3: LITTLE LIES

I was alone in the runabout. It sucked! But the message was clear – 'come alone – no angels!' and I wasn't about to give up an opportunity to find out what gives, just in case. The Edison was heading deep into the pocket universe that was Ravnica. This universe's radius was all of 50 parsecs, and at least it was closed. But the ship sliced effortlessly through the dark at warp 9, crossing a parsec every 6 hours. Thus any point in this pocket universe was within 13 days of Ravnica at these speeds. Before I set out on this solo journey I had set the Parhelion II on a new mission. That way, she wouldn't be getting in my way for this mission. I knew that Razia wouldn't let me do this trip without her, so I had to devise another mission for the Parhelion II. The angels were on a 'secret mission' of their own. The Parhelion II had left through the rift to the mana-less universe …

… And I snuck out in a shuttle pod just before they crossed the rift …


I was closing on the coordinates. I didn't think that there were other inhabited planets in this dimension, but then again the angels had headed into deep space only twice. Once they explored a distant system, and a second time to the edge of the universe to find Agyrem. It wasn't until the Izzet created the schism that they went into Agyrem and fell into Szadek's trap.

I was approaching a system containing planetary bodies, one in the right orbit to be class M.

It wasn't, being a class H desert world. Scanners indicated a powered object in orbit. Being alone in the Edison, I was not about to just waltz up to it either. I plotted a course to take me to the other side of the planet from that object. I also had a probe armed in the torpedo launcher. It was going around to scan the object first – If I didn't like what I saw I was bugging out the way I came in!


As soon as I had my data, I was really puzzled. Just who placed that object there? I even brought my probe back around to check it out before sending it back around for another look. Nope, I was definitely looking at an ancient, primitive, derelict space station. In the middle of nowhere, orbiting an H class planet whose top life form were scrappy desert plants. According to the scan of the fading nuclear power supply, the station was a couple of millennia old. What was worse was that it looked like it had a few visits from scavengers some time in the past. Time to swing around the planet, one finger still poised over the impulse control, and another over the torpedo fire button. Nothing, and hailing frequencies were open. Then it hit me, and I switched over to RF. As I was scanning the radio bands, my probe was drifting ever closer to the station, passive scanners still operating.

The speaker crackled to life. "I have a proposal for you." I didn't recognize the voice, but I found the frequency, way down in the short-wave spectrum. A rather unusual frequency for space communication!

"Al right, state your piece," I replied to the voice.

"Give me the Boros angels and I will give you Ravnica, forever."

"You wasted two weeks of my time for this?" I was getting steamed. I might just blow up the station for its occupant's insolence!

"Reason it out! You will get what, 1000 years with the angels? 2000? I'm offering you IMMORTALITY! Complete timeless immortality! As in forever…" the voice replied. "You would rule over the entire planet until the end of time!"

"So what's in it for you?" I was still sceptical.

"The survival of my species. The presence of the Boros will bring extinction to my race."

"The last time I checked being Dimir wasn't being a species!" I was about to sign off and leave. What a waste of a month's travel time.

"I'm not Dimir, I'm Golgari!" The voice said. "And I'm not a zombie. Living forever as a zombie would be just as tasteless as living with the angels. The Golgari have been exploring this multiverse, quietly, for millennia. We built this station over 2000 years ago. We had to do it quietly, for the angels would have forbidden us to share the heavens with them."

"Just who are you?" I finally had to ask.

"I cannot show you unless you accept my offer."

I just hit the impulse controls, and left the planet behind. I retrieved my probe just before the hyper wall, and downloaded its data while I was heading back to Ravnica. Warp 12. I had wasted enough time.


The 8-day trip back was uneventful. I landed the Edison on the roof of Centerfort, shut her down and headed over to Pivlic's in the shuttle pod. The Parhelion II was on her usual perch atop Sunhome. I figured that I had about 15 minutes…

I sat at the bar with my back to the wall, facing the entrance. Pelvic was about to give me a bumbat when I asked, "You wouldn't happen to have some Romulan Ale?"

"Funny you should ask that. I'm trying it out …" Pelvic brings out a large bottle of blue liquid. I just took the bottle and then took a big slug from it. "Whoa! What's the hurry?"

"I plan on being totally blotto when the angels get here and slap me silly," I replied.

"Oh, right. You snuck out on your own. Razia and Sara really missed you. Do you think that they will slap you silly?"

"The 'Archangel of War'?" I asked.

"I see your point," Pivlic concluded.

An angel entered the Imp's Wing. It was Feather. I decided not to stun her…

… Good thing too. She came over to me, yanked me off the chair and gave me a big smooch. "This is from Razia and Sara. They are NOT going to slap you silly! But you do need to return to the Parhelion…" Feather stated.

"… OK …." I took one last swig of Romulan Ale, and then beamed aboard the Parhelion II with Feather. Both Sara and Razia were waiting in the transporter room. Sure enough my angels were more worried than mad. After a double hug and smooch, I said, "sorry about that, but the message did say 'come alone', and I felt that it might really be important!"

"Was it?" Both Sara and Razia asked.

"NO! I wasted three weeks of my life! Here, listen to this!" I placed a data chip in the console and replayed back my brief conversation.

"Bullshit!" Was the word that Razia said. "We have never restricted the exploration of the heavens!"

"I don't recognize the voice though," Feather stated.

"Neither did I. Could it actually be a Golgari?" I had to ask.

"Actually … yes," Razia answered. "I can't place it, but it IS familiar …"

"And I thought you had an eidetic memory!" I interjected.

'Hey! It takes a bit of time to sift through 12 millennia of memories! Give me time, and I'll figure it out," Razia admonished.

"But there's a new player on the board," I stated. "And he seems to have just as big a hate on for my angels as Szadek. That puts him firmly into the 'enemy' category, regardless of who he is. If I find him, he will definitely get a new idea of what time-less means!"

"Thank you for that," Razia stated as we embraced.

"Like I expect you to turn your back on us that easily," Sara mentioned. "Who does he think he was talking to?"

"I bet a typical greedy human, someone who didn't have the rescuing gene in the first place!"

Another double angel hug. I managed out for their best interests, even at some personal risk. But that WAS the point! By now every Ravnican angel knew my motto: Nobody gets one of my angels, nobody! Anything less and I would be remiss in my duties. Both Sara and Razia appreciated the risk I took in investigating the strange message, even though we didn't figure out who was behind it … yet.


I woke up in my quarters on the Parhelion II. Both Sara and Razia were wrapped around me this morning. I think both of them really missed me, and weren't about to let me go. But that's a good thing, as I wasn't in the doghouse with my angels. In fact, my angels appreciated the risk I took on their behalf! Even though I snuck out on this mission…


I was alone on the bridge of the 'Helion. I also was sitting at the tactical station. A small Klingon-designed shuttle had just crossed the warp wall, coming in on a heading that led to the H-class planet. Its scanner image matched the data taken from the derelict space station…


Razia entered the guild mage's chambers. "What is so important?"

"Somebody has taken control of our satellites!" The head guild mage pointed to the view screens. Sure enough the scanners indicated that the satellites were turned around and were pointed outward. They were tracking a small shuttle coming into orbit from the far side of Ravnica. As soon as the shuttle broke over the horizon, a beam lashed out, destroying it. The origin of the beam was obvious, as the chamber reverberated with the sound of a phaser being fired. Then the satellites turned around and control was restored.

"There. Stephen needed the tracking. Next time check with the Parhelion."

"Yes, holiest," the guild mage replied.


Both Sara and Razia entered the bridge of the star ship. I was still at the tactical station. "Scratch one Golgari Vampire," Razia mentioned.

I had put up the scanner image of the shuttle. An 'object' had dropped from the shuttle towards the surface of Ravnica from the destroyed shuttle. "Ouch. If he had enough mana he would have survived the destruction of the shuttle," Razia mentioned.

"That's what 'shoot on sight' orders are for," I mentioned.

"Who has shoot on sight orders?" Razia had to ask.

"The Ordruun. We have two platoons, one equipped with phaser rifles, and one equipped with disruptor rifles. We found an image of Endara in the Azorius archives, and passed it on," I replied.

"As you would say … COOL!" That was the word that Razia ended the conservation with.

"How about we use this ship for what it was designed for?"

"And what's that?" Sara interjected.

"Space exploration and combat. How about we take on an exploration and mapping mission to a certain H-class planet, give you and Pense some targeting practice and then map another route back?"


There was excitement brewing amongst the angels and companions. The original Parhelion had only ventured out into this universe twice. The first was a trip to another planet, while the second was to the edge of the universe where they found Agyrem. Both trips took years with the impulse engine the Parhelion was equipped with. The Parhelion II's trip was scheduled to take only about 3 months.

The ship was being provisioned, the Azorius were informed, and the Parhelion II leapt into the sky.


The first three weeks were uneventful. Although many stars had planets, none supported higher life forms so far, until we came across a Class-M orbiting a late G star. The lush wilderness was a contrast to the cityscapes of Ravnica. However, the dominant species wasn't an unknown to the angels of Ravnica, being goblins.

"Goblins are the top of the heap here? Talk about beam me up Scotty there's no intelligent life down here," I mentioned, to no one in particular.

"Hey, what about Crixizix!" Feather admonished.

Razia jabbed me in the ribs again. "And what about the Goblins who the Boros have touched with the skills of a soldier?"

"Didn't you also say that they were untamed, wild and idiotic?"

"Well, yes actually. You do have a point," Razia acquiesced.

"Uh folks," it was Sara at the ops console. "You had better take a look at this!"

Sara brought up a view on the main screen. These were no ordinary goblins at all! There was a star ship under construction, and the goblins were definitely doing the construction.

"OK, that just changes my world-view. Thanks!" I admitted. Sure enough, there was a star ship under construction. However, the haphazard method of construction was puzzling. Most of the scaffolding surrounding the ship was primitive wood and the welders also appeared to be primitive and magically powered. The ship, however, was properly being built with the proper materials. How they were refined is still a mystery.


"All right folks, we have a mystery to solve," I stated. We were in the briefing room. Just like the good 'ol days this is where I would bounce ideas off of my crew. But this time the crew consisted of 90 angels and 90 companions, so not your usual mix were here! There was John, Nergat, Sara, Toki, K'Tee, Maya, Brent, and myself from the original Faraway Quest. Then there were also Razia, Calrea, Pense, and Necia here. "I'll tell you what I know. The ship being built down there is a Daedalus class exploration cruiser, an old Federation design."

"What generation is it?" Razia asked. She was knowledgeable about star ships to determine that that was the primary quality with regards to fighting capacity.

"It's actually only second generation," John replied. "Not a real threat to a ship such as this one."

"That's true," Sara contributed. "I have scanned her and she is being built to the stock plans. In combat she'd last about 5 seconds against us. It is a de-militarized version of the Comet class light cruiser built at the end of the Romulan war, for exploration."

"That's a top end of warp 4, about 8 lasers and 3 missile tubes," John added.

"Lasers?" Razia had to ask.

"Primitive beam weapon, precursor to the phaser," I added.

"I see. So what are they planning on doing with such a ship?" Razia questioned.

"We don't know. We will have to find out from the architects of its construction. But it would be a perfectly capable explorer of Ravnica's mana-verse, if it weren't for the presence of more powerful star ships on Ravnica itself," I finished.

"So someone, with access to Federation star ship plans, has decided to get this group of goblins to build them an exploration ship." Razia concluded.

"That's about it."

"So what next?" Sara asked.

"We get a good night's sleep and send a recon party to the surface tomorrow. They aren't going anywhere for a while. That ship has been building for about a decade at least," I concluded.

"About 9.5 years according to my scans," Pense quipped.

"See, no hurry," I got up from the table and grabbed Sara around the waist. "See you tomorrow," I ended with. By the time I reached the corridor, Razia had me on one side, while Sara had me on the other. I was flown back to our quarters!


"You're loving this!" Razia mentioned to me the next morning. "You haven't been out exploring in a while!"

"Of course he is!" Sara had to mention. "We did this for 5 years before retiring to Ravnica. What did you expect?"

"I didn't really know!" Razia exclaimed. "We only met briefly, where Stephen rescued me from his mana-less universe and returned me to Ravnica. Even though we became lovers, we were only together briefly before Szadek's attack. Our biggest achievement together was your rescue!" Razia finished with.

"… I see. Thank you and now I understand Stephen's obsession in rescuing you in Agyrem. It is the life link isn't it?" Sara queried.

"Yes it is. Stephen is our link and both our saviour." Razia concluded.

Both angels looked at me. I just shrugged my shoulders, and said; "Now you know why I love you both and need you both…"

That meant we were delayed leaving our quarters for another hour…


I entered the briefing room with both Razia and Sara at my side. All of the other folks from last night were there. "Alright who want's to go down to the surface?"

Everyone had his or her hand up.

"OK, look. We're sending down a recon party, not invading the planet!"

John piped up, "Well, you know that the commanding officer and the Guild Parun should stay aboard the ship…"

"And where in your Rim World regulations would you find mention of Guild Paruns?" Razia demanded.

"Well, your status of Parun would make you flag rank and wouldn't be risked on an away team," John countered.

"Unfortunately he's right," I mentioned. "The top echelon usually doesn't make up an away team – unless,"

Razia caught on to my exception, "unless what?"

"Unless the mission really requires the flag officers to intervene. In this case since we are looking at an unusual case of goblins building a starship, flag officers should not be involved as the decisions that we take will involve the entire legion. A fact finding mission is needed first," I rebuffed. I was good at this; I'll have to admit.

"But that means –"

"Rank has its privileges!" I mentioned.

"But the-"

"No. I'm still captain of this ship, so unless you plan on firing me, my orders are to be followed."

"That's not going to happen," Razia replied.

"The survey party will consist of: Maya as science officer, Tony as security officer, Pense and John as technical advisors, and K'Tee and Nergat as translation and backup as necessary. Yes the flag members will be staying aboard, as they are too valuable to send into a possible hostile environment, BUT nobody here is expendable. You all will take care to make sure that you all return safely! Is that clear!"

"Absolutely!" Was the reply from the briefing room. I got my point across. Even if I'm not going myself, I didn't want any unnecessary incidents.


The away team had spent a day approaching the 'under construction' ship. They faced no strange events, as the goblins involved were busy working on building and installing the parts of the ship. The team itself was an interesting mix: one angel, one horta, one caitian, one psychon, and two humans. Although I'm not going, the away team is a competent crew who will get the answers we need. The transporter beamed the team down and I awaited their reports

"You should have let us go down there," Razia stated.

"Actually no. If we are going to have confidence in our crew members, then we need to let them go and do their jobs, and not micromanage them as if they are our children!"

"But what if they encounter something-"

"That's what's personal judgment is for. When we build a starship crew, each individual knows what their function is. Thus each crewmember knows what's expected and the risks associated. They know the risks, and do what they can to mitigate them. Yes, there is risk, but that is what exploration is about. When I first shot you down, I took the risk of bringing you into the auto-doc and fixing the damage I'd caused. It turned out to be the best thing I did…"

That got me a smooch on the bridge. Razia realized that we all knew our jobs – not just the angels! The companions were just as capable as the angels! Not expected, but that was the situation. It turned out that there was an intrinsic reason for the angel bonding. The bonded humanoids of the mana-less universe were as capable as any being with mana. We were all able companions!

"Then the Azorius is going to have to get used to the Parhelion II being missing on occasion," Razia stated.

"Well things have quieted down on Ravnica'" Feather mentioned.

"Besides, we're not responsible for the safety of the entire planet!" Razia exclaimed. I guess she was getting tired of everyone else's expectations.

"Did the first Parhelion usually stay on top of Sunhome?" I asked.

"Only about a third of the time. But then we were at full complement and stayed mostly in the skies of Ravnica. The people could call on the angels from time to time. It was only unavailable 3 times in its existence, twice while on explorations of this universe, and when it was trapped in Agyrem," Razia explained.

Feather interrupted from the communications panel. "The away team just checked in. They are scouting the site before deciding to make contact."

"See," I said.

If Razia was embarrassed in any way she hid it well. The look on her face said your point?

"But yes, the Azorius will just have to get used to the angels disappearing from time to time," I continued our original conversation.

"Yes, we will be exploring this universe, and I suspect, your mana-less universe as well. I must admit, this has been fun, even if we aren't in the thick of things. The Boros angels have a new exploration role." Razia finally turned red. "The willingness to explore is what trapped us in Agyrem, but I don't think that will be a problem now with our companions…"

We just embraced for what seemed an eternity.

"That's what the Federation built starships for. Even this ship, an attack cruiser, has exploration facilities. That's part of the human condition, even more than making war!"

"So this is what you did, in your mana-less universe?"

"Yes it is. And no, I didn't always go with the away team. I am responsible for the whole ship, and nobody-"

"Gets one of your angels," Razia concluded, with a hug and smooch.


The away team did find a person responsible for the goblins, a hooded figure dressed in blue with sigils across his clothing. They decided to make contact.

"Who are you?" The blue figure asked.

"We are from the Parhelion II. Perhaps we can be of help-"

"Silence! There will be no interference with the evolution of these goblins!" With that the blue-robed figure disappeared.


A blue robed figure appeared in our engine room. I was with Caladea checking up when he arrived.

A blue beam sprang from the individual's fingertips and engulfed our warp core. That's when I drew my phasers and started firing. The beams had no effect. The two angels fired phaser beams also had no effect, but I did attract the attention of that being. A blue beam engulfed me, and when I came to … Baby feathers? I thought. "Caladea?" She helped me to my feet.

"I had to eject the warp core to save the ship," Caladea answered. It brought tears to her eyes.

"Listen, it's not the end of the world. Bridge!" I ordered.

"The Daedalus class has left the system!" Sara responded. "We can't go after it in our condition."

"I'll be up there in a minute," I replied.


I entered the bridge, and took up my center seat. Both Sara and Razia were waiting for me.

"We have lost our warp drive," Razia stated.

"Only temporarily," I replied. "We have a spare warp core in cargo bay 2. In fact we have 2 spare warp cores in cargo bay 2…"

"Figures!" Sara responded. "You are that paranoid!"

I just smiled.

"But now we have a planes walker to kill," Razia replied.

'Well, I don't know if I'd go that far," I replied.

"Why not? He attacked you!" Razia exclaimed.

"Listen, we didn't come all this way to greet old enemies and make new ones!"

"But we can't just let this pass!"

"Who said anything about letting this pass?" I pressed the intercom. "Caladea, I need you to go to cargo bay 2 and install one of our spare warp cores."

Caladea was shocked. "We have a spare warp core?"

"Two actually."

"Sometimes your paranoia does come in handy," Caladea replied.

I turned to Razia, "we should be underway in about 6 hours."


I awoke to both my angels again. A quick check to the bridge, and we were underway down the trajectory that the Daedalus cruiser took. Another quick check to engineering and Caladea was beaming about her install of the new warp core. She apparently pulled an all-nighter with the engineering crew to make sure the install was complete. Brent and Marie were sleeping it off, as Caladea sent them to bed after helping out. Time to have breakfast and to get to the bridge.

The advantage of chasing after a gen-2 ship was its top end of warp 4. It hasn't reached its destination yet, while we could be there before it got there. We activated our cloak and were waiting for its arrival.


As soon as the other ship dropped into the next system we planted a volley of torpedoes into it, crippling it.

"We are being hailed," K'Tee stated.

"Ignore the hail, but hold your fire," I replied.

"What are you doing?" Razia asked.

"Making a planes walker sweat. Remember I'm not going to let this just pass," I mentioned.

A moment later, and K'Tee said, "Now an individual is hailing us."

"On screen."

A blue robed figure appeared. "Can we discuss this?"

"You attacked us!" Razia exclaimed. "Why shouldn't we just kill you now?" Razia winked at me. I smiled, while Sara clued in about my first exchange with an angel. She refrained from laughing.

"Unm, I thought you had come to stop the goblins from their enlightenment! I didn't know…"

"Listen pal, you need to come aboard and explain yourself. If you can convince me I may just be able to convince the Boros angels…"

"The BOROS ANGELS are on board? I am definitely at your disposal…"

There was a blue robed figure in my briefing room. I regarded him coolly. "I'm Fleet captain Michael, owner of the Parhelion II and angels companion."

"Yes and my apologies! I didn't believe your landing party, and wanted to prevent you from attacking my goblins. They are just beginning to evolve out of their state and into enlightenment. I didn't mean any harm! I just wanted to prevent you from destroying them?"

"Why didn't you think our away teams offer was legit?" I asked

"Because other offers weren't. I have been burned a few times now, and I did trust no one. I'm Jace Bellerin by the way."

"The question now is, how do I keep Razia from taking your head?"

"Razia the Archangel? Is onboard. Oh my, I have a residence on Ravnica and am glad of the Boros presence there! I've pissed off the Parun! I'm sorry! I didn't know. What can I do?"

"Apologize to me directly," Razia said as she entered the room.

Jace went to his knees. "I'm sorry holiest! Please find it in your heart to forgive me! I just wanted to bring my goblins into enlightenment!"

"Well Fleet Captain, what do you think of our wayward planes walker?" Razia bounced the ball into my court.

"I think that if we can put the past behind us, then having a planes walker as an ally that we may call on from time to time…"

Jace regarded me for a minute. "Just like … Elspeth Tirel."

"You know Elspeth?" Both Razia and I asked.

"Yes she rallied a group of planes walkers against Nicol Bolas and the forces of Grixis. That didn't go so well. The last I heard she was going for somebody with a powerful ship … that was you wasn't it?" Jace finished.

"Yes it was. With Stephen Michael, you never know what the future brings." Razia gave me an embrace.

Jace was shocked. "An angel and a mortal – NO! TWO ANGELS! How did you do it?"

"Sorry, that's classified," I answered.

Razia didn't answer either. "Just know this, our original offer of assistance stands. The Boros has enlightened the goblins as well. We are not that unlike after all."

"Yes holiest," Jace replied. "We can be of use to you. If you want, we can update you with our travel logs of this universe."

"That would prevent duplication," I mentioned.

"Yes, place your goblins under the Boros flag if you need to. We can keep an eye on them and provide assistance as needed."

"Thank you, holiest." Jace bowed again.

We beamed him back to the goblins ship, and sent an engineering team over to help fix the damage. By the end of the day there were two fully functional ships in orbit around system '11235', and its class M planet, where the rest of the goblin crew was trained. That ship had about 150-trained goblin as its crew. As well as one planes walker…


Another message. 'Come alone – no angels!' Yeah right. Like I'm going to waste another month traveling around in a runabout. Besides Edana and Allan had taken the Edison to Wa-Lu for some much-needed maintenance. We need a shipyard here on Ravnica. Then I noticed the sigil at the end of the note. It was a blast from the past – Section 31. And the coordinates this time were to a deep space rendezvous only 3 days away. I'd be back in a week.


It was late as I was closing on the coordinates that I was to meet on, within another day's travel … when I discovered a stowaway.

Feather had sneaked aboard the runabout …

"Feather! The message had sad clearly 'NO ANGELS'. That includes you!

"But I cannot let you risk yourself when you are life-linked to her holiest!" Feather protested. "You've already done this once, but your luck isn't unlimited!"

"Thank you for your concern, but I can handle this!" I stated. "You need to hide!"

"But this evening, let me be with you! Hiding in the bowels of this little ship is somewhat … uncomfortable."

I just looked at her wings. They reminded me of Kos' description of them stuck in lock rings. "All right, spread your wings out tonight. I doubt that you will have to hide long if the next meeting goes as well as the last one," I stated.


Now just what we faced, as I reached the rendezvous point with Feather with me on the bridge of the runabout. Fuck 'em, I thought. We'll just have to keep it to audio. It was the moment of truth…

An Aeh'lla class cruiser de-cloaked in front of me, and it was Relar's…

"So you decided to come after all," Relar stated.

"I'm here. What do you want?" I responded with. Apparently the Tal'Shiar had copies of Section 31 sigils…

"Your Boros Legion's days are numbered," he stated.

"Bullshit. By whose army?" I was not in the mood to mince words with Relar.

"Starting with the top!" Relar stated. "The Dimir will be removing any angelic influence on Ravnica, starting with you…"

The Romulan ship had de-cloaked and opened fire on the Newton. The shots hit an invisible target between the Romulan and the Newton. The Parhelion II's mission was to cover the flight of the Newton, just in case. Then the real shooting started. The Parhelion was de-cloaking and opening fire with her phaser cannon. Relar's ship took the hit, the phaser cannon slicing through her shields and carving a hole through her superstructure. Then the phaser pulse guns opened fire as the twin multi-torpedo launchers opened fire. Relar's ship lost many sections of its hull before Relar ordered a retreat.

Surprise! I was traveling with the angels after all! The Parhelion II was shadowing the Newton the whole trip, but the look on Feather's face was priceless.

"You knew!" Feather accused. I just shrugged and tried to look innocent.

I fired up communications. "Kiss your brand new ass goodbye!" I left on Relar's inbox. 'Mess with the best, die like the rest," I left him to contemplate. I docked the Newton to the Parhelion II, and walked Feather to the bridge.

"Now we're officially at war with Relar," Razia announced. "Helm, standing orders. If you find his ship shut down again put a spread of torpedoes into it." Razia was angry. Then she gave me a rib-cracking embrace. "Nobody gets my Lover, nobody. Sara excepted of course," Razia grinned as she relented on the squeeze, and saving my ribs.