Warnings: mild language. bad science. big cast.

Chapter One

The Uoniwa had parked its great bulk in an obscuring cloud of meteor dust a year ago and there it remained while its crew and colonists attempted to regain some stability after a decade of fighting. But a small racer ship, built for speed and infinitesimal in size against the Uoniwa, was slowly approaching, its engines at a speed the pace of a snail when compared to what it could normally go. It came openly, defenseless. Wanting to be seen.

Inside the Uoniwa, a sensor went off.

"C'mon, c'mon," the pilot of the racer ship muttered. It had taken Kitty Haley three months of searching to find it. She was now almost completely out of food and fuel. If they didn't take her in, she could die out here. Fighting back a surge of panic, she forced herself to breath evenly and wait. Defeatist thinking would do her no good now. Of course, neither would being stranded out in space without any supplies.

When her screen flashed, indicating an incoming transmission, she almost breathed a sigh of relief. Almost because now that she had their attention, she had to convince them to take her in.

"Identify yourself," barked a female voice, in an accent rougher than what Kitty was used to hearing at home.

"Um, hello. This is Katherine Haley, of the Sendaris sector, requesting to be brought aboard your ship. I'm almost out of supplies and could really use some help. Also, I think I have a loose wire or something in the engines, 'cause it sounds kinda odd back there." Okay, that last bit was a lie, but she preferred to call it a 'stepping stone to freedom'-not that she thought lying was the greatest thing to do, but sometimes it was a necessity of life.

After a moment of silence, the voice answered. "Very well. Please proceed towards the hanger doors at the transmitted coordinates and wait for further instructions once inside."

Now was the time to breath that sigh of relief. "Thank you."

Kitty geared her ship back up and cruised around the hull of the Uoniwa, following the given coordinates as ordered. It was a long trip and she could swear she had once orbited a moon in the same amount of time it took to get to the proper doors, which slid open at her approach.

Once docked in the hangar bay, lined up with other, more hefty ships, that same voice ordered her to exit the racer and remove her helmet. Kitty's feet hit the ground with a thud. She wavered a bit as her body readjusted to the ship's artificial gravity. The air felt heavy after being weightless for so long. Once steady on the ground, her helmet tucked under one arm, she waited patiently until another set of doors, these leading into the inner parts of the ship, opened. A tall, stately woman, flanked by a man and a woman, both with guns, strode forward and stopped in front of Kitty, looking her over. Kitty tried to ignore the raised guns and turned to face her.

She had a long scar down the left side of her face, starting at her forehead, slicing through her eyebrow, and ending at the tip of her jaw. Despite this rather intimidating feature, the woman's smile, though guarded, made her face seem more welcoming.

"Honestly, now," she said, "what is the daughter of Administrator Haley doing all the way out here? It can't be for the coffee."

"How...how did you...?"

"No one would come all this way without enough supplies to make it back-unless they expected to find something out here. James wouldn't just let you just roam free on your own. You ran away?"

Kitty felt her face heat up. How could she have expected the two names would not be connected? But, wait... "Do you know my father?"

A rather grim smile twitched at the corner of the woman's lips. "We've met. Now, do you mind telling me what you're really doing out here?"

Kitty bowed deeply, letting her hair fall in her face, and stayed bowed as she spoke. "I apologize for the deception, ma'am. I only wish to escape the unfair system, built on other people's lives, that my father has helped to run and promote. I humbly ask for room and board. I...I'm a hard worker..." She trailed off and waited, trying keep her eyes trained on the floor.

A hand reached out and raised her face upwards. Kitty found herself eye to eye with the woman she had bowed to. They stared at each other for a moment in silence. Whatever she saw in Kitty's eyes seemed to satisfy her and, after giving her a small nod and a genuine smile, let her go.

"I'm Commander Claudia Stein. Welcome aboard the Uoniwa."

The other two, with a gesture from Commander Stein, lowered their weapons. Kitty smiled hesitantly and straightened.

"Thank you, ma'am."

Stein spun on her heels and started walking towards the doors, leaving Kitty to trail after her as she talked.

"You will need to speak to the captain, of course, before your stay is official, but I'm sure he'll accept you aboard-after a trial period. We can't have moles infiltrating the ship."

"Yes, ma'am."

The hallways were long and nondescript, just gray metal walls with a few plain doors set into them, every twist and turn looking alike. Stein and the others, who were following with guns down but still at their sides, walked purposely, used to the mazelike corridors. They finally stopped in front of one of the doors, labeled 343. Stein pushed a small button beside it.

"It's Commander Stein, sir, with the SOS."

"Hrm." The captain's voice had the unmistakable sound of a smirk behind it. "Come in."

Steadying her nerves once more-and trying her best to smother her temper at that annoying sound of contempt-Kitty followed Commander Stein into the captain's quarters. The armed men stayed behind. Kitty gave them a nervous glance before the door shut behind her.

The infamous Captain Lee sat at a desk that faced the wall. He was surprisingly young looking, in his mid-thirties perhaps, with dark, lanky hair falling over one eye. At Kitty and Stein's approach, he lay his stylus pad down and turned to face them. He had a tired, world weary look on his face. Like the commander, he looked Kitty carefully over before speaking in that same rough accent.

"I should just put fuel in your ship and send you back into deep space. I'd return you to Haley himself if it didn't mean further endangering the lives of the people I'm responsible for. What the hell were you thinking? Did you think this was some kind of game?"

Kitty gaped at him, taken aback at the sudden onslaught. "N-no, of course not! I only wanted-"

"This isn't an adventure or a lark. I don't need an irresponsible child like you on board this ship."

"I am not a child!" She threw a pleading look in Stein's direction but got a blank stare in return. Wetting her lips, she turned back to the captain. "Please, sir. I know I've been rash. I didn't mean to cause you trouble. Really. B-but...if you do know my father...then you know what kind of a man he is. I know what kind of a man he is."

"Then you should know the danger your very presence is to the Uoniwa."

"He killed a man. Before I left. In the antechamber, in front of everybody. The ministers, the merchants, everyone was there, and no one did a thing." Kitty paused, her throat clogged with guilt. "And neither did I." She raised her head to look him in the eye. "Please, sir, don't send me away."

The captain sighed, shifting in his seat. "Here are the terms: you are to be tagged and tracked, like everyone else on this ship. You will work for your meals and lodgings, as you suggested earlier. You will get no special treatment. We don't coddle anyone here, regardless of their class. And if we need you to fight, you fight. No running this time. If you can agree to those terms, you can stay."

Kitty nodded. "Yes, sir. I agree."

"Good. Then-"

A buzzer went off, loud and insistent. Captain Lee pulled a comm from his shirt pocket and hit a button, silencing the buzzer. He listened for a moment. "I'll be right there." He stood, unfolding his long legs to stare down at Kitty. "You were followed."

"What?! No. I wasn't, I swear."

"How else do you explain the Entaggen battle ship heading for us." At Stein's gasp, he added softly, "It's hailing us." He turned back to Kitty. "This is the sort of thing I was talking about."

Kitty's anger got the better of her at that last remark, though she managed to rein in her temper slightly. Enough to sound halfway polite, at any rate. "No offense intended, sir, but I'm a good enough pilot to know when I'm being followed, and if I can find your ship, it stands to reason that so can someone else. You're not as invisible here as you think."

Lee stepped past her without answering and leaned out the door to talk briefly to one of Kitty's guards. After a moment, he motioned her forward and said, "Miss Haley, this is Officer Harris. She'll contact the requisitions department and get you settled into a room. You'll need to follow her." In a gesture of dismissal, he turned to the commander. "Claudia."

The commander stepped out into the corridor, and together, they began walking away. Kitty's first instinct was to run after them to argue and wave her arms around just to prove she wasn't invisible. But instead, she snapped her jaw shut and, swallowing her pride, turned to Harris, giving her a weak smile.

"Well. Let's go find that room."

--

Before they turned the corner, Claudia glanced back to look once more at the Haley girl, whose back was turned as she and Harris started walking away from the captain's quarters. She turned back to Captain Lee when he started muttering irritably.

"One year! We made it one year without anyone detecting us. How can she tell us she wasn't followed?"

"It could just be a coincidence," Claudia answered dryly.

Lee fell silent, keeping his eyes ahead as he walked. Claudia sighed.

"What?"

"Are you sure you can handle this?" He spoke in a low voice, as if reluctant to broach the subject.

"Matthew. My duty is to this ship. I'll fight anyone who tries to harm it-no matter who they are."

He took her hand in his as they walked on in silence, letting go when they finally reached their destination.

The bridge of the Uoniwa was a cramped room, currently filled with five officers and a semicircle of computer terminals. The officers turned at their captain's arrival, standing respectfully as he passed them on his way to the communications station.

"Have they said anything?" Lee asked the communications officer, a younger woman newly assigned to the bridge.

"Just this recorded message, sir. It's only one sentence but it's been repeating itself since we opened the comm channels." She flicked a switch and a voice filled the room.

"I have information for the captain of this ship." The officer turned the message off once it started to the repeat.

"That's it?" Claudia asked, her brow wrinkled in confusion.

"That's it."

"He hasn't answered any hails?" Lee asked next.

"No, sir."

"What about weapons?"

"Not even powered up, much less aimed at anyone."

Lee leaned down toward the microphone to the comm system, placing a hand on the woman's shoulder to keep her seated when she moved to offer him her chair. "Maybe I should try." He fiddled with a few dials, then spoke. "Entaggen ship, this is Captain Matthew Lee of the Uoniwa. Please respond."

"Captain..." There it was, that same cold, sexless voice.

Stein swallowed hard at the sound. That voice brought back violent memories of the past. Without thinking, she placed a hand on the small of Lee's back, more for the comfort of his warm body under her hand than any wish to soothe him. He gave her a short, worried glance but, taking a deep breath, turned back to the comm system.

"You say you have information. What is it?"

"I can give you information about the ship on which Imandalis travels."

There was complete silence on the bridge and everyone's eyes were glued to the captain. Either someone was playing a very bad joke on them or they were setting up some kind of trap. The only sentences Entaggens ever uttered contained words like 'surrender' and 'now.'

"Is this some kind of joke?"

There was a moment of silence, as if the person on the other end were giving it serious thought. "I have information," it repeated, in that same monotonous voice.

Lee straightened and turned to Claudia. "What do you think?"

"If it's true-what he offers and what he seems to be-then I'd say the rewards might well outweigh the risks."

He nodded and started to turned back away, but she grabbed his arm. "But get a visual first."

"We need a visual on you before we do any sort of dealing with you," Lee said into the microphone.

"Very well."

What appeared on the screen was a man-no, not a man, not really, Claudia thought. Whatever 'it' was, whatever Imandalis had created, it couldn't be human. She had seen its kind kill too freely, with blank expressions on their faces, for any of them to be human. But at least it wasn't wearing white. That color meant death.

She released the breath she'd been holding and nodded slightly at Lee's questioning look.

"Is this good?" the Entaggen asked.

Lee nodded. "Yes. Now, what exactly do you want for this information?"

"I want asylum."

This really was insane! Claudia couldn't help herself from making a small sound of disbelief, low in her throat. One of the Entaggen's eyebrows raised as if at the sound, though surely it couldn't have been heard over the transmission.

"If you want the information," it added, "you will give asylum."

"Hold on a minute." Lee disconnected and turned back to Claudia. "I think we should see what his game is. Any major objections, then you need to voice them now."

"The council..."

"This is an external affair, I have the authority on this. And I'll deal with the council later."

Claudia shook her head. "No. No objections. Let's play this out."

The audio was reconnected and the captain spoke one word.

"Agreed."

--

End chapter one