This is the first chapter of the newest story I'm working on.

“Captain Valentine?” came a voice from behind Beka. “Do you have a moment?”

Beka turned to look at the woman standing behind her. The woman wearing the uniform of a Lieutenant Commander in the New Caledonia Space Defense Forces that had obviously been custom tailored to reveal her figure. Additionally she was immaculately made up and coiffured. Beka disliked her on site. In her opinion real working military personnel had jobs to do and were to busy doing their jobs to put so much effort into their work day appearance. This woman's job was to look attractive.

“Yes Lieutenant?” she said deliberately using the wr4ong rank.

“Lieutenant Commander actually,” corrected the woman apparently taking Beka's insult for an honest mistake. “My commanding officer sent me to find you. He has a job your vessel is far better suited for than any of ours and he would like to discuss the possibility of hiring it out.”

Deciding that there was no sense in insulting a potential employer's favorite, Beka nodded her head in agreement. “OK,” she said “But let me contact my ship and let them know what's going on.”

“I have a communicator on my scoot,” said the other woman. “Just punch in your ship's access code.”

Twenty minutes late the scoot stopped in front of a nondescript building on the outskirts of the space port's landing tarmac. A small sign identified the building as “Operations”. Beka's guide ushered her through the building finally stopping at an office bearing the name 'Commodore Jennings'. The woman opened the door without knocking and stepped inside. There was an unoccupied desk with the nameplate on it. The nameplate read 'LCDR Dennis'. Behind the desk was another door. The woman leaned over an intercom system on the desk, pushed a key and announced. “Commodore, Captain Valentine is here.”

“Send her in, Mara,” came a mans voice from the other side of the intercom.

The woman opened the door and indicated that Beka should enter the inner office. The inner office was only marginally larger than the outer one consisting of a desk with a computer and intercom set on it, and a set of file cabinets pushed up along one wall. A window behind the desk opened out the landing zone. There was a single uncomfortable looking chair in front of the desk. Sitting behind the desk was a man i his mid 50's with thinning red hair. As Beka entered he stood up offering her his hand. Unlike his assistant the Commodore's uniform was so wrinkled it looked as if it had been slept in. The LCDR began to close the door only to be stopped when the Commodore said. “You can stay, Mara. You probably have a greater stake in the outcome of this discussion than I do.”

As soon as Mara brought the chair from her desk into the office the Commodore began to speak.

“Two weeks ago, Captain Valentine, one of our spacecraft on picket duty over our outpost on Serenity suffered a catastrophic accident. Our initial assessment is that there was a premature ignition of a missile in one of the ships ELS tubes the ignition in turn causing a cascading effect of other premature ignitions. Fortunately for the crew another one of our ships, the supply vessel Provider, was on station as well and the survivors were able to evacuate to her. What we would like do do Captain is hire your and the Eureka Maru to do a salvage run and bring the Victorious back here to New Caledonia.

Beka held up a hand. “You said the ship on on sentry duty over Serenity. According to the most recent FTA travelers advisories the Serenity system is a contested system. Both New Caledonia and Kolk 7 claim ownership of it. It's listed as a potential combat zone.”

Mara shifted uneasily in her seat at Beka's words.

The Commodore held out his hands in a placating manner. “The New Caledonia Space Defense Force is not n the habit of sending civilian vessels into combat zones but time is of an essence here. The Eureka Maru is specifically designed for salvage operations. The NCSDF has no slipstream capable vessels that are designed to conduct salvage operations and it would take months to convert one. We have a standard boiler plate contract that we use for insystem salvage operation with civilian organizations. I'll have it transferred over to your ship. Please review it this evening and let us know by tomorrow morning if you will accept the contract.”

He got up from behind the desk and held the door open. “Mara will you drive the Captain back to her vessel.”

As the women walked towards Mara's scoot Beka said. “Commander, what did the Commodore mean when he said you had a greater stake in my decision than he did?”

“Do you have any brothers, Captain?” asked Mara

“One, he's older than I am. Why?”

“I have, had, two younger ones. They were both aboard the Victorious when the accident happened. Neither one survived. I want them back.”

Beka still didn't like the Lieutenant Commander but saw no reason to kick her when she was already bleeding. “I haven't seen Rafe in years, but I know I'd be devastated if I found out he had been killed. Don't worry, Commander, we'll bring your brothers back to you.

Second Chapter

The contract was waiting for Beka when she arrived on board the Maru. As the Commodore had said it was a standard boilerplate contract. Beka had been going over such things ever since she was eleven helping her father after her mother had deserted the family. There was a standard 15% hazardous duty bonus and fuel cost provision. She was expected to recover the bodies of the crew members who had died in the accident, if possible repair the Victorious to the point where it could follow the Maru through the slipstream back to New Caaledonia or failing that to take the vessel under tow and tow it back to it's home planet. Beka sincerely hoped that the ship could be made flight worthy. Towing another vessel through the stream was dangerous to both the towed and the tower. The only thing that she found particularly objectionable was that the contract required that she take a computer specialist from the NCSDF to activate the Victorious' computer and an assistant undersecretary from the New Caledonia diplomatic corps' Bureau of Political-Military Affairs to oversee the operation.

Beka had no great objections to the inclusion of the computer tech he would probably be useful but she had doubts about the member of the diplomatic corps. When the passengers arrived she realized that her concerns had been correct. The computer tech was a female petty officer named Calloway about Harper's age and obviously excited about being on the mission. The diplomatic official was another matter entirely. He had stormed aboard complaining loudly about having to carry his own luggage and then nearly turned apoplectic when he had been informed that he would have to share the Maru's berthing compartment with the crew. He had completely ignored the outstretched hands of her crew as she had introduced them to him. By Beka's estimate counting transit times to and from slippoints it would take approximately a week to complete the operation. She suspected it was going to be a very long week.

It was. Two days later the Maru was approaching the crippled vessel. By then Harper was quipping that it was no wonder that New Caledonia was in a dispute with Kolk 7 since the New Caledonia diplomatic corps knew nothing about diplomacy. Vexpeg was suggesting that perhaps the diplomatic corps had assigned him to oversee the project in the hopes that he would suffer a fatal accident during the salvage attempt. Calloway was doing her best to turn invisible and even Rev was starting to show signs of loosing patience with the undersecretary

“How many slipstream capable ships does New Caledonia have, Mr. Beckenworth?” asked Beka. She really didn't care one way or another but the Maru three light minutes away from the Victorious tension on the command deck was running high and Beka thought a little conversation might lessen the strain.

“That is not information you need to know Captain and it's Undersecretary Beckenworth not Mr.”

Beka heard the agitated clicking of Vexpeg's mandibles. She pivoted the pilots chair around to face the undersecretary but before she could make a retort Rev spoke up from his position at the sensor station.

“The New Caledonia Space Force consists of, not counting the ship we are salvaging, one Aquitania class light troop carrier, one Indomitable class group defense frigate, two Gazelle class corvettes, and one Four Freedoms class cargo craft. However there is speculation that the Four Freedoms class has been cannibalized to support the other vessels and is no longer operable.”

“How did you come across that information, Magog?” snarled Beckenworth.

“My friends call me Rev, Mr Undersecretary, but you will address me as Reverend Behemal Fartraveller. As to how I am aware of your planets military capabilities I suggest that perhaps you look at the latest edition of Höhne's Fighting Ships Encyclopaedia of The Local Group. I would think that a member of your planet's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs would be familiar with the publication.”

“I can neither confirm or deny the accuracy of what you have read, Magog,” said the undersecretary. “What I do suggest though is that you activate this vessel's PDL's and place them in automatic defense mode.”

“Why?” asked Beka.

“I would think it would be obvious. We know that there were hot running missiles. What we don't know is if the crew had time to eject any from the tubes. Our military grade missiles have the capability to go dormant after launch if they don't pick up a target, then go live again when one comes within range detection range.”

“That sounds like an accident just waiting to happen,” said Beka. Activate the PDL's, Rev We'll find out in about ten minutes if the undersecretary right. Stations everyone.”

The Maru began inching towards the wrecked space ship with Rev calling out ranges as they approached. “Two point five light minutes. Two minutes. One point five. One point... ESM intercept! Missile fire control locking on!”

Before he could say anything else the Maru's PDL's began to fire. The Maru was buffeted violently as a missile was destroyed close enough to rattle the ship

“I hate to admit it but it looks like you were right Mr Undersecretary.” said Beka. “We'll go in nice and .....”

BWAM!!! The Maru shook as if it had been hit by a giant sledge hammer. Alarms began to go off indicating that the cargo pod had been holed. Acting on instinct rather than conscious thought Beka threw the Maru into evasive maneuvers opening the distance between it and the wrecked ship. At the same time Rev launched the Maru's false target generators.

“What the Hell just hit us?” came Harper's voice over the ship's intercom system.

“I'm about to find out,” said Vexpeg. Moving quickly he slammed Beckenworth back against the command deck's bulkhead, placed a forearm across the mans throat, and began to exert pressure. “That wasn't a missile that was a directed energy weapon. A plasma mine. That didn't get accidentally launched it had to have been planted. You sent us into a mine field. What's going on?”

The undersecretary pawed feebly at the Umbrite's arm, his face beginning to turn blue.

“He won't be able to tell us anything if you kill him Vex,” said Beka. “Let him breathe. Do you know anything about this?” she asked Calloway.

“Nothing,” stammered Calloway. She was visibly shaking in fear though whether it was a result of the attack or the violent scene going on before her Beka didn't know and frankly didn't care. The terror in the girl's eyes was sufficient proof to her that the girl had no idea what was going on.

“Talk to me Beckenworth,” said Beka. “Convince me that I shouldn't throw you out the airlock without a spacesuit, or let Rev infect you with some larvae. Who planted those mines and what did yu know about them?”

The pressure on his throat released, Beckenworth began to speak the words coming out in a frantic rush. “The Kolks sent one of their ships into the Serenity system. The Victorious engaged it. Both ships were severely damaged with the Kolk ship retreating towards slippoint distance. The Victorious was evacuated shortly afterwards when a missile in one of her tubes became a hot runner. The Kolk ship must have detected the Provider leaving station before it exited into the stream because ground based radar on our outpost on Serenity detected it approaching the Victorious. It remained near the Victorious for several days then departed. The Bureau deduced that it must have tried to salvage the Victorious was unsuccessful. It also determined that based on previous incidences it was probable that the Kolk ship would have planted mines before it left thinking that if they couldn't salvage the Victorious right then, they could prevent us from salvaging it and come back later for it. That's why I suggested you activate the PDL's Up till now the Kolks have used CAPTOR mines equipped with OM-4 missiles. They've never used directed energy mines before.”

“ We must have looked like a heaven sent opportunity for your Bureau when we arrived,” snarled Beka. “Why risk one of your own ships when you can con someone else into taking the risks for you. Tell me, why were you assigned to accompany us and were Commodore Jennings and LCDR Dennis in on the con or did you keep them in the dark about what really happened so they would sound more convincing.”

“I have no idea who you're talking about,” said Beckenworth. Vexpeg began to apply pressure on his throat again. “Please,” begged Beckenworth, “I'm telling you everything I know. We didn't know for sure if the Kolks had planted mines. It was just a suspicion. I have no idea who those other people are. I was assigned to observe the salvage operation and make sure you lived up to the contract. Nothing more. ”

“Let him loose, Vex,” said Beka. “Confine him to the berthing compartment until we get the cargo pod patched up. Find a nice stanchion to chain him to.”

“Move, Mr Undersecretary,” said Vexpeg giving the diplomat a shove in the direction of the berthing compartment.

“You're not going to space him are you?' asked Calloway.

“No,” said Beka. “But I don't see any reason to let him think we're not considering it.” She keyed the ships intercom. “Harper, get up here as soon as you get things in order in the engine room. We need to decide what we're going to do next.”