"Ash we have reached the coordinates from Seriff but I cannot detect any comms frequencies to request a landing procedure." Charlie said.

"Can you scan the planet itself?" Kate asked her.

"Not at this range, no. We need to be far closer, nearly in orbit."

"Kate take us in, slowly." Ash said from over her shoulder before stepping away.

"Where are you going?"

"Nature calls, I must answer." He answered.

"We are being hit with an active scan. I can't locate the source." Charlie blurted out. "We are also being hailed."

Ash held his stomach an grimaced. "Answer it Charlie. No video please." He grunted.

"I can talk to them Ash, if you need me to." Ruo said and put her hand on his shoulder with a grin.

"No, thank you but I can do it." Ash said and chuckled.

"Unidentified vessel, you are in restricted space. Do not approach Solaria 3. Stand down and identify immediately."

"This is the cargo ship Solent. We have a delivery of medical equipment from Callidium. We were told that you would be expecting us." Ash said.

"The profits are high." Said the voice. Ash looked at Kate and wondered if their translation was off.

"When the shadows are deep." Charlie said.

"Confirmed, We'll escort you to orbit." He said.

A fighter craft materialized on both sides of the cockpit and banked toward the dark green world, exposing several weapons under their wings. Kate followed hesitantly and with far less grace.

"The profits are high when the shadows are deep?" Ash asked out loud as he again made his way toward the restroom.

"You know I don't like to talk to you when you're doing that, Captain." Charlie said. The title came out as an insult.

"Even the greatest Captains in history had to do this Charlie, and they did their best thinking while they were at it. Just don't watch."

An audible sigh came from the intercom in the restroom as Ash transitioned inside and closed the door behind him. "It was an IFF code, Identify Friend or Foe. If we didn't answer correctly, they would have treated us as hostile. The code was included in the data transfer from Seriff.

"I SEE." Ash grunted with exaggeration.

Charlie sighed again.

"Who are we dealing with here Charlie?"

"Given the circumstances and the need for secrecy, I would assume that it's the Callidus Syndicate. An organized crime...organization."

"That's unsettling to say the least. What do you know about them?" Ash asked.

"Almost nothing. Deep shadows remember? I'm searching all available digital sources as we near the planet as well as aboard the fighter ships but their encryption is very good."

"Don't do that! We can't take any risks, not with them."

"I can work in the shadows too Ash."

----------------------------------------

The landing pad that Charlie was directed to, when comms were handed off to the ground crew, overlooked a brilliant blue ocean. The mansion was on an island and had a very tight landing zone surrounded by other structures and a cliff face with massive waves pounding against it. Kate was white knuckled the entire time but only asked Charlie to take over if there was an emergency.

"Good job Katherine, I did not help you at all." Charlie said as she shut down the engines with the help of Jayden.

"Ash wait for me, she's almost secured." He called up from engineering.

"Roger that. We'll meet you in the cargo bay."

They assembled there and released the landing bay door expecting a ground crew to come in and take the cargo, but instead they were once again assaulted at gun point by armored aliens and thrown to the ground.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"I'm gettin real sick of this shit!" Ash growled as he was searched for weapons and then dragged back to his feet and escorted outside.

"Welcome to Solaria 3 humans. My name is Father. Well that is what you can call me while you are visiting." A voice said from behind the crew, who were lined up against the landing gear of the Solent.

Ash started to turn around but was hit in the back by the frame of a rifle and forced to look away. His face filled with the heat of adrenaline as rage grew inside of him. Ruo pulled away from a guard on his left and threw her elbow back.

"Now now, let them turn around. They are guests." Father said and the pressure was lifted. "Thank you for bringing this to me humans. I am curious, why are you not with your fleet?"

"What fleet?" Ash asked.

"Not all humans are pirates." Ruo said and father turned toward her.

"Are you from that planet, Dottier?" He asked. "Shame about that business."

Ruo didn't answer but he had already read her reaction with his intelligent canine eyes before turning back to Ash. "Come with me, we need to discuss something. Boys, unload that machine and take it downstairs, take the rest of them to the dining room and have something prepared. Treat them right."

Ash followed the Callidus inside the massive island compound and up several flights of steps to his office. He was offered a seat but declined before being shoved into it by the guard behind him. Father pulled back his lips and showed his teeth before pouring a glass of water from his sweaty pitcher and sliding it to Ash.

"Dottier. A world full of humans, largely unknown to the galactic community, under siege by hostile carnivorous aliens. Yet one ship full of spacers survived. A cargo ship with a Callidus jump drive, a Callidus AI, and.. let me take a guess on this one.. Several wooden crates full of old Earth weapons and armored enviro suits? Am I close?" Father said and smiled again.

"Yes, that's right. I'm assuming you had something to do with that and now you want payment, Am I close?" Ash said and took a drink of slightly cold water.

"Yesssss." Father purred. "But how will you repay this debt?"

"We have no money, even the fuel in the Solent was given to us to make your delivery. We're not criminals, you already know that. There's nothing we can do for you sir, we barely escaped, the Sharlah swarmed our planet and just started shooting. We picked up Ruo in an escape pod, she almost died if not for Charlie."

"Who is Charlie?" Father asked.

"The AI on our ship."

"Ahh yes, we got that from Seriff, that was costly."

"Costly? Your guys stole if from him."

"Is that sooo?" Father growled and wrote something on his computer before going into a coughing fit that sounded painful.

"Father, I know we are already in your debt, we owe you our lives, but is there anything else that you can do to help Dottier? We still have family there including Mr. Young who I think set this all up."

"I need something from you first, and then we can talk. The Syndicate does not run on hopes and favors. Our agent was unable to leave Dottier with his payment from your boss. It was a large sum. I want him retrieved from the surface." Father said, turning his computer screen toward Ash.

"How are we supposed to do that?"

"He has contacted us, from here." Father said and pointed to a satellite image of the Vista Freight Company. "He is still alive as far as we know and will probably stay that way long enough to retrieve him. He is a highly skilled and highly experienced agent, we want him back and you will get him."

"Again Father, no disrespect intended, but how are we supposed to do that? The Sharlah will dust us as soon as we jump into the system."

"Did you see the Light fighters that intercepted you here?"

"After we spoke to them, but not before."

"Did you see the rest of my fleet?"

"No, nothing else, just the fighters that escorted us into orbit."

"There were over one hundred ships in orbit. Warships with state of the art cloaking and shields. I will have this system installed on your rusty cargo ship and have your AI educated on it's use. With this you can get close enough to quickly land and attempt a rescue." Father said. "They will be able to see you, visually, once inside the atmosphere so your time will be short. Get him and his credits and get out fast."

"This sounds like more than we can handle. We're not soldiers or sailors. The Solent is unarmed. What if they do see us?"

"You WILL do this for me, or you and your crew can be the first to test the device that you brought to us. It's a medical device but for someone who doesn't have my condition, it can deliver an exceptionally painful and slow death."

Ash glared at him. There was a high probability that this was a suicide mission but refusing was also suicide. Father seemed to operate in the open on this planet and nobody without a war fleet could stop him or even get close enough to try.

"Ash, I am sorry, I know this is dangerous but I need my agent back, my family. I will give you something else, information, though I don't think this will help you very much. Do you know why there is a large fleet of human pirates?"

"I spoke to the Congress on Callidium. They told me why. They are the ones who tried to evacuate Earth. Their generation ships went off course and never made it to Dottier. Those people are just trying to survive."

"Went off course?" Father said and started laughing as he refilled Ash's water glass. "No, no. The Callidus were scared of you, scared of having more unruly neighbors. Your people have full scale wars over religions, spices, taxes. There are riots in the streets at the most minor inconvenience. Your budgets go to war, and you're very good at it. Half of the Callidus in charge wanted to let the Sharlah have you but the rest wanted to save you and make you allies. They're all dead now, of course, it's been hundreds of years." Father said and waved his hand dismissively.

"Anyway, the generation ships did not get lost, they were sabotaged. They were deliberately lost. The Callidus set you back by entire generations so that you couldn't grow enough to be a threat for hundreds more years."

Ash let his jaw hang open in shock. "We didn't have the means to defend ourselves because half of our population never made it?"

"It's possible, we could never know for sure how things would have turned out but it's safe to say that it didn't help matters." Father said.

"How do you know this?" Ash said.

Father just grinned, showing only a small view of his pointed carnivorous teeth. "It's my job to know things. Now, you best be on your way. Inform your crew and leave as soon as my technicians have your cloak installed and tested. Good luck Ash. If you succeed, and only if you succeed, I may be able to provide some more.. kinetic assistance to the Daughter of Earth.