"No matter how deep or how fast the river runs, there is always a price great enough to persuade a man to attempt the crossing."

Sleek and silver like a dolphin through Old Earth's oceans, agile and nimble like a Parinthean falcon over Terra Plantis, fast and powerful as a Duridian electrical storm. That's what the advertisements said about my ship's model line.

To be honest, I didn't let them raise my expectations too far. After all, it only cost me a couple of hundred thousand, and a Parinthean falcon alone would be twice that. I would forgive most for not knowing that, however, as you won't find them anywhere other than the black market, since trading in them is thoroughly illegal and punishable with a rather lengthy stay in the extremely unpleasant confines of the Bak'na Penal Colony. Not my idea of a perfect holiday getaway.

Besides that, Old Earth dolphins have been extinct for a thousand years anyway, ever since the Cataclysm back then. Quite a lot of Old Earth creatures became extinct when the first major experiments in advanced hyperspace physics nudged the planet's moon, Luna, out of orbit and into a collision with the mother world. Thank God, or whatever deity you care to believe in, if any, for the other colonies, which were quite well developed by then.

Duridian electrical storms, I admit, I don't know about; I've never been through that part of space. But when you've been out on the galactic rim as many times as I have, you tend to find that one electrical storm looks pretty much like another, so I assume that it was rather impressive and involved lots of flashing light and loud noise.

My ship doesn't involve lots of flashing lights and loud noises, or at least, it shouldn't, just as long as it's treated with care, attention, and a little love. An old compatriot of mine once said during a particularly inebriated conversation that looking after a ship properly was a lot like making love to a beautiful woman... but I digress, and you really don't want to hear about that.

**********

So, yes, this is my ship, and I am its captain. At least, I suppose I am, since it belongs to me and I'm the only crewmember. I'm what they call a freelance trader, although more often I double as a freelance courier or freelance escort, pretty much anything with 'freelance' in the title is good with me; I don't want to be tied to some big, faceless corporation that sees me as some profit making tool. I don't ask many questions about my work, either, which makes me quite popular with some of my clients. Of course, being pretty good at what I do helps quite a lot as well.

I've been flying the Delphina here for a good number of years now. Delphina is the ship's name, by the way. Together we've seen quite a lot of adventures through, so we've come to trust each other. For those of you who are wondering how a ship can trust its pilot, or how I can know that it does, well, I assume you've been out beyond the edge of civilization for a few hundred years. Behold the magnificent creation of scientific progress –

"You're performing a running commentary in your head again, aren't you?"

- a cutting edge, state of the art, standard in virtually every civilian spacecraft, artificially intelligent and naturally impertinent computer interface system (CoIn System for short) that I know as – "Delphi, don't interrupt a man when he's deep in thought. It's just plain bad manners."

Delphi appeared as a hologram within the confines of the ship through a number of photonic emitters stationed throughout its structure. In essence, it was the substance of the main computer system given physical form, and was designed to aid the interaction between the pilot and the systems of the ship. Of course, the appearance was completely customizable to the user's specification. I had toyed around with several ideas before I came up with a rather striking female form, with long, dark hair and, as they say, curves in all the right places. Right now, that striking female form was standing just behind my pilot's chair in the front section of the ship, watching me from over my shoulder.

"Well, just as soon as you've finished commenting to your invisible audience on how good your reflection looks in the cockpit window glass," Delphi mocked, a sarcastic smile spreading across her face, "Glint Control is requesting our ident codes."

I stared into the glass of the main cockpit window. I did look pretty sharp this morning, I always tried to up my presentation a notch when I wasn't starside; it helped bring the customers in. My hair was brushed slightly back and to either side in a tidily casual and not too business-like fashion, my short beard was just on the right side of untrimmed to suggest a rugged and dependable resolve, and my dark eyes shone with just the right amount of brazen confidence to show my potential customers that I would get their job done, no problem.

Letting my gaze drift a little, beyond my rather dashing features was the distant, cold, metallic shape of Glint, the only space station in the Zeta Eridani system, orbiting a rather pleasant, habitable world which went by the charismatic name of Zeta Eridani Three. It was home, at least to Delphi and I. Or, at least, the space station was. There's something about sleeping in the stars rather than beneath them that I just like.

I sighed and straightened myself in the pilot's chair, reaching a hand to the middle of my chest to straighten the worn brown leather jacket I liked to wear while out on a job. "All right, Delph," I nodded tiredly as my bones and muscles struggled to become used to the concept of movement once more. "Open comms to Glint Control, let's get this over with."

Delphi nodded her acknowledgement in that reservedly self-assured way that I found so attractive. "Open."

By the way, don't tell my psychologist I admitted that, I'm sure he and his bills would have a field day with a case of human-holographic attraction. Let's just say, I appreciate her in a professional capacity. I'm sure she'd get a good laugh out of that if she heard me say it out loud.

"Glint Control, this is John Darwin, piloting the Delphina. Requesting permission to dock." I waited a moment for the response. The docking procedure for any commercial space station is a tiresome thing, and would be handled much more efficiently by a computerized system, but law has always kept the overall control of the procedure in human hands, although the computer is involved in the actual manoeuvres. I think it was something to do with preventing fraud, or stopping a rogue A.I. CoIn System from hijacking the procedure and causing mayhem, or... you'll excuse me, I can't remember what the latest excuse was. The word on the grapevine, which has often proven to be a very reliable source of the fruit of truth, claims that the galactic authorities use voiceprint records from the docking process to covertly track the movements of various pilots and their cargo. It sounds likely.

"Delphina, this is Glint Control, please transmit your ident code for docking clearance." The gruff voice came through clearly on the communications system, speakers invisibly hidden in the control panels in front of my seat. I recognized the voice and smiled to myself. Delphi saw the expression and rolled her eyes knowingly.

"Delphina ident code gamma-four-two-three-beta. Good to hear you, Freewater. When am I going to get my money?" I allowed my voice to carry a vaguely playful tone, but the meaning was serious. Harry Freewater owed me a couple of hundred from a poker game a few weeks previously. I didn't expect I'd be seeing the money any time soon; I guessed a player as lousy, yet as willing to throw his (or anyone else's) money into the game, would have racked up a number of debts with characters much more likely than myself to resort to... unpleasant methods of repayment. I counted it as my own failing for being talked into the loan in the first place, but it had been a very good game. In any case, I had ended up coming away from the table with a fair amount of profit that night.

"Ident confirmed, Delphina. You are cleared to land in bay nineteen." Harry's voice cut through my train of thought. I imagined he was very relieved that basic docking procedure protocol prohibits any small talk on the official channels. Apparently, the space lanes are crowded enough without a bunch of unnecessary chatter snarling things up even more.

I turned my head away from the cockpit glass and glanced up towards Delphi, who was still hanging over my shoulder. "Job done, Delphi. Bring us in."

The holographic Delphi smiled slightly and nodded in a vaguely professional manner, her long hair waving slightly with the movement. Without a word, her image faded into nothing, colours dissolving into a pervasive neon green shade, which then evaporated as if the image was made of some form of lighter-than-air gas that had been suddenly released from its confines. Then came the visual crackle of a few stray photonic streams, almost like faint miniature green fireworks but without the noise, and then nothing. Nothing visual, at least, as the change in the ship was immediate and obvious, space outside the cockpit of the Delphina wheeling as the ship reoriented for docking. The inertia canceller took care of any stray G-forces, however, so the motion didn't come with anything more than a soft jolt. Maybe I'd need to get that thing tuned up soon, since I wasn't supposed to feel anything at all.

Of course, Delphi didn't have to disappear to perform her main functions as the ship's computer, but my best guess was that she liked to have the impression of a little office space where she did her work, or at least, her simulated emotions allowed her to like the idea of it. The whole argument surrounding simulated emotional response and the line between real life and a credible, yet unfeeling, imitation, well, I just don't want to get into it. Let's just say that it looks to me as if she likes the idea, and that's good enough for me.

The Delphina spun quietly towards the docking bay, a dark, shadowy opening in the narrower flat end of the tapering metallic cylinder that was the Glint space station. Bright lights framed its opening, leaving no one in any doubt as to what the opening was, or where exactly it was located. Upon drawing closer, the illumination inside the opening finally broke through the contrast of the adjacent lights framing the opening, revealing a dull, wide passageway, a good fifty or so metres across, easily enough to hold most mid-class ships. Larger craft would dock on external ports, but the Delphina was compact, so it had no trouble fitting inside.

A few moments of gliding effortlessly through identical metallic passageways, illuminated dimly by an endless series of identical lights, which strobed through the cockpit window supports as we passed by, and we arrived at the aforementioned bay nineteen. Large outer doors closed, unseen and unheard, behind us, sealing the bay off from the ravages of raw vacuum. A rushing noise began to filter through the walls of the ship, increasing in volume as the docking bay was pressurised, and cutting off abruptly once the task was completed.

Delphi silently reappeared besides me as I watched the plain metallic wall outside of the cockpit window, silver in colour but illuminated a pale brownish-yellow by the external lighting in the docking bay. She cleared her throat to attract my attention, and I looked around.

"Going for a walk?" She ventured, openly, a knowing smile on her face.

Delphi knew that the first thing I always did when we docked was go for a walk to stretch my legs, and she knew that I knew that she knew, which is why my response was along the lines of, "care to come with me?"

Delphi just laughed and shot me a glaring smile. This wasn't the first time we had shared this conversation, and we both knew full well that she was unable to move outside the ship, due to her having to stay within range of the holographic systems that created her apparent physical form. It was just possible for her to stand at the top of the boarding ramp outside the main airlock, but beyond that her image would just break down, much as if she had been simply switched off, and she would be forced to reinitialised her image back inside the ship where the holographic projection was stronger and more stable.

I carefully and politely stepped around Delphi and made for the airlock. Given that she was just an image, with no actual 'physical' form, I could have easily just walked through her, but that would have been plain rude.

"I'll power down while you're out," Delphi announced idly as she followed me to the airlock. "I could do with getting some routine, low-level maintenance completed before our next jaunt."

I raised my hand to the control panel, at the bottom of which was a large button which was now illuminated with a bright green light, indicating that the airlock behind the main door, and the docking bay beyond, was fully pressurised and safe to enter. I pressed the button with my palm, which caused an alert chime to sound in the adjoining corridor, just before it was replaced with the whirring sound of hidden mechanisms engaging as the main doors of the spacecraft, on both sides of the airlock, quickly drew themselves to either side, clearing the way for my departure.

"Sounds fine to me, Delph," I nodded, turning back into the ship to address her, checking my pockets to make sure I had everything I needed. Credit chip, ID, remote access control for the Delphina, it was all there. "Take your time, okay? Don't wait up."

Delphi chuckled and turned to walk away down the corridor back towards the cockpit, grinning wryly to herself as she did. "I won't."

As she finished speaking, her image dissolved once more, leaving the ship empty and quiet, save for the electrical buzz of a few essential systems performing their usual tasks. I stepped backwards through the airlock and on to the boarding ramp that had extended from a cleverly hidden pod just beneath the doors, bridging the gap between airlock and ground. Reaching out a hand, I quickly pressed a few buttons on the control panel to the side of the outer door. The control panel looked very similar to the one on the inside of the airlock, because it performed exactly the same functions, just from a reverse perspective. It was built to be much harder wearing, however, given that it had to withstand the elements and extended periods in hard vacuum.

The airlock doors responded to my interaction with the control panel by closing tightly shut with a dull metallic thud, and the sound of hissing air indicating that the locks had sealed in place. With that confirmation, as well as a portion of the external control panel turning red to signify the ship's now locked status, I turned to wander to my next destination.

Where was that again? Oh, yes...

**********

Glint had a number of bars distributed throughout its structure, catering to all kinds of customers, from the occasional tourist, through seasoned travellers, to the drinking holes that existed purely for regular patrons and inhabitants of the station, since no-one else would ever use them. Of course, anyone could go to any of the bars, but if someone turned up in the sort of place that wasn't meant for them, it was fairly obvious. The tourists didn't visit any of the run down, 'classic' establishments that the locals frequented, and the locals tended to shun the shiny, clean, 'artificial' bars that the tourists preferred. Not that the locals preferred things to be run down, they just knew it would keep the tourists away.

Given that I had called Glint home for several years, and despite the fact that I spent so much time away travelling, I ranked as one of the locals, and so used the rundown bars in the parts of the space station that regular folks just don't tend to visit. For the sake of the record, they aren't as rough as people think, although there are all kinds of interesting types down there, and that's one of the reasons it's good for finding business, if you don't mind not asking questions.

The place was simply called 'Yan's', after the name of the original proprietor, who had since moved on and been replaced by a rough and ready looking, yet quite amenable fellow who went by the name of Bill. The name had been kept purely because of tradition; the place had been 'Yan's' for more years than most cared to remember, and no-one could quite stomach the idea of changing it to anything else, a notion that Bill was more than willing to accommodate.

Yan's was, as you might expect from my previous definitions, a run down, seedy looking establishment. Everything was constructed primarily from the same shiny metallic substance as the rest of Glint station, except it had lost most of its lustre, instead replaced with layers of corrosion, wear and tear, and the odd patches of various substances that just didn't wash off easily, or at least, with more difficulty that either Bill or Yan had wished to expend effort to conquer.

Lighting within Yan's was at a premium, not because of any particular power rationing requirement on the station; the fusion reactors provided more than enough energy for everyone. Rather, the lighting was low because, again, both Bill and Yan weren't quite motivated enough to want to replace any of the numerous faded, dull, and in some cases, fizzing strip lighting or decorative neon illumination. That, and it also kept costs down, while also providing a fair level of anonymity for those who wished to skulk in dark corners and broker deals of a less than legal nature.

The actual bar area, though was lit fairly well, both by a mix of the standard lighting, and the glow of the 'traditional' screens on the back wall of the bar area that screened either the latest music video from off world or some instalment of an intergalactic sport championship. Tonight's selection was a match from the Galactic Zero-Gee Football League. I wasn't interested.

I had arrived at the bar in fairly high spirits, looking forward to my first drink at Yan's in quite some time. I caught up with a few old friends, said hello to Bill, and generally drank more than I probably should have. The atmosphere was not busy, as such, but there were enough patrons to make a gentle hum of conversation drown out the sound of the sports commentators in the background making some statement about how the Lancaster Alpha Stars were going to blitz the league this year and crush all opposition. I don't know about the zero-gee football team there, but I hate Lancaster Alpha. It's a dingy, stinking, sty of a planet, soaked in industrial pollution and acid rain, and generally rotting away beneath its metallic industrial shell. And one of the traders there once ripped me off in a deal that turned particularly sour, which did nothing to raise my opinion of the place.

But, as I said, I was in fairly high spirits. The drink was flowing, as was the conversation. Right up until, after a couple of hours, or maybe a little more, when someone tapped me on the shoulder in the middle of a particularly interesting chat I was having with a few friends about the effectiveness of dual particle cannons against raider ships, or how corrupt Maldovian customs officials are, or something like that. We were quite drunk, it was difficult to remember.

I turned around as steadily as I could and sized up the gentleman who had tapped my shoulder. Wait, let vision focus, try not to look too smashed, keep balance, attempt to recognise face. Ah, I apologise; gentlewoman. She was dressed in black, although my eyesight didn't quite find itself able to pick out any more details. The face, however, was soberingly sharp in detail.

"Why, Tanitha, it's been quite a while," I did my best to smile convincingly, while I became acutely aware that the friends who had been standing around me had suddenly remembered very important things they had to attend to, all of which involved them being very far away. Quickly, remember if I owe Tanitha money, or if I had let her down on any job in the last six months. Not that I can recall. Keep smiling.

At this point, I think an explanation is in order for those of you who perhaps are less knowledgeable of the inner workings of the politics at work within Glint station. By 'politics', I am referring not to the command officers or the local law enforcement, but rather of the criminal underworld that actually control a fair amount of the happenings within the stations lower levels.

This was Tanitha, which was the only name anyone knew for her; if it washer real name, no-one knew, and there wasn't even a suggestion of a surname. She basically owned the underworld operations on Glint, inherited through her father and a quantity of spilt blood large enough to make most grown men feel queasy, although no investigation had ever linked her to a single murder. Suspicions abounded, however, in just great enough quantity to make most people fear her like a modern incarnation of the Grim Reaper, and falling under her direct attention, which I had apparently managed to accomplish, was very definitely A Bad Thing. Now, where was I? Oh, yes: keep smiling.

"Darwin," Tanitha smiled back in that manner that managed to veil her typically threatening demeanour with a delicately thin veneer of sincerity. Combined with her almost genial tone, which was unusual enough to put me more on edge than if she had just come straight in with a threat, it was plainly obvious that something in this situation was wrong, very wrong. And it involved me. Damn. Keep smiling.

"What can I do for a beautiful lady like you on an evening such as this," I tried to turn on the charm and raised an eyebrow in a vaguely suggestive fashion. Unfortunately, my somewhat intoxicated brain was too preoccupied with the various forms of alcohol running through it to remind me quite in time that the use of charm when drunk can often emerge as something very less charming than intended. I winced internally and waited a couple of seconds. I didn't die, and neither of the two large, burly, lethal looking gentleman companions that Tanitha had following her launched a painful and crippling attack on my person. Lucky escape. Keep smiling.

Tanitha didn't respond to my 'charm' in any visible way, actually, which on later, more sober, reflection was an even greater piece of luck than I had given it credit for at the time. "Actually, Darwin, I have a job for you."

I had never taken up any religion, and considered myself one of the least religious people around, but it crossed my mind that maybe I should consider taking up a faith of some sort, purely for the reason that it would give me at least one deity to pray to in situations like this. In fact, some of the religions out there would even offer me a higher being to curse at in particularly difficult times, which would have been doubly useful. As it was, I just cursed my luck. Keep smiling.

"I'm all ears," I nodded, knowing that the choice was not really mine. I could either give her my ears, or she would most likely take them, and I really liked my ears. I turned a little to pick up my drink and drain it for a little extra courage. I didn't care if it was Dutch courage, as long as it was courage, that was the main thing. I kept my movements slow, so as not to alarm her escorts, who were most likely dumb enough to interpret most unexpected movements as threats, and who most definitely carried enough muscle and/or firepower to make sure that any such threat was neutralised in a very painful and effective fashion. Therefore: keep smiling.

Unfortunately, the last drink I had taken, while it apparently gave me the courage to pull through and escape the situation with my mortality intact, was enough to finally convince my memory centres that recording the rest of the evening for later review was probably a futile endeavour. I think I kept smiling, though.

**********

Headache. Wait, check that, splitting headache. Blinding light everywhere, deafening bleeps and hums and a noise that I can only equate to the end of the world in slow motion. I think I can feel my limbs. Try moving them, one by one. Yep, all there, all freely moving. I think I'm laying down, yeah, laying down, and it's a hard surface, so most likely the floor, then.

Dizzy, groggy, mouth feels like I've been chewing one of the old table coasters from Yan's, which isn't as unlikely as it might sound. Stomach feels like it wants to shrink into a tiny ball and fade from existence.

So, it's a hangover, then, and I'm fairly sure it's alcohol related, not the result of anything sedative, weapon, or beating related. I was at Yan's. so that just about tracks. Met some old acquaintances, had some drinks, all right, a lot of drinks, and shot the breeze for a while.

Think harder, there was something else. Something later. Someone I knew, someone special. Oh, hell. Tanitha. What did she want? Something about a job, something about her being suspiciously civil with me. Nope, can't remember. Damn.

More noise now. Can't open eyes yet, too bright. So deafening, why does everything sound so loud? Oh, right; hangover. It sounds, irregular, but it keeps repeating. It's like someone speaking to me. Wait, it really is someone speaking to me. Concentrate, make words out. Think!

"John?" Delphi's voice sounded over me, heralding a mix of sincere concern and unimpressed resignation.

I considered my possible options for a reply and, after a few seconds, decided to go with a succinct, yet informative, grunt of acknowledgment.

"John, I synthesized some wake up juice for you, but you'll have to retrieve it yourself. The dispenser's about two metres up and to your left." Delphi knew the drill for when she found me like this, and I knew enough to know without looking that she was stood by my side, looking down at me and resting one side of her face against a raised palm in the expression of slightly sardonic concern that she frequently used in these situations.

'Wake up juice' was a combination of various artificial stimulants and chemicals designed to reduce the myriad effects of intoxication. In days gone by it was regarded as a necessary evil because of the foul taste which, if the alcohol hadn't made you sick, would probably make up for it. Nowadays, however, science had replaced the taste with a rather pleasant hint of raspberry. Too bad for the poor souls that didn't like raspberry, though.

I mumbled something which equated in my brain to 'thanks', but in reality, probably sounded rather like my previous grunt of acknowledgement. I raised an unsteady hand and reached out, shuffling and fumbling along the various objects my fingers found until I located something that felt approximately like a medical patch. Noting that there was no sound of alarm or complaint from Delphi indicating I had found the wrong patch, I brought it down from its perch on the synthesizer console and slapped in onto my neck, from where the chemicals in the patch would diffuse into my system.

"There was a message waiting for you, by the way," Delphi added, watching me struggle to break through the hangover and feeling satisfied now that I had reached a level of consciousness that would allow me to comprehend and act on her words. "It's from Tanitha."

Tanitha! I felt a surge of energy flood my system, though whether it was from the adrenaline I felt at the mention of that name, or from the stimulants that were now busy flowing through my veins, I couldn't tell. As rapidly as I could manage, I stood up. I was still a little groggy, but the room fell into a good enough focus that I didn't fall straight over again. I looked at Delphi and tried to read her expression.

"Is everything all right? What did Tanitha want?" Questions were filling my mind faster than I usually would have liked, but those two actually made it as far as my mouth. I reached out a hand and braced myself against the nearest wall. Wake up juice was good, but it wasn't perfect.

Delphi looked a little startled at my sudden change of demeanour, but took it in her stride. "Fine, everything's fine," she responded, surprised. "I didn't check the message because it was delivered on an encrypted channel; I figured you'd want to see it first, especially given who sent it." Even restricted to the confines of the Delphina, Delphi knew Tanitha's reputation, and the various stories and rumours that were attached to her, enough to be as wary of her as I was.

I stumbled through to the cockpit and slumped into the pilot's seat, which would have made a much more comfortable resting spot for my drunken slumber. I resolved to remember that the next time I came back to the ship in this kind of state, but it wasn't the first time I had promised I would remember, and would most likely not be the last.

Focusing on the variety of controls in front of me, creating an artwork of semi-blurred colour and patterns on the consoles within reach of my current perch, I picked my way to the flashing blue control that indicated I had a waiting message. One quick button press later and I was able to rest back in my seat, nervously satisfied as the holographic imager initialised and began to play back the message on the pilot display in front of the cockpit window.

Tanitha appeared in the image, visible from the shoulders up, which was enough to confirm that she was wearing the same black number from the previous night, or something very similar. Her face again held a smile, although this was different from the one she had possessed in Yan's, as it no longer contained a veiled threat, this one seemed more self assured and satisfied, which was even more frightening, as if she didn't feel a need to be imposing to get what she wanted, then I was most likely already in trouble of a most serious kind. Just what had happened in Yan's last night? In less than sixty seconds, I would be wishing that I hadn't asked that question.

"Good morning, Darwin," Tanitha chimed as the message began its playback. "I do hope you've recovered from your... excesses last night." The concern was fake and very obviously so, but I decided to appreciate it, just to spite her. "I hope that you also remember our agreement."

Agreement? My face found my palms and buried itself. I managed a faint "Oh, no," as I continued to listen.

"Just in case your self-indulgence left any gaps in your memory," Tanitha's holographic message continued unperturbed by my despair, although from the slight menacing smile that crept over her face, I knew that she had realised exactly how I would be feeling at this point. "I thought I would leave you a reminder."

The image of Tanitha's face faded from view and was replaced with a galactic chart, one I quickly recognised as a map of the Zeta Eridani system, the very system we were currently in. The realisation that we wouldn't be going very far did little to lift my mood.

Delphi leaned over my shoulder, peering at the map. "I'm getting a co-ordinate feed alongside the datastream," she announced in a curious tone. She closed her eyes for a moment before opening them again, her expression becoming distinctly less settled in the interim. "Oh, no," she echoed my previous sentiment, "you aren't going to like this."

Before I could question her, Tanitha continued to narrate her message, coloured lines and boxes appearing on the map to illustrate her instructions. "I have been expecting a transport ship carrying some... sensitive cargo. Unfortunately, because of their rather circuitous route to Zeta Eridani, avoiding the more popular trade lanes, their final jump in system landed them a little short, in the Black Zone."

Suddenly, I realised what Delphi had meant. The Black Zone was a local name for an area more commonly referred to as Brogan's Folly, a sector of space just outside the main part of the Zeta Eridani system. It was something of a scientific oddity, an area rife with dense dark matter clusters, sensor-disrupting radiation, and various curious quantum effects. In short, there were lethal gravity fields, lethal radiation fields, and lethal fields of types not yet defined by modern science. It was, altogether, a very lethal place and, above all, no-one ever, ever travelled there because those who did had a very strong tendency to not come back.

"Now, unfortunately, the ship got caught up in a gravitational flux, and expended all it's N-space fuel escaping to a safe position within the Zone." Lines on the map spun and converged to the part of the map converging to the Black Zone, but I wasn't paying too much attention. N-space was normal space, in other words, the space that you and I look into at night. Starships generally carry two kinds of fuel; N-space fuel for travelling between planets in 'normal space', and jump fuel, which was used to propel the ship into and through 'jump space', which facilitated interstellar travel.

"Two of the three crew of the transport ship escaped, using their emergency pod, but the transport is currently adrift and in a stable position within the Black Zone. I need you to travel out there, transfer a minimal amount of fuel to the transport to enable it to reach Glint safely, and escort it as far as the edge of the Zone." Tanitha paused a moment as the illustrations on the completed their animations and faded back into an image of her face. "Of course," she smiled that veiled threat again, "your payment will be commensurate to the risk you are undertaking."

I looked at Delphi, who was still watching the image of Tanitha, her expression somewhere roughly in the region of alarm. "Screw the payment," I said, flatly, "we're getting out of here. We'll just have to lay low for a while."

Delphi shook her head slightly and let her gaze drift gently to meet mine, her dark, computer generated eyes expressing something I couldn't quite read. "No, we won't." She paused and tilted her head slightly, her hair drooping across her face as her expression became more clearly apologetic. "Sorry, I read ahead a little."

"Now," Tanitha continued, adopting a more relaxed expression, which only allowed the threat in her features to show through much more plainly, causing me to shiver, "while you seemed all too eager to please last night when my escort and I visited you, I realise that a morning of sober reflection can change a man's mind. But, I need a good, reliable pilot for this job, and at this end of space they can be hard to come by, so I simply must insist on your co-operation." I swallowed nervously, knowing exactly what Tanitha's insistence could mean.

"To that end," the image of Tanitha zoomed in a little, to help emphasise her next words, as if that was even necessary, "I have had my associates leave you a small present. I'll save the specifics, but suffice to say, if you attempt to jump out, take longer than twenty four hours to accomplish the mission, or attempt to tamper with my gift in any way, you'll be nothing more than stardust in a matter of microseconds. The third crewmember on board the transport has the necessary code to prevent you from meeting such an untimely end, and will deliver it once he is safely back in clear space. Oh, and one more thing; I'll be monitoring your communications, so don't bother contacting the authorities." The image faded out to nothing, leaving a picture of that sneering, threatening smile in my mind. The words 'good luck' echoed across the cockpit, spoken by Tanitha's sarcastic voice as the message terminated.

I slumped back further in my seat and looked back up at Delphi, who was wearing a similar expression to the one I imagined I was displaying. "I guess you're right," I nodded, resignedly, "we won't."

"I'm sorry, John," Delphi stuttered slightly. "I was powered down for maintenance, I didn't see anyone doing anything to me."

I shook my head and waved a hand dismissively. "Not your fault, Delph. Station regulations prohibit the use of active external sensors while docked anyway; you would barely have noticed unless they actively started hacking into you." I considered our situation for a moment. "Your passive sensors show anything unusual?"

Delphi closed her eyes for a moment as her systems processed the data. She nodded. "Yeah, there's an anomalous power reading somewhere towards the drive systems. It's vague, barely registers at all, really. They're probably planning to use my own drive systems to cause a detonation. Damn clever stuff."

I started to go over our options internally. "Any chance we could vent fuel or jettison the drive system to prevent Tanitha's gift from working properly?"

"I don't think so," Delphi replied thoughtfully. "We don't know how it works, and even if we located it and tried to find out, well, you heard her, any attempt to interfere with it will cause it to go off anyway."

"Can't prevent it, can't alert anyone who could help, can't run." I counted on my fingers as I discounted each option. "Our options come down to either marching through Glint's underworld and offing enough of Tanitha's associates to convince her to divulge the deactivation code, or co-operating with her request."

"You could abandon me and find another ship?" Delphi offered, smiling wryly, then quickly adding, "I know, I know, just kidding," when I shot her a cold stare that clearly underlined that her suggestion was even less of a viable option than the others I had already discounted, something she already knew.

"So, we're off to the Black Zone, then." I groaned and rubbed my forehead contemplatively. "Better pack some sunscreen."

**********

Brogan's Folly. From the outside, it looks much less impressive than the stories would have you believe. Clouds of dark matter are exactly what they sound like; dark. So, given that the area is almost completely encircled in dark matter, viewing it from the outside yields only that, a dark mass with no distinguishing features, other than the way in which it looks like a giant hole in space, since it blocks all the light from stars shining behind it. I suppose, in that way, it does look impressive.

The Delphina hung in front of the dark mass, like a silver eagle hovering in place before attempting to dive and grasp a black star in its claws, such was the size of Brogan's Folly. A couple of million miles in diameter, pulled into a roughly spherical formation due to the various gravitational currents running through it. The thought of going inside such a place made me feel queasy inside, but as it floated there in the cockpit window, I knew that we didn't really have a choice.

"How long are you going to sit here watching it?" Delphi asked from behind my pilot's seat, startling me out of my contemplation. "It's big, black, and possibly the scariest thing we've ever considered flying into."

I smiled and nodded, allowing myself to see the humour of our situation, scarce though it was. "What are your sensors showing?"

"Beyond what I just described?" Delphi asked rhetorically. "Nothing useful. Readings are all over the place, everything seems to be either at zero or constant flux." She sighed and stepped back, her image appearing to brace itself against one of the consoles to the side of the cockpit area, even though she couldn't really touch it. "I really wish we didn't have to be out here."

"That makes two of us," I agreed miserably, "but I've always taken care of you before." I smiled at her utterly unconvincingly and changed the topic. "Tanitha's co-ordinates give you a good idea of where that transport is?"

"Sure," Delphi nodded, her mood improving slightly for the distraction. On cue, a small green marker appeared on my cockpit display, along with a distance indicator. "I'm fairly sure I can keep a good lock, even in there," she motioned her hand to the inky blackness that still hung silently beyond the cockpit window.

"Good," I said, more cheerfully than I had expected I was capable of. I leaned forwards a little in my seat and grasped the primary controls for N-space navigation of the ship. "Let's get this over with."

With the merest gesture from my left hand, the silver eagle plunged, beak first, into the black star that awaited it. The ship was engulfed in darkness, and after a moment, it was as if it had never been. I imagine, from the outside, it was both very dramatic and equally anticlimactic. From the inside, the inky darkness outside the cockpit window remained both inky and dark, but the ship began to tremble a little as it encountered the outermost gravitational ripples that came from the Black Zone.

"The inertia canceller is having a few issues keeping up with the jumble of forces," Delphi explained as the ship began to rock a little more violently. "I think I can compensate for now."

The image of Delphi disappeared as she retreated to her 'office', and the ship abruptly stabilised, which actually did something to ease my nerves. "Thanks, Delph," I muttered, knowing that she would pick up the acknowledgement on the internal communications system.

The Delphina surged through the first cluster of dark matter and erupted out of the other side, slow enough to be cautious, but fast enough to make it obvious that I didn't want to spend any more time in this devil's playground than was absolutely necessary. What lay inside, though, beyond that deceptive shroud of darkness, was a wonder to behold. I'd heard the stories, but they didn't do the reality any justice. I couldn't help but widen my eyes a little in wonder and whistle in appreciation.

Within the initial wall of dark matter, a cacophony of unexplainable physical phenomena hung in wait. Spears of white hot plasma coursed between clusters of dark matter, illuminating the entire interior of Brogan's Folly, like bolts of sluggish lightning. What I can only assume were strong gravitational fields seemed to warp the fabric of space itself, causing parts of the Black Zone to appear as if viewed through an oddly shaped lens. There were other sources of light, greens, gold, and reds, but I couldn't tell what they were or where they came from. It was like looking at a real, living watercolour painting, only in full, glorious motion.

I pressed onwards, suspending as much of my wonderment as I could and directing the Delphina towards the glowing marker on my cockpit display. For a moment, all was quiet as the ship slipped deeper into Brogan's Folly. Then, just as I had begun to wonder if this expedition might be a lot simpler than we had thought, an alarm blared in my ears, and the cockpit was plunged into a deep red glow. My reactions took over, acknowledging the proximity alert and moving the controls to swing the ship hard to one side.

The alarm subsided as quickly as it had begun, and I brought the Delphina to a complete halt. Taking a deep breath, I sat back a little and tried to compose myself. Delphi appeared again by the side of my seat and positioned her hand so it lay over mine, which rested on the arm rest of my chair.

"I'm not completely sure what it was," Delphi explained calmly, her face expressing concern, no doubt for both myself and her own metallic hide. "But my sensors seem to indicate that a point gravitational source with the mass of a large asteroid just passed within a few metres of me."

"Where did it come from?" I asked, understandably concerned that we had almost collided with what amounted to an invisible asteroid.

"Can't say for sure," Delphi shook her head. "My sensors are heavily limited by all the radiation, I didn't see the gravitational field until it was almost too late."

"I'm just glad you did," I sighed, rubbing my forehead slightly and finding a little sweat building up there. "With things like that hiding in here, I'm effectively flying blind." I paused, re-evaluating my opinion of the situation, but well aware that, while we were standing still, another one of those invisible masses could drift right into us. "All right," I announced, suddenly and decisively. "We'll keep going, but it'll have to be real slow from here on out. Keep an eye on those sensors, Delph, as best you can. We'll head straight for the dark matter cluster that the transport seems to be hiding behind, at least it seemed to be calmer inside that stuff."

"Agreed," Delphi smiled wryly, "I'll do my best."

My computer generated companion abruptly disappeared, while I leaned forwards again and gently grasped the controls, coaxing the Delphina forwards at the slowest speed I dare to while still maintaining the manoeuvrability of the craft in case any more surprises sprang from nowhere. I adjusted our course to head straight towards the dark matter cluster I had indicated, rather than plotting a route around its edge, based on my previous assumption that it was better to stay in as much open space as possible.

Glowing white plasma snaked around the interior of Brogan's Folly, but those thick tendrils, as delicate as they might have seemed, were really thousands of miles across, and their visibility and sluggish motion made them easy to predict and avoid. The glowing lights I couldn't identify were also fairly easily evaded, thanks to some deft piloting at crucial moments. Those elements alone didn't make for the most difficult flying I had ever encountered, though it was far from the easiest. The invisible obstacles tipped the scales in the favour of Brogan's Folly, however, as I had never had to fly against invisible opposition before.

Those invisible 'point gravitational sources', as Delphi described them, almost claimed our lives twice more before we reached the dark matter cluster, but in each case a last minute alert from Delphi and a rapid change of direction from my control stick saved us. It wasn't till we were within just a few miles that disaster struck.

I was just about to enter the dark matter cluster, and was seconds from thanking my luck that we had made it this far, when the proximity alarms went off again. At the very same instant, however, before I had the opportunity to swerve the ship away from the incoming hazard, the ship heaved heavily to one side and there was a sickening shriek of tearing and twisting metal. The Delphina tumbled, nose over tail, and drifted slowly inside the dark matter cluster, disappearing into the black depths.

Everything inside the ship went eerily quiet, and the emergency lighting plunged everything into a deep red colour, which did nothing to lift my spirits. Delphi appeared quickly and looked around the cockpit, looking for signs of damage, although I knew that it was just the physical representation of her systems performing an internal scan. Satisfied that the cockpit was in no immediate danger, she crossed to my side, her expression full of panic and concern. "John, are you all right?"

I loosened the straps that held me in the cockpit and undid the top half of my jacket. "Yeah, I'm fine, Delph." I looked up into her eyes and met her panicked expression with one of my own. "How bad is it?"

"Bad," Delphi summarised. She closed her eyes and raised her fingers to her brow as she ran more internal scans. If her holographic image had been able to sweat, I imagined that she would have been at that moment. "Main drive is down," she elaborated as her sensors reported back. "Power is at thirty percent." She opened her eyes with an even greater look of alarm. "We're venting atmosphere!"

There are certain things that no space traveller ever wants to hear. That the ship is venting atmosphere is number three on the list, right below the self destruct being activated and the ship synthesizer losing all records of how to create alcohol. Besides, I keep all my alcohol patterns stored on at least three backup units, and my ship doesn't have a self destruct. In fact, I can't ever recall any ship I've heard of being built with a self destruct. I wonder where that crazy intergalactic legend sprang from, anyway? Who'd willingly blow up their own ship? Idiots.

Back in the present, I was well into panicking over our latest crisis. "Where from, Delph? And how much?"

"It's just a trickle," Delphi confirmed after running yet another scan. "Onboard supplies should last for at least six hours, and automated repair will have it fixed in less than one." She paused briefly while her processing extended to our other problems. "Power can be restored to fifty percent in a couple of hours, although primary systems should run on our current supplies if non-essentials are shut down, though I'll make sure to synthesize you a drink before I take those offline."

"Thanks," I smiled at the proof that Delphi was well aware of my priorities in crisis situations. We had, after all, seen plenty of them. "What about the drive system?"

"Manoeuvring gyros are functioning, and I managed to draw enough thrust from the engine to bring us to something of a stop just inside the edge of that dark matter cluster. But it will be at least sixteen hours before automated repair even gets any functionality back, and that will probably be half power at best."

"Damn," I cursed, wishing that I had taken the time to find that religion I had considered after our recent arrival at Glint, as having a deity available to pray or complain at right now would have been most appropriate. However, that would have delayed our launch, and given that we had taken just over seven hours to get out to the Black Zone in normal space, and now had to wait a further sixteen hours for engine power to be re-established, it left precious little margin of error to get the stranded transport ship out of Brogan's Folly within the twenty-four hour deadline set by Tanitha as it was.

"Best I can do," Delphi spread her arms apologetically. "And you'll need to have me repaired in dock for a few days after we get back. I really hope that reward that Tanitha promised you is enough to cover it."

"Yeah, me too," I sighed. "Now where's my drink?"

**********

I wish I had asked for more than one drink. Obviously, the concept of sixteen hours had not fully sunk in when Delphi mentioned it initially, nor had the idea of how difficult it would be to get some rest under such situations. I managed perhaps a couple of hours of broken sleep, then spent the rest pacing the couple of corridors that the Delphina contained, while Delphi explained over what had occurred through the intercom, having shut down her holographic projection unit as a non-essential system.

Apparently, the point gravitational force, or gravspike as I had now decided to call them, had descended from above the ship along the edge of the dark matter, using the cluster's own gravitational field to hide itself until it was far too late for us to get out of the way. It had punched a hold through the drive section of the ship, damaging both the drive itself and the containment of the fusion core, which was why we were now adrift and had run on battery power until some of the capacity of the fusion reactor had been restored, which was cause for some celebration as it allowed us to lose the overdramatic effect that the red emergency lighting supplied. Again with wishing I'd asked for more than one drink.

Finally, a familiar hum ran through the ship, signifying that the main drive system had come back online. Delphi confirmed that this was the case although, as predicted, we would only have a fraction of main power available. That, in itself, wasn't a problem, as I didn't want to travel very quickly, but I just hoped that the speed available would enable us to escape Brogan's Folly before our time ran out. A check of the clock confirmed that we had a little less than an hour to spare. Thank fortune that the stranded transport was relatively near the edge of the Black Zone; we might just make it out of this one with our skins intact, computer generated, human, or whatever.

"All right, Delph, let's get moving," I hauled myself into the pilot's seat once more and opened up the drive system, thrusting us through the cluster of dark matter towards the stricken transport on the far side. It was an almost sickeningly quiet journey, nothing penetrating the thick darkness that we flew through the gaseous dark matter that seemed to pervade Brogan's Folly. I counted the minutes going by, each one bringing us a step closer to disaster.

Suddenly, another collision warning sounded in the cockpit, and I swerved the ship away from another potential impact, bringing the ship to a halt out of danger. I sat back a little and peered through the window into the darkness. "Delph?"

"Wait a moment," the voice of my digital companion echoed over the intercom. "I don't think that was one of your gravspikes." She put a slightly derisive stress on the new name I had given the strange gravitational phenomenon, almost as if she didn't quite approve of it. I ignored her opinion with a smile and waited until she continued her explanation. "Turn bearing three-two-seven, declination positive twenty, and proceed at very slow speed."

I did as instructed, and within a few seconds, a long, silvery structure pierced the darkness in front of us. I smiled, "Delph, I think we found our transport." Of course, it made sense; to escape the gravspikes that were drifting through the Black Zone, it was logical that the transport would hide in a cluster of dark matter, where the threat was apparently not present.

Delphi opened a communications channel to the stricken ship for me. "Transport vessel, this is the Delphina. Tanitha sent us to fuel you up and get you out of here."

"Delphina, this is the transport ship McKinsey," the response crackled over the speakers in the cockpit. "I'm glad you made it through. We're ready to receive fuel through our primary refuelling port."

"He doesn't waste time on pleasantries," I reflected. "Just as well, really, given our time limit." I sighed and checked the clock. We had a little over thirty seven minutes left. "All right, Delph," I smiled, "fuel them up and lets get out of this hellhole."

**********

By some freak coincidence, getting out of the Folly was much easier than getting in. I dealt with the one collision warning quite simply, and the rest was just a matter of plotting a safe route around plasma streams and strange glowing phenomena.

At long last, with a mere six minutes left on our precious time limit, we emerged from the dark matter surrounding Brogan's Folly, not unscathed, but at least in one piece. The McKinsey followed us out, and I hurriedly opened a communications channel to the rescued vessel.

"McKinsey, this is the Delphina. Much as I enjoyed helping you out of your rather tricky spot, I'm afraid to say that your friend Tanitha did have to coerce us somewhat into helping you, though I'm sure that comes as little surprise to you. If you'd be so kind as to lend me the disarming code for the device that she attached to my ship's hull, I'll be on my way."

The response was rapid, "Delphina, thanks for the assistance, it was much appreciated. Unfortunately, we won't be able to help you out of your own spot, as our operations are necessarily $strictly low profile, and the less evidence we leave behind, the better. Tanitha's device should neatly take care of that for us."

I grinned widely and openly, sad only of the fact that they didn't have a video communication open with me to witness my expression. I could almost hear Delphi chuckling away to herself in the background too. You see, the average space pirate is a very predictable creature, and I don't take well to being double crossed.

"KcKinsey, I'm very sorry to hear that. However, before you write us off completely, I'd advise you to take a look at your drive system gauges." It was all I could do not to laugh as I heard some cursing in the background of the communication broadcast. Apparently, the lone pilot of the transport was less troubled by a lack of religious deity to complain to than I was.

"Now," I continued, enjoying the moment far too much, "I'm sure what you've just discovered is that your drive system is on the brink of failure. I'm very sorry, but it seems that the fuel we gave you was tainted with a healthy supply of iridium. With that contaminating your system, well, I reckon you've got about five minutes to either vent your fuel supply or suffer a complete failure and slowly get dragged back into the Black Zone."

Waiting for a few seconds to let their situation sink in, I laid down my terms. "So, here's what we're going to do. Vent your fuel and give me the disarming code for the device. Once my CoIn system is satisfied that we're in the clear, I'll refuel you with enough untainted N-space fuel to reach Glint, whereupon you can let Tanitha know that, if she doesn't transfer enough credit to my account to cover complete repairs to my ship, I'll be handing over my sensor logs as evidence to the authorities. By the way, that's a nice load of illegal duridium ore you're carrying there."

I had known that the advanced sensor system I had paid through the nose for would pay me back one day, and right now it was in the process of recording enough information about the McKinsey to do so. The disarming code flashed up on my cockpit display at the same moment as a flash of colour from the underside of the McKinsey, which was visible on one of the external monitors in the cockpit, indicated that they were venting their N-space fuel.

"Sensors show that Tanitha's device has detached itself fro the hull," Delphi confirmed after a moment. "You sure it was a good idea to threaten Tanitha like that?"

I considered the implications of what I had done. It was possible life could be quite interesting for a while. What was certain is that I wouldn't be seeing Glint or Zeta Eridani for a long while, not till the events of the past day had been forgotten. "Maybe," I admitted with a sly grin, "but there are plenty of other star systems out there to lie low in for a while. And besides," I added, "the money to fix you up has to come from somewhere."

Allowing Delphi to begin the refuelling process with the McKinsey once more, this time with pure, untainted N-space fuel rather than the doctored version we had used before, I opened a remote connection to the galactic net and began to look at possible locations for our enforced 'holiday'.

"You know," I grinned at nothing in particular, "I hear the Dremax system is lovely this time of year..."