Captain Tarsik’s mother had insisted on reading to him at night when he was a child, and not stories from the tele-net like most normal parents. Somehow she’d managed to procure a collection of ancient books. They were actual books made of paper and cardboard and had drawings of places and characters that never existed save for in the mind’s eye of the long-dead writer.

The dining hall aboard Aeolus felt so completely incongruent with the rest of the station in that it seemed to come straight from one of those time-worn volumes about castles, princesses and dragons. None of the stark white decor, instead tall marble columns rose up on each side of the twenty meter long hall and a massive Brazilian rosewood table stretched nearly the entirety of its length. As Captain Tarsik and Ansul made their way to their seats near the large window that looked out into the gaseous expanse of the Crux, near where Essa Von Braun sat at the head of the table, the Martian leaned in close and whispered to his superior. “These corporate types sure do like to waste money don’t they?” the captain nodded in agreement, it was disgusting.

Servants clad in fine evening dress pulled their chairs out and helped them get situated at the enormous table. The station’s commander could only smile at them as they got comfortable; she then waved at her servants to dismiss them once they had done their jobs. The first course, fentax soup and ogga bread, was already on the table and without as much as a greeting Ansul began to dig in. With the lighting in the dining hall being considerably darker than the rest of the station the Martian had removed his goggles and proceeded to stare down Essa as he filled his mouth with soup covered bread and began to chew.

The station commander took a long sip from her wine glass and spoke, “I get the sensation that you’re not terribly happy to share my company Mr. Ansul.”

His only response was to continue his gaze as he proceeded to sop up more of the surprisingly tasty soup. Captain Tarsik had yet to touch his food, he sat there like a giant statue with his arms spread, flanking his soup bowl and wine glass and said nothing.

“Something wrong with your food Captain?” Essa Von Braun asked. “I promise you it’s not been poisoned.”

Tarsik did have to admit that the thought had not occurred to him. Ansul instantly dropped the piece of bread he was holding into his bowl of soup with a splash and it was quite clear that he hadn’t considered that possibility either. Normally the two spacemen were quite alert to threats but poisoning enemies aboard a corporate space station just didn’t seem like something even Von Braun was stupid enough to try, commander of said outpost or not.

With a smile that said “I call your bluff.” the captain tore off a piece of his bread and dipped it into the lovely smelling soup.

“Smells delicious.” he stated then took a large bite.

“It should, my personal chef studied on Calimus IV under Arturio Phenemeck himself.”

“Name dropping, how exactly like you Essa.”

The station commander swirled the wine in her glass in thought for a moment as her guests finished off their small portions of soup. When the two men finished their food a couple of small shiny orb-like robos dropped from the ceiling and collected them with spindly little robotic arms and flew them away to be cleaned. Right on cue three servers came trotting into the dining hall and put the second course down onto the table. Essa hadn’t partaken in any of the soup but this time they did put food down in front of her as well as the two guests. Steam wafted off of the dishes as the shiny silver lids were removed.

“Plank-roasted salmon Captain.”

Tarsik waited for the servers to leave the room before he spoke. “If you’re trying to impress us you don’t need to keep laying on the ostentation. You’ve succeeded.”

Ansul managed a chuckle in between gulps of wine, “Yep. What he said, but feel free to keep the food coming.” he smiled as he picked up his fork and eyed the salmon.

“Look Harridor,” she used the familiar knowing that it would irritate him, “we both know that there’s a question you’re just dying to ask me so I’ll save you the trouble.”

Tarsik demonstrated his disdain for her by digging into his food with abandon while simultaneously keeping his gaze fixed on her, a sarcastic smirk etched onto his face. “By all means, I’m dying with anticipation. Please proceed.” he said as he waved a fork full of salmon at her, his mouth full of food and not very worried about getting some of it on her fancy table. This caused Ansul to chuckle. Over years of friendship Captain Tarsik had rubbed off quite a bit on the Martian, making him a much tougher individual but the exchange had been a two way one. Harridor had picked up a healthy dose of Ansul’s snarky sense of humor as well.

Essa Von Braun kept her stone-faced yet smugly polite demeanor as she spoke, “You no doubt are very interested in how I became the commanding officer of a corporate space station, a security firm no less, especially after that nasty business the last time we crossed paths.”

“Yeah, you might say that.” this time it was Ansul’s turn to rudely speak with his mouth full of fish.

The commander, finally becoming mildly annoyed, said nothing as she pressed a button on her bracelet that summoned the little cleaning robos. They dropped from the ceiling and picked up the plates, all except hers, in an instant. Tarsik and Ansul were left sitting there with mouths full of food and dirty silverware, surprised looks on both of their faces. Their forks made a series of loud metallic clangs that rang out through the large dining hall as they dropped them, small bits of fish scattering all over the Brazilian rosewood in the process. They both turned their attention to Essa Von Braun who was smiling as she finally picked up her own fork and looked at the wonderful meal in front of her.

“Well, now that I have your attention...” she didn’t even bother looking up, “let me lay it out for you. Thanks to you Captain I spent three years in lockup on Subterra Prime. Mmmm, mmmm.” she moaned in delight as she took her first bite. “I met a Frazian girl in there named Tali Asaddan’fal’fa’falool. Does that name sound familiar to either of you?” she looked at them quizzically as she chewed her fish.

Ansul thought the name sounded remotely familiar but couldn’t place it. Captain Tarsik had never heard the first name before but the surname was identifiable. His look informed Commander Von Braun that he knew who she was talking about.

“That’s right, the daughter of Qualda Asaddan’fal’fa’falool, chairman of the board of directors for Interplanetary Holdings. I recognized the name as well and not being one to miss an opportunity I took that poor frightened girl under my wing. A cute young Frazian was an easy target in a dungeon like Subterra. I kept her safe from the violent and perverse inmates as best as I could and when we got released her father saw fit to thank me for my kindness.” she grinned from ear to ear.

“Good thing you took my plate away otherwise I might have choked on my food.” Ansul commented.

“So you faked kindness in order to curry some favor at a later date. Doesn’t surprise me one bit to be honest, but if you’re telling the truth what in the galaxy could a rich girl like the daughter of IPH’s chairman have possibly done to end up in a place like Subterra?”

“She was a petty little bitch, had her husband killed by a bounty hunter named Carson Desrick because she thought he was cheating on her. She decided to stiff Desrick on the payment so he dumped all of the information he had about the incident onto some data-tapes and had them delivered to the Frazian system’s Supreme Magistrate. It’s easy for a bounty hunter to disappear for good but Tali had nowhere to go. Her father’s pull got her a short sentence of course but still she had to serve at least some time.”

“So Chairman Qualda entrusted a new, and likely quite expensive, security facility to a known criminal such as yourself just because you kept a bunch of angry and very sexually frustrated convicts away from his daughter while she served time for first degree murder?”

Von Braun was silent for a moment.

“Did I not hit the nail on the head?”

Essa polished off the last bit of her wine and put her fork down onto her plate with an audible clang. “Tali and I both ended up on the same transport leaving Subterra. It was attacked by pirates. Why? I have no idea, looking for conscripts I suppose. I killed one of the bastards myself by strangling him with my shackles, took his gun and proceeded to capture their captain. For all that I’d done for his daughter Chairman Qualda helped me have my criminal misdeeds erased from my permanent record and gave me a job captaining a low-priority freighter. A couple of years later my convoy was attacked by pirates. Not being the type to just roll over,” she smiled at Tarsik, “I rallied my battered collection of lightly armed and antique vessels and not only fought them off but managed to chase them all the way back to their base. My ragtag little fleet kept them pinned down until system police forces arrived and blasted them into oblivion.”

“That got you noticed of course...” Ansul sneered.

“Chairman Qualda” Essa cut him off, “had been looking for an opportunity to promote me. He trusted me but some of those on his board of directors were a little more cautious. Helping take down that pirate outpost was more than enough to ease their concerns and he offered me a very important assignment, IPH’s new ultra-high-security facility, Aeolus.”

“So a pirate got the job of running a bank by fighting off other pirates. That’s classic.” Captain Tarsik snickered.

Essa didn’t even flinch at the insult, instead she took another bite of the lovely fish that had been so rudely taken away from the two men only moments earlier. No longer wanting to play footsie with his old rival the captain spoke up, “Essa let’s cut the shit shall we? We made our delivery, the fact that we’re still here means you’ve got something to say to me.”

The station commander placed her utensils onto her plate and her facial expression changed instantly. “You’re absolutely right Harry.”

Captain Tarsik winced at the sound of his name being said so familiarly by such a woman but was interrupted by the beeping of the tele-wave on his belt. Without even considering politeness or table manners he slapped the button that activated it.

“Captain it’s Faust!” came the voice over the scratchy communications channel. “We’ve got armed station security men at the hatch demanding that we break-seal and submit to an inspection.”

“You keep that hatch sealed pilot and anyone that tries to force their way aboard you have my personal orders to open fire upon is that clear?”

“Yes sir understoo....”

The transmission cut off and was replaced with static for a moment before it went completely silent. Tarsik and Ansul jumped from their seats in unison. “What the hell is going on Von Braun?” the captain instinctively reached for his spiral-ray gun as he spoke but his fingers found nothing. It was still aboard the Honshu, sitting in his equipment locker.

Essa wiped her mouth with her napkin and placed it gently onto the table, keeping the suspense up as long as possible, before standing as well. “You know, I offered for your entire crew to come onto the station for leave but I knew that would never work. Not because it aroused your suspicions, I knew they’d already be aroused, but because you’d never take the time for a little break. It’s always work work work with you isn’t it?” she didn’t wait for her question to be answered, “To put it simple Captain we received a tele-wave shortly before your arrival from a ship called the Idris. She’d picked up a distress call from a planet called Kessela. The natives there claimed that a ship called the Honshu had stolen a rather sizeable quantity of precious minerals from them.”

Captain Tarsik, hell none of the Honshu’s crew, would have ever thought that the backward Keshik tribesmen had anything like a tele-wave transmitter. Little did they know that the tribesmen had salvaged one from a crashed merchant vessel decades ago and that a Brekish merchant had fixed it and shown them what it was used for only a short time before their visit. Regardless, the Honshu’s records would clearly show that there was a contract and that it was fulfilled, they had done nothing wrong. It was the natives who had breached the contract, not them.

“A bribe,” Tarsik chuckled, “is that what you want Essa?”

“A bribe? Of course not.” she scoffed, “I am the commanding officer of a rather prestigious space station. Why would I do something illegal like that and risk everything?”

“What do you want then?” Ansul spoke this time.

“I want to put you...” she pointed at the Martian and then slowly moved her finger toward the captain, “and you in lockup while we investigate what happened on Kessela and I want to rip that ship of yours apart looking for contraband. I want to follow the letter of the law Captain, no more and no less.” and with that a wicked smile crossed her middle aged face, one that was topped by dirty blonde hair which was slowly starting to show the signs of gray.

“If you touch my ship I’ll...”

“I wouldn’t continue that statement Captain, not unless you want to add threatening an IPH official to the list of possible charges.”

“Fine...but you’re not getting aboard my ship. I will not give the order to allow your men onboard.”

“Captain it’s very likely that our investigation could take several days, perhaps even a week, but you do understand that until we get aboard and inspect your ship that we will be unable to complete it and that means you’ll be stuck here indefinitely.”

Tarsik knew exactly what she was doing. She couldn’t risk her career by doing anything contrary to the law but she’d manipulate the rules to keep the Honshu out of work for as long as possible. If he let her men onto the ship they’d do a good job of tearing her up before finally concluding that everything was indeed on the up-and-up and they’d be on their way with a ship that had been ransacked and a week or so of lost pay. On the other hand if he refused to cooperate they’d detain Ansul, Jones and himself until he finally agreed to let them search his ship. He decided that the best course of action was to do exactly what Von Braun was trying to do to him, piss her off, at least for the time being.

“My ship stays sealed, anyone tries to board her by force and they get burned down is that clear?” he knew that IPH had the right to search any ship docked at their facility if it gave permission but that they had no legal recourse if permission was denied. They could have called in a police ship if they were inside the jurisdiction of a star system, but they weren’t. If they forced their way onto the Honshu the crew would have every right to protect themselves. It was a stalemate.

“Quite clear Captain, but let’s see what a few days in holding does to your attitude.” she pressed a button on the lapel of the dark gray cape that was integrated into her uniform and the main entrance to the dining hall slid open with a hiss. Standing in it were two security men wearing ray-proof armor and carrying stun pistols.

With the most sarcastic smile and tone of voice he could muster Ansul turned to Essa Von Braun, “Well, thanks for dinner. It’s always lovely to see you again dear.”