**Standard run-of-the-mill boring disclaimer. I don't own Outlaw Star, yet life goes on.**

It started out as just another routine day at Starwind and Hawking Enterprises, although nobody there was happy with the current routine. It's not that they weren't getting decent paying job offers, it's just that they couldn't carry them out. Jim turned away his third customer of the day because the Outlaw Star's payload was just too small for the kind of work being offered.

The phone rang again. Jim was a little optimistic, thinking that if enough people called then one of them would have a good job lined up for the Outlaw Star that they could accept. He was disappointed to see that it was Fred Luo.

"Jim! Hi! How's business going?"

"Hi Fred" Jim sighed. Fred already knew the answer, he was just asking to be polite- or smug. It was hard to tell sometimes. "What do you want?"

"Is Gene there? I thought that maybe you two might be interested in doing a job for me if you weren't too busy."

"What kind of job?" Gene, who was lying on the sofa reading a magazine was now on his feet, looking at Fred through the phone's monitor.

The effete merchant paused and unconsciously tugged at his right ear. "It's the strangest thing. I had a client who put up some property of his as collateral- it's a parcel of land on the very edge of the Frontier worlds, almost in the Silgry system. Anyway, he disappeared and the deal fell through, so he forfeits it to me. Unless what he said about his property is true, I'll take a bath on this whole thing."

"What did he tell you?" Jim asked.

"He insisted that it was directly on top of a huge deposit of dragonite."

Aisha, who had been home long enough to change out of her waitress uniform and into her C'tarl C'tarl officer's uniform, began listening very intently to the conversation at the mention of 'dragonite'.

"Ordinarily, I wouldn't have believed him but he was very persistent. Besides, most of the supplies he requested are used for mining or excavating. He even gave me a soil sample from his property. I had it checked out the other day. To say it's a good sample would be something of an understatement."

"Wait a second..." Aisha spoke up "How do you know the sample he gave you came from where he said it did?"

"That's just it." Fred paused. "There's no way to verify that. I need somebody to go there and take some more samples. I trust you guys and it would be nice to get some independent results from there- I'd be a laughingstock if I unloaded the property and it turned out I was wrong about the dragonite. If this is some sort of scam, I still don't see what he gets out of it, since I have the deed to his property and the supplies he requested."

"I see...and exactly how much of this job of yours paying?" Gene asked.

"Let's start at 750,000 Wong...."

The three of them nodded and gave each other looks of approval.

".....a debt write-off to the tune of 750,000 Wong." Fred continued

"WHAT?!?" Gene yelled.

"Well Gene, you still owe me 1.5 million Wong. This would cut the amount of money you owe me by half! Of course, I still have faith that you'll make it big someday but I can't wait around forever for your ship to come in."

"Why you little piece of....." Gene started

"Hold it Gene!" Jim said. "Let's not say anything we'll regret"

"I don't believe it" he said looking at Jim "are you saying we should work for this guy for free?"

"I hate to say it, but he's right Gene. The less money we owe this guy, the better." Jim shuddered after momentarily thinking about the kind of favors Fred might call in. Behind him, Aisha was quietly growling through clenched teeth. Fred saw the angry Ctarl Ctarl through his end of the monitor.

"Of course, I'll gladly pay a reasonable salary for anybody else you decide to hire on as crew, plus a stipend for supplies and incidentals." he said.

The three of them were staring daggers at him through the monitor.

"So it's a deal then!" Fred continued cheerfully "There's some metallurgy software that I'll need to send to you before you leave, Jim. But otherwise I'll wire the funds you'll need for supplies to your account by tomorrow."

"What a cheap bastard!" Aisha growled as he hung up.

***

Tearing around the universe doing odd jobs for Fred was nothing new to any of them. After a few days of preparation and loading, the crew of five was on their way. It didn't take long for Gene to ask Suzuka what everybody else on board was wondering.

"Just out of curiosity, Suzuka, since when do you accept job offers from Fred Luo?"

"Who said anything about working for Fred? I'm simply here for the change of scenery. Since when do you work for free, Gene?"

"Touche."

"Wait a second" Aisha said. "I thought Dragonite was found in asteroid fields out in space". It was one of those questions that made the rest of them realize every now and then that she didn't get into her homeworld's prestigious academies on account of her personality.

"Most of the time it is found in space, Aisha." Jim said without even looking up from the monitor of his little computer. "But every once in awhile part of an asteroid belt with Dragonite in it might pass through a planet's orbit."

"Oh."

"Still, the odds of that happening are pretty low. I can see why Fred had his doubts about that story."

"I've heard of Dragonite showing up in less likely places." the assassin chimed in.

"That would be nice, but let's not get our hopes up."

***

Getting there was an exercise in tedium, but after nearly 4 days and 6 jumps they made planetfall at their destination without much problem.

"Jeez- this place looks like Old Earth." Jim commented as he got a good look at the landscape surrounding the spaceport. Blue sky and red earth. The planet's main commercial center and capital was nothing more than a dusty, ramshackle mining town of barely one thousand souls. There were mountains with some vegetation and forest to the north. The spaceport itself seemed out of place.

"Sentinel is the center of the universe compared to this pl-" Gene started.

"Welcome to Anaconda." a voice spoke up "My name's Carlos Hasek. I'm the sheriff and I also take care of Immigration and air traffic control here. Will you folks be passing through or staying here for awhile?" a tall figure clad in denim, a long dark blue trenchcoat and stetson stepped up of the hatch. To Jim's delight, the man was a few inches taller than Gene.

"We'll be staying here for a few weeks, I imagine." Gene spoke up as he uneasily eyed the sheriff's badge pinned to his trenchcoat.

Hasek blinked in surprise. It wasn't unusual for vessels to come in from off-world once in awhile, but more often than not, they were just passing through on their way to the Silgry system. Very rarely did somebody make Anaconda their destination.

"I see. In that case, we'll need to go through some immigration formalities....such as the nature of your visit?"

"Business..."

"OK, that means you'll need a Visitor's Identification Card" he said, ushering the 5 of them down the walkway. "Those cost 30 Wong each and are good for one month. If you'll be staying longer than that, you need to come by my office and renew them. Also, I'll need to put your vessel through quarantine."

"How long will the Outlaw Star be in quarantine?" Jim asked.

"Shouldn't take more than a week." The sheriff nonchalantly replied.

He led them to the elevator at the end of the walkway. Suzuka and Melfina walked between a sensor panel on both of the railings. The sensors started beeping as Gene, Jim and Aisha walked past. Hasek's hand cautiously rested on his holster.

"Any one of you wouldn't be armed by any chance, would you?"

Gene opened his cloak in his most non-threatening manner and let the sheriff take a look at his Caster, another pistol and some knives in a rig. Jim held out his palm-sized computer to show what else might have set the metal detector off.

"You'll have to pay a duty fee for those." he said to Gene. The idea of gun-control on the frontier worlds was beyond ludicrous. "There's also a mandatory currency exchange for groups of five or more."

Such little bits of red tape were a nasty but inevitable part of traveling out to the very distant frontier worlds. After milling around in the lobby of the spaceport taking care of the rest of the immigration formalities, they were finally able unload their supplies and rent a car that was the same vintage as the Ehefrau, only it wasn't lovingly restored.

Sheriff Hasek watched pensively as the five of them drove off into the mountains. He was so close to finding his very own vein of dragonite up in the mountains, and the mere presence of these outlaws would jeopardize his own discovery. Every now and then the odd prospector would show up on Anaconda, hoping to strike it rich. Most wildcatters and prospectors were ill-equipped and would get discouraged, leaving a few weeks after arriving on Anaconda- their funds and patience depleted. If they stayed any longer or were digging in an area he thought would yield some dragonite, Hasek would have them killed.

Anaconda had been a fairly quiet platinum and copper mining town in the decade that Hasek served as sheriff. He achieved this by basically daring anyone to challenge his authority and making examples of the few who did. Many people thought he was worse than the few criminals on Anaconda but they didn't speak up. They could only silently wonder how he was appointed sheriff in the first place. Anaconda itself was very much a company town- a Heiphong based mining company long ago claimed all of the rights to any platinum deposits found on the planet

Making good use of that time, Hasek also appointed himself magistrate, assessor, head of customs and immigration and air traffic controller when he began to suspect that Dragonite might be found in the hills to the north of town. That meant he could monitor the comings and goings of the few prospectors who did come in from off-world, learning from their mistakes. But now the five outlaws that had just landed were better equipped than any others he had seen.

***

The five of them were nearly finished unloading supplies from their rented jalopy. It was a long and uneventful drive along the twisting road up from Anaconda, each quietly enjoying the scenery or thinking about dragonite. Each of them also had a rucksack. Besides carrying enough provisions to last each of them for about a week, there was also the metallurgy software kit from Fred, a portable generator, cooking supplies and some weaponry. It would be a fairly short walk to the cabin from the narrow, rutted gravel road, but it would be mostly uphill. Jim was struggling to get the software to fit with the rest of his supplies.

"Need any help with that Jim?" Aisha asked.

He thought about telling her that he had everything under control and didn't need any help, but it had been a long day and a long flight out to Anaconda. She was much stronger than him and willing to help, so he simply nodded. Aisha picked up the bulky software case and slung it over her shoulder before grabbing the rucksack with her share of supplies.

"Awww...isn't that cute?" Gene said mockingly "Little Jimmy's got himself a helper. Do you think you could help me with my pack too, Aisha?"

Jim and Aisha stared daggers at Gene for a moment, Aisha with her middle finger fully extended. "Bite me, Gene. Do I look like your pack animal?" Aisha snapped. She then turned to Melfina and asked "How are you doing Mel? Need help with anything?"

"I'm fine, I think." the quiet bio-android said as she slipped on her bulky rucksack.

"Well, if you think you need help, go ahead and tell me...." she paused "....or Gene."

It was Gene's turn to give the Ctarl Ctarl a dirty look as the five of them headed up the steep path. Mel was carrying her provisions and some cooking gear, Aisha was carrying her provisions, some fuel and Jim's borrowed software, Gene was carrying all of his gear and weapons, Jim was carrying his share of supplies in a rucksack that was taller than him while Suzuka was carrying her things, a generator and some of the cooking gear Mel couldn't fit into her rucksack.

The cabin itself was rustic, to say the least. After setting foot inside, Aisha immediately expressed a desire to set up camp outside

***

"Who do we have in the clink this afternoon, Huntsman?" Hasek asked his only full-time deputy as he returned to the sheriff's office.

"None other than the hell raisin' O'Riley brothers." the deputy said

"Again?" he eyed the five inmates, who were regulars in the sheriff's jail cell as much as they were in any of Anaconda's saloons or brothels. "What is it this time?"

"Kevin roughed up one of the girls over at Paradise..." the deputy explained indifferently "One of the bouncers tried breaking it up, but the others jumped in and tore up the place real good."

Hasek shook his head. "When will you guys ever learn?". Of course the sad truth was that there wasn't much else for the miners on Anaconda to save up their money for besides booze and whores. Still, that didn't give these 5 the right to tear up the saloons and brothels whenever they felt like it. "I think 30 days will give 'em enough time to reflect on what they did wrong."

"30 days?" The oldest yelled out. "You can't do that....."

"I'm the sheriff AND the magistrate. The last time I checked, I could do that."

"...but we won't get paid this month!" one of the middle O'Riley brothers protested.

"What are you complaining about? You'll get your free meals each day....." Hasek said. However, he was just as enthusiastic about the sentence as the O'Riley's were. With these Outlaws coming from off-world looking for Dragonite, the last thing he needed to do was babysit a bunch of degenerate miners.

"Unless......" the sheriff spoke up after giving it a few moments of thought "...the five of you might be interested in doing some 'community service' to reduce your sentence."

"Community service?" the youngest O'Riley, Kevin, asked.

Hasek pulled one of the rifles out of the gun rack on the other end of the office and cocked it without pointing it at anybody in particular.

"It seems we have some unwelcome guests up in the mountains." the sheriff said. "If you can take care of them, I'll reduce your sentences to time already served and you can be back to work in no time."

***

They had been working hard for the past 3 days. If Aisha wasn't helping Jim extract soil samples, she was out hunting wild animals. It was thanks to her that they had a few days supply of venison. It turned out that Suzuka was quite good at fishing, one the many myriad skills she had learned from her late father. Much to Gene's dismay, he found himself cleaning and gutting Aisha and Suzuka's catches. Now, the sun was dropping down the horizon as Aisha found Jim sitting by the creek. Much to her surprise, he wasn't doing his laundry, he wasn't taking soil samples, he wasn't fishing, he wasn't panning for dragonite, and he wasn't working on his little portable computer. He was just sitting there, taking a well-deserved break, admiring the scenery and watching the world go by from his spot in the fading sunlight. Every now and then, he would pick up a pebble and toss it into the creek. Aisha was happy to know that after all those times she told him he was working too hard and needed to enjoy his life, she wasn't simply wasting her breath. She smiled and thought back to when she was roughly his age, spending hours on end on a branch of the old tree behind her family's house, doing nothing more than looking at the trio of moons and watching the wind ripple through the tall grass and wildflowers in the meadow below. To be that young again, she sighed. The boy turned around and noticed her standing behind him, lost in thought.

"Hey Aisha. What are you doing?"

"Melfina wants to know what you'd like for dinner." she walked up next to him.

"It's dinnertime already?"

She nodded "Just about. I think your choices tonight are fish, venison and berries."

"As long as it isn't Deji-double stew I'll be fine."

"Hey...!" She playfully tousled the boy's hair and in a haughty tone started to say "Deji-double stew is an acquired taste for the most discriminating of palates. I can't help it if you Terrans....." she stopped in mid-sentence. Jim noticed that her ears were twitching.

Somewhere across the creek she heard a twig snap. It was far too heavy to be a woodland creature. A light breeze was blowing a scent in her direction. There was a faint whiff of what she thought was a Terran, but more ominously she recognized the scent of oil and lubricant used to keep guns working properly. After spending all those months with Gene and his little arsenal, it was hard not to notice that scent. However, Gene was back at the cabin.

"Aisha?"

"It's nothing" She said calmly, but at the same time she grabbed the boy's hand and roughly pulled him to his feet. "Let's go back to the cabin and help Mel with dinner." Whoever was on the other side of the creek could've been eavesdropping on them. Aisha didn't want to tip her hand and let them know she was aware of their presence before she could get Jim to the relative safety of the cabin. As good as her senses were, she couldn't get an exact fix on their visitor's location because the setting sun was in her eyes. That particular drawback would disappear in a few moments when it was dusk, so she had to bide her time until then.

The two of them began briskly walking down the path leading back to the cabin. Aisha now had her hand firmly clamped around Jim's wrist. It hurt, but he knew enough to trust Aisha's enhanced senses since they had gotten him out of a few jams before.

Suddenly a single shot rang out from the direction of the cabin.