Chapter 4

The Sargorn standing in front of her was the biggest she had ever seen with the exception of her own Dragar. However this Sargorn was much older and looked as if he had been in many battles. A third of his tail was missing and he looked to have an artificial right wing, a wing that looked like her father's and Stinger's. She took a deep breath to calm herself before she spoke.

"Who are you and what are you doing on my ship?"

The Sargorn did not answer her question and said instead, "All your questions will be answered soon."

He gave a guttural growl at the end of his sentence. She slowly put a hand behind her back to try and reach her mini mauler that she always carried no matter where she went but the Sargorn strode forward surprisingly quick and seized her arm. She cried out at the pain of his strong grip.

"I don't think so your ladyship," and he pulled the gun from in back of the waistline of her pants.

He pulled her with him as he exited the pilot room and dragged her through the Jumper to her quarters and shoved her in causing her to fly across the room. As luck would have it she landed on her bed but then she thought there was no luck to it because this Sargorn knew exactly what he was doing. She momentarily chastised herself for not waiting and having a chaperone come with her.

"Give me any other weapons you have on you or I will frisk you to get them."

The thought of his scaly hands on her caused her to shudder. She rose from her bed and pulled her knife from its scabbard around her ankle and gave it to him.

"Is this everything?"

She raised her arms and turned in a circle in front of him. Her clothes were too form-fitting for her to hide anything else with the exception of her other ankle which she showed him as well. He eyed her for a moment before nodding his head slightly.

"You will remain here until my master comes to see you."

With that he hit the door's control panel and the door swooshed shut. She heard him enter a code on the other side and she knew that she was locked in. They seemed to have taken the liberty to utilize her own jumper's control pads against her. She was angered by the thought that such liberty's had been taken with her own birthday present.

"Damn!"

She wasn't really frightened, at least not yet. She had inherited much of her father's fearlessness but also his wisdom. She knew she couldn't take on the Sargorn, not unless it was a surprise attack. She returned to her bed and sat down looked around the room. She knew there would be a hidden cache that would have another gun in it, that is if they hadn't already found it. She was hopeful though because she knew that it would be hidden carefully but she had her mother's quick mind and knew the sort of places her aunt would have chosen to hide it. She gazed at everything and saw several places she could try. She didn't know how much time she had before the Sargorn returned with his "master".

She searched the room and finally found the secret hiding spot. There was a border of bas-relief flowers around the top of the wall that had small raised buttons in the middle and she pressed each one until one of the gave ever so slightly and opened a small compartment that looked like it was part of the design. If Gaitha had not known her aunt so well she would never have found the button, let alone the compartment just by looking. She let her breath out in a sigh of relief when she saw that they had not found it. She took the mini mauler and the rest of the contents out of the hiding place. She looked down at the items in her hand and smiled before hiding everything on her person except the gun. She would have to wear her jacket if she hoped to hide it and she did not want to raise suspicion by putting it on. She slid the mini mauler into an inside placket of her jacket. She would have to hope that the other items would at the very least buy her some time or that she could find a reasonable excuse to put the jacket on.

Gaitha swore at herself for not waiting to have her aunt tell her all the important places she needed to know about for her protection but there was no way she or her aunt would think a small jaunt around the planet would put her at risk. She knew there would be a panic room but she had no idea where it might be. She looked around the room again and tried several places she thought might yield a clue but she was unsuccessful. She didn't know how much time she had left but she knew it probably wasn't too much longer.

Gaitha thought about all the rooms she had been through and tried to picture them all in her head to try and build a schematic. She knew she had not been through the ship enough yet to really see the whole blueprint accurately in her head that might give her a clue as to where the panic room might be. She knew that soon she would be missed when Gavidon got suspicious about her messages or too much time had passed and she should have returned to get ready for her party. Her only hope was that she knew that there would be a tracker on the ship that would let Gavidon know her exact location. She had a good many outs and she knew her father could track her scent. This calmed her a bit more.

Suddenly the door hissed and opened to show what appeared to be some type of spliced human and the Sargorn behind him.

"Happy Birthday your Ladyship."