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Asten leaned forward in his seat and, with a tender hand, pulled the lever that brought the Lady Hawk back to sublight speed. It had been quite a while since he had last flown the girl but when he sat in the pilot’s chair, everything had come back to him with the intimate familiarity that was better known as second nature. He knew the Lady Hawk and she knew him.
He turned to see how Selina was doing. She was quite accustomed to the ship now as well, although she didn’t take to the navigation controls as easily as Carla had way back when.
It was a little strange, Asten thought. He enjoyed these quiet moments when he was alone with his wife but, here in the cockpit of his first ship, he couldn’t help feeling some sadness that the days when he had been flying about the place with Drackson and Carla were long behind him. It seemed that sometimes when the next stage of life brought something new and wonderful, something from the stage before was irrevocably lost. Perhaps, he thought, it was a price one had to pay.
“Are you all right?” Selina asked.
Asten nodded. “Yeah, I’m all right. I was just thinking about something.” He smiled. “So any sign of Drackson?”
“Yeah, he’s straight ahead,” she replied, smiling back.
Asten turned to look at the viewscreen. Sure enough, there was a small ship out there. A Tanemi Clearstream.
“Ah ha,” he said. “He’s on the Albatross. It’s hard keeping up with Drackson and his ships.”
Drackson had acquired the Albatross when the now-retired Admiral Roth had talked him into forming a Federation intelligence team to investigate renegade Harskan activity. But given recent changes in that arrangement, Asten wasn’t sure why Drackson still had the ship.
He switched on the communicator. “Hey, Drackson. Sorry about interrupting your trip back there.”
“No problem,” his friend replied. “Bring your ship alongside ours and we’ll set up a docking tube.”
“Okay. See you soon.”
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The hatch opened and, with Selina beside him, Asten stepped onto the Albatross.
Drackson, standing tall, was waiting for them, smiling in welcome and extending a hand.
“Hey, Drackson,” Asten said, accepting the proffered handshake. “Good to see you again.”
“You too,” Drackson replied. “You’re looking well. Both of you.”
Asten turned to the woman beside Drackson, a Harskan was well.
“And it’s good to see you too, Naima,” he said.
Naima inclined her head with a little smile of her own. “Likewise.”
Asten was becoming more accustomed to Naima these days. The familiarity he had with Drackson wasn’t there with her yet, of course, since she was new. And her background was somewhat shady with her involvement in the now disbanded privateer organization, the Kunlayn Elite. However, she had one very important virtue and Asten would call her a friend for that alone. Drackson liked her and he seemed happy around her.
Asten knew that Drackson had in the past drifted in and out of the lives of people he would ultimately outlive and there was something inherently lonely in that. However, in Naima, he had found a companion he could be with until the day he died. And although Harskan and human ideals of beauty were naturally different, Asten could nevertheless see something of the physical attractiveness that Drackson saw in her as well.
Drackson then gestured for him and his wife to follow him. “Why don’t we all head into the mess? We can talk there.”
The group, which was just the four of them, entered the room where they fetched themselves some drinks and sat down.
“So,” Drackson said, “what are you two up to?”
“We’re preparing to do a little reconnaissance for the United Frontier,” Asten said, “and possibly an extraction.”
“And you want us to handle it?”
“Uh, no, we’re going to handle it,” Asten said, gesturing to Selina and himself. “But we want to get your input on how best to go about it. And I wonder whether you and Naima might be able to give us some back-up.”
Drackson smiled. “With all the official resources of the United Frontier at your disposal?”
“Well, we’re trying to keep things as quiet as possible,” Asten said. “We don’t want our quarry to know we’re onto him. And a lot of people out there seem to think this is a Phalamkian problem, not a United Frontier one.”
“Fair enough. So what’s going on exactly?”
Asten leaned forward in his seat. “Are you two familiar with the Imraec Tarc situation?”
At this, Drackson and Naima exchanged glances. Drackson then turned back to his friend. “Actually, we have something of an interest in the place already.”
Naima chuckled. “Yes, Drackson’s human harem is on the case.”
“The girls are following a weapons smuggling trail,” Drackson explained, giving Naima a sideways look. “A trail that seems to end at Imraec Tarc.”
“I wonder if our interests in the place are connected,” Selina said.
Drackson shrugged. “It’s not outside the realms of possibility.”
“Were you two going to Imraec Tarc when we called you?” Asten asked him.
Drackson shook his head. “No. Well, at least not yet. Naima and I would be a bit visible there and from everything we’ve heard about the place, they tend to keep a close eye on visitors.”
Asten frowned. “Are they hostile towards visitors?”
“No,” Drackson said. “No, I’d say they’re more... paranoid than hostile. Defensive, not aggressive. If that makes sense.”
“Yeah,” Asten said. “I see what you mean.”
Drackson smiled. “Anyway, do you think I’d deliberately throw Alia in harm’s way when I’d have her mother to answer to?”
This got a laugh from all the others.
“No,” Asten conceded. “I suppose not. All right. Now, let’s talk back-up.”
“What do you need?” Drackson asked.
“Nothing fancy, I think,” Asten told him. “But if it’s all right, we were kind of hoping you two might be able to provide us with a quick extraction if things go south down there.”
Drackson frowned. “I guess it depends on when you need a quick extraction. If you can hold off getting into trouble for a couple of weeks or so, Naima and I will be in a better position to get you out of there in a hurry.”
Asten nodded. “Well, we’re not planning to get into trouble straightaway. We’ll take some time to get a feel for the place when we get there before we plan our next move.”
Drackson thought about it. “In that case, I think Naima and I could be of assistance if needed.”
“Maybe we could have personal tracking beacons of some description to make that a little easier,” Selina suggested.
Drackson leaned back in his seat, thinking it over. “You know, Jiang’s got a few things that could help you with that. She and the girls are using personal tracking beacons at the moment so we can keep an eye on them.”
Selina smiled. “That’s exactly what we need.”
“Jiang showed me an almost miniscule tracking beacon once with a transmitting range that crossed several systems,” Drackson explained. “From an old case of hers, I think. Anyway, I had some of my contacts back in the Harskan Sector reverse-engineer it and make a few for us.”
“Have you got any spares right now?” Asten asked.
“I’ve got a couple,” Drackson told him, “but I could give you the design from our databanks here and then you could get someone on Phalamki to manufacture some extras in case you want any more.”
“Sounds good,” Selina said. “And does Jiang have any tricks for hiding them?”
Drackson nodded. “Yeah. You can make a small compartment in the sole of a boot and hide a beacon in there.”
“But we don’t have any ready-made spare boots with us right now,” Naima added. “And certainly not in your sizes.”
“Fair enough,” Asten said. “We’ll make a quick trip back to Phalamki before we go.”
“And get a beacon made for the Lady Hawk as well,” Drackson told him.
Asten nodded, doing his best to keep up. “Sure. Makes sense.”
“And then,” Drackson added, “call us when you’re done so we can set up unique frequencies for your various beacons and make sure we’ve got a solid lock on all of them before you go gallivanting off.”
“Will do,” Asten replied.
For a moment, no one spoke.
“So, tell me,” Drackson said after the lull in the conversation, “is there anyone else from the old guard involved in this? Zak and Maia up to anything I don’t know about? What about Carla?”
“Are Zak and Maia up to anything you don’t know about?” Asten asked, frowning. “They’re involved in something right now?”
Drackson shrugged. “A little something, I believe, but I don’t know what else is occupying their time at the moment. But they’re not going along with you guys on your little errand then, I take it?”
Asten shook his head. “No. They’re busy with all the new defense force personnel that are coming through. And as for Carla, we haven’t seen her for a while. She said she had an escort run coming up and that she was also breaking in a new ship with a new crew. She left the Promise Keeper on Phalamki.”
Drackson pursed his lips. “Hard to keep up with that girl. She’s our navigator one moment. Then she’s flying a ship of her own and, next thing you know, she’s got several armed freighters.”
Asten laughed. “Well, you gave them to her. Besides, she’s not the only one that’s hard to keep up with. You guys are a bit of a trick as well. And Selina and I were a bit surprised to find that you’ve still got the Albatross. I thought you would have had to give this ship back to the Federation when you decided you’d had enough of being Gamma-Twelve.”
“Oh, we own it now,” Drackson said. “I bought it off the Federation.”
“You bought it?”
Drackson shrugged. “It’s a good ship. And I think keeping it around helped entice Jiang to stay here on the Frontier with us.”
“Well, then the ship’s paid for itself,” Asten said, smiling. “I’m glad she’s staying. And I’m not just saying that because she’s cute.”
“So are we,” Drackson said, pushing himself off his seat. “And I’m not just saying that because I think she’s cute either, despite Naima’s little jests about my ‘harem’. Now I believe we’ve got a few things to organize, don’t we?”
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Alia Casdan looked at the viewscreen. Being attached to this little station on the outskirts of Imraec Tarc’s territorial boundaries by a docking tube rather than being inside a hangar may not have been the coziest of arrangements but it gave Jiang and her a clear view of other ships as they came out of lightspeed, such as the one that had emerged right then.
“Here’s another one,” she announced. “Big one. Shokhan Star Keeper. Perfect ship for a pirate. Can you tell if they’ve tinkered with it?”
“Hang on,” Jiang said. She was wringing her long hair after a shower but she stopped to magnify the image on the screen. “Yeah. There you go. A custom made warship almost. Hopefully, they won’t show any interest in us.”
Alia shrugged. “There’s no reason they should. Are they in range for an ID scan?”
“Almost,” Jiang said, glancing at her instruments. “Yes. They’re in range now. Here we go. It’s called the Drifter’s Folly.” She pulled out a pad and had a look at it. “That’s one of the names on Drackson’s list.”
“You know, I did some repairs on the Lady Hawk for Asten a while back,” Alia said, “and I think one of his old trick IDs was Drifter’s Folly.”
Jiang turned to her. “Asten had trick IDs on that ship?”
Alia looked slightly abashed. “Ah. Did I say Asten? I meant this guy...”
Jiang chuckled, turning her attention back to the viewscreen. “Right.”
“Ah, they were different days,” Alia said, waving it off. “And they were trying to run an escort ship business when Corinthe’s Shipping Guild was cracking down on all the independent operators.”
Jiang laughed again. “Hey, I don’t mind.” However, the moment of levity didn’t last. “Well, I’m going to have to get a look at what they’re hauling in their cargo holds,” she said, “and find out what they’re getting in return.”
“You think this is the end of the line for them?” Alia asked.
Jiang shrugged. “I don’t know. But I intend to find out.”