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Skyhawk

"That might work." Arianeira said with a grin, activating them. It took several seconds to make a convincing display of a 'critical error' and she shook the ship about a bit, getting into the pretence. She shoved the controls down hard and the ship shot off towards the curtain wall. She instructed the ship to send an auto-message explaining the 'difficulty' they were having and made for the boundary as fast as possible.

"If they swallow that and actually let my ship pass through the boundary, you are going to owe me." She directed over her shoulder at Stratford. "Big time." They shot straight at the curtain wall. Despite the fact that she had no idea whether they were about to be incinerated, she was remarkably calm as she stared straight ahead.

(MY persons kinda out of it soooo.....)

She shrugged and flew away.


(yay me!)

[Yeah. Sorry hon.]



Captain Stratford let out a faint sigh of relief, before nodding to Captain Arianeira. "I'm gonna owe you for one hell of a long time, so anytime you need help, no matter how small..." He reached into his pocket and drew out a communicator. "It goes in your ear, and will sit in the ear drum. Its quite safe, but will let you contact me. The delays.." he paused to think, "about ten seconds with every lightyear."



The ships displacer beam begun to power up, creating a cool blue light in the ship, like mood lighting.

With a nod, Captain Stratford moved and embrased her swiftly, letting his lips brush her cheek. "Take care of yourself." he said, then a blue dull light flashed, and he was gone.



Captain Stratford stood on the Bridge of his ship again and sighed softly. "Good to see you again, Hyperon. Right. Order time. Hide in Hyperspace. Have scans watch the area. If they try and attack her, I want you to blow them to pieces." The ship accnoledged happily, and engaged its Hyperdrive, fading from sight, but not actually moving. In real space, the Hyperon would seem gone.

Skyhawk

Arianeira smiled softly to herself for a second before turning back to the comm link. She grimaced. There were now nine lights. She flicked all the switches on at once and made a show of relief as if she hadn't expected it to work.

"A few minor problems from the late sea battle." Arianeira murmured apologetically, shrugging, as if to say What can one do? There were a few more pointed questions which she parried, but the other Captains seemed satisfied and eventually closed the links. Talon was the last to go.

"That story may not hold up if any of the other surviving ships saw you in the battle and know that you weren't touched." He said with a slight lessening of his grin.

"They won't have. When I arrived they were all too busy trying to keep themselves alive. It will pass unnoticed."

"I hope so." He said, and grinned. "It has passed muster for the moment anyway. Get a move on and get down here. The drinks are excellent."

Arianeira laughed, cancelled the link, and prepared to move back through the barrier. She looked out for a moment at the place where Stratford's ship had disappeared and then with a slight smile, moved back through the barrier, aligning the ship and trying to put the Captain from her mind.

Skyhawk
Kyralia

Arianeira docked swiftly, but making a show of care, as if her droids were still making repairs. She lowered the hatch and stepped through and Talon grinned at her from the bay. To her surprise, lots of the other Captains were there too. She caught a wink from Maric, Captain of the Firedrake and several other friends, but there were also several pointed scowls directed at her. She ignored them and strolled along the dock. Her friends moved forward and clapped her on the back, leading her off towards the nearest tavern to exchange news.

"Fancy entrance, that." Maric said with mock-solemnity, and Talon laughed.
"Good turnout." Arianeira replied, nodding back towards the docks. "I never realised they valued me so highly."

Talon snorted. "You've been gone a long time Aeron. Things have changed a bit since you left." He dropped his voice and turned serious for a moment. "Since Drake turned and Corrie died the Captains have been a bit jumpy."

Arianeira gasped. Drake and Corrie had both been friends of hers. "What happened? How...? When...?"

Maric's expression turned savage when he answered her. "We don't know when Drake turned. He was supposed to be spying on the fleets for us and the next thing we know he was flying out of Harin with a navy fleet behind him. Naturally, we thought he was in trouble and Corrie was in the area and put herself in the firing line..." He paused, took an angry breath and continued: "Drake himself blasted her out of the sky. She didn't expect it and never stood a chance."

They all bowed their heads for a few seconds. "What's the price on his head?" Arianeira said tightly, looking up. A cold light had entered her eyes and the others knew what to expect.

"Aeron..." Talon said warningly.
"Twenty thousand." Maric cut across.
"I claim the right." Aeron said, "Will any contest me for it?"
"I will. Aeron, he's as brilliant as any pirate I've ever known." Talon said angrily, "You trained with him. You can't take him on directly and you know it. He knows your style as well as you do."
"And I know his." Arianeira retorted. "I'll get him for what he did to Corrie, if it's the last thing I do."
"It will be if you take on Drake." Talon shot back, but Maric cut him off.
"We all know Aeron won't change her mind because we tell her too." He said, half-proud and half-sad. "Even when she sailed with me she went her own way. Let's forget this business for tonight and talk about happier things."

Arianeira knew that he was hoping that she would forget about chasing Drake in the days that followed, but she was already running over the practicalities in her own mind and a plan was starting to form...

Kyralia

Talon was looking out of the window of his room. Arianeira had dropped from the window of her quarters and was already heading back across the road to the docks. Though she was good at hiding in shadows, Talon had known her for years and spotted her easily.

"Take a look at this, Maric." He said, nodding out of the window. Maric crossed to the window as well, looking fairly sceptical. He glanced around but didn't see the figure until Talon pointed her out. Maric swore.

"Are you going to stop her, Tal?"

Talon was incredulous. "Do you think I could?" He said with a grin.
Maric shook his head. "I wouldn't have thought she'd leave the same night she arrived. I thought it would take a couple of days to prepare."

As he spoke, he dug in his pocket and tossed several coins to Talon. Talon pocketed his winnings with another smile, as he answered: "Aeron is impulsive. She decides one minute and is gone the next." He nodded towards the slowly opening door of the Skyhawk as the figure stole inside to illustrate his point. Maric shook his head.

"The Captains will kill her." He said.
Talon laughed. "They'll have to find her first."