When I saw my assigned target, I had to recheck my file. But there it was, plain as day. One "Sabine DeWinter," captain of the Rebel Cruiser Black Knight. I had heard about her. A felon at the least in every Confederation system, in the one's she hadn't dominated anyway, and she has a yellow sheet as long as my arm in many of the independent systems as well. I had a feeling that when that Confed official came and asked me if I wanted a job as a Confed bounty hunter, that I'd run into her sooner or later. I was hoping for later. She was both famous and praised for destroying that renegade alien battle cruiser, but by helping the Rebellion with numerous assassinations of Confederation Senate members, destroying supply convoys time and time again, gun running, transportation of wanted criminals to pirate systems, drug smuggling, even theft of captured Rebel munitions from the Confederation's main weapons testing and manufacturing center in the NGC-6465 system, there is nothing that will allow her to go to any Confed system, short of her going the Privateer's Haven and purchasing a fake ID, or capturing the system. But for spite she still goes to them.

The small, dingy bar I was in on New Antigua was smoke-filled, dimly lighted, and in short one of the worst I had been to in quite some time. DeWinter was sitting in a booth close enough to mine so that I could pick up bit and pieces of her conversations as well as keep an eye on her. She was talking to her executive officer and when I checked my files for his name, he turned out to be her brother Talon. The two were part of a set of triplets with the third on his way to becoming allied with Confed Navy. Seems pretty smart to me. A "slightly" inebriated pirate stumbled over to the two. He apparently said something that she didn't agree with and he ended up unconscious on the floor. Half the bar burst out laughing and it remained that way for about five minutes. Even I couldn't keep from snickering at the pirate's stupidity. The pirate tried to get up, but she knocked him out again. Seeing this little altercation gave me proof that she had earned her stellar combat rating of ultimate. In fact, that combat rating applied to her hand-to-hand combat as well.

I looked at my watch. It was eight p.m. and she was scheduled to lift off sometime around midnight. If I didn't do my job quickly, I'd have to follow her and I knew what happened when bounty hunters tracked her down. Nine times out of ten, they didn't come back. The few that do come back, no longer have a ship. The Confeds said they wanted her alive. My poor Kestrel the Adventurer had quite a beating coming in and I hope the Confeds are paying for repairs.

Her XO spotted me watching them and I suddenly had this horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. It didn't take me too long to realize that half of this bar was filled with her crew. Her stare seemed to go right through me and I feared that I had been found out, but then I realized that they weren't looking at me, but at a humanoid who looked roughly her age who had just walked into the bar. The look on his face was filled with fear. I watched her as she stood up. Her right arm hung nearly straight with her hand on the butt of her blaster. She moved slowly, stiffly. I knew that when she started out in her trading business that she had quite a time with the pirates. She began to walk toward the man who was now trapped in the bar since two of her crew had moved between him and the door. I noted that when she walked, she had a slight limp, probably some injury she received while piloting one of the ships from her lowly Shuttlecraft, the Golden Eagle, up to her time piloting that sleek little Clipper, the Silver Bullet. Once she reached the man she said something I didn't quite pick up then pointed toward the door. The two crew members moved out of the way and the man slowly backed out of the bar. Once he was outside, he turned and sprinted toward the spaceport's hangars. DeWinter looked at the crew member on her left, at the one on the right, then looked at her crew in the bar, then ran off after the man, her crew following. I jumped up and followed them.

The man ducked into one of the larger hangers with DeWinter and her crew right on his heels. He must have thought he would be staying a little longer to have rented a hanger of this size. His ship was a Corvette class and had an unusual paint job with the stabilizers being gold instead of the usual sky blue. He sprinted up the ramp of his ship and DeWinter, with several of her crew members, followed. I hung back and watched from behind a stack of boxes. About half an hour later, DeWinter and her five or six crew members walked out of the Corvette, but stopped on the ramp. She held up a small statue and her crew cheered. I couldn't tell what the statue was made of or what it was a statue of. I had the feeling that they would return to that dingy little spaceport bar so I turned to leave. Before I walked out the door I turned around to take one more look and I saw the man they had chased here, apparently the captain of this ship, send DeWinter the "intergalactic greeting." The "flying bird." She, and her crew, returned the greeting. A few seconds later, while he was preparing to warm up his engines, a service hatch popped open and someone crawled out, they then shut the hatch. I noticed that DeWinter activated her comm unit and apparently sent a message to her Rebel Cruiser escort Knight 2. I had the feeling that this man, whoever he was, wasn't going to live long enough to make it into the safety of hyperspace. I sneaked out a back door and high-tailed it back to the bar.

Five or so minutes after her crew, DeWinter re-entered the bar and she was accompanied by a tall humanoid. I recognized him as one of her crew. The black uniform gave him away, the black uniforms gave them all away. The gold trim on the uniforms glinted in the dim light of the bar. DeWinter, however, wasn't wearing her uniform. Instead, she had donned black pants, black boots, and a black short sleeved shirt. The quarter length sleeves on the shirt made it possible for me to see the golden armband she wore on her right arm. She also wore a black hooded cape with the hood down. When she lifted her arm to pull her brown hair out of her face, the cape remained pulled back behind her right shoulder and I noticed a flash of gold. I checked the file for any insignia that she might wear and found one that looked the same. It was a gold embroidered picture of the original Black Knight, an Atinoda Kestrel much the same as mine. I often wondered where that ship went. Her tall humanoid associate apparently noticed me and pointed me out to her. She looked directly at me, shrugged, said something I couldn't quite pick up, then went back to her conversation.

Who would have ever guessed that she was the infamous mercenary/ Rebel captain Sabine DeWinter? Unless someone's been hiding under a rock for the past 70 years, all sentient beings have heard of her. Be them young Confeds, Rebels, or independents hearing about her adventures during bedtime stories, kids studying her combat tactics for a report, or a new member of the Confed Navy meeting her in the stars for the first time, everyone has heard of Rebel role model/ Confed public enemy no. 1. Now while everyone has heard of Captain DeWinter, not many know what she looks like. Most would think that she looks much older than she does. However, spending much of her life in hyperspace, combined with the fact that her species ages very slowly, she hardly looks over seventeen even though she's actually ninety-seven. The year of 2324 will be her centennial birthday, if she lives that long.

She didn't begin in a large ship. In fact, she built most of her business around a lowly Shuttlecraft. Her fortune was made little by little, bit by bit. Once she bought her Corvette though, things took quite a turn, and depending on which side of the proverbial fence your on decides if that turn was for the better or for the worse. Now she's getting 21,000 credits in planetary tributes per day, with most of that coming from Confed systems.

After I looked up from something on my laptop computer, the bar suddenly got quiet and I suddenly got nervous. I looked around me and noticed that one of her crew had taken up position behind me and he had apparently been reading my computer's screen. Once again she stood up, hand on her blaster, and walked towards me but this time she stopped at me booth. She grabbed a chair from a nearby table, turned it around so the back was facing my table and sat down. She looked at me and I froze. The look in her dark eyes was like ice. But then it wasn't. I could see a softness behind them.

"One question," she asked, "Why have you been watching me?"

"Uh . . . Uh . . . ," my mind raced for a decent answer. "I'm a fan." That sucked! I thought to myself.

"A fan, huh." I thought she had bought it. "Let me see the computer." I knew it wasn't smart to argue with her so I allowed her to see it. "I think your more than a fan."

"Meaning?"

"I think your a bounty hunter. And a Confed at that. Bounty hunters I could care less about. The rule is if you attack me, you die. But I don't wait for the Confed to attack me, I have occasionally attacked them simply because they were there. On the other hand, I will never attack a civilian. But you aren't a civilian are you?"

"No." She had me pegged.

"You are contract labor. A contract bounty hunter to be exact, hired by the Confeds to track me down, right?"

"Will it make any difference if I say no?"

"In this case . . . no. From what I'm reading here, I really don't give a damn what you say."

"How do you know that those are actual documents and not reproductions?"

"One, I don't think you're stupid enough to run around with falsified Confed documents," she said pushing the computer back to me. "Two, I know you've been watching me since before I knocked that pirate out. That alone is almost reason enough to have my friend here rip your throat out." She nodded toward the tall humanoid she came in with earlier. "But not this time. I want to send you and your sorry Kestrel back to the Confeds alive and with a message."

How does she know I have a Kestrel? I thought but I said, "Which is . . ?"

"Tell them that if they don't quit bothering me for no reason other than the fact of that I'm just there and if they don't quit following me to Dorado, my home system, that I will wage all out war on the Confederation."

"I'll be sure to tell my supervisor."

"No. Tell the Senate. The more people that this message goes through, the more of a chance that it's gonna get screwed up. I want you to tell the President of the Senate, and the rest of the Senate, personally. Tell them that if I find one member of the Confed Navy, or any other part of the Confed military on ElDorado II, that will give me cause to wage war on every Confed system. Remember, one Confed means all hell will break loose. Understand?"

"Yes. I'll remember that, Captain DeWinter."

"Good. What was your name?"

"Benedict Davies, captain of the Kestrel Adventurer."

"Davies. Are you by chance related to Jansson Davies?"

"Yeah. He's my older brother. Why?"

"Interesting. Do you know what your brother does for a job?"

"No, I haven't heard from him in several years. Do you know him?" As I asked she began to stand up. She answered while she was standing and even though she's only 5'6", I could have sworn that she was taller.

"As a matter of fact, I do know him. He's a good fried of mine. He's a Rebel admiral. I'll bet you never know that, did you?"

As she walked off, I sat there stunned. I never thought that my brother would be stupid enough to join the Rebellion. Apparently, I was wrong. But with him being an admiral, that means that I shouldn't have to worry about meeting him in stellar combat, even though my Kestrel is considered a Confed ship and the Rebels are trigger happy when it comes to Confeds.

I quickly shut down my computer, flipped the bartender a credit chip, and headed out of the bar. I ran towards the Adventurer and as I neared her, I realized that the Black Knight's landing platform was right next to the Adventurer's. DeWinter's crew appeared to be finishing pre-flight checks on both Cruisers. As I walked by, I saw her jump down from one of the turrets. She apparently does most of the work on the Knight. I went ahead and had my crew begin pre-flight on the Adventurer then went back out to see if she needed any help.

"Greetings, Captain Davies. What brings you over here?"

"I noticed that you were working on one of your turrets and wondered if you needed help."

"Maybe. If you know how to shoot, then you can help. Let me get Sebastien to show you to the turret. Sebastien!"

He was the same tall humanoid that she said would rip my throat out given half a chance. "What's up, Sabine?"

"Take Captain Davies here up to the turret that's being worked on."

"You actually trust him?"

"No, not yet. This is a test of trust."

"Seems dangerous to me."

"Sebastien, I'll be fine."

"You know how I worry about you. It's bad enough with you and all these problems with the damn Confeds. I don't want to lose you."

"You won't. Trust me."

"Okay, I'll meet you up there." I noticed that he seemed, reluctant to let her go. He watched her until she had climbed up the hull of the ship, so disappearing from site. "Let's go. What did she say your name was?"

"I'm Captain Benedict Davies."

"I'll remember that, Captain Davies."

"If you don't mind me asking, I was wondering how long you two have known each other?"

"Me and Sabine? I don't know. I met her long before she started in the trading business, we lost touch for about ten years then one day, back on Earth at my lake house, a police boat came up and she was riding with them. I never have gotten the whole story. All I know is that it involves several of her enemies from ElDorado II, and her traitor of a brother Zephie."

"Zephie?"

"Yeah, her moron of a brother who thinks he's a Confed."

"What do you have against the Confederation?"

"Sabine and I both lost brothers in the Great War. Two of hers and one of mine could have been saved, but they were left to die."

Now is when I wish that I had my laptop. I'll bet that's not in the file. "I hope that you aren't getting angry with me asking all these questions."

"No. That's how one learns."

"What species are you and her? I know that her species ages very slowly, but my file never said what species she is."

"I am a Wolven, but don't let the name fool you. Wolven are bipedal felines. I'm tall for a Wolven."

"How tall are you?"

"I'm 6'7". Most Wolven are around 6'3". But going back to your original question, Sabine is an Equuleuan."

"A what?"

"An Equuleuan, a creature part unicorn, part pegasus. There aren't many Equuleuans left."

"Why?"

"She was in the process of trying to get her family, and whoever else wanted to come, off the planet of ElDorado. She had heard reports that the aliens were headed toward them."

"Aliens?"

"This was during the Great War. She had transported a box of her family's birth certificates by way of a Courier to ElDorado II and was on her way back to ElDorado and had just popped put of hyperspace right when that aliens were leaving. All that was left of ElDorado was a huge asteroid field. Unknown to her, two older sisters, one younger sister, and one brother all left in a Courier bound for ElDorado II. Her friend Onyx, his brother and her other brother Talon boarded a Scoutship also bound for ElDorado II. Her mother and father were separated and her mother ended up on Mars; her father ended up on Earth. As far as we know, they were the only survivors, though there could be others. Her oldest sister does have a child, but the child's not a full blooded Equuleuan."

"None of this was ever mentioned in my files."

"Most beings don't know about what happened to ElDorado. Here's the turret. I'll be back in a bit."

"Pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise, Captain Davies. In case you're wondering, my name's Sebastien Hawke, first officer of the Black Knight." With that he walked off. I went into the gunner area in the turret and saw that Sabine was outside with a service hatch popped open and she was fiddling with some circuitry.

"There you are, Captain Davies. I was beginning to wonder where you were. Sit down and fire one shot."

"Okay." When I fired the shot, only two of the three proton cannons fired. "What's wrong with it?"

"Don't know. It's been like this for a while now."

"Will it stay aligned?"

"Not anymore. It fires about .3° off center. I've got my most accurate gunner on this turret. I wonder if . . . "

"'If' what?" But she had already climbed into the malfunctioning cannon's service hatch. I heard metal hitting metal. I kept hearing the pounding then heard whatever tool she had been using fall, followed by her saying "damnit." I began to wonder if she knew what she was doing. My doubts were erased when the malfunctioning cannon fired.

"Hot damn!"

I almost couldn't hear her. "What'd you do?"

"I guessed. Give me one shot."

When I fired the guns, I noticed that not only were all the cannons firing again, but the alignment was truer than I had ever seen and the power read-out told me that the strength of the shot was stronger than I had ever seen, nearly 110%. I looked back down at the hatch and saw several tools fly out of it and land on the hull, but I still didn't see her. I assumed that she was looking for the fallen tool. I never once expected her to pop up behind me.

"Hi."

"Ahh!!! How the hell'd you get back there?"

"I went through that service hatch, crawled back here, and opened this hatch."

"You're crazy."

"Being crazy's the only thing that keeps me sane. He, he. Bye."

She slid back down into the hatch opening and closed it. I then saw her come out of the turret hatch and close it as well. Sebastien walked into the gunner area and asked what we were doing.

"What's going on?"

"She just fixed the turret and aligned it and increased the strength of the cannons as well. Never once have I seen a proton turret fire truer or stronger."

"She has a way with machines. For example . . . Where is she going? Never mind, she's getting down. Anyway, she has a small portable CD player that quit working a year or so ago. She finally got the bright idea to hook it up again. She flicked it, yelled at it, cussed at it, yelled at it some more, flicked it some more, turned off the electronic shock protection and now it works fine."

"She scared it into working."

"Apparently. She's always had that, 'Do what I say and you live' air about her. But she's not a violent being unless you get her angry."

"I've noticed. I hope you don't mind me asking but are you and her . . . "

"Engaged?"

"Yeah. That's what I was trying to say."

"Yes, we are."

"You don't seem . . . "

"Compatible?"

"You're better at this than I am."

"No, we don't but were so different that we fill this huge gap in each other."

"How long have you been together?"

"A long time. I lost count a few years ago."

"Years?"

"Yes, years. Don't forget that time travels much quicker in hyperspace, and then there's the fact that her schedule changes so often that we can't be sure where she'll be one week to the next."

The alarm on his comm unit beeped. It was DeWinter.

"Sebastien?"

"What's up, Sabine?"

"You need to come look at this. It's the funniest thing I've seen in a long time and I've seen some funny shit."

"What is it?"

"You'll see. Now hurry up and get down here.

"On the bridge?"

"Where else would I be? Wait . . . don't answer that."

"Captain Davies and I will be right there."

When we reached the bridge, her Cruiser escort was bringing down a familiar looking Corvette with gold stabilizers and few more scorch marks on it's hull. DeWinter was trying to contact the captured ship.

"Sovereign, this is the Black Knight. Zephie, answer me. Come on you little moron, answer."

"Sabine, I'm gonna kill you."

"Just try it. Don't worry about the scorch marks, Zephie, I'll pay for a new paint job."

"Who is that?" I inquired.

"That, Captain Davies, is my wannabe Confed brother."

"Zephie?"

"Yeah."

"I'm getting tired of this game, Sabine."

"Game over, Zephie. You got caught, you lose."

"Like I had a chance against four Manta fighters and a Rebel Cruiser."

"Be glad it wasn't two Cruisers. You could have run."

"Never."

"I'm surprised you survived this long. You're too stubborn."

"I come by it honestly."

"Thanks for the complement. Now, am I going to have to drag your sorry butt out of that ship or are you going to come along quietly?"

"Depends."

"On what?"

"On how well your Cruiser escort behaves."

"Fair enough."

"What's going on?" I asked Sebastien.

"Family troubles."

"They always like this?"

"Usually. Zephie and Sabine never got along that well. Especially after he turned on her."

"What?"

"He joined up with one of her ElDorado II enemies. He betrayed her trust and she's been reluctant to trust anyone ever since."

"Pity."

"Don't pity her. Gets her angry."

"Thanks for telling me."

"You stupid shit!" I wondered what her brother had done. "You aren't getting away with that trick. You wanna play hardball, I'm game. Knight 2, fire a shot at the Sovereign."

"We read you, Black Knight," answered the captain of Knight 2. He then answered with a proton volley directed at the Sovereign.

"Sabine, what are you doing?!?"

"Wakey, wakey. I knew that'd get you talking. I'm just trying to keep you from trying anything, Zephie. I know how sneaky you are. You come by that honestly as well."

"Very funny."

"Hey, you said it yourself. Talon's the same way and as far as I know he hadn't been anywhere near you or me for fifteen years. Mom and Dad are like that as well. It's in the genes."

"I want to talk to you, alone, once I get the Sovereign secured."

"Gladly. Knight 2, this is the Black Knight."

"We read you, Captain DeWinter."

"Captain Roberts, escort the captain of the Sovereign to the Black Knight. Executive Officer DeWinter will be waiting for you."

"DeWinter, ma'am?"

"My brother Talon."

"My fault. Sorry, Captain."

"No harm done Captain Roberts. Slight misunderstanding, completely excusable."

"We'll be right over, ma'am. Knight 2 out."

"Sovereign, prepare to be boarded."

"Over my dead body, Sabine."

"Don't tempt me."

"You're gonna pay for this one."

"Oh really?" With that she turned the comm off. "He'll never learn."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"He's always been an . . . ass. More talk than action, like the rest of my family, except for Talon."

"With the exception of you as well, you're right on that account," Sebastien mentioned.

"Talon's the smartest of the bunch."

"You don't include yourself?"

"Sabine doesn't like to boast."

"Except when it comes to my encounters with the Confeds."

"Forgot about that."

A sudden silence enveloped the bridge. DeWinter was the first to speak.

"Do you heard that?" she inquired.

"Hear what?" First Officer Hawke returned.

"Listen."

"Captain DeWinter, are you hearing things?"

"I just hear ships."

"It's raining," she said.

"I don't see it," Hawke mentioned.

"Look at the Sovereign and Knight 2."

"Your good," I commented.

"What time is it?" she asked.

"Just after 10:15," I replied.

"I'm gonna be late. Captain Davies, you have my message. Meet me on ElDorado II in two month's time."

"Will do, Captain DeWinter."

"Call me Sabine. Oh, Benedict, if you see Zephie, tell him I'm waiting."

"Sure. Good-bye."

On my way out I did in fact see Zephie. Upon seeing him, I gave him Sabine's message. He rolled his eyes, shook his head and headed toward the bridge, escorted by Talon. I noticed how both Talon and Zephie both walked much like their sister, but minus the limp. I now knew that the three had been separated for quite sometime and I had to assume that, like their attitude problems, it was genetic.

I lifted off from New Antigua and after disabling and capturing a pirate Clipper, jumped my way back to Confed territory. It was seven jumps to the Sol system, (hyperspace jumps averaging about three days normal time) but I only had enough fuel for six, no thanks to a carefully executed pirate attack in both the Centauri and Sol systems. I stopped at New Britain in the Rigel system to fuel up. In doing so, I gave myself enough fuel to get out of and back into the Sol system if the need should arise. Six days after lifting off from New Britain, I popped in to the Sol system and, after receiving landing clearance, landed on Earth, the home of the Confederation. My supervisor was waiting for me on the Adventurer's landing platform. Upon seeing that Sabine wasn't with me, I watched his expression go from anger, to fear, then to total confusion. His tone of voice complemented his countenance.

"Where is she?" he asked.

"I'm sorry sir, I didn't get her."

"What!?! Why?"

"She gave me a message to tell the Senate."

"Well, let's hear it."

"I was to tell the Senate myself, not you."

"Very well. Let's go."

We walked to the Senate house, which wasn't too far from the spaceport. There, in front of the Senate, I gave them Sabine's message. "Captain DeWinter has given me a message to relay to you. She wants you to leave her alone and quit firing on her just because she's there and she wants the Confederation to quit following her to her home system of Dorado. If these requests are not met, she will wage all out war on the Confederation. She also said that if she finds one Confederation Navy personnel on ElDorado II that will give her cause to blatantly attack to Confederation. She has given you fair warning."

The President of the Senate asked, "You've conveyed her message to us, but where is she?"

"She left New Antigua just after we talked. I don't know where she is at this current time."

"She left and you didn't follow her?"

"No sir. I have at least a little respect for my life and for the lives of my crew, unlike other bounty hunters that have gone after her."

"You seem to have developed an attitude over the course of your trip, Captain Davies. Why?"

"From what I understand, both Captain DeWinter and first officer of the Black Knight Sebastien Hawke lost family in the Great War. Brothers to be exact. Two of her brothers and one of his could have survived, but they were left behind to die. I believe that some of her attitude is coming from this. That's where mine's coming from too."

"You're sympathizing with this . . . this Rebel, this mercenary. Captain Davies, you could be tried for treason."

"After hearing her side of the story, death doesn't scare me."

"If you aren't careful, Captain, you will be considered a Rebel, much the same as her."

"Pity. My brother's already a Rebel Admiral, maybe I could join him. It would be better than putting with the Confederation."

"Captain Davies, you had better hope that Kestrel of yours is faster and more agile than a Confederation Cruiser. If it is not, then I hope you are one lucky man."

"Considering I had the balls to do something no other merc has done, I know I'm lucky. Oh yeah, most any ship is faster than a Cruiser."

I turned and sprinted out to my ship. I had feared that something like this might happen and instructed my crew to keep the ship on stand-by in case we needed to make to make a quick get away. I ran up to ramp and slapped the "close" button on my way to the bridge, never missing a step. "First officer, give the order to lift off, immediately."

"Sir, we don't have clearance!"

"Then we'll shoot our way out. The Confed Senate isn't too happy with us right now."

"Who cares," yelled an unidentified crewer, "the Confeds never did like us anyway." I couldn't help but laugh.

We pushed the Adventurer as hard as we could and upon remembering the afterburner I had recently installed, I gave orders to turn it on for short bursts until our sensors could pick up no hostile ships. Then I saw them. several Confed Patrol Ships were headed straight for us. I has spent a short time in the Confed Navy and knew that once they saw that we weren't moving, they would break formation. I ordered all turrets to open fire on the Patrol Ships and to launch two missiles at each Patrol Ship. I counted four of them and my first thought was "Confed Cruiser." I checked my scanner and found that there was indeed a Cruiser following us. It was identified as the U.S.S. Constellation, the same ship I once served on. My comm unit beeped and when I answered, it was the voice of Dale Lenfor, captain of the Constellation.

"Adventurer, this is Confederation Cruiser U.S.S. Constellation."

"U.S.S. Constellation, this is Captain Benedict Davies. Long time no see Captain Lenfor."

"Davies!?! I never thought you'd become a traitor."

"You thought wrong, Lenfor."

"I could lose my job for this, but I'm letting you go for old times sake"

"Thank you, Captain. I hope life treats you well."

"I'm sure it will. We still need a small, mock fight to satisfy the Confeds."

"As long as I win."

"You will, but I want the first shot."

About that time, a volley of proton shots struck my shields. My gunners opened fire on the Cruiser and I gave the order for missiles to be fired, as well as torpedoes. I released all of my missiles and torpedoes on the Cruiser and continued to engage the ship until my shields were down and my armor was at half percent. I was kind of glad that I bought that illicit tritanium armor upgrade. I broke off the attack and headed away from the system center, told Captain Lenfor good bye, and jumped into the relative safety of hyperspace. The Adventurer popped out of hyperspace three days later, though the trip seemed a hell of a lot shorter, into the Centauri system. I spotted several Patrol Ships and Gunboats and I knew all too well that all of these fighters carried missiles and the Gunboats had a complement of heavy rockets as well. With no shields and only half armor, my odds weren't too good. Then I remembered my two Lightning fighter-bombers. I launched my Lightnings and watched as two million credits worth of fighters fly off and try to defend my poor Kestrel.

I moved away from system center to escape the gravity well surrounding the planet. Just when my hyperspace computer beeped at me, telling me I could initiate the jump at anytime, a fleet of Rebel ships popped out of hyperspace and headed toward the Confed fighters. I recalled my Lightnings and we jumped back into hyperspace. After landing and refueling in the Yemuro system, we took off, bound for the Turin System, the Persephone System, the Satori System, two uninhabited systems, them Dorado. The Confeds grew less and less numerous with each system and by the time we reached Palshife, in the Satori System, they were gone. We landed on Palshife to refuel and while there, I replenished my supply of missiles and torpedoes, which was exhausted in the "battle" with the Constellation. While on Palshife, I removed every piece of insignia and every beacon that identified my ship, my crew, and myself as Confeds. After spending two days on Palshife, we lifted off. I keyed up the nav computer, punched in our route through the two uninhabited systems with our journey ending in the Dorado System.

Two months from that day on New Antigua, I jumped into the Dorado system, right into the middle of a space battle. Two Rebel Cruisers and a Rebel Destroyer were dishing it out to a Confed Cruiser and a Confed Frigate. I flipped through my scanner to check the shields of the Confed Cruiser and the Frigate. They weren't doing too well. Just as the thought passed my mind, the Frigate exploded. The Destroyer rushed to join the fight with the already crippled Confed Cruiser. The remaining Confed didn't last too much longer. In a spectacular explosion, the lone Confed disappeared. My comm unit beeped and when I answered, I wasn't too surprised at the voice on the other end.

"Greeting's, Adventurer."

"Hello there, Black Knight. That was quite and explosion."

"I've seen bigger. Fully loaded Bulk Freighters really go boom."

The Destroyer interrupted our transmission. "Black Knight, this is the Tranquillity. We gonna land anytime soon?"

"Keep calm, Sirrus, we're heading down now. Adventurer, follow us."

"Right with you."

The New Earth spaceport was the quietest I had seen since Sauron. Sabine and I met in the spaceport bar, named the Tiger House. She asked the first question.

"What did the Confeds say when you gave them my message?"

"They weren't too happy, especially with me. They assumed that I was scared of you. Too scared to bring you back. Now I have bounty hunters after me!"

"The hunter becomes the hunted. I've had a few problems with them myself. And true to my word, I've started my own little war. I captured another system."

"Did you get your problem with your brother solved?"

"No. But I did discover that the 'Feds are a little ticked at him as well. No wonder I haven't been able to transport criminals to pirate systems lately. He did almost have to replace the Sovereign though."

"What happened?"

"Pirate attack. The Sovereign's a tough ship, but she can't take on a Kestrel."

"Who attacked him?"

"He didn't say. He was lucky when that Rebel Cruiser showed up. He owes his life to the crew of the R.S.S. Fearless. He still wants to be a Confed though. What about you?"

"I'm through with the Confederation. There's nothing for me there."

"Do you have a job?"

"No. Why?"

"I don't pay much but the benefits are good. You interested?"

"You'd actually let me join you?"

"Of course. I could always use a bounty hunter. You have no ties to the Confederation, in fact you're running from them. I'd be glad to have you along."

"I'm honored you'd even consider me."

"You game?"

"Yeah. What about the Adventurer and her crew?"

"I'm not going to make you sell your ship and leave your crew. Besides, I could always use a little more fire power."

"That's enough for me. In fact to get rid of all ties to my bounty hunter and Confed days, I'll rename the Adventurer."

"To what?"

"The Chimaera."

"Good choice. Very . . . intimidating. What made you think of it?"

"I heard the name somewhere."

"I like it. Well, Captain Davies, welcome to Knight Fleet."

"It's a pleasure to join you, Captain DeWinter."

<- more stories

discuss this story ->