Tyrial floated. He floated in emptiness. For a moment, he almost began to panic. Was he trapped in the Void again? But no, this place was nothing like the Void. It was filled with light and warmth and memories. Not many memories, but they were all pleasant ones.

Outside the sphere of peace he floated in was a dark maelstrom of pain and misery. But in this bright peaceful place, he could relax. The biggest difference of all, however, was reality. It floated just above him, well within reach. Reaching out, he touched it.

The first thing he noticed upon waking up, was the most comforting warmth he could imagine pressed up against his back. Opening his eyes, he smiled. Rella had stayed with him the entire night. He was beginning to think that perhaps her mere presence was enough to keep the nightmares away.

Thinking of the nightmares turned his smile into a frown. He cared for her too much to risk her well being on unproven possibilities. This had to be the last night. Sighing, he closed his eyes and relaxed back into Rella for now. The night was over and he could enjoy the peace of her presence for a few more minutes.

Stirring slightly, Rella moved her hand from his side up to his face and lightly brushed his cheek. “Good morning,” she said.

“Morning,” Tyrial replied, not opening his eyes.

“Did you sleep ok?” asked Rella.

“Mmm,” Tyrial said. Another feeling was starting to intrude on the peace he was still trying to cling to so desperately. Something he hadn’t felt in several decades. A heat began to suffuse his face. Suddenly realizing what he was feeling, Tyrial shifted uneasily, trying to put a few centimeters between him and the feel of Rella’s warm body and soft orbs pressed up to his.

“Are you alright Tyrial?” Rella asked.

“Ya,” Tyrial replied, suddenly uncomfortable, “just… time to get going I guess.” It was a lame excuse and Tyrial knew it. Despite his newfound comfort in talking with Rella, this was one subject he still had a hard time with.

“Tyrial…,” Rella said gently, “I may not be able to read your thoughts, but I can see somethings wrong.”

Sighing, Tyrial rolled onto his stomach and mumbled, “Just… it's been a long time since I spent the night with a woman… In any capacity…”

“Oh…” Rella said with a light flush creeping up her own cheeks. For a while neither of them spoke, then Rella asked quietly, “How long?”

“Twenty years, give or take,” Tyrial said. Snorting derisively, he continued, “Heros in the books I used to read never had to deal with this stuff.”

“Twenty… I’m sorry Tyrial,” Rella said, sounding somewhat depressed and conflicted. A few seconds later, she began, “Maybe —”

Turning over to face her, Tyrial took one of her hands and said, “No Rella, you have nothing to be sorry for. There's a good reason it's been that long. I need a friend right now, not… the last woman I was close to… she…”

Thoughts of the last woman he was close to began to surface unbidden. Memories of her bloody lifeless face, the ruined and shattered furniture laying all around her as broken as the woman herself. Tendrils of darkness wormed their way through his sphere of peace, each one that touched him brought unimaginable suffering and self-loathing. The bubble trembled under the onslaught.

With one hand holding his, Rella moved closer to him, the other lightly brushing his cheek. “I’m here, it’s ok.”

Shaking his head sharply and taking a deep breath, Tyrial pushed the darkness away. The bubble of peace stabilized and the warmth of Rella’s presence came back.

“I… I just…, there's a good reason I’ve never wanted you around when I fall asleep. The last woman I was with, I… she…didn’t survive.” Tyrial said shakily.

“Shh,” Rella said soothingly, “It’s ok. I’ll be here for you whenever you need me, I promise.”

Closing his eyes again, Tyrial said quietly, “That’s the problem, I’m still worried about you being here while I’m asleep.” He sighed heavily and the strength drained out of his muscles as he continued, “But I’ve lost the will to ask you to leave. So instead, I’ll just say thanks.” It seemed inadequate but he really didn’t know what else to say.

Putting her arms around him, Rella pulled him into an embrace. Kissing his forehead lightly, she mumbled, “Good. And your welcome.” For some reason, her face still looked sad, even though she was obviously trying hard to smile.

Taking a deep breath, Rella seemed to steady herself and asked, “How are your ribs and arm feeling? Better I hope.”

Leaning back from her embrace slightly, Tyrial flexed his previously broken arm. “Everything feels pretty good actually,” he said.

“Good,” Rella said more happily, then looking a bit sheepish, she said, “I probably should have asked that before trying to hug the life out of you.”

Laughing, Tyrial said, “It’s fine, I’d never turn down a hug from you.”

Smiling and now blushing, Rella brushed his cheek again with her hand. “What’s the plan for today?” she asked while not quite meeting his eyes.

“Well,” Tyrial said, “I guess I have to go see Liam first. He was kind enough to save my life so I suppose I can let him poke at me for a bit if it makes him happy. Not that I’m sure anything actually makes that man happy, but I’ll give it a shot.”

Laughing, Rella said, “Liam isn’t that bad. He’s actually a very nice man once you get to know him. He’s just… he’s had some bad experiences with Mages before. I’m pretty sure he’s coming around to you though.”

“Hmm,” Tyrial said, “If by Mages you mean Conclave, I’m not surprised.”

“Conclave yes,” Rella said, her voice becoming more serious, “but illegal Mages too. He’s been through a lot, believe me. Just give him a little time, he’ll open up. Anyway, is that all you’ve got planned?”

“Doubtful,” Tyrial said, “I saw a message on my PA yesterday, Gabriel wanted to talk to me when I was feeling better. This ship doesn’t get very far without a Mage to warp it, so I suspect we’ll be going somewhere soon.”

Rella gave him a pensive look, then said, “Maybe… Maybe you should rest a bit more. You shouldn’t push yourself so hard. I…,” Rella’s voice cracked and in a whisper she finished, “I don’t want you to get hurt again.”

Putting his arm around her, Tyrial pulled Rella into a hug this time. She quickly snuggled into him, putting her head on his chest this time and letting herself be held. She wasn’t quite crying but Tyrial could tell there were a lot of emotions below the surface she was holding onto. He had no idea why she was so attached to him, but he was almost glad, in a very depressing way, that she wasn’t romanticly interested in him. He was fairly certain he would have lost that battle by now if she had been. It seemed he was only a burden to her. But for whatever reason, she relied on him, and he would do his level best to give back at least some of the support she gave him.

Tyrial softly stroked her hair while saying, “I won’t leave you, I promise. I’ll always come back. I’ll even promise not to do anything suicidal.” The joke was apparently not well received. Rella’s clutch on him tightened substantially. “I’m sorry,” Tyrial said seriously, “I promise I’ll be careful, seriously.”

“You better,” Rella said fiercely. Pulling away slightly from him she looked up into his eyes. Tyrial saw a mixture of fear, determination, and… some kind of longing. “I don’t care what else you do, but you’re absolutely forbidden from leaving my life entirely, understood? That means absolutely no dying.”

Smiling and nodding, Tyrial said, “Got it, no dying.”

Rella looked at him seriously for a few more seconds with that odd frown before finally pushing a smile onto her face. Giving Tyrial a gentle shove which she carefully aimed at his good uninjured shoulder, she said, “Go on, go see Liam before he starts to think you're avoiding him.”

“Right,” Tyrial said, turning and sitting up. After a brief pause, he decided to try one last time and said, “I know I said I wouldn’t ask again, but… I still think it would be best if you didn’t stay in my room at night anymore…”

“Oh…,” Rella said in a sad tone, then a second later she asked in a more suspicious tone, “Why?”

“I… I don’t want to accidentally hurt you,” Tyrial said, still not looking at her.

“Ah,” Rella said, sounding relieved, “You won't, don’t worry about it.”

“Rella, you don't—” Tyrial began. He suddenly stopped when Rella sat up herself and hugged him from behind.

“You won't hurt me Tyrial,” Rella said with absolute confidence in her voice, “I know it. If my presence causes you too much… discomfort, I’ll keep my distance. But not for any other reason. Ok?”

“I…,” Tyrial was tempted to use that excuse. But he still couldn’t force himself to do it. He wanted her comforting company too desperately. Finally, he let himself slump back against her and gave up completely. “Ok,” he said finally.

Hugging him one more time, Rella let go and gave him another gentle shove. “Go on, and try to take it easy, for me. Please.”

Nodding, Tyrial got up and headed for the bathroom to clean up. He took a change of clothes in with him, just in case. When he got out though, Rella had already left. Not before making his bed and tidying his room, however. With a lopsided grin, Tyrial headed for the door.

Walking into the medical bay, he poked his head into Liam’s office. Finding the bald older man sitting at his desk, he said, “Here as promised.”

Without looking up from the tablet he was inspecting, Liam said, “Indeed. A firm command of the obvious as always.”

Tyrial almost sighed out loud. Apparently, the temporary truce from earlier was over. He stood just inside the office, keeping his expression neutral, and waited.

Suddenly, Liam grimaced and tossed the tablet he had been looking at on the desk and stood. “My apologies,” he said, looking at Tyrial. “Being ill-tempered and snide to Mages has become a habit. You have proven, however, that you don’t deserve it. Let me try that again,” forming an almost sincere looking smile, Liam said, “Welcome to my office.”

Smiling and shaking his head, Tyrial said, “Don’t push yourself Doc, I’ll just settle for a lack of hostility.”

Nodding, Liam’s smile shifted. It wasn’t as broad but it looked a great deal more genuine. “Sounds good enough to me,” he said. “Now, let's see how those bones are doing, if you’ll follow me,” Liam said, pointing back out into the med bay.

Tyrial followed Liam to one of the exam tables and sat on the edge as indicated. Liam then made himself busy with several scanners and diagnostics tools. In silence, Liam performed his diagnostic work for several minutes. Silence worked fine for Tyrial, it was honestly an improvement over some of their other interactions. Tyrial had been somewhat hopeful after the day before.

Just as Tyrial thought Liam was going to be reticent to the end of the appointment, Liam said, “Tyrial, can I ask you something?”

Nodding, Tyrial said, “Sure.”

“If you hadn’t been under orders to keep casualties to a minimum,” Liam said, “would you have still let them live?”

Not a question Tyrial had expected, but he supposed he should have. At first, the answer seemed obvious, even given his new priorities in life. Unbidden, his conversation with Kreshen came to the surface. Should he really blame every individual who associates with the Conclave for the misdeeds of the entity as a whole? Some of them were certainly evil, but then perhaps others were just looking for work and doing their jobs. The answer was no longer the simple black and white he had always operated by in the past. He was beginning to understand that the world didn’t contain such simple absolutes.

“A few months ago, I wouldn’t have left a single one standing,” Tyrial said honestly. “I would probably have settled for the simple expedient of destroying the entire station.”

Liam’s expression darkened slightly, but then he said, “What about now?”

“Now? I don't know,” Tyrial said. “My world has changed a great deal over the last month or so. I’m beginning to think I’ve seen enough death in my life. I’d still destroy an entire station of Conclave if that’s what was needed to save Rel… this crew. But if it’s not an ‘us or them’ situation… I don’t think all the mindless destruction over the last fifty or so years has really gotten me anywhere.”

Nodding, Liam’s expression softened considerably. “It’s a start,” he said cryptically. “Anyway,” he continued, “everything looks good. Your ribs and arm are better than ninety percent mended, your red blood cell count is back in the norm, and everything else looks good. You're cleared to return to duty whenever you feel up to it.”

Standing, Tyrial said, “Thanks.”

Standing for a few moments looking at Tyrial, Liam suddenly thrust out his hand. Looking at it for a moment, Tyrial took it and shook. Looking satisfied, Liam nodded, turned, and walked back to his office without another word.

Tyrial was not sure he would ever fully understand that man, but if he stopped berating Tyrial at every turn, it was enough of an improvement for him.

Walking out of the medical bay he almost walked into William who was coming from the direction of the bridge. William stopped dead when he saw Tyrial, his face becoming even more pale than usual.

Tyrial wasn’t sure what William thought of him, he kept to himself so much that Tyrial had barely ever gotten the chance to talk to him. Even with so little conversation between them, however, Tyrial still had something he needed to apologize to William for.

Remembering the effects of his delay in talking to Rella before, he decided to get this over with before he lost the opportunity. “Have a minute? I need to talk to you,” Tyrial said.

At his words, William flinched slightly, but then visibly steeling himself, he said simply, “Ok.”

“I…,” Tyrial paused, he just needed to get it done. If William didn’t understand at first, he could always explain further later. For now, it was just important to say it. “I wanted to apologize,” Tyrial began.

At his words, William’s mouth fell open. A look of confusion and disbelief replacing grim determination. Tyrial had no idea how to talk to William, it seemed he almost spoke a different language. His responses and facial expressions made no sense.

Still, he needed to finish. “I… I’m sorry,” Tyrial continued, “for asking you to talk to Rella for me if I… didn’t make it… Time was short, but… it’s something I should have done myself anyway. Even if it was the last thing I said… perhaps especially if it was the last thing I said. Anyway, I’m sorry.”

For several seconds, Tyrial waited for a response from William. The man just stood there, however, an expression of pure surprise on his face. Perhaps he was astonished that Tyrial actually talked to him? Well, it didn’t seem like William wanted to talk at the moment, so he would let William think on it for a while, perhaps try to bring it up again later.

Walking around the stunned man, Tyrial continued on his way to the bridge. He would have given a lot to know what William was thinking.

***

William stood there, staring at the spot that Tyrial had just recently been standing in for several minutes.

What in the Void just happened, he thought to himself.

When Tyrial had stopped in front of him in the hallway, William had considered dozens of potential outcomes to the encounter. Chief amongst them had been getting yelled at, being threatened, or even perhaps physical violence. An apology, however, had not figured prominently amongst his calculations.

Why? William had almost gotten him killed by not having the forethought to inject permanent backdoors into the station's systems when he first obtained access. If he had, he would have easily been able to continue where he had left off after the power fluctuations caused by Tyrial’s destruction of some of the station's systems. He should have anticipated that.

He would have had control of both the airlocks and the docking grapples in plenty of time if he had. Instead, Tyrial had almost died saving them. William had been berating himself almost every hour of every day since that incident. He had been actively avoiding Tyrial, apprehensive about the potential confrontation.

Physically shaking off his paralysis, he brought himself back to reality. He needed to talk to Sarah, that would make him feel better. It almost always did. Heading down the hall and to the right, he opened the door to his and Sarah’s quarters.

The woman herself was sitting on their bed, holding a long plasma rifle on her lap. To her right was an opened tool chest filled with various implements of weapon maintenance. Walking over to the bed, William plopped himself down on the bed beside his wife in the spot not taken over by tools and weapon parts.

Sitting there staring at the wall for a few seconds, William leaned against his wife and rested his head on her shoulder, closing his eyes.

“What's’ wrong babe?” Sarah asked, glancing over at him and placing a quick kiss on his head while continuing to clean her weapon.

“Tyrial is maddeningly unpredictable,” William said flatly.

Laughing, Sarah asked, “What did he do this time.”

“He apologized to me,” William replied indignantly.

Laughing even louder, Sarah said, “Of course he did, after all this time you’ve spent fretting about how mad he would be at you.” Continuing to chuckle as she spoke, Sarah said, “You know, I told you he wouldn’t do what you expected. Out of curiosity, what did he apologize for?”

“Asking me to apologize to Rella for him,” William said in confusion.

Giving a satisfied nod, Sarah said, “Good.”

“Good… you say,” William said flatly. “Naturally. It’s a good thing I’ve had your unpredictability to deal with all these years. If I’d had to deal with a man like Tyrial before I met you I might have lost my mind by now.”

Chuckling, Sarah reached over and lightly stroked William’s cheek. “I’ll always be your unpredictable constant,” she said fondly.

William sat there and enjoyed Sarah's presence for several more minutes. For some reason, her unpredictable nature always comforted him, whereas that feature in anyone else unnerved him to no end. Just thinking about Tyrial made him want to solve nice simple spatial relativity equations to settle his mind.

As he sat there, he suddenly felt the unmistakable hum of the gravity emitter powering up. Sitting up, he engaged his visual overlay with a few twitches of his finger muscles. It looked like the ship was setting course for Altair already. It seemed Tyrial was feeling ready for their next mission after all.

“That reminds me,” he said to Sarah, “Gabriel said we need to get more antimatter. Using the sublight antimatter drive to escape those Conclave used up a good bit of our fuel.”

Sarah grunted, her face souring, “The Altair trading post then I assume?”

William just nodded affirmation.

“I hate that place,” Sarah said, going back to cleaning her weapon. “Too many Conclave always poking their noses around.”

“I know,” said William, “black market antimatter isn’t easy to find though. Anyway, it’s going to be a few hours before we get there.” Laying back on the bed beside his wife, William put his hands behind his head and began going over his files on the Altair trading post.

“A few hours huh,” Sarah said, a mischievous tone coming into her voice.

William began preparing his surveillance and infiltration suite. Whenever they went this close to the heart of Conclave territory, it always paid to be prepared for the worst. For several minutes, William just laid on the bed, twitching his fingers to interact with his embedded systems, staring at the words and diagrams that only he could see through his visual overlays.

Suddenly Sarah jumped on top of him, straddling his waist with her hands on his shoulders, she looked down at him with a broad smile.

“Put your toys away,” Sarah said with a low purr, “I’ve got something better for you to play with.” Sitting up, her smile turned predatory as she pulled her shirt and bra up over her head in a single motion. Her moderately generous perky breasts coming into Williams' appreciative view.

William just smiled and put his systems on standby. He would never understand what a woman as beautiful and strong as Sarah would see in him. He was more than grateful he had it, however, whatever it was.

Moving one hand around the back of her now bare waist, he moved the other up to one of her nipples and lightly teased it as it hardened. Sarah leaned down into his hand with a groan and brought her face up to his. “Help me with these pants,” she said somewhat breathlessly as she began kissing him deeply.

With Sarah’s tongue now thoroughly invading his mouth, he somehow managed to finish the job of getting them both naked without breaking their passionate lip lock. Once William had finally managed to get his last sock off with his other foot, Sarah broke their kiss and sat back slightly breathing hard. “About time you got that sock off,” she said almost breathlessly. Adjusting the position of her hips, she rubbed herself gently on Williams' hardening member.

“Not sure what you have against socks,” William said almost half to himself, finishing the sentence with a quiet moan.

“You know my rule,” she said with a teasing smile as she pushed herself up onto her knees, lined him up, and slowly sank down onto his length.

Once she was fully seated, she leaned forward again, pressing her breasts to his chest. Kissing him lightly on the lips, she then moved her head to the right and lightly nibbled at his ear as she ever so slowly lifted off of his member until only an inch remained. Hesitating briefly there, she then began an agonizingly slow descent until she was once again fully seated.

As she repeated this process over and over again, William barely managed to stutter out between moans, “This… mmm… isn’t going to be, ah… quick… is it?”

With a light chuckle and a moan of her own, Sarah lifted her face from the part of his collarbone she had been in the process of nibbling on and replied with a devilish smile, “Nope, you said we had over an hour and I plan to use it.”

William could only groan in reply as the last of his higher cognitive functions finally gave up and went home. For the next hour, Sarah alternated between slowly working her way up and down his length and just sitting on him while rhythmically clenching her inner muscles. All the while she also continued to alternate between kissing him deeply and nibbling on his ears, neck, and collarbone.

William did his best to return the favor, kissing any part of her that came close enough. He also tried to remember to keep his own hands busy by needing her ass and occasionally slipping a hand between them to fondle a nipple. All the while doing his best to hold back so his wife could have her fun.

He was, however, under no illusions who was going to win this battle. For all that he tried to give his wife as much pleasure as he got, she always delighted in completely destroying his concentration. Reducing him to a groaning, moaning puddle of pleasure that was mostly just hanging on for the ride.

That seemed to be just fine with her, though. Even though he almost never managed to make her cum before he did, she almost always did a few seconds after him without fail. She’d often told him that being able to make the smartest man she knew completely lose his mind was the hottest thing she’d ever seen.

A few seconds later, as William’s breathing began to rapidly spike, this was once again proven true. With a loud grunt, William drove his hips up to meet his wife’s and came. Less than a second later, as he was still in the throes of his own orgasm, he felt his wife clamp down on him as she hit her own orgasm almost simultaneously.

With a last groan of ecstatic pleasure, Sarah slumped down on top of William, her arms wrapping around between him and the bed as his did the same above her. Burying her face in his shoulder, she lightly nipped at his ear again as she seemed to melt into him.

“Sorry,” William whispered, “I couldn’t hold back anymore.”

Snickering in his ear, Sarah said, “That was the point.”

Twenty minutes later, William was searching the floor for one of his socks. The sound of the shower indicated that Sarah was still enjoying the warm water. William had never been a fan of showers. Oh he liked being clean, needed to be clean, actually. His obsessive need for cleanliness almost bordering on a disorder. But to him, showers were a tool, not a hobby.

The number of differences between him and his wife were almost astonishing. Yet somehow, they almost seemed made for each other. William smiled, remembering the day they first met. It had taken Sarah almost a week of persistent one-sided conversations before she had finally convinced him to talk to her, but she had never given up. Even back then, it seemed she had seen something in him she liked.

William checked his overlays, looking at the ship's progress. “Better hurry up,” he called back through the open bathroom door, “We’ll be there in ten minutes, docking in twenty.”

Finally locating the last of his clothes, he finished getting dressed and stood by the door to their room. Engaging his information warfare systems, his vision was filled with overlays, HUDs, and information panels. Looking everything over one more time, he called out casually, “Five minutes or we’re late.”

Before his last words were out, Sarah walked out of the bathroom stark naked. Walking up to her dresser, she riffled through its contents seemingly at random, dressing herself in a flurry of clothing. Somehow in less than a minute, she was wearing a tight-fitting military outfit of muted grays. Walking over to her weapons locker, she quickly fitted herself with a wide assortment of knives, pistols, ammunition, and one large rifle strapped over her back.

With three minutes to spare, she stepped up beside William and said smiling, “Time to spare, as always.” Leaning over and standing on her toes, she brought her face close to his and with one hand around the back of his head, shoved her tongue in his mouth and kissed him deeply for the better part of a full minute. Finally ending the kiss, she said, “Come on, don’t want to be late.”

Opening the door and stepping out of it, Sarah headed down the hallway towards the airlock. William gave his heart and lungs a minute to return to something resembling normal and then followed. It was a testament to her frequent random displays of affection that William could still think coherently after that kiss. He wasn’t entirely sure, however, if getting used to them was a good thing. He almost missed the days when she could render him completely incoherent for hours.

Standing in front of the airlock, William felt the ship shudder slightly as it began docking procedures with the planetside space dock. A few seconds later, the distinctive sound of the docking mechanism engaging was accompanied by footsteps approaching them from behind. Without turning, William knew who it was.

“On time as always,” Tyrial said.

William turned slightly, looking at the Mage walking up to them. Tyrial’s voice was mostly flat as it usually was. But his eyes had a little more life in them than they used to. Rella had always told him that Tyrial was a good man with a sympathetic heart, but William had never seen it before. Now perhaps…

Turning back to the airlock, William said, “Good evening Tyrial.” He still couldn’t really bring himself to talk to the man face to face yet. But if he was going to forgive William for almost getting him killed, then the least William could do was try to be a little friendly towards him.

“Did Gabriel give you a briefing on this place?” Sarah asked.

“Scum, villainy, wretched hive, worst in the galaxy, etc etc. I got the jist,” Tyrial said.

William almost shook his head. Tyrial might not have been big on emotions, but sarcasm he always seemed to have in good supply.

Chuckling, Sarah said, “Don’t know about ‘worst in the galaxy’. I’ve definitely seen worse. But this one is bad enough. Keep on your toes, and make sure you listen to anything William says. He’ll be on overwatch for this op so his intel is going to be your best bet for staying out of trouble.”

Nodding, Tyrial said, “Understood.” After a short pause during which Tyrial’s head cocked to the side, he continued, “Not trying to be offensive here, but any particular reason William has to go planetside himself? He’s not exactly… combat material.”

William wasn’t surprised or offended by the question, but before he could answer, Sarah did it for him.

“Physical proximity,” Sarah said. “Many of the networks William needs access to are either air-gapped or require close physical proximity to gain access to. And as for being ‘combat material’,” she grinned and patted the rifle on her shoulder.

Nodding again, Tyrial said nothing more.

William hated this place, filled with unscrupulous traders, dim-witted thugs, and shady black market dealers. Then there were the people you really didn’t want to run into, the Conclave. Doing his best to keep his nerves level, he glanced at Sarah beside him. She looked as solid as a blast shield. Glancing back at him, Sarah flashed him a reassuring smile while reaching over and giving his hand a squeeze.

William had long since gotten over being embarrassed about her public displays of affection. She certainly didn’t care, and it seemed more often than not if he got any looks for it at all they were ones of jealousy. Other people being jealous of him for something other than his unique skills had definitely been a novelty, one he still couldn't quite entirely fathom.

The airlock beeped several times, indicating it was about to cycle. William activated his infiltration and information systems to full running state. His vision was almost entirely obscured by video feeds, text, and HUD overlays. As Sarah and Tyrial moved out into the airlock and then the docks beyond, he followed Sarah closely, trusting her to alert him to any mundane obstacles like trash or steps.

Moving out into the city proper, William began running decryption routines on all communications he could detect in the vicinity. He used the computing power of the Osiris over secured links to do the bulk of the work. As he found his way into various systems by way of decrypting their communication channels he installed backdoors and began sifting through whatever information of value they might contain.

William was paying almost no attention to his actual surroundings beyond what he saw on his maps and overlays. He supposed the place was probably just as dirty and filled with misery as it always was, but he didn’t feel the need to reaffirm his previous inspections. By the time they reached the offices of the black market dealer they were looking for, William had control to some degree of better than twenty-five percent of all the systems in the city. Even many of the less thoroughly protected air-gapped systems had fallen prey to him by this point.

Once they were inside, William moved some of his overlays to the background so he could help Sarah with the negotiations. The office they had stepped into was dirty, to be sure, but less disgusting than William had expected it to be. There was nothing dead on the floor, the desks and tables were reasonably free of dust and dirt, and strangest of all, there were open windows letting in natural light.

Ignoring the decor for the moment, William focused on the three individuals standing in the room with them. The two large burly individuals he dismissed as thugs, Sarah’s presence being more than sufficient to handle the likes of them. The third person was a short portly man with thinning hair and grease stains on his shirt.

Normally they would have brought Rella on a mission like this, with her ears well hidden, when negotiations were needed. But she had refused to visit this place again after the last trip they had made, and Gabriel didn’t feel the need to force the issue. Besides, William and Sarah could handle a simple black market thug easily enough.

William started up his biometric scanning and analysis suite. He began monitoring the physical attributes of the short heavyset man. Pulse, blood pressure, eye movement, perspiration, involuntary muscle contractions, etc. Then he began sifting through the databases on the various systems he had gained access to, beginning to compile a nice dossier on the individual before them.

Sarah walked up to the man, the two thugs who had been sitting idly to the side now stood and moved threateningly to flank Sarah as she approached him. She ignored them as if they were invisible.

“You Lenkshir?” Sarah asked without preamble.

“Mmm,” the short man said, his eyes narrowing, “depends who’s asking.”

“Meltin said you’d have what we need,” Sarah said, unfazed.

“Meltin…,” Lenkshir said, tapping his chin, “Hmm… My memory isn’t what it used to be… Meltin…” As Lenkshir stood there tapping his chin with one hand, he was holding the other surreptitiously palm up in front of him.

Smiling almost sweetly, Sarah said, “Looking for a tip to help your memory? William, if you’d be so kind.”

Bringing up his info, William began, “Name, Lenkshir Hathaway. Age, thirty eight years old. Born Septembrare 43rd on IGD 3374 on Sol Four. Mother, Venice Amacresh, currently deceased. Father, Bran Hathaway, currently deceased. Lived twelve —“

As William rambled on, Lenkshir’s face began to turn red and he said indignantly, “That’s ancient history, anyone could get that information.”

Pausing momentarily, William switched gears and said, “Perhaps this would be faster if I simply showed you, please observe the tablet in your hand.” With that said, William uploaded a montage of the mountains of data, both public and very much not public, that he had acquired on the man in the last few minutes.

As the data streamed across the surface of the tablet in the man’s hands, his face went from indignant red to deathly pale. Eyes bulging out of his face, Lenkshir stammered an apology, “I… I’m sorry ma’am, what was I thinking. Of course I know Meltin. You… You must be here for the… the antimatter.”

“Indeed,” Sarah said, casually glancing at the two thugs with a predatory grin. “So,” she continued, “shall we discuss price.”

“Ahh, of course, miss…?” Lenkshir said, straightening his clothes. To his credit, the man recovered relatively quickly. In fact, from what William could see, he was only moderately nervous. William wondered how much of his stammering had been an act.

“Ma’am will be fine,” Sarah said flatly.

“Right, well,” Lenkshir said, taping the tablet in his hands a few times, he looked it over for a few seconds and then said, “Looks like the current going rate is about one point one million credits per liter. I believe Meltin said you needed about seven hundred liters, so that would come to seven hundred and seventy million credits. I’ll even throw in a bulk discount and call it an even seven hundred and fifty million credits.”

With the color beginning to come back to his face, Lenkshir managed to look quite pleased with himself, as he held the tablet to his chest and smiled broadly at Sarah. William wondered why the man wasn’t sweating more. On a hunch, he scanned for localized transmissions not using a standard carrier. He found one. Tracing its source he found the control mechanism for a recessed ceiling mounted auto-cannon. It seemed Lenkshir had more backup than just the two thugs he had hired.

William promptly disabled the auto-cannon’s controller, while he was at it he took a look at the data Lenkshir had ostensibly called up when coming up with his prices. Smiling, he chuckled to himself at what he found.

“Something funny?” Lenkshir asked irritably. “If you don’t like the price, you can always go elsewhere.”

“The price is a joke,” Sarah said flatly.

“So is his ‘data’ on the going price of Antimatter,” muttered William in Sarah’s direction. “Doubt the ‘Tall Tales of Derek Androgen’ contains much on that subject. Oh also, I disabled his ceiling-mounted auto-cannon.”

As William spoke, Lenkshir’s face once again turned bright red and then deathly pale in turn. Involuntarily stepping back, Lenkshir glanced briefly at the ceiling, ostensibly in the direction of his now-defunct auto-cannon.

To his credit, however, he held his ground and said, “I uhh… I don’t know what you could be referring to. And the price is real, I assure you. You won't find a better price on Altair.”

Shaking her head slowly, Sarah said, “And here I thought we were going to get along. You know as well as I do that the antimatter factories orbiting Altair III are selling for two hundred thousand per liter or less right now.”

Lenkshir’s face still held a smile, but it looked grim to William and he was twitching now. William’s sensors told him that Lenkshir was extremely agitated, some of it was anger, but a good deal of it was fear. That would definitely work to their advantage.

“Well if the antimatter factories are so much cheaper,” Lenkshir said testily, “why don’t you go buy from them directly. Oh that’s right, because you can’t…” Lenkshir’s heart rate began to climb as he continued, his anger starting to get the best of him he said, “I’m sick of you Opposition terrorists thinking you can dictate the price of whatever you want. If you don’t like the price I set forth you can… you…,” trailing off, Lenkshir’s face went from angry to pale as a ghost in seconds. Staring off to William’s right, his mouth continued to move but no sound came out at first.

Glancing off to his right, William saw Tyrial standing behind him. Apparently, Tyrial had gotten bored and, grabbing a small porcelain cup that had been sitting on a table beside him, was now idly spinning it in circles about a foot above his open hand.

“Mm.. mm.. make him stop…” Lenkshir almost whispered. “You brought a Mage here, are you insane?! If the Conclave finds him here they’ll kill me!” Lenkshir finished in something close to a whine.

“Oh,” Sarah said nonchalantly, “are you nervous about the Conclave coming to visit? Perhaps we should finish this bargain up then so we can leave.”

“Fine fine!” Lenkshir said, becoming almost panicked, “Five hundred thousand per liter, that’s as low as I can go. You fucking terrorists are robbing me. Just make him stop!”

William heard the cup Tyrial had been levitating shatter as it hit the floor.

“Whoops,” Tyrial said mildly, “Do you have any more cups? Nevermind, I guess I can use one of these chairs.”

“Four hundred thousand!!,” Lenkshir almost screamed. “You fucking bastards,” he finished under his breath.

“Two hundred and eighty million for seven hundred liters? Oh right, bulk discount. Two hundred and fifty then?” Sarah said, then turning to Tyrial she casually said, “Not sure about a chair, but that crate over there doesn't look too breakable.”

“Fine!,” Lenkshir said, his voice crackling unevenly. “Fine,” he repeated, “Two hundred and fifty million, just get him out of my building!”

Stepping forward, Sarah pulled a small tablet from one of her many pockets. Tapping on it, she said, “Any Escrow you like to work with in particular?”

As she stepped towards Lenkshir, his two large thugs who were presumably bodyguards, stepped back from her advance, much to Lenkshirs apparent disgust as he glared at the two. “Any Altarin House will do,” he said testily.

“Excellent,” said Sarah jovially, “Two hundred and fifty million credits on Escrow with House Reginnet. If you’ll just acknowledge the terms of the Escrow here.” She held the small tablet out to the still sweating Lenkshir, who swiped his finger across the screen with a sneer on his face.

“Done,” the now ill-tempered short man said. “Now you can show yourselves out. Quickly.”

“Of course,” Sarah said.

William had gone back to monitoring the external channels once it seemed the deal was done. Just as Sarah started to turn for the door, William picked up a signal he had hoped he would not find today. The Conclave. Decrypting the transmission his hopes continued to fall as he saw its contents.

It seemed they had overstayed their welcome on this miserable spec of a planet. The local Conclave garrison had caught wind of an Opposition presence here and were now trying to track them down. They apparently didn’t know about the ship yet, or that one of them was a Mage. Thinking quickly, William put together a plan. He needed to buy time for the antimatter to be delivered as well as keep the Conclave from finding the Osiris. They would still, however, need to leave the planet quickly.

Doing one of the things he hated more than anything else, he spoke to Lenkshir again. Still facing the door next to Sarah and Tyrial, he said, “Delivery needs to be done in thirty minutes.”

Lenkshir laughed shortly and said, “Not fucking likely you—”

The sound of machinery came from the ceiling above as a panel of the ceiling opened to reveal a large auto-cannon. Dropping from its hidden position the auto-cannon powered up and aimed itself at Lenkshir.

“Thirty minutes,” William repeated, not looking at Lenkshir.

For several seconds the silence was absolute. Then Lenkshir said in a nearly strangled voice, “Thirty minutes.”

The auto-cannon powered itself down and returned to its hiding place in the ceiling. “I control them all,” William said quietly, “all throughout the city. Along with that nicely detailed dossier I compiled for you, which I’m sure the authorities would love to have a copy of. Don’t be late.”

Walking past Tyrial and Sarah who were both trying to hide their surprise, William opened the door and stepped out. Sarah and Tyrial keeping pace behind him as he moved down the street the shady building had been on.

“Do you actually control them all?” asked Tyrial, “The auto-cannons I mean.”

“No,” William replied shortly, “although that would certainly come in handy right now.”

Sarah knew William well enough to know he would not have injected himself into the negotiations unless there was a very important reason. She also had a very strong mind for tactics. “Conclave,” she said shortly.

Nodding, William went over his plan one more time. He did not like putting Sarah in direct danger, but he couldn’t think of any other way to keep the Conclave busy while their antimatter was delivered. He had control over the channels they used to link their PA’s back to the primary system, but not the primary system itself. He could run them in circles for a few minutes, but once they realized their PA’s were lying to them, all bets would be off.

That left just one option, he would need to eliminate them as quickly as possible during the initial confusion. He’d need to set them up for an ambush one at a time, hopefully, Sarah and Tyrial could manage the job fast enough. William also knew there were at least six Conclave mages in the city's garrison, but he didn’t know who they were.

“I’m syncing your PA’s now,” William said, “make sure you have your earpieces in place. We’re going to have to play hide and seek with the Conclave until the ship’s ready to go. I’ll direct you both to suitable ambush locations and direct the Conclave guards to you one at a time to dispatch. Tyrial, if you can, don’t use your Power. If you have to, let me know when you do, I’ll try to redirect things accordingly.”

“Direct them?” Tyrial said, “You think they're just going to go where you tell them?”

“They’ll go where their systems tell them to go,” William said. Pausing for a second, William glanced at Tyrial and said, “I… I promise I won't let you down this time.”

“Don’t sweat it,” Tyrial said, “I trust you.”

Coming from an illegal Mage, that meant more than Tyrial probably knew. In this business, trust was hard-earned for anyone, but Mage’s in particular generally never trusted anyone. Smiling, William promised himself he would not let Tyrial down. Just like he had never let Sarah down. Glancing at her, the smile he received in return was all the reassurance he needed.

Continuing down the narrow street they were on, William began pouring every ounce of concentration he had into managing the Op he was putting together. Giving both Sarah and Tyrial destinations on their PA’s, he turned to Tyrial and said simply, “Good luck.” Turning to Sarah, he was going to give her the same short farewell, before he had the chance to open his mouth however, Sarah covered it with her own in a deep kiss.

Breaking the kiss, Sarah said, “Stay safe, I love you.”

Only slightly out of breath, William replied, “I love you too.”

Almost before the words were out of his mouth, Sarah was gone down a narrow dark side alley off the street they had been walking down. Glancing over his shoulder, William saw that Tyrial was already gone as well. Taking a deep breath himself, he started walking down the street in the general direction of the space docks again. He wasn’t walking fast, given all the displays he was keeping track of he could barely see where he was going.

Working quickly he modified the information the Conclave’s systems were processing from various sensors and cameras throughout the city. Once he had the controllers that were monitoring the systems information scrambling in confusion, he began modifying the information being fed to the field agents by the system.

Working carefully, he directed most of them to random locations that would not intersect with each other. It wouldn’t do for any of them to start comparing notes, given that all of them were getting conflicting information now. A few, one at a time, he began directing to the locations he had sent Sarah and Tyrial.

Keeping Sarah and Tyrial updated on their locations in real-time, it was no surprise that they had no trouble subduing or otherwise eliminating the field agents as they encountered them. William kept them moving to new locations constantly, it was hard to ambush someone if there was already a body lying nearby.

Twice Tyrial had to resort to his Will Power to manage a situation. William found out pretty quickly who the six Conclave Mage’s were by virtue of those who started in Tyrial’s direction with no prompting from their PAs. It was becoming increasingly difficult to keep all of the agents suitably confused while managing the six Mages as well. Fortunately, after fifteen minutes there were only three Mages left.

William bent all of his concentration on the agents and his instructions to them. Many were beginning to become wary of the information their PAs were providing them. These were now no longer following directions so they had to be routed around as rogue agents. The complexity of the situation was becoming staggering, but the number of agents was also quickly decreasing. Just as William thought he was starting to get a handle on the situation, he suddenly noticed something that chilled him to the bone.

Two of the agents had gotten together, and they were two of the three remaining Mages. As William watched his heart sank further as the two began working their way towards his own location. William had been careful not to direct any of the agents near where he was walking, given how little attention he was paying to his own surroundings he didn’t want any surprises. Apparently, he had been a little too careful, the two Mages must have compared notes and decided to investigate the one area neither had ever been directed too.

William glanced around at his surroundings for the first time since the Op had begun. He suddenly realized with a start that he was standing almost in the middle of a very crowded major crossroads. People were walking in every direction all around him, so many people. There was no dark corner for him to escape too, his heart began to beat faster as panic began to set in. Glancing at his overlays, he noticed the two agents were beginning to close on his position as well.

No matter what information he sent them they continued on their path in his direction. They were apparently ignoring their PAs completely now. Between the people surrounding him and the Conclave Mages closing on his position, his nerves were fast reaching their breaking point. He frantically sent messages to both Sarah and Tyrial alerting them of his problem.

William’s earpiece beeped and Sarah’s voice came over the comm. “William, are you alright?” she said.

“Theirs… Theirs people all around me, they’re everywhere,” he said, rising panic obvious in his voice, “two Conclave Mages are closing and I have nowhere to run. I don't know what to do, Sarah—”

“Calm down,” Sarah broke into Williams' panicked rant, “they shouldn’t be able to pick you out of the crowd if you act normal, you just need to put as much distance as you can between you and them, whatever direction you have to go. I’m closing on your position as quickly as I can.”

“But…,” William said, fear strong in his voice, “but there're so many people, I can’t…”

“Yes you can,” Sarah said forcefully, “Just walk through them, pretend they aren't people. They're just tall grass that keeps getting in your way, now move!”

Looking around in almost blind panic at this point, William picked a direction and started moving. He gritted his teeth and summoning what little courage he had left, started pushing people out of his way as he moved much more conspicuously than he should have been. He left a trail of disgruntled and indignant yells behind him as he moved. He was barely even paying attention to his overlays anymore, he just kept repeating to himself over and over again ‘They're just grass, keep moving.’

From one step to the next, William was suddenly lifted off the ground. For a few seconds, his mind would not comprehend what was happening. Slowly comprehension dawned, and with it pure animalistic terror. One of the Conclave Mages had him in a gravity well. Even though he knew it was pointless he struggled with all of his strength.

With his comm to Sarah still active, he said in terror, “They’ve got me Sarah, the Mages have me. By the Void there going to kill me. Oh gods, I love you Sarah. I love you.”

Wracked with terror he barely heard Sarah yelling to him over his comm to stay calm and that she was almost there. He watched almost in slow motion as he slowly rotated in place several feet above the ground. Back the way he had been running, he saw two men walking down the middle of the wide crossroads. People were running screaming in every direction trying to get away from both them and him.

In seconds the once packed crossroads was almost empty save for a few people who had been trampled in the rush to clear the area. Even those unfortunate few were crawling away as quickly as they could manage. Staring at the two men who were probably going to kill him any minute, William fixed the image of Sarah’s face firmly in his mind. He forced his eyes to stay open with what will power he had left, if he was going to die, he was going to do it with his eyes open.

The two men were smiling broadly as they got closer, predatory wolf-like expressions on their faces. One held his hand forward towards William. William waited for him to close his open hand, a sure sign that he was going to crush William’s internal organs. There were worse ways to die, William supposed, but this definitely hadn’t been on his list of preferred methods.

Over the rush of panic, William heard Tyrial’s loud and steady voice over his comms, “William, I need you to answer this question now. Is anyone standing near the two Mage’s?”

The odd question caught William off guard and for a moment he almost forgot his panic as he answered with confusion, “No?”

“Good,” Tyrial replied with what sounded like satisfaction in his voice.

Suddenly the two stopped dead, a look passed between them, then they both stared off to their left intently. William had no idea what they were looking at, he didn’t see anything—

With a thunderous crash, an enormous chunk of metal exploded onto the pavement where the two Mages had been standing. William fell to the ground, stumbling backward and falling to the pavement from the force of the impact. Small chunks of metal and debris peppered him as he curled into a ball to protect his head. As the sound of falling debris began to diminish, William poked his head out to look at the destruction.

Where the two Mages had been standing almost thirty meters away from William, there was now a small crater and the remains of some mechanical device scattered around it. Getting shakily to his feet, William looked around. The entire intersection was deserted.

Glancing at his overlays, he noticed a message from Tyrial. ‘Special delivery’ it read. Realizing how close he had come to death, and the manner of his salvation already had him close to the edge. Tyrial’s message was enough to push him over, raising his head he began to laugh. Dropping to his knees as his legs gave out on him, he continued laughing, he just couldn’t stop himself.

Strong arms suddenly wrapped gently around him. Sarah’s voice spoke softly in his ear, “William, are you ok? Are you hurt? Why are you laughing?”

Finally getting control of himself, he let the laughter die. Once he had his breathing back under control, he said, “I’m… I’m ok. Tyrial… Tyrial saved my life.” Chuckling briefly, William put Tyrial’s message on the screen of his PA. Moving his arm so Sarah could see it, he said, “He asked me if anyone was standing near the Mages, then he sent me this,” he indicated the message, “and that,” he indicated the large crater. He continued, “After staring death in the face, when I saw this, I just lost it.”

Looking at the message, Sarah chuckled herself and said, “Looks like I owe him one.”

“Looks like I owe him double,” William said with a sigh.

Standing, Sarah pulled on William’s arm gently and said, “Can you stand? We need to get to the ship ASAP.”

Nodding, William stood and started walking unsteadily towards the docking ports. Sarah quickly tucked herself under one of his arms to help support him. Checking his overlays quickly, William opened his comm to Tyrial.

“Thanks for the package,” William said to Tyrial over his comm, “Sarah and I are heading back to the ship, you should do the same. I don’t see any other agents between you and the docks, if you run into anything let me know.”

“Glad you liked it,” Tyrial replied over the comm, “I’m already halfway to the docks, should be there about the same time as you.”

“Sounds good,” William said, “Also, thanks again. I owe you one.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Tyrial said.

Just as William was about to cut the comm and concentrate on making it back to the ship, he had another thought.

“Quick question, if I may,” William said, “What… what was that?”

“The package?” Tyrial said chuckling dryly, “Rooftop air handler. Honestly, I’m kind of impressed with my aim, those things aren't exactly aerodynamic.”

“I’m not complaining,” William replied wryly. “See you on the ship, drinks on me.”

Leaning on Sarah slightly, William cut the comm and concentrated on trying to get back to the ship without falling over. Today had been one hell of an adventure.