The squad leader chewed the inside of his cheek. In spite of his prior threatening of the thieves, he wasn't a sadistic man. He didn't like the thought of what might be going on beyond that door. Sure, the prisoners were part of some plot to break into the base, but there was no need to go that far...right? As far as he was concerned, once any wrongdoers were safely in custody they should be just chucked into a cell and given their phone call.

But he'd heard stories about Martin. The squad leader had a security clearance high enough to give someone a nosebleed, yet even that wasn't enough for him to fully understand just who his temporary boss was. All he knew was that, compared to the shark of Martin, he was still very much a minnow. But did that mean he just had to stand by while three people got brutalized not ten feet away from him?

The door slid open with a faint hiss, cutting short his internal moral dilemma. Martin walked out of the room steering one of the captives by her shoulder. The latter's features were hidden under a cloth bag over her head, and she had her hands bound behind her back.

"Good news!" said Martin with a smug smile. "Our guests decided to see reason and talk. We're taking them out of here."

Behind Martin, the squad leader saw the twin man-mountains of his goons. One of them had the smaller captive slung over his shoulder in a fireman's carry, and that captive also sported a head-bag.

The squad leader eyed the latter with some distrust. "What's wrong with her?"

Martin shrugged. "Poor thing fainted before we could do any proper threatening. Show him, Albert. We wouldn't want to be thought of as cruel, now would we?"

Albert gave a one-shoulder shrug and slung the captive down into the cradle of his arms. Martin reached over and yanked up the figure's bag to reveal the unconscious face of the smaller woman.

"See? Not a mark on her. Nor on this one." Martin performed another yank on his own captive, revealing the blonde face of the other female thief. She stared at the squad leader for a moment, then dropped her gaze as if embarrassed.

The squad leader spoke before he could think twice. "Ma'am? You all right?"

She didn't look back up at him as she gave a curt nod. Martin grinned as he pulled the bag back down over her face.

"I'll be in contact with you shortly," said Martin.

"Sir, this is a crime scene. We've gotta get the MPs in here, forensics, the works!"

"We will, I assure you. We know where the rest of their gang is holed up, and while we collect them I'll make sure my people get you whomever you need. Just hang tight for a bit, okay?"

The three men and their three head-bagged captives swept out of the room and up the hallway. The squad leader watched them go, wondering not for the first time just why he'd ever chosen this crummy job.

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

Martin ran his tongue around the inside of his mouth as he kept his eyes closed. From the bitter aftertaste in his mouth he figured there were three possible drugs they might have used to keep him unconscious.

"Well, fancy meeting you here," said a very familiar and unwelcome voice.

Martin sighed and decided to open his eyes. Oscar sat on a turned-around chair a few feet away, straddling it with his arms crossed on top of its back. Martin regarded Oscar with amused contempt. "I'm surprised you had the nerve to show your face." He glanced around and realized he was in a warehouse. He was also strapped to a chair with a number of restraints that he considered overkill. The only other person in the cavernous space was Valentin, who leaned on a nearby wall with a neutral expression. Next to the Russian sprawled a pair of still-out-cold and trussed-up men. His men.

The spymaster stared at his two subordinates, then up at Valentin. "The alley. You made the switch in the alley. You had Jaime and Thora hidden and waiting with optical camo in place. Three versus two, so you were able to knock them out no problem. Then they used their holographic disguises to imitate Albert and Bartok before I showed up. Plus voice changers, right?"

Valentin smiled and arched an eyebrow. "You were right. He is sort of smart."

"Sort of," replied Oscar with a dismissive wave of his hand. He fixed Martin with a more intense glare. "I have an offer for you."

Martin sneered, using the facial expression to mask him biting down hard on one particular rear molar. He felt the little click which told him he'd switched on his emergency transponder. "Let me guess. You walk away with the Egg, I walk away and don't retailate, and we call it even."

"Sounds fair, da?" asked Valentin.

"No. You two don't get it, do you? I won't stop. I can't stop. Not if humanity is to stand a chance in this fucked-up universe we've found ourselves in." He glared up at Oscar. "You should understand better than most. You live with them, for chrissakes one of them's your girlfriend. It's a miracle you're not a grease stain on a deck somewhere. You were a smart guy once. Someone whom I could trust. Can you just be that person again and listen to me?"

He had to stall them; the transponder in his tooth was now silently calling for help. Albert and Bartok weren't the only two on his payroll. All he had to do was wait for some hand-picked hard-cases to kick down the door and rescue him...and, oh yes, haul these two bastards off in shackles for 'questioning'.

"Why should I?" replied Oscar. "We could just knock you out again and leave you here. Or maybe we could kill you."

Martin shook his head. "You wouldn't do that."

Oscar sighed. "Yeah, you're right. But that's mainly because Henry's been a good friend to me. He'd be a mess if you died, and I'm not having that on my conscience."

"No, it seems you prefer having 'traitor to mankind' as your epitaph." Martin grinned at Oscar and then over at Valentin. "I will not accept your deal. And I will not forget your part in this."

Valentin didn't seem upset by Martin's words. He merely shrugged.

The spymaster gave his tooth another bite, just to make sure it was activated. "I have a counter-proposal."

Oscar leaned back with skepticism all over his face. "Okay. Make your pitch."

Martin took a deep breath to stall for more time. He had maybe five minutes before the rescue squad would arrive. "How about this. You hand the Egg back over temporarily, long enough for us to read the data off of it. It won't change anything in the near term anyway. Chaudhari figured it'd be decades before we could even start human trials of the super-soldier tech. Xeno biochemistry is too far removed from ours."

"What do we get in return?"

"Peace. I meant it, you'd have to kill me to stop me from pursuing you two. But if I have the Egg data, I'll drop the whole thing. That's the only deal I'll accept. You can't keep me locked up, somebody will notice and ask questions. If you let me go, I will not stop until I get revenge on both of you. You know I will."

"Yeah, I know," sighed Oscar. "Just like I know you were planning on reverse-engineering the Egg's nanotech. Are you fucking nuts?"

Ah, good. Another something to debate, to stall for time. "You can't prove that."

"Can't I? We have the list of equipment you'd ordered. It's pretty clear what you were up to. Be a shame if that bit of info was to make it to certain people in the Senate."

"Oh, like you having access to certain kinds of forbidden alien tech on Earth itself? I can play the blackmail game too, buddy. I know there's no way your little rock-melter could have worked without a zero-point energy device."

Martin's sense of time was good in spite of his recent drugging. He had maybe two minutes left before the extraction team arrived, which meant he had to keep drawing out this discussion. "But, like I said, I'm willing to let the whole matter drop. If I get the Egg data."

"You're in no position to make demands," said Valentin.

"Really? There is nothing I won't do to further my goals, whereas this big bastard just admitted there are things he won't do." Martin motioned with his chin towards Oscar. "That's a weakness. You have two choices. Kill me or give me the Egg. I know you won't do the former, so your only choice is the latter."

Oscar said nothing.

"You know I can still hurt you," said Martin. "And your alien friends won't be able to protect you or your loved ones."

"They're not my friends," replied Oscar. "They're my family."

Any moment now. At any moment a breaching charge would remove the outer door to the warehouse and the rescue team would come swarming in, guns at the ready.

"Well isn't that precious," spat Martin. "Make your choice, traitor. What's it gonna be?" His smile grew wider.

Before Oscar could respond, there was a very polite rap on the outer door. Martin managed to keep any surprise off of his face, but only barely.

"Now who could that be?" asked Oscar, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"You should probably answer that," added Valentin, his face now matching Martin's evil smile.

"Yep." Oscar held a palm towards Martin's bound figure. "Relax, I'll get it." He strode over to the door and opened it, revealing the very last person that Martin expected.

"Heidemann?"

The dour Dutchman walked into the warehouse, preceded by his substantial gut. A few tactically-suited members of Martin's rescue team trailed after him. One of them was a darker-skinned Hispanic who lit up upon seeing Oscar.

"Oso! My man!"

Oscar grinned back. "Martinez!" The two men went through a complicated round of handshakes which started with a fist-bump and wound up with them smacking elbows together.

Martinez's smile didn't subside as he motioned at Oscar's substantial figure. "Damn dude, you got even bigger! You do realize you're supposed to lift the weights and not eat them, right?"

"Aw shit, I knew there was something I was forgetting."

The pair laughed and embraced while Heidemann stomped over towards Martin. The man's usual hangdog expression was now settled into grim finality.

"Heidemann! What the hell, did they pay you off?"

Heidemann shook his head. "You couldn't leave it alone, could you? You just had to keep pushing."

Martin decided to play innocent. "I have no idea what you're talking about..."

The Dutchman leaned over and shoved his face right up next to Martin's. "Shut up. Oscar sent me the list of equipment you requisitioned, and we are questioning Chaudhari right now. We know exactly what you were planning. Are you trying to goad the Senate into another invasion, or are you just that fucking stupid?"

Martin gritted his teeth together. "You let me loose now, or I'll..."

Heidemann shook his head. "You'll what? Release damaging information on our superiors? That kind of threat only goes so far, especially if your efforts bring our bosses into direct conflict with the Senate. Besides, we now have credible intelligence that could bring you into a whole world of hurt if it's made public."

He straightened back up and folded his arms as he regarded Martin's furious countenance. "Drop it. Just drop it and walk away."

"Or what?"

Heidemann gave a disgusted grunt. "It was not a suggestion, you bastard. Risking military conflict with hideously advanced aliens is never a good idea, no matter what kind of knowledge we might gain. We're pulling the plug on the whole thing. GIDEON MARKDOWN is now finished."

"It isn't." Martin bared his teeth at Heidemann.

"No? I also just had a little chat with Daniel. He told us you'd given him an offline Jornissian translation matrix. Where did you get ahold of that?"

Martin set his jaw and said nothing.

"Figured as much. You're finished as well." Heidemann turned and walked away.

"You work for me!" yelled Martin at the retreating man's back. "You can't do this! YOU WORK FOR ME!"

Valentin pushed off of the wall and strolled by Martin. "Warned you. Said I'd find out who did this and burn them down."

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Valentin waited with his usual Slavic imperturbability as Bgrarh hugged the Russian against his chest. After a few endless minutes, the Dorarizin set Valentin back down. "[You should be safe now,]" he said, his tail (of course) wagging up a storm.

The Commander wished he'd been able to find a commercial liner back to Hsrneanth-IV. It would involve less 'unconventional bunking', with a bed all his own and less humiliating hugging. But the only possible commercial route back would have delayed his arrival by a few months. His adjutant Stepan was a capable man, but even so Valentin wanted to get back ASAP.

Valentin squared his shoulders and marched alongside Bgrarh into the personnel airlock of the Furious Claw of Inquiry. Even though they were attached to the Zephyr Station, the inner door remained closed in the name of safety. It hissed open as they entered, revealing the four spies arrayed in line. Myyreh flanked them on one side while Hnrahnan stood on the other. The Veridicator's tail started wagging ever so slightly when she saw Valentin.

Tobias gave the Commander a guilty nod of the head. "Sir. Is it over?"

"Da. Item is retrieved."

"What about Mar...our former boss?" asked Tam.

Valentin smiled. "He is, let us say, far too busy at the moment to be a problem. Don't worry, deal still stands. The Senate is watching over you and your families, and he knows it."

"[I still say they should have prosecuted him publicly,]" said Hnrahnan. "[But it's out of my jurisdiction, so I suppose I'll let it go.]" She looked down at the four humans. "[In any case, you all have done what you can to repair the damage you caused. Stay safe, and I hope you don't take it personally when I say that I hope to never see you again.]" She smiled, showing all her teeth.

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

Thora let out a shaky chuckle. "Well, ma'am, I speak for all of us when I say I really hope that too. No offense."

Myyreh waved a paw forward. "[We should get going if you're going to catch the next car down.]" She trotted off, leading the four departees into Zephyr Station proper.

As the remaining trio made their way into the hangar, Valentin felt himself relax. From what he'd heard, Thora and Jaime had made it back to the Claw just in time before the Veridicator returned to their cells. They'd pulled off the Egg's retrieval and the zampolit was none the wiser.

"[They do make a cute couple,]" said Hnrahnan.

"Er, who do you mean?"

"[[Thora] and [Jaime]. I went to interview them yesterday but they were otherwise occupied.]" Hnrhanan let out a bonesaw chuckle. "[They were off in one of the rooms with the door closed, but I could still hear them.]"

Valentin shrugged. "It might be boredom, not necessarily romance."

Hnrahnan sighed. "[True, but I kind of hope you're wrong.]" She stopped suddenly, an action which caused both Bgrarh and Valentin to follow suit. She peered at them both with amber eyes now suddenly full of glee. Valentin did not like that look.

"[There's one strange thing, however,]" she continued. "[I could hear them, but I couldn't smell them. It sounded like they were pretty far into it. You'd think with all sorts of [shenanigans] going on I'd have smelled some, heh, evidence of their excitement.]"

She looked intently at Bgrarh. "[Wouldn't you agree?]"

Bgrarh stared back stoically. "[I don't know, ma'am. Depends on how good their door seals are.]"

"[Hmm, that's true.]" She shifted her gaze down to Valentin, who tried to look just as stoic. He hoped his alien body language would throw her off. "[What do you think?]"

Valentin spread his hands. "Who can say? I don't know what they were doing. Maybe they weren't as far along as you thought?"

Hnrahnan held his eyes for a long, horrible moment. "[Yes, that makes sense,]" she replied at long last. Just as Valentin thought it was over, she let forth with another sharklike grin before giving him a big, human-style wink that let him know without words that she was on to them.

"[I suppose it doesn't matter anyway, now that the Egg is back.]" Her smile faded into a more pleasant expression. "[I apologize. I wind up questioning everything, It's an occupational hazard. Now, gentlemen, if you'll excuse me.]"

She turned and loped out of the hangar. Bgrarh and Valentin looked at each other.

"[I'm in the sudden mood for a drink,]" said Bgrarh.

"You are a mind reader, comrade," replied Valentin.

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

Oscar hummed and all but danced along the corridor leading to his quarters. He'd received a text from Myyreh, short and to the point.

Quarters. Now. Those two words were the equivalent of throwing up the Bat Signal. Instead of summoning a mentally deranged billionaire the words summoned Oscar for some fun human-and-werewolf sexy times.

His anticipatory smile faltered as his door slid open to reveal Myyreh relaxing on the floor and chatting with two people he didn't expect to see. Ngralh leaned against the far wall while Egwreh squatted on Oscar's bed. He and Myyreh wore their standard ship's uniforms, while Egwreh was wearing a pale blue dress which complimented her eyes. They all looked up at Oscar, and the two alien women started sporting predatory grins.

For a moment Oscar was flummoxed. "Hey guys! Good to see you, um, how were things on the ship while I was gone?"

"[Tense but manageable,]" said Ngralh. His smile was a lot more gentle that his two packmates. "[Anyways, I'll leave you three to it.]" He loped for the door and Oscar stood aside to let him pass.

Oscar's heart performed a kick-flip as the penny dropped. Now he remembered Egwreh's statement back on the Karnakian base, about how she wanted to do more than hug him. He grabbed Ngralh's arm as the alien started to walk away. "Um, Nate, are you really cool with this?"

The XO turned and patted Oscar's head. "[Of course. We're packmates. Have fun ladies, try not to break him too badly.]"

"That had better be a joke!" yelled Oscar at Ngralh's departing back. He took a deep, shaky breath and stepped into the room. It was just his imagination, but the door sliding back closed sounded more like a thud of doom rather than a soft hiss. He regarded the two Dorarizin remaining, who still grinned at him like he was a wounded wildebeest.

"Myra? You're okay with this too?"

Myyreh arched her back like a waking cat, a move designed to call attention to her lithe body. "[Of course, as long as you are too. We don't want to pressure you into anything.]"

Oscar opened his mouth, and for once couldn't think of a single thing to say.

"[Perhaps this will convince you?]" Egwreh stood and in a smooth motion pulled her dress off.

She wasn't wearing a stitch of clothing underneath it.

Oscar stared. "Humina."

Egwreh tossed the dress aside with a flourish. "[I'm not a hardbody like Myyreh, but I think you'll agree I've kept in shape.]"

He had to admit she was right. Her muscles weren't as prominent, but her white fur shone pearlescent in the overhead lights. Her fur was immaculately groomed, and looked so inviting and soft. The buzzing sound of a zipper cut into his fugue, and he looked over to see Myyreh undoing her own clothing. She took her time in writhing out of her uniform, a familiar smoky look glowing in her eyes.

Oscar finally found his voice. "I, I care for you Emma, and if it's not gonna throw a wrench in between you and Nate or me and Myra I like the idea, it's just that..." His voice trailed off as Myyreh finished disrobing. He looked back and forth between the two naked but oh so very much larger aliens. "It's just kind of intimidating, yanno?"

Egwreh's smile relaxed into something less of a rictus. "[I understand, dear. How about we start with some gentle three-way cuddling and work our way towards me molesting the [living hell] out of you?]"

Oscar laughed. "I swear, I don't know where Kirk found the stamina." He reached for his shirt's topmost button.

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

Rory squared his shoulders as he waited in line. In spite of the placement program's incredible and uplifting promise (Go work with aliens! In space! Tour the galaxy!), all of their offices were gray prefab affairs that made him feel like he was only there to renew his driver's licence. He shuffled forward as the overhead synthetic voice called out numbers. The fluorescent lights overhead flickered and gave an ashy pallor to everything around him. Rory looked down at the file clutched in one paw-like hand while his other hand held something more precious than gold. It was a triangular tag with a number on it, and if he lost it he'd lose several days of progress while he got sent to the back of the queue to start the whole tedious process over again.

His dour musing was cut short by the vaguely feminine synthetic voice sounding out overhead. "Number Eight-Nine-Seven-Nine, please go to Desk Twelve. Look for the blue marker."

He took a deep breath and marched forward around the partition separating the line of applicants from the room proper. Row upon row of desks sat in a neat grid, completely filling the cavernous space. A bit of scanning revealed the desk in question. As the voice promised, it had a holographic blue arrow floating in space over it. Rory made for the desk without any outward sign of concern.

This was not going to work. He knew that for certain. Somehow Silk's promised interventions would fail, they'd find out his true line of work and if he was lucky he'd be just thrown out into the street. If he was unlucky...well, then he'd get to find out how nice the jails were in this particular jurisdiction.

The woman behind Desk Twelve was a chipper-looking redhead who gave Rory a big smile as he set his dossier onto the desk and seated himself across from her. "Hi there! First time here?"

He nodded, not trusting his voice as she picked up his file and tapped agile fingers at a holographic display set on one side of her desk. "Ah yes, you're already in the system. Rory Jenkins, noted slight-of-hand expert and magician. Hmmm, what's this?"

Rory's heart sank as she tapped more intangible keys, her brow furrowing as she did so. "Huh, I've never seen this before."

He glanced behind her, half expecting to see a few big-shouldered security lads there ready to give him the bum's rush or slap cuffs on him. But he saw nothing but in back of him but a sea of desks. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"You've been fast-tracked. You'll still need to do the basic placement program training...learning how to use a pressure suit, that kind of thing. But after that your slot is already chosen. There's a Jornissian magician who's looking to learn human magic techniques." She looked up at him. "That's assuming, of course, that you'd agree...?"

Rory let a natural look of surprise form on his face. This had to be Silk's handiwork. "I'd be fine with that."

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

"Hey, Tommy!"

The bartender groaned as he heard Zara's voice from behind him. Damn it, he'd strung her out long enough. He was not extending her tab, no matter how cute or pretty she looked. He put on his Adulting Face and turned to meet her eyes.

She looked spectacular, as usual. What wasn't usual were the two women flanking her. Both had brown eyes but different hair colors. They both stared back at Tommy with stoic expressions as if daring him to try any sort of pick-up line.

They didn't need to worry about that, since Tommy never mixed work with pleasure. "Good to see you again Zee, but I can't extend you any more..."

Zara slid a credit chit across the bar to him. "This'll cover my current tab and then some, wouldn't you say?"

He took the little wafer of electronics with a suspicious glance towards Zara. That suspicion turned to surprise as he checked the amount on the chit. "Uh...yeah. Yeah! Holy shit."

Zara smiled, showing her dimples. "As you can see, my ship has most definitely come in." She rubbed her hands together. "Now, what do you have that's really good and horribly expensive? The three of us are in a splurging mood."

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

"[So center dealing is the hardest?]" asked Nssnranahnth. The big blue Jornissian peered down at Rory's hands with a predator's fixation as the human shuffled a deck of cards. Thanks to Nssnranahnth's perpetual scowl, it looked like the alien was getting ready to bite his damn hands off.

Rory was well used to such things by now, and didn't even have to work to keep his voice steady. "Yeah, but that takes years to get good at. Let's start with second-dealing."

Nssnranahnth's ship was small, or at least small for a xeno. The Jornissian was an itinerant performer of magic whose main claim to fame was never resorting to any technical trickery such as hard-light holograms. The lounge/mess room currently held mostly the blue-scaled muscle of his body, which surrounded the mess table and Rory.

"It's not so much about the moves, it's about the timing. You can't alter the rhythm of your dealing in the slightest when you switch from dealing out the top card..." The next few hours passed in a pleasant whirl, with Rory demonstrating the proper technique using face-up cards to show when he dealt the second card instead of the top one.

The readout mounted over the door to the cockpit dinged softly, breaking the two out of their focus. "[Ah, good, we're almost there,]" said Nssnranahnth. "[It'll be good to have a stage-hand again.]"

"What, I'm not a good enough distraction?" asked Rory. He smirked, since he had a pretty good idea of the true identity of this mysterious 'stage-hand'.

"[Karnakians are harder to misdirect, what with their second sight.]" The Jornissian tapped up on his hood past his own eyes. "[Having a [cute dino-babe] up there to act as my assistant will help add to your own unique distraction.]"

Nssnranahnth uncoiled from around the table and slithered for the cockpit entrance. Rory trotted alongside him, not wanting to miss another chance to see cool space stuff. Traveling in warp was great for getting places fast but it meant that the view was pretty damn dull until one arrived at a port.

"Is the OIH is cool with having me and a Karnakian on the same team?" he asked.

"[Officially you are partnered with a [Jornissian]. My other assistant's species is unknown to them, and I don't see a reason why they should be bothered by such details. Don't you agree?" Nssnranahnth waggled one edge of his hood in the Jornissian equivalent of a wink.

"Absolutely," replied Rory. Oh yeah, he knew exactly who this new 'assistant' was.

What followed was a standard hailing and docking procedure, but of course Rory spent most of it pressed up against the 'windows' like a kid. He knew that it was an illusion, a holographic display of the exterior, but he didn't give a damn. The sight of the massive space station growing ever-nearer made him grin.

The ship rocked slightly as it settled into its docking cradle. Nssnranahnth stood up from the ring-like control center. "[I'll double-check our new partner's quarters. Why don't you go and welcome her on board?]" He wriggled out of the cockpit after giving Rory another 'wink'.

Rory's grin didn't fade as he jogged for the airlock. A muted thump sounded through the deck as the station's umbilical made its connection to the outside. He muttered in annoyance as he reached the inner doors; the control was now readable by humans, but the redesign hadn't seen fit to put it at a more manageable height. He reached up and tapped the proper sequence into the controls, trying not to feel like a perpetual manlet.

The human told himself to stop complaining. After all, he'd signed up for this. The inner doors hissed open to reveal a emerald-feathered Karnakian with a yellow band of color around her neck. She gave a deep, overly dramatic bow. "[Permission to come aboard?]"

"Permission granted." Rory wasn't sure if that was strictly proper since he wasn't the captain, but to hell with it. "A pleasure to meet you, um, M'kk'kt''rit. Was that close?"

"[Hardly. It's all right, you [humans] have a hard time with the upper-register piping.]"

"Not to mention I'm not know for my singing voice...Micky."

The Silken Feather picked up a duffel bag next to her and trotted into the ship.

"Um, how much does Nessie know?" whispered Rory as he fell into step beside her.

The Karnakian waggled an eyebrow down at him. "[Oh, he's in on the whole scheme. We've done lots of jobs together in the past.]"

"Ah. So he'll have some of the cut as well?"

"[No, [Nessie] prefers a flat rate...one that'll come out of my fifty percent, don't worry. It's a great cover identity when you think about it. Plenty of excuses to travel to exotic locations, see wonderful sights, meet rich people...]"

"...steal all of their stuff, give none of it back," continued Rory.

She grinned and swept Rory up into a one-armed hug that had him spitting feathers and chest-fluff. "[Exactly!]"

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

Oscar leaned back against Myyreh's stomach as the pair relaxed in the Claw's rec lounge. A subsonic thrum vibrated through the deck below them, a distant echo of the ship's engines under full power. Both of them held datapads. Myyreh's reading was heading into more human territory. Thanks to Bgrarh's enthusiasm she was becoming quite the connoisseur of Terran murder mysteries.

Valentin's departure was a few weeks in the past, and to his surprise Oscar found himself missing the dour bastard. They'd dropped off the Veridicator two days ago, and already the atmosphere of the ship was notably free of tension.

"[What are you reading?]" asked Myyreh.

He shifted a little in her lap, resisting the urge to groan from a few aches he'd picked up during his last 'session' with Egwreh. The engineer was an enthusiastic lover, but still had a little ways to go in taking his relative fragility into account.

"Eh, some trashy fantasy stuff," he replied. "There's a farmboy who's just found out he's the long-lost heir to a kingdom and the person he thought was his aunt is actually his great-great-many-greats-aunt. She's a powerful sorceress tasked to protect him. Now they're getting a diverse team of adventurers together so they can go kill an evil god."

The door hissed open and Captain Rgrarshok stalked in. Both Oscar and Myyreh started to get up, only to be waved back down by the huge Dorarizin.

"[At ease,"] said the Captain with a smile. "[You're both still off duty. Here's the details of our next assignment.]" She handed Oscar a datapad.

He took the device and wondered why she hadn't just sent the files to his terminal. "What's the job?"

"[It's a missing persons case. Unfortunately it's a [human] that's vanished, so the Senate is using every available resource...including us.]"

Oscar sighed. He'd worked a couple of missing-person cases in his previous career with Army CID, and both of them had turned into tragic shitshows. "You coulda sent this to my terminal, ma'am."

"[The missing person's complete file is in there. It'll need to be kept secure for privacy reasons, so make sure you keep that datapad with you.]" She stared at Oscar with a peculiar, fixed expression.

He raised an eyebrow. There was more going on here than was being said. He activated the datapad's screen and saw that there was indeed a human's data file, along with a preliminary police report. As he worked he felt Myyreh's hot breath against his neck as she looked over his shoulder.

There was also another folder marked 'E1' off in one corner of the screen. A quick check revealed that this folder held far more data than could be expected, tens of terabytes of data. He opened the folder itself and found it stuffed with thousands of data files; checking a few at random told him nothing, they were full of gobbedygook, just strings of letters.

Wait...there were strings of letters, but the strings only used the same four letters, repeating in a chaotic-looking sequence.

Something like a genome.

Or like the data he'd expect to see from the Egg.

Oscar heard a small gasp from Myyreh as she came to the same realization. He bounced the datapad in his palm. It was such a small thing, to have such a weight. The human looked up at Rgrarshok. "I...appreciate this, Captain. I'll take good care of it."

The Captain nodded an ear. "[I know you will. I trust you to do the right thing.]"

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"No sir, Martin still hasn't told us anything." Heidemann hated having to deal with Senators, but it was an unavoidable annoyance thanks to his newly-advanced position. "I recommend we hand the translation matrix chip over to the Jornissians and see if their forensic IT dweebs can tell us anything. But we need to be careful who we give it to. It's clear there's a mole in their ranks, and it might even be a Senator. I'll make some calls and see if I can figure out a safe contact."

In the holographic display on his desk the human Senator leaned back and sighed. "All right, I'll do some digging on my end as well. Call me tomorrow at this time. If you hear anything in the meantime, let me know ASAP and I mean that. I don't care if you wake me up. This is your top priority."

"Yes, sir. I'm on it."

Heidemann grumbled after the display winked out. He already had about fifteen brush fires to deal with thanks to his newly elevated position, and now he had this nonsense. He opened a drawer on his desk and withdrew a manual Rolodex. It was an anachronism, but handy for avoiding e-thievery. Heidemann flipped through the device, mentally noting particular numbers of particular people as he planned his next moves.

"Package, sir," said a fresh-faced kid standing in the doorway.

Heidemann looked up with a frown. "I'm not expecting a package. Was it scanned?"

"Yes sir, nothing but a data chip and a sealed envelope inside it. The outside of the envelope says that we're to put this directly in your hands and no-one else. We scanned the envelope too, no bio or chem hazards. Just a piece of paper inside."

"All right then, better give it here. Close the door when you leave." Heidemann accepted the small box with another internal moan. Now he had this overly dramatic nonsense as well to deal with. He barely noticed the door clicking shut as he opened the envelope. His mental bitching faded as he read the short note within.

Have a look at this. I'm counting on you to make sure this tech doesn't get misused. You know I will be watching. O.

Heidemann pulled the data chip out of the box, a slight tremor in his hand the only thing betraying his inner emotions. Then he threw it back in the box and with much more surety turned and opened the safe behind his desk. He placed the box and the letter within, then after a moment's thought he pulled out the letter and locked the safe.

Then he reached again into his desk and withdrew two memorials of his smoking days, a large glass ashtray and a lighter. Heidemann methodically tore the note into little pieces and with a little flourish set them on fire. He leaned back and watched the small streams of smoke from the ashtray waft up towards the ceiling.

"Don't worry big guy, I'll make sure we do it properly." He let out a snort of laughter. "Shit, the next time you might just steal the whole goddamn base."