Before The Storm (Ch. 15)

Chapter Fifteen

"The ship is starting to seem pretty crowded, Captain," Helen said to him as he finished up the last of his inspections he wanted to make before they could leave harbor. The last thing he wanted to do was to depart with these new crew members if the mechanic hadn't done his damn job. But, to Sketch's delight, he found that not only were the repairs done, but the new guy had made several generalized improvements to some of the more worn-down systems that had still been more than functional already. And while the price quoted had indeed been the price paid, that money had been stretched twice as far and fixed four times as many things as the original quote.

It made it clear that the kid was planning on sticking around on the ship, and wanted to be sure it was in as good of shape as he could get it in the short time they had before they needed to head out.

It was reassuring.

"Don't worry about it, Helen," Sketch said. "We're only going to take on as many people as we need, and we were alone for so long before now just because we had to be. Without an Ashaka, I was a risk to anyone coming by. Now that I've got one, I'm in control again and I don't have to worry about people freaking out at the drop of a hat."

"I have never understood that expression, Captain. What does dropping a hat have to do with speed?"

"You know, I'm not really sure myself, babe."

"And one that I do know is that you haven't been completely open about who you are to all your crew."

"They don't need to know everything about my past, Helen. Not yet. Once they've earned that trust, I'll let them in," Sketch said, running a last couple of checks, watching all the flags kick back green. "But you know me. I'm not the kind who trusts lightly."

"Who do you trust, who do you not, if I might inquire?"

"Well, Serena and Aliara are both locked in, and we've shared secrets, so in for a penny, in for a pound. I trust them and they trust me, because we're already bonded to each other by blood and intrigue," Sketch said. "Besides, I gotta admit, I missed having sex on the reg. Ever since coming out of the deep thaw, it'd been a lot of one-armed bandit nights, but now I've got play partners..."

"For what it's worth, Captain, I too like the Princess and her bodyguard," Helen said, her voice almost chipper and self-assured. "They're smart, capable, confident... useful. I like people being added to our lives who are useful. Unlike the sapphic pair."

"Nobody likes being gossiped about when they're not around, Helen," Lara said as she walked into the engine room. "And you know we're not going to screw anybody over. Sketch trusts Jez's mom, so he's gonna have to learn to trust her too. Jez has her carabel addiction in check, and I'm a damn good pilot, and she's a damn good doctor. Besides, we already know you're a Storm, so your secret's safe with us."

"If you think that's my only secret, Lara," Sketch chuckled, as he checked a few of the systems that were slightly less legal, finding the kid had discovered and improved those too, "then you should just go on believing that as long as you can."

While Lara knew how to fly Tropage ships, and she understood some of the basics of how they worked, she wouldn't dare have called herself an expert on them. Still, seeing how many of the systems that had registered as only 'functional' a week ago kick back reports as 'good' or even 'optimal,' it made her grin a little bit, sharing in Sketch's confidence about their mechanic. "Looks like the new guy's pulling his weight already, huh? And not just in the bedroom."

"He seems like a good mechanic, yes," Sketch said before doing a double take as he punched in the engine startup sequence as they prepared to leave the harbor. "What did you mean with your crack about the bedroom?"

"Oh, he's banging my wife right now," Lara said with a sort of amused disinterest. "She asked me if I minded, and since you haven't thrown us a bit of dick yet, I said it was fine. She certainly seemed to be enjoying herself, and you hadn't told us any rules it was against, so, let her have her fun, I figure. Was that not okay?"

Sketch laughed, rolling his eyes as he shook his head. "It's fine, I suppose. I figured you might've wanted more than a day or two to get to know the two of them before you went hopping into their beds, but hey, I'm just the captain. I don't have any say over how you want to live your personal life. You two want to invite that guy into your bed, that's up to you."

"She didn't invite him into our bed, Cap'n, just hers," Lara giggle, rolling her eyes in his direction. "I'm still holding out for a better class of dick, if you know what I'm saying."

"You still hoping I'll fuck you?"

"Not hoping. Knowing. It's just gonna take some time, but that'll make it that much better when you finally give in to my charms," Lara said. "I've heard what you and the Princess get up to in the corners of the ship where you think nobody can hear you, and I wanna experience orgasms like that. So, I'll bide my time, I'll wait until you trust me enough to let me in, and then I'll make sure I'm giving as good as I'm getting, and if that means I gotta have both your ladyfriends with me there when I'm doing it, well, that's a price I'll gladly pay." The two of them exited the engine room and headed down the hallway, heading for the elevator to take them back up to the bridge floor. "Besides, I know you're gonna have a go at the mechanic's sister, and if you aren't, I certainly am at some point, because god damn that is one sexy bitch."

"Maybe don't refer to your new crewmate as a 'bitch' until you've cleared it with her first?"

"You've called my wife a bitch," Lara said. "You clear that with her first?"

"Three main differences, Lara," Sketch said, crossing his arms over his chest as the elevator started to ferry them upwards. "First and foremost, I'm the goddamn captain of this vessel, which means I can say anything about anyone on it anytime I want to, and there's not a goddamn thing anyone can go about it other than get off my boat. Second, and perhaps less importantly, your wife was acting like a bit of a bitch at the time, so it's not like I was doing it without cause. Third and finally, you and your wife haven't fully earned my trust yet, so I gotta read a situation as best I can, and I call'em like I see'em."

The elevator doors opened and the two of them walked out and down the hall to the bridge, stepping onto it. "It's your world, boss; I just fly the boat."

"All the ready checks pass, Helen?"

"Five by five, Captain," the ship's disembodied voice said over the airwaves. "We are ready for departure, and the harbormaster has given us clearance to disembark."

"Get ready to take us out, Lara," he said as his pilot moved to settle into her chair. "Helen, put me on the shipwide." He waited half a second and then started speaking again, knowing he was on the PA system running the entirety of the ship. "Good afternoon, sentient beings and general approximations thereof. This is your Captain speaking. Unless I get an emergency notice from someone right about now saying they've forgotten their favorite lucky penny off the ship, we're about to disembark and get this hellhole behind us as quick as we can. I got a message that we've got a gig waiting for us a couple of systems over, so we're headed that way, over to the Kietel System. We're heading to a planet called Omertagi and we'll be spending about three days there waiting for our fare to show up, so if our newest member wants to practice her trade while we're in dock, you'll have three days to tend to the local punters before we'll be on the move again. It'll take us a day's worth to get there, so feel free to send a tightbeam notice ahead our arrival so you can hang your red light up in order to attract clientele. No idea where we're taking the cargo yet, so can't tell you where to start shopping around for commerce after we drop off things yet, but I'll keep you posted. Anyway, nobody's kicked up a fuss about us leaving, so kiss Wispbeetle Station goodbye and watch it disappear in our wake. We are officially leaving this place." He made the gesture of slicing his hand over his throat to kill the PA before turning to Lara. "Get us the fuck away from this miserable rock."

"Aye aye, Captain," Lara said, waving her hands over a handful of the controls to make them respond, lighting up the engines. "Getting us the fuck outta Dodge."

The Praeteritus left the warm confines of Wispbeetle Station ports and headed back out into the black once more.

"What did Momma Cola tell you about the gig?" Lara asked him once they were a decent distance from the station, well clear of anything on the sensors.

"It's supposed to be mostly easy smuggling work, the sort of stuff that used to be my bread and butter before I picked up all of you lot, although in this case, the client's insisting on a meeting," Sketch said as he hopped up and slumped down into the Captain's chair. "Back when I started, I never let clients meet me, and it felt simpler, truer that way. But it also limited the number of jobs I could get. Reputation only carries you so far in this game."

"That was because you didn't have the doohickey, right?"

"Ashaka, right," Sketch said. "But now that I do, I have my abilities under control, and we can meet potential clients. As long as I keep my arms covered."

"Hell, most of the time I doubt it even matters, boss," Lara told him. "But you're probably smart to play it safe anyway. But it's been several decades since most people have even heard about your sect, much less been able to recognize the tattoo markings of one in the wild. Your kind is all but extinct since the Starless Dominion decided they were a threat and wiped them out. Hey, can I ask you a few questions about your Order, while it's just the two of us?"

"You can ask, but you might not like the answers," Sketch said before laughing at his own snarky comment. "Sorry, sometimes the brooding responses just slip out without me even trying. Sure, ask away."

"The whole 'emotional manipulation' thing - how much of that is actually true? Can you Storms really do that?"

"The level of influence is generally dependent on what rank you are in the order, Spark, Storm or Fury. Sparks can do a little, Furies can do just about anything and Storms fall somewhere in between."

"And you were a Storm?"

"I was, although apparently my skills are powerful enough that I could've likely taken the exams to become a Fury and succeeded," he said. "Without the Ashaka, though, I was sort of at the mercy of my own abilities. I couldn't control how they were being used or at what level of intensity."

"Can you use your abilities on me, just so I know what they feel like?" Lara asked him as she put the controls on cruise, nothing but the inky void for them to run into for millions of miles.

"You want one feeling in particular?"

"What's on the menu?"

"Calm, Rage, Warmth and Fear," Sketch said. "And to answer your next question before you ask it, no, it doesn't really matter which one you choose. They're all about the same amount of effort, and it's more about how much you're resisting it or not. If you're not putting up much struggle, it'll be easy whichever one you want."

"Wasn't Warmth the one you ensorcelled the Princess with?" Lara said smugly. "Lemme get a taste of that."

"Now that I'm in control of my abilities, I can ease you in and out of it with grace and control."

"Must've made it easy for you to get in girls' pants whenever you wanted," Lara said.

"Didn't need it," Sketch said honestly with a slight shrug. "Never used it as such. I was using it to help couples break through intimacy issues, mostly, when I did use it, which wasn't all that often. There's some ridiculously repressed folks out there. But before my... accident, it was definitely my least used path. I used The Calm itself more than any other."

"Why was that?"

"We were mediators, arbitrators, people brought in to help resolve incredibly tense disputes by getting everyone to put their emotions aside and look at things using pure, cold logic, which was often a tough sell for those long established, deeply hewn conflicts that needed to be dealt with," Sketch said, giving a quick glance to the screen, checking that there was nothing out there to distract them if he was really going to do this. "You wanted to feel The Warmth though, so here we go."

Finally, a chance to use our abilities again. I realize you are attempting to remain within concealment, Storm Walker, but without regular practice, your abilities will lose their fine razors edge and become dull, and that you can ill afford to let happen.

'Thank you, Fury Rose,' Sketch thought at one of the voices still living inside of his Ashaka. 'I'll take that under advisement.'

No, you won't. I can tell when you're being flippant without cause to your elders, Storm Walker, and it's rude.

'Well, if you weren't trying to put me and my crew in harm's way, then I wouldn't be rude in return, so stuff it, you old bat.'

Don't push me, Storm, or I'll spike your efforts up and complicate your whole world.

He sighed mentally and then apologized. 'My apologies, Fury Rose. I will heed your warning and will endeavor to practice my skills at more regular intervals.'

See that you do, Storm Walker. See that you do.

He was going to have to see about finding some way to lock those previous members of the Calm away so they didn't always have access to his mind and life, but that was a problem for another day, he decided.

Sketch reached out through the Ashaka and started focusing his abilities on Lara. Despite the fact that he was out of practice, the skill came back to him like he'd been born with it. He could feel her emotions, raw and exposed, vulnerable and bubbling right at the surface, like she wanted him to have access to them. He couldn't read minds, but emotions? That was another thing. As an aspect of The Calm, he found it easy to sort of 'vibe' with the emotions running in the people around him, a chance to 'read the room' of his immediate area, even if they were the most accomplished bluffers he'd ever met. Emotions, he'd been taught, were always visible for those who knew how to look.

While much of the standard ones he'd expected to be hanging around there were - excitement, lust, joy - he also found there was an undercurrent there he wasn't prepared for - annoyance. She and Jez were having a tiff, with Lara thinking Jez was hopping into the sack too quickly with Loz, even if she did think he was cute in a sort of reckless behavior kind of way. But it was speed with which Jez had gone after the young man, Sketch could intuit, that causes her feeling of frustration with her wife.

But excitement? Lust? Those two feelings were just a single layer down, and they felt stronger than perhaps he'd realized. The minute he touched them with his ability, he felt them spark hard and fast, like they'd been waiting for a trigger to set them off, and the roaring surge of flame he felt The Warmth set off needed him to dial it back a bit from his initial push. He wasn't sure if he'd just gotten much stronger in his abilities, now that they were back under his control, or if the lusts Lara had been feeling were significantly less dormant than he'd thought they were.

"Fuck, that's quite a bit stronger than I expected you to hit me with, Captain," Lara said, pinching one of her own nipples through the thick layers of cloth she had over it. "W-w-what percentage of your strength are you laying into me with right now?"

"Twenty, maybe twenty-five," Sketch said to her.

Bullshit, Storm Walker, you are giving her less than ten percent of what you're capable of.

'Hush, Fury Rose,' he thought at her. 'Let the woman keep some sense of pride.'

She asked for a demonstration, Storm Walker, and you will give her one.

'Rose, don't push me...'

Give her anything less than fifty percent of your strength, Storm Walker, and I will force you to hit her with everything you have.

'Rose, quit being a bitch.'

Last warning.

'... fine.'

"This is about to get a lot stronger, though, as I dial it up a bit..." Sketch said, slowly starting to bring the heat levels of her libido up using his mind, and the expression on her face was shifting rapidly, her eyes dilating as she looked at Sketch like he was a side of beef and she a starving woman.

"Goddamn, Captain, it's taking every bit of will I have not to run over and straddle you in that chair until you give me what I want right fucking now..." Lara's eyes closed, and Sketch watched her hands bundle up into tiny fists as she struggled to keep her breathing regular. "How much of your strength is this?"

"It's not im--"

"HOW MUCH?"

"... a little less than half. I'm trying to bring you up to fifty percent without making you do anything you might not want to do, but you've been pretty wound up lately, apparently."

The door to the bridge opened and Aliara moved into the room, glancing at Sketch then at Lara then back at Sketch, the tall Y'bari woman having a sly grin upon her face. Ever since adopting her new P'nox persona, Aliara had been coming out of her shell, getting more playful and more aggressive, but above all else, more confident in her role as the ship's muscle. "You giving our pilot a bit of a demonstration of your gifts, boss?" she asked with amusement, leaning in the doorframe, blocking it from anyone going in or out. "She doubt you could really do it or something?"

"She just wanted to see them in action for herself," Sketch said. "You good for me to start easing off, Lara?"

Lara kept balling her hands up into fists as she looked over at the tall P'nox mercenary, shaking her head a little bit. "And he hit you and the princess with this at full blast?"

Aliara smirked and shrugged a little. "Wasn't his fault," she said calmly. "He wasn't in control of his abilities at the time."

"He hit you with it since he got control of it again?"

"Only when we've asked him to."

"How often that been?"

"Oh, now and again." Aliara gave Sketch a little wink. "He knows how to trip our triggers without it, though, so we don't tend to press him to show off too much."

Lara rose to her feet and glanced back at Sketch, offering a sort of swaggery salute that didn't match any military gesture he'd ever seen. "Requesting permission to go join her wife in fucking the shit out of the new mechanic, Captain?"

Sketch couldn't help but laugh as he waved for Aliara to get out of Lara's way. "Permission granted, and I don't want to see you back on this deck until either he or you are walking funny."

"Aiming for all three of us, sir," Lara said, heading straight for the door before turning around, walking all the way back to Sketch's position, grabbing him, kissing him like she was attempting to push her tongue down to his stomach from the top, before pulling back and grinning. "And if you think this exempts you from getting into my bed, Captain, sooner or later I'll give you twice what I'm going to give her, even if we have to do it on this fucking bridge. You can fucking count on that."

With that, his pilot headed away from him and marched straight to the door, as Aliara hopped into the room, letting Lara stomp past, clearly a woman on a mission, heading straight towards the elevator for the crew quarters.

Aliara had a good laugh at that, shifting her hair out of her face. "I don't know how you do it, Captain, but you certainly attract quite the collection of sexually enthusiastic people," she said, walking over to stand next to him as he slid back into his chair and adjusted it upwards, so it was easier to look her in the eye. "But it's good. It means they'll bond, and they'll be less likely to leave one behind when a job goes sour."

"Don't you mean 'if' a job goes sour?"

"Boss, you and I both know, if you're in the criminal business long enough, sooner or later, something always goes sour. It's just a question of how you deal with it. And the fact that she's going to go join her wife means they'll work through it," Aliara said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "You gonna take a shot at the new girl?"

"She's a professional, Aliara," Sketch said. "That's a whole league beyond what I've been dealing with so far. And she's going to be plying her trade here on the ship, so I don't know that me being a client would make a whole lot of sense."

"The kid said she offered free services for anyone on the crew during his contract, as long as it's within reason," Aliara said. "I intend to at least talk to her about taking her up on it. You should as well."

"Except I'm the boss," Sketch said. "That means I'm supposed to be above that kind of thing. I'm supposed to be able to keep the peace when there's arguments between crew members."

"But you shouldn't be above us, Sketch, unless it's in the very literal sense," Serena said, having slipped in the room a few moments earlier. "Besides, she wants you to give her a swing. She says it'll help her take the measure of you." The princess moved to climb up into Sketch's chair and slipped down into his lap. "So you should definitely fuck her."

"I don't recall asking for your advice on the matter."

"You're gonna take it anyway, though," Serena said, kissing at his neck, licking at the dark flesh before giving it little nips with her pearl white teeth. "Because it'll do everyone a world of good, you having the full measure of everyone on your crew."

"It doesn't seem like her you're trying to get me to fuck her so much as you are trying to get me to fuck you right now," Sketch said with a laugh as he felt her starting to wriggle down into his lap. "I mean, it's been a bit, but it hasn't been that long."

"It's been long enough," she whimpered. "I can just do all the work for you. Just sit there."

"Mind if I play as well?" Aliara asked as she pulled her shirt off, revealing her massive breasts, those pastel blue nipples already stiff and firm, as she moved to slide in behind him, almost threatening to swallow his head between those voluminous tits of hers, each of which was larger than his head. She pressed one to either side of his face from behind, which made Serena giggle.

"You could suffocate him with those monsters," Serena said. "But I don't mind if you don't."

"He's so good with his mouth, though," Aliara said as she slightly rotated around him so she could push one of those nipples into his mouth. The proportions meant her nipples, when fully erect, were as thick as the base of his middle finger, but that apparently gave his tongue more agility and precision, which always seemed to make the Y'bari woman squeal and whimper. "Fuck, he's made me come like a dozen times with just using his tongue..."

"Sketch?" Serena asked him, as she pushed his pants down just enough for her to fish out his cock, the dark shaft throbbing and pulsing against her pale skinned hand. "Can... can you hit both of us with The Warmth again, while we're fucking?"

She had already slipped her own pants down just to the middle of her thigh before sliding her slit down onto his cock, settling into his lap in a nice, intimate fashion that let her just rock back and forth in his lap, pushing his shaft inside of her intimate folds, a giggle rolling off her lips as she watched Aliara's hand stroke the back of his head, and he could only nod in agreement, as he started to bring The Warmth up in both of them.

The Calm had not been an order that practiced celibacy, so he'd used The Warmth in this way before, back before the deep freeze and the long slumber, but not since he'd been back, and he'd forgotten how much it almost felt like linking his mind to his partner's. In this case, he was splitting his focus between the two of them, but both were like open books to him, eager to receive and embrace the signal, to ride the flow like birds on the wind.

He felt connected to them in a way beyond mere words, as if their emotions were linked to his own and back, a sort of cycle or loop, each tingle of nerves, either of theirs or his, blowing back onto the others, as Serena began to bounce and hop in his lap, while Aliara's hand mauled one of the princess's tits through her top, the Y'bari's hand nearly enveloping the mound of flesh, which only makes Serena wriggle faster.

Before he knew it, the three of them were sharing one cumulative orgasm that kept pinballing back and forth inside of their minds and across their nervous systems, each of them trembling and clinging onto each other, as he let loose a rush of his seed inside of the Princess's body, a crowning achievement the Princess had seemed to be racing for.

Each time it happened, they all grew a little bit closer, a little more intimate, a little less like strangers in the night and more like a family. He was aware of it happening, but had decided it was one of those things he liked the feeling of.

Being unable to trust anyone had been the hardest part of life post thaw, and now that he had some people he could rely on (beyond Helen, of course, who he'd trust to the ends of the galaxy), he was starting to feel like he was mentally coming out of the shock he'd been living under after all the lost time.

He'd been dethawed for years, but maybe the cold itself was starting to recede.

As they were shivering in the afterglow of their post-orgasm shared moment, Serena turned his head down and kissed him tenderly but held the kiss for an especially long moment. Then she did the same with Aliara, a bit awkward because of the mismatched sizes of their heads, but they made it work. And to close, Aliara tilted her face to kiss Sketch's lips, her powerful arms wrapped around the two of them.

"I know we like to joke and kid, Miles, but I'm very glad you didn't turn me away when you would've been well-within your rights to do so," Serena said.

"And I'm glad you two decided not to kill me when you had the chance," Aliara added.

"To be fair," Sketch said, "I did want to."

"Only because you hadn't fucked me yet," the giant Y'bari teased, although Sketch realized that he should probably start mentally thinking of her as a P'nox, so he didn't make that mistake when discussing her with people off the ship. "I like to think I've made up for it since then by being an incredible fuck. But if not, please, let me know what I need to do to improve. I take feedback very seriously. I'm bonded to you, Miles, so I want to make sure we're both thrilled with that arrangement."

"It's been grand, Aliara," Sketch said with a wry smile. "Neither of you two have anything to worry about. My life's all the better with you both in it."

"Glad to hear it," Serena said.

"Captain," Helen's voice said, cutting through the air. "I know you told me just to pass on summaries of any notifications the Starless Dominion sent out, but I think this one you may want to watch personally. My analysis sensors tripped over one of the preset flags you had."

Serena slipped herself off his lap and pulled her panties and pants back up, shimmying back into the tight fighting clothing. "Which one of the flags?"

"The one that looks for tattoo markings of a Calm member."

"They captured a member of the Order?" Sketch said with a frown, as Aliara pulled her top back on, and he tucked his cock away in his pants. "That can't be good."

"That... isn't my read on the situation, Captain," Helen said. "But I may be misinterpreting what I'm seeing. And it has another reason you definitely need to watch the video for yourself."

The screen on the far wall of the bridge popped to life and showed several Y'bari in full battle armor in front of podium, with a couple of humans off to one side, and an alien of a species Sketch didn't recognize standing at the podium in the center of the screen. It looked like a giant lizard, with scales of red and orange, but in a bipedal form, although it had four arms instead of two. "What's that at the podium? I don't think I've ever seen one of those before."

"No reason you would've," Aliara said to him. "Most humans never see them. That's an Okinler; they're sort of the head lieutenants of the Starless Dominion, but they prefer to work from the shadows. I don't think they've ever done a public appearance like this."

"Sovereign citizens of the Starless Dominion, I, Karaquash, General of the Dominion's Fist, Commander of the Protectorate Forces, have been given a task by our illustrious leaders, one which I am appealing to all those under the Dominion's protection to aide us in. The deposed human monarchy has, it seems, been able to keep several high-ranking members of their bloodlines alive. There are fifty human royals out and among you, and they must be captured and turned into the Protectorate Forces. There is no room for those who cannot follow the Dominion's simple instructions, and while the Protectorate had been instructed to allow the human royalty to remain vestigial, dormant and forgotten, but when they attempted to start making noise over the past year or two, it has unfortunately stoked thoughts that acting out against the Dominion would be, in any way, a positive step. Therefore, we are asking all citizens of the Dominion to be on the look out for these fifty individuals--" The screen cut away to show fifty still images of different faces in two rows of five at a time, with Serena's picture being in the second to last set, as the narration continued over it. "--and with your help, we in the Protectorate will be able to corral these royals and imprison them, where they will be unable to do us any more harm. There is only Dominion, there was only Dominion and there will forever be only the Starless Dominion." Then all the beings on stage lifted their arms, crossing them at the wrists, and held their wrists to their foreheads above their eyes, the Starless Dominion salute, which Sketch had seen before. And the image froze there.

"Yeah, this is pretty fucking serious," Serena said. "I'm on a fucking watchlist. We're going to have to do something about that."

"I might know someone who could help us with that part, but that's not the part that's catching my personal attention."

"Something more important than a systems wide bounty being put out on my head?" Serena scowled at him.

"Maybe... Look..." He pointed towards one of the two human off to the side, both of whom were wearing facial coverings, one man and one woman, and though the woman had long sleeves and gloves on, the motion to make the salute had caused the shirt to pull off and expose some of her wrists, and there lay some very distinctive Calm tattoo work, the shapes with heavy in-line outlines to make it pop. Considering the Protectorate had been the ones to hunt down the Calm in the first place, Sketch wasn't sure if they were hiding and had simply gotten caught for a moment, or if they were in league with the Dominion, and no longer cared who knew the Starless Dominion had a Storm or a Fury on their payroll - the gloves made it impossible to see how far the rank extended. "That's one of my people there with them. The human male next to her doesn't have any such markings."

"What are you thinking, boss?"

"I'm thinking for right now, while we're on the way to pick up our next gig, I start sending a few messages through dead drop relays and see if we can do something about Serena's image being blasted out across the systems. I also want to start poking around, see who those two humans on the stage with the Dominion were."

"It's a Dominion Watchlist, Sketch," Serena groaned. "Do you really think you've got someone who can alter that?"

Sketch grinned as he moved over towards one of the communications terminals, starting to type out a very long message that was going to go through five different relays and three different encryption systems before it got where it was going. "Relax. I got a guy."