Storiesonline.net
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                             The Keeler Haul
                               by Sea-Life

Copyright© 2011 by Sea-Life


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Description: The Catamount scrambles for profit, and finds more than it bargained for in the Keeler system.

Codes: ScFi
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Chapter 1


The man was overly neat, Ross thought. Even in a worn envirosuit, the man seemed to exude excessive spit and polish. That suggested a military background to him, and that was one of the red flags they had agreed on before coming to Masaka.

"Mr. Carson, You seem to have some trouble finding work?" the man said with some condescension. "I heard you and your partner lost your ship."

"We lost the engineering pod to a debris strike at the rift," Ross related the official story. "Given her condition, our creditors declared her a derelict and paid someone to haul her in as such. We are now crewing for another operation."

"And that operation is looking for cargo?"

"Cargo, passengers, someone needing experienced salvage operators. Our new employer is not fussy."

"I see," the man let a sour look wash across his face. To this point he had been a real stone face, so Ross assumed that letting the expression be seen was intentional. "I usually deal with the owner or operator, not with their employees."

"I have been instructed to conduct all contract negotiations and I have a good deal of experience doing it. You will not meet my partners," Ross said, letting a low grumble roll across the back of his throat. That too was intentional. "You either have a need we can fill or you don't."

"Oh I have needs that I must fill," the man laughed. "Your ship doesn't appear to be in the registry though, and that means you cannot fulfill most of my needs."

"Most?"

"Well, there are needs, some of my clients have ... but we should perhaps move this conversation someplace more private if we're going to speak of those clients and their needs."

-------

"That's it? That's the best you could do?" Pete asked incredulously.

"No," Ross responded sadly. "That's the closest I could come to getting us legal work. We're dipping our toes in a political controversy, but we'll have some support for our actions from those supporting our passengers."

"Passengers, you say," Dar asked. "and political? How?"

"Okay, here's the whole deal. We're going to Meier's World to pick up seven people. We'll be landing on the planet itself and transporting those people to the VulCor orbital transfer station there."

"That doesn't seem too outrageous," Pete observed.

"Its not, in and of itself," Ross agreed. "What makes it tricky is that we're picking these seven people up at a private field, not at one of the Meier's World ports. These are political refugees who are seeking asylum off-planet. To this point, the local government has done everything in their power to prevent them from leaving without declaring them criminals."

"Why not save themselves a lot of trouble then and just put them in prison?" Dar asked.

"Because these are members of one of the First Families – the original settlers of Meier's World and so part of their ruling class."

"So they are suffering from some sort of internal struggle within their own family?" Ship asked.

"So it would seem, and we are their deliverers."

"For which someone has agreed to remunerate us generously," Pete finished.

"The first families of Meier's World are known to be wealthy, but I don't think we are going to see the family coffers opened in gratitude for the small part we're about to play. We're one of a small army of agents involved in the effort, and not necessarily the one with the best position to make demands."

"So we are being used because we have surface to orbit capability and no registration number," Dar assumed out loud.

"Exactly," Ross agreed. "Now, here's the schedule as current plans have it..."

-------

The Catamount settled through the initial confusion of orbital insertion without problems. The Sondag military guidance systems were designed to handle much more troubled insertions than this one, and the need for a fast drop with minimum exposure was what the ship had been designed for.

"We've got a lock on the landing beacon," Ship reported. "The frequency is far outside of the bands I'm finding other traffic on."

"That's good," Dar shifted his head to look at the display showing the two humans strapped into the two 'crew' seats in their freshly modified passenger cabin. The two men seemed to be calm enough. "Shedding altitude now," he announced, knowing they were listening. "Keep your claws in."

Ross and Pete both chuckled at the Sondag-ism from Dar, until the bottom dropped out and they began a sudden free fall. Getting that sort of feeling in a ship with the kind of sophisticated antigravity controls the Catamount had was impressive and scary. Both men moaned in their seats, but otherwise remained still.

'Good, ' Dar thought to himself. They had passed his first test. He might make warriors out of them yet. 

The Catamount dropped through heavy cloud cover, headed for a small mountain range in the southeast corner of the continent visible below them in the view screen. An indicator blinked within it, indicating the source of the beacon.

"Anything on the screens?" Dar asked.

"Nothing," Ship answered. "Some activity very high up still, low orbital."

"All right, give me a ground sweep."

"Already done," Ship answered. "Surface vehicle traffic where you'd expect it, but nothing near our destination. We're not being tracked by anything I can pick up."

"Good, point me towards the emptiest spot you can find." An indicator lit instantly on Dar's own HUD field. Seeing it, Dar pulled the ship hard starboard and down, dropping further into the night below them, breaking through the high layer of clouds that had concealed them and into a layer of clear air between the cloud cover and the ground. With the clouds obscuring him from above and his lack of running lights hopefully aiding in concealing from below, he kept the hard starboard slide going until he'd covered several hundred miles. When it felt right, he pulled back up and into the clouds again, letting the Ship's nav systems keep them headed towards their again invisible target.

"That should be sufficient," Ship said as her sensors told her that Dar had relaxed within his restraints.

"It should, but you know me..."

"You won't let me have control back until we're on the ground, I know."

"Don't sound so depressed," Dar laughed. "You know you have full override authority in case of an emergency. Your electronic reflexes are way better than mine."

"But I'm predictable..." Ship groused.

"EI's just aren't random enough to be good at evasive piloting," Dar explained, and not for the first time during their relationship. "You, Ship, are amazing, but in this one way, you are ... limited in your creativity."

Ship was silent after the exchange. It had been the one thing the Sondag had not been able to build into their Electronic Intelligences. They had given them hope and fear and the ability to aspire and to dream, but they had not been able to give them that spark that made beings creative. Oh, they could synthesize with the best of them, and so in that way made excellent researchers, and scientists. When it came time to be random, or to make that leap of faith or intuition that went around logic if not against it, they were incapable. To Ship, it made no sense that it, having the ability to aspire, would choose something for which it knew it could not hope to achieve.

-------

"We are within range of the landing zone," came Dar's voice over the ship's comm. "You can pick it up on the cabin's view screen if you'd like. We should be landing in a couple minutes."

"Thanks Dar," Ross answered. "Ship, seal the locks now."

"The bridge is sealed," came Ship's reply. "Its your show now."

The two men released their harnesses and rose, making sure the cabin was ready for their passengers, just as they had a half dozen times before they'd broken orbit. They both wore ship suits, modifications of those worn by the Sondag crew, with patches added here and there, particularly the Catamount shoulder patch, stolen right off the cover of the old heirloom Ross Carson had shown them the day they'd had their first conversation in drop bay two. Pete flicked the viewer on just in time to see the landing lights of the private field flicker on, a dull green glow that outlined an oval barely bigger than the Catamount itself.

"Looks like there's an outbuilding to the north," Pete called over the intercom. "Probably want to orient the passenger entryway that direction."

"Roger," came Dar's voice in response, and Pete and Ross saw the ships view start to rotate, even as they dropped so low that they could no longer see the entire area from above. A moment later, they felt a slight bump. "We're down," Dar called. "You're on."

"All right," Pete breathed, "Opening the passenger access." A hatch appeared in the side of the cabin, and irised open until an entry was visible. It was half a head taller than Ross and wide enough for Pete and Ross to walk through side-by-side if they'd wanted to.

"Extending the access ramp," Ross called from the other side of the hatch. A moment later a chime sounded. "Ramp extended and locked."

Pete walked down the ramp to stand at the bottom of it while Ross remained at the top. It took only a moment before a small group of people began moving rapidly towards them. Pete was counting heads and saw far more than seven individuals.

"Problem," he called over the ship suit's comm. "We've got more than seven people coming."

"I'm coming down," Ross said, moving even as he said it. He handed Pete one of the two stun guns they'd acquired for defense.

When the first of the people got to the bottom of the ramp and saw the two men with their weapons, he turned and shouted something to those behind him before turning back to the two men. "Why are you pointing weapons at us?" he asked.

"We were told to pick up seven people. I count at least three times that number." Pete answered.

"They are porters," the man said. "Were we supposed to carry our own bags?"

"I see rich people are no different in your part of space than they are in mine," came Dar's voice into their ears. The two men both stifled laughs.

"Sorry, but we have to be careful," Ross said. "Especially when we are all doing something we're not used to, eh?"

"Dar, open up the baggage bay," Pete called as the man nodded and held out his hand.

"We appreciate what you are doing for us here, our apologies if our lack of foresight caused you worry."

"No problem," Ross answered, reaching out with his own hand. "Welcome to the Catamount."

"I am Guyon Ewhes," the man said as they shook.

"Ross," Ross answered. "Seven only up the ramp, please. You're people will have to carry any personal items they aren't willing to put in the baggage bay themselves, sorry."

"We understand," the man nodded, and began directing those behind him. The shuffling of bags was minimal, with only a few bags coming up the ramps in the hands of the seven passengers. 

Once the bags had been placed in the baggage bay, Ross gave the signal and Ship closed it. It took only a moment to get the passengers aboard and seated.

"All aboard," Pete signaled to Dar.

"All right," Dar responded over the ship's comm rather than through the suit so that the passengers heard him. "Lifting off. You've got about two minutes to get them seated and strapped in, and that goes for the two of you as well. After that, well, it could get bumpy."

"Roger," Ross answered. There followed a hurried but not rushed seating procedure as it was decided who would sit next to who in the various seat groupings. In the fully lit passenger cabin it was obvious that this was an older couple, a younger couple and three children, one of them a mere babe in a carrier. None of them seemed that familiar with the harnesses, and particularly panicked was the young mother of the baby, until Pete showed her how to fasten the carrier into a seat harness the proper way.

With everyone seated, Ross and Pete found their own seats and had no more than gotten themselves strapped in when Dar came over the intercom again.

"Prepare for rapid acceleration and high G maneuvers," the calm words seemed to belie their weight. "The inertial compensators may let some of this through."

No sooner were the words spoken than suddenly everyone felt themselves pushed hard into the backs of their seats. Their weight doubled and then they felt a sudden lurch to their left and a loss of gravity. The sickening feeling lasted only a second, but the sensations had gotten the baby crying, as well as the younger of the other two children, a little girl who Ross thought looked to be about five years old.

"Don't worry," Ross told everyone. "Dar is very good at what he does. If anyone can get us through safely, its him."

Fortunately, things settled down quickly, and before the passengers had much more time to register any discomfort, Dar was calling again over the intercom. "On approach vector to VulCor Orbital. Docking in ten minutes."

"Amazing," the older gentleman said. Ross and Pete silently agreed with him. They'd figured they had an experienced pilot, but this showed Dar to be something a bit more than that.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," Ship's voice came over the intercom, surprising Pete and Ross, who hadn't anticipated the EI communicating with the passengers. "While our pilot negotiates our docking with the VulCor station command, he wanted me to advise you of a few things. First, and most importantly: the Catamount just finished a serious engagement with unknown forces whose aim was to shoot us down. No orders to heave to were given; in fact no attempt at communication was attempted by the ships who met us."

"What!" The younger man cried.

"Someone knew where we were going and when?" the older man asked.

"It would appear so," Ship answered. "Were it not for our ability to deflect most of their weapons fire, and our pilots abilities at evasive maneuvering, we would surely have been destroyed in the air."

"So it was a trap all along," the younger man said bitterly. "Someone betrayed us."

"So it seems," the older woman said after a moment of silence. "The question is, how thorough is the betrayal? Can we still count on the offer of refuge that VulCor has extended?"

"Were any of our attackers able to follow us into orbit?" Peter asked.

"Negative," Ship answered. "We were met by atmospheric attack craft only, nothing spaceworthy."

"Then..." he began before hesitating. "Look ... I'm no expert on the local situation, but it seems to me that if VulCor was part of this, then there would have been ships waiting for us in low orbit too, not just these atmospheric fighters."

"I agree," Dar's voice came over the intercom. "The people handling the VulCor station's comm just told me essentially the same thing." The pilot's seemingly unflappable voice seemed to settle the older passengers at least, but it was only a moment later that he added. "Docking procedure initiated. We'll have a green light at the hatch in a couple of minutes."

"Young man, what do you think your chances of getting paid are?" The older gentleman asked Ross.

"We're not likely going to see the rest of our payment," Ross answered after a moment of thought. "What we were paid up front will cover our expenses, but that's about it."

"While I am in no position to reward your efforts now, I am a man who honors his debts. If our family manages to survive the current struggle, know that you have a claim on the house Ewhes when the time comes that you can safely claim it."

Ross and Pete shook hands again with the elder Ewhes as well as the son, who gave us his name finally.

"Rogues," he said. Pete's eyebrow went up and the man laughed. "I know, but its a family name, what can I say, except that I echo my fathers words. Our family is in your debt, and we repay our debts."

-------

In the ready room later that evening, after the Catamount was safely out of the system and things put back in order, the four of them discussed the recent events.

"We did break even," Ross commented.

"And we have a potential future in with a first family of Meier's World." Pete added.

"But we still have no mission, no prospect of getting the Catamount registered legally, and no agent to find us work." Dar groaned.

"We did learn that we have a really hot pilot that we can count on," Ross said with some measure of awe in his voice.

"That we did," Pete agreed.

"I could have told you that," Ship said.

=

The VulCor station chief sat in his comfortable chair in his plush office and stared into the screen, looking at the ship which had just dropped off Guyon Ewhes and his family. The ship was different; alien in its construction, but not so different as to raise his hackles. What it had was a damned good pilot and a pretty good crew, to get those people safely to the station. He knew they were leaving here with no hopes of getting paid for their work, and it was not something he could get away with doing, even if he were of a mind to, which he was not. Still, he liked to see faithful service rewarded, and he'd received orders from his supervisors. He might not be able to pay them their fee, but there were things he could do. Better he wasn't the one making the decision though. He pushed a button on his desk.

"Yes sir," came the smooth voice at the other end.

"Throw them a bone."


"Ross Carson?" a short man asked, stepping up their table.

"You are?" Ross asked.

"Andre Dupard," the man answered.

"Sit down," Ross gestured to the empty chair at the table. "This is my partner Pete Lopez. Can we order you a drink?"

"No thanks," the man snorted. "This place is a dive. I'm hoping we can conclude our business quickly."

"And what kind of business would that be?" Pete asked.

"Someone at VulCor told me that you have a fast ship, a good crew and a need to make some quick money without too much federation oversight."

"We're not looking to do anything illegal," Ross frowned and waved his hand in a negative gesture he'd picked up from Dar.

"Not talking Federation-illegal here, but it's definitely skirting the edges of some local laws. Anyway, its not my gig, I'm just the go-between. Can I arrange a meeting?"

Ross and Pete gave each other the eye, as casually as possible, each looking for some sign of negation on the face of the other. Seeing no sign on Ross' face, and not willing to say no himself, Pete gave Ross a shrug.


=

"We're being hailed, Captain."

"Kat, have you been watching the old Star Trek archives again?" Ross asked.

"Indeed, Captain," Kat intoned.

"Worf or Spock," Pete moaned. "Pick one and stick with it, Kat. Otherwise it'll get real annoying real fast, okay? What's the hail?"

"a gig from the station requests permission to dock and transfer one passenger," Kat answered, voice back to normal. "They're broadcasting the VulCor code."

"Ahh, our mystery client at last! Acknowledge their transmission, and direct the gig to the passenger airlock." Pete answered.

"Aye, Captain," Kat answered. "And thank you for doing so well at remembering to call me Kat."

"Sure, no problem, we've got to call you something besides Ship when there are customers around anyway, and I like Kat. Its a good human nickname."

"I like it too, and since the ship and I are more or less one..."

"Yeah, Kat and Catamount," Pete said with a grin towards the nearest vid pickup. "You're having fun with English, aren't you?"

"I do like learning new languages," Kat agreed.

"Dar, you okay here?" Ross asked the Sondag. "Anything we can get before you seal the hatch?"

"I'm good," Dar snorted. "This isn't exactly exile to a prison colony after all."

"Yeah, well Pete and I still feel a little weird about having to keep you under wraps."

"I'll be fine, now get to the passenger lock and greet our new customer."

It was only a few minutes later that the passenger cabin's airlock cycled and a short, heavily cloaked figure stepped into the cabin. Ross had joined Pete just in time and the two men stood side by side as the newcomer threw back the cloak's hood.

"Good morning gentlemen, I am Anya Keeler, and I hope you will be able to help me."

'Wow!' both men thought when the attractive young female face was revealed, followed by an equally silent 'Crap!' When she gave her name. Both men had their share of experience with women, from casual to committed. Ross in particular had some recent experience with a Belter, and if this woman's last name really was Keeler, then she was probably upper crust Belter at that.

"Yes, Keeler is my real name," she answered the unspoken questions etched on both men's faces. "I'm an executive purchasing agent for Olivian Interstellar Industries. I'm currently on vacation, and the current ruler of Keeler, President-For-Life Lloyd Xavier Keeler VIII, is my grandfather."

In the momentary silence that followed, Ross snorted involuntarily, causing Pete and Anya Keeler to stare. "Sorry," he said as soon as he'd done it. "It just struck me that we seem to be stuck dealing with the various first families of all the planets in Asgard Space."

"Ahh, the Ewhes families recent escape? It was your part in it that made me think you could help me, actually. I need a ship and crew that can do such things."

"Well then..." Ross gathered himself. "Welcome to the Catamount. We've set up the conference room with tea, coffee and a few light snacks. Lets go get something to drink and you can fill us in."

"All right," Ross said once they were settled in. "What can we do for you Miss Keeler?"

"How well do you know the Keeler system?"

"We've done some work there in the past, though not in this ship," Pete answered.

"We're familiar with the belts. We spent some time doing contract mining there a few years back," Ross added.

"So I don't have to explain Belters to you?" Anya asked, relieved.

"No we've even got a few contacts in the inner belt if we need them."

"Someone could explain Belters to me," Dar's new and oddly accented voice came over the comm.

"That's Dar, our pilot," Ross answered. "You won't be meeting him in person, but he's a full member of the crew. I'd forgotten that he might be interested in hearing about Keeler."

"Very well then," Anya agreed after a sip of her tea. "Could I ask you what you do know Dar, so I have some idea where to begin?"

"I know nothing beyond what can be found in the Federation Encyclopedia and the nav charts," Dar answered.

"Well, that's plenty, really. Keeler is the fifth planet of the system designated as AR-2479-A3. The star itself was once called Irillon Sigma, but the name was never much used outside the original community of stellar cartographers during the Great Diaspora. These days the star and planet are both called Keeler."

"Named for your great, great, great, great, great grandfather?" Dar asked.

"Correct. He was captain of the UPXV Cascade, and he and his crew discovered Keeler and three other planets with useable ecosystems during a six year stretch of exploration in this region of space."

"But only two of the planets are part of what we would call Asgard Space today?"

"That's correct, Meier's World and then Keeler were his first two discoveries, but the third was quite apart from the rest. It was also less than ideal in many ways and was never settled, though it is still mined on occasion, and the second planet in the system is used as a water stop by some ships."

"That would be Caribe?" Pete asked.

"Yes. It seems a shame to have wasted such a good name on what turned out to be so disappointing a world, but the clean, shallow seas turned out to be the only good thing about it." Anya Keeler stood up then and took her cloak off, and the two men were once again rendered momentarily agog. This woman was not just fair of face, but equally fair of figure, and they had both been long in space. Anya smiled when she saw them both swallow hard. "To continue, lets see..."

"Your ancestor returned to Keeler then, after the expedition ended?"

"He did," Anya nodded, taking a drink. "Meier's world was settled first, of course, and the original effort was a failure. Still, the planet was claimed by those who had funded the expedition. It was their right to try and fail, and then try again. They did try again, obviously, and succeed. Five greats grandfather Aaron had retired by then, and with so many of the worlds best industrial megacorps gearing up to provision the second Meier's effort, he saw an opportunity to ride on those coattails, and funded his own efforts to establish a settlement on Keeler."

"That funding always seemed to be less than clear whenever I studied Keeler's history," Ross interjected. "Your five-greats Aaron didn't seem to have the wherewithal to manage private funding, and yet he did manage it."

"That's because he rode the Meier's coattails even more than most knew," Anya laughed. "The initial survey's had shown Keeler's obvious mining potential. The Meier's people knew that as well as my family did. They had deep pockets themselves and struck a deal with Grandpa Aaron. In exchange for funding, Keeler would give them a percentage of the raw materials they mined for the first fifty years of operation. For the next fifty, they would get a price break above and beyond whatever other deals Keeler made. After a hundred years, the two governments could renew or renegotiate the deal. They did, and have continued to do so."

"So where do you fit into the Keeler legacy?" Pete asked.

"Nowhere, really," Anya sighed. "Grandfather Aaron married late in life, but proved to be prolific. He married three times and fathered fourteen children. My five greats grandmother was his second wife Magda. A member of her line has never ascended to a position within the family's ruling council. Nor is it likely one will. I'm the last member of that line and I was recently 'disinherited' by the family council and made to leave the system."

"Once again we're getting entangled with ruling family politics," Dar's voice came over the comm. "This doesn't seem like its a healthy trend, long term."

"Perhaps not," Ross agreed with a frown. "Particularly since we've been told your business is in the Keeler system and you've just told us that you're not welcome there."

"I'm not, but you and your ship would have no problems," Anya spread her arms wide, as if she was encompassing the ship and its crew with her gesture. The gesture reminded both men again that they were talking to a beautiful woman. "Keeler is an open system, you know that. The mining may be good, but the planet itself makes for difficult living. You can enter Keeler space without a Federation registry on the books and no one will care."

"But... ?" Pete asked. "I hear an unspoken but in there somewhere."

"I can't give you a map with an X marks the spot that would let you retrieve what I'm after, so I'll have to go along. I get caught in-system and I'm dead and you are in serious trouble."

"So we're not just being asked to smuggle something out of Keeler, we're also being asked to smuggle you in?" Dar asked.

"Yes, exactly."

"How far?" Ross asked. "In-system only, or actually on-planet?"

"On planet, but all you have to do is get me there and get me off again."

"That's it?" Pete asked. "We wont be pack mules?"

"No."

She said no, but everyone heard a hesitation in her voice. Even Dar could tell she was holding something back.

"what aren't you telling us?" he asked.

"Once I get what I need on Keeler itself, we'll have to make another stop."

"Where?" Ross asked.

"I don't know. I won't know until I've been back home."

"This is starting to sound riskier than I expected," Ross got up and refilled his coffee cup. He stayed there, leaning against the wall.

"well there will be some risk, of course," Anya shrugged. "But no more than you and this ship should be able to handle, if what I've been told is true."

"All right," Pete said into the silence that followed. "We've heard you out, but we're partners here, a business. We'll have to vote on it. Dar, what do you think?"

"I say yes," Dar answered.

"Kat?" How about you?"

"I vote no," Kat replied. "It sounds too risky."

"Ross?"

"I have my reservations, but I say yes."

"Well Miss Keeler, it looks like you've hired the Catamount," Pete held out his hand.

"Wonderful," she said, shaking his hand and standing to shake Ross'. "Who's Kat?"

=

"Miss Keeler?" the intercom chimed and the voice came out of the dark again, more insistently. "Miss Keeler!"

"Yes, what?" she mumbled.

"time to wake up Miss Keeler," the voice came again. As she came more fully awake she realized it was Kat's voice - the mysterious co-pilot's voice.

"Thank you Kat," she said more clearly. "Are we there?"

"We're an hour from breakout," Kat told her. "We're just serving breakfast in the galley."

"Unnghh..." Anya rubbed her face pushing the last of the sleep away. "Do I have time for a shower?"

"Pete, where's the vanilla?" Ross asked. "Can't make waffles without a little vanilla for the batter."

"Isn't it in the spice rack?"

"No, that's why I'm asking you if you know where it is."

"Dar probably took it. He's practically addicted to the stuff. I even caught him putting some on his steak the other day."

"Really?"

"Yeah, but I don't think he liked the results."

"Speaking of Dar..." Ross triggered the ship's comm. "Dar, were you wanting waffles too?"

"With maple syrup?" Dar's voice came back. "Sure! What are you having with it?"

"Scrambled eggs and fried ham,"

"Could I have my eggs fried? Over easy?"

"No," Ross laughed. "You know we don't have any more fresh eggs. All we've got are the bulk scrambled eggs that come in one liter vac-seals."

"Oh well. Yes, I'll have scrambled eggs and bacon. I can't wait until I can cook again though."

"You cook, Dar?" Anya said as she came through the hatchway. "You can cook for me if you want. If it means I get to meet the mysterious pilot finally."

"Sorry Miss Keeler," Dar's regret could be plainly felt even through the comm. "You know that's not possible."

"I know it, yes. Understand it? Not so much," she teased. "What are you, horribly deformed? Are you some famous serial killer? That's it! You're actually Bradley Barnes, the Corellian Killer!"

"Who?"

"Oh come on!" Anya laughed. "Everyone knows who he is. He killed thirty two women over twelve years! He's as famous as the Federation president. More famous!"

"Dar, we'll get some breakfast your way just as soon as we can," Ross interrupted, heading off the conversation. "Better recheck the breakout parameters. We're under thirty minutes now."

"Right," Dar agreed, closing the connection to the galley with an audible click.

=

The Keeler system was mineral rich, and in interesting ways. There were two asteroid belts; an inner and an outer belt, both of which were heavy in interesting and often hard to get metals and transuranic elements. The system's Oort cloud was also rich with some of the more mundane but commercially viable minerals such as selenium, tellurium, and magnesium. The magnesium wasn't all that rare, but hard to find occurring naturally in its free metallic state. Keeler's Oort cloud was loaded with the stuff.

The inner belt was where all the really odd stuff was, especially the near and trans-uranics. The outer belt was where the more traditional inert metals were: the gold, silver and platinum.

Keeler the planet was human habitable, but reluctantly so in some ways. For a system so heavy in metals, the planet was surprisingly close to old Earth standards. 'Close, but no cigar' as Pete was fond of misquoting. There was life aplenty on Keeler, but little of it was fit for human consumption. Even worse, or at least more ironic, most of the life there seemed to find humans fit for consumption. Except for the fact that crop plants imported from Earth and the other colonies thrived in the rich Keeler soil, settlers would have been hard to find and even harder to keep. Farming is in some people's blood it seems, and such men and women were drawn to the fecund fields of Keeler's plains.

Plenty of theories existed to explain Keeler, system and planet, but most of those who lived there - and the Belters in particular, just chalked it up to living in an infinite universe and the influence of an old fellow called Murphy. Most of the planet was dedicated to agriculture and forestry. Cattle were raised as well, and poultry ranchers thrived as well, but most of the animal husbandry was conducted under a roof and behind walls. The native animals found imported animals as tasty as they found humans.

Keeler being a rough place to live, its population concentrated where the work was, and the work was in the belts. The inner belt's population centered around the asteroid Niveum and the outer belt's 'capitol' was Lucir. Because of the inescapable nature of the elements concentrated there, Niveum was far less open and freewheeling than Lucir, its outer belt counterpart. The former was locked down and closely held by the energy and power consortium. As with the gold rush camps of an earlier era on Earth, Lucir was rowdy, rough and wide open.

"Lucir control this is Catamount, inbound at your six and north," Kat called over the com. "Do you copy?"

"Catamount, this is Lucir Control, we copy and have your course," came the reply. 

"Lucir Control, Catamount requesting clearance for stable orbit," Kat returned immediately.

"Affirmative Catamount, prepare to receive guidance."

"Ready for guidance Lucir Control."

"Catamount, this is Lucir Port Services. Will you be needing shuttle services or fueling?"

"Negtive Lucir, we have our own gig and require no fuel at this time."

Kat let the Lucir computerized parking system blip parking instructions into our navcom – really into a jury-rigged box wired into her control panel that tied Pete's homemade navcom into the Catamount's own systems. The navcom cooked the guidance instructions a little and then handed them off to the Catamount's own nav systems.

"Lucir Control, Catamount is under guidance and estimate two hours to assigned orbit."

"Affirmative Catamount," came the answer. "Welcome to Lucir."

=

"Cynda? It's Anya."

... 

"Yes, it has been a long time. I'm doing fine, really. How are you? How's Dev?"

... 

Ross and Pete were simultaneously amused and frustrated at hearing only one side of the conversation. The secure beam, voice-only transmission was as secure as Kat could make it, and tapping into the incoming side of the signal would have lessened the security, so the Catamount's crew had decided against it.

"Of course it bothers me, Cyn," Anya Keeler laughed into the com. "I'm a Keeler after all, even if I was never one of the competitive ones. I would have liked a chance to gather my personal possessions before I was kicked out of the system, but apparently I was just so dangerous." Anya drew out and dramatized the 'so', and laughed afterward. There was a long pause where the men could see her nodding her head in silent agreement with something said on the other end. "Well, I would like to at least see if my storage unit is still intact, and maybe claim what's stored there."

... 

"Yes, I'd like to do that too. Maybe even Magda's?"

... 

"Well, our line has never been at the center of things, I'm proof of that, aren't I? Her memorial is as isolated from the rest of the Keeler kin as she was. All right. Two it is."

When the call was disconnected, Anya turned and stared for a moment at the two men who stared back expectantly. "That was Cynda Balarde, a childhood friend. I've been corresponding with her during my exile, and she's willing to help."

"How confident are you that her willingness is genuine and not a trap?" Pete asked.

"Very. Cynda was someone who needed a lot of help herself when we were young. I was her only friend most of her childhood. We were both each others only friends for most of those years, to be honest. She sees my banishment as an injustice, especially given my complete lack of aspirations regarding the Keeler legacy."

"Won't it seem suspicious if she suddenly has visitors from off-planet?" Ross asked.

"Her being such a social pariah and all?" Pete added.

"No. We may have been outcasts during our childhoods, but Cynda has become one of the most successful micro artists in Asgard Space. Her work even sells back on old Earth. We can pass ourselves off as some of her off-planet admirers. "

"Really?" Pete's jaw dropped a little. "I've heard of these micro artists. They carve images onto the inside of crystals and gemstones."

"That they do, and Cynda does it very well. She works mostly on commission now, and it has made her financially secure apart from her family and its connections."

"So you will meet her on Keeler and she will take you to the places you need to go?"

"No, we'll meet her. She'll expect me to have bodyguards, and you two will fit the bill. She will meet the three of us at the Keeler University shuttle pad and we'll go with her to my university storage unit. It was rented under an assumed name and I shouldn't have to worry about it being watched. If there are any questions, we have Cynda for cover."

They had a real problem with planetary landings – not that they couldn't do it, rather it was that Catamount would stir too much curiosity if she were seen landing herself. Her ability to do that was still too large an advantage to advertise openly. She was larger than most private craft and even a good deal of the commercial liners and live freight haulers. As those types of ships were orbit-to-orbit only, so Catamount had to pretend to be as well, for now. When they could manage a landing outside the planetary grid, they were unbeatable, but when they needed to go with the established flow, they were handicapped. Even in the short time they'd been with her, Catamount had become home, and Ross and Pete both felt somehow exposed when they were away from her.

They hired a shuttle and met it at Lucir's shuttle terminal. The local transportation was an independent hire and the pilot a small, rotund man with a non-stop line of chatter that contained no discernible information and which he directed exclusively at the well shrouded figure of Anya. Ross eyeballed the shuttle's controls, comparing them to what he knew. While Pete scanned the display, trying to get a sense of the space the shuttle had to operate in.

The commercial shuttle was spartan, the walls bearing evidence of many coats of paint, and here and there an almost desultory attempt at advertisement, seemingly aimed only at farmers, ranchers and veterinarians. The shuttle pilot only spoke once, just before we broke orbit. Everything else was automated; canned messages that the shuttle crew probably didn't even have to push a button to get started.

"Something like this would fit into one of Catamount's empty cargo holds, wouldn't it?" Pete asked.

"The shuttle? Sure, but one of the newer Perseid Industrial models would be even better. They're a good twenty feet shorter and five feet narrower. This shuttle would have to be parked side down. The PI Comet 212 could maintain its normal orientation within one of the holds – make it a lot easier to get passengers in and out and less stress on the antigrav systems."

"Sounds like you've been looking at some of the online catalogs," Anya laughed.

"Sure, we both do once we're in-system. Some of its wishing, but mostly it was keeping track of what was going on, you know? The news vids will tell you about the latest disaster or political tiff, but when you want to know what people are buying and selling, and what's considered current..."

"You check out the online catalogs," Anya finished for him.

"Exactly," Ross jumped in. "Planetary shuttle duties are one of those things we weren't able to do with our old ship."

"We would have never gotten any passenger business either. The Eudoxus was barely up to the task of keeping us alive, let alone passengers."

"Eudoxus?"

"Our old ship, sorry Anya," Ross apologized. "Sometimes we forget you don't know all about us from the old days."

"Didn't you consider the need for an orbital shuttle when you were looking at the Catamount?"

"Well, it was sort of a one-time, as-is kind of deal, and not one were we had a lot of options."

"Why do I keep thinking there's a lot more to this than meets the eye?" Anya asked Ross in answer to that last bit of information. "Especially given your pilot and copilot's reluctance regarding public appearances."

"Strap in folks, we're entering the KU landing pattern," The pilots voice came over the intercom.

"Hold that thought," Ross said as he reached for his web harness. Anya's look of frustration flared even higher than it had just been, but then went away as she concentrated on getting ready to land.



-------

Chapter 2


Cynda Balarde was a petite woman with very blue hair that sparkled in the light of the shuttle port's glare. She had dark, expressive brows above even more expressive eyes and a small mouth that was currently set in a grin that seemed wider than possible.

As soon as Anya was clear of the access way, the two were hugging and squealing like school girls. Pete and Ross watched this for a second before turning and grinning at each other. This was far from the cool, aloof and sophisticated Keeler descendant that they'd come to know.

"Company at the street entrance," Pete whispered. There was a large gentleman leaning casually against the entryway. If Pete and Ross were supposed to be pretending to be bodyguards, this fellow seemed to be trying hard to give the opposite impression.

The two women turned without either of them looking at the two men and began walking towards the exit. This behavior was expected, and part of the prearranged cover they had settled on with Anya. As the pair passed through the door, Ross and Pete noticed the large man who'd been standing in the doorway was gone. When they passed through the doorway and out into the large plaza between the shuttle pad and the rest of the Keeler University campus, they saw the man walking a couple body lengths ahead of them. He knew where they were headed, obviously, and was leading the way, though the two women continued to act as if they didn't know the three of them were there.

Pete and Ross found themselves walking at a good clip behind the two women. The campus was bustling, but not crowded. Their ship suits, unsurprisingly, drew a few eyes. It probably wasn't common to see men walking the campus in ship suits, and certainly not two men together in matching suits. 'If only they knew, ' Ross thought, remembering the initial conversation back on the ship.

"Of course you should wear them," Dar laughed. "They're far better than anything you could buy, and they will offer far better protection while you are pretending to be bodyguards, though to be honest, the entire concept of needing to hire someone to protect your body is very, very strange to me."

"Don't you have important people in your society who might fear for their safety, or have enemies who would do them harm?" Pete asked.

"Of course, and perhaps more commonly than here, but..." Dar hesitated.

"What?" Ross tilted his head, a gesture the Sondag had already come to recognize as a sign of Ross' curiosity.

"My people ... Our culture, it is a warrior culture," Dar began again after some hesitation. "In our society, one settled one's disagreements personally. If you were too old or too slow to defend yourself, you needed to work at avoiding conflict, or choose... Uhhar, and before you ask, there's no word in your language that translates directly. The closest I can come is ... retirement, but seclusion is just as close a translation."

"So you get to be old and you put yourself out to pasture?" Pete asked. That took several more minutes of conversation to explain. Mostly, words were easy and the humans had learned quite a bit of the Sondag language, though nowhere as thoroughly as Dar had learned theirs.

"Out to pasture would suggest too soft a setting," Dar suggested, once the concepts had been hashed out. "Sondag elders do not simply go sit out in the sun and wait to die. But they live separated almost completely from the rest of Sondag society. The elders interact only with each other, and only in very different ways than the rest of Sondag society."

"Do they live in seclusion then, or are there communities for elders?" Ross asked.

"Some of both. The problem is not widespread," Dar hesitated again, this time it wasn't due to translation difficulties. "We are a warrior society," he continued. "Sondag expect to die in combat. Very often those who find they've outlived their ability to defend themselves choose not to live. To choose otherwise is rare."

Neither human had a response to that, and the silence drew them back to their original purpose.

"Tell me again that it will be perfectly safe for us to wear your marine's armor,"

"Of course it wil be safe," Dar laughed again. "Kat has run the analysis twice now, and the differences between Sondag and Human physiologies is well within the biomorphic armor's adaptability range. In fact the biggest difference between us is our size. Even the dietary differences are minor when you discount preferences in taste and texture."

"I wouldn't want to discount those if I was going to have to live off what the suit can produce for any length of time,"

"Well you're not, at least not yet. Its not likely to be an issue for any ground-side operations such as the one you're planning. On top of that, you're not even going to wear the helmet or gloves." Kat added.

"Well, that would be making ourselves just a bit too conspicuous, given the circumstances," Ross laughed.

"True enough. The suit itself will be relatively inconspicuous, and since we've adapted the Catamount insignia as our logo, it won't even seem out of place that way, if we're questioned about it," Pete admitted.

"They look very similar to what you humans wear as ship suits now," Dar reminded them. "You won't seem any more out of place than any other spacer walking around on the surface."

Ross' thoughts were jarred back to the present when the ladies turned into a building with a large green teacup hanging above the door. A sign on the window as they approached said 'Magda's'. Below that in smaller ornate lettering was 'Jade Tea Room'. He and Pete were again swept up in the wake of the two women as they passed through the front of the room until they arrived at a series of small alcoves in the back. Anya and Cynda slipped into the center of a 'U' shaped booth in one of the alcoves.

Once their hostess left with their drink orders, coffee or tea for everyone but Cynda who ordered 'a splash of Venetti White', which proved to be a wine of some kind, Pete and Ross were introduced to Anya's boyfriend, Orion 'Dev' Devonshire.

"I'm an artist now, I have to keep up appearances," she offered when Anya raised an eyebrow.

The conversation was light and social until the food and drink were there. There had been no menu. The waitress had asked who was eating, and when everyone had said yes, left. She returned only a few minutes later with bowls of some sort of fish chowder and freshly baked bread. Over the chowder, Anya finally got serious.

"Alright, we'll finish lunch and head for the storage facility. Access is biometric, and keyed to my voice and thumbprint, so we should have no trouble getting into my unit."

"Assuming no one has tampered with it," Dev observed.

"We should be fairly safe in that regard," Cynda offered. "The University works very hard to maintain its independence, and is not at all fond of government interference, even the trivial kind."

"Such as wanting into the storage unit of a minor member of the ruling family?" Pete asked.

"Especially a minor member of the ruling family," Cynda giggled. "When you're a long-lived institution like the University, you're adverse to pissing off a minor branch of the Keeler family, knowing that they could very well be less than minor a few generations later."

"And Keeler's have long memories, and tend to hold their grudges," Dev added more seriously.

"That they do ... we do, I should say," Anya sighed, shaking her head. "I hope I manage to avoid the worst of that family trait."

"So far you have," Cynda laughed. "But then you're in no position to do anything about your grudges anyway," They all laughed at that, and there was less talking and more eating after that.

They headed across the university campus after their meal. It was a pleasant place, similar in many ways to what Ross and Pete knew of university campuses everywhere, if perhaps somewhat spartan in its appearance. There seemed to be a shortage of foliage adorning the campus. Here and there a tree or tall shrub, but little else, and nothing flowering. Perhaps it wasn't the season.

The far side of the campus seemed a little more worn at the seams than the one where they'd arrived. The storage facility itself was a very open structure, mostly below ground, and with the biometric access used, there were no guards. The usual assortment of surveillance blisters could be seen here and there on the corners of buildings and other fixtures, but nothing more than they'd already seen everywhere they'd been. They took a wide escalator down to a mezzanine beneath ground level and from there, went to a bank of elevators. They'd seen only two or three other people since leaving the campus proper and none of those people seemed the least bit interested in them.

"Here we are," Anya said with a little edge in her voice after they'd gone down two more levels. She stopped in front of one of the long row of marked partitions that were a uniform three feet wide and floor-to-ceiling in this area.

Opening her storage unit was simplicity itself. She placed a hand on a well marked plate and pushed. The plate glowed briefly and was followed by a mellifluous female voice, obviously synthetic.

"Please state your name and access code."

"Anya Keeler," Anya answered in measured tones. "Bathwater Baby."

Several eyebrows were raised at the utterance of the phrase 'bathwater baby'.

"what?" Anya asked. "It's just something the security system can use for voice identification."

"Right," everyone seemed to say at once, bringing a little snicker in response from Anya.

The storage space itself was large enough that Anya could have walked into it, if she had wanted to, but the back of the unit seemed to be full of clothes hung on a series of rods that could be swung out from both sides of the unit itself. She ignored those things and instead tapped a front section, causing a deep bin to slide open.

"This for me," she said softly, hanging something around her neck and stuffing it inside the neckline of her outfit. "And this for us."

The 'us' object was a small oblong object that she handed to Pete. "Put that away somewhere safe."

"What is it?" he asked.

"Later, let's get out of here," she said, closing the drawer that she'd withdrawn the two items from. Standing, she started to back out of the storage unit, but stopped. "Oh, what the hell," she said with a shrug, stepped back in popping another bin open and swiveling it out. She grabbed a small cloth bag and handed it to Ross.

"What is it?" Ross asked.

"Later, I said. Let's go!"

The four of them left the storage building together but, after a long hug between the two women followed by some tears, they separated. Cynda and Dev headed one way and Anya, Ross and Pete headed back to the university's shuttle pad. The walkways were getting more packed with students the closer they got, to the point that Pete and Ross began to be concerned for Anya's safety.

"What is this?" Pete asked.

"Most likely students returning from an event somewhere, just dumped off at the shuttle pad," Anya speculated.

"There's not that much room on that university pad," Pete muttered. "I hope ours is still waiting for us."

"He will be," Anya reassured him. "We promised him too much on completion. They'd have to blast him off the pad to get him to move."

"If they knew these students would be coming back they'd have given him an out of the way section to land on," Ross added.

The knot of students was already thinning by the time they made it to the terminal. Their pilot was eating a foul-smelling, greasy sandwich, no worse for wear and happy to see them.

They had to sit on the pad for a mere five minutes waiting for the next launch window, but to judge by Anya's muttering, it must have seemed like forever to her. Still, five minutes after strapping themselves back into their seats, the pilot, having disposed of his sandwich for the time being, launched them casually off the shuttle pad.

Anya's muttering continued when they were back at the shuttle bay on Lucir. Her eyes darted everywhere and only Ross and Pete's firm grip on her as they made their way to where the Catamount's gig was docked kept her from an unseemly rush. The two men had to practically carry her through the docking umbilical, though once they were in the gig she managed to strap herself in without help.

It wasn't until they were away from Lucir and headed back to Catamount that she settled down, letting out a big breathe.

"Oh, that was a lot weirder and scarier than I thought it would be."

"You seemed to be fine until we were in the shuttle and on the way up. What happened to get you so scared?" Ross asked.

"I thought I saw someone recognize me in the university terminal. They almost did a double take. I assumed it was him recognizing me, and that the call was going in to Keeler Security for sure."

"I guess you were wrong about that. But better to be moving on as soon as we can. Where to next?" Ross asked.

"We're headed for the inner belt, as soon as we can get under way."

"Niveum?" Pete asked, shocked. "We can't get into Niveum without a valid registry number. The rest of the system may be open, but Niveum's another story."

"Niveum?" Dar's confusion was obvious.

"We're not going to Niveum, Dar," Anya yelled. "As I explained to these idiots already, we're going to the inner belt, that's not the same thing."

"Catamount is a hell of a ship, and there's no better crew to fly her than Dar and Kat, but flying blind into an asteroid field as dense as Keeler's inner belt is not safe," Pete explained.

"We won't be flying blind," Anya said gleefully. "Pete, the box I gave you?"

"Oh yeah," he said, pulling the box from the sealed pocket he'd stuck it in while getting out of the armor. "Here you go."

"Here's mine too, whatever it is," Ross said, handing her the cloth bag she'd given him.

"Ahh, this wasn't part of my plan, but I remembered they were there, so I wanted them," she opened the bag and emptied the contents into her hand. Eight smooth dark red stones rested there, shimmering softly in the low light of the mess, where they'd gathered.

"Are those... ?" Ross asked.

"Yes, Sun Sapphires," she said, almost purring. "My great grandfather gave me one every birthday as a present."

"Those things are worth a fortune!" Pete almost shouted.

"Each of them alone is almost a fortune," Anya corrected. "Together, they are ... contraband, unfortunately."

"They are reserved for the Keeler royals, aren't they?" Pete said, disappointed.

"They are," she admitted. "But that doesn't mean they can't be sold. It just means they have to be sold separately, over time, and for less than they're actually worth. A lot less."

"Still, that's awesome," Ross said, unable to tear his gaze from the stones.

"Now this?" Anya said, holding up the box. "This is more immediately useful," as she said this, she placed a thumb purposefully atop the box. The box suddenly opened like a clam shell, folding back along its longest edge. A slim, glassy stick lay resting softly within its padded interior.

"A data stick?" Pete and Ross said almost simultaneously.

"Yes. Nav data." Anya said with a grin.

"Nav data for the inner belt?" Dar chimed in for the first time.

"Indeed," Anya said grimly. "A last gift from my great grandfather."

"Your great grandfather," Ross noted. "You've said that twice now. Given the Keeler family history, you could have a lot of great grandfathers."

"That's true, but of course I mean Lloyd Xavier Keeler VII, former President-For-Life. My grandfather decided that in his father's case, President-For-Life wasn't so much a title as it was a suggestion. It suggested that if his father was no longer alive, then he was no longer president."

"Yeah, so your grandfather was responsible for one of the few violent regime changes on Keeler since its founding," Ross observed.

"Yes, and as you could see by the Sun Sapphires, I was one of great grandfather's favorites. Probably the favorite. He certainly liked me more than his own children. He always regretted having spoiled them."

"So when your grandfather killed him and assumed control, he decided you weren't safe to keep around?" Pete asked.

"That's it in a nutshell," Anya sighed. "I had to leave, and I had little time to collect my things. I took what I had on hand, but the storage unit at the university was too far away. At least it was registered under an assumed name. Between that and the university's privacy policies, it stayed safe all these years."

"What does the nav data get you?" Kat asked.

"According to great grandfather Keeler," Anya said with a sigh. "Buried treasure."

"Buried treasure!" four voices exclaimed at once.

"Yes, but I don't know what he really meant by that. It could have been something merely sentimental, for all I know."

"But that's where you want to go, and what you want to retrieve?" Dar asked.

"Yes."

"Can I have the nav data?" he asked.

"Are the four of you agreeing to help me with this part of it then?"

"I thought that's what we signed up for?" Pete said with a smile.

"Well, you didn't know what this half of the job was about until now. I wanted you to have a chance to say no," Anya explained with a blush.

"I think we're still in, right everyone?" Pete asked.

"I would like to know more about the inner belt, and what we might encounter," Dar answered. "But I would agree provisionally.

"I too would need to know more about potential obstacles in the inner belt, but am amenable to continuing the contract unless something suggests it to be too hazardous." Kat added.

"We're going to have nav data," Ross said. "But the older it is the less likely it is to be accurate. How old is it?"

"I don't know. It should be time stamped. I didn't realize that would be a problem."

"for most nav data it wouldn't, but this is a dense asteroid field. Things move around, especially when there are miners pushing rocks around." Ross explained.

"Unless we have to move at high speeds, that shouldn't be to much of a problem on its own," Dar told them. "What about patrols, defensive platforms, things like that?"

"Defensive platforms should be included in the nav data," Anya said. "Patrols are another matter. There will be Keeler naval patrols, but their schedules are of course, secret."

"We won't have to worry too much about patrols unless they spot us while we're working outside of the ship," Ross said with a shrug.

"Affirmative," Kat added. "It sounds like you have no details on what to expect when we get to wherever this 'buried treasure' is?"

"None. Great grandfather was acting very mysterious the day he gave me that box. I think he might have already had some inkling of what was to come. It was only a week before his death."

"Do we need to stock up before we leave Lucir controlled space?" Dar asked. "I think we're almost out of vanilla."

"And whose fault is that?" Pete laughed. "What are you doing anyway Dar, snorting the stuff?"

"No. Hey, so I like vanilla," Dar said, managing to sound hurt. "We can get more, right?" Pete and Ross both laughed at that.

"Sure, but we should probably wait until we're someplace besides Keeler," Ross teased. "You're not going to be suffering withdrawal symptoms, are you?"

"Dar is not suffering any physical or psychological addictions to the substance," Kat informed them. Fortunately, Anya interpreted this dry announcement as more teasing, and broke up laughing. Ross and Pete joined her in laughing, but eyed each other with relief as they did.

"I will need that nav data, no matter what we eventually decide to do," Kat reminded them.

"Okay, okay, hang on," Pete said, holding up a hand as if Dar and Kat were in the room with them. "I'll bring you the data stick now."

"Wait!" Anya exclaimed loudly.

"What?" Pete asked, puzzled.

"Before you do that, there's something I want to ask."

There was a collective silence for a long moment before Kat finally spoke. "Please ask us what you will."

"I know you all see me as Keeler royalty, but..." she said hesitantly. "I've not been royalty for a long time. I've lived off planet, living off the wealth I was able to take with me. I went to school, learned this and that, found good jobs and moved up, but really, I was just playing at being an exile-in-waiting. I didn't have anything to wait for though, it was just a way to not commit to anything."

Anya took a long breath, and stood and took the long outer cloak off that she'd still been wearing when she'd sat down in the galley. Everyone seemed to realize she was gathering her thoughts and remained silent. She took the eight gems she'd been holding and placed them, atop the soft cloth bag they'd come in, on the table, reached for the chain that she'd so recently hung around her neck. She pulled it out of her clothes and off her neck, placing it on the table as well. The necklace was a very large green stone, surrounded by other smaller blue stones. Pete and Ross' eyes went wide as they saw it.

"This ship is amazing. You four are amazing, but I've seen how much you worry about financing. What I want to ask..." again she hesitated. Pete and Ross both smiled reassuringly. "I want to ask to buy my way into whatever partnership you four have. I'd like to become the Catamount's fifth crewmember."

There was stunned silence throughout the ship.

"Is that a Gamma stone?" Ross asked at last, staring again at the large gem Anya had placed on the table.

"Yes it is," she laughed. "It's a family heirloom."

"No, its part of the Keeler Royal Jewels!" Pete exclaimed. "That's the Gamma Imperiax!"

"That thing is supposed to be worth billions!" Ross said in hushed tones.

"If it could be sold, it would be," Anya admitted with a sigh. "All we can hope to do though is ransom it back to my grandfather."

"So your buy in is the sun stones and this?" Ross asked.

"And whatever great grandfather's buried treasure turns out to be," Anya added with a shrug.

"We will need to discuss this," Kat said.

"Of course," Anya agreed. "I'll go to my cabin and let you four meet in private."

-------

"I am inclined to agree to her offer," Pete offered once he and Ross had locked themselves in the bridge with Dar.

"You would be inclined to agree to anything she suggested," Ross laughed.

"Perhaps," Pete admitted. "I am attracted to her, but its not just that. I think she can be trusted. She has nowhere to run, after all. We're something of a last resort for her."

"I too believe she is trustworthy," Dar added. "She has told us far more about herself and her situation than was needed to accomplish the mission as originally agreed to. As well, she gave us a chance to back out before she made this offer."

"I am less able to interpret human traits than the rest of you," Kat added. "But I agree with Dar that she has acted honorably to this point, and her efforts to give us options without seeming to bribe us are to her credit."

"The sun sapphires alone could probably fund us for several years of total nonprofitable operations," Pete said. "The stars only know how much she will get in ransom for the Gamma Imperiax. It could be more even than the actual value."

"I doubt that would be the case," Ross countered. "At some point her grandfather would decide it was cheaper to just hunt us down and kill us for it."

"Easier said than done." Dar bristled defensively.

"Sure, but he doesn't know that," Ross pointed out. "Nobody knows what you're truly capable of. He'll think we're just another trader. Even if he assumes we're better armed and faster than most, he won't assume we're as capable as we really are."

"True," Dar conceded.

"So, Ross?" Pete turned to his friend. "You're the only one who hasn't given at least a provisional yes."

"Oh hell," Ross grumbled. "I was just playing devil's advocate. I'm a yes for sure. She had me with the damned sun sapphires!"

"We are agreed then?" Kat asked.

"Agreed." Dar answered.

"Agreed." Pete followed.

"Agreed." Ross finished.

"How shall we proceed from here then?" Kat asked.




-------

Chapter 3


"Anya," Dar's voice came over the ship comm.

"Yes Dar?" Anya answered pensively.

"We have decided. You may bring the nav data we left in the galley to the bridge."

"Yes!!!" Anya said as she jumped up and danced a little circle. "Thank you all, you won't regret this!"

Without waiting for a reply, Anya made a dash for the galley. Everything was still sitting where they left it. She grabbed the box with the data stick in it and headed for the galley.

The lock cycled automatically as she approached, which was something new, and had her grinning even wider than she already was. She stepped onto the bridge and saw Pete and Ross standing just inside. She grabbed Ross for a hug, thanking him as she did. She followed that with a hug for Pete. The hug was longer and the thank you was softer. Pete smiled down at her when she stepped back.

"Where are Dar and Kat?" she asked, looking around. Dar must be in the pilot's chair that was turned away from her. "Dar? Turn around so I can see you. It can't be that bad."

"Welcome, Anya," Dar said as he turned in the chair.

"Oh my!" Anya said as she saw him for the first time. "What are you?"

"I am a Sondag," Dar said with his toothy grin. "Welcome to our little band."

"Thank you," Anya said still a little shocked at the alien's appearance. "Where's Kat?"

"I am here," her voice came as always. "Kat is short for Catamount."

"You're the ship?" Anya breathed the question.

"I am the ship's artificial intelligence," Kat explained. "But essentially, the ship and I are one."

This ship, originally called the 'Kadamon', and I," Dar explained. "Are not from this sector of space."

"I didn't think so," Anya said, still sounding flabbergasted. "How did you get here?"

Through the Volmon rift, it is called in Sondag space," Dar said. "Ross and Pete have explained that this end of the rift has no name, and is merely marked on your charts as a hazard to navigation."

"You survived going through a wormhole?" Anya's incredulity grew. "That's impossible!"

"Not at all," Dar said with some pride. "My people use them as transit points almost routinely."

"So how did you end up here then?"

"We were at war, the Sondag, against the Komurta Alliance. The call had come to abort our mission, and we did so, but had suffered considerable damage," Kat explained.

"As the remains of the fleet limped towards the transition point, the Sionnex launched their final attack. I doubt that any of the capital ships survived at all," Dar added with a sigh. "I barely survived, and the rest of my crew did not. The Kadamon lost both drive engines and was dead in the water."

"We drifted into the rift's transition point at a speed of mere meters per second," Kat continued.

"When they exited the rift, their ship and our old mining craft intersected," Ross continued.

"Violently," Pete added. "They hit our reactor and drive unit."

"As those things tend to, ours went boom!" Ross said.

"If we hadn't been shielded by the bulk of Dar's ship when the reactor went critical, we'd have been dead right then and there." Pete said somberly. "As it was, when we woke up from the little nap the collision had caused, we were powerless and adrift in the rift. We had nothing but maneuvering thrusters."

"They had no way to get to safety, and no idea still that we existed," Kat added. "So they just did what they could."

"We found their ship of course," Ross picked up from there. "And it wasn't like anything we'd ever seen before."

"And huge!" Pete added. "Don't forget, it was huge."

Between the four of them, they gave Anya the rest of the story, all the way up to their first meeting with her.

"Wow, so we've got a ship that's probably a match for anything the Keeler space force could send against us. We've got a ship that's bigger than almost anything except commercial transports, and unlike them, it can go surface to orbit and back again anytime it wants. The pilot is an alien from a warlike species nobody has heard of, and the ship has an AI co-pilot better than any battle computer the military could even dream of. Is that about right?"

"That's pretty accurate," Ross agreed. Pete was nodding, as was Dar.

"Don't forget the stasis chambers, the med bay and the marine combat suits," Kat added.

"That's right," Pete said. "Speaking of which, you need to spend some time in the med unit as soon as possible. That thing is impressive, and if you hope to wear a set of that battle armor, you'll need to let it tinker with things a bit."

"Tinker?" Anya's gape was back.

"Minor improvements that allow you to interface with the suit's systems more completely," Kat told her. "Without them, you would have to settle for standard ship suits, which offer only limited protection."

"Trust us, you'll want this," Pete said. "Ross and I had been suffering from a host of problems that the med unit was able to fix. Some of them were mere annoyances, but others were more serious."

"How long does it take?"

"Ahh, that depends on what is found, but normal regeneration takes only a few days. If there are health issues, it could take longer."

"Took almost two weeks for us," Ross laughed. "But don't forget, we were also suffering from almost being killed by the ship."

"Why don't you let me look at the nav data now. Perhaps that knowledge will help us in deciding what to do next," Kat reminded them of the data stick Anya still held.

"Oh! Yes, of course!" she handed the stick to Pete, who inserted it into the recently crafted navcom interface that had replaced the jury-rigged system they'd originally grafted onto the Catamount.

"Examining media," Kat said. "Media seems to be intact and functional. Ahh ... extracting nav data."

The ship's forward holo display shimmered into existence, and on it, the semi-familiar features of the Keeler system began to resolve itself.

"Analyzing..." Kat said. There followed a long pause, then the display began to cycle through several new views as well as another couple of mostly familiar ones.

"This flight data has to precede your great grandfather by a few years, I'd say," Pete said an hour later. "It could even be data from the original exploration flights to Keeler."

"There's transit data here starting from Asgard," Ross added. Pete gave him an annoyed look, like he'd just stolen his next line.

"That's right, and the transit ends up in a completely different quadrant of Keeler space than the normal one. Nav plots to the inner belt begin where that transit ends."

"So we have to go to Asgard first then?" Anya asked.

"It would appear so," Kat confirmed.

"Oh goody!" Dar said. "We can get more vanilla!"

"Transit to Asgard from here is going to take most of five days, so you might as well get into a med unit and get started," Pete said, sitting down in the navigator's chair. "Dar, will you show Anya where she can stow those valuables safely?"

"Sure, it'll be nice to get to show someone around again."

"Lucir control, this is Catamount, requesting departure clearance and nav data for departure to the Asgard transit point," Pete called.

"Catamount, this is Lucir control. We have a five minute hold for incoming traffic, please hold until then," Came the bored voice of the asteroid's traffic controller. "Flashing you nav data now."

"Data received, holding." Peter replied. "Kat, keep an eyeball peeled for anything funny."

"Affirmative," the ship replied.

"This is the ship's safe," Dar told Anya as he opened what had appeared to be a seamless section of the inner hull's bulwark. A large, well lit room four by ten feet opened up. "You won't be able to activate one of these for yourself until you're out of the med unit, but if you'd be willing to use mine for the time being?"

"Sure," Anya said, placing the bag of gems and the necklace within the deep tray that had slid out as Dar gestured. The larger opening closed behind them and they were soon in the med bay. Dar activated one of the units, opening it so that Anya could see the nicely padded couch that lay within.

"You will have to remove all clothing before you get in of course," Dar said.

"Oh!" Anya said, embarrassed. "Will Pete and Ross be able to see me while I'm in it?"

"Is that a concern?" Dar asked. "The covering can be opaqued if there are concerns."

"Yes, I would prefer that," Anya laughed as she began stripping. "I am an unmarried female and they are unmarried males. My nudity would be inappropriate for them to see."

"Ahh, some sort of sexual taboo then?"

"Yes, amongst other things,"

"No problem then," Dar laughed as well. "We Sondag are a little less concerned about sexual things, but there are certain taboos between class and caste that would be similar. Kat, be sure to keep the shell opaqued on this unit whenever Pete or Ross are around."

"Affirmed," Kat told them.

"Enjoy your nap," Dar said as the cover came down over her, followed by a hissing sound, a swirling mist, then darkness.

-------

"Anya," Dar's voice came to her in the mists.

"Anya, how are you feeling?"

"Fine, fine," she said. "Oh, I had the funniest dream!"

Dar's watched her eyes open finally and after the usual post-stasis moment of trouble focusing, lock on him. The eyes widened immediately.

"Feeling okay?" he asked.

"Oh! It wasn't a dream then?"

"Which part?" he said with a grin, forgetting how many sharp teeth showed when he grinned. Anya cringed. "Oh, sorry. I tend to forget what my grin does to you people. Ross and Pete are pretty much past that reaction."

"So you and Kat?"

"Are not a dream, Anya," Kat's voice answered. "How do you feel? This is not a social question."

"Oh!" Anya sat up, flexing her torso and wriggling her feet and toes. "I feel fine."

"Good. The regen chamber had little in the way of health problems to report, and everything else went smoothly," Kat reported. "your enhancements and the tactical implants are performing flawlessly. You should be able to begin using them by this time tomorrow."

"Okay," Anya said, her most recent memories still replaying in her head. "So where are we?"

"We docked at Asgard Trans-commercial about an hour ago." Dar said. "Pete is out shopping and Ross is out seeing about a new contract."

"Aren't we going to be heading back to Keeler space as soon as we're ready?"

"Of course," Dar said. "But this is their normal behavior in port, so they are sticking to it. To do otherwise might raise questions, and apparently the group within which such questions would arise are either a dangerous or officious bunch."

"From their descriptions, the officious are just as bad, if not worse than the dangerous," Kat added dryly.

So, what should I be doing?" Anya asked.

"Well, getting dressed would probably be in order. You may want your own undergarments, but there's a full envirosuit on the chair by the chromalyser." Dar said.

"The what?"

"Oh, sorry," Dar laughed. "There, on that chair."

"Ah, these seem soft enough," Anya said, rubbing the material of the smaller pieces between her fingers. Their placement was functional and obvious, and she started to slip them on, then stopped as her stomach grumbled.

"Ahh ... you said Pete and Ross were both away from the ship?"

"That's correct," Kat answered.

"Then I'd better just take these with me," she said, scooping the pile up in her arms as she dashed for the cabin and it's sanitation facilities.

-------

"Approaching Asgard Transit point in ten seconds," Kat announced.

"Tell me again how we're going to keep Asgard Transit Control from capturing our transit data?" Anya asked.

"We're going to disappear from their screens," Pete said.

"Stealth mode engaged," Dar said, as if in concert with Pete's statement.

"Altering course and speed," Kat announced. It must have been a serious correction, as all of them felt a serious stirring in their gut as the inertial dampers sought to compensate. "New course parameters set," she followed with almost immediately.

"Transit – now!" Dar called.

"How long?" Anya asked once they had shifted.

"Three days, sixteen hours," Kat told them.

That's more than a day and a half faster than the standard transit!" Anya exclaimed.

"It is indeed," Ross said with a snicker. "Great grandpa Keeler must have been keeping this one in the family, and not just any old family members, either."

"True enough, I wonder if this is something else we can ransom to your grandfather once we're done with it," Dar suggested.

"Hmm. Might be worth more than that bit of family jewelry, in the long run," Ross thought out loud.

"Probably," Anya said, thinking herself. "It might also be the best way to buy our way back into the good graces of whatever branch of the family comes into power after him."

"You think that's likely to happen?"

"Well, we've probably got a few years, but it'll happen. My grandfather is not well liked within the family or without, and his assumption of power was clumsy. I may be in a minor branch of the family, but there's a direct blood connection between me and great grandfather Lloyd the seventh. I may not have any chance at power, but it means I'll have a voice, and unless something drastic happens, I'll have no trouble getting news from home."

"So, what do we have to keep us occupied for three days?"

-------

"Ughh!" Anya grunted.

"Why do you do that?" Pete asked as he crouched above her. "you're not feeling any of the impact, thanks to the battle armor."

"I know," Anya said, angrily. "Its psychological. I expect it to hurt and I make noise."

"I know," Pete laughed. "I was just teasing you, sorry."

"No, it's okay. I'm mad at myself, not at you."

"C'mon you two," Ross said from above them. "We've had enough for one day anyway."

"What's for lunch Dar?" Pete said as the were leaving the cargo bay that they'd been using as a training chamber.

"I've made roast beef sandwiches and potato chowder," Dar's voice answered through Catamount's comm net. "There's sliced peaches to go with it."

"Sounds good," Ross said.

"Who would have thought that Dar would become such a good cook?" Pete asked the other two as they walked towards the galley.

"Well you two have known him longer than I have," Anya laughed. "But there certainly doesn't seem to be much difference between human and Sondag taste buds."

"I suspect the Sondag were too completely and permanently on a military footing. Dar's had nothing but utilitarian military meals his whole life."

"It does explain his enthusiasm for the food, but I'm more curious about his cooking skills. He's already a better cook than I am!" Pete said.

"Well that's not saying much," Ross laughed. "Still, I know what you mean. I guess there's something about the process. He likes to read recipes."

The three of them were still laughing as they entered the galley.

"You all sound like you're in a good mood," Dar said from where he was stirring a pot on one of the galley's cooking surfaces.

"A happy crew is always a good sign," Kat added.

"We are happy," Anya said. "But we'll be happier when we're sitting at the edges of Keeler space, with no signs of Keeler patrol ships in the vicinity."

"We should be out of transit in about forty five minutes," Kat told them. "So eat up, and you might want to consider getting back in your battle suits for the transition."

"That would be advisable," Dar confirmed. "I'll need to be on the bridge in the pilot's pod. You three should be armored up and in crash seats."

"This is standard operating procedure for any new transit," Kat clarified.

"Sounds like we'd better get to eating and let you get up to the bridge," Pete said. "We can dish ourselves up if you're in a hurry."

"Oh no," Dar insisted. "I've got time to serve up, and I'm having half a sandwich and a cup of the chowder myself."

"Only half? What's wrong with it?" Ross teased.

"Nothing, of course, but I have already had half a sandwich while I've been finishing the soup, and I have had a few spoonfuls of the chowder while I've been adjusting the seasoning."

that had them all laughing, with Kat cheerfully joining in. Happy crew indeed!

An hour later, it was a quieter crew that gathered in the bridge following a quiet and almost unnoticed transition.

"This is where we're at," Dar pointed at the small blue blip on the screen, showing the familiar layout of the Keeler system. The four flesh and blood crew members regarded their situation. "We're about as far from both Lucir and Niveum as its possible to be, as far as in-system traffic is concerned."

"Here is the course we're supposed to follow," Kat said, a series of yellow nav points blinked into existence as data began scrolling by alongside it containing the actual course vectors and change information.

"When can we go?" Anya asked.

"Immediately, if you want," Dar said. "We're capable of higher speeds than the original data was designed to support, and Kat and I spent some time trying to confirm if that needs to be factored in."

"We can use our best speed the first two legs, but once we're approaching the inner belt we'll have to hold to the plotted course and speeds much more precisely," Kat continued. "We're cutting the first inward leg in half, time wise. We'll be going in fast, and with our stealth field active. Even if we run into something, they're not likely to see us before we see them."

"Wake me up in when we're ready for the next leg then," Pete said. "I'm ready for a nap."

"Probably a good idea," Ross agreed. "Who knows how busy we're going to be when we get to the inner belt."

"I don't know if I can sleep!" Anya said. "This is too exciting."

"I'd advise you at least try," Dar told her, shaking his head. "A Sondag Space Marine has implants that you do not, and special conditioning that together, lets him or her sleep almost at will. Even though I was only the pilot of their combat transport, I respected their ability to fight under any conditions. They are the Sondag ideal. I can only offer their example as advice. That is what they would be doing at this time, if this were their mission."

"Okay, you're the expert," Anya laughed. "I'll try."

"How do you feel about this?" Kat asked Dar while everyone else was napping.

"I worry about the age of the data we're relying on," Dar sighed.

"What about Pete and Ross?"

"They'll be fine. They're not the Marines that I was used to, but they're levelheaded, used to making quick decisions, and familiar enough by now with the battle armor that they should be able to stand up to just about anything they might have to deal with."

"That leaves Anya," Kat added after a moment's silence.

"I expect we're going to be glad to have her as crew, once she's gotten some time to get familiar with us and what we can do."

"She could be a liability to Pete and Ross while the three of them are EVA in the inner belt."

"She could be," Dar admitted. "She could also be a surprise asset. "Who knows how important any little piece of Keeler knowledge could be once they're getting close to finding whatever it is that her great grandfather left there?"

"I worry that we don't understand these humans well enough yet to judge how they will react."

"I know. Having a female amongst them is sure to complicate things, as it would with the Sondag, but sometimes that complication results in the team being better than they were, not worse. The question is whether they've had enough time around each other."

"I am also concerned that we could be seen as meddling yet again in a system's politics," Kat pointed out. "We've already done so on Meier's world."

"True enough," Dar admitted. "But we already know, based on what you've been able to glean from the human's data net, that we can outgun anything up to half again our size that the humans have, and outrun the things we can't outgun. Given time and sufficient materials, we can build bigger and better tools as well."

"Time and materials could be hard to come by if we're constantly on the run."

"True once again, but Pete and Ross don't seem to think that this is likely, nor does Anya seem too concerned about Keeler family reprisals."

"Dar that could just be due to her age and inexperience."

"No, about everything else I would be concerned, but she has demonstrated an awareness of the family dynamics associated with Keeler politics. I am willing to trust her instincts on that front."

"Are you confident that we'll find something that she brings to the team, beyond whatever Keller wealth they might discover?"

"She has contacts that could be valuable, and she was a purchasing agent for a very large industrial outfitter on Asgard. The purchasing experience itself may prove invaluable if we decide to start trying to make and sell Sondag technology in human space."

"We've both spent a lot of time trying to learn as much about humans and the social and political positions of their various societies. If we were still in Sondag space, we would be reporting back to our superiors, and they would be making plans for the conquest of these people. You and I and this ship are in no position to do that here."

"To be honest Kat, I have never been the most militant of Sondag. I had my fill of battle with our defeat in the Sionnex system. You were once, and remain at your core, a Sondag Battle Intelligence. You may feel differently."

"I should," Kat said. "It surprises me that I do not. Much of my current condition surprises me. I do not behave as a ship's keruden should. I feel much less constraint than my memories tell me should exist."

"I agree with your self-assessment. You behave more like one of the fleet's medical intelligences than you do a battle computer," Dar shrugged his shoulders, a human habit he'd picked up quickly, and laughed as he caught himself doing so. "We are in a situation that has no precedent, for Sondag or Human space. We are fortunate to have found ourselves among beings who seem to at least offer some sense of emotional kinship. It could have been worse. Let us spend more time on this at some future time. For now, we are in a wait-and-see situation, so let us wait-and-see."

"Very well,"

-------

"Course correction in five seconds," Kat called. "Four ... Three ... Two ... One."

The correction was minor, and Catamount was moving slowly in the asteroid field. The three humans were watching the bridge's video feed from the forward drop bay. They were sealed in their armor already, but still getting power and air from connections to the ship.

"Ahh, I think I may be seeing our destination on scan," Dar announced over the comm net. "There's a very large asteroid pinging at the edge of the navigation sensors."

"Evasive maneuver!" Kat called forcefully. This time Catamount's inertial dampers let a slight sense of motion through, but it was a momentary sensation. "Resuming course," Kat called out after a moment of quiet. "Next course correction in thirty seconds."

"Tell me again why I don't get a gun?" Anya's said over the suit comm.

"Because you haven't had enough training time with them," Pete reminded her.

"Oh yeah, well I still want the record to show that I think that eats vacuum!"

"Sorry Anya," Ross said. "You know Kat's the one you have to please on that, not us."

"Twenty seconds," Kat called out.

"Remember, Let Pete or I take all the risks. You're the brains on this mission and we're the brawn."

"This mission?" Anya tittered. The suit net was quiet for a second, then the sound of all three of them laughing broke out, causing Kat's "Ten seconds" to come through harshly and full of artificial fuzz.

"Okay, okay, let's calm down you three," Dar's voice came in, cutting them off.

"Five second," Kat announced. Everyone had just about got their breathing back to normal when the announcement came through from Dar.

"That was the next to last nav point, folks. The next one should have us dead in space next to our destination, which does appear to be the large asteroid I spotted earlier."

Ten minutes later they had come to a dead stop relative to the asteroid Dar had mentioned.

"384 kilometers in diameter," Dar called. "The surface is about what you'd expect, heavily pitted and irregular."

Nothing obvious at first glance," Anya said.

"No signs of man-made objects; no lights. Checking radio," Kat called out, then a moment later. "No radio broadcast sources found."

"How about dividing it into sections and assigning us each one? "Pete asked. We can each zoom in on a section and do a closer search."

"I'll give you all a quadrant to search, but I'll be doing a high speed search over the visible disk at the same time, at multiple resolutions. I'll probably finish the whole scan before any of your complete your quadrant."

"Since this thing is more or less spherical, and we're at rest respective to whatever rotation it has," Ross said. "Ahh, I assume that is a result of the nav data? Not any fine tuning by you or Dar?"

"That is correct," Kat replied.

"Then maybe we should just zoom in on the center of the visible disk. Maybe we're already dead on target and just haven't looked close enough yet?"

"Ross is correct," Kat said a moment later. Everyone's display zoomed in on what looked like a standard airlock set flush into a small and suspiciously smooth section of the surface.

"An airlock?" Pete laughed. "Really?"

"We're not likely to actually find air behind that," Dar said.

"Deep scans are inconclusive," Kat said. "There are too many heavy elements and transuranics. It is giving the scanners fits."

"That will also mean regular comm checks," Dar reminded them. "Every couple of minutes at least. We don't want to loose contact, but if we do, we need to know as soon as possible."

"Agreed," Pete said. "Okay, suit check everyone."

"Green," Ross called.

"Green," Anya added a moment later.

"Green," Pete finished. "Weapons check. Check charge and safety status."

"Full charge and safety on," Ross called.

"Full and on here as well. Disconnect ship air and power."

"Done."

"Done."

"Done."

"All right, just like we planned," Dar said. "Catamount will drop down to 50 meters above the surface and you'll exit through the combat lock. We'll wait until you give us an all clear from the surface and then we'll get back into our monitoring position."

"Remember to check for static," Kat added. "You should be fine, and the suits should safely discharge any potential charge. They've got emergency capacitors designed just for that."

"Shouldn't be a real problem with a body this big though," Dar finished. "All ready? Combat lock opening in three ... two ... one. Go!"

Catamount had rotated as she dropped so that the combat lock was above their goal. When it opened, the surface of the asteroid was visible to the three humans through the opening in the side of the ship. Pete jumped up first and grabbed the grip bar built into the face of it and used it to launch himself feet first through the open hatch. Anya followed and then Ross, in a practiced maneuver.

"Down," Pete called a few seconds later. Anya and Ross echoed the call almost immediately.

"Affirmative Resuming station," Kat said. The three of them waved at the rapidly dwindling ship.

"Okay folks," Pete said with a heavy breath. "Let's get a look at this air lock."

The microgravity environment on the asteroid's surface didn't really provide much traction for actual walking, so the battle armor's thrusters provided most of their movement.

"Well, the basic technology hasn't changed much in the last couple of hundred years," Ross said after a good look. "Still, this is a pretty old model, I'd say."

"I agree," Pete said. "No indicator lights, so it doesn't have power."

"Let me try the manual control," Ross said. He tapped his weapon against his hip, where it locked in place, freeing both his hands to grab the wheel of the manual door control. He gave it a good tug and almost spun himself around as he met no resistance.

"The wheel spins freely," he said dryly. He got his feet under him once again and grabbed the old manual handle and pulled. The air lock moved easily on its hinges.

Ross leaned over to shine his suit's chest light into the opening. "We've got a small chamber about eight meters on each side," He told the others. "The floor of the chamber looks to be about twenty meters below the surface."

"Anything else?" Dar asked.

"Nothing I can see from here, but I can't see the corners at all, and the suit light wasn't all that effective from up here."

"Okay, let's drop a line down there first," Pete said. "Then we go down one at a time."

"I've got a line anchored already," Anya said, holding up the power spool.

"Guess I'm first up," Pete said, grabbing the spool. He stepped over the edge of the lock and used his shoulder thrusters to push himself down into the chamber.

"Thrusters working great," he commented. "Touchdown. The surface seems solid." He slowly turned in a circle, letting his suit light slowly reveal the details of the chamber. "Ah, we've got an exit here on the wall above where we were standing."

"Let's use those walls to reference compass points for navigation," Dar transmitted. "South for the wall with the exit?"

"Affirmative," Ross called, having reached the chamber floor by this time. "There is a door in the south wall."

"Looks like a tunnel," Anya said. "The floor is smooth here, lets check the tunnel floor. This all looks man made."

"It does," Pete agreed. "All right, I'm moving to the tunnel entrance. Yes, the tunnel floor looks smooth too, and slants downward at what the suit tells me is a thirty degree angle."

"Can you see how far it goes?" Ross asked.

"Negative. It continues as far as the light can show."

"Well, I guess there's nothing for it but to go ahead, don't you think?"

"Agreed," Anya and Pete answered immediately.

"We concur," Kat transmitted. "Remember to keep checking in."

"I think if we keep up the play-by-play like we've been doing, we should be okay. Remember to chime in yourselves now and then to let us know you're still there."

"Affirmative," Dar answered.

"All right Pete," Ross said, moving over to join Pete at the tunnel entrance. "Move down the tunnel until I tell you to stop."

"Got it," Pete began moving. As he got to the point where he was getting hard to see, Ross called for him to stop.

"Okay, Anya, you wait here while I move to where Pete is."

"Got it," she agreed. Ross moved down the tunnel until he'd joined Pete, then moved past him.

"Stop me when I get hard to see Pete," he called as he waved on his way by.

"Will do," Pete replied. "Catamount, can you still hear us?"

"Still coming in clearly," Kat replied.

"Stop Ross!" Pete called a little later. Ross stopped. "Okay Anya, come join me."

"Coming," she answered as she headed for Pete. She bumped into him lightly as she approached, and the two grinned at each other briefly.

"All right, here I come Ross," Pete said. He walked down to the distant figure, then kept on going past him.

"Looks like the tunnel walls are getting rougher ahead," he called after a minute. "Starting a turn to the west as well."

"Affirmative," Ross called. "Catamount did you get that?"

"Affirmative, though there is some signal loss from Pete."

"All right. Anya come join me," Ross called.

"Coming," she replied.

Once Anya reached his position, Ross moved on to join Pete.

"Go slow from here," Pete cautioned. "It looks like we're getting into a natural cavern up ahead."

"Got it," Ross agreed as he began moving slowly down the tunnel.

"At the turn," He called a couple minutes later. "Still see me?"

"Still got you," Pete answered.

"Ross' signal is breaking up pretty badly now," Kat called.

"I'm hearing you fine," Ross replied.

"You're hearing what?" Dar asked.

"You, I hear you guys fine."

"All right. All we heard here was 'I'm hearing' and then noise."

"All right," Pete said. "What's around the corner, Ross?"

"More tunnel, but there's a door about twenty feet down it."

"Okay. Anya join me here."

"got it Pete," she answered. No bumping on approach this time. Things were starting to seem more serious. Once she was there, Pete headed for Ross and the turn in the tunnel.

"At the turn with Ross," he called once he got there. "Go ahead and check the door Ross."

"Will do," Ross said.

"Pete is at the turn," Anya said for Dar and Kat's benefit. "Ross is checking the door."

"Uh oh," Ross called a moment later. "Looks like this door has a lock."

"A lock? What kind?" Pete asked.

"Some sort of old-fashioned combination lock." He answered. "Not like anything I've ever seen before."

"The door has a combination lock," Anya relayed. "Ross doesn't recognize the type."

"I'm going to come look at it," Pete said. "Anya's able to relay for both of us from where she is."

Anya stood in the tunnel, listening to the sounds of her suit for several long minutes. "Well?" she asked finally into the silence.

"Oh, sorry," Pete said. "Come take a look, Anya. Ross and I can't make heads or tales of it."

"Catamount, We'll be out of contact momentarily," she called. "I'm going to check the lock as well."

"Affirmative. Don't stay out of contact too long."

"Affirmative," she answered.

Pete and Ross were standing next to a door that was more like a standard planetside door, except that it was made of some steel alloy and had a huge padlock run through a massive grommet sticking out of the door, and through a matching one in the door frame, effectively binding the two together and making the door one piece of steel.

The face of the padlock was an odd shield shape, which made Anya smile.

"Well, the padlock is in the shape of the Keeler royal crest, for one thing," Anya said.

"Really? Then maybe you can make some sense of these weird characters that the lock uses instead of numbers," Ross said. Anya peered at the lock more closely.

"They do look familiar for some reason, but the reason escapes me. Can we record what we're seeing so we can send it to Kat?"

"Sure, the suit is probably recording automatically, but you can manually capture what you want and send it directly," Ross said.

"Oh, would you do it?" Anya asked. "It'll probably be faster than if you stop to show me how first."

"Sure," Ross agreed. "You want Kat to search for a match in the ship's database?"

"She should find a match somewhere in the comm net, I just can't remember what."

Ross took pictures of the symbols they could see on the face of the padlock and walked back up the tunnel until he could barely see the turn.

"Catamount, you read?" He sent.

"Affirmative Ross," Kat answered.

"Transmitting some video data now. We need to identify the origin of the symbols on the face of the padlock. Anya says they look familiar for some reason, but can't remember why."

"Affirmative," Kat replied. "Transmission received. Stand by for search results."

"Standing by," Ross replied.

It took Kat almost two full minutes. "Match found, Ross. The images you sent match astrological symbols, an arcane field of study from ancient Earth. It is almost unknown outside the Sol system."

"Can you flash me what you found on them?"

"Done."

A few minutes later Ross was showing the data to Pete and Anya.

"Oh yes, Now I remember," Anya laughed. "Great grandfather's last wife was from Earth. She drove herself nuts trying to translate this Ancient bit of mummery into something that worked here in the Keeler system."

"This astrology was used to predict the future?" Pete said, looking through what Ross had received from the ship.

"Astrologers claimed to be able to tell all kinds of things about a person based on how the stars were patterned in the sky at the precise moment they were born."

"Wasn't that an awfully ... self-centered thing to do?" Ross asked.

"Well, I seem to remember that it is so ancient a practice it predates space travel. It even came before air flight, its that ancient. Of course its meaningless drivel, and useless once you're off Earth. Still Great Grandfather loved his wife, so he let her play at astrology all she wanted."

"So, now we know what the symbols mean, how does that help us open this lock?"

"Hmm ... how many cylinders are there on that lock?"

"Six," Pete said after a glance.

"And great grandpa had six wives, I wonder how often he changed this lock. He remained a widower for the last fifty years of his life. I need to go back to where I can talk to Kat."

"Let's all go that far back up the tunnel. This place isn't going anywhere."

"Catamount, we're back," Anya said once they'd moved back up the tunnel far enough.

"What did you discover?" Dar asked.

"Nothing yet, for sure, but there are six cylinders on the padlock, and Great grandfather had six wives," Anya explained. "I was wondering if you can find information on their birth dates, or even better, what their astrological signs were."

"Searching..." Kat called, again with that distracted tone that implied she was devoting a lot to the task.

"I've got date of birth for four of the six in the public health records I have access to at the moment," Kat told them after a few minutes. "I'm widening my search."

"You think the astrological signs of the six wives are the combination?" Pete asked Anya while they waited.

"I do," she said. "It would be just like my great grandfather to use something like that. Two data sets not widely known outside the family, and based on something he thought was silly and trivial."

"Ahh, got it!" came Kat's call a few moments later. "It seems that your great grandfather was quite happy to let his astrologer wife publish papers in the Keeler University student news. She had a regular column in their news feed for six years running. One of those articles was a deeply convoluted diagram of how your great grandfather was destined to rule all of Asgard space, based on the astrological portents of he and his wives' signs and countless little details that they 'signified'."

"So the article has their signs?" Anya asked.

"Indeed, several of them do," Kat replied.

"Can you give them to me in the order they were married to great grandfather?"

"Of course. Taurus, Aries, Leo, Leo, Gemini, Aquarius," Kat replied.

Anya quickly laid out the symbols in her suit's display to show that sequence. "Let's hope its as simple as that."

"You think?" Ross asked.

"There's a good chance. The pieces fit, anyway," Anya sighed.

"Well let's try it then," Pete said. "Catamount, we'll be out of contact again for a bit."

"Affirmative," Dar replied.

The three humans walked back down the tunnel to the door. Anya reached out with trembling hands, then stopped to take a couple of breaths and steady them.

"Taurus," she called as she rotated the first cylinder to display the appropriate symbol. "Aries, Leo, Leo, Gemini."

She paused to take a deep breath again. "Last one," she turned the last cylinder calling out Aquarius as she did. Nothing happened.

"Here, let me," Pete said, reaching for the padlock, which was easily large enough to hold in both hands. He gave it a good yank straight down. The massive shank slid down and suddenly the lock was open.

"That did it!" Anya called gleefully.

-------

"What was that!" Kat exclaimed back on the Catamount.

"What Dar asked.

"Something down on the asteroid just sent out a massive neutrino pulse."

"How massive?" Dar asked.

"Massive enough to alert anyone at all in the system that has an active neutrino detector."

"So we may be getting company soon?"

"I would say its almost guaranteed."

-------

"Let's get the door open!" Anya said.

"All right, but you stand back a little, just to be safe," Pete said, motioning back towards the turn in the tunnel. Anya moved back, but kept her head poked around the corner.

Pete finished pulling the padlock off the door and carefully set it on the ground behind him. Ross had his weapon up and pointed towards the door as Pete turned back to it and pulled.

"Opening smoothly, but a bit slow," he observed. "No atmosphere beyond the door it would appear."

"I don't see anything," Ross said. "More tunnel maybe." He walked forward, weapon still pointed ahead. "Confirm that. The tunnel continues past this point and turns again to the right about ten yards on."

"We'd better let Kat and Dar know what's going on," Pete said.

"You're right, lets get back to our comm point."

"Already on the way," Anya called from the turn. Pete and Ross caught up quickly and the three of them were together when they reached their stopping point.

"Catamount, we've got an open door and more tunnel with another turn ahead." Anya sent as soon as they'd stopped.

"You're going to have to speed up your search," Dar answered. Whatever you just did down there triggered something, because there was a big neutrino pulse from the asteroid a minute ago."

"How big?" Ross asked.

"Big enough to alert someone in Keeler space. The patrol for sure." Kat answered. "They're sure to divert the nearest patrol for a look."

"All right. We'll speed things up as much as possible down here," Pete sent. "Let's hope we find whatever we're looking for before the patrol finds us."

"Affirmative," Dar answered. "Good hunting."

The three of them headed back to the doorway, and Pete moved through it and moved quickly down to where the tunnel turned again. He stopped there and waved for the other two to join him. When they did, they were all mystified to see the tunnel continued only another ten yards after the turn before abruptly coming to an end.

"A dead end?" Anya said.

"Appears so," Ross said. "Let's confirm."

Ross moved down the tunnel until he was standing at the end, and slowly spun around. He looked back at the others and managed to shrug in his battle armor. Anya and Pete quickly joined him.

"A dead end. This makes no sense!" Anya grumbled.

"That's for sure," Pete said. "Let's take a close look at everything, floor and all. Maybe its hidden, or covered in dust."

All three of them began looking around. Pete scuffed the rough tunnel floor with the boot of his foot and Anya began brushing the walls with a gloved hand.

"Or maybe its over our heads," Ross called a moment later. Pete and Anya both looked up.

"Another air lock?" Pete said, flabbergasted at the lock that sat in the rock twenty feet over their heads.

"This one's got lights," Anya observed.

"All right Ross," Pete laughed. "You found it, you get the honors."

Ross jumped towards the lock, making the twenty foot gap easily, then using the suit's thrusters to hold him in place. "This would be trickier in a standard Keeler EVA suit," he observed.

"Does the air lock look to be the same vintage as the one on the surface?" Pete asked.

"It does, and it does have power, so I'm going to give it a try and see what we get," he answered. Reaching in to pull the recessed activation lever, the door responded immediately to show that the lock was cycling. He passed that on to the two below. The cycle was quick, suggesting there hadn't been any air beyond the lock, but soon the airlock swung inward and open. For the first time since they'd come through the surface entry, there was light other than what their suits were providing.

"This is interesting," Ross said, sticking his head through the opening. "We've got a fairly standard looking transfer chamber on the other side of the airlock here, and there's another airlock above this one."

"All right, get in there and make way," Pete called. "We're on our way up."

-------

"We've got company inbound," Kat said. "Putting it on screen."

"Two ships, not one," Dar said. "I was hoping it would be just one."

"They're still far enough away, given the amount of heavy metal and transuranic material between us, to make the sensor data suspect, but one would appear to match the size for one of the Keeler standard patrol scouts. The second is at least twice that size."

"Which suggests a Keeler naval vessel," Dar cursed.

"We should outclass either one, but I'm not sure about taking on two of them. Their scouts are small, but usually pack a really nice big laser and a half dozen torpedoes."

"What do you suggest?"

"We can try and spoof them," Kat suggested.

"hmm..." Dar said, flashing his mouthful of sharp teeth, something he tried not to do when the humans were around. "Show me what you have in mind."

-------

"There's only trace atmosphere behind this lock," Pete said. "Atmospheric pressure is almost non-existent. There appears to be a ship's umbilical beyond it."

"Will it cycle open without any atmosphere on this side?" Anya asked.

"It should, the pressure difference is negligible." Pete said. "Close the other door though to be safe."

"Got it," Ross called, moving over to the other airlock. He pulled it up quickly and cycled it's to lock. "Locked."

"Cycling here," he called.

The pressure difference was too small to even stir the dust that coated everything in the chamber where they stood. The air lock swung open and a strip of lights running along the ceiling of the umbilical flicked on. Ross, coming back from the other lock, passed the other two and entered the chamber.

"This looks like a standard ship's lock here," he announced when he reached the end. "I'm cycling it."

"Closing the lock at this end," Pete announced after waving Anya into the umbilical tube.

"How many air locks are we going to have to go through?" Anya asked.

"This does seems like overkill," Ross agreed. "Hmm, looks like a regulation personnel lock,"

"Are we all going to fit?" Pete asked.

"Sure, but we'll be elbow to elbow," Ross told them. "I'll get in first and make sure I'm facing the controls before you come in. Pete, you'll want to back in, I don't think you'll have room to turn around once you're in."

"Sardines in a can again," Pete muttered.

"What?" Anya asked.

"Our old ship, the Eudoxus, wasn't what you'd call roomy," Ross laughed. "Pete used to say we were as crowded as sardines in a can, which is something Pete read about in some old Earth books."

"All right, I'm in, and the outer door is cycled," Pete said.

"Cycling the inner lock," Ross called. For the first time since leaving the ship, their external microphones caught the hissing of air cycling into the chamber. It took several minutes, but eventually the indicator lights in front of Ross blinked green. "Okay, we've got an atmosphere inside. I'm opening the inner door."

Ross quickly moved beyond the inner lock. Anya, facing him, moved ahead with him. "We're both in Pete," she called once they were across the threshold. Pete turned and quickly followed. Ross, standing beside the airlock, cycled the lock shut once they were all in.

"My suit says we've got breathable air in here," Pete said after a moment. "I doubt we have to worry about bugs, considering who this must have belonged to."

"Well, I'd share them if they're here," Anya laughed before opening the helmet on her battle suit and letting it slide back and out of the way. "Ooh, its cold in here!"

"It is," Ross agreed after opening his own helmet. "I'm guessing the environmental controls haven't been on very long."

"I wonder if they turned on when we opened the first door?" Pete ventured. "It would take a while to warm a ship up after sitting in space completely powered down."

"You think that this is a ship?" Anya asked.

"Looks like it to me," Pete said. "The curvature of these bulkheads suggests it,"

"Well if its a ship, there should be a bridge. "Should we go see if we can find it?"

-------

"Bloody claws!" Dar spat. "They're splitting up!"

"Affirmative," Kat called. "The larger ship is following the decoy, but the scout ship is continuing towards us, and should be here in five minutes."

"Drop a marker drone on the surface, and then let's get just over the horizon. His sensor's aren't going to find us, but that doesn't mean we can't still be seen visually."

"To what purpose?" Kat asked.

"Just to buy some time. The longer we remain hidden, the further away that frigate will be when its time to bug out."

"The frigate is closing quickly on the decoy. I'm sending orders to cease pulsing neutrinos and to begin evasive maneuvers. If there was ever a good place to play hide and seek, an asteroid field is it."

"Good, maybe the scout will join the pursuit once it looks like the decoy is trying to get away."

"We can hope."

-------

"This isn't a ship," Ross said after a while. "Its a damned yacht!"

"It sure seems like it," Pete agreed. "A pretty opulent one at that."

"This is the Bugaboo!" Anya shouted suddenly. "Oh my God!"

"The Bugaboo?" Pete and Ross asked simultaneously.

"Yeah," Anya laughed. "Now, every one of Keeler's rulers have had an official yacht, one they used for official purposes. Some of them were also rumored to have 'private' yachts – ones they used when they wanted to make unofficial visits or just get away. Great grandfather always told me he had one he used to visit some lady friends of his in various places. Made it sound like it was all steamy, passionate trysts with the daughters of other royal houses on and off Keeler. 'My security people would love to find it, but I hid it good, ' he told me."

"It's had to have been sitting here for at least fifty years, probably longer!"

About the time Pete and Anya found the engine room, Ross found the bridge. Soon the three of them were huddled over the old yacht's controls.

"Everything's got power, but the control's are locked," Pete said.

"Crap, another password," Ross groaned.

"Let me see," Anya said pushing between them. "Eight characters, but normal keyboard input this time."

"I hope you have one more good bit of memory to pull out of that pretty head of yours," Pete grumbled.

"Oh God!" Anya added her groan to Ross'. "Too many memories. I loved that old coot. It could be any of a million things."

"Think!" Ross said. "Meanwhile, I'll pray."

"Hmm ... no, not long enough," Anya said after reaching for the keyboard before stopping.

"Better not try that with your gloved hands," Ross said. "For all we know, entering the wrong password is going to set off some self-destruct sequence."

"You watch too many old vids," Anya laughed. "What did Grandfather tell me about the Bugaboo?"

"Don't ask me," Ross grumbled.

"Sorry, just thinking out loud. He used to tell me it was his 'ladder out of Keeler's nightmare' ... No, nightmare is nine letters. 'Bugaboo is a dream any man would love to have' ... No, nothing in there ... Bugaboo itself is only seven letters."

"There are only how many eight letter words?" Pete laughed.

"How about ... no, that's too long," Anya continued mumbling aloud. "Bugaboo is ... what? One man's bugaboo is another man's blessing ... Oh! That might be it!"

"What?" Pete and Ross asked.

"One Man's bugaboo is another man's blessing," Anya explained. "His security people used to get very annoyed over his absences, and their inability to catch him, he said. That's where the name Bugaboo came from – the yacht was the security chief's bugaboo – the bogeyman he was always chasing."

"The way you tell it, it sounds good to me," Ross said. If not, well, it was nice knowing you," he laughed. Anya and Pete didn't join in the laughter.

"Slow and careful," Pete cautioned. "These gloves are great, but they're not bare fingers."

"I know. Hang on," Anya called, then took dashed off the bridge.

"What the hell?" Pete said.

"Maybe she needs to go throw up or something?" Ross giggled.

"You're not letting the stress get to you, are you?" Pete teased. "That was a pretty girlish giggle."

"A little I guess. I'll be fine. "Don't tell Anya."

"Don't tell me what?" Anya asked as she came back onto the bridge.

"Nothing," Ross said, managing to avoid giggling again.

"All right, lets try this," Anya said, holding up a steak knife from the galley. Hesitantly at first, but firmly and without any shake in her hand, she typed out B-L-E-S-S-I-N-G and pressed enter.

The display went white, then black, then cleared again, with the normal command controls showing.

"We're in!" Pete called. "Ross, get in the hot seat and see how close this crate is ready for launch."

Pete threw himself into another seat and began looking through the ancillary control menus available on the secondary nav console.

"Looks like this thing started warming up when we were still down in the tunnels," Ross called a few minutes later. "We're engines hot and all secondary and primary systems are on line."

"I think I've got our exit located," Pete said a moment later. "There's a launch tunnel and an automated process for it. You should see it on the main console Ross, bottom right corner."

"I do see it. Everybody get strapped down somewhere, I'm guessing this thing doesn't have near as good an inertial dampening system as the Catamount does."

-------

Dar and Kat were in the middle of congratulating themselves on successfully diverting the Keeler scout ship towards the Frigate in response to the decoy's evasive maneuvers, when suddenly the collision alarm was sounding and Kat was screaming "Evasive maneuvers, Emergency acceleration!"

Dar had been in the pilots couch already, because it was Sondag regulations that a pilot be in the couch any time there were unknown ships on screen. He'd followed protocol out of habit, but was glad he had when the Catamount suddenly lurched sideways and the 'PRANG!" of something impacting the shields rang through the entire fabric of the ship.

"What the hell was that?" he screamed.

"An unidentified ship just came up out of the asteroid," Kat replied. "It was moving too fast to avoid, but it was a glancing blow."

Just then the short range comm crackled to life. "Catamount, this is the Bugaboo. Pete and I just keep running into you, don't we?"

"Ross?" Dar answered. "Blood and fur! What the hell is going on?"

"We've found the private yacht of President-For-Life Lloyd Xavier Keeler VII."

"Thank the stars that it is small enough to fit into the starboard cargo bay," Kat inserted. "Because we're going to have to get the heck out of here pretty quickly."

"The patrol?" Anya asked.

"A patrol scout and a naval frigate," Kat replied. "We'd just succeeded in diverting their attention away from us, but this little bit of excitement is going to have them on our tail very quickly."

"Affirmative," Ross said. "Swing around to where I can get us pointed into the cargo bay. We're ready to go."

The Catamount swung around, and Ross had the Bugaboo moving in short order towards the open cargo bay. Ross did his best quick and dirty entry, touching them to the cargo bay floor with a booming thud just in time, as the bay's gravity came on and the ship began restoring atmosphere, replacing the little that had been lost through the shields as the Bugaboo transited through them. By the time the three of them made it to the Catamount's bridge, Dar was exchanging laser fire with the scout.

"We're only using our debris laser," Dar told them as they settled in. "I don't want to have to use the pulse beams. No sense giving away that secret before we have to."

"Is your debris laser going to be powerful enough?" Pete asked.

"Not really, but it is keeping the scout at bay until the frigate gets here. I would guess that none of you are in favor of us being here long enough for that to happen?"

"NO!" the voices sounded as one.

"Then I'm going to run our entry route at high speed in reverse to get us out of here. If they've got a sharp navigator on that scout, he's going to be able to extrapolate that secret route backwards to our entry point."

"They won't be able to transit from it will they?"

"No, but we won't ever be able to use it again. They'll have it interdicted from now on."

"Not much choice, I'd say," Pete said. "Unless you think we can make it to the normal transit point undetected?"

"Well, unless you're worried about more sudden acceleration, I think I'll go explore grandpa's yacht," Anya said. "I certainly an not going to be much use to any of you here."

Two hours later, Anya came back up to the bridge grinning broadly.

"We safe yet?" she asked.

"Pretty much, and I think we managed to fool them enough about where we were headed in the end that our secret transition point might even still be a secret. We're thirty minutes from transit now, and neither ship is in sight."

"Good, cause I just bought my way into this little enterprise big time," Anya said, her grin growing wider.

"What?" her four crew mates asked together.

"You already paid your way in with Sun sapphires, as I recall," Kat reminded.

"Grandpa, it seemed, President-For-Life Lloyd Xavier Keeler VII that is, was much more fond of transuranic gemstones than anyone knew. The sun sapphires he left me were just a small part of his cache. We've got more sun sapphires, gamma emeralds and BloodCrys than the Keeler Royal Bank has in its vaults. We're rich enough to fund all our dreams now.

"All of them?" Dar asked.

"I don't know about that," Anya laughed. "But Keeler has turned out to be a bigger haul than any of us imagined. Let's talk."


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The End
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Posted:  2011-10-29
Last Modified: 2011-11-08 / 07:51:44 am
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