u8842885@muss.cis.McMaster.CA (S.G. Hagen)


                             QUIET TIMES
                                                        by Shawn Hagen

  Found this kicking around on my hard drive. I wrote this way back when I
did not even know what fanfic was. I read it over, said ugghhh, and gave it
a major plot revision. I think it works now but I have no idea. So why 
post it? Well, as things are if it does not get posted in this form it 
never will. Who knows? Perhaps I'm being to critical.
  I'd like to thank the two people who proofread this for me, Michele Cox
and Todd Howard.
  Hope you don't hate it too much.

  Yuri spread her wings, catching conceptual winds to glide across the
plain of virtual reality. Her long black hair streamed behind her, longer
than it was in reality. Her blue eyes sparkled with the excitement of what
was happening. Flight without mechanical means.
  Was it any wonder some people couldn't go back to the real world? She
thought. That they had their brain tape loaded into a computer and never
left the virtual reality of the data plane?
  Once she had almost succumbed to the siren's call of this world. In her
problem filled adolescence the pressures had seemed almost too much.
  Fortunately there were things that virtual reality couldn't offer, like
friends one could have physical contact with, at least not as well. It
lacked something that she had always sensed somewhere in the back of her
mind.
  She scanned the area she was travelling through. Huge constructs hung in
the finite space of the closed system, each one a part of it.
  A thin mist drifted over Yuri's pale skin, revealing then hiding then
revealing again, her only concession to modesty.
  She looked much like she did in the real world, other than the angelic
wings that grew from her back and her hair which went down to her knees.
She had a very strong sense of her being, unlike some who changed their
appearance every time they jacked into a system.
  Her lovely wings beat as she sped towards a huge, black spheroid. A smile
appeared on her face as she increased her speed. 
  Somewhere off in the real world the smile was echoed by her body as her
hands flew over the keyboard of the deck, controlling only the most banal
aspects of the infiltration.
  Yuri saw coils of dirty brown light explode out of the black sphere as
she closed on it. A silverish patch appeared between her breasts and spread
out until it covered her entire body, including her wings. It was like
skin, each hair on her head still defined, each feather of her wings. It
was her armour in this world, part of her, not hampering as it protected.
  From her wings glowing motes were released into the space around her.
Each of the brown coils of light homed in on the motes. The motes vanished
before the warning programs touched them. One of the warning programs hit
Yuri but it washed over her like she was not there.
  Yuri folded her wings around herself decreasing her surface area and
adding more protection. She plunged straight in, cutting through the
mirrored surface of the black ice.
  It tried to stop her, she fought off viruses, she stopped it from sending
out an alarm, she destroyed the tracker program it sent out fry her deck.
She was living at the speed of thought, the rush was sexual in its
intensity. All too easy to get addicted.
  Then she was through, the black ice had not stopped her though it had
tried. She found herself flying over an evergreen forest that stretched out
to the horizon each way she looked. Very nice she thought, a programmer who
was a naturalist. It was boring compared to what she had seen before. The
Marquis De Sade's torture chamber, now that had been interesting.
  The surface structure was not important to Yuri, it didn't really mean
anything to her or any one else for that matter. She could feel the data
that was packed into this sub-system, sense the powerful defense systems
that protected that data. So it looked like an evergreen forest, that was
just window dressing. It did not have to look like anything at all.
  She flew towards a lake, she could see the sparkle of light off water.
That was where the data she wanted was.
  Her armour was proof against the detection programs that filled the air
in the form of hawks. She saw the powerful attack programs, winged, great
cats that circled, ready. She was amused by the programmer's sense of
fantasy but did not let herself be distracted.
  As she approached the lake she felt the presence of a powerful program.
It was not fooled by her anti-detection measures and came at her. It had no
appearance, it was only a feeling. She could guess what the designer had
been told to create. Powerful, nothing else, nothing fancy, something that
would destroy all intruders.
  A soft red light began to gather on the concave surfaces of her wings,
around her arms within her eyes. She felt the attack program approach, felt
the first of its probes. She released her attack.
  Beams of multicolored light flashed from her wings, her arms, her eyes,
her mouth, tearing into the empty space before her. She wished the program
did have an appearance, it would have made an impressive show.
  She attacked with everything she had. Short lived viruses that degraded
the program, weakening it. Its own attacks were no less effective. Yuri
erased her infected programs before the virus could spread, loaded new ones
in from her protected files. A circuit breaker was tripped as a surge of
power ripped through it.
  Then the attack program crashed, almost taking her with it in a last-
ditch effort. Yuri dove at the lake, slicing into the water, actually
feeling it.
  Standing on the lake bottom she opened her wings, spread her arms and
legs. The data poured into her, she copied it and loaded it into her deck's
memory.
  Alarms were just beginning to go off as she emerged from the lake, the
water shedding from her silvered form. She flew straight towards the exit.
  Several attack programs came at her but she slammed them down, the winged
felinoids destroyed by energy surges.
  The ice tried to keep her from exiting, pulling at her as she passed
through it, then she was out.
  She looked down and saw the black surface clouding, losing its black
sheen as it sealed itself. Too late she thought, much too late.
  With a touch of a switch Yuri jacked out of the system. There were a few
seconds of disorientation, a small part of her cried out for the loss of
the computer realm but it passed quickly as it always did.
  "You all right?" Kei asked, concern in her voice.
  Yuri looked at her friend. Kei was a bit taller than her, red hair that
hung below her shoulders, intense brown eyes that echoed the concern in her
voice. Her skin was several shades darker then Yuri's. She was just as
beautiful.
  "Just fine." Yuri smiled.
  "You were gone almost a minute. I thought you might have blown it."
  "Not this time." Yuri pulled the interface cable from behind her ear.
  "Did you get it?"
  "All of it." Yuri smiled again, she slid the deck into its small bag
which she then slung over her shoulder.
  "Let's go then." Kei said as she opened the blast door and looked out
into the corridor to make sure everything was clear.

  The upper administration levels of the Dragon Arcology were almost
deserted that late at night. Kei and Yuri were like ghosts, silent and
unseen as they moved through the corridors.
  Up ahead of them was a crumpled shape that resolved itself into a man,
slumped against a wall.
  Kei stopped for a second to pull a slim needle from the mans neck. She
was careful not to stick her self with it, the toxin was not deadly but it
would put her out for a few hours. She dropped the needle into a pouch on
her belt then was off again.
  They passed several more unconscious guards and Kei removed the needles
from them also.
  Yuri reached a large window that looked out onto a terrace covered with
plant life. Opening up her top slightly she pulled out a key card. She slid
the card into an almost hidden slot at the base of the window.
  Kei came up behind her, leaning over her shoulder slightly to watch.
  "How long?" Kei asked impatiently.
  "Soon, it's running code breaker."
  "Paranoid of them to be changing the codes every, what, thirty minutes?"
  "But effective." Yuri heard a click and pushed the window open. "But not
totally." She removed the card.
  "Nice timing." Kei followed Yuri out into the terrace. She pushed the
window closed.
  The two grav gliders they had used to get onto the terrace were still
hidden behind some bushes, undisturbed.
  Yuri touched her gliders control panel activating the AG unit. The small
glider lifted two meters above the terrace's surface. As Yuri swung herself
up into the harness she noted Kei doing the same. Yuri swung her arm out,
hand in the thumbs up gesture. Kei returned the signal.
  Both of the trouble consultants twisted the accelerators on the control
yokes sending the gliders out into the sky. The dark grey material of the
gliders blended into the night sky, making them almost invisible.
  Except for several unconscious guards, a few crashed programs, and some
company deckers who had been woken up by warning alarms and were still
trying to figure out what happened, they had left no evidence of their
presence.

  Alantis was a dry planet, not really desert but very close in some areas.
It was rich in precious stones and rare metals needed for the building of
warp drives. The population was small, which was fortunate, the planet was
unable to support a large population. 
  Janice Sommes was the planet's prime minister, nearing the end of her six
year term. Her office was in a steel and glass monolith that housed most of
the government offices. The small population had also mandated a small
governmental body which could be housed in a single building.
  She sat behind a old and heavily scarred oak desk chewing on the end of
her pen, her feet swung up onto the desk top.
  Janice was young for her position but then again the colony on Alantis
was young also. Her light brown hair was cut short and swept up. Her eyes
were dark brown and large giving her a false look of innocence that she
knew how to use. Her skin was light brown and smooth.
  She wore a conservative skirt of grey silk, a blue blouse with a grey
scarf, and a soft leather jacket.
  It was early morning, usually she didn't come in that early but the last
few days had not been anything near usual.
  The planets chief industrialist had been assassinated six days ago. That
he also had run one of the larger Mega-corporations in the United Galactica
did not help matters much. Four days ago 3WA had sent her the Lovely Angels
to help with a problem she was not sure existed, at least not on her
planet.
  Janice had greeted the news with mixed feelings. The presence of the
Dirty Pair had destroyed more then one politician's career. Of course they
had also destroyed more then one planet. It was hard to get votes in a
wasteland.
  If one thing could be said of Miss Sommes it was that she knew how to use
almost anything as an opportunity.
  She had called up all the information on the Lovely Angels from every
data base she could. She had put all her emergency services on full alert.
She had emptied a warehouse of Vizorium to raise the capital she needed to
hire off planet disaster specialists.
  That was going to drive the market price of Vizorium down for about a
year, maybe two depending on how much star ship construction happened. She
was all ready getting nasty communications from other planets and
corporations who dealt in the metal. It didn't matter much to her though,
Alantis could fall back on its precious gem exports for the duration.
  All that mattered to Janice was that if she could stave off the disaster
the two trouble consultants were sure to unleash on her planet it would
guarantee her re-election in a few months.
  Unfortunately in the four days the Dirty Pair had been on planet they had
not even fired one weapon that she knew of. No one was dead, nothing had
been blown up, nothing had happened. As far as she knew it was some kind of
record for the two trouble consultants. Just her luck to get the two women
when they were on a lucky streak.
  The intercom on her desk chimed. She knocked a pile of papers, that were
mor for decoration, off her desk as she swung her legs down and leaned
forward to tap the talk button.
  "What is it John?" She asked her aide.
  "The Lovely Angels are here to see you madame Prime Minister."
  "They wouldn't happen to be covered in blood, or soot, or look like
they've been through a thrasher, you know ripped uniforms, missing weapons,
minor wounds, that sort of thing?" She asked. It was a log shot but she was
hopeful.
  "No." Her aide told her.
  "Oh well, send them in."
  Standing, she brushed her hands down her skirt to straighten it and
kicked the paper under the desk.
  Yuri and Kei came into the office, no sign of anything that suggested
disaster. Both wore their silverish grey uniforms, v-cut shorts, tops that
showed a lot of cleavage and had collars that were more a fashion accessory
than anything else. Their midriffs were bare, showing an indecent amount of
beautiful skin, Yuri's lily-white, Kei's a creamy gold. High heeled, calf
hugging boots ended just below their knees.
  Janice's sexual tastes were fairly flexible and if it was not for the
fact both wore weapons, which she deplored, she might have done something
to embarrass herself. She noted Kei was wearing a shoulder holster with a
gauss needle pistol in it. Not the redhead's usual choice in weapons.
  A psychologist had once tried to help Janice get over her fear of weapons
by making her learn all about them. She was still afraid of weapons but
could identify them readily enough.
  "Ladies." Janice indicated the chairs in front of her desk.
  "Thank you madame prime minister." Yuri said as she and Kei took their
seats.
  "Janice." She took her seat. "Now what can I do for you?"
  "We know who killed Franklin Lewis, AKA the Dragon." Kei smiled.
  "Who?" Janice asked surprised, her own investigators were still
scratching their heads.
  "Franklin Lewis." Yuri pulled a disk from inside her top and handed it to
Janice. "It's all there but I will give you the basics."
  "Please do." Janice said, holding the still warm disk. She forced her
mind away from where the disk had been.
  "Six days ago, at twenty seven thirty hours Mr. Lewis was killed in a
deserted square by a titanium, 12mm slug fired from a sniper rifle. The
assassin has not been found."
  "I am aware of this." Janice told Yuri.
  "Did you also know that two hours prior that he had a brain tape
completed and that the brain tape was fed into his body guard right after
he was declared dead?" Yuri asked.
  "No, I hope this disk holds proof of what your saying."
  "It does." Kei reassured her.
  "Did you also know that his body guard, Miss Felis, is a bioroid, feline
gene base?"
  "I suspected her catty looks were more then skin deep. Tell me, what was
Miss Felis' opinion about having her body appropriated?" Janice was
considering the possibility of nailing Lewis on a mind wipe charge.
  "She didn't have an opinion. Her mind, if you could call it that, was
fairly simple. Her world revolved around protecting Lewis with a little bit
of memory dedicated to acting fairly normal."
  "I always did think she was a bit vacant."
  "The body belonged to Lewis and the mind certainly wasn't sapient, hardly
sentient. While what he did may be considered socially inappropriate it
isn't illegal." Kei said.
  "I take it that the hypothesis that Lewis left her control of his
holdings due to the fact they were lovers is all shot to hell."
  "I doubt that Mr. Lewis was hard up enough that he would choose to sleep
with her. Barely a step above masturbation." Yuri smiled, making a joke of
it."
  "Do you know why he did it?" Janice leaned forward.
  "Four years ago he started acting senile. His competitors moved in to
bring him down. Then suddenly he wasn't acting senile and he closed a trap
which increased his power by almost twenty percent."
  "So he's setting up another trap."
  "So it would seem." Kei said.
  "That bastard." Janice leaned back in her seat. "The crafty bastard, and
I can't do a thing to him."
  "You could charge him with conspiracy to murder but that might fall into
the area of suicide and there is not much useful precedent for convicting a
successful suicide." Yuri told her."
  "So it would be a waste of time. If that square he had been in hadn't
been deserted I could have got him on endangerment charges. Any charges I
try to lay on him will be dealt with by his lawyers. The best I can do is
some fines for mischief."
  "Which considering the man's or woman's resources wouldn't mean much to
him or her." Kei said.
  "There is something we could do to screw her up a little." Yuri
suggested, not bothering to mix her pronouns.
  "Such as?" Janice asked.
  "Why don't you call the good Miss Felis and tell her you want to see her
then we'll take care of our surprise."
  Janice thought about it for a few seconds then reached over to her com
and typed in the code for the Dragon Arcology.

  The body that had once been known as Miss Felis was quite attractive.
Almost two meters tall, athletic and slim, a mane of dark blonde hair that
was neatly styled and hung just below her shoulders. Her eyes were green,
the slit pupils of a cat, small nose, generous mouth, dark creamy skin. Her
ears' were pointed and longer than human ears but the tips were hidden
under a wide brim hat she wore when she entered the prime ministers office.
  Her dress was black, with a loose, long skirt that almost touched the
floor. It tightened at the waist and ended below her shoulders. A black
jacket covered her arms but was open so the top of her chest showed as well
as some cleavage.
  Kei could understand why people had though Felis and Lewis had been
lovers. The body had the exotic looks that attracted people, unless you
considered the fingernails at the end of her fingers. Getting ones back
scratched by those in the throws of passion would be a good way to loose a
spine.
  "Madame prime minister, I'm sorry I can't stay long but I have affairs
that need taking care of." She said in low voice, a slight throaty growl in
it. "Now what is it you wanted to talk to me about.
  "I would hate to waste your time." Janice said. "I just have one
question. Would you like to be addressed as Mr. or Miss Lewis, or will you
be keeping Felis as your name."
  "Perhaps just Dragon, it's fairly genderless." Kei suggested helpfully.
  Lewis was speechless for a few seconds, then she smiled in such a way
that showed her sharp eyeteeth. It was rather disconcerting.
  "Is this some sort of joke or do you have proof." She asked sweetly.
  "Here." Janice took a pile of freshly printed pages off her desk and
tossed them to the woman.
  After leafing through them she let the file drop to the floor.
  "So now what? Are you going to try and press charges?" She asked,
unconcerned.
  "Waste of time, as we both know, though some will be brought against you.
I just wanted you to know I was aware of your little deception and that I'm
cancelling the investigation into your murder. If you want you can go now."
  "Thank you. By the way I will be going by Felis Lewis from now on." She
turned to leave.
  "I'd watch out for the press." Yuri said.
  "Pardon?" Felis turned slowly.
  "We have a few friends in the press, this story was a gift to them." Yuri
smiled.
  "I see." Felis whispered. "How long ago did you give this," She paused
for a moment. "gift out."
  "An hour ago, give or take. Don't you wish you had gotten here faster?"
Kei asked her.
  An hour Felis thought, much too long. With the speed of the news services
the tabloids were probably making up marriage stories already. There was no
way she could stop it. Felis reached into her purse and pulled out a
cellular phone.
  "Tagert." She spoke into the mouth piece. "Close the trap now, we've been
found out." She waited. "Yes I know we haven't gotten all of them yet but
they're going to start pulling out very soon. Yes. Good. Oh and Tagert,
cancel my funeral, we'll change it into a wake and coming out party type of
deal. Right. Good bye." She closed the phone and slid it back into her
purse.
  "You're very good." Felis said to Kei and Yuri.
  "Thank you." Kei said.
  "Could you tell me why the United Galatica thought my death was important
enough to involve 3WA?"
  "The possible collapse of a mega corporation of the size of Dragon
Interstellar is always bad news." Yuri said. "It is even worse if might be
taken over by a person who would use assassination to get it. Your company
has several contracts with the UG, it was important to them that Dragon
stayed under friendly and or trustworthy control."
  "I see." Felis said quietly.
  "If they had just stepped in it would have caused all kinds of problems
so we were sent to find out what had happened so the UG wouldn't have to
step on any toes as it were." Kei told her.
  "Thank you." Felis said. "Madame Prime minister." She bowed slightly,
"Lovely Angels." She saluted, then left the room.
  "Case closed." Kei smiled.
  "See you later Janice." Yuri and Kei got to their feet.
  "Good day ladies." The Prime Minister said as she stood also and shook
both their hands.

  They left the government building and stepped into the late morning
sunshine. It was going to be a beautiful day. Most days on Alantis were
beautiful. It was dry but not unbearably so and while always warm it was
not often hot and almost never humid. A thick ozone layer about the planet
let people enjoy the sun without being afraid of it.
  Kei ran a few steps in front of Yuri then stopped, stretched and spun on
the toe of her boot. The sun's rays seemed to caress her as she turned.
  "You know what?" Kei asked as Yuri caught up with her.
  "What?"
  "We can stay here."
  "Pardon?"
  "We don't have to leave, no one hates us here, we didn't kill anyone or
destroy anything or cause any trouble. We're on class F standby..."
  "More likely class E, this wasn't a tough case." Yuri interrupted.
  "Whatever." Kei dismissed Yuri's comment. "Let's stay here for at least a
couple of days."
  "Okay." Yuri agreed, she liked the thought of staying, they had never
been able to do it before.
  "Let's go to the Angel, grab what we need, contact 3WA then find a
hotel."
  "Works for me." Yuri told her.

  The Alantis Hilton had been built with local stone, huge slabs of it
formed the large building. Its highest floor was only six stories above the
ground but it sprawled over a large area. Each of the many wings were of
different heights making the entire building look more like a natural
feature of the land than a constructed thing.
  Each roof was covered in a lush garden, stairs and bridges led from one
roof to another. It added to the illusion that the building was part of the
landscape.
  Kei and Yuri had checked into a suite late in the morning. The previous
night's quickly caught up with them and both were soon asleep.

**********************************************************************

   Note my gentle reader, the following section has been said of by my
proofreaders as being pretty irrelevant. They were of course right. You may
skip to the next section of relevant text is you so choose, it will be
marked by another line of asterixes. You miss nothing more than Kei and
Yuri going out on the town and having a bit of fun.
   This following section is more for those who can't get enough of the
terrible twosome and think details of their personal life are interesting,
as I did when I wrote this oh so long ago.
   I didn't just delete it entirely because it was fun to write but if I
had you would have never missed it.


  Shortly before sunset Yuri woke to the buzzing of her telephone. She
picked it up and was told by a very polite computer that it was her wake up
call. She cradled the hand set.
  Rolling out of her bed and onto her feet Yuri headed for her bathroom.
  In the suite's other bedroom Kei was doing much the same.

  Yuri had put on a light grey dress that ended just above her knees. It
had a low neck line and loose sleeves that were tied at the wrist with blue
cord. She wore a blue sash around her waist that matched her eyes.
  "What do you think Mughi?" Yuri asked, holding up a dark grey jacket of
soft leather. 
  Mughi growled softly. The large black cat lay among the dishevelled
sheets of her bed. They had had a bit of trouble with the staff when they
had brought Mughi in. Kei had not helped matters much, she seemed to enjoy
the effect Mughi had on others and often went out of her way to increase
it.
  "I think you're right." Yuri nodded as she put the jacket aside and
pulled one of black silk from her garment bag. "This is much better." She
pulled the jacket on. "See you later Mughi." Yuri said as she put on a pair
of black slippers and then left the room.
  Kei exited her room at almost the same time and they both met in the
living room.
  The redhead wore a pair of black jeans, a tight white t-shirt, a black
denim jacket with the sleeves rolled up past her elbows and a pair of ankle
boots.
  "I take it we aren't doing the same thing to night." Yuri said.
  "Well you are a little over dressed for bar hoping." Kei told her.
  "I doubt they'd even let you into to the rather exclusive club I'm
planning on spending the evening at."
  "Oh well, I'll see you later then."
  "Kei, when you get arrested, and you will, just contact me," Yuri touched
her earring. "And I'll come down and bail you out."
  "Leave a note in your purse to get a hold of me when you go into a
boredom coma."
  "See you later." Yuri smiled at Kei as she left the room.
  Kei checked on a few things then left a minute later.

  The cab dropped Yuri off in front of a building in the middle of the
city. The club had no name, though it was often referred to as "The Club".
It was built in Gothic style, the stone, it was said, had come from Terra,
the cathedral of Notre Dame in fact. It certainly did look it.
  Yuri walked up the broad stairs, a huge stone lion rested on each side.
All the stone work was stained by time, the entire building looked harsh,
cold, almost frightening. Ghost stories, thought long forgotten raised
themselves in Yuri's mind. She laughed at herself and continued up the
stairs, pausing to pat one of the lions on the head, to the large double
doors that looked like oak.
  A doorman stood in a small niche and he came out to greet her. Yuri gave
him her name, he touched a small control unit at his belt and the doors
opened enough for her to enter.
  The Club was very exclusive she had been told. The very rich, the very
powerful and the very famous were common inside its walls. Yuri wondered
which category she was considered in.
  The inside of the building contrasted with the outside. Soft soothing
colours met the eye, the carpet was soft, the entire atmosphere
comfortable.
  A man in butlers livery seemed to fade out of the wood work to stand
beside her. Yuri marvelled out how quietly he had moved then asked him
where the library was. He told her politely and she took the stairs up to
the third floor.
  The library took up most of the third floor. Huge windows lined the south
wall but were covered by thick curtains. A large stone fire place with a
thick marble mantle took up half of the west wall. Wood was neatly lain on
the grate but was unlit. With Alantis' warm climate Yuri doubted it was
ever needed but she would not be surprised if they occasionally lowered the
temperature in the library so as to have an excuse to use it.
  The rest of the walls were covered by book shelves except were they were
broken by a doorway. Thousands of books filled the shelves. Even in a time
where most printed material was stored soft copy there was still a demand
for hard copy reading material. All the books looked to be bound in leather
or something like it and the spines covered in gold and silver lettering.
  A servant came up to her and asked if she wanted anything to drink. Yuri
asked the woman for a scotch and water then walked into the room.
  There were only a few people in the room, none of them gave much
attention to Yuri, most were absorbed in quiet conversations or books. Yuri
crossed to a shelf opposite to her and scanned the titles.
  She took a recent work on computer technology, a little surprised by the
fact they had bothered to put a tech book in printed form, and then took a
seat in one of the high backed leather covered chairs. Her drink was set at
a small table by her elbow as she was sitting down. Yuri thanked the woman
then turned her attention to the book.

  leaping up onto the thin railing of the bridge Kei looked down into the
rapids several meters below. Alantis was a dry planet but there were many
underground lakes sealed off from the surface by hundreds of meters of
rocks.
  The city's builders had sunk shafts down into those lakes and pumped the
water up to the surface. A kilometre behind Kei water jetted up into the
air from one of the lakes before it flowed into one of five cleverly
constructed river beds. The growing forest that surrounded Kei was fed by
the rivers.
  It was all quite beautiful but did not interest Kei much. She was taking
a path through the park that led to the space port's quarter of the city. A
lot of bars and other establishments that interested her were in that
quarter. It would have been more fun if Yuri had come though, even if the
brunette did tend to be sort of a wet blanket.
  "I hope your not planning to jump." A voice with a british accent said
from behind her. "I'd feel honour bound to try to save you but I'm not a
good swimmer."
  Kei had turned before the man was half way through. He was tall, thin,
but well built. His long hair was light brown, his eyes a piercing grey. He
had an androgynous quality about him that Kei found appealing. He was well
dressed in black pants and boots, a white shirt and black sports jacket.
  "No." Kei said as she jumped down. "Not really."
  "Good." He looked at her closer. "3WA, Lovely Angels, Kei, right?"
  "Yes." Kei was somewhat taken aback. Almost no one recognized them as the
Lovely Angels. "How did you know?"
  "Allow me to introduce myself. Robert Tenshou, ambassador of the United
Galatica. I've had some dealings with a planet or two that you and your
partner graced with your presences." There was a sparkle of amusement in
his eyes but nothing about it was insulting.
  "I see." She said.
  "Tell me Kei do you have any plans for the night?"
  "Not really." She smiled.
  "Then perhaps you would not be adverse to spending the evening with me."
  "That sounds inviting." Kei took his arm.
  He smiled at her. Things are looking up Kei thought.

  Yuri was beginning to think Kei had been right about the evening being
boring.
  She swirled her glass of scotch absently in her hand. She had wanted a
bit of quiet, something she did not often get but this was just plain
boring. She was considering heading back to the hotel, changing and then
attempting to link up with Kei.
  Movement in her peripheral vision made her turn her head. She found her
self looking at a cyborg well over two meters tall. It looked like it was a
full conversion from what she cold see but she couldn't be sure. He, yes
definitely he she thought, getting a strong male feeling from the cyborg,
wore a long, loose, tan jacket belted at his waist and loose, off white
pants.
  He looked at the seats around the room and then with a shrug of his
shoulders took a seat on the floor. His head was still slightly above
Yuri's even then. A servant came up and placed a tray with a large glass of
amber liquid on it beside him. He thanked her then put a straw in the glass
to drink.
  Above his mouth his he lost all human appearance. Several lenses were
grouped together where a human would have eyes and nose. No ears but a pair
of sensor booms, similar to those on battle frames, were attached slightly
above where ears would be.
  Yuri watched as the sensor booms moved, dropping back then one shot up
again. The tip of the rod folded back to show a small lens that seemed to
focus on something behind him. Yuri twisted in her seat to look. A very
attractive woman in a very short and revealing dress was walking by.
  Definitely male Yuri thought. She laughed softly.
  The cyborg heard it and turned towards Yuri, if it was possible for a
cyborg to look embarrassed this one did. He turned back to his drink, the
cover on his sensor rod snapping back over the lens.
  He turned to look at Yuri again and Yuri found herself staring into the
lenses of his many eyes.
  "Excuse me." He said softly in a deep, pleasant sounding voice. "You're
Yuri of the Lovely Angels."
  "Uh yes.." Yuri said slightly surprised. Few people recognized her and
those that did almost always knew her as one of the Dirty Pair. "How did
you know."
  "Well I'm sort of a fan." He said, looking a little embarrassed again.
  That worried Yuri. Most people who claimed to be fans were either death
perverts or sex perverts or sometimes both. The cyborg saw Yuri's reaction
and made a guess of what caused it.
  "Not really a fan." He amended. "I was, well I still am, a mercenary.
I've always been somewhat interested in 3WA and the Lovely Angels are in
the news a lot."
  His tone told Yuri he knew why they were always in the news but was
polite enough or smart enough not to go into detail.
  "I'm Daniel Anderson." He shifted himself smoothly and held out his hand
to Yuri. Yuri took it and her hand was engulfed in his. She could feel the
strength in it and knew he could easily crush every bone in the hand as
well as tear her arm from her body with only a small fraction of that
strength. She also knew, somehow, he would not.
  "A pleasure." Yuri told him, smiling.
  "Do you like the music?" Daniel asked before an uncomfortable silence
could set in.
  "Well..," Yuri thought it was rather boring, it sounded very classical to
her maybe Bach. "....It's not really to my taste."
  "In other words it bores you." He said, slight smile on his lips and it
seemed it was somehow echoed in the lenses that were his eyes. "I know the
woman who composed it, she would probably be greatly insulted by that so it
is fortunate she is not here."
  "I take it you like it." Yuri said.
  "Well yes, but after a time it can get a bit, shall we say.."
  "Boring." Yuri smiled.
  "Alas, yes." Daniel sighed if he had conceded a major point. Yuri liked
him, things were looking up.
          
  Robert blocked the larger man's punch, grabbed his wrist then slammed his
forearm against his opponent's arm with all his weight behind it. There was
a loud crack as the arm broke. He kicked the man's legs out from under him
and let him fall.
  "Not bad." Kei said from where she sat on her stool. "Your blocks are a
bit slow."
  "Well then, perhaps you'd like the next one." Robert indicated another
man who was quickly approaching them through the rest of the fight.
  "Fine with me." Kei slid off her stool. "This is the last one though, I
hear sirens."
  "Of course my lady."
  Kei leapt onto the bar and ran down it and kicked the man in the head as
she passed him. He had not seen it coming. Jerking back he fell to the
floor.
  "Well that certainly wasn't cricket." Robert helped Kei off the bar to
the floor.
  "I'm a bad girl." Kei told him.
  "Shall we leave." He offered her his arm. Kei took it.
  They pushed their way through the throng of people and out the door. A
few seconds later the first police cruiser landed but the officers ignored
Kei and Robert.
  "Six bars, four fights." Kei said. "The police must be impressed."
  "Well you only started one of those directly. Really Kei you should be
more careful about throwing glasses around."
  "You sound like Yuri." Kei giggled.
  "You could cost me my job." He smiled. "It would almost be worth it." He
stopped, took Kei in his arms and kissed her, Kei returned it with as much
passion. "Lust or love?" He asked breathlessly when they separated.
  "Does it matter?" Kei asked him, looking up into his eyes.
  "Not really." He resumed walking.
  "Tell me, where did a diplomat learn to fight like that?"
  "Misspent youth on Alpha Centauri." He told her.
  "Ahh." Kei knew how rough it was on Alpha Centauri. "It couldn't have
been too misspent. They don't make people diplomats because they have a
good right cross."
  "True my lady, true. I also did very well in school, scholarships to the
best universities, that sort of thing."
  "So what are you doing here?"
  "This is just a stop over. I'm going to the Zetaris system. Two planets
are having a little war which wouldn't be any big thing if two Mega corps
weren't influencing things. I'm off to see if I can put a stop to it before
things get nasty and the navy has to be sent in." He said it all in a
relaxed tone but Kei noticed he had made sure no one had been close enough
to hear them.
  "So when do you leave?"
  "An hour or two."
  "What?" Kei asked, surprise in her tone.
  "I wish I could stay." He smiled at her. "As much as I'd like to I never
sleep with a woman who I've only just met."
  "You sound sure of yourself." She said, a bit of anger in her tone.
  "I'm not." His smile disarmed the situation. "But I can't help but feel
it is possible. Alas I'd also like to have a long time to make love to one
such as you."
  "Stay." Kei said as they approached his motorcycle.
  "It is tempting. Would you like to come with me?"
  "I can't. 3WA would have a cow, as it were and Yuri probably wouldn't be
impressed with me just taking off like that."
  "So we both have our duties." He got on his motorcycle and handed the
helmet to Kei. "Let's go my lady. We can wait in the spaceport's bar, mind
you no fights." He smiled at her.
  "What's with all this lady stuff anyway?" Kei put the helmet on. "And how
did an Alpha Centaurian come to have a british accent." Kei climbed on
behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist.
  Robert laughed, started the cycle up and drove out of the parking lot,
heading for the spaceport.

  Yuri found herself staring at Daniel, she wasn't really listening to what
he said.
  Earlier in the evening, much earlier, he had mentioned his composer
friend was also a poet. He had found one of her works in the library and
began to read some of them. That had split off into a discussion on the
merits of pulp fiction as literature which had found its way into a
discussion of warp mechanics.
  They had wandered from topic to topic, computers, weapons, physics,
music, everything and anything it seemed to Yuri. While her school grades
had stopped showing it some time after she had met Kei, Yuri knew quite a
bit about most things. It seemed Daniel was a true scholar though. She had
to work to keep up.
  The alcohol had also been flowing over the evening and Yuri found herself
very detached from the rest of the world.
  The library was empty except for them and the occasional servant. Yuri
was curled up on the seat of her chair, her head resting on her arms, which
she had lain on the arm rests.
  She wondered what Daniel would be like in bed, flushing slightly with the
thought. She wondered if he still had the right equipment as it were. Then
she looked at his fingers, large and strong but oh so gentle. The crystal
brandy snifter her held in his hands was fragile but he had yet to break
even one. Which was more then Yuri could say about the tumblers she had
been drinking from.
  A thought came into her head. Daniel could see into the IR spectrum. He
could see where her blood flowed and the places it flowed when one was
sexually excited were obvious. The thought that he could read her like an
open book at this moment made her smile.
  Of course that he would have had a hard time seeing through the chair did
not occur to Yuri at the time.
  "You're not listening to me our you?" His change in tone caught her
attention.
  "No." Yuri laughed softly.
  "It's getting late." He got to his feet.
  "It's getting early." She laughed again.
  "Come on." He took her up in his arms as if she were a child.
  Yuri leaned her head against his chest and let her eyes close to a slit.
The feel of his jacket against her cheek, the hardness underneath, the
clean smell of the clothing, the distinctive scent of cyberware and also a
touch of human flesh were all like an aphrodisiac.
  "Aren't you going to get fresh with me?" She asked him. "One of your
hands in perfectly placed for it."
  Daniel only smiled.
  "My place or yours?" She asked.
  "Neither I'm afraid. I have to be on a starship in an hour or so. You're
also more than a little drunk."
  "Can't you stay?" Yuri asked, sadness in her voice.
  "No, I'm sorry."
  "Promise me something." She asked softly.
  "What?"
  "See if you can track me down when you get a chance."
  "I promise. I'll drop you a line at least. I'd like to meet you again
when I'm sober"
  The doorman had all ready had a cab waiting at the bottom of the steps.
Daniel gently slid Yuri into the back seat.
  Yuri reached her arms around his neck and with surprising strength pulled
his face close to hers.
  She kissed lightly, chastely ignoring the hard chin. Then she released
him and fell back into the seat.
  "Remember your promise." She said as Daniel closed the door and the cab
pulled off.
  Daniel climbed the stairs back into the building and took his coat from
the butler.
  "Does the lady's bill need to be paid?" He asked the butler. He was there
as a guest of a club member. Club members paid a monthly fee for the use of
the clubs facilities.
  "No sir." the man told him. "Miss Yuri's here as a guest of both the
Premier and the Dragon corporation."
  "Good." He got into his coat and left the building. The doorman all ready
had a cab for him. He got in and told the driver to take him to the
spaceport.

  Kei sat on Robert's lap, kissing him deeply. Robert slid his hands under
her jacket and up her back.
  "Are you sure you won't stay?" She asked, breaking the kiss.
  "You could tempt a priest to break his vows you know."
  "But you still can't stay."
  "Sorry."
  "Oh well." Kei said and kissed him again.
  "I really have to go Kei." He told her as he gently pushed her away.
  "You're no fun at all." Kei pouted as she slid off his lap onto the
padded seat of the booth they were in.
  "Unfortunately duty calls." He stood. "Good bye Kei." He bent down and
brushed her lips with his. "It was a privilege to meet you." He
straightened and was gone.
  Kei leaned back in her seat, sighing. All fired up and he leaves me, she
thought. She finished her drink and slid the empty glass across the table.
It teetered on the opposite edge then stabilized. She sighed again and
reached across the table and flicked it with her index finger. It fell and
shattered on the floor. Perfect metaphor Kei thought as she stood and left
the restaurant.

  The sun was beginning to rise when the two trouble consultants got back
to the Alantis Hilton. Kei came through the rear entrance from the park.
Yuri's cab dropped her off at the main entrance. Yuri had lost most of her
high but was too tired to notice. She stumbled into the main lobby and
headed down a corridor.
  They met just outside the door to their suite.
  "Good night?" Kei asked.
  "Tolerable. And you?"
  "Adequate."
  "I met the most wonderful man..." They both said together then stopped
and laughed.
  "Come on." Yuri said as she opened the door with a card key. "Let's order
room service and talk about them before going to bed."
  Kei nodded as they entered the room.

**********************************************************************

   At this point gentle reader things get back on track.


  The hotel maid carried the silver tray bearing an envelope to suite 435.
She knocked on the door lightly, supposedly the two guests had come in very
late and would probably still be asleep even though it was already late in
the afternoon. She was getting ready to slip the envelope under the door
when it opened.
  Mughi eyed the maid curiously. He was on his rear paws, one of his front
paws against the door frame to brace him up.
  The maid screamed, dropped the tray and bolted towards the elevators at
the far end of the hall.
  Mughi dropped down to examine the envelope.

  Yuri woke hearing a scream. She rolled out of her bed, grabbed her pistol
from under her pillow then ran out of her room in a crouch.
  The door was open, no one seemed to be in the suite. She leapt out of the
room, rolled, and came up with her pistol pointing in the direction she saw
movement.
  Several other guests screamed and closed their doors.
  A moment late Kei dove out of the room facing the opposite direction from
Yuri, she had a heavy laser rifle cradled in her arms. The remaining people
still sticking their heads out of their doors quickly closed them. More
than one screamed.
  Yuri and Kei looked around trying to figure out what was going on.
  Mughi butted his head against Yuri's side. The two tentacles on the sides
of his head held a silver tray with and envelope on it. Yuri took the
envelope and Mughi let the tray drop.
  "He must have scared the hell out of one of the maids." Kei said.
  "I don't suppose we helped the situation." Yuri looked at the unmarked
envelope.
  "Especially considering the way you are dressed." 
  Yuri looked down. She had collapsed into sleep before she could get all
her clothes off. She still wore the lingerie from the night before and her
blouse.
  "And I suppose a t-shirt and panties are all the fashion." Yuri said
looking at Kei.
  "Come on." The redhead slung her rifle as she stood. "Let's get inside
before someone has us arrested for indecent exposure."
  "As if we're indecent." Yuri followed Kei into the room.
  "So what's in the envelope?" Kei asked.
  "Let's see." Yuri tossed her rifle onto a couch and tore the envelope
open. "It's an invitation to a party tonight at the Dragon Industries
Arcology. We are personal guest's Miss Felis Lewis."
  "You're joking?"
  "No." Yuri handed Kei the thick paper.
  "I don't get it." Kei said after reading the invitation. "Why invite us?"
  "A trap?"
  "Doubtful." Kei told her.
  "Maybe she likes us."
  "Considering she was a male a week ago that could be possible."
  "You want to go?" Yuri asked.
  "That's a stupid question, of course I want to go. It could be fun."
  "Well let's get cleaned up then go out and buy some dresses. Do you think
we could put them on our 3WA credit vouchers?"
  "Probably, we'll list it as incidental post investigation costs." Kei
called over her shoulder as she headed into her bathroom for a shower.
  Yuri nodded as she went into her room.

  Yuri stood in front of the mirror and fixed her hair. She wore a black
dress that was held shut with a broad belt. She pushed the two shoulder
straps down, liking the effect. The dress wrapped around her, it was low
cut but covered her breast and midriff completely. It V'd out again near
the top of her thighs and went down behind her legs just above her knees.
It covered her back completely up to the middle of her shoulder blades.
  She thought the dress was just perfect.
  Stepping out into her bedroom she took her purse from the dresser. Mughi,
who was on her bed growled.
  "I haven't forgotten you Mughi." Yuri said as she crossed the room to her
bed side table. She opened a small pouch that contained things like
aspirin, Midol 6 and her birth control tablets. She shook a Kalium capsule
out of a vial and tossed it to the big cat.
  "If you decide to go out tonight try not to be seen." Yuri told Mughi as
she grabbed her black high heels from the top of the dresser.

  Kei pulled the red leather skirt up her stocking covered legs and touched
the seal tab close. She pushed her black camisole under the waist band of
the skirt and smoothed it. The skirt ended at the middle of her thighs, she
wondered if perhaps a longer on would have been better. She took the
matching jacket from where it hung and slipped into it, touching the seal
tabs closed.
  She reached back and pulled her hair from under the jacket. With a black
ribbon she tied it back and then drew the tail over her shoulder. The
leather was close in colour to her hair but differed enough for one to set
the other off.
  She slid her feet into the black high heels she had chosen then went into
her bed room.
  A slim line Tan Mai rail pistol slipped into an inner pocket of the
jacket without spoiling the lines. Not the best weapon, she thought as she
picked up her purse, but still useful.
  Yuri was waiting for her in the common room. Kei was stopped short by her
friends appearance. The black of the dress was a perfect contrast against
her lily white skin and the dress itself was designed to tease without
showing to much.
  "Do you like?" Yuri smiled then spun on her toe for Kei.
  "You know if you weren't my friend I'd hate you." Kei laughed.
  "Thank you." Yuri said.
  "Well, shall we go?"
  "Of course. The limo is waiting for us."

  The grav limo took them to a large balcony high on the Dragon Arcology.
It settled down gently and uniformed servants were opening the doors for
them. Yuri thanked them as one helped her from the car.
  A large, bright room opened onto the balcony. They could hear music from
the open door and the buzz of conversation.
  Both women drew more than a few stares as they entered. Several men began
to drift towards them but Felis Lewis was at their sides first.
  "I'm glad you could come." She said smiling, showing her predatory teeth.
  The Dragon wore a short grey skirt, with a white blouse and grey jacket.
All were no doubt of the finest material and both woman could tell it had
been made for her. Kei noticed Felis had quite a few people watching her.
That was not surprising all things considered.
  "We're happy to be here." Yuri said smiling. "It was ever so 
kind of you to invite us."
  "How could I not invite you? 3WA trouble consultants are probably among
the most interesting people."
  "We thought you might be thinking about revenge?" Kei smiled but it did
not touch her eyes. Yuri began to get nervous. Kei could be headstrong at
times.
  "Oh I considered revenge for a couple of minutes but really, what purpose
would it serve? There's simply no profit in it."
  Kei nodded, the aspect of readiness she had held left her as she relaxed.
  "Now let me get you two a drink and then you can tell me about how you
got in, yes? I'd like to find out about some of the security problems." She
said as she led them towards a bar at the back of the room.
  "So what's the purpose of this gathering?" Kei asked as she looked around
at all the people.
  "It was supposed to be my funeral but I decided I couldn't really have
one any more. Now it is just a chance to let everyone find out what's
happening. I have to let them sniff around, find out how things are going
now. It's all rather funny, in a way."
  "So what about your trap?" Yuri asked as they reached the bar.
  "Brim soda." Kei said to the bartender. "And a martini." She looked and
got a nod from Yuri.
  "Well it went fairly well all things considered. Several people just
couldn't believe it and waited too long. I didn't get as much as I wanted
but I did fairly well. Now all I have to do is come up with another clever
plot."
  "Problems with the law?" Yuri asked.
  "A few but I put one of my law firms on it."
  "What about your competitors?" Kei asked as she handed Yuri her drink.
  "I suppose they'll try something, I have no idea what perhaps..."
  Whatever else she was about to say was lost as the huge glass windows
were shattered by the incoming fire of an attack helicopter that had not
been there a second before.
  All three woman leapt over the bar, Yuri hampered by her tight dress
almost did a nose dive into the floor. The bartender was cowering on the
floor. They pushed through a door out into a long hallway.
  "Perhaps they'll try something like that." Kei said listening to gun fire
and screams.
  "One of the problems with your security is that it is vulnerable to air
attacks." Yuri told her.
  "Thanks a lot." Felis said as she pushed her hair out of her eyes.
  "Do you think they've put troops in yet?" Yuri asked Kei.
  "No doubt." Kei said.
  As if to prove her words a figure in armour burst through a door down the
hall with his back to them.
  "Not one of mine." Felis said.
  Kei drew her pistol and aimed. Armour all over but the helmet left a bit
of neck uncovered. She squeezed the trigger. The body went down.
  "Let's get his weapon." Yuri said.
  "Let's not." Kei said as more armoured figures came through the door.
  "This way." Felis called as she ran down the hall. Kei and Yuri followed.
  The soldiers saw them and began to fire. Turning a corner took them to
safety, for the moment.
  "I hate this." Yuri said.
  "Join the club." Kei ran a finger over a rent in her jacket. Too damn
close she thought.
  "Here." Felis said as she pushed in a section of the wall. A larger
section swung open revealing a ladder leading down. "Quickly."
  Kei and Yuri were scrambling down the ladder, followed by Felis who only
slowed to close the door.
  "Do you have many of these secret passageways?" Yuri asked as she looked
up, finding herself staring up Felis' skirt.
  "A few, it's always useful to have a bolt hole or two."
  "Where does this go?" Kei asked.
  "Down six levels. From there we can get to an arms cache close by. After
that..." She let her words trail off to show she did not know.
  "How long till the police arrive?" Yuri asked.
  "They might not. We are rather secluded and if whoever is attacking
managed to cut off communications they won't even know."
  "What about your own security?" Kei asked.
  "Depends on the number of attackers. They might be kept busy for quite
awhile."
  "Great." Kei said and they continued the rest of the way in silence.
  When they reached the bottom of the shaft Felis opened another of the
secret doors and looked out into the corridor.
  "It looks clear but I can hear voices." She told Kei and Yuri.
  "How far to the arms cache?" Kei asked.
  "About five hundred meters."
  "I thought you said it was close." Yuri accused.
  "Close is a relative term. This arcology is huge if you haven't noticed."
  "Damn. Okay, let's go." 
  The three women bolted out of the hidden passage, Yuri paused to kick it
closed. Felis led them at a run down the corridors. She took several turns,
once totally reversing their course when she heard voices ahead.
  Finally she stopped in front of a featureless wall. Reaching up to where
the wall met the ceiling she pressed a piece of the trim. Another hidden
door swung open and she ushered Yuri and Kei through it before closing it
behind them.
  Once the door was closed light came on showing racks of weapons and
several computer terminals.
  "How the hell do you run in heels?" Felis asked as she slid down the wall
and rubbed her ankles. She had kicked off her shoes after the third time
she stumbled. If it had not been for the fact her body had reinforced bone
structure she was sure her ankles would have broken.
  "Years of practice." Kei said as she took off her shoes and looked at the
heel that had broken just before she reached the arms cache. "And
reinforced heels." Kei rubbed at her right ankle which caused a few twinges
of pain.
  Yuri had found a box full of dark grey combat fatigues but after rooting
through then she didn't find any her size. She pulled the smallest pair of
pants from the box the took a knife and slashed them into shorts.
  "What are you doing." Kei asked Yuri.
  "Altering the fit, I never claimed to be a seamstress." She lay the
shorts aside and then found a shirt that would come close to fitting her.
  "She's probably got the right idea." Kei told Felis.
  Felis nodded and got up with Kei. 
  Felis had no problem with the sizes, she was tall enough that they fir
fairly well. Kei followed Yuri's example.
  Yuri slipped out of her dress then pulled the shorts on. She had to use
one of the holster belts to cinch them tight enough so they would not fall.
She pulled the shirt on and tied it closed.
  "Are you sure you want to keep that jacket?" Kei asked Felis who had just
dumped her skirt and was pulling on the pants.
  "It has an armour cloth weave." Was all Felis said as she crossed to the
computers and took a seat.
  "Well." Yuri said as she looked down at herself. "It might not get me
into a fashion magazine but showing the tops of stockings and garter clasps
is supposedly going to be the newest trend to come back into fashion."
  "Yuri could you worry about something other then if you're a fashion
plate." Kei grabbed a shoulder holster from the weapon rack and tossed it
to Yuri. "An Electro Mag."
  "Thanks." Yuri said as she slid into the holster.
  Kei took a laser carbine from the rack and removed the stock. She checked
the balance and found it passable. Finding a holster that would fit it took
a bit of time but once she had she belted it around her waist.
  "Come here for a second." Felis called to them.
  Yuri and Kei crossed the room to stand behind her and look over her
shoulder.
  "They have sealed the arcology up and are jamming all communication but
I'm using internal sensors which are unaffected for the most part. This is
a relatively accurate representation" On the screen in front of them were
cross sections of the entire building.
  "All those blue dots, they are the attackers right?" Kei asked.
  "No those are my security."
  "The enemy is?" Yuri asked.
  "The yellow dots."
  "But your forces out number them at what, about four to one?" Kei leaned
over farther to check out the screen.
  "Yes."
  "Who would attack you without enough people to take this place?" Yuri
said.
  "They don't want to take it." Felis tapped a claw like fingernail against
the desk. "It's all a diversionary tactic. The attacking forces are playing
hit and run with my security, keeping them occupied."
  "So what are they doing here?" Yuri asked. "And how have they managed to
get so much control."
  "They want to kill her." Kei said.
  "No." Felis ran a hand through her hair. "They might be happy to kill me
if they could but this isn't what this is all about. I don't know how they
have managed to get so much control, maybe they have a hot hacker."
  "That gunship firing into the party seemed pretty serious." Yuri pulled
her pistol free of the shoulder holster and slid a magazine into the grip.
  "No, if someone wanted me dead fore sure they'd have done something
different. That was all just flash to confuse the situation. They want
something else."
  "Standard corporate terrorism often involves bad PR for the enemy
company." Kei said slowly as if she were thinking things though. "Or maybe
someone wants to steal something. What do you have in this building that
might interest anyone?"
  "Not much. This is more of an administration operation. I suppose they
could kill all my workers and their families but they aren't even close to
the living levels."
  "What about weapons?" Yuri Asked. "Could there be any weapons they want?"
  "Nothing really big, maybe the nuclear bombs, or the bio-agents?"
  "That's it!" Kei said.
  "Come on." Felis said. "No one uses nuclear weapons any more. They're
passe and messy as hell."
  "Well there's a chance isn't there." Kei said.
  Felis turned to the computer and tapped a few keys. She studied the
screen for a few seconds.
  "Well there are people down in the area. I can't pin point anything
though. It might be possible."
  "We can't afford not to check." Yuri said as she took her pistol off
safe.
  "No, I guess not." Felis conceded.

  They left the arms cache a few minutes later. All three woman were
barefoot, none of the foot ware in the arms cache could be made to fit them
very well. Felis would really have to look into making sure the arms caches
held a wider variety of sizes.
  They moved silently through the corridors as Felis led them.
  Kei had a micro missile launcher held at port. Yuri had added another
pistol and an anti mech rifle with a satchel full of magazines to her
armaments. The satchel slung over her shoulder. Felis had armed herself
with a machine gun, the belt of ammunition coming from a small back pack
she wore.
  "Here." Felis said as she opened another of the secret doors revealing an
elevator. "This will take us to a floor three levels above where the bombs
are stored."
  After everyone was in the small elevator Felis closed the doors and the
car began to descend. Three minutes later the doors opened and they walked
out.
  "You said there were people down here?" Kei asked, checking missile
launcher's feed mechanism.
  "Yes, but I don't know exact numbers." Felis looked around, seemingly
relaxed.
  "Let's go find out then." Kei set off. Felis had shown them maps of the
area so she knew where she was going.
  They crossed a large open space using the shadow of a wall. Yuri wondered
what it was used for, storage more than likely. The Dragon Arcology could
easily become a fortress if necessary. She had no doubt there were
kilometres of unused space below the building.
  The three of them were almost at the end of the room when the attack
came. A black battle frame stepped out from a corridor, levelling a rail
cannon at them.
  Yuri and Kei dove to the sides but Felis jumped between its legs, her
hard wired combat reflexes cutting in. She fired the machine gun for almost
a full second at point blank range where the mechs legs joined the waist
but with no discernable effect.
  A targeting screen swung in front of Kei's left eye as she brought her
missile launcher up. Information scrolled on the tiny transparent screen
and a rectile outlined the battle frames chest. She squeezed the trigger
and a spread of ten missiles cork screwed out of the tubes, exploding
against the armour.
  Yuri rolled to her feet, moving backwards at a quick walk as she brought
up the AM rifle. The back of her knees hit a low railing and suddenly she
was falling backward. Oh shit, Yuri thought as she twisted so her feet
would hit first when she stopped falling.
  Kei didn't see Yuri's fall. She had thrown herself flat to avoid the
heavy round that punched through the wall where her head had been scant
moments before.
  She rolled into a crouch, ready to send another spread of missiles at the
thing but stopped. Felis had leapt onto the thing, her claws, which were
what they were, ripping at the exposed visual system, in effect blinding
its pilot.
  Kei watched as something flashed red in Felis' hands and she shoved it
into a crack where the neck joined the body. Then she leapt from the battle
frame. Kei threw herself flat on the floor, realizing what she had done.
  The grenade's explosion took the battle frame's head off. Kei brought her
launcher up and aimed at a small crack in the chest carapace. Only one of
the ten missiles made it in but the explosion blew the chest hatch open.
The battle frame fell over backwards.
  Kei and Felis approached it. They looked into the open cockpit.
  "Nasty." Felis said as she looked at the shredded remains.
  "Uh huh." Kei nodded, then looked around. "Where's Yuri?"
  Felis looked around and shrugged her shoulders. Then the heard the shots.

  The drop was only three meters and other than a few bruises to her rear
and her pride she was all right.
  "Any landing you can walk away from." Yuri said as she stood and rubbed
her seat. Then she heard the growl.
  Yuri had seen quite a few war beasts but few as big as the one that
stepped out of the shadows. What the hell did they use as the genetic
pattern she wondered, a Kodiac bear? Then she noticed the heavy laser
cannons mounted on its back. Not good, she thought.
  A glow at the tips of the laser cannons gave her a few milliseconds of
warnings and boosted reflexes had her diving to the side. The two beams cut
a trench into the floor where she had just been. She could feel the first
degree burns on her legs.
  She noticed that the guns were in a fixed position. Too expensive and
hard to make them movable and wire them into the animal's nervous system
Yuri guessed. If the quick calculations she made were right there was a
safe zone about two meters in front of it. Which was close enough for its
claws to rip her into shreds. She hoped there was a delay in firing time
due to the guns power requirements.
  When the nimbus of energy surrounded the tips of the cannons again she
leapt up above them, feeling the burning heat on the soles of her feet. She
landed in front of the war beast, surprising it.
  Yuri fired twice at its armoured head, hoping that the brain was still
there. Even if it was not the destruction of primary sensors should buy her
a few seconds.
  The armour piercing sabots tore into its head, one contained an explosive
charge. The head was torn in half and Yuri felt liquid spray onto her face.
She didn't let it distract her much.
  Leaping onto its back, her toes found holds on the slick armour plate.
She aimed the weapon down, hopefully she could sever the beast's spinal
cord and blow out necessary systems. Also if the brain had been moved it
would likely be in the chest cavity.
  She fired the remaining four shots then leapt off, ejecting the spent
magazine. She flipped and twisted in the air, sliding another magazine into
the rifle before she hit the ground behind it.
  Energy played over the war beast creating blue sparks but it didn't move.
A puddle of dark liquid spread out from under it, staining the floor.
  "If your finished playing we have work to do." Kei called from the
railing.
  Yuri resisted the urge to make one of several rude gestures and sat down
hard on the floor, letting her breathing slow.
  Kei climbed over the railing then hung drop to the floor. Felis simply
leapt, landing silently.
  "Show off." Kei muttered.
  "Let's go." Felis said to Yuri as she gave her a hand up.
  "Thanks." Yuri stood. "How many more are around here do you think?"
  "I don't know." Felis looked around.
  "Probably no more." Kei pushed the targeting screen back away from her
eye. "If there were they'd have been on us by now."
  "Okay then, this way." Felis took the lead.
  They went down one more level and in a short corridor Felis took a screen
from a ventilation shaft.
  "This will take us just above the room where the bombs are stored."
  "What about alarms in the shaft?" Kei was certain she could see evidence
of them.
  "I have a pass key embedded in the space between my ulna and radius."
Felis held up her right arm. "The alarms ignore me and anyone close enough
to me, if I want them to."
  They climbed into the shaft, Kei first, then Felis then Yuri. Not far up
ahead light shone from a grill in the floor of the shaft. She could also
hear voices.
  Kei crossed over the grill then turned around to look down. Yuri and
Felis crowded together to see.
  From their position they could see two men working on one of the bombs.
It was roughly coffin sized and shaped. They could also hear the voices of
others.
  Kei looked up at Yuri and held four fingers. Yuri nodded. Then she
pointed at the grill and held up three fingers. Yuri nodded. They both
quietly counted to three and then dove through the grill. It gave under
their weight and they dropped into the room.
  Yuri landed and rolled shooting both of the men who were working on the
bomb with her pistol.
  Kei fired at the other two men, her laser carbine killing one but the
second was a cyborg and the coherent light could not burn through his
armour fast enough. Then Felis was beside her and the machine gun in her
hands sounded like a buzz saw as the rounds hit the cyborg. Sheer number
found the weak spots and the cyborg went down.
  "Clear." Yuri called after she had scanned the room.
  "Clear." Kei said after a second. "Well that was easy." Kei got to her
feet and crossed to the where the cyborg lay. It was dead, as was the man
she had first hit.
  "Too easy." Felis said from where she still stood in the middle of the
room.
  "Don't be paranoid." Kei said.
  "She's right." Yuri said over her shoulder.
  "What?" Kei asked, both she and Felis were quickly at Yuri's side.
  "They weren't trying to steal these things." She held up one of the decks
the man had been using. "They were trying to crack the codes and arm them.
They wanted this place to go up." Yuri let the deck drop.
  "They didn't want to steal them, they wanted this place to go up in
flames? So what are they after?" Kei demanded.
  "I don't know?" Yuri told her.
  "The viruses." Felis snapped her fingers.
  "What?" Both Kei and Yuri said almost at once.
  "Computer warfare."
  "Oh." Yuri nodded.
  "What?" Kei said at the same time.
  "Core wars." Yuri told her.
  "Ah."
  "That's illegal by the way." Yuri looked over at Felis.
  "I know but the really big corporations play by their own rules."
  "You have the set up here?"
  "Where else? The main computer is deep down, it might as well be a closed
system, the security around the place is monstrous. No one could get near
it."
  "Could anyone have got near these bombs?"
  "Good point." Felis conceded.
  "Can we get to the computer room?"
  "It will take some time, the only way is through the tunnels."
  "Wait, can't we just shut down all the power?"
  "The computers in the bowels of the arcology have a separate power
system. The deterrent factor of a core full of viruses is diminished if a
power outage takes away any ability to retaliate."
  "I can't believe anyone is still ready to initiate a core war." Yuri
shook her head.
  "I don't think there is a single planet that would be willing to do so,
the UG came down pretty hard on this and everyone, seeing the intelligence
of it, quickly fell in line."
  "And the corps?"
  "We are too embroiled in all this to risk it. The rest of the galaxy
could possibly survive a spread of virus. It would wipe out the business
community though, too much of our fortune is electronically represented."
  "So why keep a computer full of viruses?" Kei asked her.
  "Spoil sport tactics. If my fortune is to be destroyed I'm taking my
competitors with me. Law of the jungle."
  "Not really." Yuri told her.
  "Corporate jungle."
  "Okay."
  "And this is the body for business these days." She held up her right
hand. The ceramic finger blades slid out of the housings below her
fingernails.
  "Hand razors." Kei shook her head then jumped atop the one of the bombs.
She jumped up,catching the lip of the ventilation shaft and pulled herself
up into it. A minute later she was handing the missile launcher and anti-
mech rifle down to Yuri. "Ready to play?" She flipped out of the shaft,
landing on the floor.
  "We don't know what is waiting for us, they could have an army down
here." Yuri handed her back her missile launcher.
  "So?"
  "That's what I thought you'd say." Yuri gave her weapon a once over.
"Let's go."
  Felis walked over to the heavy vault door and pushed it. It swung open.
  "This isn't good." She looked over her shoulder at Kei and Yuri.
  "Why?" Kei readjusted the headband site and made sure the cable still
linked it to the weapon.
  "Do you think I'm stupid enough to ever leave this door open. Never mind
the nukes  there's a couple of canisters of hyper-plague in here. This door
is always supposed to be sealed, never opened any longer than it takes to
move something in and out of here. They've compromised all the security."
  "More problems. They have full run of this entire place then, nothing
slowing them down?"
  "Probably." Felis pushed the door all the way open and stepped out into
the hallway beyond. Kei moved up beside her, the targeting screen swinging
into place. Yuri was few steps behind them.
  "They did a number on this." Yuri pulled at the mess of fiber optic cable
and chips that had once been part of the locking mechanism.
  "You know, I think they had some inside help." Felis looked over Yuri's
shoulder.
  "Why?"
  "It looks like all that was just to disable the locking mechanism to keep
the door open. They would have needed the combination and the retinal print
of someone with clearance to open this."
  "This just does not fit. If they are after the core wars stuff why even
bother with the nukes? Unless they wanted to get rid of all the evidence."
  "We are in the middle of a double cross I think." Yuri slung her rifle.
  "Pardon?" Felis looked up from the locking mechanism.
  "Would any corp want to start a core war?"
  "Are you kidding? We are not that stupid. The entire set up is a
deterrent remember?"
  "So who would?"
  "No one sane."
  "Terrorists." Kei said.
  "Or someone working for them. What happens if your core war computer goes
to work?"
  "Contrary to popular belief not much. Oh, about twenty planets will
undergo complete computer crash. About a hundred to a lesser extent and
another two hundred will be effected at about annoyance level. Any ship
infected is dead. After about a week everyone will have cut their links to
ensure there systems are not affected. Complete communication blackout
across the galaxy."
  "Which will last about a year." Yuri said. "Any of the big terrorist
organization would have a heyday."
  "So someone, probably an opposing corp, hires someone to steal some nukes
from you, or to kill you, or something like that and they pull a double
cross and go after the viruses." Kei said.
  "You know, it might not be terrorists." Yuri stared at the ceiling of the
tunnel.
  "Who then?" Felis asked her.
  "Hard liners in the UG. The types who want to bring all the mega corps to
heal at their leash. This happens, even on a limited scale, the UG will
come down heavily on all the mega-corps, for the greater good of course."
  "Shit." Kei shook her head. "I hate politics. Straight out violence is
cleaner somehow."
  "Well, now that we have a possible scenario, let's go and stop it." Felis
started off.
  "Yuri, wait a sec." Kei reached out, putting a hand on Yuri's shoulder.
"What if the UG is behind this?"
  "Tough call. Do we make sure we get some alive so that they can testify,
thus weakening the trust United Galactica currently enjoys? Or do we kill
them all to protect that trust?"
  "No, I mean do you think they would be mad at us?"
  Yuri looked at Kei for a moment then shrugged her shoulders and started
after Felis.
  
  A number of bodies lay sprawled at the entrance way to the deeper tunnel
system. Most of them were wearing the uniform of Dragon security personnel.
One or two were not.
  "Mostly clean kills." Yuri knelt by one of the bodies. "Throats cut,
razor sharp, slightly curved blade." She put her fingers on the dead
woman's throat just above the wound. "This was done a while ago." She
dragged a finger through the clotted blood."
  "How long ago?" Kei asked.
  "No idea."
  "Just a moment." Felis knelt down beside the body, careful to avoid most
of the blood. She went through the pouches on the woman's web belt and
removed a slim data reader with a cable attached to it. She plugged the
free end into the woman's datajack.
  "Okay, here we go," Felis said as information began to scroll across the
small screen. "Heart stopped at 17:39, there was a pretty major adrenaline
surge twenty seconds before hand."
  "17:39?" Yuri looked over her shoulder to read the information. "That's
about the time we left the hotel." She looked over at Kei.
  "Sounds about right. So there were people down here before the main
attack."
  "Definitely an inside job." Felis let the data reader drop. "Nice
diversionary tactics, almost worked."
  "It's 18:23, this planet's time. They've had almost an hour, do we still
have time to stop them?"
  "Assuming that they were after the core wars stuff, maybe. The security
will take some time to crack."
  "Even if they have a person on the inside?"
  "Only if they have someone on the inside."
  "How far?"
  "About ten minutes."
  "We better go then." Kei said, starting down the long slope.
  Felis and Yuri followed.

  The long corridor had been sloping down for almost a kilometre. Felis had
told them it was a natural cave system she had had enlarged and supported.
The dim green light from the few light strips gave every thing a strange
look.
  Kei was beginning to feel nervous. She wanted to scream to relieve the
tension. It seemed to be taking forever. When the attack finally came it
was almost a relief. Almost.
  Six of them, dressed in dark grey, came out of the shadows, almost as if
they had been shadows themselves. They were armed with blades for silent
killing. The three women had only a moment of warning.
  Kei swung her missile launcher around, taking one of them in the face
with the heavy stock. She used the momentum the move had given her to drive
her elbow into the stomach of another. She snapped her hand up, fist
impacting against his throat.
  Yuri pulled a knife from the sheath at her belt using the rifle's barrel
to clumsily block a slash. She lashed out with her blade, cutting her
attacker across the chest from his floating ribs towards his shoulder. At
the last instant she angled the blade up to cut his throat. As he fell
forward she swung the rifle out, holding it only by the pistol grip, and
squeezed the trigger. The sabot ripped through the head of a woman with a
machete.
  Felis snapped a kick over a knife thrust, the heel of her foot impacting
with her attacker's face. She was rewarded with the satisfying crunch of
bone. She literally tore the lungs out of the next, her claws cutting
through flack jacket and rib cage into her chest cavity.
  They relaxed, looking at the bodies on the floor. Yuri turned slightly,
hearing something behind her. She felt something graze her right shoulder
and dropped to a crouch even as she finished turning.
  Felis was already sprinting at the attackers who had sought to take them
from behind. A laser burnt hair and skin away from her scalp. She hardly
felt it.
  Then with a leap she was among them, too close for them to use the rifles
they had been carrying. Blood started to fly.
  "Berserker." Yuri said as she watched. She placed her left hand on her
right shoulder. A thin trickle of blood was running from the wound.
  "We got more problems." Kei said softly.
  Yuri turned and saw what Kei had meant.
  Two combat androids were walking towards them. They looked almost fully
human except for a few things. The heavy clawed hands, the glow behind
their eyes, the sensor booms instead of ears. All easily hidden if
necessary Yuri knew.
  Designed only for fighting they were amongst the most deadly anti-
personnel weapons in existence.
  Both broke into a sprint, low to the ground as to present less of a
target silhouette. Both trouble consultants knew what to expect, the longer
a fight went on the more flexible the androids would become but at first
their attacks would be predictable.
  When both leapt Kei dove to the ground under the one that had chosen her.
She saw a flash of light as its built in laser fired. The beam burnt into
the ground several centimetres from her head.
  Yuri slid her right leg out in front of her while bending her left and
arching her back to lower herself. She felt the android's hand brush past
her head, tearing out hair as it passed. She dropped her hand so the barrel
of her AM rifle pointed up. The end was only mileometers from the android's
chest when she fired twice.
  Some of the sabot's kinetic energy was transferred into the android's
body and it bounced off the ceiling of the tunnel further behind Yuri. It
flipped over, trying to land on its feet but its balance was thrown off and
it landed on its back. The body convulsed as it tried to bypass the damaged
components, it's feet drumming on the ground.
  Yuri felt the blast wave of Kei's missile launcher wash over her but she
ignored it as she emptied the clip into the android. It exploded after the
fourth shot, most of the force going upward but some of washed back at
Yuri, carrying fine, stinging particles.
  Kei twisted around as the android's leap had carried it five meters
farther down the corridor. The targeting screen swung over her eye and Kei
sent a spread of missiles at it.
  The android jumped over it on and angle, hit the wall and sprung off it,
just ahead of Kei's second spread. Most of the third spread hit it dead on,
obscuring the android in flame.
  It hit the ground a meter away from Kei, its legs had been blown from the
torso, only the broken skeletal rods left. It pulled its self towards Kei
with its arms.
  In the corner of the targeting screen a red dot was flashing on and off.
Kei had no idea what it meant until she pulled the trigger again and
nothing happened.
  She let the empty missile launcher fall as she drew her laser carbine.
The android's built in laser burnt into her thigh, pain lanced through her.
Kei told her mind to ignore it and fired at the laser aperture before the
weapon could do more damage to her.
  "Just die!" Kei yelled as she pumped several shots into the android's
back. It finally stopped moving and a small explosion tore the its back
apart.
  "You all right?" Yuri asked her.
  "Yea." Kei said looking down at her leg. At least with a laser there was
little danger of bleeding to death.
  Smoke filled the corridor and Yuri could not see down it. She let the
empty magazine fall out of the rifle and slid a fresh one into her weapon.
  "I wonder if Felis is all right?" Yuri looked down the corridor, blinking
her eyes against the acrid sting on the smoke.
  "Come on." Kei headed into the smoke. "Let's find out."
  Fans had come on at some point during the fight and they had started
drawing the smoke away. As the smoke cleared they saw Felis standing among
a pile of bodies. The dim light was reflected back from her eyes, her hair
was slicked with blood, there was more of it on her.
  She began to growl then suddenly stopped. Looking down at the mess Felis
began to shake then bent over and vomited all over the bodies at her feet.
  "Are you all right?"  Yuri asked as she lay her hands on Felis' back,
cringing slightly at the blood.
  "Yea, I'm just having trouble dealing with being a blood thirsty
berserker." She straightened. "I didn't even think of using my weapon." She
whispered looking down at the machine gun lying on the floor.
  "Come on." Yuri put an arm around her shoulders.
  They were heading back down the corridor when one of the men they thought
dead rose to his knees.
  Kei swore silently. It was the one she had hit in the stomach. She had
thought his throat was crushed but she should have ensured he was dead.
  He made a throwing motion, all the women saw the flash of dim light off
the grenade. Then they were sprinting forward, Kei taking time to shoot the
man in the head as they passed. Then they threw themselves to the ground.
  The force of the explosion rolled over them but any shrapnel that might
of hit them was stopped by the bodies behind them.
  Yuri was on her back, Felis on top of her looking down into her eyes.
  "God your beautiful." She told Yuri then was on her feet helping the
brunette to her feet. "I'm sorry, that must have made you feel
uncomfortable."
  Yuri just shrugged her shoulders, unable to think of a proper response.

  Once they had taken care of their wounds Felis led them through the
tunnels. They avoided two groups of people, Felis knew the tunnels well.
She finally opened a door, ushering them both into a small room.
  "Where are we?" Kei asked.
  "Just a monitoring room." Felis let the door close then walked over to a
control board. She began to enter codes.
  "What's up?"
  "Just a moment." Felis finished entering the commands. "Damn, they almost
have they system completely locked down. They've opened up the lines of
communication again. I can't shut them down again. I can't do much from
here. Might as well see who the major players are."
  "Pardon?" Yuri asked her.
  "I think I can hook us into the security cameras if I remember the
codes." Fingers flying over the keyboard she entered a number of
characters. She called up one of the menus then looked it over. "This
should do it." The screen lit up, it was an overhead view of a room.
  "Ceiling cam?" Yuri asked.
  "Best one to use I thought."
  "Look at the size of the black cymech." Kei shook her head.
  "There's two, the second one is small, scouting model I think." Yuri
looked down at her anti mech rifle.
  "I'd recognize that receding hair line anywhere, Vernen you son of a
bastard. I'll kill you."
  "The inside man?"
  "I took him right out of university, groomed him, taught him everything I
knew, set him up to take over for me. He was like a son."
  "Maybe when he realized that you were not about to die peacefully but
were on this immortal kick he decided that waiting for you to kick off was
a loosing proposition." Kei told her.
  "Good point. It was foolish of me not to consider that possibility. I'm
going to have think about how to deal with this in the future. I wonder if
AI systems would be the way to go. Nice, loyal, and you can erase them
without having to deal with murder charges."
  "I wouldn't have thought the possibility of a murder charges would bother
you." Kei said.
  "Well that's all well and good but we have nine hostiles in that room in
total, two of them are cymechs, and we have to hit them soon." Yuri leaned
over Felis' shoulder and tapped a few keys. The camera zoomed in on a
computer screen. "I think their hacker is close to breaking through."
  "Okay Yuri, any ideas?"
  "Can you give me a view of what's outside that room?"
  "Just a moment, there should be a camera. Ah, here it is." The picture on
the screen was replaced by a doorway. A single woman stood outside of it.
  "So ten hostiles in total." Kei said.
  "Got an idea. You have any grenades left Felis?" Yuri asked her.
  "Three." Felis pulled them from her pockets and placed them on the desk
top.
  "Let's hope that's enough." Yuri unslung her rifle and placed it on the
floor, The satchel that held the few remaining magazines followed. "Hold
the fort Kei, I'll be back in a minute or two." Yuri drew both her pistols
and went to the door.
  "What are you up to Yuri?" Kei asked.
  "I have a plan." Yuri told her as she opened the door and stepped out
into the corridor.
  "That's what I was afraid of." Kei told her.
  Yuri ran down the hallway, trying to remember the pattern of the
corridors. There was a group of guards close by, she remembered they had
almost run into them. There were only about four of them.
  The corridor was curved, Yuri was silent, her bare feet made almost no
sound. The guards did not know she was there until she was only six meters
from them.
  There were five all together, there backs to her. I miscounted, Yuri
thought as she began to fire. The two electro mags were easy to aim and
they had little recoil. She took two down before they even started to turn,
head shots. Two more went down before the last one began to fire. She
dodged to the side, hitting the wall, and returned fire.
  The man dove to the ground, avoiding Yuri's fire. He had his rifle caught
under him and could not get at it. He pulled a throwing knife from his
webbing and threw it. The entire motion was so fast Yuri was not aware of
the danger until it sliced across her upper right arm.
  Before he could get at his second knife Yuri had put three rounds into
his head.
  Yuri looked down at the cut on her arm. It was deep but it had not cut an
artery. She holstered her pistols then took a small med kit from a pocket
in her shorts so she could seal the cut.
   Once she no longer had to worry about bleeding to death she turned her
attention to stripping the bodies.

  Kei looked up when there was a knock at the door.
  "Yuri?" Felis asked.
  "Who else would knock?" Kei went and opened the door.
  Yuri came in, her hands full of clothing and weapons.
  "Shopping?" Kei stood aside.
  "You know how I am when there's a sale." Yuri put her burden on the
floor. "Are they still working at it?"
  "They haven't cracked all the codes yet, but very soon."
  "Then we don't have much time." Yuri began to strip.
  "Do you think this will work?" Kei bent down to examine the clothing,
looking for blood stains.
  "It should. All I need is a few seconds, just enough times to drop the
grenades. They should take out all of the soft targets. Hope none of them
are cyborgs."
  "Felis and I come in guns blazing?"
  "That's what I was planning."
  "Should work, assuming no surprises."
  "Assuming no surprises." Kei shook her head.
  "Would have preferred being prepared but what was that they always said
to us on Shimogu?" Yuri unsnapped her garter clasps.
  "I swear, If I could get away with it I'd kill you both and dance on your
graves?"
  "Adapt," she picked up one of her pistols and ejected the magazine.
"improvise," She took a full magazine from the shoulder holster. "and
overcome." Yuri slapped it into the pistol.
  "You sure they said that to us?"
  "I don't remember, maybe I heard it in a vid or something."
  Yuri finished dressing in the clothes she had acquired.
  "What if they realize that you are not one of them?" Felis asked Yuri.
  "They'll be fooled long enough." Yuri pulled the pants on.
  "And if they're not?"
  "Then they will shoot me many times seriously compromising the structural
integrity of my circulatory system and skeletal system." Yuri slipped into
the shirt.
  "That does not sound like much of a fall back plan."
  "It's why we are paid so well." Kei told her. "And we get the best toys."
  "Considering out time frame we don't have much time for a better plan."
Yuri told her as she tucked the tails of the shirt into the waistband of
her pants. "How do I look?"
  "Cover girl for "Star Soldier"."
  "Will have to do." Yuri bent down to retrieve the beret and pull it on.
She walked over to the desk and grabbed the three grenades.
  "How do we take out the guard at the door?" Felis asked.
  "That shouldn't be a problem." Kei told her.
  "Come in fast after the grenades go off." Yuri told Kei. "The element of
surprise will only last for so long." Yuri removed the safeties from the
grenades and set them for impact but left them unarmed. She used the clips
on them to hook them into her pockets.
  "I understand the plan." Kei bent down and picked up the AM rifle.
  "Is this beginning to seem like less and less of a good plan to you?"
Yuri pushed the pistol into the back of her waistband.
  "It didn't seem like a good plan to start with."
  "Thanks Kei." Yuri bent down and picked up the laser rifle she had
brought with the clothes.
  "What are friends for. Shall we go."
  "Let's." Yuri pushed open the door and stepped out into the hall, Felis
slung her machine gun and followed them.

  Kei lowered the body of the guard to the ground, pulling her away from
the door so her blood would not fall on the floor near it. Felis moved
close to help her, taking the body's entire weight with one hand.
  "I'm going in." Yuri told them, pulling the beret low on her head, hoping
it would help hide her features a little. "Wish me luck." She armed the
grenades.
  "Luck." Kei said.
  Yuri nodded.     
  The door slid open as soon as Yuri touched the plate. All eyes in the
room turned towards her but none were alarmed, they saw the clothes she was
wearing, it was almost a uniform. Look like you belong, Yuri thought.
  "We're being over run." She said quickly, letting the news distract any
notice away from her voice.
  "I told you I heard gun shots." A little, squirrely man, their hacker,
said.
  "You'er always hearing gun shots." The big cymech said. "No matter. We're
done here are we not."
  "Almost." The squirrely hacker told the cymech.
  "How are we supposed to get out of here?" Vernen asked.
  Any answer that was forthcoming was lost as Yuri took them all by
surprise, spraying the room with laser fire. making sure she hit the
hacker. Not bothering to see who else she might have hit Yuri tossed the
rifle aside and pulled the three grenades from the pants' pockets. Diving
behind a piece of heavily shielded equipment she tossed the grenades out
into the room.
  Both grenades went off, she could feel the force of the explosion through
the floor and the computer equipment at her back. There were some screams
but the were cut off quickly.
  Yuri turned and stuck her head up, pistols held out in front of her.
Someone's head popped above another piece of equipment. Yuri fired as soon
as she saw he movement. Then the smaller of the two cymechs stepped out
from behind a piece of cover. Yuri hit the floor again a moment before a
hail of minigun fire passed through the space her head has just been.
  From her place on the floor Yuri saw Kei and Felis come through the door.
She heard the buzz of Felis' machine gun, the thump of the anti mech rifle.
The mech stopped firing.
  Yuri looked over the computers again. There were two new bodies sprawled
on the floor and the cymech was lying on its back. Then she saw the bigger
one as it opened up on Kei and Felis. There was not much more cover in the
room, the two women dove to opposite sides, buying themselves a few seconds
as the cymech tried to decide which to shoot first.
  Kei rolled to her knees and fired three shots at it with little
discernable effect. She almost had her head burnt off by the mech's plasma
cannon. She almost lost the rifle as she dove to the side, ejecting the
magazine.
  Yuri watched as it firing on her friend, the plasma cannon burning into
the floor. The cymech was ignoring her, not surprising, her pistol could
barely scratch its armour. She had something to fall back on.
  She reached into her jacket, taking the only weapon she had brought with
her. She clipped the control wrist band on and pulled the bloody card from
the dura ceramic case.
  Kicking off the boots so they would not get in her way, she leapt to her
feet. With a quick prayer to any power that might be watching over her she
threw the card. Hope all my practice pays off Yuri thought.
  The card punched a hole into the mech's chest and then out it's back. Kei
used the moment of distraction to put a sabot into its head.
  Yuri caught the bloody card and threw it again on the run. The card hit
lower this time.
  Kei had slapped a new magazine into the weapon and aimed for the hole
Yuri's first throw had made and began firing. The first two missed the
rents in the armour but knocked it back, spoiling its attempt to return
fire. The third one was dead on.
  The cymech stumbled back, the round tearing through its softer insides.
It fell back as Kei managed to get the fourth shot into the second rent
that Yuri had put into it.
  It hit the ground hard, sparks playing over its body.
  "Think it's dead." Kei called to Yuri who was crouching on the far side
of the room.
  "I hope so." Yuri called back. She had lost her bloody card in the second
throw, it was lost in the cymech.
  "One way to find out." Felis said as she snatched the rifle from Kei's
hands and ejected the  almost empty magazine. "Give me a fresh one."
  "Here." Kei held up one of the magazine.
  Felis looked at it, noted the black tips of the rounds then slapped the
magazine of explosive ammo home.
  Standing less then a meter away she shoved the barrel into one of the
rent and fired three times. She walked over to the second cymech and
repeated the procedure.
  "Dead." She let the rifle drop. "Now what about the computer?"
  "Let's see." Yuri pulled the dead body of the hacker from the computer.
"What a mess, grenades and electronics do not miss. Good thing his body
shielded some of it." She began typing.
  "How does it look?" Kei asked.
  "Not good I think."
  "Let me see." Felis walked over to Yuri's side.
  "What do you think?"
  "Not good." She began to enter codes. "They locked me out, wiped the
abort codes. It will take at least ten minutes to rewrite them."
  "More like thirty. Do we have the time?"
  "No."
  "Damn. Can you take care of this?"
  "Me?" Felis looked surprised. "I hire people to do this."
  "Great." Yuri picked up the dead hacker's deck and looked at it.
"Electronics and grenades." She shook her head and began to rip it apart.
  "What are you up to Yuri."
  "I'm going in." She pulled out the program carrier from the deck and
looked it over.
  "Naked?"
  "I have to, we don't have time to go search for a deck."
  "You can't be serious." Felis said.
  "Yes I can." She pulled the interface cable from the hacker's head and
hooked the program carrier to it.
  "Going in without a buffer between you and the computer is a bad idea.
That monster is a mass of viruses and they all want to get out. You will
die."
  "That's a possibility. Give me all your pass codes."
  "Damn." Felis looked around, searching through some drawers until she
found a microsoft plug. She pushed it into her datajack, closed her eyes
for a moment then pulled it free. "Here you go." She walked over to Yuri
then shoved the plug into the program carrier.
  "See you soon." Yuri said to Kei, then she pushed the plug into her data
socket.
  Sliding into a computer system through a deck with a some of the best
software behind her was one thing. Going in naked was another. Yuri had
never done it before, not for real, not with the nastiest viruses a mega-
corp could design waiting for her. It was the sort of thing that separated
the talented from the legendary.
  She quickly catalogued the programs she had with her. Decryption
programs, a few attacks and a lot of defence programs. That was fortunate
because she found herself on the defensive the moment she was fully in.
  It was like standing in an ocean as the surf pounded over her, trying to
drive her under. She wrapped the defensive programs about herself like a
blanket, trying to keep the smart viruses from corrupting her wetware. She
was only partially successful.
  That was a first for her, having her wetware directly effected. She
isolated the damaged systems and shut them down, hoping that she had
stopped the spread.
  Yuri tried to make sense of the maelstrom presented to her. There were no
single defined programs within the storm. The few attack programs she had
would be of little use. She could not fight it.
  She moved through directories, looking for the communication lines. She
could not shut them down. There was no way she could stop it. She split off
several ghosts and sent them along the lines to find out how far the virus
had spread. Not much time left for anything fancy.
  The pass codes Felis had given her let her into the deepest levels of the
arcology's computer system. The viruses had not spread that far yet but
Yuri knew it would not take long. They cut through the antibiotic programs
like they were not there.
  Far from the maelstrom things began to make sense once again. Yuri's
representation hung in an open area, all around her where menu boards like
billboards hanging in space. She noticed a few were beginning to flicker,
the information on them changing rapidly as they began to be affected.
  There has to be something in here, Yuri thought, looking around herself.
There, she thought, the board coming to her, or she going to it, it was all
a matter of perspective.
  Satellites? Yuri looked through it, using the pass codes. Why so much
defence around communication satellites? Attack satellites? Oh Felis you
are evil. She went in.
  Dragon Industries had almost a hundred communication, weather,
surveillance and navigation satellites in orbit around the planet. Eighteen
of them were officially communications but contained enough weaponry to
take out a corvette.
  Yuri checked on her ghosts, the viruses had spread almost across the
planet, they had corrupted more of her wetware as well. Yuri took the
necessary measures and turned her attention back to the satellites.
  I'm going to get in so much trouble, Yuri thought as she inputted her
commands. She had little choice though.
  Camouflaging panels blew off the satellites, weapons revealed, plasma and
laser cannons, and missiles. Small fusion generators came on line. The huge
increase in the power output was noted by many a moment before the weapons
opened up.
  Yuri went after the all the other satellites first, destroying them all
if a few seconds. Three separate satellites trained their fire on the big
FTL relay that was in high, high orbit. Once that was gone Alantis was cut
off.
  Yuri was unwilling to destroy the ships in orbit so she fired at the
ground relay stations instead. All across the planet any satellite dish
capable of transmitting came under fire. As Yuri watched she could not help
feel a slight thrill. The destruction was incredible.
  She took out the uplink station on the arcology last after setting the
satellites to destroy themselves. It was rather disturbing, being cut off
like that.
  Clawing at the interface cable behind her ear Yuri pulled the cable out
and stumbled away from the computer. Her eyes would not focus, her heart
was beating so hard and fast she could feel it in her ears. Lethal bio-
feedback, Yuri thought, feeling a little detached. Not a fun thing.
  "Yuri." Kei grabbed her before she could fall.
  "I'm alright, I just need a few seconds." Yuri told her.
  "Yuri what did you do?" Felis asked as she tried to backtrack Yuri's
actions. The continuing corruption caused by the virus was making it hard.
  "Cut everything." Yuri said. Blood was running from her nose. Here eyes
were bloodshot. "I used your illegal war satellites."
  "You cut everything? Unbelievable." She laughed.
  "What did you cut?" Kei asked her.
  "Communication lines. Alantis has just ceased to exist."
  "And she fired on the planet to do it." Felis told her. 
  "You know this goes beyond your normal destruction. This wasn't
accidental." Kei told her.
  "I know." Yuri wiped the blood from her nose. Her heart beat was
beginning to slow.
  "You loved it didn't you?"
  "Of course I did, but that's off the record." Yuri told her.
  "Unbelievable." Felis shook her head. "I wish I had communications. I
could make money from this if I could only get in touch with the outside
galaxy. Everyone will be trying to sell anything related to Alantis. This
could destroy the planets economy, majorly screw up that of its close
trading partners."
  "Isn't that a bad thing?" Kei asked.
  "In theory I suppose."
  "You are sort of sick."
  "But I'm rich." Felis looked her machine gun over. "You'd be surprised
out how often they go together. Now shall we go?"
  "You know, you sort of are really unlikeable." Yuri said. 
  "I know." Felis shrugged her shoulders then walked to the door.
  "You alright?" Kei asked Yuri.
  "I should be." She moved away from Kei and bent down to pick up one of
her pistols. As she straightened a slight but sharp pain formed behind her
eyes. "That's probably not good." Yuri said softly.

  Kei lay on the Lovely Angel's port wing, almost asleep, but not quite.
Mughi's hot weight was draped across her lower legs. It was not too
comfortable but she was feeling too lazy to make him move.
  She stared up at the air traffic over Terhune but did not really see it.
One could only identify ships and pick out the interesting modifications
for so long before terminal boredom set in. She really hated the city.
  It had been over a week since they had left Alantis. No one had been
particularly sorry to see them go. Kei had never really appreciated the
importance of computers to a planet's survival until she had seen the
effect of an planet wide computer crash. It had been scary.
  It was fortunate Alantis was such a small world, and that its Prime
Minister had quite a disaster relief set up already on planet. The effect
on a more heavily populated and settled world were hard to picture.
  The virus was even more annoying in the fact a computer could not just be
cleaned out or the memory wiped and rebuilt from clean copies. Almost all
the computers on Alantis had to be scrapped due to hardware damage and the
possibility of reinfection.
  Of course the effects could not have just been localized to one planet,
that would have been too easy.
  After Alantis had seemingly disappeared there had been panic on a number
of other worlds.
  Eight wars were still going on.
  Two planetary economies had crashed, Alantis might be the third. The
number of smaller financial disasters were still not known.
  Two planets had withdrawn from the United Galactica, one had come back.
Two unaffiliated worlds had also requested membership for some odd reason.
Kei had not used that fact in an attempt to put a positive spin on things.
  Four of the several worlds that had cut their communication links still
had not put them up again. That was threatening to cause more problems in
itself.
  It was a nice example of Chaos theory. And it would probably get worse.
  No one had been very happy about it.
  The Central Computer had cleared them though. She suspected even less
people were happy about that.
  They had not even been able to bring Dragon Industries in on charges of
computer warfare. Felis had denied everything, claimed that a group of
terrorists had used her communication system to launch the attack.
  The few mercenaries, as they turned out to be, left alive provided little
real information. The only people who knew what it was about had been in
that computer room. Kei had not really been bothered by Felis' excessive
spraying of the room at the time. It had ensured there were no witnesses
though.
  In the end it was their word against hers. Some legal type from UG
corporate crimes division had told her that he would have put any other
trouble consultants on the stand to testify but them.
  What a bastard, Kei thought, smiling as she remembered hitting him.
  Then there was Yuri. She had spent most of the trip to Shimogu curled up
on her bunk, whimpering. Wetware, viral corruption was not a good thing as
Kei had learned.
  The migraines had made Yuri wish she was dead. Not a single pain killer
in the Lovely Angel's infirmary had been able to touch the pain. Of course
that was nothing to when her heart just stopped shortly before the Lovely
Angel landed.
  The medicos had rushed Yuri off the ship so fast that Kei had not even
realized they had come aboard. Of course she had been in a shouting match
with air control over her landing. They had almost pulled her papers over
it.
  Kei had asked a lot of questions and got long drawn out answers about
what had happened to Yuri. She barely understood a quarter of what they
said. The good thing was that they looked like they only understood half of
it themselves.
  Cutting had been the only option, pulling the wetware out, using cloned
tissue to repair the damage and then installing new wetware. The techs had
gone on about how the new stuff was cutting edge. Kei had been more
concerned that Yuri was going to be her old self. She had almost fed one of
the techs her teeth when the woman seemed to refuse to see why that was
important.
  Yuri was fine, so Kei had been told, she was just being debriefed. Kei
knew that was polite speak for "being chewed out".

  Yuri sat in the chair, barely listening to the man in front of her as he
told her everything that had happened after she had taken Alantis out of
the loop. She nodded every now and then, made the appropriate, respectful
noises when called for.
  She had heard it before. The damage she had done, the likely effects over
the next few years, the complaints from all over the galaxy. She did not
care though. What none of them mentioned was that she had had no other
choice and had done the only thing she could.
  She had almost died.
  Not a quick and clean death but a painful one caused by her brain
shutting down as infected wetware played hell with her nervous system. And
the truly bad thing was that she had gone through all the pain and had not
died. That raised the possibility of having to go through it again at some
point.
  It was really annoying.
  The med techs had come close to just brain taping her and cloning her
body. The damage to her brain and nervous system had been pretty bad as she
understood it.
  But she was fine now, so she had been told. With a head full of the
finest wetware 3WA had developed and an internal computer running along her
spine in case she ever found herself needing to go virus hunting again and
was without a proper deck. She had shut the thing down the moment it had
come on line. It was incredibly creepy.
  "Are you listening to me Trouble Consultant?" The woman whose name Yuri
could not remember asked.
  "Not really." Yuri go to her feet. "The Central Computer has cleared me
hasn't it?"
  "Well, yes, but that's not the point." She sputtered.
  "I respectfully disagree, I think it is the point. May I go now?"
  "Go." The woman said between clenched teeth.
  "Thank you." Yuri turned an left.
  Getting out of the administration complex took a little time, she got
lost once. Finally she caught a cab to the landing field. It dropped her
off just outside of the gates.
  Yuri walked across the field of dura plastic to where the Angel sat,
threading her way between the other ships.
  She saw a black head rise above the wing then Mughi was leaping from the
wing, running toward her. The big cat twined itself around her legs once,
almost knocking her over.
  "So you finally stopped laying about." Kei yelled from the wing.
  "Well, I needed a little time away from you." Yuri said as she continued
walking towards the Angel, Mughi pacing her.
  "I knew you did it on purpose, just couldn't wait to get your head
wrapped around the new wetware." Kei slid from the wing and dropped
gracefully to the ground. "So you alright?"
  "Never been better. Clean bill of health all around."
  "Let's get the hell out of here then." Kei walked to the Angel's entry
hatch.
  "I'm for that." Yuri said as she followed.