't have a chance. I heard a loud engine rumbling outside and muffled voices. I moved over to the window and looked out. I picked up the bolt pistol and shoved it in my belt. "We need to leave. Now!"

Marni stood up, alarmed. "What's wrong?"

I pulled her toward the bathroom. "Somehow they've found us….found you."

I would have let them have her, just shoved her out the door and been done with it, but I didn't have any illusions that they'd be content with just taking her in; in fact, I felt damn sure that I'd be nothing more than collateral damage, like Stivik and his buddies the night before. I didn't much like it, but our fates were intertwined, at least for now.

My hab, my entire block, consists of modular housing haphazardly placed on rockcrete slabs. Most of the units are connected through interlocking sections built onto the exterior walls, ensuring that when your neighbor sneezes at three in the morning, he wakes up everyone in the adjacent units. That's the bad news. The good news is that they're almost exclusively one story. So we were able to climb out the window and into the alley at the same time the front door was kicked in, and managed to do it without breaking our legs.

We landed in a puddle. I picked her up out of the mud and helped her up into a row of scraggly bushes separating the alley from the next row of habs. We slid down into a trench just as a flurry of bolts sent mud flying all around us. She screamed and I whispered fiercely, telling her to shut up and keep moving. We scampered through a gap in the next row of units and out into the street a block over. I heard the roar of an engine and the stink of burning promethium, looking up to see a large truck screaming around the corner toward us. I led her into another sewage ditch and pulled her down flat with me on the ground, the overripe stink of human waste nearly overpowering me. The truck roared by, while behind us we could hear the voices of our pursuers.

I tried to lie as flat as I could, thinking about explosive bolter rounds shattering my spine. The truck turned around, its headlights scanning frighteningly close to our position there in the grime. I could hear boots on the rockcrete, moving down the road, closer to us. We had maybe ten seconds before either the truck or the men and probably both would be able to spot us.

"This way," I whispered, nodding toward a rusting metal pipe where brown waste water sluiced through a decaying grate. I kicked at the grate once, twice, knocking it out of place wide enough for us to slip through, then I quickly put it back in place.

We crouched in a cramped chamber in a foot of raw sewage, the stench so overpowering that I gagged and fought back the vomit. Marni wasn't as successful, retching up whatever she'd eaten last, leaving traces of brown vomitus on her chin.

We only had one way to go: farther down the pipe. We crawled along on our hands and knees, splashing through the brackish filth. Marni gamely kept up, gagging now and then. I was just thinking that maybe we'd avoided the threat behind us and starting to ponder what might lie ahead when a bolter round smashed into the pipe a mere centimeters from my head. I cursed and dropped on my belly, indicating that she should do the same. Another round bounced above our heads and ricocheted past. The only thing keeping us alive was the slight decline of the pipe as it slowly went deeper under the ground, heading no doubt for the bay. But it wasn't going to thwart our pursuers for long.

I looked over my shoulder and saw lights zigzagging in the dark. I knew they'd be able to outpace us, especially with me nursing a pregnant woman along. In an attempt to discourage our pursuers, I took the pistol out of my belt, rolled over and sent three rounds back toward the entrance, the sound of the discharge ringing in my ears. I had no illusions that I'd actually hit anything, but I hoped it might buy us some time. And it seemed to work for a few moments as we continued to slide deeper down the incline without any more bolter rounds exploding near our heads.

In a few moments we came to a tee, with one pipe heading to our left and going steeply down and the other to the right at a lesser incline. While I felt relieved that our pursuers wouldn't be able to know which direction we went, it wouldn't do us any good if we ended up at the bottom of the sea. I also worried that it might start to rain heavily outside, a near daily occurrence in Barbary. The thought of drowning in a torrent of wastewater wasn't much more appealing than the prospect of a bolter round in the brainpan.

I sat there, dumbfounded and trying to choose a direction when Marni wiped a strand of hair from her eyes and looked at me. "Shouldn't we start climbing?"

I shook myself out of my self-induced trance. "What?"

"The ladder." She pointed to the flat part of the tee.

I smiled despite the situation. Bolted to the tunnel wall I could now see a rusted iron ladder leading straight up a narrow but navigable shaft. The prospect of heading upward and back toward daylight – even a cloud-scuttled, sodden version of daylight – seemed infinitely more pleasing than heading deeper into Emperor knows what.

We climbed for maybe five minutes before reaching the surface. I scrambled out through an open cover and helped Marni on up. We stood on a concrete shelf some thirty meters off the ground. The shelf and accompanying guardrail encircled a large water tank, rising above us.

I'd started looking for a way down when she called out to me. "Shouldn't we close this? In case they're coming?"

She pointed to the shaft we'd climbed out of, indicating the open cover. I nodded, and she helped me swing the rusted cover down over the shaft. With some grunting and more than a few expletives, I managed to tighten it down, effectively sealing the opening.

I located a ladder on the opposite side of the cistern and we climbed down into a bog where twisting trees with feathery leafs sprung from the spongy turf and thick growths of wild hyp dotted the ground. We slogged our way along, ducking under branches and around sinkholes until we arrived at a narrow access road. It began to rain again, a soft sprinkle that threatened to become a typical Faire deluge. Eventually the dirt road led to a wider one, and then a paved street leading back into town. We stayed in the shadows as much as possible, ducking under the cover of the trees whenever a vehicle went by. I didn't see any sign of any Inquisition agents or their vehicles, but not for lack of looking. Out here in the open, with no place to run, we'd be easy prey. So far the dark of night had helped to hide us, but I didn't want to push my luck. We couldn't just keep walking along, hoping for the best.

This obviously occurred to her. "Where are we going?" she asked when we'd stopped for a minute to rest.

"Good question." I scanned the cloud-ravaged horizon. We were nearing the outskirts of town where a series of low warehouses and sprawling junkyards lined the streets. Farther in I glimpsed the first rows of habs strung together, the beginnings of the poorest part of town. And also a den of crime that would make my neighborhood seem like a governor's palace. Then I saw it, a steeple topped with a double-headed eagle.

"I guess we're going to church."

The rain had become a heavy downpour by the time we arrived at the large double doors. We huddled under the alcove and waited for someone to respond to my knocking. After a few minutes, I shrugged and pushed on the door. It opened with a creak. I peered into the holy shadows seeing rows of pews lined along darkened windows. After calling out once more and not getting a response, I pulled Marni inside and shut the door.

I've never been a church goer; I'm more likely to use the Emperor's name in vain than pray for His eternal wisdom. But like so many others, I'm more than willing to turn to religion when it's convenient. And I figured the chances of any priest turning us out or calling the authorities were minimal. Plus, we had nowhere else to go.

Once inside with the door shut, I called out as loudly as I dared, my voice echoing off the rafters. In a moment a wavering voice answered, though exactly what it said I couldn't make out. Marni looked at me and shrugged, and I confess that my right hand closed around the butt of the pistol stashed in my belt.

He shuffled out of the shadows, down through the dais and under a large painting of the Emperor comforting shepherd children in a Terran meadow. As he approached, I could see that he wore the standard white robes of an ecclesiastical priest and sandals. His gray hair and beard were long and unkempt.

"Forgive the intrusion, father, but my, er, sister and I have lost our home and have nowhere to spend the night."

"Then welcome, my children; you will be guests of the Emperor this night." He made the sign of the Aquila, then raised his arms. "Please, do come in."

I thanked him and introduced Marni and myself, not bothering to give him false names; despite my long time lack of spirituality and general disdain for religion, I thought it best to keep the falsehoods to a minimum. He told us his name was Father Remnor, the priest of this local parish. He led us through the sanctuary and into the back of the building where he showed us a small kitchen, a bathroom, and a room with a couple of cots.

"Rest my children," he said. "Give your weariness to the Emperor, that He may recharge your bodies and souls."

Once seated, I tried to explain to him why we showed up there in the middle of the night. I kept my story simple, telling him that we were on the run from some criminals because of her husband's gambling debts.

"The Emperor forgives all sins, in time," he said, looking at Marni tenderly before making the sign of the Aquila yet again.

I was starting to wonder if the old loon ever uttered a sentence without mentioning the Emperor or His Holy works. But Marni seemed consoled by his kind if entirely uninspired bromides.

With much muttering, he started making us food and drink before stopping himself. "Throne, but you're both filthy – forgive these old eyes for not noticing earlier." Eyes? All he needed was a nose, since we both smelled worse than a temporary Guard latrine. He showed us where to bathe and even laid out clean clothes: a heavy tunic and trousers for Marni and a white robe identical to his for me. At first I was tempted to try and clean up my own clothes as much as possible, but one glance at them was enough to see that they were beyond saving. So resigned myself to wearing the absurd outfit, although I did insist on keeping my boots, the thought of running from the Inquisition in sandals less than appealing.

When he came into collect my dirty clothes, Father Remnor saw the bolt pistol lying on the cot and did a double-take. "My son, I'll have no such instruments of death in His Holy house." He looked down, as if afraid to even touch it.

I didn't bother telling him how many billions had died in His supposedly Holy service, with similar weapons and worse. Instead, I apologized and quickly picked it up, wrapped it in a cloth and stashed it under the eaves outside.

Scrubbed clean and feeling nearly human again, we sat down to recaf and bread. "This isn't the nicest neighborhood," I said through a mouthful. "Aren't you afraid being here alone? I mean, the door wasn't even locked."

Father Remnor smiled, revealing crooked teeth beneath his beard. "Afraid? No, my son, for the Emperor protects."

"So I've heard."

If he was aware of my sarcasm, it didn't show. "We're all His children." He then paused and looked at Marni. "Speaking of, I see you're with child, my dear."

I'm not sure how he could tell – one had to look twice to see any indications, especially in the loose clothing she wore. But Marni merely blushed and placed her hands on her stomach. "Yes. And he always gets active and starts kicking when I drink recaf. I know I really should cut back…"

"Each new life is a gift from the Emperor, my child." Father Remnor smiled paternally and made the sign of the Aquila.

I was half-convinced that Father Remnor was a few beads short a full rosary, but Marni seemed to relax in the old priest's presence, becoming almost chatty. She'd scarcely said two words to me, though I had to admit that with all the running and shooting and generally trying not to get killed, we'd hardly had time to get to know each other properly.

After eating, I plopped down on one of the cots to catch some sleep. Marni claimed to have caught a second wind (no doubt fueled by the three cups of recaf she'd consumed) and stayed up to talk to the priest. Maybe she saw him as a father figure, or maybe she felt the need for confession. Well, I never knew my father and I've never seen the point of confessing my sins – I mean, who has that kind of time?

So I shuffled off to the cot, thinking I'd would have slept better if the banished pistol were stashed under my pillow. Lying there in the quiet dark, I took a few moments to collect my thoughts. I tried not to think about how my staid and dreary existence had been upended by a few seconds of ill-advised chivalry. I would have loved to sneak out the door right then and there, but my actions of the last few frantic hours made me a criminal, whether she was standing next to me or not. I'd aided and abetted someone who was on the Inquisition's watch list. And they weren't known for their tolerance of such things.

And how had that happened? From listening to her story, it wasn't hard to figure out what had transpired: the doctor witnessed a psyker event and, assuming the culprit was Marni's husband, reported to some Adminstratium agency that reported to another, on up the bureaucratic chain until it reached the Inquisition. They arrested him, interrogated, tortured and no doubt killed him without ever getting the truth out of him. Then they thought that maybe they got it wrong, maybe it was the wife who was the psyker. Not being the sort of agency to look back with regret or to issue apologies, much less admit to making a mistake, they tried to detain her and, thanks to me, some unknown gak-head, she eluded capture. For now.

Marni a psyker? It didn't make sense. If she was, she certainly had no clue. I'd heard stories about common folk with latent psyker abilities who had no idea about their powers. But nothing about Marni seemed dangerous or odd or even slightly off. Still, the Inquisition had been able to track us from the bar to my place. Had the Inquisition used a psyker to detect her psychic energies? They were known to use them for a variety of purposes, not all of them pleasant. That would confirm what I suspected: that Marnie was a psyker, but was unaware of it. If that were the case, they'd be coming for her – for us – soon. And I didn't think for one second that hiding in a shrine would cause the Inquisition to show any sort of restraint or mercy.

My musings were interrupted by a buzzing sound coming from outside the window. I put on the ridiculous robe and my boots and sneaked through the darkened sanctuary. The moonlight shown through the stained glass windows giving the drafty hall an unearthly glow. I looked up at the mural of the Emperor and made the sign of the Aquila despite myself. Then I eased the door open and looked outside.

At first, all I could see was the soggy night, framed by trees weeping in the wind with low mists curling among the trunks. I had just started wondering if I ought to go to the other side of the church and recover the gun when I heard the sound again, a static buzzing from around the corner. I picked up a thick tree branch from off the ground and brandished it in front of me like a chain sword as I turned past the edge of the building.

That's what I saw it: a damn servo-skull buzzing and bumping right outside the window of the back room the father had arranged our accommodations in. I leapt up and tried to hit it with the stick but it scooted higher, spun around for a moment as if mocking me, then zoomed off into the night.

I cursed and then ran toward the front doors. I'd been seriously considering the possibility that Marni was a psyker. I snorted. The Inquisition hadn't tracked us through some offworld psyker homing in on her psyker energies, but through much more mundane means: an old-fashioned servo-skull. I didn't have time to ponder it further – as soon as that little beastie made it back to whatever secret headquarters those goons were holed up in, we'd both be dead, the Inquisition not being likely to care one way or another that they had the wrong woman.

And even less the wrong man.

I managed to roust the two of them in just a few moments. I hurriedly gave them an abbreviated version of what I thought must be happening. Marni reacted impassively, as if she was getting used to one hurried flight after another. Getting the old priest to stay out of the way proved more difficult. First he started bustling around gathering up things for what he called our "pilgrimage." After presenting me with a bundle of "foodstuffs and the like," he suddenly grabbed his old head and shouted out: "Throne, but the Emperor does provide!"

I stopped in the doorway, momentarily suspending my efforts to get Marni out the door while simultaneously scanning the immediate surroundings for any signs of servo-skulls, armored servitors or black-clad killers with hell guns. "What are you getting on about now?"

"I haven't fired it up for some time," the old coot muttered, "but Throne willing, it'll still run."

I asked him again what he was talking about, doing my best not to resort to coarse language. As an answer, he shuffled off to the rear of the old church, beckoning that I should follow. With a sigh, I trailed him, with Marni right behind me.

He led us to what looked like a stable out back. After opening the door and leading us inside, he pulled on a ratty tarp to reveal an ancient bus that looked older than Horus. "There you go – the Emperor provides!"

I would have preferred that He provide an armed Land Speeder, but I had to admit that it would be preferable to hoofing it along on foot. If it ran, and I had my doubts about that.

To my surprise, the old bus fired up on the third try. And even more surprising, it had half a tank of promethium. I didn't know how far we'd get, but I started to feel a little more optimistic about our chances. Now we'd be able to move a bit faster, and Throne willing, the old bus with its faded painting of the Emperor on the side would provide us with a modicum of cover.

With Father Remnor hovering over us like a school marm, we loaded our meagre possessions into the belching old bus. "May the Emperor bless the road that rises up to meet you," he shouted over the wheezing engine as I backed it out of the shack and bounced it onto the carriageway.

As I struggled to keep the rattling bus on the road, I sighed with relief that I'd be leaving that codger behind, along with his single-minded zeal to put me back on the Emperor's path.

"He is such a sweet man," Marni said from the seat next to me, as if sensing my thoughts.

"That he is," I answered while searching for the wipers. Then I couldn't help following with, "May the Emperor keep him safe."

She nodded and made the sign of the Aquila, oblivious to my sarcasm.

After a few minutes of driving in the now pouring rain, she turned to me and asked where we were going.

"You still want to get offworld, right?" When she nodded I continued. "Then we need to get you to the star port terminal and from there onto a shuttle and up into orbit and then, Throne willing, on to an outbound ship."

"How are you going to do that?"

I swerved the old bus to avoid a puddle that had aspirations of becoming a lake. "I know a guy who owes me a favor. He's got connections and might be able to get you stowed on a freighter or something."

"Won't these Inquisition people be there waiting for us?"

"It's a definite possibility." I'd considered that we might be walking right into a trap, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed unlikely. From the Inquisition's point of view, it would be more likely that she was just trying to disappear somewhere planetside. It would certainly be easier. "But it's a chance we have to take. They can't know for sure what we're planning, and as far as I know, the Inquisition doesn't usually operate here. They can't have more than a handful of agents. And, if you remember, they're already down one oversized squaddie." I shuddered, recalling the mess that Stivik's laspistol had made of the inquisitor's head, and wished yet again that at the time I'd had the sense to look the other way, literally and figuratively.

The bus lurched again, sending us both up in our seats, my head nearly hitting the ceiling. She grabbed her belly and said, "Ooh, that woke the baby up."

Before I could answer her, I looked ahead and cursed, using a form of the Emperor's name that would have sent Father Remnor scuttling under his altar.

"What is it?"

I glanced through the windshield where the wipers were fighting a losing battle with the rain. "Some sort of a roadblock, I think."

I downshifted and slowed to a crawl. "Get in the back and keep your head down, and let me do the talking. And whatever happens, stay out of sight." I knew they probably had a good description of her, but I was hoping that their data slates described me as unknown male accomplice or something like that.

I approached the light ahead slowly. It looked like three local constables standing out in the rain in front of two large vehicles and behind them, three tall portable luminators lighting up the dark. In the shadows to this side, it looked like some sort of a tent had been set up. I breathed a sigh of relief; at least I didn't see any inquisitors. Maybe this checkpoint was unrelated to Marni.

The nearest officer approached the bus and indicated I should roll down the window. While I obliged, he shown his torch inside the cab, spearing into the rows of seats behind me as well. I hoped Marni was smart enough to stay out of sight.

There are no driver's licenses or ID papers on Faire – heck, there's barely a police force, much less the bureaucracy needed to keep track of everyone driving on the waterlogged roads. Instead of asking for identification, he shown the luminator directly into my face and then looked at the data slate in his hand. The next thing I knew there was a stub revolver pointed at my head and he was shouting, telling me to get out of the vehicle.

I hesitated before realizing that I had no choice but to comply. Even if I did feel like entering into a shootout with three nervous constables, in my haste to leave, I'd idiotically left the bolter back at the church. So I climbed out of the cab with my hands raised. One of his companions rushed over and threw me roughly against the side of the bus while the first guy continued to cover me with the stubber.

"Check the inside," he said to the third cop who'd come over to assist. "See if she's in there."

I knew then that this wasn't just some random checkpoint. We'd been caught. The damn servo-skull must have snapped my pict last night and now my image had been downloaded to every constable and inquisitor in the area. In other words, I was royally frakked, and so was Marni.

The third constable was halfway through the back of the bus when he called out, "Someone's back here."

Then the windows inside the bus instantly iced over with a layer of frost, and I shivered despite the withering heat outside as a trickle of blood ran down my nose. And in the next half-second, all three constables collapsed. I heard the one inside the bus hit the floor hard and I watched in morbid fascination as the two right in front of me withered to the ground, tendrils of smoke coming out of their eye sockets.

I wiped the blood from my nose and looked into the cab. "Marni!"

I heard a weak sound coming from the back of the bus. I rushed inside, stepping around the dead policemen and finding her crouched on the floor between seats. "Are you okay?"

"I think so," she said weakly.

I offered her a hand and helped her upright. She looked at the body and shivered. "W-what happened?"

I held her by the shoulders and looked into her eyes. "You don't remember anything?"

"The man was coming and then I got so cold…so very cold."

I figured she must be in shock, or was this a normal reaction from a psyker after they've used their powers? I didn't know, but I did know two things: Marni was definitely a psyker, and we had to get out of there, and fast.

After I dragged the body out of the bus, I dumped it and the other two corpses off into a thicket of thorny bushes. Then I climbed back in and got her situated in the seat next to mine. I cranked the ignition and began to drive, the bus lurching as I struggled to shift gears. She sat there vacant-eyed while I drove for a couple of kilometers, then I turned onto a narrow dirt road, heading roughly in the direction of the star port. I guided the wheezing vehicle deep down the rutted track to where heavy branches scraped along the windows. I pulled it off the track and under the branches of a large tree, then I turned off the engine and killed the lights.

I sat there for a few moments, drenched in sweat, the silence absolute save my heavy breathing and the constant patter of the rain on the metal roof. In a few moments, I heard sirens and then the screaming approach of a Valkyrie coming in low, its searchlights stabbing through the fog.

Marni jumped at the sound, eyes wide with panic.

I put a hand on her arm. "It's okay," I said, trying to reassure her, "they won't find us here."

I mostly believed it, too. We were well off the main road, parked under heavy tree cover. Of course it wouldn't last forever, and we obviously wouldn't be able to continue using the bus, but for now I felt reasonably safe. And if I had calculated correctly, we were only a kilometer or so from the star port.

"Those men back there," she said quietly. "Did you…?"

I looked at her, at the innocence in those eyes. She truly had no memory of what she'd done. And she seemed so fragile at the moment that I didn't want to shock her. "It had to be done. It was us or them. And there's the baby, too. Who knows what they'd do to it."

"To him," she corrected while stroking her belly. "It's a boy."

I don't suppose she could have known that, but I didn't say anything. Who knows what a psyker can see and not see? Anyway, my mentioning the baby seemed to have focused her. I explained that we needed to lie low until morning. She accepted that without question, folded her arms across her stomach and seemed to go to sleep.

At least it had stopped raining. I cracked the window to get some air, a tradeoff for the biting bugs that would no doubt soon find their way in. I still hadn't wrapped my head around what had happened back there. I knew damn little about psykers and their abilities. I did know that the most powerful ones were both coveted and feared. That's why the Inquisition was always so keen to either snatch them up for their own purposes, or summarily destroy them. And I wasn't about to argue. The thought of an army of psykers under the sway of the Ruinous Powers terrified me. But Marni didn't even seem aware of her abilities. What would the Inquisition do if they captured her? And again, what would they do with an innocent unborn child? I've never been a particularly brave or chivalrous person, and hardly a minute had gone by over the past few hours that I hadn't regretted getting involved in this mess. I looked over at Marni, sleeping peacefully in the next seat. I couldn't deny a growing need to protect and help her, despite my usual strongly defined sense of self-preservation.

I leaned back and rubbed my eyes, coming to another realization. They had my image now, my information. I was no longer just trying to help Marni get offworld. I needed to leave this planet too, and fast. Because while it was unclear what the Inquisition might do should they capture her, there was no doubt what would happen to me.

She was running from the Inquisition but me, I was running for my life.

I must have dozed off because I awoke with a start just as the sun would have been coming up if it weren't hidden behind a perpetual layer of dense cloud cover. Marni slept on, mumbling something I couldn't quite make out. I sat up and stretched my sore back, suddenly aware of how hungry I felt. Then I remembered the package that Father Remnor had given us. I took it out from under the seat and unwrapped it. Inside I found a couple of hard rolls, some cheese and a carafe full of recaf. And under that, wrapped in cloth, I saw the bolt pistol.

I smiled and hefted the gun in my hand, then checked the magazine. It still held four rounds, not nearly enough, but I still felt encouraged to at least have some means of defending myself without…well without asking Marni to do the heavy lifting. That brought to mind the dead constables. I closed my eyes and I could again see their smoking eye sockets, their tortured faces as death took them.

I shuddered and opened my eyes, then picked up a roll. When I did, a piece of paper slipped onto my lap. I unfolded it and read a handwritten note:

The voice of the Emperor speaks with both the roar of a lion and the mewling of a child

I shook my head before tossing the scrap out the window. Of course, Father Remnor had to get in one last mindless platitude about the Emperor, though when he had time to scrawl it I had no idea.

I ate a roll and some cheese, washing it down with a swallow of recaf, feeling energized if not clean. Marni awoke a few minutes later. She had a few bites to eat but refused the caffeine, saying something about not wanting to wake the baby. I put the remains back in the bundle, except for the gun. I started to secure it on my person when I realized that the robe Father Remnor had so graciously loaned me wasn't designed for such purposes. So after I'd explained to her that we'd have to continue on foot, I helped her stow the pistol at the small of her back, tucked in the belt of the oversized pantaloons she wore. She wiggled her rear end a little, allowing it to settle into the folds. I hoped the damn thing wouldn't jar loose and shoot us both. And I kicked myself for not having the presence of mind to grab a stub revolver from one of the constables back there. It would have been much easier to handle and Throne knows they wouldn't be needing them.

We packed up our meagre possessions and started to hike in what I hoped was the general direction of the star port. It wasn't easy going. We were deep in a dense rain forest. The ground was soft and muddy and strewn with fallen trees, spiny plants and vines. I remained vigilant for any signs of snakes while giving up entirely on waving away the stinging and biting insects that constantly plagued us.

For Marni's part, she clambered along behind me without complaint. It almost made me laugh, me protecting and guiding a woman who was probably the most dangerous human being I had ever encountered, and in my time I've come across my share of Space Marines. I just hoped she wasn't a danger to me. For now, she seemed totally oblivious to her power, or its recent use. I had to assume she'd reacted unconsciously to a perceived threat; what I didn't understand is why she hadn't lashed out with her psyker powers when she'd been threatened previously, especially since my own hide had been in peril as well. Regardless, I made a mental note to be damn sure not to come across as threatening in any way.

To my delight (and surprise) we soon emerged back on the carriageway just 100 meters from the star port. We approached cautiously, creeping along the edge of the rockcrete and diving back into the underbrush whenever a vehicle approached. Marni watched in some awe as a large freight shuttle launched noisily from the pad, lurched into the sky and roared into the upper atmosphere.

As we came up close to the fencing surrounding the facility, I pondered exactly how we'd get inside and locate my friend without being spotted. Thankfully this wasn't an established Imperial world; I knew from my previous trips here that I wouldn't find PDF troops or any Guard. We might come across armed private security, though they'd be keener on guarding the assets of whomever was paying them and less worried about what I might be up to. What did have me anxious was the more than distinct possibility that the Inquisition had dispatched an agent or two here.

I likely could have made it through the gates and across the busy staging area without being spotted, especially wearing the white robe, which to the untrained eye would give me the appearance of a well-meaning priest looking to spread the Emperor's word. But I couldn't leave Marni, even though a man and a woman together are much easier to spot than a solitary man.

We waited until a large lorry rumbled past, then slipped through the gate in its promethium wake. I guided Marni immediately to the left, where row upon row of large shipping containers were lined up. Ducking into the shadow of one, I could see the activity bustling around the star port: servitors, stevedores, enginseers and merchants all moving purposely between the pad and the buildings. On the pad, a heavy lifter was unloading various crates from a vertical shuttle, its engine vents still smoking, the stench of promethium hanging thickly in the humid air. A line of heavy servitors waited to move the cargo toward awaiting trucks parked nearby.

We took advantage of the activity and the shadows, moving carefully down the line of containers, hoping that anyone who spotted us would be too busy to notice the bedraggled priest wearing combat boots and his spook-eyed female companion.

When we reached the end of the row, I stopped and considered the open area separating us from the row of low office buildings on the other side of the star port. And when I say star port, I'm being generous. This wasn't some sprawling complex like you'd find on an Imperial world. On a planet fully under the control of the Imperium, there would be dozens of buildings for such institutions as the local Adeptus Abrites, a Guard outpost, a full complement of the Adeptus Mechanicus (garishly adorned with their beloved cogwheel) and of course, a large building topped with an Aquila housing the endless files and countless clerks of the Adeptus Admistratum. But the few buildings here mostly housed the various merchants who regularly traded offworld and the locals who worked as clerks and laborers. Somehow we needed to get to those buildings without being spotted or seeming suspicious.

We waited in the shadows of the shipping containers until the shuttle had been unloaded and then reloaded with outgoing goods. Full of cargo once again, the servitors and enginseers prepared it for launch. I sweated and swatted away biting flies, expecting any second to be spotted. But if anyone saw us, they didn't pay us any mind. When the shuttle's engines began to whine in a buildup to liftoff, I indicated to Marni that we were about to move. But before we could make the dash across the open quad, a shadow fell across us and a large man stepped around the corner pointing a laspistol at my head.

"Hello Garmon, and you too, mamsel," he said through the crooked smile lurking beneath his eye patch. "I thought I might find you two here."

"Stivik? I thought you were…"

"Dead?" He chuckled. "Not quite." He pulled back his tunic and revealed armor plating, pointing to a good-sized dent on the ceramite chest plate. "It's hot and uncomfortable, but it'll stop a bolt more often than not." He smiled. "Still hurts like all Throne, of course."

I held my hands where he could see them. "What's with the gun?"

He looked at the laspistol in his hand, as of noticing it for the first time. "Oh this? Just a little insurance in case you try to put up a fight."

"A fight about what? I've got nothing against you."

"And I got nothing against you," he said before pausing to spit out green phlegm. "Even though you almost got me killed."

"I had nothing to do with that; I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, same as you."

"That well could be." He paused and leered at Marni. "Now that you mention it, it seems to me that this little number was the cause of all that excitement. Kinda makes me wonder why."

I pulled her closer to me. "She's another innocent bystander."

Stivik laughed. "Oh, I don't think so. I mean, she might be innocent, but she was no bystander. Whoever it was that came after her wanted her awful bad, bad enough to kill my mates, and nearly kill me."

"And you killed him," I said. "So it's all square."

"I ain't looking for square, I'm looking for a payday. See, I figure somebody wants this young thing real bad, and if I happen to deliver her, well I figure they'll be willing to pay me a handsome finder's fee."

"Don't be stupid, Stivik. You have no idea what kind of a mess you're stepping in. All you'll do is get yourself killed."

"Well, it seems to me that you're stepping in it, and you're still alive. I figure I am just as, what would you say, resourceful, as you are." He smiled again. I was getting real sick of looking at his yellowed teeth. "Yeah, that's the word. I'm just as resourceful as you, maybe even more so. And besides, the missy here is quite fond of me." He turned to Marni. "Remember how you was making eyes at me the other night?"

Marni looked like she might get ill. "I was desperate. Obviously."

Stivik appeared stung for a second, before quickly recovering. "Maybe so. But I got the old upper hand now, so let me tell you both what's gonna happen." He looked at me. "Lift up that robe and turn around." When I did, he nodded, satisfied that I had no weapons. He threw a pair of handcuffs at me. "Put these on her. And do it nice and slow."

I picked up the cuffs and walked behind Marni while he watched, the pistol held casually in his hand. I was distinctly aware that he didn't mention me being cuffed, clearly signaling that I was a dead man the second she was secured. I couldn't really blame him – I was nothing but a liability at that point. When I stood directly behind her, I took both her arms in my left hand and with my right hand I reached into the sash holding her oversized trousers in place and carefully removed the bolt pistol.

"Hurry up," Stivik stammered. "I got me some money to make."

I whipped out the pistol and fired. The first explosive round blew off his jaw. The second obliterated his throat. He dropped to the ground, making gurgling sounds. Marni shrieked, and I quickly put my hand over her mouth.

"He was gonna kill me and sell you to the Inquisition," I whispered fiercely. "Now be quiet and help me hide the body."

I bent down, grabbed his laspistol and shoved it in my belt. Then I looked out on the main area. It didn't look like anyone had heard the shots over the growling of engines and the whining of multiple servitors. But I couldn't be sure. So I quickly dragged the corpse around the corner and Marni helped me stuff it under a lorry trailer with blown tyres. I tossed the bolt pistol next to the corpse and turned my attention back to the quad.

We had to move quickly to put some distance between the lifeless Stivik and us. I could see no way to cross the yard in secrecy, so I just took Marni by the arm and we marched into the open, dodging a couple of servitors and a forklift, walking quickly into a narrow passageway between rows of modular buildings. Luckily, I remembered the way to where Bahnhum ran his business. Like many buildings in Barbary, his offices were in an old temporary housing container left behind by the early colonists. And like most of those buildings, it was leaky, poorly ventilated and should have been condemned years ago.

I knocked twice on the door, tried the handle and found it unlocked. I stepped into a small office, with Marni in tow. I didn't see anyone, just a desk with several data slates scattered across it next to an ancient cogitator and a slew of loose papers on the desk and covering the floor.

"Hello," I called out, "Anybody here?"

A door in the back swung open with a groan and a head covered in a mass of grey curls appeared. "Garmon you old dog, is it really you?"

"Bahn, good to see you." We embraced briefly; then I introduced him to Marni.

"Enchanted, mamsel." He bowed low and pretended to remove the cap he wasn't wearing. "To what do I owe this honor?"

"Maybe we should go into your office," I said, nodding at the door. "We're trying to be inconspicuous."

"Of course, of course," he said, taking Marni by the arm and leading us through the door.

What I had assumed would be his office turned out to be an anteroom connected to a larger space filled with small containers, all of which appeared to be empty. Bahnhum cleared a small table and pulled over a couple of chairs. "Sit, sit," he said. "Make yourselves comfortable while I fetch us something to drink." He hurried down a narrow hallway.

One thing about Bahnhum would never change: he'd drink for any reason, or no reason. More times than I could count, I'd had to carry his unconscious body to bed – or cot, or floor, wherever he wouldn't get stepped on while he slept off his binge.

"How do you know this man?" Marni asked while we waited for him to return.

"We served in the Guard together for twenty years."

She frowned. "Can we trust him?"

"Absolutely." For all his drinking and carousing, Bahnhum had always had my back. When he wasn't passed out, anyway.

"And you think he can help us?"

"I'm not sure," I admitted. "But he's our only chance."

"Our only chance? Does that mean you're coming with me?"

I nodded. "After what's happened these past few hours, I am as much a fugitive as you are."

"But…Where will we go?"

"Wherever he can send us," I said as Bahnhum came back holding a large bottle of sacra and three grimy glasses.

He looked as Marni as he poured our drinks. "You should have seen this bloke in the old three seventy second; he was a real Ork, and regular killer, this one." He faux punched me on the arm and took a drink. "This one time, on Saxum Cirum, he singlehandedly…"

"As much as I'd like to stay and shoot the gak with you," I interrupted, "we've got ourselves in a bit of a crunch and need your help. Urgently."

He let his face become serious and he set down his drink and leaned forward. "Of course, of course, old friend. I just have one question: What in the Throne are you wearing?" With this, he burst out laughing and slapped me on the thigh.

I sheepishly looked at the shoddy robe. "It's a long story."

"I'm not sure I want to hear it," he said with a chortle, with Marni joining in with a melodic laugh of her own. "But seriously, tell me what's going on, brother."

I gave him a very brief and highly edited version on the past few hours, ending with a plea (which I hope didn't sound too desperate) for transport offworld.

"I do have shipments going out on a regular basis, and I've been known to sneak some human cargo in the hold now and then. But this is different. If it truly is the Inquisition chasing you, we can't go through normal means." When I asked him what he meant, he continued. "Even on a backwater planet like this, there are some controls in place, nothing formal or set in stone, but the mechanisms do exist to audit passage on and offworld, mostly because everybody wants to collect their fees. And human cargo is always more expensive. See, money talks here, and I don't need to tell you that if anyone would be able to throw enough coin around to ensure some random and not so random spot checks, it would be the Inquisition."

It made sense. The collection of legitimate and not so legitimate traders doing business on Faire would be more than willing to accept a few Thrones to look the other way. "So what are our options?"

He considered that for a moment. "I can think of one option, but I have to warn you that it might seem a little strange."

I took Marni's hand in mine and squeezed. "We're desperate."

"All right then. It might be easier to just show you." Bahnhum finished his drink in one mighty gulp and stood up. "But first, let's get you out of your wedding dress and into some real clothes."

In a few minutes, I was wearing a pair of khaki trousers and a pullover tunic, feeling much more like myself. As I shoved poor dead Stivik's laspistol in my belt, I felt a little more secure as well.

"You won't be needing that, old friend," Bahnhum said with a shake of his head.

"After what we've been through, I'd rather be safe than sorry."

"I'm afraid not." He held out his hand. "Trust me, you're better off without it." I shrugged and reluctantly handed it over and he set it on the desk. "Good man. Now come with me. And whatever you do, let me do the talking."

I started following him, thinking that he'd said those very words to me in the past on more than one occasion, and it never turned out so well.

He led us out a back door, into a warehouse that as near as I could tell in the gloom was nearly empty, then out into an alley. There he turned and started walking down a larger route between the buildings without a care. I tried to follow him and keep Marni and me as much in the shadows as possible, expecting at any second for a spotlight to illuminate us in its beam, or worse, a lasbolt to sever my spine. Somehow, we proceeded undetected until Bahnhum abruptly turned and brought us alongside a building unlike the others. Instead of being rectangular and made of plascrete, this had no 90 degree angles and lacked any visible windows or doors. A shiver went down my spine and I grabbed his sleeve.

"I know xeno architecture when I see it," I said. "What are the Tau doing here?"

He answered me with a snort of annoyance. "They're merchants, of course. Same as they've always been."

Sure, the Tau were renowned merchants. They were also always looking to expand their empire, often through less than peaceful means. I'd fought against them far more often than I cared to remember. I would never forget running for my life from a couple of the blue buggers in battlesuits that could hold their own against any Space Marines.

"You're not suggesting that we go to them for help?"

"You've got no choice, Garmon. If you and the mamsel want to get offworld without the Inquisition finding out, this is your best option."

I didn't doubt they'd have the means; because of techno-sorcery, their weapons and ships were in many ways superior to our own. "Sure, but can we trust them?"

"Yes, absolutely." He pulled me over toward the wall. "I've worked with this crew many times. They're not soldiers or politicians, they're merchants and they're only interested in making a few Thrones."

Over the centuries, the Tau had showed up at many worlds in or near Imperial space, claiming their only interest was commerce. And too many times they'd infiltrated the populace with their xenos ideas, causing insurrections and rebellions; sometimes they just flat out invaded. And that wasn't the worst of it.

"They have any kroot in there?" I asked, nodding at the wall. It was bad enough that the Tau possessed powerful weapons and mindboggling techno-sorcery, but they also had a race of oversized carnivores in their sway. I'd seen a band of kroot fight valiantly and effectively and come the end of the battle, immediately set upon the dead from both sides as both appetizer and main course.

"None that I've seen," he answered, and even he seemed to shudder at the thought. "But it doesn't matter. Like I already told you, this is your only chance." He paused, making a visible effort to control his mounting exasperation. "Gar, you come here with a woman I don't know, without a penny to your name, and you ask for a miracle, one that you need right away and can't pay for. Now I am offering you the only way off this rock. You need to decide right here and now if you're going to take me up on it. And besides," he added, nodding at the rounded wall, "they're watching and listening to us right now."

I looked at the smooth surface, not seeing any device, but that didn't surprise me; I wouldn't recognize Tau technology anyway. I turned to Marni. "What do you think?"

She shrugged. "I don't know anything about any aliens and I don't care to know. I just want to get somewhere safe for me – and the baby."

"All right, let's do it," I told Bahnhum. If I was going to die, it didn't matter to me if it would be the Inquisition that did me in, or cloven-footed blue-faced xenos. "How do we get in there?"

"We don't. We wait and hope they consider us interesting enough to hear out." Bahnhum regarded the round wall in front of us, scanning it; I'm not sure what he was looking for because again, I couldn't see any indication of a door, or anything else for that matter.

Then a segmented aperture appeared in the wall, initially only ten centimeters around. It continued to expand noiselessly, resulting a perfect oval wide enough for two people to walk through. "It looks like we've been granted an audience," Bahnhum whispered. "Now remember, let me do the talking unless you're asked a question directly."

I nodded and took Marni's arm and followed him through the opening into a short hallway illuminated by a bluish light from which I could see no source. The door behind us solidified into a wall again and I fought back the dual dread of the unknown and claustrophobia.

We moved a few meters down the hallway toward a more traditional door, except for its rounded top. It seemed as if the Tau still hadn't discovered 90 degree angles. The door opened before we arrived and Bahnhum led us into a room featuring some chairs that looked exceedingly uncomfortable and a rounded desk with a human sitting behind it.

"Greetings, Thyson Bahnhum," she said. "My name is B'hr Al'rch." I noticed with a shiver that her skin had been dyed blue and her head was shaved except for a single corded ponytail, also blue. I wondered if she'd had her feet surgically altered to be cloven as well. "Call me B'hr, if it's easier." She smiled; to my relief, her teeth weren't blue. "You're expected. Please follow me."

Another oval door materialized behind her, revealing a stairway. She led us down the stairs and it didn't take me long to realize that we were now in a much larger building than appeared from the outside. Again, a pale blue light dimly lit the way, seeming to come right out of the curved walls. Soon the stairs levelled out into a much larger space, extending back some 100 meters, its rounded walls at least 50 meters to either side.

I looked up. A series of catwalks arched across the top of the ceiling. Orderly stacks of rounded containers rose dozens of meters above. A few Tau were doing some unknown task, maybe inventory of some sort, I couldn't be sure. Several strange five-wheeled vehicles were parked nearby along with some powered drones. The effect was nearly nauseating, all rounded edges, all so very xenos. I could tell that Marni felt the same way; she swooned and I held her arm to steady her.

Our blue-skinned human guide (I had noticed that her feet were not actually cloven) led us to the right, where I could see a series of huts that I assumed were offices. When we reached the largest, she pressed an unseen button on the wall and an heretofore unseen door whisked aside, revealing an oval conference room featuring a large table and several chairs that didn't look any more comfortable than those I'd seen earlier.

A male Tau rose from one of these chairs to meet us. Like most Tau that aren't from the warrior caste (and thank the Emperor, he wasn't), he was slightly smaller than the average male human. Most of my previous encounters with the Tau had been with the warrior caste, who tended to be larger and always wore visors completely concealing their faces. So it was with some curiosity that I regarded his face, a bluish visage (technically grayish, really), like a monkey without fur, or a fleshy skull.

"Welcome, friends," he said in clear but clipped Gothic. "My name is Por Kais Vior'la, but please call me Kais." He did his best imitation of a smile. "I know our Tau names can be difficult for the human tongue." He then continued to display his knowledge of human etiquette by presenting his three-fingered hand for me and Bahnhum to shake while bowing his head slightly at Marni. He then gestured with one arm, his elegant tribal robe flowing. "Please, make yourselves comfortable."

We all tried our best to get into the strange chairs, leaving me to wonder about the differences between human and Tau backsides.

"Would you care for some refreshment?" Before I could say no, Bahnhum eagerly expressed interest in a bit of amasec, and Kais sent the woman B'hr to fetch us some. "I assume you are the one called Garmon," he said to me. "And you must be Marni." I was about to ask how he knew our names, but I caught myself, not wanting to appear aggressive.

The girl returned with a globe of amasec and poured a glass for each of the humans. Bahnhum took a large drink and smacked his lips. I left mine untouched; Marni stared at B'hr, obviously finding her more of a curiosity than Kais. I didn't blame her; there was something profoundly disturbing about a human so thoroughly mimicking an alien.

Kais clapped his small hands together. "I've been informed that I might be of service to you."

Bahnhum set his glass down and cleared his throat. "Garmon and the mamsel have found themselves in a bit of predicament."

"Indeed." Kais looked at me and Marni in what might have been a thoughtful way. "I suppose I ought to hear it directly from them."

Bahnhum's face reddened from the slight rebuke, and he helped himself to more drink.

"Of course," I said, "though I don't want to bore you with a long story."

"Let me spare you that burden," said Kais. He took a breath (at least I think he did) and nodded. "The young lady is with child. A female of your species, I believe."

Marni looked up. "No, it's a boy."

Kais did his best to shrug his shoulders. "Very well. And this…child has been the source of some anxiety?"

"No, this all started with my husband," Marni corrected. "He was arrested by the Inquisition and is…still missing. And now they're after me."

"I see." Kais turned to me. "And your involvement in this was purely a matter of consequence?"

"The wrong place at the wrong time," I said.

"Very well. But I don't understand why this, er, local matter is something I should get involved in. We Tau are non-confrontational by nature, and loath to get involved in the affairs of other species. We consider it unprincipled."

Well I knew from personal experience that that was a load of grox-shit. True, the Tau weren't mindless killers like the Orks or sadistic conquerors like the Eldar; still, they'd assimilated a number of races on hundreds of worlds over the centuries. Just ask the Thraxians or the Kroot. "The Tau are well-respected exactly for the reason you say," I said, trying not to sound obsequious. "I appeal to those principles now."

Kais made a face which I thought might mean I'd piqued his interest. "Continue."

"I know you're a merchant, and I acknowledge that I don't have any money to pay you. But I contend that you ought to help us," I paused for effect, "for the greater good."

Kais leaned forward in his chair. "What do you know of the greater good?"

"Enough to recognize its inherent value. Although the Tau have made it their creed, perhaps all intelligent species ought to abide by its precepts."

"I agree, as would any Tau. But I do not see how helping two humans leave Faire is in anyway contributing to the greater good."

I hesitated. "Perhaps I could discuss this with you, in private. There are details I'd like to divulge that are of a personal nature."

He nodded. "Very well. My private office is nearby." He said something to B'hr in his native tongue. "I'll see to it that your friends are accommodated."

I wasn't worried about that; Marni appeared to be in a state of shock and Bahnhum seemed only concerned about keeping his glass full.

Kais stood up, his long robe flowing around him; he looked rather human-like, until I saw those strange cloven feet, that is. "Please follow me."

His office was located across the warehouse, down a narrow hallway. It looked well upholstered, almost comfy in a xenos kind of way. I saw what looked like cloth hangings on the wall, a round table, and what I assumed was a desk with some devices on it. He showed me to a rather more comfortable chair, settling himself and his robes in a similar chair across from me.

"Shall we continue?"

I cleared my throat. "The information I gave you earlier about our plight was accurate, but incomplete." I paused, considering how to proceed. "This much is verifiably true: the mamsel is certainly being pursued by the Inquisition."

"I am not well-versed in the inner-workings of your human government, but I understood that what you call the Inquisition is an enforcement branch charged with controlling heretics, correct?"

I nodded. I felt no need to explain to him that the Inquisition also guarded the Imperium against daemons and, not coincidently, all things xenos. Instead, I explained to him how I at first assumed that Marni was being pursued because of her husband.

"And what heresy had her husband committed?"

"I believe he was mistaken as a psyker."

"Mistaken?"

"Yes. After witnessing recent events while in her company, I now believe that she, and not her husband, is the actual psyker." I waited to see how this settled in with Kais. The Tau have no psykers or astropaths, and seem to be immune to the effects of the warp as well as the temptations of the Ruinous Powers.

As near as I could tell, he seemed to understand. "I assume that she is unaware of her…is power the right word?"

"Power or curse, it's a matter of perspective," I said. "But you are correct – she appears to be completely unaware."

"It's my understanding that humans use these so-called psykers for a variety of purposes; why would the Inquisition be pursuing her?"

"Possibly to capture and bring her to Terra on one of their Black Ships," I said after thinking for a moment, choosing to leave out the part about her being consumed by the Emperor to feed His voracious psychic appetite. "Or simply destroy her on the spot." I didn't bother telling him that there'd be no such ambiguity when it came to my fate.

"Why destroy such a potentially valuable asset?"

"The Inquisition zealously protects the Empire against dangerous elements – that and that alone is its prime objective. They will focus only on the perceived harm and ignore any potential benefits."

Kais shifted his robes. "I see. So it's your contention that the saving of her life is representative of the greater good?"

"I wouldn't dare insult you with such a simple application of the greater good. It's much more complicated than that," I explained. "Your empire and ours have battled in the past, and let's be honest, given the size of each of our territories, and their proximity to each other, we're likely to do so again." Especially on border worlds like this one, I thought to myself.

He seemed to be buying what I was selling, at least to a degree. "The Tau seek to avoid violent confrontation, pursuing diplomatic measures whenever possible," he said slowly. "But yes, I concede your point; eventually violence could well erupt between our two peoples."

"The Tau have no psykers. Offering her refuge tips the scale toward the Tau a bit, possibly making the pursuit of peace more plausible."

I couldn't read his unhuman face, but I got the vague impression he looked thoughtful. "But as you said, the Tau have no psykers and further, no use for them."

"True." The Tau navigated the warp and communicated through techno-sorcery, unlike the Empire, where we were reliant on astropaths and mutant navigators. "You have an opportunity to deny the Imperium a potential weapon, or weakening the Emperor himself by denying him her psyker powers."

He leaned back in his chair and folded his odd little hands in front of him. "So to summarize, you're saying that by making you and the female wards of the Tau, the greater good is served either by saving an innocent life or, in a more complex fashion, by tipping the scale toward peace, to use your terminology."

I didn't much like the word wards, but I didn't want to belabor the point. "That's correct."

"Regardless of whether your analysis is accurate, you've demonstrated a fine understanding of the greater good, an ability that, on the whole, seems to elude your race," he said. "I will agree to assist you and the female."

"Thank you," I said. "You have demonstrated that the Tau's reputation for fairness and impartiality is well founded."

He nodded, obviously aware that I was blowing smoke up his blue butt and not seeming to care. "I do wonder though; is the female dangerous?"

I remembered the smoking eye sockets of the constables we'd encountered, hoping that he wasn't adept enough at reading human facial reactions to detect my doubt. "No. Like I said, she's completely unaware of her abilities, at least on the conscious level."

"I hope you can understand my concern. It's one thing to intentionally deceive your Inquisition, quite another to give refuge to a person who might be a danger to my crew."

I faked a smile, figuring he couldn't tell the difference. "I assure you, she is completely harmless."

"Very well. I will arrange your departure."

"Thank you," I said. "But what exactly are your plans for us?"

"My plans?" He cocked his head, in imitation of a human gesture that he didn't quite pull off. "Why, simply to get you offworld."

"Getting offworld is a good start. But we can't exactly plop right onto a planet under Tau control and begin careers as, well, some Tau occupation." Or be wards of the Tau, whatever that might entail.

"Many humans live on Tau worlds, as well as a variety of other species."

"No disrespect," I thought of B'hr and shuddered. "But I'm not shaving my head and painting my skin blue."

He laughed; or at least I think he did. "We are getting ahead of ourselves. You will be taken to an unaffiliated world, similar to this one, to make your way as you see fit. You have my word on that, to use a curious human expression."

"I couldn't ask for more," I said, feeling slightly better, if not completely assured.

He stood up. "Then I suggest we tend to the logistics required as soon as possible."

I followed him out of the room, noticing that B'hr appeared out of nowhere and was now shadowing us. As we walked back out into the warehouse, I couldn't help but wonder if I'd just arranged for us to be sold to a lesser evil.

Later, Bahnhum and I shared a bottle of sacra (even though I've never developed a taste for the stuff). We both had some reservations about the plan, me more so than him, which was only natural since I'd be the one putting my livelihood in the three fingered hands of the Tau.

"Listen, Garm, I've known Kais for years and he's never done wrong by me. We've actually made a lot of money working together. I trust him."

"So what you're saying is that you trust him with my life."

"No trust so much," he said after taking another snort of sacra. "I mean, he is xenos, after all."

"I thought you were trying to reassure me, not remind me that I am trusting my life, and Marni's, to the little blue buggers."

"It was our only option. But let's not leave it there." He looked thoughtful, in as much as he could. "If Kais is good to his word, you'll end up on a fringe world, someplace like Faire. I'll keep track of you, see where they drop you off. I'll arrange to meet you there, to see what additional help I can offer."

I hoped that this time, his help wouldn't be reliant on any sort of xenos assistance. "We might end up in the middle of nowhere; do you have the resources to find us and then actually travel there?"

"I'm in the shipping industry, Garm. I go where the money takes me, and it often takes me to the edge of Imperial space. No one will think twice if I arrange to make a shipment or a pickup on a fringe world."

"Just so I'm clear on this: we're about to be smuggled offworld by goat-footed blue aliens, who I am trusting to take us someplace safe from the Inquisition but hopefully not somewhere deep in Tau territory, as a prisoner, or worse. And we are further reliant on them to inform you where we will eventually end up, so that you can then travel to the edge of the galaxy to assist us."

Bahnhum chuckled. "That about sums it up."

I shook my head, wondering once again how and why I'd ended up in this mess.

The plan for getting us offworld ended up being surprisingly simple. Kais explained to me that while he and the other Tau merchants who trafficked goods on and off Faire carried a variety of cargos, their main revenue was from shipping raw hyp to nearby systems, where it was processed into its refined form: a highly addictive hallucinogen.

I didn't bother asking how this served the greater good.

Kais' crew secured us safely (in not entirely comfortably) in one of the storage compartments of a large shuttle, alongside bales of sweet-smelling hyp. When we took off, it was so smooth I hardly even noticed, nothing like the drop ships used by the Militarium, or even a passenger shuttle used by the Imperium. It was probably heretical thinking on my part, but the xeno technology seemed to be in every way superior to ours.

Our docking at the orbital substation was equally smooth. B'hr and a willowy female Tau came and took us out of the holding bay through the large door, which had been opened to allow the cargo to be transferred to the freighter. B'hr explained that none of the crew spoke Gothic so she would act as our interpreter and caretaker (and no doubt keep an eye on us, though she left that unsaid). The female (B'hr hadn't told us her name, which was fine by me as I probably couldn't pronounce it anyway) led the way down a gangway, past a row of heavy duty drones no doubt waiting to transfer the cargo to the freighter's storage bay.

Marni I and followed them to the waiting Tau vessel that would take us through the warp. I only saw the rounded hatchway leading into it, so I had no idea of what it looked like or how large it was. It'd been my experience that Tau vessels were generally smaller and faster in subspace, but I'd been told that they travelled through the warp in a series of small jumps, a slower (but safer) way to navigate. How they managed to find their way through the ever-changing immaterium without astropaths, I couldn't even imagine.

Our quarters were located near the rear of the ship, at least that's the impression I got after they'd led us there. We had side-by-side rooms, very narrow, with just enough room for an undersized cot, a cupboard and a severely uncomfortable chair that folded out from the wall.

They left us alone after that, though B'hr assured us that she'd be nearby (which I didn't find particularly comforting). After I checked in on Marni and made sure she was as comfortable as a pregnant woman could be on a cot built for aliens, I reclined awkwardly on my own cot and tried to nap. After all the running, hiding and being shot at, I felt exhausted. I tried to allow myself to relax, maybe even catch a quick nap.

After coming so close to death or worse at the hands of the Inquisition several times, I should have felt safe. I was on a Tau starship, where the Emperor's misguided henchman would never be able to find me. I didn't know if I could really trust the Tau, but it was certainly better than being in the hands of the Inquisition. I didn't know where we were going, or what would end up happening to us, but we were out of immediate danger. I was safe. Marni was safe.

Then why didn't I feel that way?

Our guide came back a couple of hours later, with B'hr in tow, of course. After taking a small elevator up, she silently led us down a curved passageway to an open area where a half-dozen Tau were huddled over various instruments. In the center of the room, I saw a hololith of higher quality than I'd ever seen. On it I could see the image of the blue-green orb of Faire glittering in dazzling detail. The room was completely encircled with viewports, showing in turn the massive arm of the station, one of the planet's moons, and space speckled with stars. Our guide said something to B'hr and she in turn welcomed us to the bridge, which she charmingly called the command center.

I glanced around at the busy Tau clustered around their glowing instruments. "Is the entire crew female?"

B'hr looked puzzled for a second before nodding with understanding. "There are no females aboard this ship. The Tau of the Air Caste are thinner than those of the other castes." I was learning more about the Tau than I ever cared to know. B'hr indicated one of the Tau, who'd looked up from the screen he'd been studying. "This is Captain Kor Vre D'hnk."

"That's a mouthful – can I just call him Captain Kor?"

She responded, apparently misreading my attempt at humor. "That would be confusing. Kor indicates his caste; all these Tau are from the Air Caste. Vre indicates his position."

I wasn't about to try and pronounce his third name, so I just bowed slightly and said, "Captain."

He said something in response. "He welcomes you onboard his vessel," B'hr translated. "And he would be honored if you stayed on the bridge during departure."

I thought about the captains of the ships I'd been on over the years and couldn't think of one who would have welcomed any passengers onto the bridge, especially during departure. "Inform the Captain that the honor would be mine."

"Excellent," she said. "Please secure yourselves appropriately; our departure is imminent."

"We're leaving so quickly?"

She nodded. "As soon as the cargo is loaded. The immaterium currents here have very limited availability."

No doubt another reason Faire has never been properly colonized, I thought. Then I set about securing Marni and myself into the uncomfortable seats situated alongside the far wall, where I hoped we'd be out of the way. Soon we were settled into the seats, ill-fitting straps securing us tightly if not comfortably. It was only then that it occurred to me that we weren't being invited onto the bridge as an honor; there probably wasn't any other area on the ship were we could be adequately secured for the conversion to warp.

The Tau on the bridge continued what they were doing in the same unhurried manner, rarely communicating and then only briefly. When we started moving, it was as smooth as the shuttle had been, with none of the bowel shaking shuddering of an Imperial vessel. Looking out the nearest viewport, I could see the arm of the station slipping away and spinning out of view. Then we executed a perfect turn and I could see the planet below. I glanced over at the large hololith in the middle of the room and noticed that it now glittered with unknown stars from an unknown system, probably indicating our destination.

Smoothly and silently, we accelerated away from the station, two moons in coming into view. The captain looked over at me and said something. "We will be in position to access the immaterium soon. We will maintain orbit around the planet until there's an available current," B'hr dutifully translated.

She'd just finished speaking when a purple light began flashing from one of the instruments. The Tau monitoring the machine started speaking rapidly. The captain left his chair and joined him, staring intently into the flashing light.

"What's going on?" I asked B'hr.

"I am unsure," she answered. She uttered some rapid fire syllables at the captain, who answered tersely without looking up.

Then he turned to look at the hololith. The alien star field vanished and in its place, an image flickered for a second before coming into sharp focus.

"That's an Inquisition Battle Cruiser," I said, half under my breath. "How far away is it?"

"About five hundred kilometers. And it's closing in on us quickly," B'hr related. The captain hurried across the room and looked at another instrument. He said something, and she translated, her voice barely a whisper, her blue pallor tinged with green. "It's arming its weapons systems."

"Holy Throne," I muttered. "They can't fire on a Tau vessel – that would be an act of war."

"I believe you are misreading the situation," B'hr said, her voice rising. "Officially, the Inquisition has no presence in this sector, and neither do the Tau."

Plausible deniability, I thought. We weren't there and neither were you. "Has the captain raised the shields?"

"This vessel possesses no shields or weapons. The Tau consider it unseemly to arm merchant ships."

"Then we need to run. Or enter the warp."

She watched the busy crew for a moment. "The warp currents are not available. The captain is unsure if we can outrun them, but he is prepared to try."

Battle Cruisers are among the fastest ships in the Imperium. Impressed as I was by Tau technology, I doubted a heavily laden freighter would be able to outrun the speedy strike vessel.

The ship smoothly moved forward as the rear engines fired. As soon as it did, a klaxon began to ring.

"What just happened?" I asked, though I knew the answer.

"They've fired two torpedoes," B'hr said, a tinge of panic in her voice. The captain said something and she continued, "Three minutes to impact."

I didn't know if we could outrun a Battle Cruiser, but I knew we had no chance of out running torpedoes.

We were as good as dead.

I looked over a Marni. We'd come this far, only to be turned into space flotsam. Soon she, her baby and I would all be dead. I tried to think of an appropriate benediction or prayer but my long history of ignoring the church and the Emperor left me with nothing. We'd escaped first the bar, then my hab, and then…Then we hid at the church where Father Remnor fed and sheltered us. I almost smiled recalling the dozens of epitaphs and platitudes he'd spouted during our stay with him, thinking ruefully that none of them would save us now. What did the scrap of paper he'd left me say? I recalled the missive, penned in his nearly indecipherable scrawl:

The voice of the Emperor speaks with both the roar of a lion and the mewling of a child.

I froze as an epiphany settled on my brain. Was the old coot trying to tell me something? I looked at Marni again; face white with fear, her hands holding her swollen stomach, as if she could protect the unformed being floating in the miasmas of her womb. Then, I remembered when we left the church in the old bus, when she told me the bumpy ride had awoken the baby.

I turned to B'hr, an idea fast forming in my mind. "Tell the Captain to take us into the planet's atmosphere!"

She said something to the captain, who didn't even look up when he answered.

"The torpedoes are guided."

Of course they were, embedded with a servitor brain in typically gruesome Inquisition fashion.

"We've got to try something and this is our best shot!" I said, straining at the straps holding me in place.

B'hr continued, her monotone voice wavering. "Going into the atmosphere will not shake them and will slow us down, besides putting us at great risk of burning up. This vessel was not designed for inner atmospheric flight."

"Burned up or vaporized, what's the difference?" I said quickly. "Just tell him to do it. If you don't we're all dead!"

The tone of my voice moved her to action, and I think even the captain understood my urgency. He hesitated for only a second and then barked out an order. The crew obliged him and the freighter began executing a long turn and heading straight toward the planet. In twenty or so seconds, our smooth passage became bumpier as the hull of the big ship started bouncing off the upper atmosphere, superheating with friction. We started shaking more and more violently and another klaxon began to ring loudly.

Marni cried out, saying something about her baby. She bent and twisted in her secure seat, like she was trying to get free.

The captain, the crew and B'hr all stared at me with accusing eyes. The captain said something and B'hr said, "Thirty seconds till torpedo impact."

Through the viewport, I could see the hull super-heated to extreme temperatures caused by our forced entry into the atmosphere. The ship shuddered violently and more alarms started blaring. By my count, the torpedoes would impact in less than fifteen seconds.

I looked at Marni again. She took her hand off her belly and looked up in wonder. Then we all turned to the hololith, which showed the torpedoes streaking toward us even faster now that we were being slowed by the planet's upper atmosphere.

One of the crew began counting down, and B'hr joined in, needlessly translating: "Eight, seven, six, five, four, three…" My nose started bleeding and air chilled around me. I watched the screen until the torpedoes were too close to be seen anymore and braced for the impact. The freighter rocked for a moment but didn't explode.

The alarms stopped ringing and the Tau were all talking at once. B'hr spoke above the excited chatter. "The torpedoes narrowly missed."

"Yeah, I noticed," I said with a sigh of relief. "But where did they go?" Hopefully they were currently burning up in the planet's atmosphere.

I turned to look at the hololith while the Tau studied their instruments. The klaxon began to blare again. The crew all looked at the captain, then back at their apparatuses. "The torpedoes have corrected course and are coming back at us," B'hr informed me, unnecessarily.

The hololith switched from a view of the planet, which looked alarmingly close as we continued to bounce along the upper atmosphere, to the menacing profile of the Battle Cruiser. It didn't show the incoming torpedoes, probably because they were already too close to our vessel. One of the Tau technicians started counting down again, and this time B'hr didn't bother to translate.

I didn't need to be an expert in xenos physiology to correctly interpret the tension on their blue faces. B'hr looked like she might vomit. And Marni was clutching her stomach, eyes wide with pain, fear or both.

The countdown ended without the bridge being engulfed in radioactive fire, which I took as a good sign. Someone gasped, an extreme reaction from the usually unemotional Tau, and we all looked at the hololith as the torpedoes appeared, roaring away from us –

- and straight toward the Inquisition vessel.

Seconds later the image exploded into a blinding light and all the viewports lit up like we'd been caught in a lightning storm. The whiteness on the hololith transformed into a ball of fire as the oxygen on board the Battle Cruiser instantly burned, revealing a rapidly expanding field of tumbling debris and glowing wreckage.

The Captain barked an order and our ship lurched jarringly to the side, banking hard and jerking upward, the planet sliding away dizzyingly below us while we skirted through the extreme edge of the spinning debris and on into clear space.

Blinding white snow fell on the armourcrys glass in swirling eddies, driven by an icy wind. I sipped a glass of amasec and reluctantly looked away from the sprawling icescape outside, turning to the face of Bahnhum, half hidden by his own globe of amasec.

"They weren't kidding when they said they were sending you to the edge of the galaxy," he said, his cheeks already flushed with an alcoholic glow. "It took me six months to get here."

Here was Glacies Altus, in every respect a fringe world. A perpetually frozen planet beyond established Imperial space, where on a balmy summer day the temperatures never cleared zero degrees Celsius. Why anyone would choose to live here was beyond me, but somehow several thousand misguided souls ended up calling this frozen hellhole home. And me along with them.

"And it took me most of a year," I told him. Glacies Altus wasn't our first stop; the Tau freighter initially docked at another anonymous world where the cargo of hyp was unloaded and we took on foodstuffs and supplies to be brought here. "I certainly feels like longer."

It was a grim planet, inhospitable in every way. The small settlement of humans (with a few other races mixed in) lived either underground or in domed structures. If not for its sizeable promethium reserves, this Emperor-forsaken planet would have been left unexplored and uninhabited.

"How has the mamsel gotten on?" he asked.

"As well as could be expected, "I answered. "Here, boredom is the biggest challenge to one's sanity, and when you're scared, it's hard to be bored. She's only recently gotten over her fear, feeling somewhat safe at last. Now the biggest test is the claustrophobia." I gestured at the skylight above our heads, part of the bar adjacent to the star port in which we sat. "In case you haven't noticed, there're damn few windows here."

Bahnhum nodded. "Yeah, I noticed." He took another drink. "And the baby?"

"Turns a year old next week. And already walking."

Marni gave birth on our first stop, and that child instantly became the most important thing in her life. Not surprising considering all she'd done to keep her baby safe, leaving her home planet and trusting her fate and her baby's to the Tau and yours truly (both questionable choices, if you ask me).

"And the name?"

"Shendon, after one of Marni's ancestors."

"Well good for her – good for them," he said. "You know, Garm, you've done right by those two. I didn't know you had it in you."

It came as news to me as well. I shrugged. "Well, I didn't ask for any of it."

"You had chances to get out, but you stayed with her. I respect that. It makes you a dumb SOB, but I respect it." He poured himself another glass. "But now what? Getting involved in all that Inquisition nonsense ruined your life. Now you're a wanted man, hiding out in a frozen wasteland and working in a promethium plant. What kind of a life is that?"

"A damn sight better than being chased all over the galaxy by agents of the Inquisition."

He nodded. "True. But still…do you plan on staying here forever?"

I hadn't really considered it until now. "Forever is a long time," I said after pausing. "But where else would I go? Any Imperial world would be too risky." I held up my hand. "And I have too many fingers to live with the Tau."

"Do you really believe you're safe here?"

I drained my glass. "For now, I hope."

For a moment we just sat there quietly. Then he finished his drink and looked me in the eye. "They'll find her eventually; you know that, right?"

"I saw her divert two torpedoes, reverse their course and eliminate a Battle Cruiser, just using her mind." I recalled the silent explosion that destroyed the Imperial vessel. "I'm no expert on psykers, but she is a weapon, a weapon of mass destruction. The most powerful psyker I've ever seen, or even heard of."

"Even though she doesn't know it?"

"Maybe because she doesn't know it."

"Tell me more about the Imperial strike ship. Exactly how did you get her to use her psyker power right when you needed it most?" he asked.

"I can't know for sure, but I believe she reacted instinctively when our lives were threatened; I just had to make sure she was aware of the threat."

"And you did that by telling the captain to send the ship into the atmosphere?"

"Cause and effect, my friend, cause and effect. The rough ride did the trick."

"Saving you all, but at what cost?" he asked. "You showed the Inquisition just how dangerous she really is."

"I think they already had some idea already; I'm not sure how, but that's the only way to explain how determined they were to at first capture and then later destroy her. I don't know if they'll ever trace her to here; the only thing I know for sure is that they will never stop looking for her."

He started to chuckle. "You fething gakhead, you're staying here, aren't you?"

Up until that moment, I'd always assumed that I would leave someday. But I realized that he was right. It was an unwelcome epiphany. "I can't risk leaving, for my own sake. And I won't leave them on their own, not like this."

"And I can't change your mind?"

I pushed my glass away. "I'm afraid not."

He stood up, abruptly and a little unsteadily. "Well, I didn't come all this way just to share a bottle with you. If you're committing what's left of your worthless life to them, at least let me see mother and child before I leave."

I glanced at my chronometer. "They should be in their quarters by now."

"Then lead the way, my friend."

We left the observation deck and walked down the tunnels leading away from the surface and toward the habs. Condensation wept from the plascrete tunnel walls, and vents pushed warm air from ducts above. A series of pipes ran along the top of the tunnel, bringing in superheated water from the mines to the settlement. There were no large vehicles in the domed town we were approaching, just small carts and bicycles, and occasionally we'd see one clattering past us. Every now and then a couple of people or a servitor went by, but for the most part we walked in silence.

Soon we came to an open area where the ceiling rose several dozen meters above us into a domed roof covering the town square of the central habitude on Glacies Altus. The dome extended above the surface, but the ground we stood on was well below that, carved out of the frozen ground and paved with rockcrete. High above us, huge fans turned slowly, pulling the outside air through heated ventilation pipes.

Marni's hab was located on the far side of the dome. We made our way around the square, dodging vendors, shopkeepers and workers drinking their wages. Rows of plascrete shops of near uniform size and shape lined the narrow streets, along with a few two and three story buildings housing the city's administrators.

Marni opened the door when I knocked, looking pale but healthy. "Hello Garmon; and Bahnhum, his good friend. I never thought I'd see you again."

"It's good to see you again, mamsel." Bahnhum bowed. "And just to quantify, I am his only friend."

"Bahnhum won't be staying planetside for long," I said. "But he wanted to see you two before he left."

"There he goes, trying to run me off, same as ever," Bahnhum said with a wink. "But it would certainly be nice to meet little Shendon and see what all the fuss is about."

"Of course," Marni said. "This way – it's nap time. You can peek in – but please be quiet!" She opened the door to the back room; there in the half-light, an angelic babe clothed in soft pink slept the carefree sleep of an infant. "I'm going to make us some tea."

"There she is; little Shendon," I said, looking down on the crib.

Bahnhum frowned and whispered, "Certainly doesn't look like a weapon of mass destruction."

I nodded. "Looks can be deceiving, my friend."

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