"Why are we still doing this?" Lissa demanded. They would be hitting the next Jumpgate soon, and she wore her voidarmor for the occasion. She still didn't look comfortable in it, but she'd acknowledged the necessity and that was good enough.

"Do we really need to have this conversation again?" Yvian asked.

"We really do," Lissa folded her arms, sitting back in her chair with a stern expression. "I've been helping you for eight months, and you still haven't given me a straight answer."

"I told you," Yvian said. "I want to be a trader."

"Gribshit," Lissa informed her. "I'm your sister. I know you better than you do. Do you really think I'll believe that we're going through all this on a whim? That there's nothing else to it?"

"Well, what do you think's going on, then?" Yvian scowled. These arguments had become more frequent over the last few weeks. Lissa was getting more insistent. Yvian wasn't looking forward to another one when they were so close to their goal.

"I don't know what's going on!" Lissa snapped. Then she closed her eyes and took a breath. She started again in a milder tone of voice. "I don't know what's going on, and that's the problem. What's the end goal here? What are you trying to do? I want to help, but I can't do that until I know what you want."

"I want to be a trader," Lissa's eyes narrowed at Yvian's answer. "Why is that so hard to understand?"

Lissa opened her mouth to speak, eyes flashing. She closed it, then closed her eyes as well. When she opened them again, she said, "What I understand is we've lost two point three million credits trying to be independent traders. Trying to guess what prices will be after weeks of travel time isn't working. We don't have the contacts or the information to make predictions like that. We're gambling."

"We're getting better at it," Yvian said, defensive. "As long as the price doesn't change in the next 9 hours, we'll make forty thousand credits on this run."

"And lose a hundred thousand on the next one," Lissa predicted. "Like I said, we're gambling. The only difference between this and playing the stock markets is we're actually flying there instead of just putting up money."

Something must have shown on Yvian's face at the mention of stock markets. Lissa's eyes widened. "No..." Yvian said nothing. "You didn't." Yvian said nothing. "How much did you lose?"

Yvian stared down at her console. She watched the distance to the Gate tick down. "Thirty million."

"By the Bright Lady," Lissa swore. "You know how the markets are. Why would you take such a risk?"

"I didn't risk it all," she defended. "Just thirty million."

"That's still a lot of money," Lissa pointed out.

"Sometimes you have to take risks," Yvian said. "I don't see you doing anything with your money."

"Oh, really?" Lissa cocked an eyebrow. "So you didn't notice that I paid the Freedom Republic off to get rid of the bounty on our heads? Or that Mom's retired, now that I set her up for life? You should call her, by the way."

"She should call me," Yvian disagreed. "She's the one who said she never wanted to see me again."

"You should call each other," Lissa compromised. "The rest of my money's in an Index fund. I'll be making ten percent off it for the rest of my life."

"An Index fund?" Yvian had never heard of it.

"It's what the big players use to keep their money making money. Mark turned me on to it."

"Oh." It had been a while since Lissa had mentioned the human. "How is he?" He'd left with barely a word the day after Yvian had sold her textiles on Prisna. A few hours later he sent her an N-mail. All it said was:

"Contact me if you run into trouble. I'll give you a reasonable rate."

"We haven't talked in a while," Lissa said. "Don't change the subject. You're already rich, and you're taking crazy risks trying to make more money. Tell me why."

"I want to be a trader," Yvian started. Lissa's eyes narrowed at the answer, but she settled back when she realized her sister was trying to find the words to explain. "Not just to trade. I want to... what was it the human said? The four trails?"

"Trade, fight, build, think," Lissa supplied. "The four paths to power."

"That," Yvian said. "I want to do that." She looked out the viewport at the Gate in the distance. "I want power. Real power. I want to build something so big and strong that nobody can take it away. I want..." Could she say it out loud? Would Lissa accept it? "I want..."

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"By The Crunch," Lissa breathed. "You want to Incorporate."

Yvian nodded. She was silent for a moment. "We used to have one. Our people, I mean. There's no reason we couldn't build one again. Except..."

Lissa unfolded her arms and leaned forward. "Except building a business on that scale would take massive resources. We're talking billions, maybe trillions in initial investment And it's Fucking Dangerous." The sisters had adopted the human's risk rating system, which ranged from Trivial to Very Dangerous. Fucking Dangerous was it's own category reserved for jobs so impossible and deadly that only a suicidal moron would make the attempt. "The other Corps don't like competition, and they like pixens even less. Every pixen since The Darkening that tried to Incorporate has been arrested, sued into oblivion, or killed."

"I know," Yvian agreed. "I want to do it, anyway."

Lissa sat back. "Incorporation. Crunch. I guess I'll never accuse you of thinking small." She ran a hand through her hair, curling a strand around one of her fingers. A few moments later, she said, "Alright, I guess I'm in, but we're gonna have to rethink our approach. This independent trader thing's getting us nowhere."

"It would if we had a Jumpdrive," Yvian said. "The Wandering Lady's big enough that it could power one."

Lissa snorted. "Do you have four hundred million credits? Because I don't. And VentureTek isn't selling those things to just anyone. We'd have to get in good with the company." She scowled. "That's our biggest problem, you know. Money doesn't buy you privileges' unless you've got the connections to go with it, and the in crowd's not willing to associate with a couple of dirty pixens."

"Mims seemed to be able to do it," Yvian pointed out.

Lissa shook her head. "It's not the same. There's a big difference between buying protection from dirty cops and getting the kind of perks the wealthy are entitled to. Did you notice that Mark almost never leaves his ship? He doesn't even have a Confed translator because he doesn't trust the merchants enough to be sedated for an implant. He'll never be part of the in crowd."

"No, but he can work around it," Yvian said. "And that means we can, too."

Before Lissa could answer, the comms chirped. A quick look at her console told Yvian it was a high priority transmission, overriding all other traffic. The voice was low and gravelly, with the brutish cadence the Krog were known for.

"Attention, all ships. This is Admiral Fightsmart of Confederation Military. Klaath Incursion on Krog Prime. Repeat, Klaath Incursion Krog Prime. I use Patriot Protection Act. All fighty ships come to Krog Prime, now. Fight Klaath. All weaky ships stay away. Fighty ships come, weaky ships run. Patriot Protection Act. All obey Fightsmart til Incursion be stomped. Do now."

Yvian looked out at the Gate, only minutes away, then back at her sister. "Crunch."

"Crunch," Lissa agreed. "Should we go?"

"If the Klaath take Krog Prime, we're out forty thousand credits," Yvian decided. "Who knows? Maybe we can get some kind of bounty for any Klaath we take out." She scowled. "Shit. I sound like Mims."

"He was very practical..."

"Shut up," Yvian checked the status of her docked fighters. "The Vingas are primed, and the Lady's ready to party. We'll hit the Gate in eight minutes."

"We should call Mark," said Lissa.

"What for?" Yvian asked. "Either he's close and already coming, or he's too far and it'll be over before he gets here."

"Not about the Klaath," Lissa corrected. "I mean we should call about getting back in the business. You know he'd take us on in a heartbeat, and there's a lot of money to be made as a privateer."

"No." Yvian was firm. She remembered the blood on her hands. The look of horror on Lissa's face. She remembered her sister's tears.. "We'll find another way."

"All the money we made," Lissa pointed out, "All of it, was from just two months as apprentices. Not to mention most of what we know about space stuff came from him. Teaming up with him gets us money, contacts, and information we can't get on our own. Besides, we like him. You do like him, right?"

"Those same two months saw us beaten, hunted, and almost killed more than once," Yvian argued. "You had nightmares for weeks after the Militia thing. Privateers make their living killing other people. I don't want that kind of life for you."

"You don't want!?" Lissa's eyes flashed. She started shouting. "Who do you think...no. Wait." She was silent for a moment. She fixed Yvian with a serious expression and said, more calmly,", Sis, I love you dearly, so I want you to stop and think about this next question before you say anything, ok?" Yvian nodded. "How did you react when Mom said she didn't want that kind of life for you?"

Yvian bristled. Her shoulders clenched. Fists tightened. She opened her mouth. Closed it. Damn it all to The Crunch...

Lissa continued. "You don't get to decide the life I choose. You can't keep me safe, and I wouldn't let you if you could. I'm not weak. I've killed four people. I hated it, but I did it." She leaned forward, gaze burrowing into Yvian. "And I'll do it again. I am not weak. Don't you dare treat me like I am."

"I..." Yvian swallowed. She lowered her head. "I have transgressed," she apologized. "Lend me your forgiveness, and I shall make amends."

"You fucking better," Lissa warned. "Forgiveness is lent. For now." She relaxed a little, then looked out at the upcoming Gate and tensed up again. "Shit. In all the drama I forgot we're going into a fight."

"Yeah." Yvian checked her console one more time. Everything was combat ready. Anxiety settled into her legs and shoulders, an annoying tension. The girls had encountered pirates frequently on their trade runs, but a quick look at The Wandering Lady's weapons and four Vinga class fighter escorts had encouraged them to look for easier prey. They hadn't had to fight since Mims had left. Now they would, and Yvian was surprised to find her fear...oddly familiar. Not comfortable, but livable. Like an old acquaintence you never liked but had to learn to put up with over the years.

"I still think we should talk to the human." Lissa donned her helmet, then checked over her console one more time.

"I'll think about it." Yvian put her helmet on, as well. The HUD flared to life in the upper left corner of her visor. She deactivated it. She wanted her whole attention on the console interface. "Right now I just really want to shoot something."

The looming light of the Gate shined brighter as they approached, bathing the bridge in blue.. Lissa's mirrored visor flashed its reflection as she turned to look at her sister.

"Well, Sis, I think today's your lucky day."