In the end very few Shaurr decided to join them. JS summoned the adventurous few. "You're not coming." he said, pointing to a guy peering around. "You cannot kick me out. How can you reject the word of the gods?" the man exclaimed in astonishment. "How can you remove all possibility of salvation for your people? Think about their souls!" "It's my business to think about their lives, to keep them safe and sound. Souls aren't in my line of work." JS uttered sharply. "Here the rule is 'cuius regio eius religio'. Freely translated: those who remain on board will accept the ship's rules. We won't return back. People who sow discord or try to impose a religion, will be kicked out. Their f-business to head back to Shishfirr. Got it?" Many nodded in agreement, others gave up. That night enjoying a pint of Vickie's beer, Lee asked JS: "I thought we were an open and multicultural society." "We are," JS replied. "Well, your speech wasn't so democratic." "Our society is democratic, but a warship can't be a democracy. The Navy is not a democracy." Seeing Lee's disappointed face, JS added: "We are democratic and open-minded, not naive. This ship isn't a planet big enough to allow dissidents' migrations. Their minds are in the Dark Ages. If we let them have their way, we'll end shooting at each other from one deck to another. Trust me." "Don't you think we must help them to evolve?" Lee replied. "Yeah. However, I doubt a social leap of thousands of years, imposed by the barrel of a gun, would work. Because we should impose it by guns and gallows, mark my words." JS countered. "Let our seeds develop, let Shishfirr go on its way." "Seeds?" S-Anita had joined the conversation. JS nodded: "We've already changed their history's path. By making the Nagas autonomous with their own army, we empowered women. We showed the ships aren't imaginary gods. Lee spread doubt among open-minded scientists, and Li Fang taught the movable type printing to the Shaurr. Literacy is the spark. Unwillingly the Huffers, too, are carrying the modernity virus. We made a revolution at the cheap price of Hys's life." "It's time to find our home, our planet." Eve said, "let's go." Maurr was organizing his diplomatic mission to Babel V when an officer knocked on his door. "Your cousin, the son of your grandmother's brother, the Blue Mantle High Chief, is dead. Prince, now you are the chief of the Blue Mantles." The unexpected news lit Maurr up. His apprenticeship under the admiral, his mother's brother, was over. This feeling of relief made him feel almost guilty. His cousin was a good person, but his acquired freedom made him euphoric. "The old ruffian already knew it," Maurr thought, "so he sent me on a diplomatic mission. He cannot bear having to treat me as an equal and he fears my veto." The thought comforted Maurr since his uncle's unexpected behavior had puzzled him. "A lot of rules and humiliations, not a lot of fun!" so he could resume his apprenticeship with his uncle and his Red Mantles. "You'll pay for this, mother, that you've been more a grim stepmother than a mom." Hospitality at Babel V was more than princely. Maurr was treated like a king, the news of his new position had already been on the GNN. EA, Grays and other species had sent officials of lesser rank, so Babelians amply showed to appreciate the honor the Rogues were granting to them. Maurr went bananas discovering scores of beautiful gals, all boobs and bums, liberally pampering his whims and that his gambling losses were covered by the Babelians. "Let's have fun!" and Maurr threw himself into the roulette game. Exotic stripteasers joined the fun to please him. Not a hard task. The champagne was flowing, the girls were perfuming their tits with the aphrodisiac essence of tawir to hop him up and debauchery was raging. In his office, 3TC was watching the news on the GNN. "A hostage could be a great asset. After all 'no corpse found' not necessarily means dead."