About fifteen microns later, Andar strolled into the war-room wearing his usual field-dress uniform. The captain had always despised the flashier day-uniform that most officers wore on duty, preferring more the maroon and black leather of the battle dress garb that had served the old PK forces for so long. It felt more like something an honest workingman would wear… and many of his subordinates gladly followed his example.

He had smiled when he heard some of the more seasoned officers telling the new recruits that Captain Murdough always wore BDU kit because it was most likely the captain would be in a trench beside them firing his pulse rifle, than leading his men from the rear like most commanders.

The truth of the matter was, Andar just hated the day uniforms as much as he hated the full-dress uniforms – and he avoided both as much as possible.

He noticed the tall Shrike standing with his back to him as he entered, staring out the port. Andar knew better than to assume the ex-assassin wasn't aware of him… just as he knew better to think that the cloaked man was daydreaming as he watched the stars.

Sinn was dangerous at the best of times, and the Sebacean knew that the ex-Enforcer could cross the distance between them and kill him in the blink of an eye.

Not that the captain was going to let that fact bother him much.

A steward approached and Murdough ordered a mug of Terza Tea from him. A friend who he'd hadn't seen in a long time had introduced him to the brew, and he'd grown to enjoy it, so he keep a supply aboard his ship most of the time – when he was able to find it.

After ordering, Andar made his way across the room. He choose a seat at the big meeting table near where the Shrike was still standing with his back to him, and dropped his long lean frame into the padded chair after dragging it out a suitable distance from the table.

He leaned back comfortably in the seat and propped both boots up on the tabletop. The WR warder would have a slight heart attack about scuffmarks on his pristine wood top, but Andar would see to soothing the man over later. Almost at the same time, the steward reappeared with a steaming mug of tea and placed it before him. The captain smiled at the server, he must have had the brew prepared as soon as word came down that the captain would be present in the WR. Like the WR warder, the steward and the rest of the staff were good people… and he gladly gave them some leeway in their prospective realms aboard the ship.

He sipped at the mug, and reaffirmed with himself that it had been a wise move to do so as the smooth tea relaxed him. He signaled his pleasure to the steward, and that he needed nothing else for the moment.

The man bowed respectfully and moved off. Andar noticed that the server had offered nothing to the Shrike, which wasn't unusual. Most of the crew was uneasy around or just plain disliked the ex-Enforcer as much as he did. The galley crew would only bring Sinn something when he ordered, they would never offer or inquire of him.

He set his steaming mug down and again regarded the man still looking out the port.

Unfortunately the Shrike was indeed another matter entirely in comparison to his crew. He may technically be in command of the task fleet and they were stuck with him… but Andar Murdough was still master of the Kalvatc… and this he wasn't willing to let the assassin forget for even a microt.

Andar steepled his long fingers before him.

"So, would you like to share with me the reason why my rest cycle was so abruptly disturbed?" the captain asked in what appeared to be a casual tone. "Or am I suppose to guess?"

"Conjecture is not your strong suit, captain," the Shrike replied without turning.

"I've always found it's more useful to have facts… it makes life easier," Andar retorted. "And less people die then." The Sebacean man wasn't about to trade quips with the assassin.

Sinn turned then and regarded him with his cold unnerving smile – Andar wasn't about to let that bother him either.

"And that is what makes you a great leader of men," the cloaked man said. His lips smiled but his eyes did not. Murdough didn't even entertain the thought the ex-Enforcer was being sincere in his comment. Instead he raised an inquiring eyebrow, and then brought his mug up for another casual sip of tea. If Sinn wanted to play games with verbal sparring, he would be doing any more of it on his own as far as the captain was concerned.

A few microts later, the sick smile faded and was replaced by Sinn's normal emotionless expression.

"The Nebari and the boy were sighted in the Kryell Arm two solar days ago," the Shrike informed him then.

Andar sighed. "That explains the unexpected course change then," he said out loud to himself.

"The report states they were attempting to steal a matter inverter and several other pieces of high-tech equipment," the Shrike went on. "These items were left behind after a second failed attempt to steal some low grade gems shortly afterwards."

The captain perked up a little bit, growing slightly more interested.

"That's a rather peculiar piece of tech. So you think they're still with the half-breed then?" he asked.

"Unless she has developed a sudden interest in the sciences… yes," the assassin confirmed.

"Damn…" Andar grunted. "That's bad news for everyone if he gets the equipment and the information he wants."

Sinn turned dead eyes on him.

"Precisely why we have to capture them. Leaving them to run free could spell doom for all we have worked for… especially if the Scarrans find them first."

Andar pursed his lips. He wasn't buying into all "we have worked for" dren. The Shrike was the driving force behind all that's happened in the Territories in the last fifteen or twenty cycles. It was just the rest of the poor nurfers like Captain Andar and his crew who were stuck cleaning up some of the more nasty loose ends.

"Look," he tried to reason. "Even if the Scarrans were in a position to do much with what he knows, I can still see the reason to go after the half-breed. He got a royal frelling from both sides of the conflict… and he's grised off at us all. Once we get him under control, or dead, the danger is over. Those others… its just a boy and a Nebari nobody. There's no need to waste our time and resources on them."

"A boy, captain…" the Shrike countered. "Whose DNA coding may have the secrets to a weapon that the universe has never seen before."

"And useless if the half-breed is dead or in our custody," Andar retorted stubbornly. "We have his father as prisoner and we do not even have the means or the knowledge to extract the information from his DNA. Only that damned half-breed has the goddess-frelled genius to do that. The threat is over once he is taken care of. There's no point in bothering with the boy."

Sinn gave him another of his cold smiles just then.

"You forget, captain," the Shrike informed him. "With the boy in our grasp… the father will finally tell us what we want to know."

Andar snorted in half-contempt. "He doesn't consciously have the information you want. He would have told us by now if he did."

Sinn's eyes became like points of stone.

"He knows," the assassin said firmly. "He has always known, I can feel it."

Murdough frowned deeply. "And what makes you think he'll be anymore cooperative when we have his son? We only discovered a little over three cycles ago that the supposed child was a male. You've ordered even that information kept from the prisoner. What makes you think he'll believe us even if we drag the lad right into the cell with him?"

"I've watched him for over ten cycles now," Sinn replied. "It's the one thing… the only thing he cares about now. No torture touches him… no probe has cracked him. But he is the kind that would know his own spawn when he lays eyes upon it. Of this I am sure."

"Fine," Andar said as he threw his arms up. "And then what?"

"And then he will reveal his secret to us."

"And if he still wouldn't" pushed the captain.

Sinn's features turned soulless, and Andar found himself suddenly shivering inside at the change.

"Then… he can watch while I kill his child… and then send the body off to the labs for DNA rending and storage," the ex-Enforcer said bluntly. "Eventually, we will develop the technology to extract the data from the material that will remain."

Andar might never have thought it possible, but he found himself hating the Shrike even more. The relaxing effect of his tea was quickly being replaced by his rising anger.

The captain shifted to a more serious position in his seat as he allowed himself a few precious microts to review the conversation, and to regain some control of himself.

"For the recorded," he finally said. "I will not allow an illegal killing to take place aboard my ship."

"I was not asking for your permission," the Shrike simply replied.

"The Senatorial Counsel will not sanction it!" Murdough countered. "I will go to them if I have too."

"The Counsel will do as I see fit," Sinn said with certainty.

Andar pounded a fist on the tabletop. He knew he had stuck his neck out way too far with the Shrike already in just the last several sentences. People had a way of dying who got in Sinn's way.

Captain Murdough was surprised to find he really didn't give a dren at the moment though.

"Think what you are saying, man!" he nearly shouted. "You would kill a man's child right in front of him… for information you can't even be positive he has? What about the Nebari girl? Will you kill her as well?"

The last made the Shrike dead eyes narrow slightly.

"There's a reason why she hides the boy away," he replied. "And she is not your concern either, captain."

"If it happens aboard my vessel, then it is bloody frelling well my concern!" the Sebacean man continued as he got to his feet and approached the assassin. "You are aware that I have a fifth-level Doric security clearance on the mission profile? I have reviewed the prior action history as a matter of course… and I know who the girl is, the part she played in the past, and everything that has happened leading up to this very day where we sit here. And I know she is of very little importance now to the success of our operation.

"Yet, you still hunt her as if she were the key to it all," Andar laid it all out. "Before you go murdering a boy, consider this. There's a reason why she walked away from you all those cycles ago before the boy was an issue… and maybe it's the way you go about doing things… the lengths that you're willing to go to that had something to do with it. Its my guess that it probably should have told you something."

They were nearly eye-to-eye now, the lean and unshaven captain and the armored and unfeeling Shrike, glaring silently at each other in a battle of wills.

"That will be all, captain," the ex-Enforcer finally said in his toneless voice. The Shrike had dismissed him, but it was Sinn who actually turned and walked for the door to the war-room.

Andar watched him go with mixed thoughts. He felt he pushed the assassin farther than was wise, and he felt his gore rising at the thoughts of what the Shrike would do to get what he wanted. Sinn was mad, there was little doubt of that. The Nebari girl had probably run more likely than walked away from her past relationship with Sinn. The exact facts were sketchy, but the gray girl came into the Shrike's life sometime around the time that he escaped from the Black Syndicate. They traveled together for a period of time and then for some reason parted ways around the time Sinn became involved with the Shrike rebellion that brought down a number of High Syndicate Houses.

It was also about that time that Sinn's brutality and viciousness became infamous. It was also rumored that until that time he had worn another name, but no one has been able to uncover what it had been up to this point.

He remembered seeing a holo-image of the Nebari girl… Chiana was her name. It had been taken as part of her Peacekeeper criminal file, as the girl had been a burglar back even at that time. While the Nebari had started out as somewhat of a successful thief, over time her skills or luck seemed to wane and she spent more and more time behind bars as she was caught or capture more often than not. Her only talent that appeared to have remained honed over the cycles was her talent for escaping from custody. Information on Chiana was frequently updated as different law agencies reported contact with her, until about three cycles ago when she seemed to almost disappear totally. Now only whatever network the Shrike employed seemed able to find the rare trace of her.

The image in the file showed a girl barely out of her teenage cycles… but still beautiful despite the street-wise look in her dark eyes.

Andar was willing to bet that twenty cycles later; the girl – now a grown woman – was probably still very beautiful.

It was just too bad that she hadn't been able to tame the Shrike with her beauty. Many beings would be alive today if his ruthlessness could have been curbed. Many people's lives would have turned out differently.

His life would have been different.

The captain sighed for what might have been, and then absently took a sip of his drink, only to grimace as the cold bitter tea filled his mouth and assaulted his tongue. He set the mug down with a look of disgust and began to look for the steward.

Just as he started his search, he noticed the man already on his way over with a steaming teapot in one hand.

"Goddess bless the man," Andar thought.

The thought also presented another option for the Sebacean officer. While the Senatorial Counsel might not have much sway with the insane Shrike, he thought of somebody who just might be able to get Sinn to listen to reason.

It was a long shot even for a frag-cannon, but he just had to get word to her to see if she would be willing to help. The gentle person who came to mind seemed to be the only being that the ex-Enforcer appeared to have even the bare slightest hint of reverence for… and unfortunately that wasn't saying much at all.

Andar frowned briefly as he recalled the last meeting several cycles ago between the two had ended rather badly, and with the priestess insinuating that she was washing her hands of Sinn for good, the captain only hoped he could talk her into giving it one last try for the sake of all concerned.

The Captain vowed to give the attempt his best try, and then smiled, but this time for an entirely different reason as he sipped at hot tea now.

Besides, if she could be persuaded to help, he just might be able to see that old friend he hadn't seen for so long as a side benefit.

It would be nice to share tea with her again.