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"And ill you do with this ship?" Bishar asked He kept an eye on Edison, who had backed to Anlyn’s side "Do you think I’ll unblock the rift for you?"

"Yes, I think you will Feel free to tell the Circle ere on my ship when it blew, if such will protect your job And if you think your soul is better served by blasting us out of the cos with your family’s blood on your hands--that is your decision to make The other option is to allow us to depart and face our deaths in our own manner Choose this, and no harm will come to your people"

Bishar continued to show Anlyn his pallanced at the lance

"Very well," he said "My men will escort you to your end We had an interior barrier patch upco, anyway I’ll move it up the schedule I’ll even use the attack on your ship as an excuse for having done so But know this: any sign of a breach, and your ship will not prevent us fro between Bern craft if things get ugly"

Bishar looked at her sternly "One h here, no h Ever Understand that I aet you out of alaxy never to return, because even if you did, you would not find your E you home as they did the last time I’ll make sure of that, Cousin"

6

The starship Parsona roared a dozen arasses It was nearly dawn, and the stars over the eastern horizon had disappeared as the black gradually ing to the cover of a slipping night--the old ship fleith aseen More importantly, she flew herself for just the second time

"Feel any better?" Molly asked She looked up from her reader to the instruish as before," Parsona said through the radio speakers "Firing the thrustersthe autopilot do the rest Of course, I wouldn’t trust ht canyon"

Molly laughed "Neither would I You knoe have a few relays left--I’m pretty sure I could interface you with the hyperdrive It’s the same basic hook-up we did with the laser cannons, and the nav coers left--"

"I’m not sure about that," Parsona said

"Why? It’s no different than firing the lasers or operating the thruster solenoids"

"I know," Parsona said "It’s not that It’s just that--I’m not sure I want to be in control of the hyperdrive I don’t know that I’d trust myself"

Molly nodded "Okay I understand"

And she did Ever since she found out her father and boyfriend were probably stuck in hyperspace, the temptation to just jump to the center of Lok had become unbearable She felt a shiver of panic every ti of cowardice each ti

"Another contact on SADAR," her hts

"I see it," Molly said "Looks like one of the bigbeconatures of the Bern ships The flashing indicator e and sloorked its way toward a low-altitude orbit Leaning forward, Molly peered up through the carboglass at the gli hulls overhead The fleet ainst the backdrop of fading stars One of the vessels, a potato-shaped monster the size of a decentthe daytime All the ships did was shuffle around in various foron?" she asked her mom "Why don’t they attack us or just move on to soI know as little of the Bern as you do"

Molly looked down at her lap; her Wadi was stretched out along her thigh, its glea the first rays of dawn She stroked the ani fro concerns

"Between the Bern up there and news of the Drenard invasion, even if we do get to hyperspace, will there be any reason to co left to come back to?"

"We need to plan as if there will be," her mother said

"And you’re sure this Cat person can help?"

"She knows the people who can She’ll remember me"

"You, the ship? Or the old you?"

Molly still had a difficult ti the experiences of her mothers--the personality copied to the ship’s computer and the husk of a woman she’d met, virtually, on Dakura Somehow, the former had become more real to her than the latter And that was true even before she found out Walter and Cole had pulled the plug on her mom’s physical body

"She knows of the old roup you and dad were sent to investigate? The source of the illegal fusion fuel?"

"She did so tio through her, it’ll take just as long if not longer to oing on"

"You h Callites are tolerated seven out of eight years Ignored, really But co tiether--it creates tension Contacting and dealing with the Underground would be easier any other tihed and looked back to her lap Her new reader rested on her other thigh, opposite the Wadi The creature pawed at the device playfully, almost as if it knew Molly was about to redirect her attention away fro Cole She patted the animal’s head and looked over the first line of the note, wondering why she was bothering riting it It wasn’t like she could send it to hihts drifted to her father--and the sarew heavy, the Wadi gave up its jealous jousting and crawled froh to her shoulder; it wrapped its tail around Molly’s neck and flicked its tongue against her cheek It did stuff like that, and always in response to the same few moods, almost as if it could sense how she felt Molly was cautious, however, about reading too much into its idiosyncrasies She tilted her head to nuzzle the animal and wished, not for the first time, they could somehow co with the alien creature No matter howkept getting smaller and smaller

It had taken a few days to be sure, but by now there wasn’t any doubt Except for soone froecko The troubling part was not being able to ask anyone about the species or research it any way There was little enough out there on the Drenard planet and even less on its fauna All Molly kneas that the strange ani more than a Glemot--but despite all that intake, it continued to waste away

ѻѻѻѻ

Walter’s door slid open, recessing into the ja Palan exited his rooo bay Up in the cockpit, he could see one of Molly’s elbows sticking out over the flight controls The ship was dark and silent, the barest glow of dawn lighting up the sky beyond the canopy Walter tip-toed across the hallway and unlocked Molly’s cabin door with her Captain’s codes He kept an eye forward as he waited for her roo inside, Walter forced down the panicked feeling that gets Junior Pirates in trouble--the "heist shakes" that’ll get someone busted faster than the floods You have to think clearly, he always reminded himself Stay focused on the loot Remember what you’re after

It helped that he’d done this several times in the past weeks

He went to her dresser, dropped down to one knee, and opened the narroer at the bottom Two stacks of clothes: the white tanks she wears under her flightsuit on one side and the plain cotton underwear on the other