Beyond darkness, lies greatness

"Its a micro-processor, it feeds off your metabolism. It could run for ...years, decades even."

Adam held up the dull BB. "And it will turn me back?"

"Adam-

"Right, stupid. Its fine."

Fox pulled the neck of her dark gray jumpsuit to the side, exposing a fresh set of bandages, speckled with red. "When I used it, it helped me control emotions, memories, feelings. It regulates hormones and I think it might even be able to stop whatever this ...pheromone you give off is. It might make it safer for you to be around people."

"So long as I don't bite them." Bite her bite her bite her

"Is it telling you to bite me now?"

"No." He lied. BITE HER! "Do I swallow it?"

She shook her head. "It's subdermal, we'll need to cut you open. And considering how you heal, probably beneath the muscle layer."

What if she's lying? The Instinct- Adam had named that deep seated voice in his head- made a good point. It wasn't sure, though. And maybe it had its own self interest at play. Noone wanted to be silenced. He didn't know who to trust. Was he really going to let Miss Fox cut him open and and and maybe she would just keep cutting. She hadn't slept in a week, neither of them had. He knew she wanted out. She was like him, when things got tough, they scattered, like cockroaches after you flip on the light. She was afraid of him. Only what the fuck had happened with that girl McKenzie? Not even after he bit her, what had he done BEFORE? Calling her mom? Fantasizing about it. Where had those urges come from? Not the Instinct, he knew that for sure. Was that a part of him? Did he want to do-THAT- with his own mother? The silence in his head, was deafening.

Before either of them could speak, they received a ping from the autopilot. They had arrived at Vega.

---

Sam ignored the incoming wave-comm. She drew a bead on another target, she was in the warzone and she couldn't afford to be distracted. Her pulse rifle hummed with each successful shot. Sure it was too fancy, too breakable, to expensive, but damn was that sound ever a gonna get a girl's panties moist. She twisted the knob up to setting five and broke around the far corner, Tomians- fucking lizards -popping up in windows and behind cover. She blasted through a parked halftrack, shredding the squad behind it, hehe, setting five bitches. Another artillery burst caught the shed where they were setting up a light machine gun. Returning plasma fire made her drop flat and roll under an old-fashioned wheel-car. 'Fucking lizard bitches'

She army-crawled forward and checked her pad. Not much time left and she still had to save the hostages. She did the math in her head real quick. She'd lose points for not clearing the zone, but gain them back for time completely, it would be tight. She would have to try something new though. Something crazy. Her cousin would approve.

She dialed back to setting one and rose to a crouch beside just beside the wheel of the car. Just ten meters to the door. Once inside she couldn't slow down, not even for one second. Doors and corners, doors and corners.

She stood up and charged straight through the superheated plasma. The hum was a lot less sexy when it was inches from taking off your head. Eight meters, Faster. At six she shot blindly at surprised Tomian who stepped out from behind cover, he dropped like a stroke victim, must go faster. She put her head down and ran, lights popping in her eyes. At two meters she jumped over the Tomians body, slammed into the door he'd left open and burst into the darkness.

Her eyes were light blind, instinct threw her to the left, away from the sabre another Tomian blur swung at head level, she cut him down. His body seizing and thrashing. She rolled up to a knee, firing at anything that moved. One human woman took a bolt to the arm and started screaming through her gag. But the rest sunk into alien scumbags. Room was clear, just the upstairs left. She gulped air and got to her feet.

The tiniest vibration. That's all she felt, but it was enough, she threw herself hard to the floor and fired a shot at the door, the two Tomians charging through never stood a chance, energy pockets burst across their chests and heads, good, they blocked the door. She ran up the stairs.

The door to the room was already open, a Tomian stood with a single remaining hostage, his laspistol drilling into her temple. Her eyes were squeezed shut, she was terrified.

"Stop or she dies." His voice was harsh, guttural. With a mouth not suited for hard consonants. The lisp would have been funny in a bar somewhere. It wasn't funny now.

Action time. In training the instructors tell you never to come out of cover for this, and never, ever put down your weapon.

"Come out from your cover and drop your weapon." So basic. Didn't they have anything better? Still, precious time was wasting. Sam didn't even have time to pretend to humor him. Instead she dropped the hostage with a plasma bolt to the stomach. And then drilled another stunner into the shocked Tomians chest. She kicked his gun away and turned her rifle back to two- the minimum killing setting- and drilled him in the brain. Checked the pad again, she had to move to the evac now.

She ran downstairs and grabbed the woman and basically dragged her upstairs, the man, (husband?) followed, their hands and mouths still gagged and bound, not that she wanted to listen to their babble. The woman collapsed at the sight of the other woman's still form, her tears a steady stream down her face. Sam slapped her.

"She'd just stunned. But I can't carry both of you, so fucking get on your feet." And without looking to see if they followed Sam fireman carried the **** young lady (maybe a daughter?) through the next room and burst back into the, now blinding, light of the favela. She slid down a nearby roof and tore through a handful of back alleys, leading her wayward lambs to the egress, all the while, Tomians gaining thanks to Miss Cries-a-lot's pathetic pace. She crossed into the orange flashing box at last and the world dissolved into pixels. The weight in her arms melted away to nothing. The simulation was over, but the bruises were very real. Time to check the scores. She fought down the urge to cross her fingers. She didn't need it, she could feel things turning around. She felt like a rockstar.

Beside the cavernous simulation room, the small office was whizzing with computers, and tech types, along with an un-ambitious career officer 'supervising' in the corner. She threw him a quick salute and rushed over to the Corporal with as fast as she could, while maintaining military bearing.

"Damn, you're hot shit. I've never seen someone-"

"Shoot the hostage, yeah. What were my scores?" She was laser focused. After almost four months of guard duty, she needed a win. She needed off this wet shithole.

"Incredible. 93% percentile for shooting. 95% combat double II's (instinct and ingenuity, for those who hadn't had to suffer through military acronyms), fitness-"

"Whats the overall, and did I get honors?" Anyone with a score over 95% would receive a commendation, which she could use to put in for a transfer to a better assignment, or even OCS, though she'd have to be pretty ****, to 'stick a stick up her ass and join the brass'.

"97%. Like I said, you're a superstar." The poor guy looked a little starstruck even. He wasn't going to ask for an autograph, was he. "But it doesn't matter. You're not getting a transfer."

What? "WHAT?"

He gave her a knowing look. "You think you're the only one who hates it here?" He nodded to the officer, sleeping on duty in the corner. "Valero used to be one of our best and brightest. I've been here six years. No transfer. This place eats good soldiers. But the high command wants us here, no idea why though."

Sam felt hollow. She had a ten year hitch in front of her, and maybe all of it on this swamp, marching, keeping time, and checking weapons, and for what? There was nothing out here. They were IN Alliance space, not the core regions, sure, but well patrolled, not even near the Confederation or the Gagarin, not that the latter had any military, to speak of. She was going to languish here for the next decade of her life, scrubbing fungus out of her hair for hours every night. She wanted to scream. She wanted to rage. Not for the first time, she looked back and wondered if she made the wrong call that night.

They had just been kids then, her not even a year into the academy, Adam just finished with his second. She'd been eating his lunch ever since she'd arrived, but instead of pissing him off, the rivalry had re-ignited their childhood friendship. Only things had taken a turn lately. Sam knew the struggling family business was weighing heavily on her cousin, and he'd never really gotten over his father's **** two years before. She wanted to see him smile again, but if he couldn't more than anything, she wanted to be the one he leaned on. She knew it wasn't... normal, to feel this way about him, but she couldn't help it.

"Ten-hut!" She called out to him. Expecting him to snap to attention. Instead he slumped more, his hand clenched around a flimsy. "Careful there Hercules, those things do break you know."

He starred at Sam wordlessly and shoved it into her hands. "Read it." His voice was flat, dead.

It was a wedding invitation, from her aunt Charlotte, she was marrying Keith Martell, and wanted Adam and one guest to attend to help them celebrate, refreshments and lodging would be provided, black tie attire only. "Any chance you'll take me as your plus one?"

"This isn't funny!" He snarled at her. "What the fuck does she think she's doing? Keith Martell? And dad JUST died. What about Cindi? What about-"

"You?" Adam wouldn't meet her gaze. "Maybe its not about you."

"You think she loves him." He stopped dead. "You don't think she's and him-before dad, I mean?"

"Don't be stupid. You know how it is with the high families. Marriages aren't love matches, they're business contracts and alliances. Carter Exploration is falling apart. Maybe this is what it takes to save it." She stood in front of him and made him face her, no running away, little cousin. Not from this.

"My father LOVED her. And she loved him." Francis had been like a father to them both. Especially since Sam had never known hers. They had both idolized him, but as the years went by, the cruelness of the galaxy weighed heavily on him. His son had that same old fashioned nobility she so admired. And it was already starting to fade.

"And that was one in a million. Love just doesn't happen with us. You, me, Cindi, we're all gonna get hitched to some stranger, who brings advantage." Not that she was some expert on love. Her heart had been spinning for two years and nothing seemed to set it straight.

And then he got that look in his eye, the one that made her absolutely melt. His eyes were like fire, and could feel the heat. She felt and shiver run up her spine, when things got really competitive, when they were neck and neck during training his eyes would look like that. It was not a small motivation that drove her to the top of the class. "I'm leaving. Tonight. I'm going to take over father's share of the business. I've got a ship. A good little ship."

Sam couldn't believe her ears. He was just going to leave, the Citadel's golden boy? The brass had plans for him. What about his career? What about her? "You can't just go."

"Come with me." That set her back on her heels. The two of them, alone, doing runs in some little kettle of a ship, stuck together, back to back, sweaty and- and- and- it was like some fantasy of hers come to life, her mouth felt dry and her heart was bursting. Could she go? Did he hold some sliver of the same feelings as her?

"You're pretty good in a fight. I could use you." That roguish smile had melted hearts and dropped panties in a dozen bars, but she felt hers turn to ice. This wasn't some Bonnie and Clyde romance, Adam wanted his trusted cousin, his best friend to come along. But she knew in an instant, that would destroy her. She could barely stand to be around him now, where she had space to run away and scream when her feelings got to strong. Could she cry herself to sleep every night with him sleeping just a meter away?

"We have to stay." She countered lamely. She couldn't give him up either, not yet. She needed just a little more time. "Stay until we finish, I'll get advance placement, I'm already ahead of most cadets, I'll finish with you in two years."

His brow furrowed in confusion. "We'd just have to serve our hitch after that. At least for four more years." His confusion turned to worry. He'd always been the one she turned to when they were kids. He always had her back, and she HATED that he never asked her for anything, that he HAD to do it all himself. She could see the dawning fear of rejection on his face and she wanted to die. "Samara." He never called her Samara and she hated that too, hated it because she loved the way he said it and they both knew she was about to break his heart. Welcome to the club cousin. "I need to do this. Its family. My father, he built this company with his bare hands. And if my mother really is doing this for-well, then I need to bail her out too." He searched her face. He looked so much like his father now, not a decade before when they rode on his shoulders, he looked like his father just before the end. Scared, alone searching for hope. "I can't do this without you."

She didn't meet his eyes. "You have to."

_She hadn't watched his ship leave, hadn't even spoken to him after that. Goodbyes hurt so badly and she was already the bitch who left him behind. He didn't need to give her one last shoulder to cry on.- - - - - -

_

The station was orbiting a Pulsar, according to the family newsletter that Aunt Kat sent every few months, contained his sister and a handful of arrays and computers loaned out by the Academy for her experiments.

"How long has it been?"

"She was twelve when I left the Citadel." Adam recalled. "She was the only one I wanted to talk too. The only one I thought could understand. I wave-commed her every week, the first year. She never replied back. They took the money though."

"So that's your station then?" Fox asked. It had never sat well with her, him sending most of his share back to his family. She didn't ever speak of her own.

"No. Its my family's-I-Cindi's there, she was a direct line to the Academy, which means you can change the access the Alliance records while I reset the IFF. We'll be in and out in a few hours, and its just my sister on board, so no one to cause me problems."

Miss Fox nodded reluctantly, she was **** for things to start going right. "What do you want to call this bucket?"

"I was thinking. The INVADER!" Adam offered. Then flushed when she broke out laughing. **** out something about 'men and their bloody wankers'

It felt good to laugh with her, he didn't know when they'd get another chance.

"No reply to your wave?" She asked. He shook his head. The station had gone dark. "Probably think we're bloody pirates. Sister or no, we're jamming their comms array for now. I'd rather not make the acquaintance of Alliance Corsairs."

No one greeted them in the hangar, from everything they could see, the place was dead. Except oddly enough the place was decorated, streamers and lights hung from every crevice, new stuff, not covered in dust or grime.

"Princess is having a party, it seems."

"It was her birthday a month ago." Adam recalled. "Someone's here. Not just Cindi. It doesn't matter. Go find the terminal. The sooner we're gone, the better."

She must have agreed because she didn't even wait for him to finish before trotting off into a dark corridor.

Adam went to work.

Identity Friend/Foe were the digital flags of the void. Every ship needed one, at least, if they wanted to dock on a reputable station. After the war, the two superpowers share their databases periodically. So if they were able to get their new information onto the Alliance, the Confeds and Gagarin Republic would fall like dominoes. Of course that assumed Adam could remove the main chip without causing the Invader- it was a good name -to self destruct. Once it was rewritten, it would then have to be carefully reinserted. Civilian, military, old or new, if the onboard computer detected tampering with an IFF, it would send the reactor into meltdown. Only government spooks had ways to rewrite their IFFs, and he didn't think they were coming by to help.

Adam was guts deep in electronics, with the ten centimeter chip almost free when he heard a familiar sound. It was the low to high whine of a lasrifle charging up. Those things had melted through starship armor. And by the sound of things, it was pointed at the back of his head. He didn't dare move a muscle.

"Aren't those things illegal in civilian hands?"

"We're not in the Alliance, are we? Don't even try to move." Came a familiar, know-it-all timbre. One twitch and they would have a mini sun forming behind them, he was happy to stay still.

"True. But under regulation, 255A, appendix six, transport of lasguns across Alliance borders is classified as felony gunrunning." He could almost see a mess of blonde curls out of the corner of his eye. Was it?

"Oh no, Legionnaire, you're so big and strong. This big, scary pirate came and tried to kill us. But we got HIS gun and fought him off. Shut up and do what I say, or you'll regret it."

"Not a first offender, then. You know what this is in my hand, right?" Her gasp answered the question. "I'm going to slide this out, first. So we don't die horribly. After that I'll do whatever you want."

They both held their breath, as Adam eased the tiny clip free, even the tiniest shake could trip the sensors or break some crucial circuit. Of course he'd never know until they put it back in. Bow chika bow wow. He laughed at the terrible joke. She probably thought he was insane. He laughed at that too. At last it was free of the rails, he set it gently into the cradle he'd rigged up, careful to only touch the sides. They both let out the breathe they'd been holding.

"Stand up. You got a gun?" He shook his head. "Turn around so I can see." That was her second mistake, she shouldn't have let him stand either. His muscles tensed to lunge, he completely froze, gobsmacked by the vision in front of him.

People don't appreciate the passage of time. Six years is a forever, especially for a girl going from twelve to eighteen. Gone was the shy little nerd in a crown, who demanded her knight carry her on his shoulders, in her place was a very eighteen year old vixen, curly blonde hair, a gorgeous face and curves in all the right places. He felt himself harden just thinking about where those long legs in those brown knee high boots wrapped around his waist. He wondered if she noticed.

Cindi noticed. She blushed scarlet and her breathing sped up.

She pointed with the gun where she wanted him to go, and he went. Poked him in the back when he took too long, too. How long had he had these feelings? He knew he missed his family dearly. Jokes aside, he didn't just scan those family newsletters, he'd devoured them. The pain of being apart flooded back. They'd always taken the money, that was for sure. And why had his sweet little sister, never replied to him? He realized he had been looking at the past with rose tinted glasses. His sister was sweet, she was also a spoiled brat. She'd never had to lift a finger, she was their precious genius perfect child. When he went out and worked to save their family business, she wore the latest fashions and styles. He'd could almost smell the foie gras on her breath. This little bitch was going to pay for ignoring him. He stopped dead at the base of the ramp.

"Nice station you have here. Buy it yourself?"

"My family owns it. Shut up." She sounded fuzzy. The pheromones were getting to her.

"This is all a big misunderstanding. If you'll let me explain."

"I already called Galsec, there's a ship just a few lightminutes away." Her voice wavered now. That was bad. Nervous people pulled triggers by accident. "Cindi-"

"How do you know my name!" She demanded. "Tell me right now or I'll shoot!"

---

It was all totally unfair. Cindi had told her mom she was just going to have a few friends over to her station- it was really hers, basically -for her birthday and she'd gone ballistic. 'Cindi was there to study, not party'. 'It wasn't even safe out in the Rim.' 'When she was her age, Charlotte was cleaning tables just to feed herself and Aunt Kat.' Whatever. Sorry mommy. You only turn 18 once and she wanted to get her drink on. This was going to be totally No-VA!

Setting up proved not that hard, they designated a few areas, no go zones, easier to clean and decorate that way. Imani was so strong, she reminded Cindi of her brother, Adam. She almost never thought about him these days. They'd been close as children. She'd worshiped her brother. Anything he did, she wanted to be a part of. But then he left, and even more than her dad dying when she was still a child, is what tore her family apart. Sam grew distant, Aunt Kat stopped coming around, her mom NEVER smiled anymore. But 'Uncle' Keith, Cindi liked uncle Keith.

Cindi had blossomed early and like the perfect peach she was, men noticed. It wasn't her fault that she'd never bought a drink in her life. And no one noticed more than her stepfather. She'd felt his eyes on her since she was fifteen. She reached a hand down to cup her ample breast- so pert and supply, despite their size, so much nicer than her mom's which had begun to sag with age- who could blame him? She had him wrapped around her little finger, and after a while, she really started to like teasing him. It wasn't fair for men to get all the fun. Making them go crazy, making them do anything for her, then disappearing, to laugh with her friends, it was a rush. Cindi especially loved it at the rougher dives they sometimes slummed in, those brutes who worked the docks couldn't take their eyes off her and her friends. Sometimes she shivered at the thought of one of those thugs catching her alone and taking what she had been selling all night. Sometimes, afterwards she had to frig her little puss, to get her mind right. Usually, actually.

Whenever mommy didn't want to help her, uncle Keith was always there. Rides home from the club, looking the other way when she got a hickie or two, he even pulled some strings to get her out of police custody once, he'd laughed and said, she owed him one for that! As if! The hugs and kisses got more possessive as she got older, less innocent, it was one reason, she didn't mind leaving Sirius behind. Seeya later, uncie Keith. Only now she needed his help again, and a small part of her was dreading what he might expect in return.

"Hiya uncle Keith!" She 'forgot' that she only had her undies on when she live wave-commed him.

The poor old guy's eyes nearly bugged out of this head.

"oooh, I'm so sorry, its been so hot here, I haven't been wearing anything at all."

His smile was serpentine. "Is that so?"

"Don't worry, I'll put on a robe, Uncle Keith."

Neither one of them said anything, she just stood there, waiting. "No, I don't mind, sweetheart. You're a lovely girl. I want you to be comfortable."

She squealed and squeezed her arms, pushing her double D breasts nearly out of her tiny bra. "I know, Uncie Keith, you take such good care of me?"

In the corner of the room, well out of range of the wave-comm's camera, Imani rolled her eyes, but Viola gave her a thumbs up. She'd played this game as well as Cindi, maybe better. "Its just-well."

"What is it sweetie-pie?" His eyes gleamed, predatory and eager.

"I need help Uncle, my friends wanted to throw a party for me for my birthday, I'm eighteen now! (his smile turned knowing), just a little one, but mommy won't help!"

Keith sat back, he knew he had her. "Honey, your mother and I, feel you need to learn responsibility, if we just solve all your problems, you'll be my little girl forever!"

Now Cindi had to keep from rolling her eyes. As if she didn't hear the way his voice trilled when he said 'little girl'. Still, he was right. He held all the cards. Time to break out the big guns. When they'd married, it had been a small civil ceremony, barely even an event, she'd been her mother's maid of honor. Cindi had been as excited as any ten year old could have been. Practically buzzing. She remembered asking her mother, if this meant Keith, a longtime 'friend' of the family was her new daddy. Her mother replied, 'Your father is dead, Cindi. That man is not your father. He's still your uncle Keith. You don't ever call him 'dad'. Let's see how you like this, mommy.

"But Dadddddddddy- I mean oooops." Viola mimed clapping her hands, and mouthed 'bravo'. "Sorry daddy, I mean, uncie Keith. Its just sometimes I think of you as my daddy. A girl only turns eighteen once!"

Keith was hooked, only he wasn't going down easy. "Tell you what pumpkin, no credits, but you send me a wave of whatever supplies you need and I'll fly them out to you myself in the princess. See you soon!" And he hung up before she could even protest. Cindi wasn't tooooo worried, she and her friends could find a way to ditch him without too much fuss once he gave up the goods.

Only instead of the smooth silver hull of the princess, this sleek, armored raptor was trying to charge up her loading ramp. Chances are they were just some driftwise cargo captain with a nice ship. They powered everything down and ignored the incoming hails. Most likely they were just some driftwise cargo captain with a nice ship. But she wasn't taking any chances. Good girls don't just let anyone on board their space stations.

Minutes later, those two rough characters came into HER station like they owned the place. The first was a woman, redhead, who she caught a glimpse of before she ducked into her hiding spot. She couldn't quite make out what they said, but when she peeked out, the redhead was disappearing down the hall and she expected the man was back on the ship. She shivered. Academy training was light on self defense, and it had been a long time since she practiced with a blaster. That lasgun in her hand was still a comfort. It was now or never.

She tiptoed into up the ramp. And found the man. He was hunched over, up to his shoulder in the main ship, server. Almost like he was reaching for something. Whatever it was could wait. He gave off the faint, earthy smell of copper now that she was closer. She put the barrel of the lasgun in his thick black hair and he froze.

"Aren't those things illegal in civilian hands?" He sounded amused. Asshole!

"We're not in the Alliance, are we? Don't even try to move." Her mother had made sure the station was fully stocked, oddly enough. Up close he was a LOT bigger, thick around the shoulders. He made her think of the loader dives.

"True. But under regulation, 255A, appendix six, transport of lasguns across Alliance borders is classified as felony gunrunning." The loader called back. Only he was a bit smarter, it seemed. Still. Not as smart as her. And if he made one wrong move there was only going to be one person left to tell the story.

"Oh no, Mister Legionnaire, you're so big and strong. This big, scary pirate came and tried to kill us. But we got HIS gun and fought him off. Sounds believable to me. Now shut up and do what I say, or you'll regret it." That shut him up, for a moment at least.

"Not a first offender, then. You know what this is in my hand, right?" Was he insane? In the instruction manual for removing the IFF, the first rule was 'don't remove the IFF'!

"I'm going to slide this out, first. So we don't die horribly. After that I'll do whatever you want."

He slid the tiny, deadly chip free, laughing as he worked. Lunatic. Cindi could breath again.

"Stand up. You got a gun?" And he did. He stood up and up and up, until his head nearly brushed the ceiling. He towered over Cindi, and made the lasgun feel like a toy in her hands.

"Turn around so I can see." She eyed he once over, noting the layers of muscles and that one particularly heavy one between his legs. He was BIG everywhere. She chivvied him down the ramp.

"Nice station you have here. Buy it yourself?" Why did his voice have to sound so....ugh. This guy was pushing buttons she didn't even know she had.

"My family owns it. Shut up." Her head felt dizzy.

"This is all a big misunderstanding. If you'll let me explain."

"I already called Galsec, there's a ship just a few lightminutes away." That was a bad lie. What was she going to do when no one showed up?

"Cindi-"

"How do you know my name!" She demanded. "Tell me right now or I'll shoot!" Her finger squeezed the trigger, but then she heard the steady click of of hammer just behind her head.

"Let's not be hasty, love." A cool purr in her ear, and then the lasgun was gone and she stared up at two predators. They looked like hardened criminals. All leather and rags and ferocity. She shivered again, her pirate fantasy made reality. The man stared at her, and not just for the usual reason; she could fix that, Cindi arched her back and pushed her supply young breasts forward, her nipples straining through her thin shirt. His eyes feasted on her now. Good, let him look. That's how you got them. Now, to get answers.

"You never did tell me how you knew my name?"

"Cindi, I'm-"

"We're smugglers." The redhead cut in with a sharp look for the giant. "We found this station on the public manifest. We're not looking for trouble. I found your friends, they're not hurt." The woman put her lasgun on the ground and slowly, deliberately put the revolver back in her holster.

"We just need a place to stop and make repair, and I need access to a terminal. We tried to contact you when we arrived, but you didn't answer, wave-comm or when we came on board."

Cindi flushed. Was this all just a misunderstanding? If they were pirates, why bother with the charade? Only, there was something at the back of her mind, something that she wasn't quite able to grasp.

The man jumped in. "We can pay you for the dock space. From the look of this place, you could use the money." He seemed to thrive on riling her up. Why did she want to throw a pine cone at him of all things? "We wouldn't ask (they clearly weren't asking), but its an emergency." He paused while everyone had the same thought. "An extra-legal emergency."

"Stay in the hangar." Cindi couldn't believe she was considering this, but they wasn't this EXACTLY the kind of excitement she always wanted? "There's a terminal here."

"I need one with comms access."

"Too bad!"

The two women met stare for stare until Miss Fox nodded, and Cindi picked up her lasgun and walked out. It took everything she had not to run.

---

"Why didn't you tell her?"

"Cause I don't want to deal with your family, fucking drama ok?" Her eyes were bloodshot, she was right on the edge, he could tell.

"I got the IFF out. Ten minutes and we're good." She shook her head.

"There's another layer of security. I should have known. We need clearance codes, the kind that most people just don't get. Without them..."

Cindi walked back in with her entourage, before he could reply. The Instinct was slathering with hunger at this much female flesh. Besides his unknowing sister, a pale little things with some oriental heritage, and a darker girl of amazonian proportions, finally a girl that seemed like his sisters inverse, in looks anyway, dark to his sisters light, slim, though she had curves aplenty, and with the confident swagger of a gunslinger. All that in a little barely legal package.

"Don't worry. We know we aren't welcome. We'll be out of your hair in fifteen minutes." Adam called out to the girls.

"Wait." The gunslinger cried. "Are you guys really smugglers?"

Adam didn't need the instinct to sense an opportunity here. He favored her with a smile. "Been a sinner since puberty."

She liked that. Yes she did. Cindi did not. She jerked her friends arm and was promptly ignored. This pack already had an alpha female and it wasn't little sister.

"Well. We're having a party. And we HAPPEN to need some refreshments. Maybe we could work something out."

Adam played coy of course. "I have a bottle of fine Confed whisky. That's plenty wild for a proper ladies like yourselves." He suppressed a laugh, from what he recalled, the young 'ladies' of the Alliance could drink him under the table, most had a few nasty addictions too.

"Maybe, maybe. But its a special occasion. Do you have anything stronger?" The gunslinger swaggered up to him, hips popping with every step. "I've never tried Xizinian dust before, or maybe you have some Chatu root?"

Damn, Adam had seen hardened sailors who couldn't handle Xiz. This little girl was quite the pophead. He was sure there were all kinds of rare **** on Jdics personal yaht, he'd be happy to part with them, only, that didn't solve his problem... or did it. He took a closer look at the dark skinned girl. That was Imani Khan, part of the second most powerful family in the Alliance. An idea, half formed, spun up in his head.

"What do you say, my associate here, helps you toward our selection, free of charge, our gift for your generous hospitality." Adam could see the frown on her face. She'd been hoping to 'pay' in the more traditional way. "While you girls show me to the mess. We haven't had anything not flash frozen in months."

The bubbly asian girl seemed especially taken with the idea, telling him all about the authentic ramen she could whip up for him. Miss Fox was less sold on the idea. But she trusted him, for now.

"Watch out girls, he's a savage. Don't let him bite any of you." She called out to them, but her flat stare was only for him. The girls laughed it off, even the gunslinger, only Cindi looked thoughtful.