Part Eleven: Even the Shadows Know Your Name...

Silat was the most feared bounty hunter in this section of the Milky Way galaxy, quite an accomplishment for a Human, especially one without cybernetic enhancement. She was feared across UPP controlled and allied space, respected throughout the Spung Empire, and known in all the dark corners in between. She'd never lost a mark, never reneged on a contract, never been beaten, in her ten-year career. And now, thanks to the actions of two children, she had lost the biggest contract the Spung had ever offered. Warlord Shank, who it was said was destined to become the next Emperor, had offered the contract to her himself.

She vowed never to work with any idiotic space pirates again, since Reaver and his telemorph had managed to lost two of the marks to the rest of the ones they were supposed to catch, because the telemorph had been hung over from the night before!

Silat had been so angry, she very nearly killed them. But that would have been unprofessional. And she was a pure professional.

As her one-being ship leapt to hyperspace, following the jumpdrive wake of the Christa, she deeply hoped she had the need to subdue this "Connor Macfarlane", and his unnamed female friend.

"Hah. There's no way you can get out of that one, Connor."

Connor looked over the Minbar chess board at his opponent. Harlan had insisted that Connor begin participating in the crew's ongoing tournament, which was taken as a sign that he finally accepted Connor as part of the crew.

Harlan sat across from him, a look of smug satisfation on his face. He'd already beaten Connor twice today, each time insisting that his disinterested opponent try again, and actually put some effort into it. Frustrated, Connor decided to give it a shot.

"An old teacher of mine always used to tell me," Connor paused, picking his piece carefully, "that sometimes you just have to sit back, and let your opponent beat himself." He moved his piece, knocking one of Harlan's aside with a sharp clack. "Check. And, uh, mate, I think..."

Harlan stared at the board, incredulous. "How did you..."

"Come on, Harlan. Let's go get some lunch."

"Okay. But, you're gonna have to tell me where you learned to play like that."

Laughing, Connor slid into the jumptube.

Cat and Suzee were working in the engine room, performing basic maintenance. While most of the damage done to the Christa had been repaired during the trip to Anreus, some of the engine components needed to be replaced: There hadn't been time to do that at the station, so almost round-the-clock vigilance was needed to keep the engines fully operational.

It was tedious work, but necessary.

"So, Suzee," Cat said, casually, "you've seemed much happier since leaving Anreus Free Spaceport."

"Are you implying something?" Suzee gave her friend a conspiratorial smirk.

"Seems to me dinner with Connor did you some good."

"Well, it sure didn't do me any harm... Pass me the hydrospanner, will you? The alluvial dampers are acting up."

Cat handed the other girl the requested tool, and the work began again.

On the command post, Goddard and Radu were on watch. It was blissfully boring and quiet, and Radu was taking the time to catch up on his required reading: They had begun intermittent classes again, and they were studying ancient Earth religions. Radu had gotten Taoism.

"Knowing others is wisdom; knowing the self is enlightenment. Conquering others takes force; conquering the self takes strength."

Radu was starting to like Taoism...

"Well, Radu. It certainly seems like nothing is going to go wrong... Maybe you should go grab some lunch." Goddard stifled a yawn.

Radu left the command post, still reading the compupad.

"Yeah," Goddard said quietly, to himself, "it's gonna be a quiet day..."

Radu stepped through the door into the galley, absorbed in his reading. He walked to the food wheel, grabbed a canister, and sat down at the table, all without looking up. Suddenly, he realized something.

"What?" He asked, looking up. Harlan was staring at him quizzically, and Connor seemed to have become deeply interested in his meal.

"I said, 'good book?'" Harlan stuffed a forkful of some sort of noodles in his mouth.

"Oh, uh, yeah. Well, I mean, for a school book, that is."

"Mrmnrph." Harlan said, around a mouthful of food.

Cat and Suzee slid out of the jumptubes, into the galley, just as the boys were cleaning up.

"Hey, guys." Suzee said, yawning. "Where're Rosie and Bova?"

"Miss Davenport has them pulling double classes. Something about the youngest needing the most teaching." Harlan chuckled softly as he thought about it.

"I thought you guys were all in the same classes, back at the Starcademy," Connor grinned as Harlan's face fell.

"Oh, really?" Suzee began playing along.

"Hey, wait..." Harlan looked scandalized.

"As I remember it, you were all so remedial, that they just stuck you in the same class..."

"How do you now all this stuff?" Harlan asked.

"Because," Connor's grin got even bigger, "I went throught the same thing. I just wanted to see if you'd admit to it."

Ithurtsithurtsithurtsithurts...

His mind was clouded with the incredible pain. He felt on fire, every inch of his body tingling with pain. Only his hand felt cool; the object he held there radiated an icy calm into his body... He could almost think again.

His face felt torn in two, half of it flayed to the bone, and even that was damaged. They had wounded him so, for memory's sake. He would never forget what had happened to him.

When he regained use of his vision, he was staring at the cold object in his open hand. A small sphere, formed of liquid metal, on a fine, silvery chain.

The secret of my victory, my revenge! The pendant was everything in his universe, lit by the white-hot flames of rage.

As he lost his tenuous grip on consciousness, two faces floated into his mind. I'll get them, he thought, Suzee. And Connor Macfarlane. They will both die!

Connor was developing a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. Two of his teammates had been taken out, and their opposition was almost on top of him. He looked around the corridors of the ship, hoping to find a safe spot, somewhere he could make a last stand...

Suddenly, he heard a sharp zap, and his field of vision flared bright red.

He swore under his breath, and hoped no-one had heard him.

"Blue leader, you're out!" Goddard's voice came in over his commlink.

Connor pulled off his blue-trimmed VR helmet. He was sitting in a reclining chair, with an assortment of wire leading to his helmet, gloves, and the Christa's primary computer. Shucking off the gloves, he noticed Bova and Elmira out of their chairs, watching a screen.

"Well, at least Radu's still in." He said, resignedly, "who got me?"

"Suzee." Bova said. "That makes four times today. She sure has it in for you."

Elmira gave him a sideways glance, and a lopsided smile that couldn't appear anything but predatory on a Spung. Connor cleared his throat, blushing to the ears.

"We're gonna lose..." Bova shook his head, knowingly.

"You've said that every time today. Six games, you've said that."

"And we've lost six games. You can't fight fate."

"Sure you can, Bova."

Connor was quite glad looks couldn't kill, because the expression on Elmira's face at that comment could've been a planet destroyer, otherwise.

There was a quiet sound from Radu, who proceeded to remove his VR gear.

"See?" Bova said.

In the classroom, Goddard was pointing out the high and low points of the training exercise. The wall screen had been set for an even larger display, and Goddard was using a laser pointer, illuminating the faults of both teams.

"...And here. Now, Mr. Macfarlane, you need to learn to team up with someone to watch your back, not disperse your team like that. You have to be more conservative, when you're on the defensive."

"With all due respect, sir, when you're defending something, you can't hold back. You have to take a chance when everything's on the line, otherwise you don't have a hope of saving it."

There was slight tension in the room, as the commander considered his next words. Harlan chuckled softly to himself.

"A nice speech, Mr. Macfarlane. However, you put it all on the line six times, took a chance six times, and lost it all six times. What does that tell you?"

"That... I need to work on my tactics."

"Exactly. And Stardogs are trained to be conservative. And it's worked, almost every time."

He awoke on a hospital bed. The room was softly lit, everything he could see was a clinical grey. He felt no real pain, nothing much of anything, really. All he could feel was the chill coming from his hand, his rictus-grip of the pendant.

Who am I? The question echoed hollowly in his mind; a vast, empty, fuzzy expanse. Who am I?

WHO AM I? The question became still more urgent. Then, a voice, a familiar voice, sickly-sweet, from the depths of his mind, responded.

You are Koan. And you will rule everything. We can help you.

I AM Koan! I WILL rule everything! And they, they can and WILL help me. I know it.

His ruined face stretched into a broad smile; it seemed more of a scowl.

The following morning, Connor and Rosie were on watch, as they were moving through the K'sath System Cluster at faster than light. Connor was reviewing Stardog tactical procedures, and Rosie was keeping a dutiful eye on the sensor readings.

Bored, Rosie decided to make conversation.

"So, Connor... You like Suzee, huh?"

"What?" Connor didn't look up from his compupad.

"I said, you like Suzee. It sure seems that way."

"Well, suppose... I, uh, don't see what that has to do with our being on watch..."

"Well, I should tell you... She certainly..."

Alarms began sounding. There was barely enough time to react. There was a massive spatial disruption right in front of them...

"Oh, no!" Rosie exclaimed.

"Ahhh, this is going to be bad. Hang on!"

Connor put the Christa into a dive, away from the disruption. The shockwave hit the Christa, knocking it into a spin... And, as Connor lost consciousness, the ship was flying towards a star...

In the engine room, Cat and Suzee had been joking around, keeping an eye on various ship's systems, when the alarms began. Then, the ship started spinning wildly. Suzee fortunately had caught onto a overhead beam. Cat hadn't been so lucky, and had hit her head on a crossbar with a sharp crack.

There was nothing to be done. The ship was heating up. They were all going to die.

Bova, Harlan and Radu had been doing zero-gee practice in an isolated area of the ship, when the alarms began. They were trapped, with the ship moving wildly, and there was no one to be reached.

"We're gonna die here!" Bova exclaimed. "This is it, the end of the road!"

"Bova, shut up!" The others shouted.

Goddard, Davenport, Elmira and Thelma were pressed roughly against the wall of the galley.

"Thelma!" Goddard shouted angrily, "what's going on?!"

"We appear to be moving towards a star, specifically K-2345. We've been tossed by the backwash of a large ship exiting hyperspace within our vicinity. And we will impact the star in approximately ten minutes..."

"Is there anything we can do?"

"Not that I am aware of, Commander."

Davenport fainted.

This is not what was meant to be, Elmira thought, not at all... This is all due to the interference of Connor Macfarlane. The Plan is doomed...

The end of Part Eleven: Even the Shadows Know Your Name...

Up next, Part Twelve: In Light, Darkness

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