…Ends with the Pirates Routed

Rose O’Reilly was waiting in what served as a Medical Bay on the Lucy when Megan brought in Kieran and Allison.

“Assuming that’s her name.” Apparently she had told Alex otherwise.

Triage first. She was good at that. And this one was easy. Kieran was dead; Allison was covered with his blood.

“From trying to save him,” Megan explained.

Rose could tell their captain – Allison, for want of more information – had also lost a lot of blood.

“And my efforts to staunch the flow just aren’t working.” She had never performed emergency first aid under battle conditions before. “And my hands are shaking.”

Testing their blood samples using a daring procedure, she mixed Kieran’s blood with the captain’s and examined the result under her Medical Tricorder.

“Just like the procedure originally used to establish the existence of blood types.” Admittedly, Karl Landsteiner didn’t have sophisticated Tricorders to observe the clumping of incompatible blood types. “The priniciple is the same.”

But daring.

And she saw no sign of clumping or other adverse reactions in the mixed sample. So she used Kieran’s blood to transfuse Allison.

“And stabilized her.” With adrenaline. Allison woke up, no longer bleeding. “And raring to go.”

Executive Officer Alex O’Reilly – currently Acting Captain with Allison in the MedBay – heard the characteristic spit and fade of a distant transmission.

“But Rose is demanding my immediate attention on the Comm,” he told himself, noting the red light. “Go ahead, Rose.”

“We got a complication,” Rose said. Was that exasperation he heard in her voice? “I gave her too much adrenaline. She is awake and insisted on going back up to the bridge.”

Just then Captain Allison burst onto the bridge.

“Or should I call her Captain Sandy?” he asked himself. First, he better point the Communications Array at that squeal from the inbound jump range.

Allison was already ordering Rose and Megan to secure the airlock for undock. Not who he would have chosen for that task, as Megan immediately protested.

“I don’t have much in the way of Engineering skills.”

“It’s just an airlock,” Allison snapped. "Don’t you Dubliners know basic safety drills?

Megan allowed that they did and went to meet Rose at the airlock.

“I need the Engineers on more important things,” Allison told them.

Alex concentrated on the Nav Comp and concluded they had ship arriving in the jump range.

Via the external cameras Allison was monitoring, he saw Rose and Megan had disengaged the airlock.

“Not without a telltale release of gas.”

When the answer came up on the incoming message it was a ship ID: Finity’s End.

“An Alliance merchanter,” he announced. “Headed into ambush.”

He asked if he could send them a warning.

“Hold on,” Allison snapped. “We need a better read on the situation.”

Paddy O’Reilly thought about the time-lag. If they sent a signal, Australia would know immediately. The Neiharts were light-hours out. Assuming they were slowing.

“Before we send any transmissions,” he told Alex, “we should see what is going on around us.”

He asked Allison for permission to use passive sensors.

When she gave him the go-ahead, she pointed out that Neihart’s Finity just arrived. “We’ll need accurate data to send them when we signal. They may know something about what they’re flying into.”

“Otherwise,” he agreed, “what are they doing here?”

His sensors detected sudden movement from Australia.

“Edger must’ve IDed the Neiharts.”

Alex watched the output from their communications array with intensity.

“Perhaps too much intensity,” he told himself. He found himself admiring Allison’s calm.

Then, he had another ID squeal. Dublin Again.

“It’s the Dublin,” he announced to the bridge. “We have to warn them.”

Allison kept her cool.

“We sit tight,” she told him. “We’ve got the Mazianni base. We give Dublin a chance if we can. But we don’t tip it premature.”

Apparently she had more experience remaining calm in emergencies than he did.

“Which makes sense.” He just wasn’t sure how that made him feel.

Paddy O’Reilly
[11/4/2023, 11:12:24 AM] Paddy O’Reilly
“I’d like to start warming up the engines.”
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 11:12:45 AM] Dave (GM)
Go ahead
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 11:13:24 AM] Paddy O’Reilly
“Roger, initiating engine start-up”
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 11:13:29 AM] Dave (GM)
“The odds are tilting. Nearly 2,000 on the Dublin. Nearly as many on Finity’s End. A Name on the Alliance side. Armed. Not for trifling.”
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 11:15:05 AM] Paddy O’Reilly
2d20 Target: : 11 Complication range is 20+
20 12 Insight Science
There was a complication!0 Successes
Reroll results?
2d20 = 32 = 32
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 11:20:31 AM] Dave (GM)
They’re not dumping. The way they’re coming in, they’re not dumping speed.
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 11:21:10 AM] Dave (GM)
Allison: “Permission to use active scan.”
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 11:22:12 AM] Dave (GM)
She releases the grapples and kicks in the engines.“We’re moving.”
-————————————

Megan[11/4/2023, 11:17:09 AM] Vaughn
Megan tries to create an advantage by making a doge algorithm.
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 11:22:16 AM] Megan O’Reilly
3d20 Target: : 14 Complication range is 20+
6 15 15 Control Conn
1 Success
Reroll results?
3d20 = 36 = 36
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 11:22:49 AM] Megan O’Reilly
1d20 Target: : 14 Complication range is 20+
3
2 Successes
Reroll results?
1d20 = 3 = 3
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 11:24:00 AM] Megan O’Reilly
5d6
There was one effect!4 Successes
Reroll results?
5d6 = 15 = 15
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 11:24:17 AM] Megan O’Reilly
1d6
2 Successes
Reroll results?
1d6 = 2 = 2
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 11:25:33 AM] Dave (GM)
The ship’s computer voice – that calm, young-man’s voice – asks, “Sandy, are you sure about this?”
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 11:26:08 AM] Alex O’Reilly
“Final ship identified: It’s the Norway.”
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 11:26:27 AM] Dave (GM)
Allison: “Lord, it’s Mallory.”
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 11:27:36 AM] Dave (GM)

Switching back in time to Dublin Again.

Capt. Patrick O’Reilly looked around desperately for some help from his bridge crew.

“These other captains don’t seem to understand that Dublin Again is a big, happy family,” he told them, hoping they would help him convince the other captains he had their interests at heart when he tried to improve his influence.

Dandin was quick to jump in with a word of support.

“He wasn’t much help, though, beyond preventing complications.” Although he did manage to introduce Maeve, who promptly invited them all to a dinner party. “Or maybe it was a rave.” With Maeve it was sometimes hard to tell the difference.

Whatever it was, the captain was soon rubbing elbows with captains from other ship.

“It seems this is working well,” he told her. Although he couldn’t tell for sure.

Maeve[11/4/2023, 12:05:35 PM] Maeve O’Reilly (geyl)
3d20 Target: : 16 Complication range is 20+
3 8 16 Presence Security
4 Successes
Reroll results?
3d20 = 27 = 27
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 12:07:02 PM] Maeve O’Reilly (geyl)
6d6
There was one effect!4 Successes
Reroll results?
6d6 = 19 = 19
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 12:08:37 PM] Geyl
“Josh Talley has been coming and going to the Finity’s End”
-————————————

Dandin decides the personal touch is needed.
[11/4/2023, 12:10:18 PM] Dandin O’Reilly (Gerald)
Empathic Observation
1x Items
As a weapon in social challenges, Empathy will require Presence + Medicine (or Insight + Medicine). And deal Medicine + 1 (+ 3 with Insight) to Work on a challenge if it succeeds. The kind of information obtained will be highly dependent on the Attribute rolled.Presence, to to explain in an engaging manner an extremely complex emotional situation or solution to someone with less empathy, or to convince others of a specific course of action.Insight, to gain useful data from body language, or or diagnose a patient’s emotional state by listening to them, or to provide therapeutic responses for a person is traumatized or otherwise in distress.Scrutinize 2 – The character ignores 2 point of the Extended Task’s Resistance for each Effect rolled.Progression 1  The character makes an additional 1 Work for each Effect rolled (this is in addition to the 1 you get normally).Inaccurate - The weapon is imprecise and clumsy, and very little can be done to change that. The character gains no benefit from the Aim Minor Action when making an Attack with this observation.
-————————————-
[11/4/2023, 12:11:46 PM] Dandin O’Reilly (Gerald)
2d20 Target: : 16 Complication range is 20+
7 13 Insight Medicine
2 Successes
Reroll results?
2d20 = 20 = 20
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 12:12:27 PM] Dandin O’Reilly (Gerald)
6d6
There were 2 effects!5 Successes
Reroll results?
6d6 = 21 = 21
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 12:15:40 PM] Paddy O’Reilly
Empathic Observation of Merchant Captains^^^
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 12:18:01 PM] Geyl
“Don’t forget to take your rejuv gift basket…”
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 12:18:46 PM] Paddy O’Reilly
((You could’ve lead with that. :p))
-————————————

Thinking that Paddy could have lead with his empathy, Capt. Patrick
[11/4/2023, 12:19:28 PM] Patrick O’Reilly
4d20 Target: : 16 Complication range is 20+
2 8 10 4 Presence Command
6 Successes
Reroll results?
4d20 = 24 = 24
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 12:26:52 PM] Maeve O’Reilly (geyl)
3d20 Target: : 17 Complication range is 20+
3 19 10 Presence Command
3 Successes
Reroll results?
3d20 = 32 = 32
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 12:27:29 PM] Maeve O’Reilly (geyl)
6d6
There was one effect!4 Successes
Reroll results?
6d6 = 18 = 18
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 12:31:19 PM] Patrick O’Reilly
2d20 Target: : 14 Complication range is 20+
17 1 Insight Command
2 Successes
Reroll results?
2d20 = 18 = 18
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 12:33:30 PM] Geyl
afk brb
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 12:36:04 PM] Patrick O’Reilly
Conciliatory Tone
1x Items
As a weapon in diplomatic conversations, using a Conciliatory Tone of voice will require Reason + Conn (or Presence + Conn). And deal Conn + 3 to work on a challenge if it succeeds.Presence, to maintain professional decorum and etiquette when representing your ship in formal circumstances, or to argue effectively over amatter of starship protocol, or a course of action.Reason, to plot a course through a difficult conversation, or to determine the dispositional location or the agenda of someone else based on available data.Progression 2 – Each Effect rolled makes 2 additional points of work on the challenge.Pacifier – If one or more Effects are rolled on this Attack, then the target is pacified. The GM may resist this effect by spending a number of points of Threat equal to the number of Effects rolled (for PCs, add points of Threat instead). Otherwise, the pacified opponent can only use a conciliatory tone in response.
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 12:36:29 PM] Patrick O’Reilly
3d20 Target: : 13 Complication range is 20+
6 6 19 Reason Command
2 Successes
Reroll results?
3d20 = 31 = 31
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 12:37:22 PM] Patrick O’Reilly
Conciliatory Tone
1x Items
As a weapon in diplomatic conversations, using a Conciliatory Tone of voice will require Reason + Conn (or Presence + Conn). And deal Conn + 3 to work on a challenge if it succeeds.Presence, to maintain professional decorum and etiquette when representing your ship in formal circumstances, or to argue effectively over amatter of starship protocol, or a course of action.Reason, to plot a course through a difficult conversation, or to determine the dispositional location or the agenda of someone else based on available data.Progression 2 – Each Effect rolled makes 2 additional points of work on the challenge.Pacifier – If one or more Effects are rolled on this Attack, then the target is pacified. The GM may resist this effect by spending a number of points of Threat equal to the number of Effects rolled (for PCs, add points of Threat instead). Otherwise, the pacified opponent can only use a conciliatory tone in response.
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 12:37:35 PM] Patrick O’Reilly
Conciliatory Tone
1x Items
As a weapon in diplomatic conversations, using a Conciliatory Tone of voice will require Reason + Conn (or Presence + Conn). And deal Conn + 3 to work on a challenge if it succeeds.Presence, to maintain professional decorum and etiquette when representing your ship in formal circumstances, or to argue effectively over amatter of starship protocol, or a course of action.Reason, to plot a course through a difficult conversation, or to determine the dispositional location or the agenda of someone else based on available data.Progression 2 – Each Effect rolled makes 2 additional points of work on the challenge.Pacifier – If one or more Effects are rolled on this Attack, then the target is pacified. The GM may resist this effect by spending a number of points of Threat equal to the number of Effects rolled (for PCs, add points of Threat instead). Otherwise, the pacified opponent can only use a conciliatory tone in response.
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 12:38:09 PM] Patrick O’Reilly
7d6
There were 3 effects!8 Successes
Reroll results?
7d6 = 24 = 24
-————————————

Jaeger
[11/4/2023, 12:41:30 PM] Jaeger O’Reilly (Jay)
Nav Comp
1x Items
As a weapon in Helm challenges, using a Nav Comp will require Control + Conn (or Daring + Conn). And deal Conn + 1 (+ 2 with Daring) to Work on a challenge if it succeeds.Control, to direct a starship or other vessel through a difficult environment, or to operate a craft with such precision as to aid someone else’s activities.Daring, to direct a starship or other vessel to avoid a sudden and imminent danger, or to perform extreme or unorthodox maneuvers with a craft using “feel” or “instinct." Note that Daring Tasks will entail an increase in the Complication Range of 1.Scrutinize 1  The character ignores 1 point of the Extended Task’s Resistance for each Effect rolled.Progression 1 - The character makes an additional 1 Work for each Effect rolled (this is in addition to the 1 you get normally).Calibration – The weapon requires careful calibration before using. The Nav Comp cannot be used to attack unless a Prepare Minor Action is performed during thesame Turn.
-————————————-
[11/4/2023, 12:41:53 PM] Jaeger O’Reilly (Jay)
2d20 Target: : 16 Complication range is 20+
20 13 Control Conn
There was a complication!1 Success
Reroll results?
2d20 = 33 = 33
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 12:43:16 PM] Jaeger O’Reilly (Jay)
6d6
There were 3 effects!6 Successes
Reroll results?
6d6 = 24 = 24
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 12:45:30 PM] Jaeger O’Reilly (Jay)
2d20 Target: : 16 Complication range is 20+
2 11 Control Conn
3 Successes
Reroll results?
2d20 = 13 = 13
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 12:46:11 PM] Jaeger O’Reilly (Jay)
6d6
1 Success
Reroll results?
6d6 = 17 = 17
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 12:46:57 PM] Jaeger O’Reilly (Jay)
2d20 Target: : 9 Complication range is 20+
19 1 Fitness Medicine
2 Successes
Reroll results?
2d20 = 20 = 20
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 12:47:05 PM] Dandin O’Reilly (Gerald)
2d20 Target: : 12 Complication range is 20+
20 18 Fitness Medicine
There was a complication!0 Successes
Reroll results?
2d20 = 38 = 38
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 12:47:12 PM] Maeve O’Reilly (geyl)
2d20 Target: : 8 Complication range is 20+
11 5 Fitness Medicine
2 Successes
Reroll results?
2d20 = 16 = 16
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 12:47:14 PM] Patrick O’Reilly
3d20 Target: : 9 Complication range is 20+
4 13 7 Fitness Medicine
2 Successes
Reroll results?
3d20 = 24 = 24
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 12:49:58 PM] System Entry Task
“Automated ID Sent”
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 12:51:47 PM] Jaeger O’Reilly (Jay)
4d20 Target: : 16 Complication range is 20+
14 2 1 5 Control Conn
5 Successes
Reroll results?
4d20 = 22 = 22
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 12:52:22 PM] Jaeger O’Reilly (Jay)
6d6
There were 4 effects!6 Successes
Reroll results?
6d6 = 25 = 25
-————————————

Rose wasn’t used to firing guns.

“And none of us have ever fired Lucy’s weapons.” She wasn’t sure they’d ever been fired. But she pulled the trigger anyway.

“Lucy’s guns use a simple payload of high explosives to create a small explosion,” she explained as her shot hit the carrier. “They’re commonly used by smaller ships to hit vulnerable spots on their targets.”

Paddy was trying to find those vulnerable spots. In her sights, she saw the pirates were running.

“Not from us, of course,” she admitted. “Norway is pursuing." So was Finity.

---

[11/4/2023, 1:04:30 PM] Paddy O’Reilly
8d6
There were 4 effects!5 Successes
Reroll results?
8d6 = 34 = 34
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 1:05:16 PM] Dandin O’Reilly (Gerald)
Communications Array
1x Items
As a weapon in Helm challenges, using a Nav Comp will require Reason + Science (or Insight + Science). And deal Science + 3 (+ 2 with Daring) to Work on a challenge if it succeeds.Reason, to form an hypothesis from available signals, or performing  research in comm-quiet system.Insight, to gain useful data from random signals or the messages in a system, or to devise a rough working hypothesis from incomplete data.Scrutinize 1  The character ignores 1 point of the Extended Task’s Resistance for each Effect rolled.Area – The attack affects a wider area, and can affect several targets at once. The attack automatically affects any signal source within orbit of the initial target, and then one additional target within Close range of the initial target for each Effect rolled, starting with the next closest (as determined by the GM). If one or more Complications is rolled when using an Area attack, the GM may choose to use Complications to have an ally in the area affected by the attack. A target cannot be hit if it would have been more difficult to hit than the initial target.Progression 1 - The character makes an additional 1 Work for each Effect rolled (this is in addition to the 1 you get normally).Calibration – The weapon requires careful calibration before using. The Nav Comp cannot be used to attack unless a Prepare Minor Action is performed during thesame Turn.
-————————————-
[11/4/2023, 1:06:01 PM] Alex O’Reilly
2d20 Target: : 12 Complication range is 20+
15 16 Insight Science
0 Successes
Reroll results?
2d20 = 31 = 31
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 1:06:41 PM] Gerald
“I’ve found some weak points on the enemy ship, transmitting to gunnery station and Communications.”
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 1:06:45 PM] Lucy
Say again, Lucy
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 1:06:57 PM] Alex O’Reilly
2d20 Target: : 12 Complication range is 20+
12 17 Insight Science
1 Success
Reroll results?
2d20 = 29 = 29
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 1:07:46 PM] Lucy
When Comm 1 finally puts her through: “Dublin Comm, this is Lucy. We have two seriously injured aboard. Request assistance getting them to hospital.”
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 1:09:13 PM] Lucy
“We copy, Lucy.”
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 1:09:42 PM] Lucy
“This is Norway Comm,” another voice breaks in. “Ridership Odin will establish dock; nonmilitary vessels will stay at distance.”
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 1:11:18 PM] Lucy
Allison: “Dublin, this is Lucy. Request explanation this setup.”
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 1:11:39 PM] Lucy
From Norway Comm: “Abort the chatter.”Allison: “Hang you, Norway.”
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 1:12:11 PM] Lucy
You have won. And found your place in the universe.Even Dublin didn’t answer.
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 1:15:26 PM] Plot Jump Task
joeren is dead and i got showed up by two navigators my day is ruined
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 1:15:57 PM] Lucy
Captain Patrick, extending hand: “Alex. You all right?”Patrick: “There wasn’t any way to warn you. Just to back you up.”Allison: “I understand it. Nancy said.”Patrick: “Small ship. And expendable. That’s the way they reckoned it.”Allison: “Won’t stay long.”
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 1:16:57 PM] Paddy O’Reilly
2d20 Target: : 9 Complication range is 20+
13 2 Insight Command
1 Success
Reroll results?
2d20 = 15 = 15
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 1:20:45 PM] Megan O’Reilly
3d20 Target: : 12 Complication range is 20+
10 10 20 Insight Conn
There was a complication!2 Successes
Reroll results?
3d20 = 40 = 40
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 1:21:04 PM] Megan O’Reilly
1d20 Target: : 12 Complication range is 20+
9 Reroll of Insight Conn
1 Success
Reroll results?
1d20 = 9 = 9
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 1:27:46 PM] Megan O’Reilly
3d20 Target: : 11 Complication range is 20+
2 20 19 Insight Command
There was a complication!2 Successes
Reroll results?
3d20 = 41 = 41
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 1:35:38 PM] Megan O’Reilly
3d20 Target: : 11 Complication range is 20+
7 20 5 Insight Command
There was a complication!2 Successes
Reroll results?
3d20 = 32 = 32
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 1:35:56 PM] Geyl
afk brb
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 1:38:45 PM] Megan O’Reilly
3d20 Target: : 10 Complication range is 20+
19 6 16 Insight Medicine
1 Success
Reroll results?
3d20 = 41 = 41
-————————————
[11/4/2023, 1:42:25 PM] Megan O’Reilly
3d20 Target: : 10 Complication range is 20+
17 18 4 Insight Medicine
1 Success
Reroll results?
3d20 = 39 = 39

…And her Crew of Dublin’s Castoffs

Paddy O’Reilly was really proud of his stomach.

“Sure, I was determined not to get sick again.” Still, his gut weathered the jump without a hiccup. He looked around at the others on the bridge of the Lucy and saw no signs of jump-sickness. “Maybe not grinning like me, but no queasiness either.”

The he noticed the jump-range buoy was not broadcasting system information. That made him really glad nobody was vomiting.

“We were warned about that,” Allison told him. The station was not yet fully operational. “Mallory wants it up and running.”

“Lonely as a nullpoint,” Alex offered. “If we didn’t have station signal…”

Which was hours old.

As Alex started the maneuver which would bring to the station, a ship appeared on intercept.

“Not broadcasting ID,” Finbar announced.

“Gotta be pirates,” Alex insisted. He ordered a cautious approach to the station at Venture. Paddy was still hoping it was military.

Not long ago, the military and the pirates were the same thing.

He knew they didn’t stand much of a chance against either the Alliance military or the Mazianni pirates. They both had carriers. With outriders that were even faster.

He decided they might need extra power. “Time for some bold engineering.,” Paddy began to monkey with the engines.

“Giving us some extra juice,” he told the others “just in case.”

They all heard the explosion somewhere in the bowels of the ship.

As Paddy tried to figure out how to fix whatever he had done, he heard Allison say, “I’m going after a sandwich. I’m coming back to the controls with it.”

Something wasn’t quite right about that. Alex whispered to him that she wasn’t used having a competent crew around her. Alex asked Allison to stay in her seat. “You’re the captain.” Not an order, just a reminder she had a crew for things like lunches.

Kieran had apparently figured it out as well. He volunteered to bring everybody sandwiches.

“And drinks.”

Alex went back to piloting their course in to Venture.

Paddy noticed something on Finbar’s screen. Finbar was on Scan 1.

“Picking up something,” Finbar said, voice calm. “Military, moving like it.”

Alex was calculating something with Engineering.

Allison said, “Wonderful.”

Also calm. As she took over Helm 1 from Alex and started lining up jump, she added, “Size. Get size on that.”

Kieran was already reckoning their chances.

Alex was watching Allison’s board. It looked like she was reckoning on their nearness to system center. Tough jump, if possible. Suddenly, Paddy felt their captain put them into an axis roll that sent drinks and sandwiches flying.

“And a tape cassette with my favorite sci-fi epic on it.”

Paddy made a leap and grabbed the tape in freefall. Their torus was not yet in rotation, so he had to make a zero-gravity landing on the wall.

Captain Allison told him and Alex and Finbar to get below.

“Into the crawlspaces.”

That was fine with Paddy. He had an engineering issue to deal with down there.

“I gotta get that fire out.”

Alex was trying to get his PADD synced with the ship’s computers.

“And having difficulty.”

When they got below, Paddy heard Allison’s crisp order over the suit comm unit, “Suit up down there.”

He got the fire suppression unit focused on the fire, but when he tried to push it the flames flared up in the engine room.

Still on the bridge, Kieran heard the sounds of Paddy putting out the fire and the rest of the crew scrambling into their spacesuits.

As he tensed, Allison warned him, “No ambush. We’re the only crew, you and I. You signed up at Pell, got thrown off Dublin.”

He watched her put some of the cabins on powersave.

“Get up there and strip down their cabins; shove everything into yours.”

When he paused to think through what she was setting up, she shoved him. “Move it, man.”

As he hurried off the bridge, she shunted all the main functions to the main board. And her Chair.

When he got back from hiding the evidence of others on the ship, she told him the gap was narrowing.

“Still no hail. No need. That ship chasing us knows. And we know.”

Alex heard Allison’s voice over the radio in his suit.

“Got all kinds of service shafts down there. Pick one. I don’t even want to know which.”

That made sense to Alex. If Allison didn’t know where they were hiding, the pirates couldn’t torture it out of her.

“Pirates sometimes kidnap honest spacers.” They had no other way to get trained crew.

“Snug in and stay there – whatever happens,” the voice on the suit radio told him. “If they loot us and leave us, fine. If they take us off the ship, you stay there.”

Paddy was having some luck putting out the fires.

“Two of us is the maximum risk on this” Allison explained. “And I picked my risk…. Two of us of Kieran’s type and mine looks like smugglers. You want to get everybody else killed, just come up here. You got the hard part down there, I know. But just do it and don’t louse it up.”

As he started to think about objecting, she cut that off.

“Think it through. That ship’s a Mazianni carrier. They have maybe 3,000 troops on that thing.”

“We don’t have…”

“We got a chance. They don’t hang around after a hit. Maybe you can do something; maybe there’s people left at Venture. Maybe other ships will be coming in here. If nothing else, they may leave.”

She hesitated, as if she was thinking about what she told him next.

“And, O’Reilly, are you listening to me? If you didn’t get the comp keys, they’re in top drawer of my dresser. My real name is Sandy. Sandra Kreja. Kieran was right. The ship’s real name is Le Cygne. I don’t know how he guessed.”

Finbar was signed frantically, but Alex could hear what he indicating: sounds of the Lucy being grappled.

“And boarded.”

He indicated a service shaft and started climbing it. The others followed. Finbar used a large wrench to help him climb.

Alex understood why: to keep himself from falling if the pirates decided to accelerate their ship. Or Lucy itself.

Paddy was following Finbar’s example, wedging his large wrench into small spaces to give himself an extra handhold. He almost fell but Finbar caught him.

Paddy was mumbling about the damage he had done earlier.

“I know she said not to fix anything,” the Engineer said, “but I’d better at least take a look at that power junction.”

Alex didn’t remember Allison saying anything about repairs, so he decided to let Paddy go ahead.

“Just be quiet about it.”

Kieran heard the boarding party before he actually saw them enter the bridge.

“Pointing their rifles at me.”

They didn’t ask the captain’s permission before they started searching.

“Or mine.”

Watching from the corner of his eye, he could see Captain Allison acting nonchalant.

Most of the boarders were wearing battle armor. One who was unarmored was sitting in the captain’s chair.

“Probably an officer.”

Doing nothing.

“Meddling in everything.”

He could hear the other troopers getting into the core. Soon he heard them in the cargo area as well.

“Not so easy to search down there.”

Especially with the cargo cannisters all sealed. Eventually the noise from the core disappeared.

The officer was still doing nothing when Kieran felt the unmistakable pull of acceleration.

“That’s not Lucy’s engines,” Allison told him quietly.

As the pull increased, pressing him harder and harder into his seat, he realized only a military carrier could pull that many g’s. They were being taken wherever the Mazianni carrier wanted them to go.

He hoped it was to the station.

Then he realized that such an acceleration would have turned any service shaft running fore and aft into pits that could break the bones of anyone falling down them.

He hoped Alex and the others were ready for that.

For all their preparations, Alex and Finbar fell when the acceleration ramped up to levels only a military vessel could reach.

Paddy caught them both.

“Using the wrench trick I taught him.”

Kieran saw the name of a Mazianni ship stenciled on the armor of the closest trooper: Australia.

“And the trooper saw me looking.”

Australia meant Tom Edger, Conrad Mazian’s second-in-command.

“A man of no gentle reputation.”

A military cargo, Mallory had told them. He began to suspect Mallory set them up so she could deliver military cargo to Edger and Australia.

“But that doesn’t square with what I heard about Captain Mallory at Pell.”

The officer was demanding something from Allison. He was no longer in the captain’s chair. He was in her face.

“I need the comp opened up. You want to give it to me easy?”

“No,” she said. “I trade. Maybe run a little contraband here and there. I’ve dealt with the far side of the law before this. And before I trade my best deal off, I’ll deal with Edger himself.”

He realized only a marginer like Allison would have a plan ready. A plan to negotiate with pirates.

“You know,” the officer smiled lazily, “I wouldn’t recommend that.”

“I’m not stupid. I don’t plan to die over a cargo. I figure we’re going to offload it at Venture.”

Now that they were decelerating for a rendezvous, Kieran was figuring they were already at Venture. Allison was still negotiating with the pirate in her face.

“Figure you’ve got that sewed up tight,” she told the Mazianni officer. “Fine. You want the cargo. Fine. I’m not anyone’s hero. Neither is my partner. I’ll talk to Edger, and I’m minded to deal, you can figure that. Might work out something.”

Kieran O’Reilly was studying the pirate’s face. And the Mazianni was studying Allison’s.

For a long time.

A seam-faced pale man, the intruder onto Lucy, of indefinite age. Kieran could tell he was on Rejuv. With eyes as dead as his face, even as he nodded.

“We’ll go with that.” The Mazianni walked back to the controls.

Kieran heard the ungrapple. And watched the pirate dock them at a station.

After the grapple was released and docked, Alex heard the sounds of comings and goings.

“For a while.”

And then nothing. For a long time.

“Not nothing,” he told the others. “Machinery sounds.” Like the noise of unloading.

And then even the sounds of canisters being unloaded ended. More silence. For another long time.

It was time to put his command training to some use. They were all shifting in their shaft.

“As if everybody’s muscles are getting as cramped as mine.”

Thinking about Sandy’s orders to stay put, Alex realized that the marginer – whom he still thought of as “Allison,” even though he now knew her name was Sandy – never anticipated that they would hauled to a space station. So he had to consider their alternatives.

Paddy suggested hacking the external cameras. He gave his permission and soon they were looking at grainy images on Paddy’s PADD.

Kieran looked around at the tight gathering in a cold dockside office. A dozen Mazianni, mostly officers, in a dingy, aged facility heated by a portable unit.

“With some lights burned out.”

He saw burn scars on the walls.

“That speaks of violence here at some point,” he told himself. Heavy weapons.

Allison was standing across the disk from Edger himself. Kieran himself was back among the guns and troopers.

“I told you,” Allison said to Edger, “I’ve got no inclination to heroics. You want to deal, I’ll deal.”

Kieran was trying to read the pirate captain’s face. He got nothing.

“What do you have to deal with?” Edger wanted to know.

“Look,” Allison pleaded. “I don’t want any trouble. You keep your hands of my ship and my crewman.”

When Edger seemed to relax, she motioned as if she wanted to sit in a chair.

“You mind? Captain to captain, as it were.”

Edger didn’t smile as he nodded to a trooper who gave her a chair to sit in. Across the table from Edger.

“Do I figure right?” Allison pushed it. “You’ve got your sights on Pell? Maybe Mallory’s playing your game out there; maybe you’re going to pull it off.”

When she mentioned Mallory, Kieran could see the hate in Edger’s eyes.

“Mortal hatred,” Kieran noted to himself. “He really doesn’t like Mallory.”

Allison seemed to have noticed as well. She switched tactics, acting as if she intended to betray Captain Mallory all along.

“Her cargo aboard. She hauled me in before undock. Said she was watching. And she’s out there. Overjumped us. Just watching. That’s all I know. I’m not particular. You want Mallory’s cargo, welcome to it. And if you want trade done somewhere across the Line, I’m willing. But not Pell. Not and answer questions back there.”

Kieran thought about everything he knew about Mazian’s second in command: a mass murderer.

“So is Mallory, for that matter,” he reminded himself. “Back in her Company Fleet days. Her Privateer days.” Never a pirate, though.

There was a fixation in Edger’s eyes, however, that tightened the hairs on Kieran’s nape. No dockside justice ever promised Edger’s kind of dealing.

Then the pirate captain brought Kieran himself into the conversation: “Suppose we discuss it with your man back there.”

In unison, Keiran and Allison blurted: “Discuss what?”

“I’ll discuss Mallory.” Allison had recovered her composure, even if he had not. “I’ve got no percentage in it.” Last time I saw her, she was off Olympus."

“Doing what?”

“Waiting for something. Norway’s working with Union. That’s the rumor. They’ve got all the nullpoints sewed up, and Mallory’s working with Union. So they say.”

“You know what was in your cargo?”

“Military cargo. I got hazard rates.”

“Junk,” Edger told her. “Station recycling.”

“She set me up!” Allison yelled. “That bastard bitch set me up! She knew what was here and sent me into it.”

Kieran was trying to figure out what was going on. But he wasn’t getting anything.

“Look, I don’t know anything,” Allison was saying. “I swear to you, I’m a marginer with legal troubles. And Mallory offered me hazard rate for a haul … offered me a way out and a profit. And she set me up. She bloody well set me up.”

Alex told Finbar to lead the way once they decided to sneak into the bridge to seize control of Lucy.

He was able to surprise the officer they had left at the controls.

“Unfortunately, my first shot went wild. Setbacks are opportunities for greatness, however, and my second shot took his head right off.

He saw Paddy was already working on the engines.

Alex headed for Allison’s quarters and found the note she had left them.

In addition to the comp codes, it read: “Alex, if you are reading this, one of two things has happened. In either case, take care of her.”

They weren’t sure what that meant.

“Probably written before she agreed to give us the codes,” he told Alex.

“And before we agreed not to use the codes if she wasn’t around to do whatever it was she did with the audio.”

When they keyed in the code, a young man’s voice resounded through the bridge.

“Hello, Sandy. How are you?”

“Hunh?” was all he could think of to say.

The soldiers were suddenly reacting. Kieran found himself being manhandled out of the makeshift office.

Didn’t take much to figure out they were pulling out. The Mazianni could not afford to sit at rest if Mallory was on the loose.

“And that’s what those alarms must mean.”

A warship out of jump not shedding its velocity. Norway could be down their throats scant minutes behind their lightspeed bow wave of ID and interference. Could blow them out of this fragile, antique of a station.

“The alarms and the explosions must mean that’s what’s happening.” Although the explosions seemed a little distant. “Maybe she’s not shooting at the station.” He seemed to remember that Mallory wanted Venture station operational.

If he could just remember if that was part of one the theories he had just tossed out the airlock.

Out on the dock, the soldier boys tried to split them up, taking Allison to the Lucy and Kieran to the Australia. She objected, so they shot her.

“Then they shot me.” And left them both to bleed out on the docks.

Alex tried to get the computer to show him Lucy’s armaments.

“Sandy, is there a problem?” the voice asked. “I can instruct in security procedures if you ask me. In any case, secure the bridge. This is always your last retreat. Stay calm. Always keep food and water on the bridge in case. Keep a gun by you and power down the rest of the sectors if it comes to that.”

Finbar was thinking more clearly than he was. About security, anyway.

“The voice is right,” Finbar said. “You have to put the locks on.”

“But Kieran and Sandy are gone. The pirates have them out there somewhere.

“You have to make sure there is no one left on the ship,” Finbar insisted. “Especially the holds. Putting the locks on and powering down the life support should take care of that.”

Alex was doing something with the ship’s computer.

“How may I help you?” the voice repeated.

Kieran saw a menu on the screen: Security Finance Plumbing Navigation Customs Law Banks Exchange In Case.

Paddy threw the output from the external cameras up on the main screen.

They saw a desolate image of a primitive torus, vacant except for the vast bulk of a carrier berthed near them and another object that might be another freighter docked further on, indistinct in the dark and curve of the station.

Kieran ability to diagnose himself was limited.

“I can see Allison needs first aid.”

So he applied his first aid, staunching her bleeding.

Then he passed out.

Finbar got a freight trolley over to their wounded crewmembers. But Paddy had to lift Allison to the cart.

…Their 1st Mission

Finbar watched Megan grab her navigation simulation equipment, and say goodbye to the captain and Nancy.

Nancy O’Reilly rolled her eyes at Finn as the helmswoman – Helm 33 on Dublin, soon to become Helm 1 on Lucy – hied herself off toward the bridge.

“Gotta say ‘bye’ to Uncle Patrick,” she snickered.

Paddy told him he was going back to Starship and Taylor to pick up some electronic parts.

“We got all the boards for Lucy’s backups,” he pointed out.

“I just want some basic stuff for making robots,” the tinkerer explained. “I want to be able to fiddle around in my spare time.”

“Oh, well,” Finbar sighed. “Engineers gotta engineer. Sparkly robots.”

Watching Alex say his awkward goodbyes, he decided to couch his goodbyes to family and friends more as a vacation.

“Do you want me to bring anything back?”

He was expecting them to say something about geegaws from Sol, exotic sculptures made of wood that didn’t grow on Downbelow or Cyteen. When they couldn’t come up with anything, he decided to tease them.

“Okay, okay. I hear you, I hear you, he laughed. “‘Finbar we’re jealous that you get to do something so awesome! We don’t know what we’re missing. Cultural immersion, exploration’,” he continued.

But most importantly: agency.

“Joke all you want, I’ll bring you all back a ’world’s biggest hypersphere of circuitry’.”

Laughing all the way to the Lucy.

He ran into Paddy who was racing back to S&T.

“One last thing,” the engineer shouted at him. “A database of old 2d movie files, including all the epic space fantasies.”

Finbar thought about what Allison said about Lucy’s entertainment rig: “a deck of cards.”

“I hope he remembers.”

When he got to the bridge, the newly minted Cargo 1 saw Megan was already at her station. Peaking over her shoulder, he saw she had it set up as Nav 1.

“Tuning it up,” she told him. He knew Megan would do anything to give herself an advantage.

“Couldn’t hurt.” At least she would be familiar with Lucy’s controls.

By the time Paddy was back from his final shopping trip – successful apparently – Finbar was already putting in the new boards.

“I slotted the boards which in here before into the main slots,” he explained. “That way we can put the heavily used ones into the backup slots.”

“Sounds good to me,” Paddy replied. Almost as if he was glad Finbar was helping with the grunt-work of engineering.

“Now that our cargo cannisters are showing up from Mallory, I’ll be expecting you all to help with the loadout.”

As Megan fumbled with the Nav controls, Allison said, “You’re good.”

“That’s not how we talk about ourselves,” he said to Allison. “You are what you say you are. Every day is a clean slate to start over and be a new you.”

When he saw the puzzled look on the captain’s face, he wondered if the compliment was meant as sarcastically as he had assumed.

“Maybe she really does mean it.” Megan was trying to get the controls down pat.

Paddy was really hyped to discover whether the vanes of the Lucy’s jump drive had been damaged during Allison’s mad dash to catch up with Dublin Again at Pell.

“I know she was burned out,” he told himself as he squirmed through the crawlspaces in the hypervanes themselves. “Let’s she if she burned anything else out.”

What he found was well maintained drives.

“Engines are reading as nominal,” he radioed to the bridge. “We are good to jump.”

The only reply he got was from Megan, who told him she was finally getting the hang of the Nav controls.

“Old?” he asked.

“Almost antiques. Good basic design, though. Dublin’s stick is based on it.”

When he got back to the bridge, Megan told him they were wanted outside for loading.

“We’re Cargo on this vessel,” she laughed.

“Everybody’s Cargo with a crew this small.”

Fortunately, Finbar – their Cargo Chief – believed in using engineers to run the forklift while he did the heavy lifting himself.

“Not that we’re not all doing a lot of heavy lifting.” He knew that Alex and Kiernan had to do a lot of Cargo work on Dublin as part of the Command training. “But some of the others probably haven’t done this much physical labor in their lives.”

Still, he was glad he was about to help out with the forklift.

Once they were back on the bridge, Allison took the captain’s chair, with Alex beside her. She assigned Alex – as Alterday captain – to sort out who would be on each shift.

She explained that they might all be sitting on the bridge during some of the most important operations.

“Most of the time, though, we’ll have only one crew on the bridge. I’ve not had enough crew the last few years to do more than one-on-ones for our shifts.”

When it was time for undock, she addressed Paddy directly.

“Engineer 1, release the grapples.”

He hit his big red button and heard the satisfying clank of the docking grapples unhooking. Allison feathered the jets lightly to move them away from the station.

“One of them’s a little out of alignment. I use it.”

He felt the roll they got from the misaligned jet as she deftly maneuvered away from the station.

He saw Megan, her station set up as Helm 2, watching closely.

Their captain even showed them the courtesy of aiming a camera at Dublin Again.

“There she goes,” Allison said as she put the image on the main screen. “That’s goodbye for a while.”

Another voice was talking in his right ear, relayed by Alex, who was sitting Comm 1. The voice of Dublin wishing them well.

“Reply,” Allison directed Alex. And a message went out in return.

Paddy noticed no interruption: No move faltered; the data kept coming, and now they did a slow turnover.

“A drifting maneuver.”

“Cargo secure,” the word came from Finbar.

“Got that,” Allison acknowledged. “Stand by for rotation.”

She pushed a button. and the rotation lock synched in.

Paddy felt the slow complication of cabin stresses: a settling of backsides and bodies into cushions and arms to sides.

“And minds into a sense of up and down,” he reminded himself.

“You have plenty of time to pick out cabins and stow that gear.”

Paddy asked if they were doubling up after examining the cabins and finding them designed as two-person arrangements. Allison told him there were plenty to choose from and they could each have their own room.

As he tried to walk around the ring, he found the loft was sealed. To vacuum, if the bulkhead’s gauges were correct.

“The loft.” Where every ship he knew kept it’s nursery for the youngest kids. “Those not yet allowed to take leave on the docks.”

When he came back to the bridge and took over Scan 1 from Finbar, he saw a big ship on the move. Military.

“Norway’s outbound," he announced sharply.

“On her own business, I’ll reckon,” the captain predicted from the lounge.

He put it on the main vid as the giant warship passed them like they were standing still.

“See if you can get their heading,” Allison asked Alex, who was back at Communications 1.

“Station’s refused the answer,” he replied. “Got it blanked. Norway’s not tracked on any schematic, and longscan isn’t handling her.”

“Bet they’re not,” Allison muttered as she walked her drink back to the captain’s chair. “Reckon she’s on a hunt. Out where we’re going.”

Allison let Megan do most of the run out to the jump range. When they got out there, he could see Megan was getting nervous at the Helm 2 station.

“You don’t have the comp keys posted,” she said. “I don’t get the jump function under general Nav.”

“Better let me do the jump setup,” Allison suggested. “This time. I know her.”

“Right,” Megan said. “You want to walk me through it?”

“Let me set it up this time. You’re supposed to be on Alterday.”

When the captain had the jump set up, they all buckled in and she took them through the hyperspace jump.

Paddy knew Megan was stressed when she came out of jump.

“Alex, too.” Not as bad as Megan. “She’s thinking about her cabin.”

Paddy saw Finbar had something on scan.

“Just before dump.” Allison was feathering a pulse to slow them down.

“Norway detected," Finbar’s voice rang out.

“Communications detects no comms,” Alex said. “Beyond ID.”

“Picking up something close on the scans!” Finbar’s voice was urgent.

Their captain was still calm.

“Mainday shift, let Alterday have it.”

He watched Megan goes to her room to rest."

Alex ordered Finbar to go help her.

“Take a MedKit.”

Now that Paddy was sitting Scan 1, he saw something, taking some chances with output on longscan.

Alex, sitting in The Chair for the first time in his life, saw activity on Paddy’s screens.

“New contact!” Paddy cried. “Ship just came out from behind the star.”

Taking Comm 1, Alex saw the ID and announced it.

“Alliance ridership Odin.”

Allison was in the seat beside him in seconds.

“One of Mallory’s riders,” she said.

“Another ID: Alliance ridership Thor.”

Allison, again: “Deployed before we got here.”

“Seems kind of suspicious to me,” Paddy offered. “Why would they be there? And what’s in that cargo they handed us?”

Alex’s guess was station goods and chemicals.

“What they need to keep a station running,” he said. “I’d even bet it was Konstantin Company cargo. Same as we would’ve gotten.”

We’re being prodded at. He didn’t say that out loud.

“Movement, fast,” Paddy reported. “Contact! Odin is on intercept with us!”

“No contact.” from Allison. “We keep going on about our business. We let them escort us through the point. If that’s what they have in mind. But we don’t open up to them. Let the contact be theirs.”

His Comm board was lit. “Message incoming: ‘Escort to outgoing range. Request exact time and range of Lucy’s departure from Pell’. Repeating message. Requesting acknowledgement. Want to talk to captain.”

So he set the incoming message to broadcast on the whole-bridge audio. And patched Allison’s mic to answer.

“…accurate. Lives ride on absolute accuracy, Lucy. Do you copy that?”

“Say again,” Allison was saying. “What’s he talking about?”

“To whom am I speaking?” the voice of Odin asked. “To Stevens?”

“This is Stevens. Trying to get your calculations, if you’ll blasted well give me time.”

Alex could tell Paddy was feeding data to Allison’s board. Dangerously fast.

“You ship will proceed to Venture as scheduled,” Odin Command continued. “You’ll dock and discharge your cargo. You have three days for station call. To the hour. And you’ll return to this jump point on that precise schedule.”

Allison was reading from her board: “Precise time local: 2/02:0600 mainday. Locator: 8868:0057.35 tracking on referents. Pell chart 05700.”

“2/02:0600 precise?” Odin’s audio came back.

“You want our mass reckoning?” Allison’s voice sounded desperate. “0600:34.”

“We copy 0600:34. Your reckoning is not needed. No further questions, Lucy. We find that agreeing our estimate. Congratulations. Endit.”

“Wow,” Paddy said. “These people are a bit high-strung….”

“Military,” Allison said. As if that explained everything.

“Allison,” he decided. “We need to talk about the comp keys.”

Hearing Megan’s snores from the other room, he decided their Helm 1 had fallen asleep without closing the door to her cabin.

Sending Paddy to close the door, Alex explained in his most conciliatory tone: “We now appear to be in the middle of a military operation. You being the only one who can access the computer’s most sensitive systems has become a security issue.”

His watch was now convinced she has been through a severe trauma.

“Almost certainly the loss of her entire family,” Paddy whispered. “The entire loft appears to have been blown from the main board.”

Armed with that, the Engineer 1 was able to put forward a reasoned argument that they all needed the codes which would give them access to the entire ship’s computer.

“Look,” Allison admitted, “I don’t mind giving to access to the computers, but I…”

“Yes?” Alex prompted.

“I just prefer to do the logins myself. For now.”

As she walked them through the login procedures, Alex noticed she turned off the sound while she was doing it. He also noted that Paddy was watching her hands even more closely than Alex himself.

“I just hope she didn’t spot you looking,” he told Paddy when they compared notes later.

Armed with this knowledge, he was able to get Allison to tell him that her cousins – Yuri and Mitri – had programmed special audio instructions into the comp.

“I don’t know how to turn them off permanently.” Alex wasn’t sure she wanted to. “So I just turn off the sound. They sound like they’re talking to a little girl.”

Which they probably were.

“I understand,” he said out loud. “We’ll let you log in. You can turn off the sound.”

Once she was awake again, Megan decided the extra effort needed to push herself was worth the risk. The proto-star was little more than a thick disk of gasses.

“But I know how to run past it.”

Her orders came from Allison: “True a line crosspoint, and don’t get fancy about it.”

When they got to the jump range for Olympus, she set up the next jump.

First time doing it for real. “Referent locked,” she said aloud.

“Take ’er through.”

She’s letting me do the jump myself. Megan resolved not to get sick this time.

By the time they got to Olympus, she was hot-dogging.

Olympus was a cold brown star.

“Not much bigger than a gas giant.” She found it in the hazy miasma of jumpspace.

Megan burped into the barf bag, quickly regaining composure. Some quick First Aid and she was back in business, showing off as she swung through the next star system.

Scan showed Norway was out there.

“Waiting near the jump range.” Patience wasn’t something she believed of Mallory.

But there was no sign of the big warship at their next nullpoint.

Alex was going to need serious medical attention.

“His turn for the stress.” She remembered the feeling from their first jump. As she steered clear of the queasiness this time.

Thule was empty when she dropped them into the system around the Class-M star.

She saw Alex was stressed again. This time Allison handed him a clean barf bag.

“Glad I’m not responsible for that Medical treatment. He’s gonna need the sick bay.”
Wondering if Lucy even had one.

After taking t;hem through the Thule system at a speed designed to impress Allison – “even if she did match jumps with _Dublin”_ – Megan requested Helm 1.

“Ok,” their captain smiled. " Take ’er through.

Silence greeted them at Venture.

“Not even a beacon, assigning us a route.” They had been told to expect that.

…For Getting out of Trouble

Paddy saw Alex gathering their watch in the spaceport bar on Pell.

“I guess he wants to make sure we’re all on the same page,” the engineer told himself as his CO was outlining their plan.

“First, we need to get past customs to check The Lucy out.”

“Good luck with that,” he muttered.

“Once we’ve got that done, we must evaluate The Lucy in terms of fitness,” Alex continued. " The evaluate Allison in terms of fitness. I’d also like to figure out why the military is interested in Allison and The Lucy and what other debts Allison may have."

When Finbar suggested they may need to consult Dublin Again’s legal staff to get some papers – “and the comp codes from Allison” – Paddy had to agree.

“My bamboozling with the engineering threat doesn’t seem to be working.”

Megan suggested a little extra effort might help, but he knew paperwork was more likely to get him past the bureaucrats. That was when they got a call to appear before the Council.

“The entire ship’s Council of Dublin Again. Something I’ve never seen before.” Not that he really wanted to. “More bureaucrats.” At least they were spacer bureaucrats. Dublin bureaucrats.

Captain Patrick eyed the engineer in the corner, thinking that maybe Allison Stevens was not the one who needed the psyche eval.

“Your entire watch is not represented, 17,” he intoned.

“Oh these ’effing stationers are off their rockers!” the engineer was muttering. “What do they think is goin’ to happen if they don’t get those warp engines looked at? What do they think’ll happen to their precious customs security if the ship blows up? They seem to think their effing bureaucracy will save them from anything. But I’ll tell you what… Th’ laws of physics don’t care about their bureaucracy! If there’s a coolant leak, or any number of other un-managed issues for that matter, the bottle could go critical and take out a chunk of this station with it.”“But in the meantime, they just want to clear out traffic in the area and let it sit. Effing stationers! You’d think they’d care more about their station than that! Oh well, I’m half tempted to just let it sit and be ready with the, ‘I told you so!’ They can go suck on their bureaucracy!”

Alex O’Reilly – also known as Command 17, on the Dublin – was ignoring the lack of etiquette on the part of his watch. So Patrick O’Reilly decided to follow his lead.

“He’s going to have to set the standards on his own watch.” It was looking like that watch was not going to be on the Dublin Again. “Every ship has its own etiquette.” Perhaps that was the first law of spacer etiquette.

“I’m going to approve the request for financing," he told Alex. "That’s contingent on the rest of your watch applying for transfer.” He turned to the other unposteds standing between him and the Council. They all nodded as he contemplated what it meant to ask another ship to consider withdrawing their complaint.

“As for the complaint brought against Lucy, I’ll let you know it’s all been stalled off,” he continued. At first, he had worried about the proper procedures for approaching the other captain.

Then he considered the etiquette violations in the original complaint. “Which was filed without consulting other captains.” Including the one captain whose ship had been tied to the Lucy. “Not proper protocol.” In Captain Patrick’s opinion.

“Lulubelle is the ship which filed the complaint. I’ve talked to her Old Lady. She says there’s nothing personal involved.”

Alex felt Captain Patrick’s eyes burrowing into his.

“You’ve phrased this as a temporary tour.”

“Um, yes, sir.”

“You’ll keep your status then. Your watch will not be vacated.”

“On behalf of my watch, thank you.”

“Here’s a Show-Cause order. It will force the Dockmaster to show a reason why Allison should be prevented from boarding her ship.”

“So without the Lulubelle’s complaint…”

“She will be able to assist you in getting aboard.” To check the condition of their new vessel. “Here are the loan papers. And a voucher for the dock charges.”

He could see Paddy was already eyeing the Show-Cause order.

“I’ll be talking to you. Privately. Now." The captain turned to the others in the room. “Council’s dismissed.”

As the Council filed out of the chambers – through the bridge – Captain Patrick turned his gaze back to Alex. "Come to the Bridge.”

Alex nodded at the rest of his watch and they followed the Council back to the docks. The captain led him to the bridge and sat in his chair as they finished exiting.

“I take it you’re set on this.”

Alex was still examining the papers as Paddy snatched one.

“Applying to take a tour off Dublin. Applying for finance into the bargain.”

He could see the numbers on the loan were much higher than he had dared to ask.

“We have an opportunity to extend the reach of our family’s trading empire in a significant way during this time of change and upheaval.” He was determined to make his case, even if the loan had already been approved by the Council.

“The Lucy is a ship that made two jumps in an extremely short period, it’s definitely an asset.”

The captain was smiling. He took that as a good sign.

“Her captain is amiable towards a long-term loan by which we can pay off her debts, buy cargo and make any repairs or upgrades that The Lucy may require. We humbly submitted the loan agreement and our financial plan for your approval.”

“I don’t want you to skimp on the refit,” Captain Patrick told him. “Good crew deserves good pay and good accommodations.”

“There are still a number of challenges we’ll need to overcome,” Alex continued, “not the least of which is a customs seal on the ship that is preventing The Lucy’s captain from letting us onboard to verify her condition.”

“I think you’ll find the Show-Cause order your watchmate just grabbed will take care of that.”

“This is a tremendous opportunity for not only the unposteds but also the O’Reilly family in general.

“Remember: You’re still an O’Reilly. You come between someone and their ship … and you know what you’re doing.”

As he returned to the Lucy, he got a report from about Paddy’s efforts to bully his way from Finbar.

“They’re admitting they don’t have the authority to stop authorized personnel from inspecting the ship,” his Cargo Chief told him. “But Paddy doesn’t have the comp keys.”

“Well, get them from Allison…. Or, I will. I’m headed for the sleepover right now.”

Cargo Officer Finbar O’Reilly paused on the other end of the comm.

“I’m afraid he may have already offended the militia, sir.”

“How?”

“They don’t seem to like the way Paddy’s treating the customs people. They’re just civilians. And they’re calling the Dockmaster to get approval to remove the customs seal.”

“Get the others to help.”

“They are, sir,” Finbar replied. “If you ask me, Megan is pushing herself a little too hard.”

When he got to Lucy’s berth, he saw his Helm officer was looking a little peaked.

And Paddy was finally getting some results with the Show-Cause papers.

Allison told him she had no concern about an inspection

“As long as it doesn’t involve authorities,” she whispered.

Still, Paddy was convinced she wasn’t telling them everything.

“We’ve got a lot of missing back-ups,” he said, referring to redundant parts that could be swapped out if the equipment being used to fly the vessel should fail. “Some of them are on the main board!”

Still, he was relieved they knew which parts needed to be ordered.

“Make sure they’re all on the list of things we need to buy.”

Alex read Paddy’s report on the condition of the ship they just purchased.

“Lucy is old, but she is neither a super spy ship, nor a junker. The frame is reliable and well-maintained. Indeed, many of the newer models are based on this design. Kicking off her drive vanes and replacing them with a more modern jump engine would turn her into a top-notch (if small) cargo hauler.”

Finbar O’Reilly watched Alex read the report as he patched his PADD in the Market Computer Maeve used back on the Dublin.

“Well, that didn’t take long,” he told his CO. “We’ve got a contract to haul Konstantin Company cargo to Venture.”

Alex looked that up on his own PADD.

“They really want to keep those Hinder Stars open.”

“If they’re not open to Konstantin cargo,” he offered, “they’ll have to turn to the black market.”

“Which means pirates.”

“Which goes a long way to telling us why the Konstantins are paying us good money to haul to the Hinder Stars.”

Now Alex was getting them organized for a shopping trip.

“To Lord and Starship.”

Allison objected they were too expensive.

“They overcharge for everything there,” Finbar heard her tell Alex.

“There’s a discount if you do your whole outfitting there. Besides, you’ve got a first-class crew, you’ve gotta outfit yourself first-class. Starting with those overalls.”

“You gonna wear those silver leathers in Lucy’s crawlspaces? Get ’em real dirty.”

“There’s work clothes, and there’s flash. We’ll get you some flash. But we’ll buy jumpsuits for work as well.”

“Shouldn’t we have nice patches?” Kieran asked.
“Le Cygne right? A swan?”

From the crestfallen look on Allison’s face, he knew he had said something wrong.

“That’s not just surprise,” he told himself. “That’s terror. Sheer terror at being found out.”

He tried to backpedal. He had guessed the real name for Lucy. He knew it now. He had been kinda proud to have figured it out. Le Cygne was a well-known ship. One of Dublin Again’s bridge crew – Chief Cargo Officer Maeve O’Reilly – was rumored to have been fathered by a crewman off of Le Cygne.

“A long time ago.” Not much contact with Le Cygne in recent years. “Rumor has it, she was ransacked by Mazianni,” he remembered. And Allison said her family was killed by pirates. “Mazianni pirates.”

“My bad,” he apologized to Allison. “I was just going by the similarity of the name.”

“No,” she stammered. “No relation.”

He was pretty sure everybody there knew she was lying.

But why?

They ended up deciding on a variation on the gaudy nymph Allison wore on her shoulder.

“More tasteful.” Alex suggested when he picked it out.

By which Kieran assumed he meant “less pornographic.”

Megan would have thought the past few days would have made her less susceptible to surprise.

“Mallory is in port,” Alex told her. That much she knew. Mallory was the captain of the only warship in the Alliance fleet. When Norway docked, everybody knew. “They want to talk to Allison.”

Alex was of the opinion they should go with her. She agreed.

“Present a united front.”

Their escort: one Josh Talley.

“Alliance Military intelligence.” Lately seen watching them in the Dockmaster’s Office.

He took them to an ordinary airlock at an ordinary berth. With an ordinary tube leading to a ship.

“Just like the one we used to leave the Dublin Again.” After their meeting with the captain.

Megan knew the starship on the other end of the tube was anything but ordinary. The guards posted outside, wearing the same uniform as Talley, gave it away.

The brisk efficiency of the people they passed gave it away as well.

“We’re on a warship,” she told herself. Fully aware the war might not be over for these efficient soldiers."

Spacers, she tried to convince herself. Just a different kind of spacer.

They reached the door of an office and got a come-ahead light.

Talley introduced Allison. “Captain,” he said. “Stevens of the merchanter Lucy.”

The silver-haired captain behind the desk introduced herself. “Mallory.” To Allison. Not to the rest of them.

“You’re getting clearance to go out. On the Venture run. I understand there’s some question, Captain, about your ID.”

Megan had never seen Allison at a loss for words before. She always had a comeback, an excuse, a clever explanation. In the face of the captain of Norway, Megan saw she had nothing.

“You don’t have any comment.”

“I… I thought it was settled.”

“Is there an irregularity, Captain?" Softly. Staring straight at her.

“Look,” Allison began, “I just want the lock off my ship. I’ve got a cargo lined up.” She looked at Alex. “We’ve got a cargo. I’ve got everything else in order. Just because some merchanter…”

“Let me see your papers, Captain.”

Allison handed over the papers. The Show-Cause. The voucher. The title.

“These are new.” Handing some back. “Except for the title papers, of course.” Mallory felt of the older paper. “You know this kind of paper gets traded on the market. Has to get from one station to the other, after all; and across the docks. And I know places where you can get it. Don’t you, Captain?”

“I’m legitimate.”

“So.” Mallory passed the title back to Allison. “So. Linked up with Dublin Again, are you? A very respectable operation. That does say something for you. Unionsider.”

“I… I plan to operate… We plan to operate here. On the Alliance side.”

“Oh, relations are very good with Union at the moment. They’re supplying ships and troops up and down the Line. We have no quarrel with Union origins. You plan to stay here, do you? Operate as Dublin’s pipeline out of the Sol trade?”

“I don’t know how things will work out.” Allison seemed to be regaining her confidence, her ability to answer every question quickly. Every question right.

Megan could tell Mallory wasn’t taken in. Was prodding at Allison, to find some provocation.

“Your certification comes through us,” Mallory said, glancing at Talley. “We’ve got a problem, Captain. We’ve got Mazianni activity between us and Sol, into the Hinder Stars. Does that bother you?”

“It bothers me.”

“They’d like to cut us off, you understand? It’s a lot of territory to patrol. And they win, simply by scaring merchanters out of that run. We’ve got two stations coming back into operation, and we’re doing what we can to keep the zones clear. We’ll be out at the nullpoints, making sure you’re not ambushed there. We’ve got a rare agreement on the other side of the Line. Union’s sealing up Tripoint and Brady’s and anyother point you can name.”

Megan saw Mallory’s gaze shift hard, back to Allison.

“You play the shy side of legal, do you? Marginer. I’ll reckon you’re no stranger to the fringes. Lying off in space. Operating out of the nullpoints. Doing trading on the side, without customs looking on. I’ll bet you have a fine sense of what’s trouble and what’s not.”

A fine sense. Megan guessed Allison’s fine sense of what’s trouble might have something to do with the reason she was tongue-tied again.

“Might stand you in good stead.” Softly, again. “It’s a place out there – that makes nerves survival-positive. We’ll be there, Captain. I really want you to know that.”

All delivered very softly. Megan had no idea what it promised."

“You can go. You’ll find the obstacles clear. But I have news for you. Your Konstantin Company cargo is cancelled. You’ll be carrying military cargo. You’ll be paid hazard rate. An advantage. You’ll be taking it aboard in short order and undocking at 0900. Mainday.”

“Like that.”

“Like that.”

“I thought… I thought I was under military investigation.”

“You are. Good evening, Captain.”

“Maybe I don’t want this. Maybe I want to change my mind.”

“Do you, Captain? I’d prefer not.”

And Megan decided she’d prefer that Alex say something. He didn’t.

“All right,” Allison agreed. “You protect us?”

“As best we can, Captain.”

Never Stevens. Just Captain.

All of her Security training was screaming at her as they walked back to the ship.

Screaming that Allison was right when she whispered to them as they crossed the docks.

“I think she wants that spread up and down the docks.”

The others nodded in agreement.

…To Sort out Allison’s problems…

…And Paddy has trouble getting onto the Lucy.

Alex O’Reilly watched Nancy – from the posted crew – drop her forehead onto the bar.

“Rose, you are still sick after that last bar hop?” she said into her Comm. “I’m not built for psychology. this is on your head.” Smiling darkly, she added “However, this might be fun.”

“Just see what you can figure out about Allison psych profile,” he asked her. “We need to know if we can work with her.”

The CO of the unposteds – Alex wasn’t sure he liked the title, but it was his – asked Allison where she was going.

“We want you to stay put.”

She did need to go to the bank to establish accounts here on Pell. She insisted. And he could see she was right.

When she left the bar, he could see she was not heading for the row of offices where the banks might be found.

“She’s going back towards the docks.” Towards her ship.

Alex panicked. And decided to follow her.

But when she saw the militia guard on her ship, she abruptly changed. He saw she was now headed for the bank.

Megan told him she was going to round up Nancy.

“Good, we’re going to need her for the crew meeting.”

Once his entire watch was gathered – plus Nancy, posted Medical – he told them all they were going to get organized.

“As I see we have six tasks.” Some more urgent than others. “We have to get Allison out of legal jeopardy. We have to get her a Psyche Eval. We need to get the ship unlocked. Then, check the ship, make sure it’s ship shape. We need to figure out what the Alliance people want with her. And finally – this may be the hard one – talk her into some sort of mutually beneficial agreement.”

Paddy was snickering from the back.

“I’ll try to address the legal issues. Paddy, you work on checking out the ship.” He knew Paddy was the one the address whatever safety or engineering issues the Lucy might have. He was not so sure who could get that customs seal off it. “Allison is working on the customs seal.”

And, hypothetically, the militia guard.

He saw Keiran gesturing at the screen behind the bar.

The chyron read, Merchant Vessel, Lulubelle

A photo of a medium sized Merchant ship took up most of the screen.

The bartender saw they were looking and turned up the volume.

“…the complaint appears to have come from a Merchanter just in from across the line, the Lulubelle, The ship in question is well known to our viewers as its comm channel was broadcast yesterday. The captain’s solo run from Mariner was the talk of the station. That apparently attracted the attention of the crew of the Lulubelle. They say the ship is under sanction at Pan-Paris for bad debts.”

He sighed.

“Looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me. Finbar, I want you to look into the economic opportunities on this side of the line. Allison doesn’t seem anxious to go back.” He rolled his eyes toward the screen. Nancy is going to get Rose started on the psychology stuff. Kieran, you’re doing a good job with the press."

“Not really my thing,” his security officer noted.

“Still, the press is often a security concern,” he told Kieran.

He noted that Paddy was no longer snickering. In fact, he was no longer even there.

“I guess I should head over to the bank and help Allison.”

Not waiting around for the rest of his orders, Paddy O’Reilly went straight to the docks. He had a theory about the Lucy.

“If it’s a spotter ship for the pirates – or a marginer with similar need for speed and power, dealing in illicit trades at deserted null-points – it might have a powerful hyperdrive hidden within its tiny exterior.” Those kinds of ship didn’t need a lot of cargo space.

Paddy was always looking for an engineering explanation.

As he approached the customs seal, two militiamen intercepted him.

“Excuse me, where are you going?”

He saw badges identifying them as belonging to Norway, the only ship in the militia fleet capable of interstellar jumps.

Paddy tried to convince the militia a jumpship which came in on a solo run from Mariner was at risk of blowing up. They tried to convince him they had no authority to let him aboard.

“Oi laddie!” he shouted. “If that ship blows let it be on ’yer ’ead then!”

Taking a more conciliatory tone, Paddy explained how a coolant leak could compromise the integrity of the fusion drive.

This did not convince them to let him onto the ship.

“It did convince them to take my retinal prints.” Now they apparently thought he was some kind of mad bomber. “Time to baffle them with BS.”

He launched into a highly technical explanation of the dangers of explosion, which was sufficiently persuasive that they called for backup.

He was still contemplating this success when a batch of Norway marines showed up with an engineering officer at their head.

“So,” the officer asked the militia, “what’s this about a threat to blow up a ship?”

Nancy went back to the Dockmaster’s office to see if she could find Allison.

“I need to let her know Rose is going to speak with her.”

She hoped the marginer wasn’t afraid of shrinks.

“Not that Rose comes across as one.”

Megan heard Alex order to pursue Allison when they spotted her leaving the bank.

“And heading for the Dockmaster’s office.”

Just then, her CO was mobbed by teenyboppers.

“It’s him,” they shouted, pushing forward for autographs.

“Fortunately, they don’t recognize me,” she told him as she headed for the administrative offices after Allison.

Kieran wasn’t really happy with the assignment Alex gave him. Sure he had stepped up when the reporters had mobbed them.

“But I’m not good at this.” The reporters all wanted the story to be about romance. “By which, they mean sex.” Stationers all thought of spacers as sex-crazed libertines.

What he did know was how to create an advantage.

“Friendships with the press.”

He heard Finbar in the corner, cursing at his PADD.

“At least someone else has an assignment they are less that suited for.”

Finbar was supposed to be setting up a business plan for Lucy’s operations on this side of the Pell-Mariner dividing line.

“What used to be the other side in the war.”

“Nevermind,” the cargo officer told his Marketing Computer.

Kieran knew most of Finbar’s cargo experience was on the stevedoring side of operations.

“Sure, he’s a good negotiator.” But most of Finn’s diplomacy skills came from negotiating with entertainers in dockside bars.

He got a text from Alex saying Nancy was helping him escape the fangirls.

“Nancy? Fangirls?”

His reverie contemplating the head nurse helping Alex escape fangirls was interrupted by Megan.

“Alex sent me to help Finbar with the business plan,” she told him.

“He’s over in the corner cursing out his PADD. Or the marketing computer back on the ship.” Kieran wasn’t sure which.

“Alex told me Allison is very protective of her ship,” he heard Megan telling Finbar.

“And Allison wants to hire a crew.”

“Which has to be us. And we’re expensive. More than she’s used to be paying.”

“Sounds like she needs a loan,” Kieran told them, texting the same message to Alex.

He heard Finbar, still cursing.

“50K?” Alex texted back. “That’s what I offered her.”

Kieran knew Alex didn’t have that kind of money.

“That means convincing the Council.” Dublin Again required approval from the ship’s council for loans. “They may want to just purchase the ship outright.” Then they could staff it with posted crew.

“She’ll never go along with that.”

“May not have a choice.”

Megan was looking into trading routes that are common in the Alliance.

“I want to find the most profitable.”

She decided to drag Finbar along with her to the Merchanter’s Guild to see what she could find.

Which gave Kieran a chance to go back to the reporters.

Immediately a complication arose.

“They’re each gonna want their own story!”

They mobbed Alex when he showed up.

“At least he’s willing to help me.”

And Alex was willing to use his fast talk.

“Maybe it’s not his strong suit.” But his CO was willing to risk the complications.

Finbar was texting now.

“Megan’s got a party going. Now we got our advantage.”

Friends at the Merchanter’s Guild.

“Couldn’t hurt.”

Finbar joined the party at the Merchanter’s Guild.

“Using some persuasion.” He wasn’t ready to adopt Megan’s tactics wholesale. The friendship she was forging might have helped.

He went back to his market computer when that came up short.

“The mothballed stations on the Hinder Star are key,” he texted to Kieran. He was making some progress. “Still no breakthroughs, though.”

Scrutinizing the data from Megan’s friends, he discovered trade was not yet re-established with Sol.

“And Earth.”

“Got a breakthrough on the products from the Cyteen side,” he texted.

All he got back was Kieran’s complaints about losing his friendship with the press.

“Alex is taking a firm line with the reporters. Getting them lined up for individual interviews.”

“Things like rejuv or scientific breakthroughs are very light and portable.”

“Just the thing for a small ship.” Kieran was getting it.

“Like a marginer,” he texted back.

Megan was having so much luck with her party-all-out strategy, Finbar decided to join the fun.

“At least we know I’m good at that side of things.” No computers involved.

They headed back to the sleepover with the last piece of the puzzle.

“To pull off a deal that gets unposted crew our own ship,” he explained to Alex when he met them there, “we need to convince Dublin Again to loan Lucy money.”

“A lot of it,” Megan added, “if they are gonna cover any unknown debts.”

Finbar was impressed with the way his CO explained the deal – firmly – to Allison.

“And got her agreement.”

…With a Little Help from his Crew

Dandin O’Reilly was inspired to rethink his estimate of the captain’s reaction to the unposted mess on the docks.

“Ya know,” he told himself, “Captain Patrick doesn’t pay much attention to dockside contretemps. He’s more interested in what happens in the offices of power.”

Where Dandin was currently standing. In the offices of Dockmaster Eileen Quen.

“The stationmaster’s wife. Orphaned when Union had blown up her ship and her entire family at Russell’s.” Rumor had it she had been testing out her relationship with the stationmaster, contemplating a marriage. "A marriage virtually unknown among Merchanters.

He had been half expecting to find the captain here.

“From the warm welcome I got from Quen – even though I came in here like gangbusters – I bet the captain had been quite successful with his dockside diplomacy.” He was hoping his actions hadn’t messed up any of Captain Patrick O’Reilly’s careful diplomacy. “Eileen Quen’s supposed to be the chief organizer of the merchant side of the Merchanter-Pell Alliance.”

The Comms officer headed back to the ship where he could make use of his Communications Array to hack the Alliance computers and find out more about this Josh Talley.

“If I don’t find out more about him before I talk to the captain, I might end up in trouble myself.”

Cultural Studies came to his rescue as he thought about the command questions involved. The captain usually expected his crew to blow off steam on station leave. And he expected Bridge Crew to be more circumspect in dealing with stationers than unposted crew looking to get laid.

His first breakthrough – “Josh Talley was a Union soldier, captured at Russell’s Star” – led to a second.

He knew Russell’s was evacuated when its civilian population became convinced it would fall to the Union.

“That evacuation virtually insured the station there would be captured by the Union forces which were trying to take it.” Apparently Talley was one of those forces captured at Russell’s. “Before it fell.”

That led him to another discovery.

“In the evacuation of Russells’ Star personnel, Josh Talley – as a PoW – was not evacuated with the civilians.” Instead, he was taken out on the warship Norway, which escorted the Merchant vessels conducting the actual evacuation. “Apparently, the military was worried about the dangers to a PoW mixed in with the civilians.” Who might blame him for the evacuation of their station.

When he got back to the ship, Dandin decided to use his Communications Array to hack the records about Talley.

“It may make it more obvious where the intrusion is coming from,” he rationalized, “but getting information about his subsequent career may have greater security protecting it.” Most of the records he had accessed thus far was public records. Looking for what happened at Pell might involve military secrets. “He did end up serving on Norway, after all.”

His first attempt succeeded in cracking military security.

“That’s not where the secure records are hidden.”

Private medical records also were kept secure on Pell. He wasn’t used to that.

“Union was never that concerned about privacy.” That’s why most big Merchant ships had their own medical divisions.

When he concentrated on Talley’s medical records, he found that the PoW underwent voluntary adjustment on Pell. Pell authorities appeared to have approved this treatment reluctantly.

The Comms officer thought out that.

“Pell seems to have strong laws about subjecting its citizens to adjustment.” A common punishment for common criminals in the Union. “Here it seems to be reserved for the worst of the worst.” Only criminals convicted of the most heinous crimes – and considered beyond rehabilitation without erasing their minds – were candidates for adjustment.

Talley came from a civilization where adjustment was more frequent.

“Even common. That must have been part of the reason he requested the radical procedure voluntarily.”

Rumors suggest that the authorities who approved the adjustment – Damon Konstantin, Eileen Quen, and Konstantin’s son – adopted the ex-soldier out of a sense of guilt over the treatment.

Talley subsequently enlisted in the fledgling Alliance Navy, and currently serves on its only warship: Norway. Probably in an intelligence capacity.

“But I already knew that.”

“Don’t worry,” Allison told Alex when he asked what she was going to tell her company. “I’ll talk my way out of it.”

“I’ll bet you will.”

She was remarkably placid about contemplating her ruin. Which she could postpone for a few days. Until Alex had put out from Pell with Dublin Again.

She turned her head and looked at him. Into eyes that were looking directly at her.

“Trying to figure out if I’m telling the truth.” The thought in her head embarrassed her a bit, but it led to all the lies she could tell him: to beg, to cheat him. “Neither of which is palatable.”

She hugged him close and he fell to kissing her.

“Which is another pleasure that’s different with him,” she realized. “Hardly fair. That I’ve fallen into such hands as Alex’s. He can con me in ways I’d never visit on my most deserving victims. He’s having himself a good time, not even maliciously. And I’m paying all I have for it.”

And it was finished if he knew. In all senses. He might not – even then – turn her in. But he would know. And that was – in this moment – as bad as station police.

“Actually,” Alex O’Reilly heard her say, in a lull. “Actually, I’ll tell you the truth. I’m not in trouble with my company. It’s all covered, my shifting to Pell.”

“Oh?” He stiffened, sure now that she was lying. “How?”

“Because I’ve got an account to shift here. I’m a small enough operator the combine gives me a lot of leeway. All they ask is that I make a profit for them. They let me come and go where I can to do that. Wyatt’s can’t be figuring down to the last degree where to break off an operation: That’s my decision to make. You made Pell sound good. I heard the rumors.”

He thought about what that meant. Not him at all. Still she could have taken her time.

“See here,” he told her, taking a stern but diplomatic tone. “I don’t think you’ve told me the truth. And I’ll bet you didn’t tell the truth to customs out there either.”

“So does Dublin tell the whole truth to customs?” she broke down, sobbing again. “Don’t expect me to believe that.”

“Sure, Stevens, … if that’s your real name.”

“OK, it’s not Stevens, but I can’t tell you what it is.”

“And Wyatt’s?”

“Not really, … but…” She was crying openly now.

“Serves me right for asking.” He was committed now. He couldn’t tell Captain Patrick he didn’t know.

“But … I’m honest. In a dockside sort of way. Look, I make money for Wyatt’s. Operating outside their usual sphere of interest. They maintain accounts in places like Mariner in case their ships get stuck there. As long as I put back the money I ‘borrow,’ they don’t notice.”

He nodded. Now he knew what he had only suspected before. He was really committed.

“I usually do better at avoiding attention. The broadcast disaster was because I’m used to Union rules.”

“Mariner Central doesn’t release their conversations with starships,” he admitted.

“Let alone broadcast them.” She told him she wasn’t really stalking him. You can lose me if you want."

She explained how to quash the rumors.

“I know how to distract their attention. Start a very public relationship with someone else. The tabloids will be all over it.”

He could see how it would work. She would be painted as a jilted lover. Not how he liked to see himself, though. He had to choose between cutting Allison loose – as she was suggesting – or minimizing the damage by fixing Lucy’s problems.

“You’re going to have to face reality,” he told the marginer captain, realizing which option he was choosing by adopting a conciliatory tone.

His etiquette – and reason – was having an effect. Allison stopped sobbing and shook her head.

“I’ve gotta go to the bank, first,” she said. “Then I gotta see about getting that seal off my ship.”

Just then, Paddy O’Reilly, senior engineer among the unposteds, and Megan burst in with the news that another ship has registered a complaint that Lucy is wanted for bad debts on Pan-Paris.

“Under another name.”

“What?!” Alex cried out. Allison said the same thing. Almost in unison.

“Meanwhile,” Paddy explained, “I’ve been collecting all of the information on Lucy’s trip from our sensor logs and what he can gather from the station. I’m now attempting to figure out how the Lucy managed to beat the Dublin Again to Pell, assuming it had a standard drive/equipment for its make/model.”

“I didn’t exactly ‘beat’ you,” she admitted. “I left ahead of you and got here two days later.”

“Still, Dublin’s a much bigger ship, capable to deeper dives into jumpspace,” he explained. “You should have lost more time than that. I want to get a look at that drive core! It’s either a marvel of engineering or a marvel at not having gone critical!”

“Whatever,” Allison shrugged. “I still gotta go to the bank before any of us get the customs seal removed from Lucy.”

Paddy had to admit he wasn’t inspecting any core until the ship was cleared for access.

“Still, I might be able to see the drive vanes from cameras on Dublin’s exterior.

Discreetly.

Finbar O’Reilly was a little surprised when Alex came straight out of the sleepover.

“Looking for me.”

“I need you to prove to me you’re a real Cargo Officer.” Not what he was expecting from Alex, even if the guy was technically his CO. Everybody knew he was getting posted long before the command-track guys who currently had the right to order him around. “I want you to research the trade opportunities for a smallish ship operating on this side of the line.”

He grinned.

“A ship like Lucy, perhaps?”

“Yeah,” Alex admitted. “A marginer which might partner up with us.”

“Does this ship’s captain know she’s partnering with us?”

“We’re not partnering with her yet!”

“You just want to know if Dublin could make money off such a partnership. I thought she was Wyatt’s.”

“Leave Wyatt’s to me. Just get me some numbers. Maybe your engineering skills could make use of Dublin’s computers.”

Megan took her hand off the thigh of the crewman from Finity’s End she was chatting up when she saw the determined look on Alex’s face. Her CO was making his way across the bar towards her.

“I don’t think he’s looking for a wingman.”

He wasn’t. As he pulled up a chair – sitting was important on the docks at Pell, which had a higher gravity from its spin than some stations – he asked her if she could help Finbar with a cargo problem.

“I don’t think Maeve needs my help,” she told him. “I heard her cargo was pretty light and small. Admittedly, my back is strong. But she set Finbar free a day or so ago.”

She wasn’t even sure the chief cargo officer was planning to warehouse her rejuvenation drugs on Pell. “Sell is her first order of business,” she told herself. Although she would never say any of that out loud. Not in a dockside bar with Merchanters from other ships all around.

“That’s not the problem he’s gonna be looking at,” Alex told her. “I’ve asked him to do some research on the QT. Business opportunities on this side of the line.”

Megan laughed.

“Business opportunities for attractive marginer captains?” Everyone knew where Alex had spent the last 14 hours. The tabloids were all over his bedmate.

She loved how easy it was to make Alex blush.

“No, no. It’s not that,” her CO averred. “Well, is. But not like that. I don’t want to be unprepared if this gets back to Captain Patrick.”

She doubted he was expecting her to put in a good word with her uncle. She doubted it would make a difference anyway.

Nancy’s initial report to Alex on Allison’s psych profile was straightforward.

“You don’t need me. She’s not gonna trust a posted shrink from Dubln. You need someone who’s closer to you than to the captain.”

“I need Rose,” he admitted.

Rose O’Reilly was his go-to medical practitioner. And she had psychology training. Nancy had trained her personally.

On which training, Nancy knew, Alex had been known to rely.

“You wouldn’t know where I could find Kieran, would you?” he asked.

She did.

“He’s still at the press restaurant. That’s what he’s calling it.” She pointed. “He says he needs your help. Soon.”

Kieran O’Reilly saw his CO coming.

“About time,” he whispered under his breath. Out loud, he projected to the assembled tabloid reporters, “Here comes Romeo now!”

He knew Alex was going to have to spin a good story about his romantic partner. About his romance.

“Looks like Allison isn’t with him.”

He breathed a sigh of relief, even though he knew the reporters would be disappointed.

…And Pell…

…where everybody gets to meet Alex’s new girlfriend.

Jaeger O’Reilly knew Mariner would be busy, but he hadn’t expected the traffic lanes from the jump ranges would be this crowded.

“At least, that’s what the buoy is reporting,” he corrected himself. Not that he had any reason to doubt the automated info-dump. “Dumping speed quickly,” he reported to Comm. Dandin would make sure all 1,064 O’Reillys on Dublin Again were ready for the jump vanes to cycle in and out.

Kieran O’Reilly listened to Megan’s bragging.

“Heeere’s Megan! Best damn Helmsman on the Dublin. We’re here to party,” the unposted Conn crowed. “Unlike that has-been Jaeger.”

The Helm Chief wasn’t the only one she was ribbing.

“After all,” he thought, “I’m standing right next to her, waiting for shore leave.”

“Hey, Kieran. I heard you got knocked out last station.”

As they continued their bantering, they headed for the nearest dockside dive bar. He had to admit, Megan was good at finding them.

“Looks like the whole unposted crew is headed there,” he noted to himself. Out loud, he answered Megan’s taunt.

“I wouldn’t say ‘knocked out,’ exactly….”

“Oh what would you call it? ‘Getting lucky with a girl bigger then you are’?”

“Taking an involuntary nap after some intense heavy petting?” Finbar offered as they ordered drinks.

He noticed Alex was scoping out the security situation.

“Good,” he told the others. “We can concentrate on the partying.”

Megan was really concentrating.

Alex O’Reilly was kinda glad they thought he was working security. He had noticed a very attractive young spacer eyeing him. She had been stalking another spacer – an in-system pilot, by the looks of him – when he first spotted her.

Used to attracting the feminine kind of attention – he knew the women thought of him as attractive, even without the shamrock on his shoulder – he was hardly surprised when she came over to buy him a drink. The shabbiness of overalls might have scared him off. Poor girls tended to avoid a “prince” of a rich Merchanter family like the O’Reillys.

“I guess I’m feeling adventurous tonight,” he reasoned. “Taking a chance because my chances of getting posted are worse than Megan’s.”

Turned out that Allison Stevens – that was her name, Allison – wasn’t really as poor as she looked.

“Captain of your own spaceship?” It almost made Alex jealous. It would be at least a century before he made captain on the Dublin. If ever.

“Captain and crew,” Allison joked. “Not like Lucy’s in the same class as Dublin Again. But I’m looking to hire crew here on Mariner.”

Wary of no-name encounters in strange bars, he asked Allison what kind of work Lucy did.

“We’re Wyatt’s Star Combine, general cargo,” she told him. “Very general.”

Wyatt Star was a long way from Mariner. The Combine, station-based company. According to her story. Matched what Alex knew. Which wasn’t much.

As Allison finished her drink, the automated barkeep poured them both a second round. Flustered, she threw everything she had into its coin hopper. Then she tried to make a lame excuse about being short-changed at another bar to cover.

“I can arrange credit,” she told it.

“Put it on Dublin’s account,” he told the machine.

She finished her drink and left the bar, looking embarrassed.

Alex followed her out and found her walking dejectedly back to her ship. When he asked her where she was going, she admitted he had gotten all her spending money.

“I have to go back and sleep on my ship,” she admitted. “I don’t expect the accommodations are up to your standards.” She was crying softly.

So, he offered to take her to an upscale sleepover, favored by Dubliners.

“Probably unlike anything she’s ever seen.”

When she explained how hard it was to hire crew, he told her the Dublin occasionally got applications.

“We never take them. We’re a family ship.” Everybody was an O’Reilly.

He offered to see if they’d had any applications here on Mariner. She explained that her crew had left her.

“Not that it was unexpected. He missed his ship on Fargone. He just signed on to connect with his ship.” His family. “We caught up with them here. He left without a word.”

“Just happy to find his family,” Alex guessed.

“Yeah, must me nice.”

Her family was all dead, so she said.

“Pirates,” she explained. “I hire whom I can.”

In between their shower and their episodes of physical affection, he used his PADD to contact the Dubliners stuck at the dock, protecting the hatches to the Dublin Again.

“No applications,” he told her.

“I wouldn’t take just anybody,” she told him, before admitting that she probably would. “Flying solo isn’t any safer.”

Rose O’Reilly watched Alex follow the girl out of the bar. Megan was pulling her usual routine.

“Ordering a Mariner Sunrise for her new friend and her engineering buddy.” Finbar. Always a good drinking partner.

“That’s what I love about dive bars,” Finbar offered. “Two-for-one drinks! Strong and plentiful.”

Megan thought it was fun if she always ordered a Sunrise in every system she went to. Every system had a drink. To see the differences.

“Sunrises here are apparently orange.” The drink looked like Tang to Rose. Orange dye and vitamin C. “Makes sense for a K-Class star.” Old star. “Not as old as most of the Milky Way. But older than Sol.” Or Pell’s star. Or Cyteen’s, for that matter. Some of the people in the Nav track thought Megan’s sunrise affectation was absurd.

No more absurd, to Rose’s thinking, than Kieran’s parties.

“Go get em!” Finbar shouted as the engineer added his own celebrations to their XO’s exertions.

“At least Kieran isn’t needing Alex’s rescue at this port,” Rose noted. Instead it was Megan bragging about her great-great-uncle Captain Patrick and his meeting with Ariane Emory.

Rose moved in to remind the others about loose lips.

Finbar’s partying was more daring.

“He’s always willing to be open and friendly,” she thought to herself. “Keeps Dublin’s secrets to himself, though.”

“I’m a hot shot pilot,” Megan boasted, ignoring Rose’s warning. “I’m used to flying into trouble.”

Kieran’s party was going so strong Rose was able to steer braggart Megan over to him for distraction.

“Thanks, Kieran,” the future Helmsman slurred drunkenly. “You’re a good friend.”

“I know, right?” Kieran allowed. “And you’re a fecking angel. Darts?”

When Megan O’Reilly agreed to a game of darts, Rose knew any trouble had been averted.

“In her condition, she will not be able think about the captain’s business while losing to Kieran at darts.”

Finbar O’Reilly watched Kieran demolish Megan at a game of darts.

“No surprise there,” he observed. The surprise was that their XO managed to damage an automated bartender in the process. “With an errant dart, no less.”

“I won,” Kieran announced once they were back at the Dublin waiting for jump. “So that means that Megan has to pay for the damage I did to the auto-barkeep machine. Well, I break even, and you lose. Grand.”

“Darn, I paid for the drinks, too,” Megan noted. “That’s gonna hurt.”

He saw Kieran was unfazed by the jump, even though he complained about a jump hangover.

“If you’re not vomiting, It’s not jump-sickness.”

Finbar himself was fine.

“Not as good as Megan, who was up and about, helping others less fortunate.”

Second jump did not go as well for the future Helmscomper.

“Looks a little stressed.” Still she was crowing.

“Pell station this is a navigator’s dream. Exploring space outside the Union.
If I could only sign onto a ship on this side of the line.”

“Let’s show ‘em what the _Dublin’s_ all about!” Kieran shouted as they piled out.

Alex told Finbar about the scene with his girl in the port of Mariner.

“She told me she would meet me here.” He looked worried. “I’m going to go to the local dive bar, just in case I see her….”

Two days later, they were in a much fancier establishment.

Finbar pointed up at the monitor behind the bar. The chyron read, “Merchanter Lucy: Out of Control?”

They seemed to be replaying messages sent by Pell Central to a freighter coming out of jump-space at a high rate of speed.

“This is Pell Central. You have come in at a velocity above limit.” A long pause followed. Finbar assumed it was not as long as the realtime dead air. “Consult regulations regarding Pell operational restrictions, Section 2, Number 22. This is a live transmission.”

Alex told him that Pell Central comms were broadcast live.

“Usually no one listens. I guess somebody thought this one was newsworthy.”

“Further instructions assume you have brought your speed to within tolerance and keep to lane. If otherwise, patrol will be moving on intercept and your time is limited to make appropriate response.”

Query: Why this approach? Identify immediately."

“We are now picking up your initial dump, Lucy. Please confirm ID and make all appropriate response.”

“We don’t pick up voice, Lucy. Query: Why silence?”

“Oh, God,” Alex said.

Then a voice – familiar to Alex by the look on his face – broke in.

“Appreciate your distress, Pell Central.”

Alex slumped, his forehead on the bar.

“This is Stevens talking, of Stevens’s Lucy, merchanter of Wyatt’s Star Combine, US-48-335 Y. Had a scare on entry, minor malfunction, put me out of contact a moment. I’m all right now. Had a backup engaged. No further difficulty. Please give approach and docking instructions.”

Finbar watched Alex raise his head slowly as the broadcasters allowed another long pause.

The chyron now read, "Recorded six hours ago, solo space captain makes jump from Mariner.

“I’m solo on this run and wanting a sleepover, Pell Central. I appreciate your assistance.”

The chyron now “Pell Central:”

“Are you all right, Lucy? … Lucy, what’s going on out there?”

“All right…. I’m here. Receiving you clear. Say again, Pell Central?”

The newscaster explained the gaps in transmissions. A bunch of stuff about the speed of light and the time it took messages to pass back and forth from the jump range. “Stuff any spacer knows.” Finbar figured it was for the stationers.

After a perfect dock – “Broadcast live on TV,” Alex moaned as the newscaster told everyone this wasn’t expected, given the condition of the pilot – the Pell Central chyron reappeared.

“This is Pell systems and dock security. Have your papers ready for inspection.”

Alex seemed to concentrate at the next bit.

“Pell customs, this is Stevens of Lucy. We’ve come in without cargo due to a scheduling foul-up at Viking…. You’re welcome to check my holds. I’m Wyatt’s Star Combine. I’m carrying just ship-consumption goods. Papers are ready…. Sorry, Pell dock control. Didn’t mean to miss that … adjustment. I mean, the dock access.”

A pause. And a different voice.

“Lucy, this is Pell Dock Authority. Are you all right aboard? Do you need medical assistance?"

“Negative, Pell Dock Authority.”

“Query: Why solo?”

“Just limped in Pell Dock. … This is a hired-crew ship. My last crew met relatives on Viking, er, Mariner … and ran out on me. I had no choice but to take her out myself; and I couldn’t get cargo. I limped all right. But I’m pretty tired.”

Long silence, not edited out by the newsfeed. Finbar figured this was live.

“Congratulations, then Lucy. Lucky you got here at all. Any special assistance required?”

“No, ma’am. Just want a sleepover. … Except, is Reilly’s Dublin in dock? Got a friend I wanna find.”

“That’s affirmative on Dublin, Lucy. Been in dock two days. Any message?”

“No, I’ll find him.”

Another silence.

“Right, Lucy. We’ll want to talk to you about dock charges.” As the newsfeed cuts abruptly back to newscaster.

Finbar looked away from the screen and saw Alex was already headed for the door of restaurant. He got on his PADD and texted the rest of their watch. Those in the eatery were already grabbing their things to follow Alex.

They raced after their CO, who was making good time to the dock. They got their in time to see station security placing a seal on Lucy’s accessway.

The girl didn’t look like she was in any condition to object.

“Not that it would have mattered.” What with the I-Might-Be-a-Pirate-Spotter sign she had painted on her butt with that rambling discourse on the way in from the jump range. “Not that I think she’s a Mazianni spotter,” Finbar told himself. A spotter or even a Union spy ship would hardly have set themselves up so obviously.

She broke into a big smile when she saw Alex O’Reilly. Cameras were flashing all over. A reporter stuck a microphone in her face.

Finbar heard someone official talking to her. Over his PADD, which was tuned to the newscast. Even Alex wasn’t close enough to hear her through the crowd.

She stopped short when she saw it was police.

“You’ll want to pick up a regulations sheet at the office,” the officer said. “Our regulations are a little different here than Unionside. …Did they give you trouble clearing Viking?”

She stared. Blank, as far as he could see.

“Lt. Perez,” the officer IDed himself as station security operations. “Was it an understandable scheduling error? Or otherwise?”

“Mariner,” she answered. “If I said Viking, my head was…”

She shook her head, obviously confused in the crowd. She looked around until her eye caught Alex.

“I don’t know.” She was obviously talking to the policeman, but her eyes were still on Alex. She looked back to Lt. Perez. “I don’t know. I’m a marginer. It happens sometimes. Somebody didn’t have their papers straight. Or some bigger ship snatched it. I don’t know.”

She started walking towards his CO, who was working his way through the crowd. As she got into the crowd, somebody yelled from the back.

“Hey, captain, why’d you do it?”

The reporter was back, pushing the mic in her face.

“What route?” It wasn’t that reporter asking. “You find some new nullpoint, captain?”

“Nothing like that. Just came through Wesson’s, same as always.”

She stared back at the stationers come to stare at her. The mic was back in her face. This time the reporter asked the question.

“You know the whole station’s been following your comm for five hours, captain?”

“No, I’m tired.”

“You’re Captain Allison Stevens, right? From Wyatt’s Star? What’s the tie with Dublin? ‘He,’ you said. Personal?”

“Right.” Finbar heard the tremble in her voice, even on the earbud from the PADD. “Excuse me.”

“How long have you been out?” the microphone was following her through the crowd. Toward Alex. Persistent, by Finbar’s way of thinking. Although it it did make it easier to follow the conversation on his PADD, which was tuned to the newscast. “You have any special trouble running solo, captain?”

“A month or so. I don’t know. I haven’t comped it yet. No. I don’t know.”

“You’re meeting somebody of O’Reilly’s Dublin, you said?”

“I didn’t say.” Finbar figured she still hadn’t added up everything about the station following her comms for the past five hours. “It’s personal.”

“What’s his name? Captain, is there more to it?”

“Excuse me, please. I’m tired. I just want to get to the bank. I didn’t do anything?”

“You cleared Mariner to Pell in a month in a ship that size? Solo? What kind of rig is she?”

“Excuse me. Please.”

“You don’t call what you did remarkable?”

“I call it ‘stupid,’ please.”

Finbar could see she was close enough for Alex to be following the exchange without the PADD.

Alex shoved his way right up to her. The crowd was wide-eyed with excitement. Finbar saw Alex’s eyes were open wide, too. He didn’t think it was excitement.

“You’re crazy,” Alex told her as she planted a sloppy kiss on him. “You’re outright crazy.”

“I told I’d see you here. I’m tired. Can we talk? … After I get back from the bank?”

Finbar was glad to see Alex taking control of the situation. It didn’t look like he was taking her to the bank. Megan and the others – including Finbar himself – had caught up with Alex who was guiding them to a quieter crowd.

“Spacers. They’ll give us some room.”

Dandin, from the bridge crew was there, too. Finbar knew the comms officer like to monitor station communications when they were in dock.

“It would be hard to miss this on the vids.”

The bridge officer was throwing his weight around, but the station police seemed to be helping Alex get out of trouble, directing Dandin toward the Dockmaster’s office.

Kieran was helping, too.

“Setting up an impromptu press conference.” The press seemed to be interested in anyone who would answer their questions.

Megan whispered in Finbar’s ear.

“Patrick is going out of his mind.”

Finbar remembered other contretemps from the unposted crew. Which Captain Patrick had always managed to overlook.

“Some of them even involved Megan.” The captain’s favorite great-grand-niece.

Kieran O’Reilly steered the reporters toward a fancy restaurant. He was buying them drinks as soon as he was through the door.

“Never known a reporter to turn down free whisky,” he told himself.

The drinks were getting their attention. So were his promises to tell those assembled all about the time Allison met the O’Reillys at the Star-Eater’s Spine.

“A bar on Mariner.” The other side of the line. None of these reporters would know it. That kind of detail would convince them he knew all about the personal business their viewers were all caught up in. "That’s Kieran O’Reilly, right? Make sure you remember that, Kieran O’Reilly. He spelled it out for them.

To make himself the story, not Alex and Allison.

As he approached the Dockmasters Office, Dandin O’Reilly remembered the message from the ship ahead of them in the jump range.

“Dublin Again, this is Lucy, US-48-335 Y, Lucy, number one for jump. Advise you the buoy is in error. I’m bound for Pell. Repeat, buoy information is in error. I’m bound for Pell; don’t crowd my departure.”

At the time, it had seemed important to relay the message to Jaeger.

“Now it seems important to relay it to the Dockmaster.”

Eileen Quen, as he remembered from their earlier conversations. Routine communications setting up Captain Patrick’s meeting with the Pell authorities.

He was not surprised that his captain was no longer in the Dockmaster’s offices when he got there.

“Probably finished with Quen,” who was known for good relations with Merchants. She was from a merchanter family herself. The Quens. All killed in the disaster at Russell’s Star when the Earth Company had evacuated the residents.

“Before Union took that over.”

He figured the captain would have more business with the station itself. Which was run by Quen’s husband, Damon Konstantin.

He didn’t have much trouble getting past the front desk and into the Dockmaster’s office.

“Alright, look. Time is short, so lets get to the point. I’ll share with you what I know. And then I need to know from you what exactly is going on here. Frankly, all I really know is that one of our crew is involved somehow.”

He was a little surprised Quen wasn’t actively involved in the whole mess down at the docks.

She told him her office was investigating.

“Should be wrapped up in a few days. I’m sure everybody from the Unionside vouches for Dublin Again and for any O’Reillys who might be caught up in it.”

Sounded like the captain’s meetings with Quen had gone well.

An naval officer was standing nearby. One Josh Talley. The name jogged his memory. By the uniform, Dandin could tell he was assigned to Norway, the only true warship in Pell’s navy.

“The military will be conducting it’s own investigation,” Talley said, indicating considerable more interest than Quen. “It will be ongoing.”

Dandin played the tape from his communication log, telling Quen it was the message they had received from Lucy as they approached the jump range at Mariner.

“Dublin Again, this is Lucy, US-48-335 Y, Lucy, number one for jump. Advise you the buoy is in error. I’m bound for Pell. Repeat, buoy information is in error. I’m bound for Pell; don’t crowd my departure.”

When he implied that Pell might break the seal on Lucy’s hold without a warrant, she seemed a little offended.

“Oh, yeah,” he told himself. “She’s a merchanter.”

His efforts to smooth things over after that didn’t seem to help, but the Dockmaster was still all smiles.

“I guess the captain’s meetings went well.”

After the military man left, he remembered where he had heard the name. Talley was the name written on the paper the unposted executive officer had been handed by Ariane Emory. Along with a code-phrase.

He decided to tell Quen the man was a Union spy.

The dockmaster gave him a long hard look. Then she laughed.

He decided to do some research about Talley before he reported all this to the captain.

“He’ll want the full story.” At least what Quen knew.

Megan O’Reilly caught up with Alex before he made his way through the crowd to Allison Stevens.

“We all did,” she told him, looking at the group on unposted crew from Dublin behind her.

After she kissed him, he had some stern words for her, which she seemed to take seriously enough to let him take her to a bar-restaurant which catered to spacers.

Kieran had headed off the press, and Alex asked her to get Allison something to eat and drink. She settled on a sandwich and a glass of sweet fruit juice. She had found the juices here much preferable that found on Mariner.

“Or even Cyteen.” Which had its own planet. As did Pell.

Alex’s girlfriend must have been expecting something stronger. She gagged a bit on the drink.

“It’s what she needs. Replace those electrolytes.”

Allison did a little bit better with the sandwich, wolfing a couple of bites and stuffing the rest into the pocket of her coveralls. Several spacers were nodding when they saw that.

“They know what kind of poverty would drive a woman to something like that.”

Allison wanted to talk to Alex.

“Privately,” she insisted.

“Woo,” said most of the gathered spacers.

So they took her to Megan’s room at the sleepover next door.

“Which is close to Alex’s.”

She almost passed out when they got her to bed.

Alex let Megan undress her.

“By the way,” she told Alex, “I’m staying with her to make sure she doesn’t wander.”

The half-naked margin-ship captain had more energy than either of them expected. She bounded out of bed when Alex opened the door and grabbed him.

“Pulling him back toward the bed,” Megan noted. He wrestled her back to the bed.

“With the complication that she hooked his ankle and pulled him in after her.”

She tried to figure out the best way to keep Allison under wraps.

“And failed.”

Complicating matters were the embarrassing things Allison was doing to her commanding officer.

Alex came up with a plan.

“I think the best bet is to keep her in my room.”

Megan had to agree. It didn’t look like Allison was going to be leaving Alex anytime soon.

Mariner…

…where rumors say peace has broken out.

Not content to simply buy as much of the rejuvenation drugs as she could, Maeve O’Reilly set out to corner the rejuv supply.

“Alright boys,” she told the bridge crew, “lets give it a lash on this rejuv market.” She wanted the drug’s supply chain to promise to sell her more rejuvenation products than local production could supply. “And since Cyteen is the only place that it’s produced, that means the O’Reillys will have the market cornered.”

No easy task, which was why Maeve wanted to try it.

She expected a new market to be opening up for rejuv: Earth, perhaps the most lucrative market ever.

Two things had long prevented rejuvenation drugs from being sold on Earth: The Hinder Stars, a string abandoned star systems that strung between the Mother Planet and Pell; and the War, a conflict between the Earth Fleet based at Pell and the Union Fleet based at Cyteen.

Maeve knew something the markets didn’t. One of those things was about to go away. The war was almost done.

“In fact,” she thought to herself, “it’s probably already over.”

For Maeve had been invited by Captain Patrick O’Reilly to take part in negotiations with the supreme commander of Union’s Fleet, Ariane Emory. As the mover and shaker behind Union’s Council of Nine, Emory was one of the main reasons why the war was even fought. She sought Union’s dominance in the Beyond.

With Captain Patrick helping her, she was able to ignore the risk of complications from the market-maker who was aware of her efforts to corner the market. The side effects of those transaction distract from the grain and chemical markets.

“Precursor chemicals that are crucial to making rejuv.” Selling those would also also give her the resources – monetary, anyway – to buy rejuv. “Alright boys, lets give it a lash on this rejuv market.”

Dandin O’Reilly was hacking the markets with his Communications Array.

“With some success.” Not a lot, but his attempt to spread rumors on the local ’net did help some with Maeves effort to corner the rejuv. “Mainly with the power of the Communications Array. Nobody expects those dishes on the outside of Dublin to be active during dock.”

Except Maeve, who was watching the rumor mills assiduously.

“On the tear Dandin, sound move,” the chief cargo officer told him. “After this, lets have a few gargles. Alex and Kieran say its jammers down there.”

Dandin was already setting up a deal for an early departure. He told the data hub they would be collecting mail for Mariner.

Kieran O’Reilly decided that his usual dive bar just wasn’t going to cut it.

“It’s a fancy place for me this leave,” he told Alex, the commanding officer on their watch. Which was actually not really a watch, since they were both Unposted crew. “We’re Command Track so we should be looking for an upscale bar with stationers looking for a good time with some real spacers.”

As they waited in the crowded space where everyone who had station leave was piled up, Alex eyed him warily.

Kieran knew what that meant: His CO would be tagging along on the expensive strip of bars and sleepovers he was headed for.

Alex was OK. A good time, even. Just as bored as Kieran was with being Unposted, so he was willing to take chances when partying. Chances like hanging out with Kieran, the wild man of the Command Track.

The reason? They were bored with their roles as the two oldest crew among the ranks of the Unposted.

“What we get for going for Command Track,” Alex told him, quoting his mother once again. “Only one gets to be The Old Man.” As cool and powerful as Captain sounded, there were only 16 posted slots on the Command Track. As opposed to over 250 in Cargo.

“All the more reason to do a little bragging,” he told Alex, after he had a couple of stiff drinks in him. Soon he was telling the whole room their captain had been invited to talk to Ariane Emory herself.

Alex O’Reilly was glad he followed Kieran to the expensive restaurant he had chosen.

“Jeez, the captain is here.”

Kieran was bragging a lot.

“Unfortunately, he’s bragging about Dublin business.” Alex’s executive officer was not known for discretion when he was drinking. “That’s why I followed him, after all.”

Glad that Kieran slept through the meeting with Ariane Emory, he tried to steer the bragging to Kieran’s fighting abilities and sexual prowess.

“Hey, remember than time on Mariner, when you….” he began.

The next thing he remembered was waking up in a sleepover with two burly cargo handlers.

“And a hangover.”

Wait a minute. He did remember something else from the fancy bar. Maeve had been there. Working on her PADD.

“Musta been there to take advantage of the captain’s fancy dinner party.” To manipulate the market through the other captains Captain Patrick had invited.

And their communications officer had been there as well. Probably hacking the local computers. Alex knew Dandin liked to help out when Maeve was trying to do some market manipulation.

“Looked like Maeve was having better success than her erstwhile help.”

Captain Patrick O’Reilly was trying to ignore the hubbub the Unposteds were creating over by the bar. At his very private table he was hosting several of the most important captains currently in port. He felt this was important work, hosting dinner parties to improve the reputation of Dublin Again.

“And it’s working.” He could see several of the most influential captains were here. Neihart from Finity’s End. Chin from Little Bear.

And they didn’t know that Dublin would soon be headed over the line. Where he hoped to pick up even more influence.

“In the Merchanter’s Alliance.” Which might prove to become the third great power in the Beyond. “After the Earth Fleet and Union.”

He heard Dandin talkintg about suppressing a complication that had arisen.

“I hope that has something to do with the ruckus at the bar.” He saw Kieran was arm-wresting a stevedore at a table in the darker section of the cocktail lounge. “Glad the other captains can’t see his shamrock.”

Turned out that Dandin was helping Maeve spread rumors at the dinner party.

“Something about the rejuv market.”

Which Maeve seemed to be happy with.

“A grand auld stretch,” she called Dandin’s effort.

Maeve herself was tied into her market computers back on the ship, using her PADD. She had all the money she needed now, having sold the chemicals and grain.

The captain was wishing she had spent a little more effort manipulating the grain markets before she jumped into rejuv.

“The grain market on Cyteen is notoriously tricky,” he told another captain. “The planet produces some of the grain they need. My cargo chief thought bringing in feed grains for the livestock they are trying to get started as part of their terraforming effort.”

From the smile on Maeve’s face, he was guessing she had been right. Again.

“Here let me introduce her to you.”

Walking over to Maeve, he introduced Captain Reinhart. Who was was definitely impressed.

“So, I finally get to meet the famous Maeve O’Reilly,” Reinhart said. “I heard you were selling grain.”

“Selling rejuv, right now,” Maeve told him. “Got a tip the war is heating up, so my rejuv may soon be worthless.”

Patrick could see others were listening in. Some even pulled out their PADDs.

“Thinking they’re talking to their own cargo officers.” Not that there was any truth to Maeve’s rumors.

“All hands in the club,” Maeve told Dandin. “It’s a deadly buzz down here.”

He saw Dandin wander out of the restaurant.

“Probably didn’t like their version of apple pie.”

“Came from a plastic bag labeled ‘Fruit Pie’,” somebody observed.

“Dandin can be picky about his apples.”

Then he heard Hamish over the comm, “Maeve, what’s the story? Rejuv apples? Ya out of yer head?”

“I’d prefer that than getting a shot in the ass,” came the retort from Dandin. As always, the comms officer was monitoring communications.

“Are you having notions?” Maeve shot back. “I need everyone who’s able to buy Rejuv stock.”

“We may not be back here for decades….” Dandin mused. “Ya know, Rejuv stock might not be a bad idea. Just think of the value after reinvesting the dividends for a quarter century!”

Captain Patrick decided he was going to have to explain to his communications officer how station taxes were designed to make sure absentee-owner spacers couldn’t take advantage of compound interest.

“A lot of Merchanters tried to take advantage of that in the early years.” Couldn’t ever be sure, however, if the stock exchange you invested in would still be around the next time you came through. “Especially when the owners of the stock exchange could be light-years away on your money.”

Jaeger was apparently out trying to buy rejuv from a corner pharmacy. He reported that the pharmacist told him the drugs were in short supply.

“Maybe someone’s trying to corner the market.”

“Do not take rejuv if you are allergic to rejuv,” Hamish advised.

Maeve told him it was harder than he thought for 145-year-old men to impress people with their dance moves. She also said Dandin was helping her with the markets

“Hamish, you want to get on this Market Computer for me?” he heard her ask. “I’m out of my head with these screens.”

“Sure, Maybe,” the chief engineer replied over the comm. “Happy to help, like. If it’s just numbers, I’d imagine I’m good for it.”

Next thing he knew Maeve told him Hamish was providing her an advantage in the markets. He still wondered if she understood how much of the available drugs she was buying.

Hamish may have created some complications as well, but as a parental figure he was able to paper over it.

“As long as we’re all working together as a big, happy family,” he told Maeve, “we should be fine.” Just don’t expect me to do it again or these other captains will get suspicious.

He saw the text come in from Hamish: “Well, here’s some numbers crunched, Maeve. Easier than my yoke of a project. I’m in state up here.”

After helping Maeve with the other captains, he sent a message to Hamish about his project.

“Something about making jumps a little easier on the body, as I recall.”

His chief engineer reported an actual breakthrough on the project.

“Not what I was hoping for,” Hamish reported. “Everything I do to reduce the strain of jump sickness comes with greater risk of jump failure.”

“Failure?” he texted back. “As in being stuck forever in hyperspace?”

“As in being stuck forever in jumpspace,” the engineer confirmed.

Dandin reported the local apple market was trickier than he expected.

“For a space station orbit a planet, anyways.”

“Even a planet being terraformed?” he asked.

“Even a planet being terraformed,” the communications officer confirmed.

Patrick was glad he was helping Maeve use her sharp tong at the dinner party.

“Didn’t take long for the two of us to convince the other captains to order their cargo officers to stop trading in the ‘volatile’ rejuv markets,” he told Maeve.

She admitted she hadn’t cornered the market.

“But we do have all the drugs for rejuvenation therapy that are available.”

“So nobody was willing to sell you drugs they don’t have,” he consoled her, “and couldn’t find.”

Dandin was already collecting data cargo commission jobs when they returned to the ship the next morning.

Hamish O’Reilly was ready to help the helmsman push it past the red line for the jump itself.

“Unfortunately, I tried to push it a little too far.”

He had to settle for the usual help he gave Jaeger in feathering the vanes for the pulse drive.

“That worked way better.” Because it was less daring. “At least we had no complications.” Complications were bad when you tried to push the safety tolerances.

Captain Patrick even lent a hand with the feathering adjustments. And Hamish felt his neck flush with embarrassment.

“Probably noticed my gimmicking the operating margins.”

Jaeger O’Reilly heard the comm officer talking to Medical: “Prepare for Jump. Please make sure that protein packs are supplied,….”
and a double for Hamish, if you please."

Glad he didn’t have to listen to their response, the helmsman knew the youngers responsible for restocking the jump tranqs and snacks were very diligent about their duties. Nobody knew the importance of jump stocks better than those training for Medical.

“They’re the ones who clean up when someone gets sick.”

“No complications lining up jump,” he reported. The helmsman knew the jump to Mariner was tricky. “But we’re a big ship, capable of deep dives into jumpspace.” And Jaeger knew they were running light. His calculations took into account the exact weight of the ship. “And drugs are expensive but light.”

Maeve had spent all their money on rejuvenation drugs. Which should bring a good price on the other side of the line.

“Oh Stop the Lights,” the cargo officer was talking back to Dandin. “Its just another spacejump.”

“Bring me a shot of whisky instead,” Hamish was playing along, even if the joke was on him. “It’ll see me right.”

Jaeger had Mariner lined up in his sights.

“I think he was slagging you, Hamish,” Maeve’s laughter rang out. “He’s a real gasman.”

“I’m just scarlet for last jump.” Hamish was always willing to go along with the joke.

“Hey now!” came the comm officer’s reply. “I only get gassy when I haven’t had my daily apple.”

“You should be scarlet for the shipyard for making the ship.”

“I’m scarlet for you, Maeve. You wrecked old bag.”

At least Jaeger was getting help from the captain. The cargo officer was usually no help in jump prep, but she was distracting his chief engineer.

“Who are you calling wrecked?” Maeve shot back. “You shoulda seen Alex and Kieran last night, they could do with a great bit of drying out.”

Jaeger keyed in the final coordinates for the jump to Mariner.

“I’m getting a lot of proverbial fist-shaking from the system.” Dandin was apparently monitoring the in-system communications from Cyteen. “I think they all finally figured out what we just did.”

“The head on them” came from Engineering. “Feckin’ eejits.”

“Let em shake themselves silly. I’m just ragin’ that we couldn’t have cornered the market before buying out the planet.” Maybe Maeve was mad. “Eejits they were, but kin they be. If the captain don’t eat their head off, I will.”

Jaeger didn’t think the captain’s diplomacy would be helped any if the other captains could hear these three bragging. He hoped Hamish would be more use at Mariner.

“And on the other side of the line.”

“You know, I’m thinking we should only sell a bit of this cargo at Pell.” He knew Dandin was speculating far outside his areas of expertise. “I bet the real demand will be in Sol.”

“The feckin’ apples?” He could tell Hamish was confused. “On Sol?”

“Right, I bet the apple market us up to 90 on Sol.” Maeve was playing along.

“Everybody’s ragin’ for apples on Sol. Deadly popular, those apples.”

Jaeger was hoping the captain would take this as a joke. The war was over, but the Hinder Stars had been shut down for centuries.

“Decades by my own internal clock.” The helmsman could remember visiting them, before Earth had stopped funding its fleet. Before the Earth Company fleet had turned pirate. “Just privateers, back then.” Of course, they still called themselves privateers. “Even still call themselves Earth Company.” Up until recently they called themselves the defenders of Pell.

They called the tribute they took from Pell “taxes,” too.

“Nah, but I hear Sol is where they originally came from,” Dandin admitted. “What I wouldn’t give to try one straight from the homeworld.” Dandin’s apples came from the orchards of Cyteen. Which was part of the terraforming project there.

“Speaking of, you better cop to an apple, Dandin,” the chief engineer said over the comm. “Give me a shot of that.”

“There’s a whole ton of them in the larder,” the comms chief shot back. “You want one? Talk to the cook!”

He announced they were going into jump.

“Everybody take your tranqs.”

His own drugs were starting to take effect, so he slammed them into jumpspace.

“Has Mariner always had that batty of a sun?” Maeve wanted to know.

Of course, it had. For a very long time. Jaeger knew K-class stars had been around almost as long as the class Ms.

“Which are as old as the Milky Way.” Our galaxy. The helmsman also knew others didn’t know as much about astronomy as he did. “Maeve didn’t have to be able to identify a class-K from jumpspace and pull us out near enough to survive.” But not too close. Burning up was not a good way to go.

That was why he always tried to bring them out of hyperspace well away from the star he was aiming for. In Mariner’s case it was a bright orange class K. Easy to look at, so Maeve could see all its roiling energies.

G-class stars like Cyteen’s actually poured out more energy and seethed with stronger storms. Which made them harder to look at. And Maeve couldn’t tell how “batty” they were.

Hamish was jumpsick again, along with Jaeger himself. Which was a shame, he like to count on Hamish for help with system entry when he was feeling the stress of jump. The chief engineer was the one who understood pulse drives better than anyone.

He felt Hamish feathering the vanes and performed the first braking pulse.

The captain was watching the security boards, and Dandin was listening to the news.

“The secret’s out,” the comms officer announced. “Rumor’s all over Mariner. Peace has been declared, and Union is no longer at war with Pell.”

All that from the jump-range buoy, Jaeger was thinking. I guess Emory wasn’t lying.

…Has a Request for Dublin Again

Jaeger O’Reilly was mildly annoyed when he heard Maeve babbling over the com as they were about to come out of jumpspace.

“I’m fecking gargled on trancs.”

“Yeah, and I’ll bet you were gargled when you bought those feed grains on Fargone, too.” Cyteen produced grain as well. "Just not enough for their consumption.

He knew he shouldn’t be thinking about the risky trades their Chief Cargo Officer was so fond of. He had to get them out of Jump.

Concentrating his swimming vision on the computer screen – currently set up as Helm – Jaeger saw the familiar signature of Cyteen star coming up fast. Lining up on the stellar signature, he slammed them out of hyperspace.

As the real world coalesced around them, his real stomach lurched.

“No food or liquids for three days in jumpspace does bad things to a body,” he noted. “Better get some electrolytes into the system.”

His exit from Jump had been smooth enough that few members of the crew would be sick. Still, he was glad his cast-iron stomach took it so smoothly. He reached for the squeeze bottle of juice next to his console.

Over the comm he heard someone retching in Engineering.

“Probably Hamish again. I wish he’d use more Scope before Jump.”

The captain also had some trouble with jump sickness, Jaeger heard him munching on an energy bar. As usual, the rest of the bridge crew provided some much needed support to that chair.

“That was a grand kip!” Maeve’s voice rang out. As usual he had a hard time telling how serious she was. “Fair play on the helm there, Jaeger.” He decided to play along.

“Thanks Maeve. But it’s nothing for a helmsman as gifted as I.”

The comm in his left ear – tuned as usual to the below-decks chatter from the Division Chief – seemed to indicate Hamish was going to need some medical attention. Captain Patrick was fairing better.

He did pulsed the drive vanes once and brought the ship’s velocity down to about two-thirds light.

“Even without Hamish’s magic.”

By then, however, Hamish had his stomach under control. And was feather the jump vanes for maximum efficiency as a Pulse Drive.

“Invented it, after all.”

“Stop the lights,” Maeve was still editorializing on his Helm duties. “The Caoilte drive has always given us a smooth landing.”

She and Hamish were always pushing to name the Pulse Drive after some obscure Irish privateer. Jaeger didn’t think it would ever catch on.

“Pirates aren’t too popular these days.” What with the war and all.

Maeve, of course, thought of herself as a different kind of pirate.

“And Hamish doesn’t hesitate to encourage her.”

Maer Lynn O’Reilly figured they oughta head over to Engineering. Much as they would prefer to do some reading on side projects.

“Sounds like Hamish could use some medical attention.”

“Ship ID broadcast,” came over the comm.

“Mr. Drake, scan for possible threats.” From the captain.

“Automated ID sent,” Dandin reported.

“Ship’s speed at normal inner-system cruising level.” That was Jaeger.

When they got to Engineering, their first worked wonders on Hamish’s stomach.

“Less sure about his head.”

“En route to Cyteen Station,” Jaeger announced over comm.

As they returned to the Science section, sounds of crew getting out of the bunks they spent Jump in could be heard. Showers were turning on and off. Dublin Again was getting ready for a wild shore leave in port.

So was Maer Lyn.

They didn’t get the chance. Captain Patrick ordered some of the bridge crew and all of the Division Chiefs to go with him down to the surface of Cyteen.

“The surface?” they asked the captain. Maeve was busy with her trading computers making deals to sell the exotic metals before news got out about how much they were bringing to the station.

When she wasn’t listening to whispers from Hamish and giggling.

The captain explained the reason for their meeting on the surface. “I expect they are trying to get us discombobulated.”

“Spacers are notoriously put out by their first view of an horizon,” they admitted.

And, indeed, when they got their feet on the “ground,” they all found it hard to deal with a horizon that disappeared down, instead of curving upward.

“Like a ship or a station.” The way it ought.

“The planetary authorities are known as the Council of Nine,” the captain explained. “They’ve requested a meeting with us.”

The Captain Patrick turned to Maer Lynn and Hamish.

“That’s why I asked the two of you to come along. Cyteen’s government and its power are based on their scientific and technical superiority. They have the most advance science – especially psychology and tape training – in the area known to humans.”

“Even better than Earth itself,” they pointed out.

“Their government,” the captain continued, “reflects this. Scientists run the show. We’ll probably be meeting with scientists today, even if they introduce themselves as government officials.”

Captain Patrick O’Reilly announced their arrival in the system in his usual stentorian tones. His voice echoing through the ship, he told everyone to be on their best behavior.

“My Executive Officer will be in charge.” As usual. He didn’t need to say that.

She had put in a special request when he told her he was not taking Drake or Jaeger down with him. She had a pair of unposted crew from the Command Track who were chafing under the delay they had experienced getting posted to sitting crew.

“They know the reasons,” she told him. “They just get tired of working the simulations and shadow bridge. I think you should take them along. I’ve instructed the to keep quiet and observe how diplomacy works.”

He agreed to take them. And she agreed to keep an eye on Drake.

Before they left the ship to board a Union shuttle down to the planet, he heard Hamish over the comm.

“What’s the craic, Maeve? Anything arseways up there?”

Of course, the Chief Cargo officer was deep in her Trading Programs. Patrick saw she was studying the grain markets, which could be tricky on planets that produced a lot of grain themselves, even if they relied on feed grain imports for their meat production.

His helmsman set them down on the dock at Cyteen Station as smoothly as he had expected.

“Docked at Cyteen Station, you may disembark,” Dandin announced when he gave the Comm Officer the high sign.

Maeve asked Hamish how he felt about metal.

“In general like?”

“Or in specific.”

“I prefer hard rock,” Dandin interjected.

“I did ma Academy thesis on the resonant qualities of crystaline alloyed meshes. So, I’m rather keen on it.”

He announced the names of of the people going down to the surface, which included the two chatterboxes.

“Exotic metals, you think you could…” Maeve started before interrupting herself. “Nevermind, looks like you might be coming with us.”

“Right, time to crack on.” Hamish sounded a little disappointed.

Well, everyone would be disappointed to miss the shore leave on Cyteen Station.

Jaeger was looking over Maeve’s shoulder as she tried to sell some exotic metals.

“Jing Maeve, that’s pure dead brilliant!”

Patrick thought that sounded like they made a good profit on their exotic metals.

“The deal I have set up for us is up to 90,” the Cargo Officer announced

In fact, she was still working the programs on her PADD as they assembled in the conference room.

The preliminary discussions were handled by two members of the council, who seemed to be smirking at them. The Ariane Emory strode into the room. The other council members sprang to their feet.

“And stopped smirking,” he noted to himself.

He knew Ariane Emory was the real power on the council. And he had hardly expected her to be here. Emory seldom met with ship crews.

“Even those from ships as important as Dublin.” It was looking like one of their unposted crew was a little wobbly on his feet. “Probably the first time he’s ever been on a planet.”

He was proud, however, how they all kept their composure when the most powerful human this side of Earth itself walked into the room.

Drake O’Reilly had his Security Computers set up to show his the potential danger of every ship in the Cyteen System.

“At least the ones the buoy reported to our computers.” The Chief Security Officer didn’t trust anyone. “Least of all, an automated buoy.”

When they entered the system from jumpspace, the biggest icon on his board was a Union military vessel which the buoy showed as just arriving from Russell’s Star – “Or Mariner,” he had noted since they both used the same jump range. Not only was it big and dangerous, it was traveling as fast as they were.

“Near light speed.”

If it hadn’t bring it’s speed down soon, it could be in their vicinity before he would even see it on scan.

“Not that I expected them to do that.” The military craft was cutting its speed almost as fast as Jaeger was cutting theirs. He knew a high velocity made attacks possible that neither ship was likely to have any good reason to actually execute.

As soon as he had a scanner reading from the other vessels, his security screen reflected that.

Also for the other high-speed ships showing from the other jump ranges. By the time Dublin Again got to Cyteen, those ships also showed how much they had slowed.

Dandin O’Reilly knew he could sense the emotions of most people.

“I might even be able to communicate non-verbally with an expert psychologist like this.” He could do so with other empaths – as well as crewmates with whom he was extremely familiar, which included most of the bridge crew in the room.

He sensed Maer Lynn trying to promise to stop complicating the conversation.

“Right before they nodded off.”

Ariane Emory’s fame and fortune didn’t worry him much. Still, he wondered one thing.

“How sure is she about her claim of ending the war?”

He was certainly sensing no doubt from Maeve.

“She’s already planning how to exploit the markets at Downbelow Station, the space station orbiting Downbelow.” A fertile planet, also known as Pell. Of course, Downbelow Station was known as Deep Space One.

“On Earth. Out here no one calls it that.” Dandin knew it as the closest station to the Hinder Stars. And Earth.

“I have sent diplomats to accept the treaty the Alliance has offered,” Emory told them. He was sensing no doubt in her words. “They have offered to allow Union traders free access to their markets.”

He was wondering what Union would get out of telling them this.

“Certainly hasn’t been broadcast widely to the Merchant traders,” he mused.

“This Merchanter Alliance on the other side of the line is shaping up to be a major player in the Beyond,” Emory told them. “Union has a strong interest in getting good, honest Union Merchanters into the group. They are offering membership to any Merchant who visits them at Pell.”

Captain Patrick was asking her the question they were all wondering about.

“What exactly do we get out of this Alliance?” Dandin could see why Emory wanted it. The captain was demanding answers.

Maeve wanted money to act as Union’s agent. Or spy.

Dandin figured it was in Union’s best interest to get people they knew – like the O’Reillys – into this new power structure. He could tell she was under no illusions that Dublin was as loyal as a military vessel manned by her programmed clones.

“But she’s sure we’re more loyal than a Pell-based Merchanter who’s been fighting her for a dozen years.” Emory could not be naive enough to believe a treaty would change that.

Hamish O’Reilly could see the negotiations were a little out of hand.

“Our captain seems a bit upset at this lady’s brusque demeanor,” he thought to himself. Speaking calmly, he cut through Emory’s domination of the conversation.

That gave Captain Patrick an advantage: the chance to issue a daring gambit for a bit more respect. Which the captain did.

Emory glanced at Hamish and smiled. Friendly. The captain had turned her friendly, even if she maintained her brusque demeanor

“Hmm. Complication.” She was smiling at Hamish himself. Almost as if she appreciated his tactics.

Maeve O’Reilly saw Emory looking at Hamish with a newfound respect.

“The manipulator respects his skill,” she told herself as Emory wrote something on a piece of paper. “As a fellow manipulator.”

Hamish was mumbling.

All Maeve understood was “…politic. Gobshite.”

When Emory refused her suggestion they could be bribed, the Chief Cargo Officer suggested espionage. And Emory smiled. Again.

Emory asked the others to leave, inviting Maeve and Hamish to stay behind. Hamish glanced at Maeve out of the corner of his eye.

Emory folded a piece of paper and handed it to Hamish.

Maeve was able to see a name on the paper before she folded it. “Josh Talley.” And a codephrase.

“Does the Union have agents in the Alliance?” Maeve wanted to use the advantage provided by Hamish’s calming gambit. And she saw that Emory like to dominate – and control – the conversation.

“It’s well known that I have the ability to train agents for that kind of role.” Agents who might not even know they were agents, if rumors were true. “I do have superior tape-training capabilities for my clones.” With the ability to be perfect moles, according to what Maeve had heard.

“Yes, and you did just come through a war with the Alliance.”

“Which is why I desire to have people I can trust on the inside of the Alliance,” Emory told them as she ushered her and Hamish out to the shuttle where the captain and the others.

Captain Patrick seemed to have a strong interest in keeping control of the situation.

“He would have more control if he delegated more.”

Dandin was equally dedicated. To the Security situation, by what Maeve could tell.

Alex O’Reilly had held his tongue all the way through the meeting, His curiosity got the better of him when they were no longer under the watchful eyes of Union authorities.

“I don’t get it,” he told the captain. “We gave her everything she wanted. What did we get in return?”

The others nodded in seeming agreement.

Maeve smiled.

It has many names.

• To its inhabitants, it is Downbelow Station
• To Earth, it is Deep Space One
• To the Merchanters who keep it alive, it is simply Pell
• To the Earth Company privateers who prey on it, it is Pell Station
• To the inhabitants of the planet it circles, it is Upabove

• To the renegade pirates of Norway, it is home base
• To us, it is the start of adventure

The first thing we’ll do is create characters .