Arrival on planet was far from victorious. They were pulled in by hastily dispatched space thug, and instead of docking, were sent straight to the orbital repair station, as the damage taken in battle prevented safe planetfall.

They had to take shuttle to the planet, and they had to wait, until all wounded and dead were sent down first. Somehow the rumours of Kei's speech after battle had leaked out, and she now stood alone, circled by the empty space no one dared to cross. At the moment that was the least one of her worries.

From pirates had remained very little. Several bigger pieces were still tugged in for the later checkup of the origins, as were few bio-probes. There were no survivors.

That was what had Kei worried. The pirates had fought desperately, and knowing the harsh punishment for the piracy, Kei could understood that. But when battle was lost, when dreadnought was blown up, the smaller ship continued to fight even knowing he had no chances at all. Were they fanatics?

UG had its own share of fanatics, some of them having roots even in pre-nanoclism Earth, but for most part it was ruled by the pragmatics.

"I'm sorry," someone said to her, and Kei raised eyes.

"You were right, Kate" John continued, trying to ignore the stares, the crew was giving them. "But we are what we are. I'm really sorry, it ended like this."

Kei didn't reply.

Yuri was waiting for her on the sideway across the big Space Center.

"After they announced loss of one cruiser, I wouldn't stop worry about you," she hugged Kei as soon as they meet. "Kate, I was so worried..." Her smile slowly died, and she looked deeper into partner's face

"Calm down, Yuri... It takes better that few pirates to get one of the angels down," Kei managed to pull a smile.

"Be it our ship, I wouldn't worry, but it was the trofarian one!"

"No problem on that either," Kei was putting up façade of bravery, but already knew it had failed. Yuri's face too turned gloom.

"Okay, what happened?"

"Read the papers. Then read between lines."

"Kate," Yuri's voice grow steel-cold. "We need to talk."

"Sure. Just pick a good bar. Not the 'Golden Lion'."

"Don't you dare to get drunk!"

"Try stop me."

"Black Star", while figuratively being into same near-port category as "Golden Lion", was meant for a public of a class lower that the one that favoured the animal. Still, for Kei it was unsignificiant. All that mattered was the fact, it provided cheap way to intoxicate herself with relatively clear alcohol for reasonable price.

"..and then I just blew up, and told them they are a bunch of weenies and single UG cruiser could have wiped floor with them."

` "And lost your job, your love, and an excellent place to check Trofarian military from inside," Yuri fumed.

Kei just sulked, her mood darkened thanks to the stack of empty whiskey bottles in front of them, most of their content inside her.

"Kei, well, it was bound to happen," Yuri sighted. "It was same into UG just a quarter century before. Don't you remember the stories our parents told about the rioting. Or the school... no, probably not. You had better things to do in school that to study... Kei, it was exactly same into UG. The UG act, that declared mindlink a mandatory 'upgrade' for all humans, sparked a few dozens of uprisings. But it will be over and gone before you will know it. They will change."

"They wont change easily..." Kei gloomed. "Not the people like I saw on the 'Independence'."

"They will have to. As part of UG, all UG laws apply to them as well now."

"They will revolt."

"And so?" Yuri raised eyebrow. "Some hotheads will revolt, and will be dealt with. The Trofarian government already starts using the mindlinks. They will accept it, and in time of generation it will be everpresent."

"All this wont change one simple thing."

"Well?"

"There WILL be uprising. There will be riots, once it will be declared. The Neo-luddites will float in there and again raise their black banners. They probably will even tie that with independence question..." Kei downed remains of the whiskey. "They simply will fight UG."

"You are drunk," Yuri sighted.

"And what's worse," Kei looked at her. "I bet, tops in UG already know, it will end this way. I mean, even if i saw it... No way CC would..."

Suddenly her eyes grew wide.

"It wouldn't! Yuri, tell me it sure wouldn't?"

"Kate, I think you had enough for today," Yuri sighted. At the moment her thoughts were far from the interstellar relations, more they worried about her partners loose tongue.

"But still, they will fight, and even if they wont win, they would cause much damage. And you know, while its newer our fault, things just tend to happen, and then all goes out of control... Yuri, what if CC sent us there just that we hit the uprising before it blossoms? Just that we blow up Trofar system? Just that ... just that... "

Yuri sighted and picked up Kei from table. Too bad, the sleeping drug had taken so long to kick in. Kei will kill her tomorrow, but at least she wont spill out more of her mad conspiracy theory.

Yuri was logged into her computer, into another attempt to crack codes protecting Silvie's personal data. With one ear she was also listening to loud snoring from bedroom. Since Kei was determined to rob her the night sleep anyway, Yuri had decided to try a few new ideas upon encryptions.

That woman was paranoidal, she had decided. So far she had encountered seven different coding systems. Five of them she had managed to crack, but so far, while interesting, it revealed little. Some intrigues into Security Directorate - something 3WA would exploit if they would ever need to do some 'hiring' in Trofarian territories. One part of Silvie's diary - other one was still resisting. Unbelievably, how many records talked about her tomcat and kittens. Reading that, Yuri felt a bit sorry about leaving Mughi back in Elenore. Then there was list of suspected UG agents into Trofarian government, security and military. After careful checking, Yuri had confirmed that in most cases suspicions were for real. Then there was list of Trofarian agents into UG. Then there were plans for the Trofarian defences - bases, ships, personnel, shipyards. List of changes proposed, with marks of 'acknowledged', 'rejected' and 'urgent'. Considering, UG Space Force would build several of their bases there as well, the military spendings were a bit over the top. That would make several drain upon Trofarian economy into few next years, and considering the already bad trend into UG economy, it may cause a serious crisis. She had already sent a warning to Econ corps about this.

There had been left two more things to be decoded. One of them - part of her diary, the other - just a short document she had restored from the empty space on Silvia's hard drive. Somehow, Yuri felt, they had to contain something very important.

Other that that, there was little to do. Even Kei's battle had yielded unbelievably minor results. Sure, pirates were gone, however Yuri felt, they had happened to be only scapegoats, to be sacrificed by the real enemy. Both ship's had blew up, there were no survivors found, no way to track them to their roots. The labs were working on the samples acquired, but it was expected they would give very little.

Also, Yuri had felt something else. They weren't welcomed here anymore. A veiled hint there, a phrase tossed carelessly here.