For a while, all the fleets remained united as one force. The Cack and Solarian engineers worked together to solve difficult repair jobs and the all of the ship commanders held regular meetings to organize and discuss plans. Friends and relatives of Most Noble and the other Cack lords came and went at regular intervals and we later learned that they were sent to reassure Most Noble and the other commanders that Righteous Ruler had offered them all a pardon if only they would return home. 

We didn't think much of it, but as the days turned into weeks, many commanders noticed a change in the Cacks' attitude. Their cooperation came only reluctantly; their engineers didn't have time for us and the requested supplies couldn't be found. When our commanders called theirs, they were always in conference with their own people, conferences that didn't require Solarian participation.

"What are we doing here?" Sub-Commander Newman demanded during one of our virtual conferences. "Don't you realize they only want to destroy us?"

"They can't let us go," Sub-Commander Dexter insisted. "They have to destroy us—to make us an example so no other Solarian force will even think of opposing them.

"They're almost certainly keeping us here while they gather their forces," Sub-Commander Maxwell said.

"They may even be switching off gates, trapping us here so we have no way home," Chris added.

"Don't even think," Dexter said, continuing his original thought, "that they'll let us go home to spread the word of how such a small force kicked their butts at the doorstep of their homeworld and returned home laughing about it."

"Yes, I know, I thought of all this myself," Sherman said. "But it just doesn't make sense. If we go sneaking off now, we're in violation of our truce. The Cacks will justifiably assume we intend to attack them. Have you considered what that means? The merchants won't sell to us so we'll have to fight for any sort of supplies. Also, Most Noble's ships will abandon us and all those Cack allies he commands will become our enemies. As we wander about lost in their Moiarchy without guides, they will be able to draw ships from every corner of the Moiarchy, surround us, and trap us.

"The one thing I can't figure out," Sherman continued, "is why Righteous Ruler would do this. If he intended to destroy us--with all of his advantages--why would he swear oaths, sign contracts and discredit himself with his trading partners throughout the Moiarchy?"

Daily, Sherman would reason with anyone who voiced fears of Cack betrayal, and though his reasoning was sound, as the days dragged on, I admit that even I frequently found myself convinced of our impending destruction.

At last Bright Fortune arrived with a Cack named Overbearing. Overbearing was a manager of a neighboring region who was traveling home with one of Righteous Ruler's daughters as his new bride. They arrived with a fleet of supply ships as if prepared for a long trip. 

When we left, the Cacks all took the lead. Shines Like the Sun's former fleet even flew in formation with Righteous Ruler's ships. The Solarian ships—with the exception of Moony's flagship— brought up the rear. We were lagging behind to put some distance between us and the Cacks. We did, however, sent scout ships ahead to keep an eye on what the Cacks were doing. At this point we were two separate fleets that just happened to be traveling the same direction. We remained at FAS-Delta the entire time, prepared in the event the Cacks turned on us. The Cack fleet remained on alert as well.

After several days of traveling like this, we came to a collection of systems that were somewhat isolated from the rest of the Moiarchy. They were called The Fertile Worlds and formed an interconnected web, only joined to the rest of the Cack Moiarchy at two points. We stopped for supplies at the last system which was something of a trading hub while Bright Fortune took the Cacks through the transit station to the next system. While we were there servicing and repairing the QWEGs, a courier from Moony's fleet arrived.

Phil and I were in live voice chat at the time the message came in.

"Oops, this looks important. Better take it." Phil played the message so I could hear it as well.

"This is Ship-Commander Jane Pharlan of Universal Security Systems. I have a message for Commander Sherman or Commander Porter."

"I am Commander Porter." 

"I have been sent to warn you," the courier said. "Most Noble says to be on your guard. A large force of Cacks are in a nearby system and may attack. Guard the gate closely. We have heard Bright Fortune intends to destroy the gate to trap us in these systems.

A long silence followed before Phil replied. "Um, let me see if I can't track Sherman down."

We made a series of urgent requests before one of Sherman's fleet officers was able to track him down. We met him in v-space and the courier repeated his message to Sherman. Sherman's face turned white and he sat silently staring at the virtual tabletop like a trapped man furiously trying to think of some way out. I had had a few extra minutes to think about the warning and something about it bugged me.

"This warning doesn't make any sense," I said.

Everyone turned puzzled expressions on me.

"Why would they both attack us and destroy the gate? If they win, the gate's destruction would be an unnecessary expense and if we win, how will they retreat or get help? They'd be utterly destroyed."

Sherman frowned, but his eyes came to life. "Do you have a map of the region?" he asked the courier.

"I believe so. I'm sending it over now."

Sherman shared it with us. "So these are The Fertile Worlds, eh? There are a lot of systems here with only two points of access."

Phil's avatar tapped on the virtual table's surface calling up data on the surrounding systems. "Lots of wealthy worlds here, major resource processing centers, a major trading hub...someone could hole up here and set up a little self-sufficient Moiarchy of their own within the Cack's Moiarchy. The Cacks would have quite a time rooting them out."

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Sherman asked.

"Someone's using a little reverse psychology on us?" Phil suggested. "Trying to make us think we'll be trapped if we stay so that we'll concentrate on getting out of here?"

"I think someone is trying to be clever. And I think I know who it is." Sherman turned to the messenger. "Thank you, you may go." Then he disconnected the messenger from the conference and turned to the two of us.

"Moony," Phil said.

"That was one of his commanders," Sherman said. "I think he's trying to make the Cacks think we're likely to turn on them so he can get himself put in charge of the fleet."

"So what do we do?" I asked.

"First we should probably go ahead and put some scout ships and a light guard at the transit station to alert us to any action Bright Fortune might be taking. After that, I'll have to think about what to do about Moony."

* * *

Once the fleet had finished re-supplying and servicing their ships, we transited to the next system and discovered a stealthed Cack scout ship watching. For ten days we traveled together under dark clouds of rumor and suspicion until we came to a system belonging to Many Graces who was mother to both Shines Like the Sun and Righteous Ruler. Here Bright Fortune refused to send the merchant ships but allowed us to take whatever supplies we wanted from the system. It was intended as an insult to Many Graces since she seemed to have favored Shines Like the Sun.

From there we traveled to a major trading system called Many Ports where we paused for three days. The system had two habitable planets designated MP3 and MP4. A third, MP5, was an airless rock yet still a well-colonized world.

 The Cack fleet fell into orbit around MP3 which served as the main transport hub of the system leaving us MP4, MP5 and a host of lesser space habitats and stations. Even so, the crew's moral continued to sink. It grew so bad that the fleet commanders began to fear some spontaneous act might set off open hostilities between us and the Cacks. Finally, deciding to put the matter to rest, Sherman requested a conference with Bright Fortune who agreed to meet with him.

 Sherman spent half the day on Bright Fortune's flagship holding a private face-to-face meeting with him before messaging the fleet commanders that they had worked everything out. Bright Fortune had even invited him to spend the following day with them as they had grown rather chummy. In the meantime, his media office sent a recording of their conversation.

Sherman entered the room wearing his full dress uniform. A Cack servant announced his presence and he was invited to approach Bright Fortune. After exchanging customary greetings which roughly translated along the lines of "How's business?" Bright Fortune asked him why he wished to see him.

"Bright Fortune, we have kept all of our agreements with you, yet we can't help but notice that your ships remain on alert whenever we are near as if you think we might attack. Because of this, our own ship commanders have heightened their alert status and I fear that, with this heightened suspicion, any slight misunderstanding might erupt into shooting. I have seen allies attack each other in similar situations and so, to avoid that, I thought it best we meet to discuss the situation and hopefully prevent such a disaster.

"As for why you can trust us, did we not swear an oath of friendship together calling on God himself to be our witness? I would not envy the fate of a man who could violate such an oath and make heaven itself his enemy.

"Even for purely pragmatic reasons, why would we throw away our greatest asset? Because of you, the gates are open and our way is certain, the supplies are plentiful and all the locals are friendly. How mad would we have to be to throw all that away and add the Righteous Ruler's wrath on top of it?

"The only reason we left Solarian space was to earn Shines Like the Sun's favor because he was generous with his friends. Now you have his position and territories and enjoy the support of the ruler.

"Far from suspecting us, you should be looking at us as an opportunity. Having trouble with The Unbounded Ones? We could easily defeat them. Territorial disputes with That Which Overturns? Or perhaps you'd like to bring The Expanding House back under the Moiarchy's control? What greater force could you have at your call? With us, you can easily persuade any of your neighbors to see your point of view and we would serve you gratefully, not just for money, but in gratitude for bringing us home.

"Considering all these things," Sherman concluded with widespread arms, "I find the idea that you could suspect us so amazing, that I would give a lot to learn the name of the man so clever he could convince you that we would actually want to betray you."

Bright Fortune waited for the last of the translation to play, then began chittering and clacking his reply. "Reasonable thoughts of yours are pleasing. Your understanding opposition to us as congruent to suicide. Perfecting your thoughts, test yourself—in desiring your destruction, should Righteous Ruler account a lack of missiles, ships or battle stations? Struggling, you, through friendly spaces—lacks the Ruler hostile spaces? Controlling transit stations may divide and defeat you. Doing nothing, the Moiarchy swallows you.

"These thoughts being congruent, test yourself. All paths being open why go, the Ruler, where his trading partners and the Great Maker despises? Apprehend you how we refrained from your destruction? Have you pondered on this? In fashioning your release, I worked for He Who Looks Up's trust. Shines Like the Sun bought your obedience. I seek your friendship."

Bright Fortune paused here. I thought he had finished speaking, but then he continued in an awkward halting style. "Offering yourselves as many uses, there is yet one more. Though the Ruler alone wears his mantle of glory, I would wear you as my own."

I turned to Phil on our private conference channel. "Did he just say what I thought he said?"

"What did you think he said?"

"It sounded like he wants us to help him overthrow the ruler."

Phil shrugged. "He is an ambitious person. I wouldn't be surprised. That was the reason he and Shines Like the Sun always fought."

"But to rule the Moiarchy?"

"No doubt he will wait until he feels he has the political support. Still, it sounds like he may want to keep us on the payroll for a while."

"Considering all the reasons we have to be allies," Sherman continued, "does this not mean that those who have slandered us in order to turn us against each other deserve the most severe punishment?"

"Your words being congruent," Bright Fortune said. "On my ship, I will exposing to you and your commanders your accusers."

"Good," Sherman said. "I will bring them all and show you, who on our side, warned us about you."