[Investigations into the ALF]

Lawrence swung his way down the main corridor of the ship, one hand in his pocket and the other holding a smoke. He whistled a jouncy tune as he congratulated himself on his recent expedition and subsequent survival. Not only that, but he'd managed to pull off what turned out to be some decent detective work worthy of a cheap holobook while at the same time

All these space pirates with their space training, he thought. Oh-ver, ray-ted.

The trip was turning out to be far more interesting than he initially considered.

[Investigations into the family of the Ace of Spades: Qamala and Lawrence]

Qamala pulled a bottle of that fine wine from the cargo memclips that had been brought back from the Ace of Spades, her expression thoughtful. Bodily death didn't really disturb her, though she'd seen few enough dead bodies in her life. That which was important about people couldn't really die -- but it was also that which left the truly indelible traces in and on everything it touched. She wasn't overtly sensitive to it, as some Magellen were -- but it still affected her. She could almost feel the family-crew of the destroyed ship on each memclip she handled, their emotions, their thoughts, their history. Hoping it and the wine would help, she sat down at a terminal in the med bay and inserted the first clip, browsing the data there and sipping contemplatively, becoming absorbed in the mundane entries of these people's lives.

[CAUSE OF DEATH: ACE OF SPADES: Teagan, Paladin, and Willa]

Teagan was dreaming.

For the cybernetically enhanced woman, dreams were no longer impossible landscapes of illogic and idiom. There were no fantastical creatures, violent traumas, or dashing heroes, no unpleasant emotions erupting with brute force. The cerebral cortex's function as a downtime file sorter had largely been replaced with solid-state computer chips that sorted, collated and filed thoughts and experiences as soon as she had them. Whatever subconscious impulses the psyche worked out in human dreamtime were now lullabies of code and the order of programming sequences, singing her softly into a state that resembled sleep to an outside observer, but was in fact something much closer to deep meditation.

[CHILD PAGE SUMMARY]

[14 hours later -- at the turning point]

The cargo bay doors had barely closed before Paladin had pushed Audacity away from the freighter with the thrusters, righted her, and put them back on course to Epsilon-Jay as fast as the sublight engines would push her.

Days on the Audacity had turned into weeks, the tedious routines passing time for most until they could lose themselves in the more enjoyable activities of getting to know their new crew. While everyone struggled in their own way, most of them had formed some tenuous personal bonds to help sustain them in the vast nothingness of space.

By the time they arrived at The Twins Audacity was a very different ship than when they'd started. In addition to the initial problem that nearly sent one half of the ship off 256 times the speed of light faster than the other half, and the inoperative security system, a litany of other problems kept everyone busy through the entire length of the run.

It took only 12 hours for their tail to disappear from the scope. An eventuality that had not been entirely unexpected. The relative angle of departure meant that sooner or later, unless the (presumed) enemy ship could match or exceed their velocity, it would disappear into their wake -- their baffles.

Parts of this 'ported over from chapters five and six for continuity. This scene involves Leeda Paayt, Lawrence Bourne III, and Qamala Sotiris.

The need for non-violent means of interrogation sent Leeda off to the pharmacy and chemistry lab where she was able to scrape up at least a basic list of drugs for the purpose. Advance designer synthetics she'd have to purchase elsewhere. Obviously mining stations had little need to do sophisticated interrogations. This meant they'd also have to use their native empathic and telepathic gifts to enhance the effort -- a neat challenge for the two aliens aboard.

If nothing else, the Staff Meeting made the last two hours on the station very busy ones. Cold starting a ship that had been sitting as long as theirs had was a long and complex process. One that, thankfully, nobody got the privilege of going through very often in their lives.

As Teagan had said, "hanging" the new fuel nozzles took another two hours. What she didn't factor in was the discrepancy in the mating surface her x-ray eye caught just about the time they were ready to bolt up the new nozzle. The discrepancy was great enough that, once pointed out, you could see the discoloration in the metal where hot gas from the thrust chamber had leaked in between the two surfaces with the naked eye. Left unfixed, it would eventually cause a blow out that could take the power plant with it -- and maybe compromise hull integrity.

Leeda gently set Paladin down on the surgical table, nodding her thanks to Teagan as the woman left, though it was unnoticed and probably unneeded. They had managed to recover the basic systems, and there was a minimal medical database in place, basic gross trauma indicators and reaction variables. Plenty enough to provide assistance during the surgery. She grimaced as she took the room in, making a solemn vow to come back here and clean every exposed surface as soon as viably possible.

Willa had noticed that Ekhart was awake as she had pushed the floater past him, so she returned to the tool box he was leaning against, still bleeding. She squated leaned down and grinned at him. “Morning Sunshine! How’s your head doing? Mine is all better now, even after that concussion grenade that you threw at me. So let’s have a little chat. Tell me who hired you to kidnap Bourne.”

"Vhy should I tell you anydhing, Adhenian?" He coughed weakly. "You vill kill me vhedher I talk or not. And my men vill eidher avenge me or rescue me."

Willa ran as fast as she could to the hanger kitty corner from the one she was leaving. As she got nearer she could hear gravity plates engaging. “Shit!” She ran faster towards the bay. As she got closer her skin began to itch. By the time she got to the doors her teeth were chattering from the vibration of the grav plates, and each step felt like her leg was going to try and fly off in the opposite direction. As soon as she was past the doors she started waving her arms and screaming “JUICE,” though she wasn’t sure why she was doing the latter.

Leeda came pelting out of the elevator on Qamala's back. As the taller woman made the turn up the landing bay toward their hanger a squad of armed security formed up behind them and followed along.