"'Did you intervene at any point? You had influence.'

'I did not, no - and I didn't have as much as you might think.'

'You must have known how much chaos he was going to cause?'

'That was kind of the entire point, to be honest.'"

- Interview with local law enforcement, Hajes Consortium, Ashkelon Dominancy

BAAL'CHEPHERON WAS NOT AT ALL WHAT SHE EXPECTED.

Nexus had expected a planet or an asteroid or some small station in space. It was none of those.

What it was was a cross-shaped structure barely twenty motras tall and thirty wide, painted a very bright blue. In the centre of it a transparent globe filled with an opalescent liquid that a sinuous shape swam in languidly. Several other ships were floating around it.

"We're not going inside, are we?" She asked, dubious.

"Nope. It'll comm us when it's our turn."

It did not take long. The forward portal lit up and the image of a large serpentine creature floated serenely in a clear blue liquid before them. It had a wide mouth with many tiny sharp teeth and a row of eyes - Nexus counted twelve, all but four closed - above it. It had iridescent scales. She found it surprisingly attractive. Any interfaces seemed to float in the liquid with it.

"Crichton…" it's voice was a blend of male and female, richly and melodiously tonal, "open skies to you."

"Chindael… may you float in serenity," Crichton returned.

"How may we see for you?"

"I'm looking for Shivi'na Na'Carahad."

"Ah… she has walked in that both strange and terrible." Nexus blinked when Chindael opened all twelve eyes - all different colours save the two on either end which were a bright yellow. "Find her in Ashkelon Dominancy on the world of Desh'Mannish." Chindael's body coiled slowly behind the great head. "She is a slave to Jakkthal Mhal."

Nexus opened her mouth to say something and was stopped by Crichton putting an admonishing finger up.

"She will not know you."

There was a silence for a few microts.

"Anything else?"

"To free her will invite death. You must not hesitate."

Crichton simply nodded and thanked Chindael, asked its' current fee and paid it promptly.

"Around you strange eddies flow," Chindael said as a way of bidding them goodbye, "you must take great care in where you set your feet."

"Sound advice." Crichton said with a nod and closed the communication. He directed Nexus to pull the Vengeance out of the queue, which she did.

"Huh. Didn't expect them to be so… straightforward." Nexus said. "Thought it'd be heavily cryptic and mystifying."

"Why I pay Chindael what they're worth. So - Skedditch'Jhor." He pointed to a small square near the navigational array. "That gets me anywhere Ashkelon I want."

"Oh, right - your Ward of Passage. I'd forgotten about that."

"Get us back on course and best speed."

Nexus nodded once and swung the Vengeance on course. The SI told them seven arns to arrival. Crichton stood and stretched.

"I'm gonna eat and take a nap. None of this will likely be easy." He turned to go. "You do what you want."

He disappeared up the corridor.

"What I want?" Nexus echoed dryly as she turned back to her controls and watched the stars tick by, then addressed the DRD near her feet. It was probably watching her all the time, she suddenly realized. She felt indifferent to that. It didn't really matter all that much. She wasn't doing anything worth watching. For now, she was just trying to be.

"Where the frell would I start?"

SKEDDITCH'JHOR LOOKED LIKE A CIRCUS, he thought as the Vengeance dropped smoothly into orbit, the planet beyond it a baleful storm-wracked place, its blues and greys grim, lightning cracking under the perpetual cloud cover.

Skedditch'Jhor - one of its moons, was choked with casinos and arenas and nightclubs. The moon was a few hundred metras in diameter, ringed with monitors and ships and guard fighters. It was owned by the Warlord Kend'den'rethen, who cared little for what happened below as long as his generous cut was paid in full and on time.

"Well," Nexus said as she watched the numbers scroll by, "isn't that a sight?"

"It needs a nuke or ten." Crichton growled. Shiv was down there, somewhere and he was still pissed off about that fact. He couldn't scan for her though and wondered why. "There a scattering field down there?"

Nexus checked.

"Only over certain areas." She concluded after a minute. "Casinos, mostly, a couple of nightclubs."

"Yeah, that makes sense… need a directory of dives…" he muttered, "…there's gotta be one…" he grunted in satisfaction when one popped up. Two hundred fifteen casinos, five hundred nightclubs, fifteen arenas.

"How are you with a gun?" He asked.

"I'm no commando, but I get by. I've had some experience."

"Doubtless." He gestured to a gun locker and stalked off after a longcoat. "Find one in there that fits you."

She eyed the gun locker and selected a pistol and a rifle, checked them and set the rifle aside, the pistol going on and slung low on her thigh, then followed him to the locker with the coats.

"Why do you have a coat locker with different sizes in?"

"Livery," he returned dryly.

In the locker, several kinds hung, larger ones that might fit him, smaller ones for others. She selected an indigo one and shrugged into it. It had his stylized skull and crossbones on it. She took a deep breath as it went on, the weight of it familiar. Right size, right fit, like a glove, and she realized with a start as she shrugged her shoulders to settle it onto her frame that it was just… right. The uniform of the Seven never felt quite …correct, but this did.

"I'm a pirate again," she murmured to herself, finding herself balancing on the balls of her feet, bouncing ever so slightly as she looked at herself in the mirror on the locker door.

"Hello," she said to the reflection, "haven't see you in a while."

She slung the rifle just as he returned in his full kit.

"Remember what I said about 'wholesale killing'?"

"Yes…"

"That inclination changes when it's people I care about." He jumped once to settle his coat. "I stop being reasonable."

"That's entirely understandable," she said, and completely in character, she thought.

He stalked back to the Nav console.

"Too many damn satellites," he muttered, "I need personnel access…"

"Hold on," Nexus rose and crossed to the main scanner station, "they'd encrypt all that… sometimes though, you can get it from local entertainment broadcasts - which might at least give us a place to start. Let me just run a quick plotter…" she typed furiously then stood back and waited, hands on hips. The computer signaled a few moments later.

"Here we go… the most mentioned - and richest - member of the controlling cartel down there is someone named 'Grädian'. He'll buy and sell anything or anyone. He's also the overseer of at least half-a-dozen arenas of varying lethality."

She projected an info-packet of him onto the forward portal. Crichton studied him - an atypical Ashkelon; stout, with gleaming pig eyes set too close together and a chinless large-lipped mouth bent in a grin that hinted at a sadistic side to him. The image had a banner behind him of his business - a crescent moon encompassing several stars.

"I want Mhal." He said coldly. He stood close behind her as she sifted information. She could feel the heat coming off him. His presence so close felt… heavy.

"Let's see…" Nexus continued, "Jakkthal Mhal, so-called procurement specialist. Feeds the arenas and brothels."

Nexus narrowed her eyes as she saw him, a spark of recognition there. She glanced back at Crichton and his artificial hand.

The same… out of sequence, she thought and made a mental note of it. Is this part of the Schism I created?

"Where's he from?" Crichton enquired, the species new to him.

"He's a H'rhola, one of the more obscure outer rim species, from an area called the 'Visconjati Potency'." She frowned again. "From his markings, he's the equivalent of a Warlord."

"So… this Grädian runs things as a proxy for the local Ashkelon asshole."

"Distaff cousin of Kend'den'rethen." Nexus nodded.

"And Mhal's an ambitious pile of crap that has Shiv," he growled, "you recognize him?"

She nodded.

"From my Divergence. He's a definite flesh peddler." She eyed him with revulsion. "Ethically bankrupt by anyone's standards. The Visconjati are notoriously misogynistic to their own females and consider everyone else's little better than animals. The odds are he has a control node on her somewhere. Nothing else would make sense."

"Alright then, let's…!"

"Wait!" She remembered suddenly. "He's also got an ability - his species can see laterally in time - he can see convergent possibilities in real time, as it were."

"What - he can see someone do five different potential things at once and anticipate?"

Nexus nodded, remembering what it had taken in her universe to put this creature down. Yet, if this was a Schism-altered sequence of events, things could be very different…

"Well…" Crichton stood and went aft to the wing fighter, "I'll just have to be unpredictable."

SKEDDITCH'JHOR ANTICIPATED THEM.

"This happens everywhere," Nexus noted as armed men surrounded them. "Plan?"

The men all bore a crescent moon encompassing several stars on their chests. Grädian's lackeys.

"Curious about my Ward of Passage, more likely."

Crichton counted five men, three with rifles, two with the familiar shock rods. He wasn't a fan of those. The five ringed them. Nexus put her hands up and Crichton did likewise.

"You will come with us," one of the men said.

Crichton nodded and glanced at Nexus then back to the man who spoke.

"You're in the way," he said calmly and Nexus blinked and then dropped to the ground without hesitation.

The man who had spoken received the kick she'd admired earlier which smashed him back, then Crichton was whirling to bat the rod of another away before squarely knocking him out, only to pivot, take the other shock rod and jam it into the throat of another, while Nexus squirmed across the floor, grabbed the rod the other had dropped, bounded to her feet and jumped to a kiosk up off the floor. She slammed the tip into the floor and slapped the control just as Crichton leaped to a counter of a nearby shop. The shock dropped the men and a few of the nearby patrons.

Nexus pulled the rod up and discarded it over her shoulder before dropping lightly back down to the floor. Crichton followed suit and regarded her with an appreciative nod and smile.

"Nice." He said to her as he assessed.

"Thanks."

"So they know I'm coming." He intoned, scanning the area. "That should make things easier."

"How so?" She was feeling loose and able, old instincts returning.

"Put you hands up and wait," he told her to her frown.

He put his back up and waited. She shrugged and did the same.

A few moments later, they were surrounded again - this time by twice the men.

"And this serves… what?" she asked as they took away her guns.

"Our audition," Crichton told her with a smirk.

Nexus sent him an indulgent look with a soft,

"That's what I was afraid of."

"YOU'VE MANAGED TO GET MY ATTENTION," Grädian told him with a edge of contempt. He was comfortably ensconced in an oversized throne-like chair behind a heavy desk. Several guards kept watch over his visitors. The room was finished in expensive woods and silks, hung round with art that looked expensive but was actually pedestrian and cheap. "Your reputation precedes you."

"Incognito never suited me," Crichton told him insolently, "so I don't bother."

"What do you want, now that you have my attention?"

"Mhal," Crichton told him coldly, "has something that belongs to me."

"'Something?'" Grädian was eyeing Nexus with a blatant interest.

"Someone, then." Crichton amended. "You know who I mean, so cut the crap. This can go a few ways, depending."

"On?" Grädian sounded bored. His frank interest in Nexus was beginning to get on Crichton's nerves.

"How much cooperation I get." Crichton snapped his fingers and Grädian reluctantly returned his attention to the pirate. "I can buy her back or take her back. Your choice."

"Mhal's choice, actually. She's his, you know. Completely. She's also exceedingly profitable. I doubt you could afford her."

"You'd be surprised."

"I doubt it." He reiterated with a gesture from an impatient hand. "You have no choices, pirate. Your reputation is meaningless here. She's Mhal's body and soul now. She doesn't lose and that makes fortunes."

"So you want it the hard way." Crichton's voice was loaded with menace.

"I'm an entrepreneur," Grädian told him, "violence will get you nothing. You could kill me and everyone on this asteroid and get nothing." Grädian smiled. "He'd just kill her before giving her up."

"All right," Crichton growled, "since you're a entrepreneur… I'll make you a deal. Mhal's using her in one of your arenas."

"Correct."

"Then get me a match with her," Crichton proposed and Nexus looked shocked as he said it, "I'll even drop some money on it."

"'Some'?"

"What's the average wager?"

"For the particular arena and that particular combatant? Several hundred thousand kretmas, easily."

"How's ten million? A match today - now."

Crichton held up a chit - a black chit, with the unmistakable seal of the Bardaradhan Shadow Depository on it. Grädian's eyes lit up though his voice was calm.

"I would think enough, though Mhal will not."

"You're a frellin' hypocrite," Crichton grumbled at him, "you couldn't care less what happens to him." He turned the chit and it glimmered in the light. "As long as this ends up in your pocket."

"True." He answered candidly. "He is a great provider for the arenas, though." A sniff. "Very profitable. Why, our latest revenue numbers are easily half-a-billon ardeks a monen. Higher now, actually."

Crichton could see Grädian's eyes on the chit now, much in the same manner as he'd used to mentally undress Nexus earlier.

Crichton simply fixed him with a steady gaze.

"So… I think Shivi'na Na'Carahad is worth considerably more, Crichton." A chuckle then. "Though Mhal doesn't know what he has and I don't think you could cover quite that much."

"I think," Crichton said, his voice glacial, "I'm showing a remarkable amount of restraint, don't you?"

Crichton could see Grädian shift his thought process minutely, assessing the actual threat - or at least what he figured Crichton could bring to bear. The Vengeance could inflict horrific damage on this rock and Grädian knew he had nothing to either intercept or stop it from doing so - and he had no way of knowing if Crichton had left the Vigilante in orbit to do just that. Scumbag or not, Grädian was at heart an actual businessman and his only god, goal and greatness lay in amassing wealth by any means.

"A deal, then." Grädian nodded. "You give me that chit and you will immediately be taken to the arena Na'Carahad currently rules." He shrugged. "I can't sell her to you because I don't own her," a short nod, "but I will facilitate your reunion."

Crichton flicked the chit on the desk. Grädian nodded to his guards.

"A deal is a deal," he said simply, gathering up the chit, "take them to The Wreckage."

Crichton and Nexus were escorted out and were shortly in a shuttle.

"That was easier than I thought it would be," Nexus murmured to him, "though he will definitely not keep his end of any bargain."

"Don't expect him to," Crichton replied, "and he can enjoy everything that chit will do for him." He ground his teeth. "I will get Shiv back, whatever it takes."

The shuttle ride took little time and they stepped out of it before a large nondescript building, a sign in Ashkelon that read simply 'The Wreckage'. Faint roars and rumbles shuddered through the pavement beneath their feet.

"Well, he kept his word for this, at least," Nexus muttered. Several rifles were thrust into their backs. "And this was absolutely expected."

"Keep your wits about you." Crichton told her as they shoved him away. "Maybe I'll see you again."

Nexus glared after him as they pushed her in a different direction.

"This is not how things are supposed to go!" she called.

"Just wait," he said, disappearing into the building.

THAT UNEASY FEELING OF IÒAK-DAH was making her faintly nauseous as Nexus was ushered into a large room filled with couches as silky hangings, lewd tapestries and lurid paintings on bright red walls all around. The guards shoved her brusquely into the room and the door slammed shut behind her. Several females of various races looked up at her entrance and when she did nothing overt went back to their boredom.

Gladiator pen? Harem? Both? Neither particular pleasant. Movement at the far end of the room drew her attention - a V'rahn appearing through another door. He was straight and rigid, dressed in a single overall of grey, though his bearing and walk was haughty and superior. He made a direct line to her, halted a motra away and looked her up and down.

"Sebacean," he intoned in a bored voice, a great indifferent tone, "not many of those here."

Nexus crossed her arms and regarded him. He was half her size.

"You'll fight, won't you?" He sniffed. "Many do when they first arrive. I shall tell you what I tell them: it is easier and safer if you simply obey. Defiance is always quashed - always. You have no choices. Our Master will assess you one way or another. Obedience spares you pain." The V'rahn pointed to himself. "I am Markth." He then pointed to a box near her. "You will strip nude and stay that way until our Master comes to inspect you. In that box is clothing our Master finds more suitable for his female 'guests'. Defiance of any kind with be met with pain. Excruciating pain. It will leave no mark." Markth turned to leave. "You are now his property. The sooner you accept it, the better your lot will be."

Nexus simply sat on the box.

"Have it your way," Markth intoned dryly and left.

Nexus got comfortable. Several guards abruptly appeared.

Only a matter of time now.

MHAL EYED THE PIRATE WITH UTTER DISDAIN.

Grädian had of course warned him but Mhal was nothing if not a gambler. He was seated comfortably on a long couch, fragrant siphi smoke wafting around him, the vapour soothing. One of his females waited nearby for his pleasure. She'd been the daughter of some noble something or other but was now nothing but a fleshy plaything.

So, this was the infamous Crichton, come to retrieve the equally infamous Shivi'na Na'Carahad - his prize, his great always-winning prize that had already swelled his coffers near to bursting.

She was his, his pliant slave, and he would never give her up. He had yet to touch her but that was the future, as the control chip wormed its way into her nervous system and he fine-tuned his orders, tuned them so when he finally ordered her to pleasure him, she would comply without the touchy lethality she currently displayed.

"Your 'deal' was with Grädian." Mhal told him, voice laden with contempt, "not me. You're a fool, to be duped so easily."

He 'watched' the pirate closely, his senses telling him little. There were many possibilities here, many ways for Crichton to assault him. He did not like the easy stance, the unconcerned fix to his face, the eyes dark with intent. None of the possibilities he could see showed him anything of merit. Crichton did nothing overt in any of them.

Crichton only smiled.

"You like to hear yourself talk, huh?" Crichton said, "I'm flexible. Deal or no deal, Shiv's coming with me."

"I don't think so." He gestured and Crichton heard footsteps. "You come here arrogantly, with no forces, no real troops to support you. So… now your woman too is lost to you. I will keep her for myself, as well."

Crichton glanced to his left as Nexus was abruptly thrust into the light. Nexus smiled at him wanly. She had a large bruise on her face as if she'd been struck and a cut over her right eye.

"We meet again," she quipped. He could see concern in her eyes.

"Did Grädian offer to share the ten mil with you, or did he omit that little tidbit?"

Mhal blinked. That was news to him.

"Let him keep it," Crichton continued, "it's nothing."

"You have more?"

"Not for you." Again Mhal tried to 'read' Crichton. Again he only smiled. "You'll pay for that." A gesture at Nexus' large and angry bruise. He clenched his artificial hand into a fist. "Give me Shiv before this goes very badly for you."

Mhal did not hide his disgust. He considered most Sebaceans little better than animals at the best of times. Still, this one intrigued him.

"No. What will you give for her? You wanted a match? You commit suicide." Again he gestured and a door near him sliced open - and Shiv stepped gracefully out. She looked to Mhal. "My Shindal. You are mine, are you not?"

Shiv's voice was flat and dry, coldly neutral.

"They say I am," she said. She wore a sheer outfit, dark though as she moved one could get glimpses of her pale flesh beneath, the filmy thing designed purposefully to take her dignity away - make her an object and Crichton vowed he'd pay for that too. She also had no shoes, silent in her bare feet.

"Do you recognize this person?" He directed her gaze to Crichton. She turned her dulled fiery eyes to him.

"I do not."

Mhal's wide mouth split into a sharp-tooth smile.

"He's a challenger." Shiv's eyes narrowed. "Infamous against Utterly Lethal."

Crichton gave him a thin-lipped smile and a short sharp nod.

"If you survive," Mhal laughed at the impossible possibility, "you can have her."

Nexus opened her mouth but Crichton cut her off.

"Done."

Mhal laughed harder as his guards ushered the pirates out. He ordered Shiv to him as Crichton halted in the doorway and looked back. Reaching up he began to run his hands over Shiv's body. She did not react.

"She's mine." He insisted.

"Not for much longer," Crichton told him and marched out, the confidence in his voice strong.

Mhal frowned, his laughter dying.

His senses showed nothing ahead but darkness.

"Prepare the pit!" he suddenly called, shoving Shiv away, discomfited by that confidence, "now!"