FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

This Story Series Features groups of various kinds, MFM, FFM, MM, FF Sex, and Intense BDSM themes at times, but if you are looking for wall-to-wall sex, look elsewhere, you have to get through a lot of story to get to your sex. ;)

As always, if you are not of legal age to read adult stories, well, don't read this one. All characters here that resemble my friends, and others, are used with permission.

I have decided to post the entire incomplete story so far, with the hopes that this will get me motivated to go the rest of the way with the story. This is RAW, barely edited storyline, so please forgive the obvious mistakes.

The story continues! No sex in this chapter, some violence, some action, a few explanations, and a few more mysteries and questions. Things seem to be coming to a head, at least with our erstwhile captain and the continued mysterious plots of the human government. I do hope you are all enjoying the story so far, things are rapidly approaching novel length, for my first time ever.

If anyone wishes to work with me on this, I would welcome the help!

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Chapter 7

"Your cousin is going to be decidedly unhappy."

Loftwyn commented in a rather blasé manner from Dalarin's shoulder as the two of them looked at the view of a small metallic item floating in orbit around the moon of an inhabited planet several light-years from any inhabited systems. The viewscreen showed the buoy like item from several different angles, in different spectrums. They recorded other things too, but Dalarin did not choose to have them on his personal view, his medics and scientists would be more interested in those readings then he would, he just was here as ship's captain and observer.

The _Driving Blow_orbited the planet beneath the moon, keeping the mass of the celestial body between the ship and the metallic pod. While highly sensitive drones took up parking stations around the object. Anticipation filled the bridge as a virtual flock of scientists and doctors filled their own personal viewers and pads with their particular information streams.

"I know she will, but what choice did we have? Once the other families in the council discovered what we had, there was going to be little else that could happen."

Dalarin brushed his fingertips over the rings in his ear, and then brushed them down over the hilt of a dagger slipped into his belt sheath, a mirror to one he'd seen across space not more than a week ago.

"We were making no progress, and they weren't going to accept the word of my cousin as a reason not to plug one of the sleepers in." He snorted, "her words and reports mean very little to others, and she's angered enough of them that they would tend to do the opposite to anything she said just out of spite."

Loftwyn nodded slightly, "Oh, I know all of the justifications sir, it's just the first time I've seen you...agree to the council's demands so easily. You wouldn't partially agree with them would you?"

Dalarin smirked and glanced back at his second, "I don't have the slightest idea what you might mean, second. My relationship with the council may not be as strained as my cousin's, but I have no love for their tendency to take over as if they actually understood what it's like outside their chambers." He snorted as he turned back to the screen, "but this was going to have to happen regardless. Lilanthe has gone missing, not that I expect she won't resurface eventually, but that means we have to discover what we can."

A crewmember approached and saluted, interrupting Dalarin's commentary. After acknowledgement by the captain, he held offered a data pad,

"Captain, all stations report at ready for the experiment, we can initiate the connection on your order."

Dalarin nodded as he took the pad and set it on his console,

"They have leave to start the experiment."

As the crewmember snapped another salute and turned away Dalarin brought up a screen he'd avoided until now. This one showed a feed from inside the pod. There lay one of his kind curled into a fetal position, kept asleep by hibernation drugs and machines. Given the nature of the experiment, Dalarin made the call to use one of the sleepers from their people...if he was going to be responsible for the possible death of a being, it only seemed right to choose one that may have ended up serving their people, if they weren't in this circumstance now.

After a few second's delay from sending the light-speed command to the pod, on his screen he watched a small junction actuator with neural jack plugs whirr into place, until it plugged into the back of the male's neck. Dalarin winced slightly as he could almost imagine the feeling of those jacks fitting into place, but he did his best to watch the results.

"We're picking up a power drain captain...something is definitely happening."

Dalarin saw the subject twitch, just slightly, and the lights inside the pod fluctuated.

"The power drain is more intense than we thought captain, the capacitors are not able to handle the draw...an what is that?!?"

Dalarin squinted, at first it looked a little like the video distorted, but no...the image started _twisting_as the area around the sleeper changed shape before his eyes.

At the same time, alarms went off all the way across his board,

"Pilot, what's going on? We're getting alerts here!"

He hadn't even realized his hand slapped down on the comms, though his eyes stayed glued to the display as the metal and flesh inside the pod twisted, distorted and elongated towards a center-point right above the sleeper's head. He had just enough time to see something, a point of some kind, something that had a color his brain could barely process, before the cameras in the pod suddenly cut out.

"Soooo dark...so much chaos...it's bleeding, the dream is bleeding..." The pilot's voice came through the ships' speakers, all of them, along with an elongated note.

At first, Dalarin thought it was distortion, but then he realized, that was the pilot wailing and the ship interpreting it the only way it could.

Dalarin snapped forward and yelled out over the bridge console,

"Cut it! Cut the power right now!"

"W..we can't captain....we're getting readings, what the hell....this is..."

Dalarin looked up. The sensors outside the pod showed that same growing distortion. It looked like the light warped inwards like a gravity lens, but it expanded, quickly. Starlight twisted and sheared inwards towards a growing circle of something else.

Dalarin cursed as he looked at the growing circle, no matter which camera saw it, it always looked like something flat...something two-dimensional.

"Pilot, get us out of here! Pilot!" He shouted, but when the sound continued through the speaker, Dalarin turned towards Loftwyn.

"Get him disconnected, now! We need to get some distance from whatever that is and we can't regain control while he's still hooked up."

Loftwyn nodded and ran from the bridge at a full sprint, while Dalarin turned back towards the screens.

"Captain...these readings, they're amazing..." an almost awed voice came from below,

The disc continued expanding; as Dalarin watched, one after the next of the sensor drones received images of the warping of space, the disc approaching them, and then they cut.

Dalarin grit his teeth as the last of the sensor drones went out,

"Sensors, what are we picking up? Put it on the display now."

"Y...yes captain," a note of panic crept into the crewmember's voice as he brought up the ship's standard bank of light-speed sensors and tried to focus them as best they could.

From the backside of the planetary body, things looked peaceful, for a minute, two, before Dalarin thought he could pick up just a little....

"There! There!" Someone shouted out and pointed out to the planet's horizon.

Dalarin saw it then, the growing distortion, the light of the system's star flexing around a growing area of wrongness. At the same time, he noticed massive cracks rippling across the surface of the moon.

It looked a little like the surface of a mala fruit if squeezed too hard from one side, cracks webbed outwards, split, grew.

"I...is that..."

"The moon, it's breaking up," Dalarin said through gritted teeth, "if we don't get out of here...soon."

At that moment the speakers crackled and the monotone note cut, replaced by Loftwyn's voice, "I got him captain, he's out...we've got flight control again!"

"Flight, full engines, slow us down, let it get as far ahead in its orbital path as we can!"

Dalarin watched the moon crack and twist, around the horizon he could see a colored bulge appear, a two-dimensional disc that just looked wrong in his gaze.

"We don't know if that thing will kill us, but if we're underneath that moon when it breaks up, the debris will definitely get us, get this ship slowed down!" He barked out, and then looked over to the pack of scientists, though they had scared looks, most of them stayed glued to their displays as more and more information streamed into the computers from even their limited shipboard sensors.

"When does this stop?"

"W..we don't know sir," one of them started, "your cousin said the event stopped when the umm, subject lost contact with ship's power...we can only hope this ends when the power runs out."

"What kind of power source did we leave on that thing!?"

"An ummm...compliment of 3 carbon crystal batteries...S..sir."

Dalarin cursed and looked back to the viewscreen, where the area of distortion and the disc continued growing. The edge of the disc was visible now, compared to the size of the planet it was not huge, perhaps it was visible over 1/10th of the horizon, but that meant that most of the distortion remained behind the moon's curve.

Dalarin felt the ship shiver then, and he felt the pressure as the engines engaged and used all of their energy in deceleration, the inertia strong enough to partially overcome their artificial gravity.

The moon itself seemed to twist inwards towards the disc to him. Dalarin could only imagine the kinds of tidal forces inflicted on the moon as the space of part of it twisted and distorted, while the rest remained 'normal'.

As the ship decelerated, they edged around the horizon of the moon as it got 'ahead' of them in its orbit and more of the distortion, and more of the disc became visible.

He found that as large as it was, he could barely look at it, the color struck his mind as 'wrong', like his brain rejected comprehension of its very existence, but translated it as a dark, smoky red with black twisting and winding its way through it in almost living patterns.

He found he grabbed the edge of his console, his fingers clenched until they hurt as the ship thrust and the moon got further ahead.

"Come on...come on," he muttered as he watched.

Then, suddenly, it stopped.

One moment the disc was there, and the space around it distorted like a spiral funnel twisting into a drain, then the next...nothing. No collapse, no folding, nothing to show it 'decreased' in size.

The moon shattered, the stress too much as its core split and the entire thing broke apart.

"Brace yourselves!" Came the almost unconscious cry from Dalarin's lips.

Though it was not visible like a wave, Dalarin felt something hit the Driving Blow. Gravity seemed like it flickered for a moment. The laws of gravity just didn't apply in the 'right' ways, and their ship's artificial gravity generators didn't know how to deal with it. The entire ship lurched forward, and Dalarin felt himself slam forward into the console. His head hit something hard, and he pitched back to the deck.

*

The medic lightly dabbed the cut along Dalarin's forehead, and then applied a regeneration stimulating cream and bandage,

"Looked worse than it is, though you seem to be making a habit of leading with your head captain."

Dalarin tried to look surly, but the medic generally looked unimpressed as he handed the captain a couple of pills.

"That's going to ache like hell in a few hours. Take those a bit before you get ready to sleep."

Dalarin nodded and took the pills and stowed them in his suit before he responded,

"What kind of other casualties?"

"Oh, you were the only one who decided to bleed all over the console, otherwise it was all just bumps and bruises from that jolt."

Dalarin swore the medic looked almost...cheerful; he considered dumping him out the airlock, and then figured the paperwork would probably not be worth it.

"All right, carry on."

The medic nodded and headed off the bridge, while Dalarin took stock. Despite the sudden jolt, it looked like most systems came through without an issue, though a few of the artificial gravity generators did not compensate well and blew out, which left part of the ship in partial or zero-g. Dalarin sighed and looked up to the view screen, where the rapidly spreading debris of the moon spread out as it started filling the orbital path of its previously whole planetary body.

Loftwyn tapped a few controls and gave a mutter,

"What is it second?"

"Sir, I recommend we move to an orbit at least six degrees north of our current trajectory. Some of those rocks are going to end up in our orbit before they burn up...while the rest, well, this planet is going to have a very interesting ring around it when those chunks figure out their paths."

Dalarin nodded and sank down into his seat while he looked at the projected paths from some of the larger pieces of the broken up moon.

"Do it," he ordered, then looked up as Loftwyn started putting in the commands for the trajectory change himself, "is our pilot still out of commission?"

Loftwyn nodded, but didn't turn, "As soon as...whatever that was closed, he went unconscious. He's not waking up; the medics think he might be in a coma."

"Have you contacted the central fleet?"

"Yes sir, they are sending out another pilot, but it's going to be a while, they're not opening any gaps in our transit denial area, so they have to get a ship outside...or so they say."

Dalarin sighed, "Trying to punish me, I suppose, or just showing me I'm not as important as I think I am," he smirked.

His head ached, despite the analgesic qualities of the regeneration gel, and Dalarin leaned back into his seat as he contemplated what he saw,

"So...it seems my cousin might not have been exaggerating her initial story, she might have even underestimated the...effect. Do we have any idea what that might have been, by the way?"

A cleared throat from one of the scientists at the side of the station caught his attention and he nodded to get the woman to approach. He idly noted her name "Tel'nith" on her duty patch as she approached.

"I might have an educated guess at that captain," she said as she approached.

He nodded again and gestured her forward, "please express them, I need to know what that was."

She glanced back at the other scientists, several of whom were giving her rather nasty looks. Dalarin noted that, but then straightened up when she turned back,

"Sir...what I think we were looking at was a connection, of sorts."

Dalarin tilted his head to the side, "What sort of connection?"

"I think what we saw was an interface between Dreamspace and Realspace."

"I thought that was impossible, pilots transition from one to the other directly, they don't make portals, or doors, or whatever."

"Yes sir, normally you are correct...but in this case, I think that's exactly what we saw. It might...explain the distortion effect, and what we saw after."

"Go on," Dalarin ordered, his face darkened a bit as he listened,

"Before all the really sensitive equipment went out we were detecting intense amounts of radiation along all bands, and all sorts of exotic particles we've never seen before. We'll probably spend cycles just trying to figure out all these readings, but they could be what happens when two dimensions with completely different laws of physics...well...touch, in a way."

Dalarin shook his head, immediately regretted it, and put a hand to his head, "Wouldn't something like that kill the Dreamer pretty quickly, how did it get so big?"

"That we can only speculate...Dreamers innately can shield themselves when they go to the other dimension, with enough power, they can shield ships, or sometimes even whole planets. Maybe it happens in this case too? The ummm, subject shielded himself either instinctively, or under control of that neural circuitry, at least until the power ran out?"

"So you're saying he might still be alive? Either up there," he gestured to the growing debris field, " or someplace drifting in the other dimension?"

She shook her head, "I sincerely doubt that, the amount of energy released during the reaction we read when the umm, event closed would have easily destroyed anything at the epicenter." She tapped her lips lightly,

"What aren't you saying, and why are the others there giving you killing looks, when they think I don't see them?"

She blushed just a touch, "because they ummm, they don't agree with me Captain. They don't think anyone would have a use for something like that,"

Dalarin frowned, "Couldn't you use that as a way to get to Dreamspace? Without a pilot?"

She shook her head, "No, there was much too much radiation and energy discharge, not to mention that umm, spacial distortion. Anything travelling through would probably break apart just like that," she gestured to the view screen.

Dalarin's look turned darker and he nodded, before he shared a look with Loftwyn, who nodded slightly in non-verbal agreement, he could see where Dalarin's line of thought turned.

"I mean, they could have other uses, or other technologies to channel or control the reaction, but why would anyone want a pilot that burns itself out, drains all the power from anything you plug into it, and destroys itself after a single use?"

"Because," Dalarin started slowly, "they are not pilots."

"What are they then," Tel'Nith asked with an honestly perplexed look on her face.

Dalarin looked up to the view screen, "they're warheads."

Loftwyn nodded, "And your cousin has one, potentially armed and ready to go as soon as she gets a power source, living on her ship."

*

Samantha's teeth worried her lower lip as she watched another ship pass within just a few kilometers of the ship. With the view screen it looked like they were right there, and in spacial terms, they really were. Any combat at this distance would be in real time, according to N'Tanya, and it would likely be fast, bloody, and given the types of ships that patrolled the system, would probably not go well for the Starlight Dreamer.

They were in the shadow of a crater in one of the largest asteroids in a system as far as she could tell was in the middle of nowhere. N'Tanya assured her though that this was the system she was able to track the shipments of both cold sleep containers, and weapons to after their encounter with the weapon's dealer.

Kagami had brought them in at the very edge of the system. They took a few readings of the relatively cluttered system. If you didn't know what you were looking for, the 12 planets, 3 asteroid belts, and multiple moons looked like they were completely ignored in the grand scheme of things. They did know what they were looking for though; which is why they were able to find the signals of what seemed to be some kind of dock around the fourth planet's second moon. Light speed was sluggish to get all the way out to the edges of the system, but grainy, enhanced sensor readings revealed some kind of massive framework floating in space next to a station of some kind.

N'Tanya ordered the pilot to take them in closer, and before Sam could even ask what N'Tanya meant by that, Kagami had blipped them into Dreamspace and back out again with barely any gap in awareness. The jump was so quick that Samantha ended up with a weird queasy feeling in her stomach as it twisted at the weird sensation.

Kagami had neatly landed them in the middle of the asteroid field closest to the space dock, and then immediately had fired their engines just enough to get them into this hidden station keeping position.

"Unless these people are amateurs, or idiots, they will have these belts covered with sensor buoys, and there's no way they will have missed our entrance. Now, many ships will take 'rest breaks' in a system, not even bother to look around, and jump on. So we have to convince them that there's nothing here," N'Tanya had explained, "which means waiting...a lot of waiting, while they send out ships to snoop around."

It sounded easy enough, but what N'Tanya hadn't explained is that they had to stay on high alert the entire time they were camped out in the belt. They also had to turn off almost all ship systems to lower their energy signal to a point the asteroid shielded them.

Samantha was slowly getting used to living in a ship with no gravity, few lights, and an eternal slight chill from the dialed back environmental systems.

Then the patrols came around. She recognized the ships; they looked like the ones that ambushed the Dreamer and N'Tanya's cousin's ship. They passed through the belt, and as they did they sent out active sensor sweeps as they passed by the Dreamer's hiding spot. Each time Samantha swore she felt a sinking at the bottom of her stomach, the enemy would catch them, and she would not be able to do anything if one of the ships opened fire.

But, the first...and the second...and the third ship passed by without even a niggle that they picked up the Dreamer. This was the fourth pass, and Samantha could sense the almost palpable boredom on the bridge crew.

"Come on, nothing to find out here, go join your buddies back home...no pretty little pirate ship sitting in a crater," Nasir commented from the sensor panel.

N'Tanya smirked and kicked back in her seat, "Now now, they have to claim they did due diligence, even if I bet they are as bored as we are."

"Maybe, but I doubt they're as cold," he grumbled as he continued watching the readouts.

"The kind of heat they could bring down on us would warm you up quite quickly, if you want to let them know we're here," N'Tanya said in a deceptively sweet tone of voice.

He looked back, and one glance at her expression had him swallow whatever he was going to say next, "ummm, no, I don't think that's quite what I want," he replied with a slightly sheepish look.

Samantha hid her smile behind her hand as she continued watching the monitor. The dark shape of the massive ship drafted past without anything lighting it, so only the local sunlight gave it any kind of illumination. Samantha had no idea how a ship should look, but she was fairly sure that these ships looked like nothing the one the Earth government allowed out in the galactic community. It had a distinctly 'fish head' front look, stretched long from top to bottom like a half moon. A long center column extended from the center of the flattened back of the half-moon structure; the shaft surrounded by a series of rotating sections. The back flared outwards into massive engines, though Samantha had no idea what could potentially fuel and propel the ship.

"Why do they have the rotating sections?" Samantha asked as she pointed them out as the ship flew by.

"Humans haven't perfected artificial gravity," N'Tanya replied without turning from the display.

Dunner nodded from the side. Strictly speaking, he should have been in engineering, but most of the crew that had an excuse to be on the bridge during the flybys found some reason to be there. He rumbled slightly,

"They must not be able to generate enough power for all their systems and artificial gravity. I would bet a few sections have it, but for non-essential areas, like crew quarters I bet, they can rely on using centripetal force and spin to simulate it...at least kind of."

Samantha nodded as the ship continued on its path, "I don't see any weapons, and why aren't they using their engines?"

Rakarra answered that one with a shrug, "Most weapons don't really need anything sticking out anymore to launch. They'd open weapon ports when just about to fire, why expose them otherwise? As to their engines, I bet they set up their trajectory through the field, burned hard at the start of their arc, and are now just using a nice long loop to look around. Smart...it means they don't have to worry about their engines possibly blocking any sensor readings, or someone using their 'wash' as a way to sneak in. I bet this captain is a little more experienced than the others we encountered."

N'Tanya smirked again, "Because we have so much experience in that regard to go on," she idly tapped a narrow dagger on the edge of her chair.

Samantha couldn't help but wonder what it meant, she'd carried it around almost non-stop of late. The tapping was the only sign of her impatience though; otherwise, she watched quietly and only responded when someone made a comment directed to her.

Samantha wondered if her eyes ever left the sight of the ship on the display, it certainly didn't look like it until the other ship passed over the asteroid's horizon and out of sensor view.

"All right, that's it," N'Tanya looked over to Nasir "keep an eye out for passive sensor drones, though if this one is like the others, they won't have left any. They think they're alone here." She turned and spoke to Dunner next, "Bring everything back up, slowly, but get ready to move fast when the time is right, you all know what happens next."

N'Tanya turned back to Samantha, "As for you, are you sure you're making the right choice?"

Samantha nodded and took a deep breath, "Yes...I want to go with you again."

"This isn't exactly like back on the weapons' platform. This works based on us moving fast, if you start falling back you might end up left behind and caught."

Samantha tilted her head to the side, "You're going to try and rescue them, right? I...I think I need to go."

N'Tanya nodded, "We're going to try and retrieve as many as we can, yes...but we're here to sabotage whatever they are doing. That means hopefully taking down that station and getting proof of what is going on here so my cousin and my people might get off their asses and do something about it."

Samantha nodded again, "Then I definitely need to go."

N'Tanya nodded again, "All right, your choice," she nodded to Rakarra, Dunner, and Nasir, "You three know what to do."

They looked to N'Tanya, and Rakarra coughed a growling cough, "We do...but captain, are you sure you won't reconsider going?"

N'Tanya just looked at him, her gaze steady, until he shifted a little bit, "I...I guess not," he continued in a low voice, before he turned back to his console.

*

One again Samantha found herself in a suit of tight-fitting body armor, though this set was much better fit then her last. This one gripped her like a comfortable glove, slightly tight, but in no way restricting. It also came with a full helmet. She settled the helmet into place and hit the touch commands on her forearm. A small hud came up, on it was a group of dots around her, the other dozen or so crew picked, or whom volunteered for this particular raid. A couple of taps changed the dots to green, before Samantha looked up to see N'Tanya across from her.

"Settled in then?"

"U...umm, yes." Samantha replied, and then blushed as she heard the various chuckles and sounds of amusement from the others. She didn't know most of them, but N'Tanya named them as the most efficient, ruthless, and dependable of her crew. They often went in first when N'Tanya well...acted like a pirate.

Samantha looked over to N'Tanya. Most of the crew had armor like hers; form fitting, highly ablative, with smart systems to handle most weapons-fire with a minimum of movement restriction. N'Tanya's armor was different though; the Captain's suit had a sleeker, more stylized aspect to it, even though it was technically bigger, because it was a full suit of power-assisted armor. Somehow, it still managed to look painted on though, even to the point that she could see it shift as the captain breathed. N'Tanya told her Samantha's suit was good for up to 3 minutes in space, but N'Tanya's suit could last as long as the power did.

"Good...now I still don't entirely trust you with a firearm, so keep it simple. You have your baton and a plasma pistol, try to keep the opening end away from us, if you could?"

Samantha sighed, "I wasn't that bad in the range."

"I've seen blind _porax_fire better," sounded a voice from down the line, followed by another round of laugher.

"Harath there isn't that far off," N'Tanya said in a sardonic tone, which provoked another blush from Samantha, "So just work on keeping your head down and stick with th...."

N'Tanya's voice cut as the comm override from the ship cut in over her suit's mic,

"Captain," Rakarra's voice sounded over her helmet, "trajectory is clear, none of those ships should have a firing solution on you from here to the station, get ready to launch in ten."

N'Tanya looked over to Samantha, "Get ready...and don't forget to breathe as we taught you, your suit is going to protect you from some of the force, but it's going to be bad."

Samantha nodded, "Yes captain," she replied, breathing deeply a she waited,

"Launch in 3...2...1...and launch."

*

One of the Dreamer's refits turned one entire side of the replaceable sections into a massive slingshot launcher, manned with a very specific load out. At 'Launch' huge, single use capacitors brought their power to bear on a rail gun-launcher, in which was caught a high-energy boarding shuttle.

At the front of the shuttle, the crew occupied a section barely big enough for the boarding party, with one pilot (in this case N'Tanya) at the controls. Behind it was empty space, a large cargo hold built with forced boarding tubes in mind, to allow a boarding party to fill up the cargo as quickly as possible. Behind that, engines, massively high-powered things built to take the entire ship up to incredible speeds in a minimum time.

That meant the passengers initial launch reached nine to ten earth gravities of acceleration in the first few seconds, and if not for the acceleration couches and the protection of the body armor, anything with a remotely human-like physiology would pass out under the strain. As it was, Samantha felt like her eyes, her stomach, and her very blood pressed to the back of her body. She gasped and did her best to remember her breathing as the ship slingshot out of the launch bay, and once clear the ships' own engines kicked in.

These engines provided a 'mere' seven to eight earth Gs acceleration, but it held them and stretched them on and on. Samantha found she was gasping, she could barely keep up the breathing exercises they instructed, and her vision started to slow grey out as she felt the weight of her own body try to compress her into fine jelly in the suit and the ship's padding.

The ship built up so much speed, so quickly that the transit from the asteroid belt to the orbital station would take merely a couple of hours, then the days a more stately approach would take. It was also a much 'nosier' way to approach the station. There was little chance the station wouldn't notice them, but the extreme acceleration would effectively keep the ships they'd sent out on patrol out of position to intercept them until well after they reached the station.

That was the hope anyway; Samantha kept that in mind as she maintained her breathing while she focused on the display in front of her that showed a stylized display of their trajectory. It quickly formed into a flowing S curve, that would take the boarding shuttle around the planet, to use the atmosphere as a brake before finally slamming into the station, figuratively speaking.

"Almost....almost..." Samantha gritted out between her teeth as she watched the burn counter count down and then finally cut, dropping the acceleration to nothing.

"Well that was fun," one of the others Samantha couldn't identify, "I hope the party when we land is as fun."

N'Tanya glanced back and her voice sounded...amused, "I bet the party will be waiting for us, and you'll get to have all the fun you want G'Bern."

The blank visor of N'Tanya's suit then turned to Samantha, "Are you still with us?"

Samantha nodded shakily, "Still awake...though you might have to forgive me if I make a mess at the party," she tried some false bravado she really didn't feel, but was gratified at the laugh through the cabin.

"Oh Human, we're betting we're all going to make a mess...the goal is just not being the ones sticking around at the end to clean it up."

*

Despite the massive acceleration, it still took them hours to complete the first part of the arc, the one that would give them their first look at the station as they flew past it at massive speeds, which provided just a few quick image scans of the structure before they ripped past it and into the planet's atmosphere. This was another risk, they had to assess the images and pick a breaching point with very limited information, since they had to make the orbital adjustments on the fly so they would 'land' near their target point.

N'Tanya's thickly armored hands flew across the ships' controls as she made small adjustments with the thrusters. Samantha watched as best she could, though she was mentally preparing for another dose of G-Stress from the atmospheric deceleration, when suddenly images appeared on her helmet's visor.

"These are the images we received, and have about 2 minutes before we have to lock in where we're going to breach...so pick a spot," N'Tanya's voice came over the headset.

"W...what? Why me?"

"I figured we might as well put that enhanced computer brain to good use, now look at those images and pick one! 90 seconds!"

Samantha's eyes darted over the images, she opened her mind as Kagami taught her through the practices the two shared and let the machine, the computer take over. Immediately she started seeing connections and collations, probably docking areas, where life support would be, where cargo areas would be. The machine helped her brain pattern-match, seeing airlocks, ports, markings she probably never would have noticed on her own. She licked her lips and hit a the controls for her display, putting a red mark on one point along the long, planet side exterior bulkhead,

"There...go there...they'll probably not be able to respond well there, and I bet that puts us near both ummm, subjects and the holds."

N'Tanya didn't respond, but her fingers danced on the controls again, in Samantha's hud she saw their trajectory change slightly, little curve changes that brought their 'line' to an abrupt end at the side of the station.

"I hope you're right," N'Tanya's voice came in, her tone wryly amused, "because it would be a shame if we were about to breach into their reactor cooling or something."

"If so, I'll have to let you say 'I told you so' later," Samantha replied shakily, though she was answered by N'Tanya's return laugh.

She seemed...enthusiastic? A drastic change from the sullen, intense captain she'd shown up until this point. Samantha looked at N'Tanya carefully, but the blank visor and lines of the power suit hid N'Tanya's features.

"Deceleration in 5...4...3...2...1, now!"

At first Samatha didn't feel anything as the breaching shuttle hit the atmosphere. She knew that the advanced heat sloughing panels and the heavy metals would keep the compression heat at bay, at least in her head, but it was entirely different when she felt that pull grow as the negative G's of deceleration stacked up.

All of the sensors to the outside were blind as well, but another part of her wished she could see the torch that the ship would be blazing through the planet's atmosphere. It would look like a spear of light, heat, and flame as the natural forces of momentum and inertia fought compression resistance and friction.

This was even worse than the initial acceleration though, she found she was unable to breathe right as her body pressed forward, even though the seat harness and the body armor tried to ease the sensation as much as they could. She held out with panted breaths as the ship burned its way in its long orbital arc, dragging flame the entire way. She held onto that image as best she could, at least until she couldn't resist the sensation any longer.

She had a brief moment to consider what an odd sensation it is when you pass out slowly, to see the darkness creep in from all sides while fighting it all the way, before the darkness completely covered her vision as she felt her consciousness slip away...

only to have everything snap back into focus as the G-forces dropped quickly. Samantha gasped, slumped back into her seat, and took in deep, sucking breaths of air as her head spun and the world returned to focus. No snickering on the crew's part that time, she could see two or three of them looking around in the same dazed fashion.

"Get your heads' straight," came the barked order from up front, "We're free flight again and on target, ETA just a few minutes. Samantha, would you take a look at this?"

N'Tanya hit a couple of commands on the front and brought up an image on the display. Samantha shook her head and wondered why she didn't just send it to her helmet visor for a moment, at least until she took a closer look at the image.

The image was a real-time view of the framework they'd spotted earlier on their way into the system. At first it looked like a shipboard dock of some kind, some framework to work on ships, but now closer, Samantha wondered what it actually could be.

There was a framework, but the framework had no drones or attachments to it, nothing that looked like a docking port or a catwalk. There was also a ring in one side of the framework, with long conduits strung around it, twisting around it in a way that reminded her a little bit of pictures of old wire electro-magnets she'd seen in school, as a kid.

"What do you make of that?"

"I...I have no idea captain...it's certainly odd, whatever it is."

A familiar voice cut off any further speculation she might have had, as Rakarra's voice came over the comms,

"Captain, we read you on final insertion and we started our run on schedule, we're going to be a few hours behind you. Kagami's hop put us onto the right course, but we still have to get the ol' girl up to speed."

"What does the opposition look like?"

"Well, if you wanted attention, you certainly grabbed it. That last patrol ship is completely out of position, but has already started a burn to get to you, it doesn't look like it's seen us. The other one has definitely spotted both of us, and is turning, though they do not look like they are turning towards us. Hard to tell what they're up to, but they'll be a threat before we can get to you. Plus, there's whatever the station can throw at us."

"Understood, hopefully we'll be able to lock down the station before it becomes a threat to you, but get as many of your countermeasures going as you can. Throw the darts at the station, use your missiles and everything else on the ship."

"As you wish captain, but you know that once I throw these things there's no bringing them back, right?"

Samantha though she could catch that tone of...eagerness, enthusiasm again from the captain's voice as N'Tanya responded, "We'll be out of there in time, just don't miss the pickup."

"We'll be there," Rakarras voice intoned before the comms went out.

"D..darts?" Samantha questioned,

"Yeah, darts...the _Dreamer_launches a bunch of metal spikes, big ones, in your measurements about 10 kilos each into a similar orbit to the one we just took, but this one is built to increase the dart's speeds. A few hundred of those are going to rip up anything in their path."

"L...like us?"

"We're not going to be there when they hit, remember?"

"R...right...speaking of...aren't we almost there?"

N'Tanya nodded again and hit a few controls on the panel.

"Yes...ok everyone; get ready for the anti-G burst and to board."

Samantha grit her teeth and nodded again, as she remembered that part of the plan. One thing that the breaching shuttle had was a massively overpowered artificial gravity generator for its size, but it didn't use it to keep the gravity regular during their regular extreme acceleration or deceleration. The ship used the gravity generator to create a completely artificial gravity field around the ship and use it to cut the ship's speed to relative zero in the space of about five seconds. It used huge capacitors when it went off, and it burned out the generator with a single use, leaving only much smaller generators to give partial gravity and maneuverability, but it let them match their target's speed at the last second to prevent them from guessing where the breaching shuttle was going to hit.

"5...4...3...2...1..."

That's a lot of countdowns, Samantha thought before the anti-gravity generator kicked in, and Samantha's stomach, head and pretty much every part of her anatomy told her that there was something wrong with the world. She moaned and desperately reached out to her internal computer, cutting down the sensations as she heard several other crewmembers wretch from the sensation.

Mercifully, the sensation cut quickly, replaced by the feeling of her body slewing sideways as N'Tanya brought the breaching shuttle alongside the station.

"Ok, everyone up and at the breaching stations! Move!"

Samantha gulped and released the restraint harness. She'd practiced disembarking, but she was still woefully behind the others before she arrived at the breaching portal. She could hear the 'hiss' of the plasma cutters working their way through the hull as she looked at the others lined up around them. They were all shapes and sizes, she'd become at least passingly familiar with each of them on the ship, yet here they were, their bodies tensed with anticipation.

Did they share her same interest in saving their people? Or were they just looking for a good fight, and the chance to steal the weapons and whatever they could find on the station?

Samantha looked to N'Tanya,

What about you? Why does this matter so much to you? Why do I care so much?

Not exactly the right time for these questions Sam, she thought sourly, just as the hissing ended and she heard the metal bulkhead thud down into the station.

When the breaching airlock opened, she tensed, expecting a blazing flurry of energy from some mysterious repelling crew. She licked her lips and followed the example of the other five beings, including N'Tanya, and pressed along the side of the airlock, so that the entry doors provided a bit of cover.

So when nothing happened, she blinked, and blinked again,

"Looks like your guess was right," came the captain's voice, just before she unclipped a small canister from combat webbing around her power armor. She tossed the canister through the airlock and Samantha noted that it looked like the station had artificial gravity active, because it flew in a graceful arc out of sight. She heard it clank a couple of times, and then a loud wumph sounded, along with billowing smoke passing back along the breaching lock.

"All right, keep close, expect heavy resistance, and move quickly, we know what we're here for."

Samantha nodded, though she wasn't sure N'Tanya could see it because she was through the airlock so quickly, with the other crew behind her. Samantha gulped and ran after them, she carefully pulled the pistol out of her holster as they all entered what appeared to be a cargo hold of some kind.

Huh, guess I was right.

The other members of the team moved up like they'd done it dozens, if not hundreds of times which, Samantha reflected, they probably had. They moved up with weapons covering each other, from container isle to container isle, automatically taking cover wherever it was possible, flattening their bodies against walls, just generally providing as small a target as possible.

On the other hand, she felt a bit like an elephant clomping along behind them. She tried to remember their brief training, but she found all she really was doing was ducking down behind anything handy and trying not to point her pistol at anyone else on the team.

The team moved steadily to the exit to the cargo storage, a sturdy looking airlock door a couple dozen meters away. They'd nearly reached it when it suddenly slid aside.

The response was immediate; everyone was behind cover in a flash, weapons pointed towards the doorframe. Samantha cursed to herself and ducked down behind one box, next to a particularly large Kirristh named Rralath. He gave her a toothy grin and resumed sighting down his barrel.

"It's about time someone heard my signal...if that's you N'Tanya you took your _Poeleth_blessed time getting here."

The owner of the voice stepped around the doorframe and Samantha blinked. The tall, pressure suit covered figure that showed itself was definitely not human; the first hint being the suit-covered tail swaying behind.

*

"You'll pardon me if I don't crack my suit just now; I've been living in it for quite a while now,"

N'Tanya looked sideways at Lilanthe as she guided them through the corridors. At certain bulkheads, Lilanthe plugged a couple of leads from her suit into the door panel, and once sealed airlocks hissed and opened under her touch.

"Cover!" N'Tanya cursed as the airlock opened and the hiss and light of a plasma lance sizzled the air into the crack. Luckily, someone was a bit too eager, or they could have easily caught one of her people.

She's learning quickly, that's for sure, N'Tanya thought as she ducked to the side of the bulkhead and Samantha immediately dropped to a crouch around the curve of the corridor.

"You'll have to tell me how you managed to get here," she commented to Lilanthe as she assessed.

Six targets in a barricaded position, doesn't look like they have full armor.

The targets in question did have some heavy weapons though, as plasma, beams and even a couple of projectile darts filled the air as they opened fire on N'Tanya's crew. She glanced back at Lilanthe,

"Long story, let's just say I ended up...redirected from my original flight plan...but I do have something for Dalarin."

N'Tanya nodded as she glanced back to her crew, who were returning fire as best they could. Their positions prevented any kind of advancing, but it also prevented the defenders from getting anything resembling a clear shot. A stalemate, which they couldn't afford given their time limits,

"I'd love to hear more about it, but in a minute," N'Tanya looked over the angle of the corridor and relayed back to the others,

"Advance on my go," she quietly counted the number of shots sizzling past, some instinct always told her when they were going to pause.

There, she thought right when the fire paused, "Go!"

She pushed off, feeling the enhanced motors and the suppressed power of her suit uncoil with her. It was always a rush, especially when the rest of the world seemed to slow down in response. She covered the distance between her crew and the barrier in four lunging strides, while she felt, more then saw her crew firing around her. She trusted them not to hit her, just as she trusted her instincts, so when she caught something out of the corner of her eye she just twisted her last lunging stride into a spinning launch. At the same time, a near-blinding flash crossed over where her head was just a few moments before.

She barely acknowledged the human in armor hiding in a side compartment who just took a pot shot at her, because she was already barreling over the makeshift barrier and into the guards behind them. She drew her own plasma pistol as she hit the ground on her back and skid up the corridor floor, almost instinctively sighting and squeezing the trigger.

Their armor was good...but not good enough to take that kind of heat at close range. She dropped two as their armor liquefied in moments and melted to their flesh, at least where the energy didn't punch right through.

Two dropped on her initial slide, and she rolled back over her shoulders onto one-hand and her feet. She pushed to the side and ducked into another compartment just as the defenders reacted and a couple of beams lanced the floor where she was seconds before.

That distracted the defenders enough that her crew's follow-up fire and charge blasted through them. Her crew was used to her more flamboyant advances and followed close behind, picking off the remaining targets as they tried to track N'Tanya.

She glanced back and saw her crew stepping through, dispatching the few troops that weren't dead from the initial assault, though she also noticed Samantha was holding back quite a bit, a somewhat...sickened look on her face.

_Welcome to the fight,_N'Tanya thought with amusement as Lilanthe stepped up.

"Showing off as much as I remember N'Tanya?"

N'Tanya snorted,

"You're one to talk,"

"Well, maybe true,"

"So first question, where are you taking us, second question, when do we get there, third question, why aren't there more defenders?"

"In order, to where you want to go, the sleeper's processing area, very soon, why? Lastly, this is not, apparently, their main construction station, this seems more like a shipping waypoint, they, finish prepping the subjects here, and ship them, and other weapons elsewhere, so it's not heavily crewed. I don't think they expected to ever actually get raided."

N'Tanya cursed, "Another dead end then, in other words," when Lilanthe gestured forward N'Tanya nodded and she and the group continued down the passage.

"I'm not too sure about this...especially with the information I have for your cousin,"

"And for me, right?"

Lilanthe gave a wry, toothy smile behind her visor, "That's not what your cousin told me, and he's the one I'm doing the favor for, what'll you give me for it?"

N'Tanya snickered, "Mercenary,"

"Indeed...though what brings you in? The weapons won't do you a lot of good because I know you don't know anyone that will buy them off you except Garg."

"She did," she gestured back towards Samantha, "her people are up to something, and they pulled her in, and apparently all these others...that doesn't do well with me."

Lilanthe cocked her head to the side, but didn't comment, "Well...then your cousin will almost definitely want what I have, not to mention I've been here a while and pulled a lot of data off their system,"

N'Tanya held up a hand as her com crackled to life, which indicated a near real-time communication.

"Captain, we've got a line on the station now. The opposing ships' have engines more powerful then we suspected, but they're not coming after us, they seem to be going to the station."

N'Tanya glanced over to Lilanthe, "Have you detected any weapon launches?"

Lilanthe shrugged as they continued, "No Captain, it looks like they are burning full speed for the station, they're going to beat us there, they might even beat the darts."

"Understood, accelerate our timetable; we'll get on double-speed."

N'Tanya hit the relays for the other team, "Time's a factor, all the work, half the time, understood?"

"Yes Captain."

N'Tanya looked to Lilanthe again, and then Samantha, "Samantha, you've been studying your sleeper pod right? It looks like we won't have time to move all the pods themselves, can you get the sleepers out at least so we can get them back to the ship?"

Samantha nodded hesitantly, "I...I think so."

"Good, let's go."

*

Samantha looked up to N'Tanya as the she and another crewman gently lifted a Sillen out of a sleeper chamber and set them with another onto a sort of mobile pallet used as an emergency transport bed. Two of the crew on the raiding party had them with them; they unfolded and snapped into place, providing efficient and light means of transport.

They'd formed sort of a water-bucket chain with the beds as Samantha worked feverishly as she disengaged sleeping pod after sleeping pod and brought out their inhabitants. Two crew worked and practically ran the sleepers back to the vessel in chains, while others got them strapped in and secured in the hold, trying to make them as comfortable as possible. Without proper defrost time, they were going to have a hell of a time recovering when they woke up, but at least Samantha was making sure they were going to recover.

N'Tanya and the dragon-looking woman, same race as Sires? I think so, talked off to the side with their helmets cracked, so they were not using the comms. Samantha desperately wanted to overhear them, but she also knew that if she didn't get more of these sleepers out of their chambers, well...she didn't want to think what would happen to them.

"Captain, how much time," she asked nervously.

"We're almost out; get moving and you can get a couple more,"

Samantha looked helplessly as there were obviously at least a dozen more souls waiting in the sleeping chambers, "B...but captain,"

"I told you we were on a time limit. Look, we'll send Dalarin's people out here to try and get anything salvageable after we leave. Those pods are hearty and can survive on their own power for potentially a couple of weeks...some will just have to get lucky."

Samantha looked into one of the chambers, where a young-looking Krrisith male lay stretched out, tubes and wires hooking him into the systems. Samantha nodded slowly, "Y...yes, ok."

She swallowed and went about undogging the next chamber, carefully getting to the controls so she could bring out the next sleeper. She had him nearly out when the comms reserved for the ship came up once again,

"Captain, something's going on at the station, it looks like they've launched every shuttle in the place and are lining it up in front of the...framework, whatever it is. Their ships are nearly there as well, man they have some powerful engines; they are going to beat the darts...just,"

Samantha licked her lips, something about the whole situation felt...wrong, why would they just abandon the place?

N'Tanya looked at Lilanthe a moment, but then nodded, "Ok...keep me apprised, we're getting out. We'll meet you on the arc."

N'Tanya turned to Samantha, "Ok, last one, something weird is going on and I don't like it. We're getting out," she linked into the other team and relayed the orders. Samantha thought she heard an 'aye captain' before she cut.

Samantha focused on her task; she finished undoing the connections and started lifting the boy out of the chamber. She looked around and noticed that there was no bed for him, when two bulky power-armored arms entered her vision,

"I'll take him...we don't have time to wait for the others to get back."

Samantha looked into N'Tanya's again-sealed visor and nodded. She handed the boy off to N'Tanya, who cradled him in his arms.

"Ok, let's go, back to the ship now," N'Tanya ordered.

Samantha nodded, but then looked back at the other sleepers.

She felt a hand on her shoulder, when she looked over she was surprised at meeting the gaze of the other woman, Lilanthe,

"Sometimes you have to save who you can,"

Samantha swallowed and nodded.

"I know," she replied, before they turned and started the run back to the shuttle. It was obvious N'Tanya had to slow down to keep pace with them, but it seemed like it didn't matter, no one even tried to stop them as they ran the corridors.

"Captain, we're picking up some unusual energy from near your position, I think from that framework...wait...what the hell?"

Samantha suddenly felt something piercing through her skull. She gasped and dropped to her knees as she felt a sudden cold, squirming darkness intrude into her brain. It felt something like what she felt in her quarters with Kagami, but different, external, and so much more intense.

"C...captain! N'Tanya...!" She managed to gasp out before she had to clench her head in her hands. It felt so wrong, so 'other' and the machine, the internal systems woke up in response. She could feel it almost like a squirming in her brain, the two halves again, one half trying to reach out, coax the thing, whatever it was into growing, into drawing it more into her and into her world. The other rejecting it, trying to suppress the feeling as it overwhelmed her senses.

Drops of blood splattered from her nose onto her visor, but she could barely feel it as someone lifted her up off the deck and practically dragged her down the corridor.

"Captain, there's some kind of...disc, or something in the framework. The shuttles already went through, the other ships seem like they are on approach. The shuttles are gone, there...there go the ships, they didn't even slow down!"

Samantha shook her head, "Close it...close it."

Samantha looked up, her eyes unfocused, but she could tell they'd somehow dragged her all the way into the shuttle.

"We're launching, ETA to darts?"

"2 minutes to get clear, captain, Kagami is not responding at all, we're on manual controls."

*

N'Tanya cursed again inside her head as she pushed Samantha into the acceleration couch and strapped her in. The human girl was pale and blood dripped from her nose, she was barely responsive...because of whatever the humans were doing.

"Get as close as you can and snag us then burn full," she ordered as she slipped into her chair.

"We'll do our best captain...darts in 90 seconds. The shuttles and ships are gone, but something else is going on. Whatever that disc was, it looks like the framework isn't holding it."

N'Tanya slammed herself into the second seat when she noticed Lilanthe in the pilot, already hitting the disengage controls. N'Tanya nodded as she felt the sideways push as explosives popped the link between the breaching pod and the station, which also provided just a little acceleration away from the side of the station.

"Here we go," Lilanthe said with a tight, toothy smile as she grabbed the controls.

N'Tanya switched the view screen over as they boosted away from the station.

As they got some distance she spotted it,

"What?"

She lost words as she watched a writhing, red/black disc expanding from the framework. Around the edges space twisted and distorted,

"I've seen this before," she said to herself, getting a glance from Lilanthe as she pushed the controls.

The distorted space expanded with the disc, where it expanded and touched the station the metal twisted and deformed before it finally ripped free and fell into the expanding disc.

"We're clear of the darts," she commented to Lilanthe and hit a couple of controls that brought up the Dreamer's flight arc,

"Think you can get us onto that?"

Lilanthe glanced at the course, "Yes...we're doing a drag-hook I'm guessing?"

N'Tanya nodded, "Hopefully one that will get us away from...whatever that is." She pointed at the display.

From behind Samantha moaned and clenched her head. She popped her helmet, stumbled forward and stared at the disc on the display. N'Tanya reached back to put her back in her seat,

"N...no, that's the...that's the thing, the machine in my head, it's responding to it, somehow,"

N'Tanya glanced over to the human woman, she was still very pale, and had done nothing about the blood, but was at least standing straight,

"Can you do anything about it?"

"I don't...not without power I think...but I think maybe I could."

The disc expanded enough that over half the station was distorted, gone, or was ripping apart under the changes.

Then the darts launched by the Dreamer intercepted the station. Those on course for the area absorbed by the disc just vanished into the same place wherever the station went. The rest ripped through the remaining parts of the station. Kinetic energy met metal, power sections, conduits and the like, sending plumes of atmosphere, explosions, and flames out into space, snuffed almost immediately.

The damage ripped the remainder of the station into wreckage, and the loss of integrity removed any resistance it had to the spacial distortion. The station's superstructure collapsed and it started breaking up and falling into the disc.

"Dreamer's incoming!" Lilanthe cried out, and changed the view screen to one of the most welcome things N'Tanya ever saw. The ship twisted and dropped in alongside the shuttle, heavy magnetic clamps extended and slammed into place onto locking brackets made just for that purpose.

N'Tanya stumbled at the sudden jerk and change of acceleration, given the Dreamer's much higher velocity, though the anti-grav from the Dreamer did its job and supplemented the shuttle's generator, which deadened the difference in speeds somewhat.

In the view screen, the station dropped back more quickly. The disc expanded, engulfed the station wreckage, and then suddenly blinked out.

*

The Dreamer slowly floated just outside the remainder of the station wreckage, which was pathetically little. It looked like over three quarters of the structure just...ceased to exist. N'Tanya was back at her command station, though she hadn't relinquished the power armor yet, her only concession being on the bridge was when she removed the helmet and set it on the console, within easy reach.

Lilanthe slipped onto the bridge, looking much more comfortable after several showers washed away a couple weeks worth of living most of her time inside an armored pressure suit. She looked to the view screen, where several crewmembers flew around in small salvage pods, tagging and searching for...who knows what.

"Still haven't found anyone else," she asked quietly as she stepped up next to the captain. The other crewmembers glanced at her, put otherwise paid her no mind, she was...well known on this ship.

N'Tanya shook her head, and then ran a gloved hand through her hair, "No...no other sleep chambers, no weapons, no hints as to what in the civilized worlds they did, and what just happened here."

Lilanthe gestured with her muzzle to the view screen, "What if the ships return, won't they get left behind?"

"They're all volunteers," N'Tanya replied, "they saw the sleepers we pulled out, and accepted the risks. I doubt the humans will come back though."

Lilanthe tilted her head to the side, "Why do you think that?"

"This was a burn and run strategy...they could have stuck around, tried to intercept us or even destroy us, but they didn't. They abandoned everything and ran. I don't know if that...weapon, thing, whatever it was, destroyed them or not, but it was obviously meant to leave behind absolutely nothing useful." She cursed and slammed her fist on the console, hard enough that it left a distinct cracked section in the material, "they'd rather kill everyone, and destroy everything here then risk anyone finding out what else they are doing."

"Well, I'm not sure we got away with nothing, I do still have this, after all," Lilanthe held up a small crystal,

"Yes, not that it helps me, since you seem bent on getting that to my cousin, without me seeing it."

"Well, I didn't say that...I just said I have to get this crystal to your cousin first...if I just happened to have a copy of it, which would be a shame, since I don't have any data crystals of this quality, then that copy might be something that could go to an appropriate...person of interest."

N'Tanya looked over to the other female with an incredulous look, before a sly smile crossed her lips, "I believe we might have picked up some appropriate quality crystals not too long ago, we might be able to find one that will work for your needs. What kind of price are we talking for a copy of the data...after it gets to my cousin, of course?"

Lilanthe looked over the view screen at the floating debris and the little flares of light signifying a salvage pod floating through the darkness, searching for some sign that anyone was spared the annihilation of the station. In the distance, the sun flared over the planet's horizon, which provided a moment's stark light before the view screen automatically darkened to levels that are more comfortable.

"Well...I seem to need passage on a vessel from the T'sil'nith home worlds after I pay off this favor to your cousin, but I just don't know where I might be heading next. I don't suppose you know anyone who would be taking on passengers, I might be quite appreciative."

N'Tanya smile broadened even more, if that were possible, "I'm sure we can find some ship able to find you a bunk, someone with your talents would probably be welcome to work on any vessel."

"After I am done with my business with your cousin, of course."

"Of course."