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Leph gets a message from Nai, and a startling truth is revealed. Rico and Lenny don't appear, as they are still hunkered down playing rock paper scissors.

Everybody lies.

---

Lenny’s PI watched everything unfold on the ground. He saw the men (who he recognized as criminals he had encountered before) and their ship, Rico and Lenny following them, and the ship flying away. Never in all his days had the PI seen such stupidity. Those men were dangerous. If the two were discovered, their bodies would probably be found years later, floating in space. He picked up his phone and called his friend from the local police department.

~~~

Tokush secluded himself in his side room to faun over his gun while Polos piloted the ship. Yalogalil had little to do, so he decided to speak with Cain. Cain was sitting in his room, eating something. “Hungry now? I never eat before a battle. Slows me down.”
Cain smacked his lips. “Do you know how long it’s been since I ate chocolate? Too goddamn long.”
Yalogalil laughed. “I understand yes. They say you have… Feud with this Frontier fleet. I am interested.”
Cain chuckled. “It’s no secret that I was arrested on the Frontier, but that’s not the whole story. My partner Rico fucked up and got us arrested. All ‘cause he had an ex on the ship who he got soft for. That’s who I hold a grudge against. Zach.”
“And why not go after this Rico?”
Cain grinned a grin so toothy, Yalogalil was jealous. “He’s next.”
Yalogalil nodded. “Revenge. Good motivator, not my taste.”
“Don’t get me wrong. This job also pays very well. Plus, my sentence being so short was thanks to our boss, so I owe him.”
“Money, not my taste either.”
Cain looked up. “Is that so? What are you here for, then?”
Yalogalil took a moment to gather his thoughts. He gestured in the air vaguely before he began speaking. “I am… Anarchist? Maybe not. My government is rotten, if you were not knowing. Many freedoms are not attainable. Atriean citizens are not allowed to own more land than one arbitrary number. Many homeless freeze on the street. Many are not given the opportunity to seek their fortune on colony planets, something that is should be at the core of Atriean values. Government shades all but phony truths from the hard-working public. Do you understand what I speak?”
Cain nodded. “Yeah, I think I do. You just signed up because our target Is a government project, correct?”
“Black project. It is unregulated by even the honest men and women in power. Unchecked, but not after we are gone.”
“I feel better about being a criminal already.”
He chuckled and took another bite of his chocolate bar. His eyes strayed over the man’s body again. It was certainly off-putting how feminine he was. Yalogalil frowned. “What is this problem? Do humans not have this disorder?”
Cain coughed. “Er, we do. I guess, uh… we treat it differently on Earth.”
“Treat it differently? What is your treatment?”
“No, I mean culturally. For example, if we had a hardened stealth expert such as yourself, and they were a tranny, they’d be laughed out of the room.”
Yalogalil was becoming more agitated. He crossed his arms. “I do not like that word, tranny. It does not feel right to me. We are both with disabilities, yes?! You are without limb, and I am without proper body. What is the difference imply of? It puts me at no tactical uselessness.”
Cain shrugged. “I’m not going to apologize for being Human. That’s just how we are.”
“Maybe you change Humans.”
Cain grinned, speaking in his bastardization of a northern Atriean accent. “Maybe you change government.”
“I will break your fingers, ape.” Yalogalil growled.
Cain held out his prosthetic arm. “Try.”
Yalogalil knew better than to make a move. He just scoffed and turned his head. “Common thug. No enterprise.”
He walked away. Cain went back to eating the chocolate. Yalogalil stormed to the rear of the ship to find a place to cool off. He dug around in his coat for a small pouch. He found the cargo bay, which was empty save for a couple crates that were leftover. He perched on one and took out a little pipe. He sprinkled something into the pipe, and it ignited instantly. He put it to his lips. “Goddamn Humans. No enterprise! No enterprise!”

~~~

Teliko was trapped in an unfortunate situation. She knew she was having a nightmare, but there was no way to break free from it. It was the same dream each time, too. The only nightmare she had ever had, since she was little. At first it started out alright. It was just a somewhat unsettling mist that surrounded her. Gray as far as they eye could see, there was nothing threatening about the area. When she tried to examine her body, she found that she barely had one. She could feel with her paws, but her paws and her body were invisible. The first terrifying part of the dream was when she realized she had no fur. She grasped at her body but felt nothing under her fingers but skin. Then she reached for her mouth, but found it was closed. Permanently. She couldn’t scream or breathe. The gray became whiter, and some figure rose in the background. She stumbled away from it, but never managed to take a single step. She didn’t have bones or muscle to move with. And so, the dark figure did, and always did, flow over her and drown her in darkness until she awoke. Her blanket had been thrown off at some point, and her body felt cold, even though her face was burning. She looked around the room. “Teliko?”
She screamed. “Ah! W-who?!”
A light came from the floor. Cyan’s face appeared in it. It looked like he had just been awoken. “Something wrong?”
She quickly gathered her blankets. “C-cyan?! What the hell are you doing in my bedroom?!”
He sat up and rubbed his eyes. “Chill out. We stayed up too late, and we made the jump, so I had to sleep on your floor.”
Teliko’s breathing began to slow, and she relaxed. “Oh… Why didn’t your parents try and get you?”
Cyan shrugged. “I guess Leena told them I was already on the Sky Links. Whatever. Can we go back to sleep? I’m really tired.”
“Yeah… sure…”
She lay back and pulled the blanket over herself. There was a silence, but Cyan broke it. “Hey… Teliko?”
“Yeah?”
“Did you… turn on your S-com or something?”
She flipped over and looked at him in the darkness. “What do you mean?”
“Uh, nothing. I just thought I saw… a light when I was waking up.”
“No, sorry…”
“Okay. Goodnight.”
“Yeah…”
He was snoring before long. Teliko frowned. Light?

~~~

Teri was always the first to wake. That morning was especially crucial, as there were tons of tests and adjustments to be made to the fleet’s drives to ensure they would all make their mark at the same time. The crew of the Sky Links had already adjusted to her early starts, and so they all were waking up as she made breakfast (deftly using her only undamaged arm). Her crew compliment was ten, including herself. Feldoh’s ship, Quixote, ran on only five, while the Frontier only needed a minimum of two. Teri gulped down her eggs and made a beeline to the engine room. She sighed. It was empty. She banged on the bulkhead. “Bradly!”
There was a bump from the other side of the wall. “Yes ma’am!?”
“Get up! Get gotta do post jump.”
“Shit, sorry…”
A door opened, and a small Human man walked out. He rubbed his eyes. “Do you mind if I eat first?”
“No, I’ll sync the computers.”
He waved. “Thanks!”
Teri logged onto the computer and tried turning control of the fleet over to her. However, yet again, Leph had forgotten to give her access. She sighed.

Leph jumped as the intercom in his room blared. “Wake up!”
He sat up, patting Leena on the head. “… Shit. I slept in.”
Leena sighed. “We can keep doing that… if you want…”
Leph chuckled at her barely coherent speech. Teri’s disapproving voice came back over the com. “Don’t you two go back to sleep again! Leph, you forgot to unlock the computer links again.”
He sat at his console. “Sorry, Teri. One sec…”
Before he could get the link unlocked, a flashing icon caught his attention. A high priority message from one Nai Mosin had come in for Leph while he slept. “Hang on, Teri. I’ve got something to deal with first.”
“What? How am I supposed to do my routine?”
“Just wait a sec. Get some coffee.”
“I don’t like coffee!”
“It’s an emergency message, Teri. Give me a minute.”
“Fine.”
Leena sat up, trying to flatten her cowlick. “What is it?”
“Let’s see.”
It was a video message. A wolf was adjusting a camera, pointing it at himself. “Video mail? What time is it… oh! Sorry. Uh, hello… Mr. Quill.”
The wolf smiled halfheartedly, but it was clear he was very tired. Leena came over as she continued rubbing her fur down. “I’m calling from Oculus station. Uh, your delivery point.”
Nai’s eyes shifted around nervously. Leph frowned. “This guy looks terrible…”
Leena chuckled. “He looks like you when you stay up late.”
Nai interrupted Leph’s reply. “I have a problem that you can help with. I would really appreciate it if you would check your cargo over for me. Not the manifest, but physically. Open the crates and tell me what’s inside.”
Nai reached for the camera, then suddenly remembered something. “Ah… I guess you don’t have authorization to do that… I permit it. I am a head scientist… here.”
He held up his ID. “So, if you could, as soon as you can, check that cargo and tell me exactly what’s inside, that would be great. Thanks. Reply with text only, please.”
The video cut off. Leph stood. “Guess I’ll go-”
“No, Leph, Teri will rip you to shreds if you don’t go get the computers unlocked. I’ll do it.”
He stroked his chin, then nodded. “You’re right. I’ll leave it to you, then.”
He kissed her and went to shower. “Hey, I always shower first!”
The water ran. “Teri is going to rip me apart, you said it yourself!”
She walked into the bathroom. “Move over.”

~~~

Cain was watching the Frontier get closer in the cockpit when a bleary-eyed Polos walked in. “Cain? How long have you been up?”
“Three hours. You Atrieans sure do love your sleep.”
Polos dropped into a seat and yawned loudly. “The long days and nights on Atriea are a hard thing to break from, even in space. Have you figured out why they’re taking so damn long?”
Cain nodded, then pointed at the screen with a data pad pen. “Yeah, look. They took on another vessel and left three hours late. They’re going a little slower than we anticipated too.”
Polos looked at the information Cain had on screen. “They’ll be passing one of our sensor relays soon. I want a closer look at that other ship. We have no intel on it.”
Cain shrugged. “Could be anything. Maybe the military gave them another escort.”
Polos shook his head. “That would draw too much attention.”
There was a moment of silence as both men came to the same conclusion. “You don’t think they know about us, do you?”
Polos didn’t move. “It’s possible. Let’s see what our sensors can pick up. ETA?”
Cain clicked an icon and some more information came up on screen. “Uh, looks like it’ll be an hour until we can start scanning them.”
“We’ll need a plan of attack if they have figured things out.”
Polos and Cain looked behind them at who had spoken. It was Tokush. Yalogalil was walking up behind him, brushing down his hair. “You mean a plan of escape. We cannot combat them in this can of a spaceship.”
Tokush grinned and shrugged in an exaggerated manner. “It’s a figure of speech, dollface.”
Yalogalil ignored the remark. He shoved past Tokush and stood by Polos. “If it is government, we fly. That is my advice.”
Tokush scoffed. “Coward. We can still pull this off. I brought an IASSM launcher, we can-”
Polos’s voice didn’t change in pitch, but he was obviously not pleased. “You idiot, our plan is to take them hostage, not kill them.”
“I only meant we destroy that government ship.”
Cain cut in. “We don’t even know if it is a government ship. Could be a hooker’s ship for all we know.”
Polos stood and walked for the door. “All we can do is wait for the scan. Report back here in an hour.”

~~~

Leena, equipped with a data pad with the cargo manifest, strolled briskly into the cargo bay. She made sure no one was around, then read the first item on the list. “M-1… One gross of stem bolts.”
She searched the room for the crate marked M-1 until she came across a small, long container. She frowned. It wasn’t nearly long enough to hold that many stem bolts. She reached for the locks on the crate but noticed a strange warning label. She had never seen it before, but it seemed familiar somehow. She snapped a picture with her S-com and decided to let it alone for now. The next crate should have held a small power reactor. It was the size of Leena two times over. She undid the latches, and let the crate fall open. A strange contraption stared back at her. It wasn’t a power reactor, that was for sure. Her brow furrowed and her nervousness getting worse, she moved on to the next crate. This one was supposed to be a construction drone. When she opened it, she found a ship. One that was meant to be manned. One that was clearly meant for combat. Leena opened crates at random, not looking at the manifest anymore. There were more things she didn’t recognize, along with explosives, small arms, sensor equipment and a couple EMP generators. “Oh… Drifrasa have mercy…”
She dropped the data pad and ran for the door.

“There. Try it now.”
Leph and Zach stood in the engine room, looking intently into a screen. There was a buzz and a click and the sound of Teri’s voice. “There! Finally! You really need to replace your ship, Leph.”
He chuckled. “Maybe after Teliko grows up. Alright, Zach. You and Teri-”
“Leph!”
Zach and Leph whirled around. Leena was rushing down the stairs. Zach held out his arms. “Hey, slow down, Leena!”
“What’s wrong?!”
Leena stumbled over to the two and clutched her chest. “It’s… full of weapons!”
Leph drew in air sharply. “What…?”
“Weapons… A gunship… Bombs… Leph, we were tricked.”
She almost fell to the floor. Leph grabbed her as Zach bit his lip. “Leph… You remember the last time-”
“Yes, all too well!”
Leena clutched his shirt. “We have to stop! We’re turning around, right now!”
“We don’t need to.”
Leph looked at Zach, who had just spoken. “Why not?! With this much hardware, we’re going to be the target of every pirate in the sector!”
Zach shook his head. “We didn’t know what the cargo was. The manifest was all construction equipment, right?”
Leena was having trouble keeping her breathing under control. “Right… b-but there are more ways to figure out what a cargo ship is carrying. We’re a target!”
There was a silence as Leph furrowed his brow and thought. “That Nai character… He seemed to think something was fishy too. We need to talk to him.”
Zach stopped them before they could dash back to their cabin. “Wait, Nai?”
The two looked back. “Do you know him?”
“Know him? He’s one of the greatest inventors alive! He created the plasma shield, reciprocating capital ship engines, and that thing!”
Zach thrust a finger at the ceiling, where a little box with blinking lights was hanging. “He’s a superstar. And he tipped you off to this weapons thing?”
Leena nodded. “Yeah. We woke up to a video message from him asking us to check the cargo and tell him what’s inside.”
“And that’s what we’re going to do. Zach, get Serleah on the horn too, see exactly what these weapons are for.”
Zach called after them as they dashed up the stairs. “You think she’ll know?!”
“She’ll know something!”
Zach was left in silence. Teri’s voice caused him to jump. “We’re in deep, aren’t we?”
“We’re doing a job for the government, right? They like to screw us over, it seems.”


~~~

Cain hadn’t left the cockpit for an hour, and he still sat there as the sensor data began to stream in. Polos arrived, but the other two didn’t seem to bother. Cain pointed at a line coming in from the sensor beam. “Civilian model Atriean destroyer. They must have taken on another escort. It’s pretty decked out, but the net should take it offline with the rest of the fleet.”
Polos sat down and watched the results come in. “This changes the plan, but yes. We can still pull it off. We can scuttle the destroyer. We’ll have a couple extra hostages, but that’ll be fine.”
Cain nodded. “Alright. Do you want to do the honors?”
Polos reached over and pulled down a lever. Outside the ship, a small cluster of tiny drones was released into space. They quickly flew off into space in seemingly random directions. Polos leaned back in satisfaction. “There. Now we wait.”

~~~

Nai didn’t bother to go work that day. He told Haluk that he was sick and waited in his room for a response from the Frontier. He was tossing a ball against the wall when a notification sound from his S-com almost startled his fur off. He scrambled for it and checked the screen. A text message appeared. “Nai Mosin? This is Leph Quill, of the Frontier. We found enough weapons and explosives to destroy a solar system in our holds. We don’t know about the other ships, we’ll check them too. Did you know about this? We were told we were bringing construction equipment.”
Along with the message were a few photos Leena had gone back and taken. His paws slipped over the keys clumsily, and he had to spend a minute fixing the spelling. “No, that is what I was told too. This is a science project, not a military one, or so I thought. Continue on course for now, things will be bad for both of us if my superior gets suspicious.”
“Acknowledged. Keep in touch.”
Nai studied more closely the weapons in the hold of the Frontier. His blood chilled. His intimate knowledge of weapons and their application said that this equipment was made to drive an invasion force. There was only one thing missing, though: troops. Questions popped into his head. If they were going to launch some sort of invasion of the Solar Federation, they would need many, many more weapons than that. To deploy it all they would need many more ships than that. He slammed his S-com shut and paced the room in circles. “What do I do what do I do what do I do what do I do!?”
He stopped, then dashed out the door.

~~~

Serleah took one look at the photos Leena took and went completely pale. “Zach… this is some… s-serious hardware. That one there…”
She sent back the first image Leena took of the long box with the warning label. “This is a Solar Federation nuclear device.”
Zach gulped. “A nuke…? Man, we’ve landed ourselves in a grade A fiasco.”
Serleah was about to comment further when the door opened and a very annoyed looking Teliko poked her head inside. “What’s going on? My dad won’t talk to me!”
Zach glanced at the screen, where Serleah was glancing at him. “Uh… What did he tell you?”
“He said: ‘It’s nothing you should be worried about’ before he ran off like he was going to shit his pants!”
Serleah wagged a claw. “language!”
“Forget that, I’m scared shitless!”
Zach chuckled nervously and walked towards her. “There’s just a little trouble with the cargo, it’s nothing-”
Teliko stomped her foot, and Zach swore the energy in the room became charged. “My mom was crying! Why won’t anyone tell me what’s going on?!”
Zach stepped back. Teliko’s fur was standing up, and tears squeezed from her tightly shut eyes. “Just tell me!”
Serleah leaned forward. “Teliko, look at me.”
Teliko sniffed and opened her eyes again. Serleah’s expression calmed her down significantly. “It seems like someone put some… Illegal things in our hold. We’re trying to get to the bottom of things, so don’t you worry. Do you hear me?”
Teliko nodded. “Y-yeah.”
“Best thing is to go somewhere and cool off. Can you do that for me?”
“B-but I want-”
“Find Cyan and keep him out of trouble. Teri says he already managed to sneak on board the Frontier last night, so we need someone to watch him, make sure he doesn’t get into any more trouble. Can you do that?”
Teliko took a shaky breath. “I get it. Yeah, I’ll stay out of you guy’s fur.”
She left. Zach sighed. “Damn. You’d make a great parent.”
“Never wanted kids. Let’s get back to this list…”

Feldoh grimly watched as one of his crewmen cracked open another crate full of guns. He had his mate on the line, who was having her crew do the same. “Looking worse and worse over here, Teri.”
“We have nukes here too. We’re lucky they’re so well packaged, otherwise we would have set off every sensor net on Atriea.”
Feldoh growled. “They covered their tracks well, it seems. One minute, I’m gonna call Leo.”
“Stay safe…”
“Don’t worry, Teri. Worry about whoever did this, because they’ll have a few black eyes after I’m done with them.”
Teri chuckled. “Alright.”
He hung up and called the Rocinante. “Leo?”
“We’ve powered weapons. Fieru is loading missiles as we speak. Do you think we’ll have trouble?”
“If we know about the weapons, someone else does. We want to be ready in case.”
“I suppose… wait, something’s wrong…”
A moment later, thousands of tiny drones began pelting the hulls of every ship in the fleet.