After I finished the original Duskwalker, I started on this... then just... stopped for some reason I can't figure out,
and it remained half finished until Spud found the original and reminded me of it. So, once I post the tolerable chunks done before I picked it up again, and
the several pages written in the last week, the parts afterwards will be a bit smaller and a bit more spread out. Apologies to those of you that enjoyed the
other one
***
Fiona held the rifle steady, resting her arm on the fence post, all her attention on the scope. Behind her, Chris watched silently. She adjusted her aim a few
times, before squeezing the trigger gently. With a sharp crack, the bullet shot out of the barrel, and Chris saw a rabbit jerk and fall nearly a hundred meters
away. "Nice," he said approvingly as Fiona worked the bolt and lowered the rifle. "You're getting the hang of it."
"Well, shooting rabbits isn't exactly hard," she said.
"Well, no it isn't," he agreed as they walked towards the rabbit. "But, it does have the advantage of being a good place to start. It's
after that that things start to get a little more complicated." He knelt down to pick up Fionas target, a blood-stained hole having taken the place of a
portion of neck and head. "Excellent. No metal in the meat," he said, holding it up. "Mind you, if you used one of Amys weapon, you'd have
left a burnt husk behind."
"So that's why you use these all the time," she said.
"Not all the time," Chris noted. "But energy weapons are overkill. Fine for giant monsters, soldiers and whatever... but a lot of the
time-" he patted the rifle, "-these work just as well. Come on," he said, standing up. "Three more, and we've got dinner."
***
Duskwalker: Homecoming
By Chris Wood
***
Duskwalker had landed at the spaceport - really just a massive field that was kept empty- at the edge of Yaren, a small town of maybe three thousand people on
the agri-world of Trenton. They'd been carrying close to five hundred tons of rabbit poison, the vermin having exploded into a full blown menace in the
past few years. Those sealed crates had been replaced by even more crates, these ones carrying grain.
The crew had used the extra day on planet to relax, enjoy the open spaces, and in one case, practice using a rifle.
"Got dinner," Chris called out as he and Fiona walked into the cargo bay, holding up half a dozen rabbits.
"Sweet," Ben said from the top of one of the crates where he'd been reading a book. "You want to skin them and then leave, or...?"
"Might as well get into space," the ships captain replied. "Amy on board?"
"Got back twenty minutes ago," he said, sitting up and grabbing the bookmark. "I'll close her up." Chris nodded, heading for the stairs
as Fiona put the rifle on a crate and reached for its case.
***
"Ah, space!" Amy declared, making a sweeping gesture that was meant to indicate the sight beyond the control rooms wide windows. "How I have
missed you!"
Ben laughed. "Amy, we were planetside for three days. It's not really enough time to get homesick for the void."
"So you say," she responded, taking a seat. "But I don't trust being out in the wide open like that. It's just asking for something to
come out of the bushes and carve you open."
The pilot gave her an odd look. "You do realize that Ragol is the exception to wildlife, not the rule?" he asked."Sure, there is scary freaky
animals out there, but still..."
She chuckled. "Just keep believing that Ben, and one day, a huge creature will emerge from a forest, kill you, and then you'll be wishing you listened
to me."
"Oooo...kay," Ben said, working the controls. "Course is set. I'm gonna go see how dinner's going." Amy waved as he left, rolling
his eyes.
The moment the door closed, she giggled. "He's too easy."
***
"How long until dinner's done?" Ben asked as he came into the dining area. "I think Amy's at the crazy stage of hunger."
"Not too much longer," Fiona said, before pushing Sato away. "You don't eat organics," she told the tiny droid. "So stop
trying!" Sato chirped and tried to duck around her hand again.
"You spend more time playing robot defense then cooking," Chris noted, not looking up from his book. "Mag, go annoy your partner!" Sato
ignored him. The ships captain stood up, walked over and grabbed the Mags main body, pulling it away. It chirped in protest as he buried it under a couch
cushion and sat back down. "Course set?" he asked Ben, starting on his book again.
"Yep. Four hours to the slip-space limit."
"And how long until League space?" Fiona asked.
"Four days, assuming we don't hit one of their border patrols," Ben replied.
"Let's not test our luck. I want to make a sweep of the ship after dinner. I don't want anything for the Office of Frontier Security to kick up a
stink about," Chris said.
"They need a reason?" Ben quipped.
"No, but lets not encourage them, shall we?"
Sato chirped as it tried to get free.
***
Two hours later, the four of them were in the cargo bay, removing gear from the weapons locker and loading it into one behind another wall.
"Why do you have a second hidden weapons locker you keep empty?" Fiona asked as she handed Chris a rifle.
"Because it's easy to find in a search by professionals," Chris said. "So, we point it out to the OFS goons around the same time they sort
of notice it. Makes them feel good and clever, and suggests that we're trying to cooperate."
"Because they're so powerful and intimidating, and we'd never think of trying to mislead them," Amy said with a hand over her heart. She took
one of her guns out, studied it for a long moment, then put it back. "Better they not see all of the Ragolian weapons, methinks..."
"So we give them what they want... while tricking them senseless?" Fiona asked as Ben handed her a box of energy cells.
"Exactly. There's no way that an OFS border patrol ship isn't going to be crewed by assholes," replied Duskwalkers pilot. "They're
the public face of the galaxy's most disliked organization. It's expected of them."
"What about the Imperial Inquisition?" Amy said.
"They've figured out that outside the Imperium, everyone will kick their ass. OFS is still too arrogant to notice."
"Ah."
"So, we keep them happy," Chris said. "Give them what they expect and hope they take it."
"And if they don't?" Fiona asked.
Chris shrugged. "Then we're in for a lot of grief for no real reason at all." The young woman looked at him as she considered that, then shrugged
herself and handed him the box.
***
The next few days passed in relative peace, with nothing of note seeming to happen. Chris and Fiona spent a day checking the backup life support after a rat
fried itself chewing some wiring. Amy mentioned an interest in serving as a backup official pilot, just in case. Ben took the time to start her on the training
material. Sato was distracted after it was discovered that his wireless connections allowed him to use the game console in the main living area. Letting him
play with that got him out of everyones hair.
Two days later, Chris was standing on one of the upper walkways in the cargo bay, watching Fiona and Amy spar below. Amy was using a padded staff, while Fiona
had the sword that had been mailed to her a month before, a protective cover clamped around the blade.
Watching as Amy forced Fiona back across the open space, Chris noted that while Fiona was nowhere near the Hunters skill level, she'd improved quite a bit
in the past month and a half. It still annoyed him that they hadn't been able to work out who sent them that sword, or the money packaged with it. It felt
like they'd been done a favor, without any idea on what they'd have to do in return.
Fiona yelped as Amy rapped her knuckles with her staff, her grip on her sword weakening. The Hunter slid the end of her staff along the blade before twisting
it around in a disarming move. She'd used it on the younger girl before though, and Fiona pulled back, shaking her knuckles to get feeling back before
moving forward again cautiously.
"She's learning fast," Ben said, walking along the ramp. Chris nodded as Fiona worked at trying to get through Amy's defense. "Bit too
showy for me though."
"You tend to just shoot people," Chris commented with a wry grin.
"Solves the problem before they even get close," the pilot responded with a grin of his own. His friend chuckled, before they both looked up as
lights in the roof shifted to a red tint and an alarm sounded. "Navigational alert," Ben said, jogging along the ramp. Chris followed him as Amy and
Fiona stopped sparing.
Ben ran into the control room and dropped into the pilots seat, taking Duskwalker out of automatic pilot. "Sensors are picking up a gravitational source
directly ahead of us," he said, studying one of the displays. "There shouldn't be anything there."
"Are we off course?" Fiona asked, coming in behind Ben.
"No, we're where we meant to be," Chris replied. "It's got to be an Interdictor."
Ben looked over at his shoulder at him. "Interdictor ships? I thought the League had most of them on the Imperial Front."
"Guess the rumors were wrong," the ships captain replied. "Drop us into real-space Ben. No point in risking damaging the drives with the safety
cutout." Ben nodded, his left hand moving over to a control panel.
Fiona glanced at the sensor display, which was currently showing a rather large and surprisingly neat circle. It grew larger in the screen as Duskwalker
continued to approach it. Once the ship entered that region of slipspace, the gravity signature would set off the ships emergency measures and knock them back
into conventional space. From what she'd heard, it'd probably be rough too.
"What if it's not a League ship?" she asked. The others looked at her. "I mean, what if it's someone dangerous?"
"Like pirates or something?" Amy asked. When Fiona nodded, she shook her head. "It's unlikely. Interdictor ships are pretty rare. I doubt
anyone besides a major government like the League could have them."
"Yeah, you'd hear about it if it happened, no matter how hard they tried to cover it up," Ben agreed. "Besides, if it is dangerous,
we're dropping in a good distance outside the gravity signature. We should be able make a run for it if it goes bad." The view outside the windows
shifted back to a bland star field."Okay then, running active scans. Nothing yet..." A moment later, he nodded. "I'm picking up one ship.
Big one, twelve million kilometers ahead. Not the Interdictor, it's too close to us."
"Just the one ship?" Amy asked. "I would have expected more."
"Well, there probably are, but to our real space scanners? We're only seeing one." Another panel began beeping, drawing his attention. "And
we're being hailed. Audio only." He tapped a button.
"Civilian vessel, this is Solarian League Border Patrol Vessel Andrew Urther. You are to set your vessel to the heading and velocity we provide you and
prepare to receive a customs shuttle for inspection," a harsh voice said.
Chris glanced at Ben. "We getting an ID tag with that?"
"Yeah, it looks real. Got the course details too."
He nodded and reached over Bens shoulder and turned on the mike. "Andrew Uther, this is the Independent Ship Duskwalker. We are adjusting course now, and
am ready to accept your shuttle. Estimate time to course intercept at two hours and seven minutes."
"Understood." The comm went dead.
Chris flicked the mike off and shook his head in amusement. "Cheerful, aren't they?" Amy commented in amusement.
The other three all smiled. "Yeah. Okay, we've got two hours, let's make sure we didn't miss anything," Chris said.
***
Chris checked the airlock seals one last time, then unlocked the hatch and stepped back, keeping his hands visible without really noticing it. The rest of his
crew, including Sato, were standing in the cargo bay, their expressions somewhere between neutral in Amys case, and somewhat nervous in Fionas.
The main doors slid open, revealing over half a dozen men. Seven of them were wearing lightweight body armor, colored a dull blue and bearing a multitude of
insignia. The short-barreled rifles they all carried were held in tight, alert grips, although they weren't aiming at any of Duskwalkers crew.
It was the eighth man standing in the middle of the group that drew their attention. Instead of battle armor, he was wearing a near spotless officers duty
uniform. Lieutenant, judging by his rank insignia.
"Welcome aboard the Duskwalker," Chris said, stepping forward.
"Yes, I'm sure it's wonderful for you," the officer said, stretching out his words slightly in an odd accent."However, this is the tenth
trashhauler I've had to search today and, ah, I'm getting rather tired of it." He stepped forward. "Your passports, starship registry
certificate and pilots licenses."
Chris forced back a scowl and handed over the datacards. The officer took them and slid each one into an access port on his dataslate, studying the information
it displayed with a bored air. "Miss Rose, you are a member of your planets, ah, Hunters Guild, I believe the term is?"
"That's right." She ignored the attention several of the soldiers were giving her.
"Given your worlds rather aggressive nature, I assume that you have photon weapons aboard?" At her nod he turned to Chris. "I'll need to,
ah, inspect them. And the licenses for those weapons of course."
Chris nodded. "They're stored in a weapons locker-"
"-here," one of the soldiers said, nodding towards the wall. Chris didn't quite hide his surprise, and annoyance, at the Leaguers finding it so
fast. The Lieutenant smirked slightly as Chris removed the panels to reveal the actual locker.
"I doubt this locker is, ah, a standard design feature," he said in a tone that made Ben want to punch him.
"We often provide passenger transport," Chris replied smoothly. "While there is a small arms locker near the secondary airlock, we all feel a
little better knowing that any passengers that may be trouble don't know where to get anything that could puncture the hull."
"Ah, yes, of course," the officer said, conceding the point. "Still, one must wonder if this is the only hidden compartment you, how should I
say, not wish those you don't employ to know about?"
"You're welcome to look around sir, but I believe that the kind of activities that would require such compartments to be too much risk for too little
profit," Chris smiled, taking the weapon permits from where they were hanging on the inside of the locker door.
"Very true, but I will have my men make a routine search, just to be sure," he said idly, looking over the permits. "These are for all the
weapons?"
"Just the Ragolian ones," Chris said, handing over a second set. "These are for the more conventional firearms."
"I see, I see..." he said, ignoring his men as they made their way through the cargo bay. "This all seems in order. Now, ah, if you could show
me around the ship?"
"Of course sir. Any preferences to where you'd like to see first?"
***
"Why is it we always get the asshats?" Chris wondered half an hour later, once Duskwalker had separated from the League shuttle.
"Because all the good naval officers actually have shit to do," Ben replied calmly as he brought the engines back online. "That shuttle's
not blocking the flight path they gave us Amy?"
"No, we're clear," the Hunter reported, checking her console.
"Great. Let's get the hell out of her before they decide to give us any more grief." Firing the maneuvering thrusters, he altered their heading,
then fired up the main thrusters, launching them forward again.
"Jump back to Slipspace as soon as we're clear," Chris said.
"You got it... Still can't figure out why they'd be out in this region," the pilot commented. "Or why they'd have their inderdictors
operating outside a star system."
"Why is that odd?" Fiona asked.
"Remember how we saw the gravity well in Slipspace before we hit it?" he asked. At her nod, he continued. "The reason we could is because there
wasn't a gravity well on the starcharts at all, so the computer noticed it was odd. Interdictors tend to operate inside star systems because the star hides
the artificial grav well with their own."
"So the computers don't catch on until it's too late," she said in understanding.
"Bingo. The ships hit a grav well strong enough to trip emergency cutoffs in the slipspace manifold, and they drop back to realspace in a place they
can't just jump back out from." Ben leaned back in his chair. "Which makes for the question of why were they just sitting there where everybody
could see them?"
***
Later that night, Fiona was in her room, looking out the tiny viewport at the blue clouds of slipspace. Her mood had soured during the day, leaving her with a
desire to be alone with her thoughts. The others had gotten to know her well enough to give her some space.
Legally, she was already home. With New Wales now a 'provisional member' of the League, even the void a hundred light years from her world was legally
home... in a sense. In reality, the bizarre network of laws and regulations the ancient and unwieldy government possessed meant that, depending on which member
planets endorsed New Wales, and which planets were involved in crippling the small world to make it 'need' that membership, she could be little more
then a slave away from her work-zone.
It wasn't exactly something the Leagues immense media-engine liked people finding out, but in some parts of the galaxy, it was an open secret. With a
political structure that included planets like Mesa, the core of the galaxies genetic slave industry, and the utter inability of the central government to
control such planets in any way, the League was hardly the beacon of civilization it liked to claim it was.
Finding information on just what that meant for New Wales, and for Fiona personally, had proved to be difficult. Few merchants apparently traveled to the
planet now, and the military and the media seemed unwilling to let too much information out. Even the League Embassy on Ragol had given Duskwalkers crew little
in the way of usable information, which Chris had termed 'all that extra effort to BS us shows they care.'
Which led to her sitting here, alone, brooding over the fate of everyone she loved in the massive gap that seemed to fill her life now. No answers, nothing but
more questions on everyone and everything from before she woke up.
As she sat there, space outside rippled, the blue becoming interlaced with strands of golden light, which spun around each other in an intricate pattern before
fading out. Her father had shown her one on her first week in slipspace, calling them 'space-flowers'.
She watched as the flowers continued to grow and vanish, moving ever outward from their point of origin. It took nearly five minutes to fade entirely. Fiona
sat there a moment longer, then, feeling much better, got up off her bed and went to get something to eat.
Chris and Ben had pulled out a chess board and a deck of cards, each of which actually affected the game. She came in just in time to see Ben blow up his
castle, taking out his friends King, parked too close.
"I regret that I have only one life to give for my chessboard!" Ben declared, before knocking over the pieces. "Kaboom."
"Hey wait a second! The purpose is to force a surrender of enemy royalty! To assassinate the King is a violation of both the Rules of Engagement and the
Articles of War," Chris protested, mostly for forms sake.
"Bullshit. You had your bishop burn my queen at the stake!"
"Well, look at a Queens powers! Teleporting across the entire board, moving in every direction, slaying even the Knights of the Realm. Obviously
witchcraft!"
"What is this, the Imperium? Fiona, help me out here."
"Sorry Ben, I stay out of international chess diplomacy," she replied smoothly, going to the fridge. "Ask Amy."
***
and it remained half finished until Spud found the original and reminded me of it. So, once I post the tolerable chunks done before I picked it up again, and
the several pages written in the last week, the parts afterwards will be a bit smaller and a bit more spread out. Apologies to those of you that enjoyed the
other one
***
Fiona held the rifle steady, resting her arm on the fence post, all her attention on the scope. Behind her, Chris watched silently. She adjusted her aim a few
times, before squeezing the trigger gently. With a sharp crack, the bullet shot out of the barrel, and Chris saw a rabbit jerk and fall nearly a hundred meters
away. "Nice," he said approvingly as Fiona worked the bolt and lowered the rifle. "You're getting the hang of it."
"Well, shooting rabbits isn't exactly hard," she said.
"Well, no it isn't," he agreed as they walked towards the rabbit. "But, it does have the advantage of being a good place to start. It's
after that that things start to get a little more complicated." He knelt down to pick up Fionas target, a blood-stained hole having taken the place of a
portion of neck and head. "Excellent. No metal in the meat," he said, holding it up. "Mind you, if you used one of Amys weapon, you'd have
left a burnt husk behind."
"So that's why you use these all the time," she said.
"Not all the time," Chris noted. "But energy weapons are overkill. Fine for giant monsters, soldiers and whatever... but a lot of the
time-" he patted the rifle, "-these work just as well. Come on," he said, standing up. "Three more, and we've got dinner."
***
Duskwalker: Homecoming
By Chris Wood
***
Duskwalker had landed at the spaceport - really just a massive field that was kept empty- at the edge of Yaren, a small town of maybe three thousand people on
the agri-world of Trenton. They'd been carrying close to five hundred tons of rabbit poison, the vermin having exploded into a full blown menace in the
past few years. Those sealed crates had been replaced by even more crates, these ones carrying grain.
The crew had used the extra day on planet to relax, enjoy the open spaces, and in one case, practice using a rifle.
"Got dinner," Chris called out as he and Fiona walked into the cargo bay, holding up half a dozen rabbits.
"Sweet," Ben said from the top of one of the crates where he'd been reading a book. "You want to skin them and then leave, or...?"
"Might as well get into space," the ships captain replied. "Amy on board?"
"Got back twenty minutes ago," he said, sitting up and grabbing the bookmark. "I'll close her up." Chris nodded, heading for the stairs
as Fiona put the rifle on a crate and reached for its case.
***
"Ah, space!" Amy declared, making a sweeping gesture that was meant to indicate the sight beyond the control rooms wide windows. "How I have
missed you!"
Ben laughed. "Amy, we were planetside for three days. It's not really enough time to get homesick for the void."
"So you say," she responded, taking a seat. "But I don't trust being out in the wide open like that. It's just asking for something to
come out of the bushes and carve you open."
The pilot gave her an odd look. "You do realize that Ragol is the exception to wildlife, not the rule?" he asked."Sure, there is scary freaky
animals out there, but still..."
She chuckled. "Just keep believing that Ben, and one day, a huge creature will emerge from a forest, kill you, and then you'll be wishing you listened
to me."
"Oooo...kay," Ben said, working the controls. "Course is set. I'm gonna go see how dinner's going." Amy waved as he left, rolling
his eyes.
The moment the door closed, she giggled. "He's too easy."
***
"How long until dinner's done?" Ben asked as he came into the dining area. "I think Amy's at the crazy stage of hunger."
"Not too much longer," Fiona said, before pushing Sato away. "You don't eat organics," she told the tiny droid. "So stop
trying!" Sato chirped and tried to duck around her hand again.
"You spend more time playing robot defense then cooking," Chris noted, not looking up from his book. "Mag, go annoy your partner!" Sato
ignored him. The ships captain stood up, walked over and grabbed the Mags main body, pulling it away. It chirped in protest as he buried it under a couch
cushion and sat back down. "Course set?" he asked Ben, starting on his book again.
"Yep. Four hours to the slip-space limit."
"And how long until League space?" Fiona asked.
"Four days, assuming we don't hit one of their border patrols," Ben replied.
"Let's not test our luck. I want to make a sweep of the ship after dinner. I don't want anything for the Office of Frontier Security to kick up a
stink about," Chris said.
"They need a reason?" Ben quipped.
"No, but lets not encourage them, shall we?"
Sato chirped as it tried to get free.
***
Two hours later, the four of them were in the cargo bay, removing gear from the weapons locker and loading it into one behind another wall.
"Why do you have a second hidden weapons locker you keep empty?" Fiona asked as she handed Chris a rifle.
"Because it's easy to find in a search by professionals," Chris said. "So, we point it out to the OFS goons around the same time they sort
of notice it. Makes them feel good and clever, and suggests that we're trying to cooperate."
"Because they're so powerful and intimidating, and we'd never think of trying to mislead them," Amy said with a hand over her heart. She took
one of her guns out, studied it for a long moment, then put it back. "Better they not see all of the Ragolian weapons, methinks..."
"So we give them what they want... while tricking them senseless?" Fiona asked as Ben handed her a box of energy cells.
"Exactly. There's no way that an OFS border patrol ship isn't going to be crewed by assholes," replied Duskwalkers pilot. "They're
the public face of the galaxy's most disliked organization. It's expected of them."
"What about the Imperial Inquisition?" Amy said.
"They've figured out that outside the Imperium, everyone will kick their ass. OFS is still too arrogant to notice."
"Ah."
"So, we keep them happy," Chris said. "Give them what they expect and hope they take it."
"And if they don't?" Fiona asked.
Chris shrugged. "Then we're in for a lot of grief for no real reason at all." The young woman looked at him as she considered that, then shrugged
herself and handed him the box.
***
The next few days passed in relative peace, with nothing of note seeming to happen. Chris and Fiona spent a day checking the backup life support after a rat
fried itself chewing some wiring. Amy mentioned an interest in serving as a backup official pilot, just in case. Ben took the time to start her on the training
material. Sato was distracted after it was discovered that his wireless connections allowed him to use the game console in the main living area. Letting him
play with that got him out of everyones hair.
Two days later, Chris was standing on one of the upper walkways in the cargo bay, watching Fiona and Amy spar below. Amy was using a padded staff, while Fiona
had the sword that had been mailed to her a month before, a protective cover clamped around the blade.
Watching as Amy forced Fiona back across the open space, Chris noted that while Fiona was nowhere near the Hunters skill level, she'd improved quite a bit
in the past month and a half. It still annoyed him that they hadn't been able to work out who sent them that sword, or the money packaged with it. It felt
like they'd been done a favor, without any idea on what they'd have to do in return.
Fiona yelped as Amy rapped her knuckles with her staff, her grip on her sword weakening. The Hunter slid the end of her staff along the blade before twisting
it around in a disarming move. She'd used it on the younger girl before though, and Fiona pulled back, shaking her knuckles to get feeling back before
moving forward again cautiously.
"She's learning fast," Ben said, walking along the ramp. Chris nodded as Fiona worked at trying to get through Amy's defense. "Bit too
showy for me though."
"You tend to just shoot people," Chris commented with a wry grin.
"Solves the problem before they even get close," the pilot responded with a grin of his own. His friend chuckled, before they both looked up as
lights in the roof shifted to a red tint and an alarm sounded. "Navigational alert," Ben said, jogging along the ramp. Chris followed him as Amy and
Fiona stopped sparing.
Ben ran into the control room and dropped into the pilots seat, taking Duskwalker out of automatic pilot. "Sensors are picking up a gravitational source
directly ahead of us," he said, studying one of the displays. "There shouldn't be anything there."
"Are we off course?" Fiona asked, coming in behind Ben.
"No, we're where we meant to be," Chris replied. "It's got to be an Interdictor."
Ben looked over at his shoulder at him. "Interdictor ships? I thought the League had most of them on the Imperial Front."
"Guess the rumors were wrong," the ships captain replied. "Drop us into real-space Ben. No point in risking damaging the drives with the safety
cutout." Ben nodded, his left hand moving over to a control panel.
Fiona glanced at the sensor display, which was currently showing a rather large and surprisingly neat circle. It grew larger in the screen as Duskwalker
continued to approach it. Once the ship entered that region of slipspace, the gravity signature would set off the ships emergency measures and knock them back
into conventional space. From what she'd heard, it'd probably be rough too.
"What if it's not a League ship?" she asked. The others looked at her. "I mean, what if it's someone dangerous?"
"Like pirates or something?" Amy asked. When Fiona nodded, she shook her head. "It's unlikely. Interdictor ships are pretty rare. I doubt
anyone besides a major government like the League could have them."
"Yeah, you'd hear about it if it happened, no matter how hard they tried to cover it up," Ben agreed. "Besides, if it is dangerous,
we're dropping in a good distance outside the gravity signature. We should be able make a run for it if it goes bad." The view outside the windows
shifted back to a bland star field."Okay then, running active scans. Nothing yet..." A moment later, he nodded. "I'm picking up one ship.
Big one, twelve million kilometers ahead. Not the Interdictor, it's too close to us."
"Just the one ship?" Amy asked. "I would have expected more."
"Well, there probably are, but to our real space scanners? We're only seeing one." Another panel began beeping, drawing his attention. "And
we're being hailed. Audio only." He tapped a button.
"Civilian vessel, this is Solarian League Border Patrol Vessel Andrew Urther. You are to set your vessel to the heading and velocity we provide you and
prepare to receive a customs shuttle for inspection," a harsh voice said.
Chris glanced at Ben. "We getting an ID tag with that?"
"Yeah, it looks real. Got the course details too."
He nodded and reached over Bens shoulder and turned on the mike. "Andrew Uther, this is the Independent Ship Duskwalker. We are adjusting course now, and
am ready to accept your shuttle. Estimate time to course intercept at two hours and seven minutes."
"Understood." The comm went dead.
Chris flicked the mike off and shook his head in amusement. "Cheerful, aren't they?" Amy commented in amusement.
The other three all smiled. "Yeah. Okay, we've got two hours, let's make sure we didn't miss anything," Chris said.
***
Chris checked the airlock seals one last time, then unlocked the hatch and stepped back, keeping his hands visible without really noticing it. The rest of his
crew, including Sato, were standing in the cargo bay, their expressions somewhere between neutral in Amys case, and somewhat nervous in Fionas.
The main doors slid open, revealing over half a dozen men. Seven of them were wearing lightweight body armor, colored a dull blue and bearing a multitude of
insignia. The short-barreled rifles they all carried were held in tight, alert grips, although they weren't aiming at any of Duskwalkers crew.
It was the eighth man standing in the middle of the group that drew their attention. Instead of battle armor, he was wearing a near spotless officers duty
uniform. Lieutenant, judging by his rank insignia.
"Welcome aboard the Duskwalker," Chris said, stepping forward.
"Yes, I'm sure it's wonderful for you," the officer said, stretching out his words slightly in an odd accent."However, this is the tenth
trashhauler I've had to search today and, ah, I'm getting rather tired of it." He stepped forward. "Your passports, starship registry
certificate and pilots licenses."
Chris forced back a scowl and handed over the datacards. The officer took them and slid each one into an access port on his dataslate, studying the information
it displayed with a bored air. "Miss Rose, you are a member of your planets, ah, Hunters Guild, I believe the term is?"
"That's right." She ignored the attention several of the soldiers were giving her.
"Given your worlds rather aggressive nature, I assume that you have photon weapons aboard?" At her nod he turned to Chris. "I'll need to,
ah, inspect them. And the licenses for those weapons of course."
Chris nodded. "They're stored in a weapons locker-"
"-here," one of the soldiers said, nodding towards the wall. Chris didn't quite hide his surprise, and annoyance, at the Leaguers finding it so
fast. The Lieutenant smirked slightly as Chris removed the panels to reveal the actual locker.
"I doubt this locker is, ah, a standard design feature," he said in a tone that made Ben want to punch him.
"We often provide passenger transport," Chris replied smoothly. "While there is a small arms locker near the secondary airlock, we all feel a
little better knowing that any passengers that may be trouble don't know where to get anything that could puncture the hull."
"Ah, yes, of course," the officer said, conceding the point. "Still, one must wonder if this is the only hidden compartment you, how should I
say, not wish those you don't employ to know about?"
"You're welcome to look around sir, but I believe that the kind of activities that would require such compartments to be too much risk for too little
profit," Chris smiled, taking the weapon permits from where they were hanging on the inside of the locker door.
"Very true, but I will have my men make a routine search, just to be sure," he said idly, looking over the permits. "These are for all the
weapons?"
"Just the Ragolian ones," Chris said, handing over a second set. "These are for the more conventional firearms."
"I see, I see..." he said, ignoring his men as they made their way through the cargo bay. "This all seems in order. Now, ah, if you could show
me around the ship?"
"Of course sir. Any preferences to where you'd like to see first?"
***
"Why is it we always get the asshats?" Chris wondered half an hour later, once Duskwalker had separated from the League shuttle.
"Because all the good naval officers actually have shit to do," Ben replied calmly as he brought the engines back online. "That shuttle's
not blocking the flight path they gave us Amy?"
"No, we're clear," the Hunter reported, checking her console.
"Great. Let's get the hell out of her before they decide to give us any more grief." Firing the maneuvering thrusters, he altered their heading,
then fired up the main thrusters, launching them forward again.
"Jump back to Slipspace as soon as we're clear," Chris said.
"You got it... Still can't figure out why they'd be out in this region," the pilot commented. "Or why they'd have their inderdictors
operating outside a star system."
"Why is that odd?" Fiona asked.
"Remember how we saw the gravity well in Slipspace before we hit it?" he asked. At her nod, he continued. "The reason we could is because there
wasn't a gravity well on the starcharts at all, so the computer noticed it was odd. Interdictors tend to operate inside star systems because the star hides
the artificial grav well with their own."
"So the computers don't catch on until it's too late," she said in understanding.
"Bingo. The ships hit a grav well strong enough to trip emergency cutoffs in the slipspace manifold, and they drop back to realspace in a place they
can't just jump back out from." Ben leaned back in his chair. "Which makes for the question of why were they just sitting there where everybody
could see them?"
***
Later that night, Fiona was in her room, looking out the tiny viewport at the blue clouds of slipspace. Her mood had soured during the day, leaving her with a
desire to be alone with her thoughts. The others had gotten to know her well enough to give her some space.
Legally, she was already home. With New Wales now a 'provisional member' of the League, even the void a hundred light years from her world was legally
home... in a sense. In reality, the bizarre network of laws and regulations the ancient and unwieldy government possessed meant that, depending on which member
planets endorsed New Wales, and which planets were involved in crippling the small world to make it 'need' that membership, she could be little more
then a slave away from her work-zone.
It wasn't exactly something the Leagues immense media-engine liked people finding out, but in some parts of the galaxy, it was an open secret. With a
political structure that included planets like Mesa, the core of the galaxies genetic slave industry, and the utter inability of the central government to
control such planets in any way, the League was hardly the beacon of civilization it liked to claim it was.
Finding information on just what that meant for New Wales, and for Fiona personally, had proved to be difficult. Few merchants apparently traveled to the
planet now, and the military and the media seemed unwilling to let too much information out. Even the League Embassy on Ragol had given Duskwalkers crew little
in the way of usable information, which Chris had termed 'all that extra effort to BS us shows they care.'
Which led to her sitting here, alone, brooding over the fate of everyone she loved in the massive gap that seemed to fill her life now. No answers, nothing but
more questions on everyone and everything from before she woke up.
As she sat there, space outside rippled, the blue becoming interlaced with strands of golden light, which spun around each other in an intricate pattern before
fading out. Her father had shown her one on her first week in slipspace, calling them 'space-flowers'.
She watched as the flowers continued to grow and vanish, moving ever outward from their point of origin. It took nearly five minutes to fade entirely. Fiona
sat there a moment longer, then, feeling much better, got up off her bed and went to get something to eat.
Chris and Ben had pulled out a chess board and a deck of cards, each of which actually affected the game. She came in just in time to see Ben blow up his
castle, taking out his friends King, parked too close.
"I regret that I have only one life to give for my chessboard!" Ben declared, before knocking over the pieces. "Kaboom."
"Hey wait a second! The purpose is to force a surrender of enemy royalty! To assassinate the King is a violation of both the Rules of Engagement and the
Articles of War," Chris protested, mostly for forms sake.
"Bullshit. You had your bishop burn my queen at the stake!"
"Well, look at a Queens powers! Teleporting across the entire board, moving in every direction, slaying even the Knights of the Realm. Obviously
witchcraft!"
"What is this, the Imperium? Fiona, help me out here."
"Sorry Ben, I stay out of international chess diplomacy," she replied smoothly, going to the fridge. "Ask Amy."
***