When they finally landed back in Aboloan, the crew of the Echelon went different directions. Mel went to restock medical supplies (apparently it was cheaper in Aboloan than Paradis), Claire headed off to visit a mechanic she knew, Ash went to go shop for various supplies they needed, including food, and Heather went to visit her parents. Sarah found herself stuck with Dave, who led them to a telephone booth. She stood by it while he made a call.

"Yes, please get me Harold Sherman." She heard him tell the operator. "No, not that one. The one that used to be- yes, that one. Thank you very much." Dave simply smiled when Sarah looked back to him. "There are a lot of Harold Shermans in this city. But my dad's the only one who used to be a general in the army. He's retired now, but a lot of people still call him General Sherman."

Well, it would make sense that he would want to call his dad while they were in town. If she could, Sarah would've called her parents as soon as they landed. As it was, she probably needed to write them a letter and hoped it didn't take too long to get to Liba. After all, the letters she had written them before had indicated that everything was fine when at the moment it couldn't be further from the truth.

"Hello, Da? Yeah, I'm back from Lum a bit earlier than planned. Yeah, the Syrealians gave us a bit of trouble, but mostly through paperwork and such. Speaking of Syrealians...No Da, I didn't punch any of them. Or hit them with my cane. Now if you'd quit interrupting me, I've got something to tell you."

Sarah covered her mouth as she tried not to laugh. If Dave was the way he was, she could only imagine what his father was like. Even if he was once a General in the Aboloan military, she could imagine him being quite the character or he could be the stereotypical stiff-upper lip kind of Aboloanian officer and Dave could be the rebellious son. Whichever way it was, it was clear that they still communicated with each other, which was nice.

"Da, I've gotten myself in a bit of a legal pickle... No, I didn't steal the Prime Minister of Paradis' underwear and I didn't flirt with a Syrealian officer's wife. It's...well to put simply, I've committed fraud and I need help...Please don't hang up! I promise it was for a good cause! I was helping out someone who needed to get out of the country fast and..." He paused and nodded. "Yes Da. I know she's not a fugitive from the law or a spy of any sort. Yeah, I said she."

Sarah wasn't sure if that fugitive from the law part wasn't true at this point. She didn't go through customs when leaving Paradis. She was pretty sure that that was illegal.

"No Da, we didn't pretend to be a married couple! I pretended that she was one of my crew. Now, the Syrealians are demanding that I show the proper paperwork or we're never going to be able to go back to Paradis because we’ll be banned from doing business there. Yes, I know it takes a long time to get a work visa."

Dave nodded as his father said something. Sarah couldn't hear what was being said, but she could hear a deep voice come out on the other end once and awhile. Finally, it was Dave's turn to answer.

"Um yeah, she's with me. Why? You want to talk to her? Okay Da..." Dave stepped out of the booth so she could step in. He handed her the receiver. "Don't worry. His bark is a lot worse than his bite. If he gets to be too much, just hand it back to me and I'll handle him."

Sarah nodded and put it up to her ear.

"Tell my son that I heard every word he said. Do you know who I am, miss?"

"Harold Sherman, former general of the Aboloan army, Dave's da- I mean father." She probably shouldn't be calling him dad or da. "I'm Sarah Hidalgo from Liba. I guess I should explain why I had to leave Paradis in such a hurry and why Dave had to cover for me."

"Then the rumors are true, aren't they? The Syrealians are gathering Libans up by claiming their papers are no longer good."

"It looks to be that way, though I was told that they haven't started doing that yet by a reporter named Juste."

"As in the freelancer? Then it must be true. He never writes articles on things that are just rumors. If I were you, Ms. Hidalgo, I would find some place to stay for a couple of days and then go apply for the papers. You probably won't be the only Liban fleeing Paradis. They'll might have to start granting emergency papers. Were you planning on going back to Liba any time soon?"

"Um, after the crew gets off the hook. They helped me so I want to help them. Unless you think I should leave right away..."

"No, don't do that. They probably want to see you and the papers." General Sherman sighed on the other end. "Stay with Heather's parents. They'll help you out too, no doubt, especially if Heather and Ash ask them too. Can you put Dave back on? I have a few more things to say to him."

Sarah stepped out and Dave took up the receiver. But at least she had a goal in mind, even though she didn't want to inconvenience Heather's parents. She didn't know emergency papers were a thing, but it was good to know. Though she did have to wonder why he didn't suggest her staying at the Liban Embassy considering the circumstances. Maybe they wouldn't have let her stay since Aboloan was not considered hostile. Dave talked to his father for a few more minutes before handing up and stepping out. He put a hand on her shoulder.

"I'll take you to the Dyer's house. No doubt they're expecting us, to be honest. The crew usually has at least one dinner a week with them if we're not out on a job. Let's get you through customs first."

Aboloanian customs proved to be less of a headache even if it took a bit for everything to get checked and the workers were clearly bored. But at least no on threatened to throw her or her things into the ocean.

"All right, now all we have to do is catch a bus to the area where the Dyers live. Believe me, you don't want to take a cab in Kingsgrove if you want to get to your destination in one piece."

Sarah had heard about the infamous taxis of Kingsgrove. They took turns too fast, they had a tendency to ignore all signage, and they charged way too much for the trip. Plus, the drivers were often unpleasant and rude. People only put up with them because they knew the quickest routes. A bus would be slower, but cheaper and safer.

Fortunately, there was a bus stop not too far away from the port. Dave sighed as he sat down on the bench. Sarah followed his example and took up the spot next to him. Soon, more people crowded around the stop to wait for the bus. Someone bumped into her leg. It was a young boy and his hat flew off.

"Are you all right?" Sarah got up and got his hat back before offering her hand.

"I' m fine, ma'am." He took his hat and put it back on. "What about you?" He touched her leg. "Are you hurt? I'm so sorry I bumped into you!"

"It's all right. Accidents happen."

"They do, but those don't usually result in someone rifling through your pockets." Dave stated from his seat.

His cane came up and knocked away one of the boy's arms. Indeed, a hand came out of her pocket. The boy quickly backed away. Sarah wasn't sure how she hadn't felt that with how aware of touch she was. Dave drew his cane back.

"Now go and tell your friends to forget about picking her pockets. And next time, ask for money before picking. Foreigners tend to be very generous, especially to a kid like you. Only pick the rude." The kid nodded before running off. Dave shook his head. "They keep getting younger and younger. It's like it's starting to become a career option. Hopefully, that lad has learned a lesson.”

"Should you really be telling him to pickpocket at all?" Sarah questioned as she was glad that she didn't keep her important things in her outside pockets. "Shouldn’t you tell him not to do it all?"

"I could, but then he would've seen that as a lecture and ignored me. But now that I've got him thinking about what marks to choose, maybe he'll come to the conclusion that pickpocketing is more trouble than it's worth. Or at least he won't be attempting to pick nearly as many pockets, which will decrease his chances of getting caught while doing that."

After Dave finished his statement, the bus pulled up. It was one of those double decker ones, painted orange. She hoped that the bottom deck wasn't full, mainly for Dave's sake. Stairs couldn’t be easy with a cane. They boarded and found a seat in the back. Sarah took the seat by the window.

"Oh, I need to pay you for bringing me here!" She started to pull the envelope out. "I have plenty of..."

"Sh!" Dave pushed her hand back into her pocket. "We'll discuss that when we get to the Dyer's. Let's not advertise the fact that you're carrying a bunch of money in public, shall we? Luckily, it looks like no one heard you."

Sarah felt her cheeks flush slightly as she berated herself for doing something so foolish. She wouldn't have done that back home, so why had she tried to do it here? It was like all her common sense had fled, which she was going to attribute to her tiredness and the events of the day.

"Do Heather's parents live very far?"

"It'll take us twenty minutes to get to the right place and then it's about a ten-minute walk from the stop. It sounds longer than it is, I promise. So what do you think of Kingsgrove?"

She looked out the window. Like Lum, there were a lot of people walking, but there also seemed to be more cars on the road. Where Lum had wide streets, Kingsgrove seemed to be narrow, giving an impression of it being smaller. But she knew for a fact that area wise, Kingsgrove was bigger. It was also a bit older, mainly because it hadn't burned down like Lum had once upon a time.

"Crowded is one of the first words that come to mind."

"It is that, at least in this section of the city. It gets better the further you get out from the center where some of the newer stuff is. But a lot of buildings are pretty old around here. To me, Kingsgrove feels like a factory whereas Lum feels like a park. But I don't hate this city. I grew up here, so maybe I'm just used to it."

From what Sarah could observe, it wasn't really dirtier than Lum. The people certainly didn't dress as nice but Sarah didn't care much about that fact. People dressed nicely in Lum so that others would notice them. She had been advised to wear her nicest clothes whenever she went out. Here, things seemed a lot more natural, despite the lack of nature except for the occasional fenced tree and park they passed by.

"I'll have to ask Heather to give you a book on all the radio terms. If we're going to claim you're the radio operator, we might as well go all the way and actually make you one. I'm sure a smart person like you can do it."

Sarah nodded. It would be like learning a language, something she was pretty good at. Except this wouldn't be quite as complicated. The hard part would be learning how to do more than just use the radio. A radio operator had to do things like...she wasn't quite sure, honestly.