The Blue Horizon is a freighter to the stars. The Planetary Alignment is its highway, a charter of fourteen partner worlds in eight star systems, and its fuel is paying customers. Blue Horizon Freight Transfer has been in operation, in one form or another, for nearly a decade, delivering cargo from one place to another across the Planetary Alignment. In its current form, the company consists of a fleet of three Okami-class freighters, with its headquarters in the coastal city of Grandstorm on the world of Dennier.

The flagship of the fleet is the Blue Horizon herself, an H-model vessel of four levels in the shape of an elliptical flying saucer. Identical sister ships are the Hidalgo Sun and the Mooncrest. The lower two levels house the cargo deck, containing the engine room and a cavernous cargo hold accessible through a huge retracting airlock bay door. The third level is the crew deck, consisting of fifteen comfortable cabins, the Infirmary, laundry room, supply storage, environmental systems, a business office, and the Bridge. The upper level is comprised of the recreation deck, a common area for the crew to relax, exercise and gather for their meals in the Galley.

In all, the vessel provides a comfortable ride for the captain and crew of a vessel designed primarily for hauling cargo across the Planetary Alignment. Ideally, an Okami-class freighter maintains a personnel roster of eight to ten individuals of various duties.

Due to the size and comfort of the crew deck, there are typically five empty cabins at all times. In these times of economic uncertainty, Blue Horizon Freight Transfer is pleased to offer these spare cabins as Space Available to passengers wishing inexpensive travel from one PA world to another.

For a mere ©1,200 (a sixty percent savings over commercial interstellar travel cruisers), a Blue Horizon passenger will enjoy a three-room cabin, complete with fully furnished visiting area, spacious sleeping room with a Queen-sized bed, a walk-in closet, and a roomy lavatory equipped with overhead shower and a water-immersion bathtub large enough to accommodate most PA species. Meals and snacks provided, with menus suited to meet the dietary needs of each passenger.

A typical voyage between PA worlds can be anywhere between three to six weeks in duration, so all passengers will have access to an extensive library of entertaining books and popular, contemporary videos, in addition to the use of exercise equipment on the recreation deck.

Fly in comfort in our Space Available cabins with Blue Horizon Freight Transfer. Use the contact numbers located on the back of this information flyer for reservations, information and flight schedules. Walk-ins are also accepted on a space available basis. We hope you will join us on a journey across the stars.

A broad-shouldered cougar in brown slacks and a muted orange shirt studied the color photographs on the paper he held in his hands. He looked up from the glossy flyer when he heard his name called, and he saw a petite coyote standing in front of a glass door into the waiting area for commercial flights. She wore a simple white blouse and a pleated tan skirt that matched the color of her fur.

He gathered up a shoulder bag and a couple of wheeled suitcases, and then stood up from his seat. "I am Rex Concolar," he said with a grin. The coyote lass met him halfway across the semi-crowded room and greeted him with a pleasant smile.

"Good Morning, Mr. Concolar," she said. "I am Amanda Black, the Business Coordinator of the Blue Horizon. If you will follow me, I have a luggage pallet outside that you may use to bring your belongings out to the ship."

The cougar nodded and gestured toward the door. "After you, ma'am," he said. He followed her outside the building and set his luggage onto the waiting antigrav platform. When he was ready, Amanda led him across the tarmac past Ground-to-Orbit shuttles, out toward a large elliptical vessel painted in two shades of blue. Recently washed, the ship gleamed in the morning sunlight.

"Is that it?" he asked as he pushed the small floating cart. "The Blue Horizon?"

"Yes, sir, that is your ride to Kantus."

Rex gave it a critical eye and then decided it appeared space-worthy. "I know it's not a regular passenger cruiser," he said, "but I suppose a freighter will get me there as well as anything else." Amanda gave him a sidelong glance and opened her mouth to reply, but the cougar chuckled with a shrug of his shoulders. "I do appreciate the ride, Sweetie," he added. "All the current commercial flights between Dennier and Kantus are booked up, not to mention expensive, so this was a life-saver!"

"Once you're on the upper decks, you won't even know you're on a freighter," Amanda told him as they approached the primary airlock, ignoring the Sweetie remark. "You probably won't be able to distinguish the cabins on the crew deck from those in a decent hotel here in town, and the common area of the recreation deck looks nothing like a freighter either."

"Yeah, I saw the photos on your flyer," he said in an off-handed manner. "Looks good enough for me, or I probably wouldn't have even bothered."

Amanda flipped open a hidden panel beside the airlock and tapped in a combination code. When the door split apart to allow them entrance, Rex immediately noticed the internal compression door was already open so they could walk in directly. Pressurizing the ship for the voyage had not yet begun.

The cougar reached for his luggage and then stopped. "Will the pallet be okay out here on the tarmac?" he asked.

Amanda shook her head. "That one belongs to the Blue Horizon," she replied. "You can bring it inside up the ramp."

Rex nodded and wondered why he had to move his luggage himself. Commercial transports always had skycaps to do that for passengers as a courtesy. No doubt, it was because he was boarding a freighter, not a cruise liner. He briefly wondered if he would have to cook his own meals too.

The cougar looked up at the height of the ceiling once he was inside. With the deck practically empty of cargo, the place appeared cavernous. There were several large, octagonal crates with "Jerad Porter, PA1138" stenciled upon them, as well as several large red containers of mail that were tethered to rings in the floor near the center of the room.

Rex heard an approaching hum and looked up in time to see a small flying saucer slow to a bobbing hover in front of him. "Hello," he said hesitantly.

The unit was the size of two inverted pie pans, its metal skin shimmered iridescently, and it had three whisker-like antennae sprouting from each side of its "face". It studied the cougar with an offset pair of lenses, one slightly above the other. Amanda gave him a smile and said, "Moss, security scan, passenger authorization Rex Concolar."

The saucer emitted a pale green light from its upper lens and scanned the visitor briefly. Then it moved to his luggage and scanned them as well. When it was finished, it moved to a position in front of the coyote and intoned a casual "Meow" as it rotated two of its whiskers.

"Thank you, Moss," Amanda said to the unit. "You may resume your duties."

"Meow!"

"What was that about?" Rex asked, scratching his head as the unit floated away across the cargo deck.

"It's just a standard scan to enter you into the profile of our onboard security system," the coyote replied, "as well as to make sure you were not bringing any harmful devices on board."

"Is that a problem on a freighter?" he asked, suddenly concerned.

"Not recently," she told him. "However, Moss has given its permission for you to come aboard, and we have had no other threats recently."

"Ah, okay," Rex replied with a slow nod.

Amanda moved to the controls to close the airlock, but an echoed voice from across the deck stopped her hand above the panel.

"Mandy! Please leave it open for me!" The coyote and cougar both looked toward the voice. Approaching them was a young German shepherd dressed casually in denim jeans with a matching short-sleeved shirt. He had a duffel bag slung over one shoulder and a cheerful grin on his face.

"Well, Max, are you off?" Amanda asked the newcomer. She stepped aside to allow him access to the airlock.

"Yeah, I'm late. Uncle Merlin's brother-in-law should be waiting for me in the terminal," the young canine replied. "I'm kinda nervous about this whole thing, but I have been looking forward to it, too."

"You'll be just fine," Amanda told him. She put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a confident smile. "Have a safe journey, Max."

"Thank you, Mandy!" He gave the cougar a nod and said, "I'm sorry I don't have the time to visit with the Blue Horizon's first official passenger, but I need to be going."

"That's quite all right, Blue Eyes," Rex said with a smile. "Take care, wherever it is you are going."

"Thanks, mister."

Amanda gave Max a quick hug, and then he and his duffel bag were out the airlock. When he had gone, the coyote sealed both the internal and external airlock doors. She turned back to her companion and gestured across the hold.

"This way to the lift, Mr. Concolar," she said and began walking. Rex pushed the cart along behind her, admiring the shape of her legs.

"What's the story with that guy?" he asked in casual conversation.

"That's Maximillian Sinclair," Amanda replied. "He's one of our mechanics, but he's taking some time away for surgery."

"Surgery?" the cougar repeated. "He looked pretty healthy to me."

Amanda chuckled as they neared a red door. "He lost a finger a few years back," she explained, "and he is now having a prosthetic replacement grafted on by a Pomen surgeon. We're scheduled to pick up cargo on Kantus for delivery to Pomen, so we'll meet back up with him there."

"Ah, okay." When the lift door opened, he took his luggage from the pallet cart and set them inside. "Since I'll be flying with you folks for a few weeks, I'm sure I'll hear others mention ol' Blue Eyes' finger."

"No doubt. You will also hear that Max is the owner's nephew."

"Is the owner on board?"

"No, sir. He was just married and is now away on his honeymoon with his new bride."

"Your mechanic just left, and your captain is away with his honey," Rex mused as the lift doors opened up to the crew deck. "Is anyone else gone, or will you be my only companion for this flight?"

Amanda led him to the right, around the curve of the corridor. "Max will be our only absentee for this voyage, Mr. Concolar. Everyone else is on board, including our captain."

"I thought he just got married," Rex said.

"That was the owner, not the captain."

"Ah, okay. What's his name?"

"Her name is Taro Nichols. You should meet her soon after we launch, Mr. Concolar." Amanda stopped before a door that had the cougar's name affixed on a temporary occupant plate. "Here's your room. If you want to stow your belongings, I can give you a brief tour of the Infirmary, laundry room, and the recreation deck."

Rex opened the door to his quarters and looked inside. The coyote was right. The place resembled a hotel suite. Without even realizing it, he immediately felt better about traveling on a freighter. Despite the photos in the pamphlet, he had actually expected a room no bigger than a closet, with a folding cot and a rusty washbasin; cruise ships typically advertised rooms that were nicer and roomier than the actual cabins would turn out to be.

He set his luggage on the floor beside a comfortable-looking sofa and then turned back to his escort. "Not bad," he said with a smile. "How long until we take off?"

Amanda consulted a trim timepiece on her wrist. "We should be launching in about a half hour," she replied. "The bridge crew is probably going through their pre-launch checklist right now, but we still have enough time for a brief tour."

Rex put his hands on his hips and grinned at her. "Lead the way, Sweet Stuff!"

"Open your mouth wide, please," Jerry Somner said to the cougar. Rex sat on a stool in front of the standing doctor, his chest bare and his shirt draped over one arm. The passenger opened his mouth as directed, and the red fox pressed down on his tongue with a flat wooden stick. He shined a small flashlight into the cougar's throat and then nodded in satisfaction.

"Is a physical really necessary?" Rex asked when the fox released his tongue and allowed him to swallow.

"Yes, Mr. Concolar, it is," replied the doctor. "It was noted in the paperwork you signed when you bought passage through our home office. You will be sharing our circulated air during the three weeks you are on board, and we just want to make sure you aren't going to catch anything we might have."

"Or you catch anything I might have?"

Jerry gave the mountain lion a nod as he scribbled some notes onto a small steno pad. "That is correct, sir. I should have checked you out before we launched, in the event you had an illness or an infectious parasite on you, but there was no time when you arrived."

The cougar crossed his arms. "I sat in the waiting area nearly an hour before your sweet coyote came to get me."

The fox looked up from his notes and raised his eyebrows. "Really? I will have to speak to her about it." He scratched at his notepad a moment more and then set it aside. "At any rate, you appear to be just fine at first glance, Mr. Concolar. I will know more after I've run the tests on your blood and urine samples, but for now you are free to go."

"Thanks, Doc," the cougar replied, pulling on his shirt.

His job complete, Jerry sat down on another nearby stool and leaned against the wall. "What brings you on board with us, if you don't mind me asking?"

Rex grinned widely, clearly pleased to have someone ask. "I bought a lottery ticket just before I left Kantus to come out here to Dennier to visit a lady friend," he explained. "I found out last night that I won the jackpot, but I have to report there in person to claim my prize."

"Very nice!" Jerry exclaimed, smiling.

"This lottery is held PA-wide and only once a year, so due to travel distances, they will hold the numbers for ten months to allow the winner time to claim it."

"What was the jackpot?"

The cougar finished buttoning his shirt and then he leaned on the counter. "Twenty-seven million credits! I'm surprised you didn't see a report about it on INN." Then he stood up and slipped his hands into his pockets. "However, until they award my prize, I'm still stuck on a budget. Yours is the only ship I could afford to get back to Kantus."

"When you came to Dennier to see your friend, didn't you have a round-trip ticket to get back home?" the doctor asked.

Rex shrugged. "It was my intention to get a local job and stay for a while, so my boarding pass was a one-way trip. Buying the lottery ticket on the way to the spaceport was done on the spur-of-the-moment."

"So what are your plans once you get your money?"

The cougar smiled again. "I was thinking I might buy a private transport with a small flight crew, and travel around the Planetary Alignment with my lady. Why? Are you looking for a job as my medical officer?"

Jerry chuckled. "No, sir. I'm just curious about what someone would do with that kind of money."

"Curious-schmurious… I'm sure I could use a doctor when I travel. Do you want the job?"

The red fox shook his head. "Thank you, but no. I am happy right here. Besides, you should not make offers or promises until you actually have the money. Just don't lose your ticket between now and Kantus."

Rex raised an eyebrow and patted his shirt pocket. "No worries, Doc. The winning ticket is safe. Once you get me home, I can pay off all my debts and then live comfortably." He moved toward the door and gave the physician a casual wave. "See ya around the galaxy, Doc!"

When the panel closed behind him out in the corridor, Rex frowned and rubbed the spot where the physician had taken the blood sample. With the advances in modern technology, he knew there were less painful ways of extracting blood. He glanced back at the door, wondering if he had gotten a needle simply because he was not a member of the crew. With a sigh, he turned around and saw several people get off a nearby lift.

"Hello!" he said with the sudden return of his grin. Taro Nichols, Justin Mandolin, and Lorelei Easter all looked over at him in unison.

"Hi, there!" Lori said with a lilt to her voice. Justy merely gave a small wave and headed immediately for his cabin.

"Mr. Concolar," Taro said with a nod. The cougar joined them and rubbed his hands together. "What can we do for you?" Taro asked.

"The doctor has just passed me on my physical, Lady Captain," he said, "and I was wondering what there was to do now."

"We have a library of books and movies up on the recreation deck," Taro suggested, "or you may use the exercise equipment. My navigator is currently up there working through his daily routine, if you wish to join him."

"Hmm, that sounds interesting," Rex said with a nod.

"Are you hungry?" Lorelei asked him. "I just came from the galley, but if there's something you want, I don't mind."

The cougar's eyes lit up. "Now that you mention it, I am feeling peckish!"

Lori took him by the arm and led him back to the lift. "What can I make for you?" she asked.

Rex gave Taro a small waggle of his fingers and then he looked down into the rabbit's bright blue eyes. "I'm not particular," he said.

Lori nodded as the lift door opened for them. "I looked over your food preferences right after you came on board, Mr. Concolar. You have a wide variety of things you like."

"Why don't you just surprise me with something, Bunnyfluff?"

"A surprise, eh? Okay, I think I can surprise your taste buds!"

Taro watched the lift door close and she shook her head with a chuckle. It was different having a passenger on board their ship. She just hoped he would stay out of trouble for the next three weeks he would be with them. Fortunately, all guests were restricted to the upper levels of the ship, even if they had no cargo on this voyage. Pockets had requested the use of the empty floor space in the hold to sort out the parts to a special project; he would be nose-deep into it on their way to Kantus, so the fewer people down there would be for the best.

She absently ran her fingers across the white, blue-tipped feather clipped to the fur behind her left ear, and then she turned up the corridor. It was her shift to relieve Damien from bridge duty.

A half hour later, Lorelei set a plate down in front of the cougar with a smile. Renny Thornton's nose twitched as he finished putting away the exercise mat in a wall storage closet. "I'll take some too, please," he said from across the room. "Pile it high!" He hurried over to the galley and sat down with his tail through the slotted back of the chair, putting both elbows on the table.

"What is it?" Rex asked as he sniffed the aromas from the steaming plate.

Renny opened his mouth to reply, but Lori shushed him before he could say a word. "You said you wanted a surprise," she reminded the passenger as she set up a plate for their navigator. "First give it a try before I tell you what it is."

Rex studied the plate curiously. It resembled a mass of tiny intestinal strings covered in pulpy blood, with the distinct presence of a grayish brown fungus, but its tangy aroma was throwing off its identification. As the rabbit had reminded him earlier, he had a wide and varied taste in foods, so he did not intend to turn his nose up at it.

Lorelei did not know his preference for eating utensils, so she set a ceramic canister of various instruments on the table. Rex looked again at the plate and then selected a pair of chopsticks. Renny grabbed a four-pronged fork as the ship's chef set a plate before him. Rex watched the cheetah dig into the meal with glee and decided it was time to sample the food.

He sniffed it again and then used the chopsticks to gather up a bit of the stringy mass and raise it to his mouth. He took a moderate mouthful and chewed on it silently. Lori watched the cougar expectantly, and Renny smiled around another forkful as he continued to eat.

After the first swallow, Rex licked his lips and looked down at the meal. "I like this," he said in genuine interest. "It's good!"

Lorelei smiled widely and then filled drinking mugs for both her customers. "I'm glad to hear it," she said to the cougar.

"What is this?" Rex asked as he lifted up another mouthful.

"This is popular in areas on Earth," the rabbit answered. "It's called pasta spaghetti, with tomato sauce, mushrooms, and a bit of browned ground beef." Lorelei did not eat meat herself, preferring a vegetarian diet, but she had long grown accustomed to the tastes of the predator-types she regularly fed.

"More please," Renny said as he held up his empty plate. Lori gave him a wink and took the dish for a refill.

Rex ate his food slower than the cheetah, savoring the taste. The rabbit had not given him a large amount at first, and he was soon finished with his portion. He licked his lips, picked up his mug, and then took a healthy drink. He set his mug down and then hefted the empty plate toward the waiting chef as he had seen the cheetah do. "Bunnyfluff, I think I would like more of this pasty pasketti, please," he said with a smile.

"Pasta spaghetti," Renny corrected.

"Yeah, what Spots said – pasta spaghetti," Rex said.

The cheetah turned to look at him and swallowed another mouthful. "Spots?" he repeated with a raised eyebrow. "Tell me, Mr. Concolar, do you have a personal name for yourself, or do you just like hearing people call you Mister?"

"My name's Rex," the cougar answered nonchalantly as Lorelei set a freshly filled plate before him.

"Well, Rex, my name is Renny, not Spots. Our gracious chef here is Lori, not Bunnyfluff."

"Don't get your fur up," the cougar replied with a shrug, picking up his chopsticks. "I don't mean anything by it," he said. "I'm just bad with names."

Renny took a drink from his mug and then leaned toward the passenger. "Fair enough, but at least try to use our names," he said, attempting to be diplomatic. "Your time with us will be nearly a month, and attitudes will be nicer if you talk to us using our names instead of nicknames. You have already been introduced to everyone on board individually, but I doubt anyone will be offended if you ask his or her name if you've forgotten."

Rex nodded as he lifted another helping to his mouth. "I realize I'm your first passenger," he said before eating, "but if you're going to ferry people across the Planetary Alignment, perhaps you should wear name tags for people like me who won't remember your crew names after hearing them just once."

The cougar continued eating while Renny mulled over his words. He looked over at Lori, who nodded toward their guest. "I think that's a good idea," she said with a smile.

"That's just it," Renny replied thoughtfully. "I do, too. I don't think this is something Merlin considered when he told us we were going to start taking on passengers."

"You have a magician who makes decisions for your company?" Rex asked when he finished his plate.

"Magician?" Renny repeated.

"Merlin the Magician," the cougar replied with a smile. "You know, from Terran legends."

Renny shook his head. "I'm not familiar with that one."

Lorelei laughed. "I know who he's talking about," she explained. "My father was stationed on Earth for a while and I saw some movies about that Merlin. Strange, I never thought of him when I first met our Merlin. That was clever, Rex!"

The cougar stood up and took a bow. "Thank you," he said with a smile.

Renny grinned at the passenger. "How can you be familiar with legends on Earth, but know nothing about spaghetti?" he asked.

Rex raised his eyebrows. "I didn't know about this spaghetti because I've never been to Earth. However, I think I may have seen the same movie she did. We get a lot of Terran movies imported to Kantus."

"Yeah, that's true," Renny agreed with a nod. "I'm from Gate City on Kantus, myself."

"Really?" Rex asked. "I grew up in Martell! That's where I'm headed after we land."

Lorelei picked up both empty plates and took them to a large sink. "Do you know where he's from, Renny?" she asked.

The cheetah narrowed his eyes at the cougar with a grin. "Of course I do," he answered. "Martell and Gate City were arch-rivals in stamball competitions. Our two teams were pretty closely matched; it made the games intense and exciting."

Rex chuckled. "Yeah, they were loads of fun."

Renny leaned on the table toward their guest. "Did you ever play?" he asked. The cougar's eyes lit up and he relaxed against the back of his chair as he began to regale his host with exploits of prowess.

Lorelei chuckled as the two males became immediately engrossed in sport talk. They're all alike, she thought to herself with a smile.

The intercom chirped and Taro looked up from the entry she was writing in her Captain's Diary. "Yes, what is it?" she asked.

"Captain, there's a call for you from the home office."

"Thank you, Justy. Could you route the audio in here for me, please?"

"Incoming."

There was another small chirp and then Cindy Allport's voice emanated from the intercom speaker. "Taro?"

"I'm here, Cindy. How are you?"

"I'm fine, thanks for asking. My boyfriend wants me to spend some vacation time with him on the Kellogg islands to the south; it's very romantic, with white sand beaches, clear blue water, secluded huts and lots of decadent fruit!"

Taro smiled. "That sounds great. When do you leave?"

"Next month sometime, providing Merlin lets me take the time off. I've been out sick a lot lately, and he's been taking up the slack for me himself each time I'm away."

"Yeah, that sounds like Merlin. So, what can I do for you?"

"There's no easy way to say this, but the delivery you're on the way to pick up has been cancelled."

"Please tell me you are joking."

"I'm afraid not. Crimson Astrogation is undergoing investigation, so they have stopped all shipments of their spatial navigation systems for the time being. There was nothing we could do about a situation like this, but I've already picked up a replacement for you on Tanthe."

"Tanthe? At least that's in the same star system," Taro replied as she set up a new file on her computer terminal. "Okay, give me the details and then I'll have Renny plot a new course to reroute us to the Tanthean location."

"Actually," Cindy said, "You're still going to Kantus. You have a passenger who paid for a ride to Gate City. Once he has disembarked, then you can launch to pick up your new shipment. At their current orbital relationships, it should only take you twenty hours to reach Tanthe from Kantus."

Taro let out a snort. "Having passengers, but no cargo, is going to cost us time and money when changes in the schedule crop up. You know they have happened before, and things like this will happen again. I wonder if Merlin has really thought this through."

"I admit it can be an inconvenience, but the decision was based upon having a regular shipment load for each voyage. The passenger space is only available as a courtesy to people like your Mr. Concolar. The only reason you are empty now is because we altered the shipping schedules to allow you all to attend Merlin and Samantha's wedding. We will try to keep your hold stocked for each trip from Tanthe and on out. At least your destination from Tanthe is still to Pomen."

"Well, that's good, at least. We can still meet back up with Maximillian as scheduled."

"That's what I was trying for. By the way, how is your passenger doing?"

"He's been with us a week now, but he seems to be finding enough to keep himself occupied," Taro reported. "He's caused no real trouble, but he has a bad memory for names and has been calling everyone by nicknames he creates on the spot. It was amusing at first, but it's starting to annoy some of us. If we're going to continue this facet of our business, I think we should invest in name badges for the crew to wear."

"That's a good idea, really."

"Yeah, it was actually the passenger who suggested it."

"That should be a negligible expense and we can probably hire a business on Tanthe to make them up for you while you're en route. If Tina approves the funds, I will take care of getting them made for you in time for landfall."

"Okay, that sounds good."

"If you are ready, I can transmit the details of your altered schedule."

"I have a file open. Ready to receive."

"Okay, Taro, Renny, you two can open your eyes now."

When the pair looked up, Pockets and Justy were grinning ear to ear. "Ta-da!" they said in unison.

Sitting on the floor of the empty cargo hold were seven large engine components that the raccoon had built over the past week with the koala's help, using the parts delivered to the ship while they were on Dennier. Each section was nearly as large as the engineer himself was.

"Well, it certainly looks as if you've been productive," Renny said as he scratched his head. "What are they?"

"All of these make up the heart of a small Particle Vault system!" Pockets said proudly.

"A Vault system?" Taro repeated in astonishment. "How?"

"Do you remember a few years back when I went off wandering while we were on Brandt, and Natasha had me shanghaied for her ship?"

"Yeah," Renny said. "Merlin was mad at you for a week for that stunt. You probably would have died along with her on the Lady of Dreams as part of her crew, if you hadn't made a deal with Natasha to get out of there."

Pockets nodded. "As part of that deal, she gave me a set of plans to convert the Blue Horizon's engines to Vault capability, but they were encrypted. Neither Patch nor I were able to make any use of them, but even if we had, major structural alterations would have been required to that Blue Horizon to make it work. I was supposed to get back with Captain Natasha for the key to decrypt the plans after she checked out some information I gave her, but we never got the opportunity to meet with her again."

"So what's the difference now?" Renny asked. Taro walked over to the nearest component, but she was no mechanic and it looked like just another heap of spare parts.

"The difference is that I discovered Natasha's Rosetta stone to her encryption a couple months ago and was able to decipher them. I started going over the plans again and figured out a way to use them."

"Wait a minute," Taro said. "You told me the key to her code was a single word from the local language of the Hestran village where Natasha and I grew up together. How can an encryption as strong as the one you described be unlocked by a simple word?"

The raccoon stuck his hands into the pockets of his coveralls amidst the tinkling of tools, and then rocked back and forth on his heels. "No, it wasn't that easy," he admitted, "but each letter of the word written in your alphabet unlocked a series of encryption keys, and each of those keys unlocked even more parts to the cipher, and so on. The word itself was merely the catalyst to begin a chain reaction to translate the code to Standard!"

Renny looked over at Justy at the explanation, but the koala merely pointed at Pockets with a smile and replied, "What he said!"

"How did you get roped into his experiment?" the cheetah asked Justy.

"I've had some experience as a mechanic. I was bored and Pockets asked me to help out since Max was gone," Justy replied.

"That's very clever, Pockets," Taro said. "I'm impressed. So…now that you've made the components, what do you intend to do with them? You already told us it would take a structural modification for us to use them on the Horizon. Are you asking permission to take us apart?"

Pockets snickered. "No, Captain, that's not what I'm asking…exactly."

"Uh oh, I don't like the sound of that," Renny muttered. Taro crossed her arms and merely waited for the raccoon to continue. Pockets raised his short arms and gestured at the vessel around them.

"This is a different model ship than the one we were flying when Natasha gave me her plans," he explained. "That G-model Okami would have taken a structural overhaul to get these components integrated into the engine system. We don't have that problem with our current H-model design!"

Taro swept a hand through the air over the engine parts beside them. "I know that Merlin sometimes let you and Patch experiment with the systems to get more speed out of them," she said, "but I don't know if I want these things attached to our engine."

"Why not?" Pockets asked in sudden distress. "Being able to fly faster would give us an edge over our competitors!"

Taro knelt down to look her diminutive friend at eye level. "Pockets, I admit Natasha's engineers probably worked wonders on her ship," she said, "but this kind of technology is not available to the public. After Natasha's death, I heard there were massive efforts to locate her base of operations to exploit her technology. They found nothing, so the general assumption was that all her knowledge was aboard the Lady of Dreams when it was destroyed. What do you think would happen if the rest of the PA found out that Blue Horizon Freight Transfer possessed technology that has been obsessively sought after by virtually every world in the Planetary Alignment?"

Pockets shrugged his shoulders and looked down at his toes. "Merlin sent Natasha's memory chips to Master Tristan on Sillon," he said. "He thought that if Vault technology was made available to the PA, it should come from a source not related to anyone who had any prior contact with Natasha. Tristan is wise enough to handle revealing such a breakthrough slowly. If the Silloni are successful in using her plans to build new Vault ships, no one will think twice about a world so far away developing a way to travel vast distances quickly."

"Hmm, I wasn't aware of that," Taro said. "Still, that didn't answer my question."

Justy looked hopeful. "We could say that we are testing a prototype for the Silloni," he offered.

"Either that, or we just don't tell anyone that we've got it," Pockets added. "We could use it only on special occasions; you know, if we fall behind on a delivery for one reason or another."

Taro sighed and looked up at Renny for a long moment. The First officer raised an eyebrow and made a brief shrug of his shoulders. Finally, she stood up and gestured toward the parts again.

"Are you sure these things will even work with our engines?" she asked.

Pockets nodded as he looked at his and Justy's handiwork. "Pretty sure," he said confidently. "We won't have the sophisticated power technology to make extremely long hops like the Lady of Dreams, but it will cut considerable time off our trips."

"How long would the engines be offline if you two were allowed to install these things?" Renny asked. Taro gave him a dirty look, but remained silent.

"Four hours, tops," the raccoon replied quickly. "The components are already built and ready for installation. We already mapped out our procedures on how to integrate these to our engines with minimal downtime – with no structural modifications to the ship!"

"Natasha's plans were fairly specific for use with a typical Liquid Crystal LightDrive engine," Justy added. "It would have worked on your old ship, if only the engine room had been larger. There will be plenty of space to spare even with our new components!"

Pockets and Justy both gave the Captain hopeful smiles, and the koala had his fingers crossed behind his back for luck.

Taro was quiet for a moment. Merlin may have jumped at such a chance to give the business an edge over competitors, but something of this magnitude was beyond a casual decision. However, the wolf was out of contact and she was captain of the ship, so weighing the advantages against the precautions lay fully on her shoulders. She felt something else tugging at the back of her mind—as though there was some other piece of information not included in Pockets’ explanation, but of which neither of them was fully cognizant. Still, he was one of the best engineers she had ever known, and he had discovered the decryption key and worked out the intricacies of the vastly superior technology with almost no assistance, so it was reasonable to trust his judgment here. The idea had merits, if they could keep its existence a secret for now.

"Let me think about it," she said. "We may try it later, but we currently have a schedule to maintain where four hours of downtime would put us too far behind."

"If the Vault works," Pockets said with a smile, "we can make up whatever downtime we have with loads of time on the clock left over. We can get our passenger to Kantus faster, and then be on to our next assignment much quicker!"

"Yes, but if the Vault doesn't work," Taro reminded him, "We could lose another customer by failing to meet a timetable. I'm not sure it's a good idea, but I promise I will give it some thought."

Pockets' countenance fell. He was out of arguments and it showed on his face. Justy patted him on the shoulder and looked back at the vixen with a disappointed expression.

"Listen, guys," Taro said quietly. "You two have done a great job, and you have presented me with a nice little gift. However, give me a little time to weigh the pros and cons, okay?"

Pockets looked up at her and gave her a bit of a smile. "Sure," he said. Justy merely nodded his agreement.

"Thanks." Taro gave them a nod in return, and then turned back toward the lift. Renny followed beside her, but his eyes were off in the distance as he thought about the implications of Pockets' request.

When they were out of earshot and inside the lift, Renny looked over at the vixen. "If the Blue Horizon was equipped with a mini-Vault drive," he said quietly, "we could fit in more deliveries and bring in more income to the company. From what I heard about the Lady of Dreams, it could travel half-way across the Planetary Alignment in just minutes, instead of weeks!"

"I really don't understand how that can work," Taro said. "Pockets tried to explain it to me back when we first encountered Natasha's ship over Brandt, but I'm afraid that kind of stellar engineering is beyond me."

"Yeah, but just think about it. He said we wouldn't have the power capabilities that Natasha had, but there would be no more long weeks of boredom while we get from place to place! With the Vault and our power reserves, we could probably cut it down to a few days."

"Yes, I admit that would be great," Taro said as the lift came to a stop, "but I can't think of anything that would justify having the whole Planetary Alignment after us for our plans to the technology."

"Well, as Pockets said, we could just use it sparingly instead of all the time," Renny replied, "I'm sure it could come in handy in some cases, even if we don't use it to its full potential."

"Maybe," Taro said. The pair of them stepped out from the lift, and suddenly their passenger blocked their way.

"Hiya, Foxy!" Rex said cheerfully. "Hey, Speedo! Fluffbunny said she's going to make a new dish for everyone tonight and wants to make sure everyone is there on time! Just try not to get in my way, or I might eat your fingers off!"

"Uh, right," Renny said as the cougar pushed his way between them and into the lift. Rex gave them a wave just as the doors closed.

"Yeesh, I can't wait until we can get to Kantus to dump this guy," Renny muttered. "The longer he's with us, the more irritated I get."

"I thought you got along with him, seeing as how you two are from the same area."

"That wore thin very quickly. He claims he's bad with names, but I think he's using his nicknames just to needle everyone around him. I know he's a paying customer, but I'm sick of having him on board."

"Yeah, I think everyone else is too," Taro said. "The sooner we can get him to Kantus, we..." She stopped suddenly, stared back toward the closed lift doors, and then looked back at her companion. She bit her bottom lip and then walked down the curved corridor to the nearest intercom panel. She tapped a couple buttons and then waited.

"One engineer at your service," said Pockets' country drawl a long moment later.

Renny looked at Taro curiously, but she ignored him. "Pockets, this is Taro. You have permission to install and test your components, providing you can guarantee we won't be down for more than your promised four hours."

"You got it, Captain!" the raccoon exclaimed happily. "We'll still be traveling on interstellar inertial, so we won't be completely at rest while the engines are down. It will take us about an hour to get everything ready, and then I will let you known when we will need to shut down the engines. "

"Thank you, Pockets."

Renny blinked and twitched his tail. "Did I just miss something?" he asked. "What made you change your mind about Pockets' little experiment so quickly?

"Our passenger, Mister 'I can't remember anyone's name so I'll just make up my own whether they like it or not…'"

Renny grinned at her. "Yeah, that sounds like a valid decision-maker to me."

Taro snorted. "My concerns still stand," she said, "but we're just going to consider this an experiment in research and development. If it works, we will let Merlin decide whether or not we'll keep it, and what to do about its implications later."

"If it doesn't work," Renny said, "then we'll be four hours behind in our delivery with no way to make it up en route. It's not like we can count on a strong tail wind out here."

"Let's just hope Pockets is as good an engineer as he thinks he is. In the meantime, call the crew together on the rec deck. I want to explain to everyone what we're about to do."

"Rex, too?"

"No, this will be a staff meeting. He's not invited."

"We're ready to restart the LightDrive engines," Pockets' voice said from the Bridge intercom speaker.

"Okay, restart the primary system and then stand by," Renny said. "I need to re-calculate our new heading so we don't come out of the Vault inside standard shipping traffic."

"Aye to that."

Jerry looked over at the cheetah from the pilot's center seat. Aside from Renny, the crimson fox was probably the most experienced pilot on board, and for an experiment such as this one, Taro wanted him at the helm.

"Where are we going to come out?" the doctor asked.

"Just outside the orbit of the Kantus moon," Renny replied distractedly. He held up a hand for silence as he worked his figures.

The door opened and Taro walked in. She saw the navigator concentrating on his task and moved to the Com station without a word. She sat down, buckled her harness, and then made a notation on her clipboard.

"What's that?" Jerry whispered to the vixen.

"A signed legal document swearing our passenger to silence concerning our engine test," Taro whispered back. "He wants to get to his lottery winnings quickly just as much as we want to get him there, so he was willing to sign."

"I thought we all agreed at the staff meeting not to let him know about the Vault," Jerry whispered in alarm.

"I didn't tell him it was a Vault test," Taro explained. "As far as he knows, our engineer is just experimenting with a standard LightDrive engine that could give us a tremendous boost." She held up the clipboard and added, "However, no matter the result, this will legally gag him from mentioning it to anyone else."

"Okay, I think that should do it," Renny said after a moment. "I'm feeding the new coordinates to your panel, Jerry."

"Yeah, I see it." The pilot looked over at Taro and put his hands up on the guidance shifts. "Are we ready to give this a try?" he asked.

The captain opened her mouth to reply, but Renny spoke up first. "Have either of you been through a Vault jump before?" he asked.

Jerry shook his head, but Taro gave him a lopsided smile. "I probably went though one after we crashed on Crescentis and was transported to Pomen and Hestra on Natasha's ship, but I was unconscious and have no memory of it," she replied. "Why?"

Renny grinned. "Lori, Max, Pockets, and I were on the Lady of Dreams when Natasha transported the Blue Horizon inside her cargo bay to Argeia, so the rest of you will have a new experience today," he said. "The first time through can play funny with your insides."

Taro exchanged a quick look of concern with the doctor. "What kind of funny?" Jerry asked.

Without answering the question, Renny looked over at Taro. "I need the intercom to connect only to the engine room and the rec deck," he said. "I don't want our passenger to hear what I have to say to the crew."

Taro furrowed her brow, but then she turned to the Com panel, tapped a series of controls, and gave him a nod.

"This is Damien," the mastiff replied.

"Engine Room," Justy's voice came back.

"Is everyone there?" Renny asked.

"Lori, Amanda and I are here at the Galley," Damien replied.

"Pockets and I are down here together with the engines," the koala reported.

"We are about to give Pockets' home-made system components a test, but first I wanted to give you a bit of a warning. If this works as planned, we are all going to feel a little ill when we go through the Vault, but it will only be momentary. Natasha told us that the best thing you can do is hold your breath, close your eyes, and then tense up so the effect on the body is somewhat masked. They say it gets routine as you get used to it, but the first time can be disorienting. I don't know how well our inertial dampers are going to work with a Vault jump, so I would suggest everyone get strapped into a flight harness. It will take us a few moments to get up to standard cruising speed, and then Jerry will announce when he is ready to initiate the Vault drive. Prepare yourselves."

The intercom chirped, so Taro switched the channel. "This is Taro, but we really don't have time to chat," she said.

"This is Pockets. One of the components we built enhances the inertia dampers," he explained. "We should not need harnesses."

"Maybe not," Taro replied, "but since this an experiment, it's better to play it safe."

"Okie dokie. I am going to monitor the systems to make sure the regular engines still operate normally. The new components should have no effect on the LightDrive until it's switched on, but I want to be sure."

"Keep me informed of any changes to the readings you think look the least bit unusual," Taro said.

"Of course!"

The captain closed the intercom circuit and gave Jerry a nod. "Take us up to standard cruising speed. Once you're sure our LightDrive still works as it's supposed to, we'll make our Vault test."

"Aye, ma'am," the pilot replied as he initiated controls for the standard engines.

Taro tapped another control on her panel and waited for the reply. A moment later, the intercom chirped.

"Uh, this is Rex," said the cougar's voice. "I hope I pushed the right button to reply."

"Mr. Concolar, this is the captain," Taro replied.

"What can I do for the lovely vixen? My schedule is open if you want a rendezvous."

Taro grimaced. "I just wanted to inform you that our down-time is over and we are moving again."

"Does this mean your Coongineer's test worked? When do we arrive on Kantus?"

"No, sir, we have not yet tested the upgrades. Once we get up to standard cruising speed, we will make an announcement over the intercom and then initiate the test."

"Do I need to hold onto anything?"

"If you look to the left of your desk, you will see a panel in the wall that pulls out into a small seat. It's equipped with a harness for emergencies. To be on the safe side, I suggest you strap yourself into it when we give the warning."

"I found it. I'll be strapped in when you give the word."

"Very good," Taro said. "If this works, we should be able to shave off a good deal of our remaining timetable and get you to Kantus in record time."

"Here's hoping your masked mechanic knows what he's doing!"

"We have reached standard cruising speed, Captain," Jerry said.

"What does spatial traffic look like?" Taro asked.

"Nothing within half a light year of us in any direction," Renny reported. "This is a good time to do it."

Taro heaved an audible sigh and then held up her hand with crossed fingers to her companions. She turned, activated the ship-wide intercom, and then gave the physician a thumbs-up.

"All hands, prepare for engine boost test," Jerry announced throughout the ship. "Get into your harnesses." Taro left the com channel open while the pilot quickly went through his checklist once more. A moment later, he was satisfied everything was ready, so he reached toward a new set of controls that Pockets had earlier added to the right side of the center seat console.

The male fox held down three buttons simultaneously until a diode went from amber to green, and then he flipped a single toggle. He looked over at Renny and Taro and gave them both a silent nod.

"Engine Room, prepare for system activation," he announced when he held his finger above a large green switch.

"Engine Room ready," said Pockets over the open circuit.

"We are go on Five… Four… Three… Two… One!"

Jerry quickly held his breath, closed his eyes, tensed his body as Renny had instructed, and then punched the green switch.

Outside the freighter, a ring of blue-white flame encompassed the entire vessel for a brief instant.

There was a momentary sensation that everything stopped: heartbeat, brain activity, metabolism, and even time itself. Everyone on board collectively felt a cessation of all five senses at once. It was not a sensation in and of itself, but the lack of sensation such as what a blind man describes the black sparkles before his eyes or a deaf woman describing the buzz of low-level static coming from her tympanic membranes. It was a feeling of suffocation, of being buried alive. Those who had clenched up were too focused on their straining bodies to appreciate the experience of the Vault fully, but those who had remained relaxed were sickened by it. Jerry felt as if his stomach was about to heave violently, and then it was gone. He opened his eyes feeling disoriented, and noted immediately that Taro and Renny both still had their eyes clenched. He looked up at the system clock on his console and noted that only a moment had passed.

"Renny?" he asked in voice that sounded strangely unlike his own.

The cheetah opened his eyes and blinked rapidly to refocus his eyes. "Yeah," he whispered. "You okay?"

To his surprise, Jerry felt just fine. The momentary queasiness was gone already. "Yeah, I'm okay," he said.

Taro opened her eyes and shook her head as if clearing out cobwebs. "Uh, that was… surreal," she breathed as she looked out the forward windows at the stars. "Did it work? Have we gone anywhere?" she asked. Renny turned to his navigational console and tapped in some commands.

The intercom chirped. "This is the Bridge," Taro responded. "Please stand by while we get our bearings."

"C-captain," said Rex's quivering voice. "I got s-sick on myself. C-can I go clean up?"

Taro looked over at Jerry, who gave her a nod. "Yes," she told him, "it's safe to move around now." There was no reply, but the intercom chirped again on another channel.

"Did we make it?" Lorelei asked. "That was weird! I don't see Kantus on the vidscreen."

"Hold on," Taro told her. There was another chirp, but before she could respond, Pockets' voice issued from the speaker.

"Captain!" he exclaimed with a cough. "We have a Vault component on fire down here and it's eating a lot of oxygen! Justy and I are going to seal off the bulkhead and vent the atmosphere from the engine room!"

"Do it!" Taro replied quickly. "Report ASAP!"

"Aye, Cap'n!"

"The navigational computer is down," Renny said after a moment, "but sensors are reading a nearby solar body."

"Is it Anya?" Jerry asked. "Maybe we just didn't make it far enough inside the Anya solar system to Kantus."

"Without the nav computer, I'll have to make calculations based on the positions of the stars themselves," Renny replied. He opened a panel near him and pulled out a brass sextant from a form-fitted, padded drawer.

He glanced up through the forward windows and then gestured behind him at the physician. "Jerry, I need you to reorient the ship so the nearby star is visible through the forward windows."

"Coming right up," the male fox replied. While the navigator prepared to take his readings, Taro moved past him to the environmental station.

When the ship was in position, Renny turned down the Bridge interior lights and then leaned up close to the middle transparent vidscreen panel. He took a number of sightings in a short period, and then had Jerry turn the ship twice. In the meantime, Taro monitored the engine room readouts and spoke quietly to Pockets with a headset so not to disturb the navigator's concentration.

Once she was satisfied that Pockets and Justy were okay, and the engine room was once again pressurized, she let them go inspect the damage before she would make a decision on what to do. She moved to the sensor panel and examined the readouts on the nearby star system.

"We're detecting five planets," she said quietly. "One is a methane gas giant, two are really only small planetoids, and the other two are similar in diameter, about the size of Kantus and Tanthe."

"Then that is Anya out there," Jerry said with an air of relief.

"No..." Renny said with a side-glance at Taro's readout. "Not enough planets and they're in the wrong order."

"What do you mean?"

"The Anya star system has seven worlds; Kantus and Tanthe are the third and fourth planets, respectively. This star only has five planets, and the two worlds that size are numbers two and four. This is not the Anya system."

"Are you telling me that the star system out there is not part of the PA?" Jerry asked as he looked up at the vidscreen.

"That's right," Renny replied as he took another sighting. "It's not on any of the charts."

"How can you be sure?" the male fox asked with a strange look on his face. "You said the nav computer was offline, so how can you know that is not the Anya star system?"

"Jerry," Renny said patiently, "I'm a navigator and you know I have a photographic memory of the PA star charts. Before the jump, I familiarized myself with the present locations of Kantus and Tanthe in their orbits around their sun, and I can assure you that this is not the Anya system."

Jerry walked over to the forward screen and swished his tail. "Then where the blazes are we?"

Renny lowered the sextant with his eyes closed, and made some mental computations. When he had reached his decision, he looked back at Taro with a strange expression on his face.

"What is it?" she asked.

"We're north of the galactic plane, so we're above that star system out there, but if my calculations are correct, we've overshot our goal by a number of light years."

"Overshot?" Jerry asked. "How far?"

"Without instruments, I can't give you a figure, but I do believe we've gone out beyond the Rim."

Taro dropped her headset in surprise, and then scrambled to pick it up. "Beyond the Rim?" she repeated hoarsely. The intercom chirped and all three of them jumped. "This is Taro," she said into her headset. She listened for a moment and shook her head. "No, Lori, we're still trying to figure that out," she said. "Please, just hold on until we have something. Yes, you can move around now." She disconnected the channel, unplugged the headset from its receptacle, and then sat down in the nearest seat.

"I want you two to do what you can up here to get our navigational computer operational," she said. "I'm going down to check in on Pockets and Justy. If the Vault system is out of order, it's going to take us a while to get back to PA traffic, and I want to know what we'll be facing if it comes to that. I'll meet with everyone on the rec deck in two hours to discuss our situation, so if anyone else calls up here to ask, just tell them to cool their heels."

"Justy is our computer expert," Renny reminded her. "If you can spare him from the engine room, he can be better utilized up here."

"Yes, I know," Taro replied as she headed for the door, "but he helped Pockets build those components, and right now our priority is to get the engines back online, with or without the Vault. Just do what you can for now, and I'll have Justy help you later when Pockets can do without him."

Taro looked out at the faces of those who depended upon her leadership. The crew was her family, and even though they had a passenger amongst them, she was responsible for him as well.

"Okay, I'm not given to long speeches like Merlin used to give," she said as she leaned back against the edge of the rec deck's vidscreen terminal, "so I will keep this short." The cougar's hand went up, and Taro sighed inwardly. "Yes, Mr. Concolar?"

"How much longer before we get to Kantus?" he asked.

Not soon enough, Taro thought to herself. "A little longer than expected, I'm afraid," she told him.

"Longer, but I thought…"

"Just a moment, Rex," Renny said. "Let her explain."

"Okay," the passenger said with a frown.

"We have good news and bad news..." Pockets quipped from the side. Taro gave him a dark look and his smile faded.

"Yes, that's correct," the vixen said. "First, the good news, I suppose. Pockets' experiment did work. However, we didn't arrive at our intended destination."

"We didn't go far enough?" Amanda asked.

"Actually, we went too far," Taro explained.

"Too far!" several said in union. Rex stood up in surprise and immediately sat down on the arm of his chair.

"That's right. We overshot our destination by a number of light years," she said. Several of them spoke up at once, making the conversation nothing more than confused yammering. "Listen," Taro said in a loud voice over the din, "if you will hold all your questions for a few minutes, I will tell you about our situation."

The noise faded and then everyone's attention was on her again. "The upgrades sped the ship faster toward our destination as expected, but our navigation computer crashed when the new system activated. We didn't brake in time."

"It's hard to know when to brake when the whole trip lasts only a moment!" Justy said with a grin.

"That's why we needed the nav computer," Renny replied.

"It's much faster than anything should be," Rex said as he sat back down with his thick tail in his lap, "but I don't think your invention is going to sell well if it makes people sick!"

Taro opened her mouth for an explanation, and then thought better of it. That sentiment of his could conveniently keep him from inquiring further into the technology after they finally got him back to Kantus.

"Right," she said. "I agree it will take more research and testing. However, as it stands right now, we're a long way from home with two major systems currently out of operation."

"What systems?" Damien asked. "It's not Life Support, is it?"

"No, it's not Life Support," the vulpine captain reassured him. "The nav computer is still down, and the experimental engine components are also out of commission."

"They can all be repaired," Pockets piped up, "but it will take a while."

"Is the LightDrive out?" Damien asked. "If that still works, we should get started on our way back."

"The LightDrive engines are fine," Pockets replied, "but we had a component fire in the engine room that's depleted some of our air reserves. We probably wouldn't make the distance back to Kantus before it ran out."

"I thought our air was recycled," Amanda said in alarm.

"It is," Taro answered, "but with a depleted supply and nine sets of lungs, the reclamation unit would be over-tasked with carbon dioxide before we could reach PA traffic. Renny has calculated our position, and we're about six months away from Kantus."

"Six months!" Lori exclaimed. "I don't want to suffocate!"

"You aren't going to suffocate," Pockets said with a shake of his head. "That's a worst-case scenario if we head back to Kantus using only the LightDrive, but I am confident that Justy and I can rebuild the components necessary to get our experimental unit operational again."

"So, what do we do in the meantime?" Damien asked. "I don't want to put a damper on Pockets' optimism, but we're going on the assumption that he can repair the unit. But… if he can't, we'll be dead before we make it back to the Planetary Alignment!"

Taro crossed her arms and nodded. "Now we're back to where I was going with this," she said. Everyone fell quiet and gave her their attention. "Using the LightDrive, we are currently within a day's travel to a habitable world orbiting a star that Renny has identified on the charts as TES.84497. Due to its distance from the rest of the PA, it has not been explored, not even by the Firebird Fleet, but our long-range sensors have scanned a habitable atmosphere with acceptable pressure and solar protection.

"Since we are without the nav computer, Renny is going to pilot the ship manually and take us down to the surface. Once we have landed, the engines will be shut down so Pockets and Justy can work on the experimental unit. They may need help, so if they ask for your assistance, please give it to them. After landing, we'll see about using the local atmosphere to replenish our internal capacity for the ride home, although we may have to filter it first. If the components aren't reparable, at least we will have air to breathe on the long journey back."

The Blue Horizon passed through the atmosphere without incident. Taro shut off the infrared filters on the forward window panels as Renny banked the aerodynamic saucer to the right to throw off excess speed. The sky below them was wispy with cirrus clouds, and the sun above them reflected off the airborne ice crystals in vibrant rainbow colors. It only took a moment to descend through the thin cloud layer, and Taro began scanning the ground far below for a good place to land.

"What's it looking like down there?" Renny asked. He kept his eyes glued to his instrument readings, and his hands were steady on the guidance shifts.