Sloan was in heaven. She had been given the key card to one of the quarters reserved for the Star Wolf team. It was grand, more like an apartment than anything else. The door opened into a short hardwood hallway with a coat closet. At the end of the hall was a closed door. It was of the ancient hinge design rather than the regular sliding one. The hinges were modern technology though and wouldn't squeak, and there were two open concept rooms on either side of the hall. One was a living room, complete with T.V., radio, and pure white furniture. The walls and plush carpet were white as well. The other room was a study. That room was hardwood, but the walls were white. The room wasn't that big, just large enough to hold an empty bookcase that was the same height as Sloan, an antique wood desk, and a steel half-sphere swivel chair. The inside of the chair was padded and very comfortable. And, Sloan noticed, if you moved the T.V. just a bit, you could watch from the study. You couldn't see either room from the front door. Sloan decided that the closed door led to the bedroom. On the other side of the living room was a small kitchen, in case you didn't want to eat in the mess hall.

Sloan lifted herself out of the swivel chair and walked into the bedroom. Her breath caught in her throat.

"Oh god," she breathed. The bed itself took her breath away. It was so much more luxurious that the cot she had on Sector Y. The sheets were white and new and clean. The pillow was soft and smooth, not like the hard, lumpy one she used to have. And it was actually big enough that she could roll over without falling off. Big enough for two people easily. The carpet in the room was a soft peach. There was a bed side chest of drawers with a large mirror on top of it. In one corner was a full length mirror, and to the right of the door was the sliding door for a walk in closet. At the other end of the walk in closet was a door to the bathroom.

Sloan threw her bag onto the bed, then slumped onto it herself, still in awe of the whole place. She silently prayed that no one could possibly beat her record. She had taken 40 out of Wolf's shields. If no one else could catch up with her, it was all hers.

She heard the doorbell ring, and jumped up to answer it. It was Panther Caruso, the panther that had taken an interest to her during the testing.

"Oh, hello."

"Ah, Sloan, I hoped you would be here. May I come in?"

"Right, yeah, of course." She moved out of his way and he stepped into the apartment. He looked around.

"Are you enjoying your new home?"

"Yeah, it's real nice," she murmured. He was so impressive looking. He seemed like the kind of man that girls would kill for. She grinned. "Instead of a mercenary, Wolf should have been an interior decorator." Panther laughed.

"Yes, for a man it's quite impressive. Although I wonder if maybe he didn't add a little feminine touch."

"How would he have done that?" For a second, the playful smile slipped off Panther's lips. He shook his head.

"Never mind. The reason I came down here was that I wanted to be the first to congratulate you on passing your tests. I think I will enjoy working with someone as lovely as you very much." Sloan's head snapped up to look at him in surprise. Lovely? Her? What was he thinking? Her eyes fell again and inspected her sneakers.

"I ain't out of the woods yet. There's still six more days to go, y'know." Panther chuckled.

"Oh, trust me, you're definitely out of the woods. The only one I've ever seen pull of the flightwork you did out there, besides Wolf of course, is Fox McCloud. And I doubt he's going to be trying out."

"You think so?"

"Very much I think so. Now, instead of holing up in you room, you should take a look around the station. Wolf will want you to know your way about. Start your rounds tomorrow, it's late now and you must be tired."

"Alright."

XXX

The next day Sloan took Panther's advice, deciding she would sniff around the hanger. She had found her way back onto the catwalk that led to the Wolfen hanger. She was trying to find her own ship in the throng of ancient and decaying fighters. It blended in so well. She had just spotted it when a string of cursing rang through the hanger. Sloan stopped in awe halfway to a ladder she was just about to descend to the floor. The language she was hearing was so colourful she thought for a moment that Luther had followed her to Sargasso. She slid down the ladder and looked through the sea of ships to find the guilty party.

Sloan noticed a crew of four teens working on as many fighters. All of them were her age, none older than seventeen. They were a melange of species. One was hanging out of a ship, kicking their legs as if they were stuck. A male grey wolf turned in their direction and laughed. He said something, and the head of a female ape shot up from the ship. She snapped something, and the wolf was almost on the floor laughing.

"You shit-face meat head! Keep you fucking hands off my ship! You touch this ship again, and I swear you'll be a hood ornament!" The ape cut off her string of swearing to threaten the wolf, who was being held up by a red female hawk. He couldn't stand he was laughing so hard. Sloan moved a little closer. An albino wolf turned his head a little in her direction.

"Could you please tone down the explicatives, we seem to have company," he said. The ape turned her head sharply. The grey wolf stopped laughing, but he was still grinning from ear to ear and there were tears in his eyes.

"Well hello there," said the hawk. She let go of the wolf suddenly and he fell against a fighter, almost smashing his head. The hawk didn't seem too concerned. "Name's Wren, Wren Shire. Please to meet you." If an earthling heard Wren speak they would have identified her accent as English. She offered Sloan her hand, which Sloan shook.

"I'm Sloan." Wren waited patiently for her last name. When Sloan didn't give her one, the ape spoke up.

"Got a last name?" Sloan hesitated, then shook her head.

"My… my parents died a long time ago, when I was a baby. I… I don't know who they are." The ape seemed unconvinced by Sloan's story, but Wren shook her head.

"Now that's too bad." She was turning back to her friends, when suddenly understanding dawned across her face.

"Wait a min', you're Sloan, as in, the one who took 40 out of Lord O'Donnell?"

"Uh, yeah that's me." Wren whipped around to regard the grey wolf, who was still leaning casually against the same fighter.

"Told you she was a girl," she said, grinning and holding out her hand. He shook his head. He reached into his pocket and pulled out ten credits.

"How did you know?" the wolf asked. Wren giggled.

"Oh come on, fuzz head, Lord O'Donnell had fought every male pilot in the system and won. It had to be a girl, besides." Wren giggled. "I saw her on the catwalk. She was the only human on the list. It had to be her." The wolf's mouth dropped open.

"You little cheater. I hate your guts."

"Whattever, hand it over." He hesitated for a moment before dropping the credits into her hand. Wren turned back to Sloan. "Right, I'd like you to meet my buds. This is Muriel," she said, pointing to the ape, still sitting in the cockpit of her fighter, arms crossed over her chest, looking very unimpressed with Sloan. She reminded Sloan of a Marshall. "That fool over there is Asher."

"Oy! None a' that!" barked the grey wolf. Wren giggled again.

"And I am Sol Sanctus," Said the albino wolf, or at least, Sloan was pretty sure he was a wolf, he seemed kind of small. Maybe he was a hybrid

"Wow, that's the coolest name I've ever heard!" Sol smiled.

"Thank you." Sol's clothes were simple, tan jacket and blue jeans, with a red shirt under his jacket. His eyes were covered by sunglasses. Muriel was wearing a mechanic's blue, grease stained jumpsuit. Her fiery red hair was tied back into a ponytail. Asher's grey windbreaker was torn in the upper right arm. The tear was closed by three safety pins. His blue jeans were grease stained and the left knee was torn out.

"We're missing one, his name is Logan. He's a fox. Not hard to spot, hair kinda' spiky, always carries around a guitar…"

"Yeah, well, we've got to get back to work. Nice to meet you, Sloan," Muriel suddenly cut in. Sloan was caught off guard.

"Oh… all-all right. Nice to meet you," Sloan murmured weakly. Asher shot Muriel an angry glance, then turned to Sloan, a huge grin on his face.

"Come around again soon, Loge would love to meet you." Sloan smiled shyly.

"Thanks… I will." Wren shook her head sadly as Sloan headed back to the catwalk.

"Poor girl. My parents are gone too, but a least I've got me name," she sighed. Muriel scoffed.

"I wouldn't feel to sorry for her if I were you." Wren snapped around.

"How dare you! How do you get off being so cruel to her after she tries to-?"

"She's lying." Wren stopped. The group became strangely quiet. Muriel always knew when she was being lied to. Sol stepped forward, silently demanding the attention of the others.

"What makes you think so?" Muriel stared off in the direction Sloan had left in.

"It's a feeling I've got in my gut. I'm not sure why she's lying, but not a word in that sentence was true." The group was silent, until Wren spoke the thought that was on everyone's minds.

"What truth is so terrible that she would create a lie like that to cover it up?"

XXX

Sloan stood on the top floor of the tower in the center of Sargasso. There were several huge screens in the room with her face and record on them. The lobby was almost empty, everyone was in testing. Only the odd Sargasso inhabitant meandered about the place. She had her arms crossed over her stomach, hands holding her elbows, shoulders hunched. A sign of defeat. How could she have been so stupid? Her first chance at making real friends, and she blew it. She wasn't sure what to do, what to say, Sector Y had been so different, alliances just happened.

She was so caught up in her own thoughts that it took awhile for the guitar melody to permeate them. When they finally did, she couldn't shake the sound. The music was so beautiful. Soft singing quietly accompanied the enchanting notes. She looked around, intent on finding the source. It was coming from above her, but how? She was on the highest part of the pillar. Then she remembered the elevator. It was time to find just how high it went.

After running down off the pillar and to the elevator, she walked over to the control panel Wolf had used to activate the elevator the first time. There were only two buttons, a red arrow pointing down and a green one pointing up. At first, Sloan had thought that the elevator was only for the hanger. She pushed the green arrow, and almost fell over as it went shooting upwards. Sloan watched as a huge panel in the ceiling above opened to admit the elevator. It slowed to a stop. Sloan looked down and swallowed hard. It was such a long way up. Riding on a glass elevator at such a height was not her idea of fun. She quickly stepped off.

She was in a hallway. Containers were stacked all over the place. She could see where the hall opened into a much bigger space on the left. The right wall was reinforced glass. Outside she could see the stars, mingling with the copper gas of Sector Z, it was beautiful. The music was louder now, she was closer.

"Hello?" she yelled. Even though the place was filled with containers, her voice still echoed in the cavernous space. The music stopped suddenly. She could hear the rustle of movement.

"Who's there?" a male voice called back. It sounded just like the one that had been singing.

"Sloan. You don't know me, but…" her voice trailed off. She moved into the storage area. On the other side of the room was a hall running parallel to the one she had just come from. On the right side of the room was another room, which held a door. The head of a male fox was poking out from behind a stack of containers. His red-brown hair was spiked, but not too sharply. His green eyes sparkled, and he was smiling.

"Hi there, I'm Logan. How did you find this place? I thought I was the only one who knew it was here."

"I heard you playing from the station's pillar." Logan suddenly seemed surprised. He looked back over his shoulder, then laughed.

"Oh, stupid me. I was playing near the vent again." He turned back and waved her over. She eagerly ran over to him. When she rounded the containers she saw Logan sitting with an expensive looking guitar on his lap. His shirt was light brown, and his blue jeans had a black stain on them. He grinned. "So, did you like what you heard?"

"Oh yes, definitely!" she exclaimed, then looked away embarrassed when he cocked an eyebrow at her. "You, think you could play something else?"

"For you? Sure!" he gently strummed his fingers over the strings. Sloan smiled weakly. "You know, I hide up here a lot. It's nice to get away from everyone for awhile," Logan said offhandedly. "Please don't tell anyone I'm up here. I would hate it for people to come marching up here every time they want to talk to me."

"I won't." They fell into silence after that as Logan played her a beautiful melody. Logan wasn't really sure what he liked so much about her. He had played the song so many times before he could play it in his sleep, but he pretended to watch his fingers so she wouldn't know he was looking at her. She was very pretty. Her almond eyes stared out from her tousled black hair. She was thin, but the windbreaker made her look a bit bigger. She was captivated by the music, watching his fingers pluck the strings.

They spent all that day and the next up in the storage area, coming down only to eat and sleep. Sloan wanted to tell Logan about Vex. He was the reason she love music so much. She knew Logan was glad he had someone to appreciate his music. Sloan felt so strange, she had never been so happy in her whole life. Finally, she had one true friend. But she also felt fearful. Now she had something to lose.