Liam stood in his office, looking out his window. The ship had passed the Arra'toos system a day ago. Coffee was on his desk, still warm. The blue swirls of hyperspace hurled the Aeris towards the Curzon system, and they entranced the captain. He stood thinking about his first trip to Clotho Prime. Three years ago, his travels had taken him to that planet, no more then a way stop for ships to refuel and rearm. It held only a small base and a single small city of 80,000 people. It had also held slaves from the four races. This was one reason why Liam avoided the planet, landing only when necessary.

He had once done a cargo run there, worth sixty-five thousand credits. Due to a run-in with an ion storm, he had to spend his two days off-ship in the city. He had regretted it. He had seen many Terran officials abuse and severely injure many of the slaves. Many Brox worked in industrial places, their keen intelligence used in the production of weapon and ship designs. Hunn'sta worked the fields, their skills and abilities as an agrarian race needed to grow anything on a nearly desolate world.

No Calan were on world, as they were kept mostly in the eastern worlds. Sauridians were kept here for heavy labor use and got some of the worst punishments. Liam had felt anger towards the Colonial Navy for their wanton abuse of such slave use. They were beaten, whipped, and even blasted with weapons at a mere whim. But no one dare do anything, for the Terran Empire had at its beck and call the largest navy in known space and it could mass produce any ship with efficient ease. Those few who dared oppose the Empire were either crushed or whisked away to New Alcatraz, never to be heard from again.

In the years since then, the Terran Empire had decided that the slaves were needed in other, more important places, so much of the slave force went to other worlds, namely New Britain and Opal. With this change, many people left the world as they had little wish to work when slave labor was free on other worlds. With a drop of three-hundred thousand people, the planet dropped to a backwater status with just standard repair and refueling to offer.

His thoughts turned from the past to present. His mind was on his passenger. Lynn was a beautiful woman with a keen intellect and kind and charming nature. It was kind of strange for one as young as she was to be a diplomat. Liam figured she was nineteen, twenty at the most. It usually took years, even decades for anyone to hone their skills to diplomacy to be considered talented enough to be sent on a major deal. They had bumped in each other on occasion, but they rarely spoke long enough. The Aeris needed checking up on from time to time, and he needed rest as well.

Liam, he thought, you need to get over this. Chances are you may not see her again. There are other people in this galaxy. Liam shook his head, and walked to his desk, sitting down. Taking a sip of his coffee, he reached into his uniform pocket and pulled out a data crystal, the one that held chapters to Oliver Twist. Inserting it into a port in his desktop computer, Liam hit the console key to activate it. He was about to start reading when he heard a beeping sound from his office door.

Lowering the screen on computer, he got up and called out, "Come in!" Lynn entered the room, dressed as always in a semi-formal attire. She seemed as beautiful as ever, but she seemed to have a troubled look about her. "May I help you, Ms. Harding? Is there anything wrong?"

Lynn scowled slightly, then replied. "Please Captain, call me Lynn. I'm not a formal diplomat. I'm not one for formalities when not working. As for your question, Captain, I've been pondering over the deals my government had made with Clotho and I understand that you grew up on Zaxted Starport, so you would have some experience with such matters. I was wondering if you could help me with the propositions over dinner perhaps?"

Liam's head nearly swam as he heard the words, but it was just a normal meeting. "The people at Griffin Tech. must have good information. I would be glad to help you, Ms..., Lynn. Meet me in the mess in three hours. But please take no offense at my cooking; I never paid attention to my lessons on that."

"Thank you, Captain. I appreciate this. I'll meet you in three hours. And don't worry about your cooking. I've dined with officials from Landfall. I'm sure it will be better than fried fish and liver." With that she left, leaving a love struck Liam to watch after.

Liam sat down, trying to calm down. Lifting the screen, he started to turn it off when he glanced at the screen. "What the hell..." he whispered. Rubbing his eyes, Liam looked closer at the computer. It didn't hold a novel, but algorithms and numbers, along with encoded text. "Where did this come from..." Then it hit him. Freeport and the run-in with the scientist. Must have grabbed the wrong one. Hitting a few console keys, Liam surfed through it. It was highly encoded alright.

"Computer, decode the text and display. I want to know what this is."

A few seconds later, the cold voice of the computer answered. "Unable to decode. It is voice locked."

"Are there any suggestions as to how to bypass the lock?"

"Negative. There is no normal ways of bypassing such locks." Liam cursed and thought for a second. He hated voice locked data. It was very hard to get through one without proper equipment.

Sighing, Liam said, "Computer, run a class three decoding followed by an omega three sequence. If that doesn't work, run through the entire linguistic database and try every word and phrase possible in as many languages as possible. If you've made any progress, alert me." The computer complied. With that, the captain left for the mess. It had been months since he had cooked. He hoped nothing would burn.

Lynn entered her quarters, her mind ablaze with questions. This captain seemed like any other mercenary, with no loyalties to anyone. Yet unlike most mercs, he was cordial and polite as well as versed in politics and commerce. Richard Mead had assured her that he was a good man, but she should be wary. Liam Ares was like most of his family, prone to take unnecessary risk and danger others as well.

Liam seemed like a good fellow, but he also had something of quiet to him. The fact that there was no crew on a ship that could suppourt forty or fifty people gave credit to her theory. Taking off her coat, she sat down in a a chair and sank into the plush cushions. Lynn had taken the time onboard to explore the ship and examine it. It was impressive.

It had an airponics bay with many rare fruits and plants. The holodeck had some good selections and the sickbay to have enough supplies to handle for sixty people. There were many empty crew quarters, and one of them had even been turned into reck room. The observation lounge was unused and dusty, but kept in good use. Engineering, cargo bays, and even the captain's office.

But what was amazing was the fact that this ship was equipped for cargo runs as well as for battle. The Aeris was completely different from the standard module. She was equipped with three pulse turrets and complement of thirty torpedos. The ship was also armed with a plasma driver, a deadly weapon that put long range missles to shame, although where he got those items Lynn was uncertain. A tritanium hull and durasteel layer gave it superior strength. The shield grid was perhaps similar to that of an Argosy-class destroyer and the speed, thrust, and turn rates had been greatly increased. It held an inborn ramscoop and a ECM swayed any missles targeting the ship.

Lynn liked the captain, but he seemed overly kind and somewhat cold to most government types. It could be due to the fact of his family history. Oh well, it wasn't her problem. She was here on a first time diplomatic mission that would determin her career. It would also be a good chance to gain some valuable supplies from the Terran Empire.

Lynn's thoughts wandered back to Liam. There was something that drew attention to him. The fact that he didn't even act like a mercenary, the way he knew how to man a ship alone without even a single other person, and perhaps his ability to survive and flourish in a galaxy ruled by the Emprie. Shaking her head, she whispered, "Stop this, Lynn. He's a merc, one who just as soon blast you as to save you. Besides you're a diplomat, one who does things by negoating, not by brute force."

She got up and stretched. She needed to get ready for this dinner. Even though Captain Ares was a merc, he understood the ways of business and commerce better then she. Undressing, she headed for the sonic shower. She had to be clean after all...

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