Fire was something of a scared entity to humanity, less of a form of energy and more of a symbol. Other species didn't quite understand it, but historians chalked it up fire being the initial steppingstone in humanity's technological growth. From those crackling flames came the very first steps towards the distant stars, to leaving the chains of their home world and sailing the endless cosmos. Psychologists claimed it had more to do with a hypnotic effect the dancing flames had upon simian minds. They would cite the collective habit of Humans to gather 'round a campsite, perhaps play a little music or eat a meal, and make jolly. Either way, be it the historians or psychologists or neither who had it right, it was well known to be rude to interrupt a Human during their thousand-yard stare through the roiling flames.

  Especially if said flames were of a funeral pyre.

  Jack nursed his fourth bottle of unknown liquid, uncaring of the less than savory taste or lackluster burn in his already numb throat, as Rippers whooped and hollered and made merry around him. At least, the young ones did. Similar pyres, smaller and less prevalent, formed a circle around Taran's burning corpse, his bones slowly turning to ashes as his fellows celebrated his victories and achievements. In the Rippers, you were the culmination of your efforts, of your results... And Taran was a man of many such victories. Jack wouldn't forget that it was his promise of riches that drew the man in and urged him to fly towards the sun, burning his wings and sending him crashing to the churning waters below. It was his plan, his assault, and in the end, his fault that Taran now lay as nothing more than slowly sizzling bones.

  Another tally mark, another friend to drink in remembrance of, another body in Mad Jack's wake.

  Tearing his eyes free, Jack looked up to the roiling party in the Ripper's home, a storage facility in the Vents turned into a massive communal home. The upper deck, which had once been an expansive stretch of single unit cargo bays, had been converted into homes much like a slum only... far homelier. Each one seemed to connect to the next be it with streamers or string lights or collected bits of colorful metal, all of them marked by their owners and able to roll down a privacy shutter. It was communal, how the Rippers lived, together as one dysfunctional unit. It looked cozy… it looked… like a great way to ensure loyalty to the 'family'.

  The lower deck was an open concept atrium of tables, couches, social pits, and entertainment areas full of partying gangsters passing around their haul from the hangar bay, a massive space designed for all manner of camaraderie and only further entrenched a feeling of belonging in any young and malleable Ripper. From a room in the far back, however, wafted forth the sweet smell of a feast currently being cooked and that, more than the safe space to sleep, the better survival in numbers, and of course, protection from the very gang one had joined did more to lock in the new recruits. Outside these walls, when one was on their own, hunger was a constant companion. Hunger and the fear of death, be it from a shank they didn't notice in an alley or in some shoot out in a corridor they had walked a hundred times before.

  It made Jack sick, this trap… luring in the hopeless and angry and hungry, turning them against all who didn't bear the Ripper name and receiving loyalty in return. Most never truly realized the price they were paying, how they'd traded one yoke for another. Perhaps the food wouldn't taste so grand once they realized they were slaves in a gilded cage. Or… maybe they wouldn't care at? On a station like Koorka, whoever filled your belly might as well be God.

  Above it all sat a towering man who ran it all, Edward Vines, leader of the Ripper gang, and someone Jack couldn't give two shits about. He was here to say his goodbyes and leave.

  "Brothers! Sisters!" Edward boomed, his smile a jackal grin of control and desire. "Let me just say how damn proud I am of y'all! Outnumbered, outgunned, but not outmanned! For every one of you were worth ten of those feckless Keelhaulers!" A resounding applause of roars and mindless adoration filled the warehouse, Edward holding up his meaty hands for silence. "Today we feast! Today we remember the fallen! Today we remind Koorka who the fuck we are!"

  "Ugh, shut the fuck up big ma-" A wave of sharp pain raced around Jack's chest as Liliana cinched tight yet another layer of bandages. The mechanic's torso has been pock marked with dozens upon dozens of purple-black bruises, deep and welted, turning his body into a caricature of a cratered moon surface.

  "Can't believe you're still addicted to using yourself like a damn living shield." The doctor hissed, tying off the final wrap just a bit more roughly than she would a normal patient. "You're just as idiotic and thoughtless as you've always been. You're supposed to be treating Lix better than you did me and look at you! All shot up like a range target!" Lily's free hand swiped the back of his head, the medically trained woman knowing exactly where to hit to make his implants glitch, cascading his vision into a dizzying array of colors and lines.

  "Gah! Bitch, you're going to make me drop good hootch!"

  "Good! Like you deserve a drink after pretending to be a ballistic dummy!"

  "I'll make you drink it and drown ya!"

  "Is this some Human mating ritual?" Lix asked, wandering over. The Kux'lar was covered in garlands and streamers, a stick of mystery kabab in her left claws still steaming. "Cause if so, I want in on the fuck fest. Lily's pretty hot, hotter than you at least, Jack."

  "Keep her, this woman has teeth on the inside." His complaints died as Lix sniffed about his new bandages, her slit reptilian eyes casting up at Lily's in some wordless conversation before she pressed her scaly head under his chin.

  "Thanks Lily, for patching him up. I'll keep an eye on him."

  "He'll need it. I've already sent meds to the Stripped Bolt. He's got several bruised ribs he needs to baby."

  "Got it." At that, Lily left the couple to their privacy, Lix using the opportunity to carefully lean her weight on the man's side. "Jack needs rest."

  "What we need is to get a move on before Arington shows up. Where's Skrunkles? Besides, need to get ya flyin' something again. Aren't ya a racer or some such?"

  "He went into a back room with some Rippers. Maybe Lily will wanna join him?" Lix's teasing tone reached the woman's ears, bringing a wretch from her throat before she moved out of ear shot. Snickers, fake for the sake of the party, died on the Kux'lar's lips as she laid her scaly muzzle on Jack's shoulder, her eyes wet with concern. "I… didn't know Taran that well… but it seems like a lot of people liked him."

  "He was a… well, none of us are good folk down here but… he was an honest one. Can't ask for much more 'n that." Jack's voice was quiet, like a whispered breeze, the din of the party threatening to rip them away. "Lix… think we go anywhere when we die?"

  Silence filled what little space was between the two as the 'Roid Racer contemplated the question with the effort such heavy subject was due. Her people had their own religion, that all would return to the egg from whence they came to be born anew… but that seemed like it would be a cold comfort here.

  "Are you… a religious man Jack?"

  "I didn't used to be. Back in the day I would be livin' life like nothin' waited us when we died. Then I started loosin' people. Lots o' people, left an' right, some o' 'em my fault an' some of 'em not… an' the thought of there bein' just… nothin'?" The melancholy reached a fever pitch as Jack downed the rest of his drink in one long pull, reaching for another that wasn't there. "That's terrifyin' Lix. I don't want there to be jus' this… this void when we go. That everyone that's gone is just… poof, ya know? Ooooh you won't even know you're dead, it'll be like bein' asleep, fuck off… I hate that… just… knowin' nothin'… So yeah, I… I guess maybe I am… just a bit, in some way. I started seein' all these patterns an'… ya know, the stars looked a bit different."

  "Different how?" Lix inquired with a soft tone, her claws searching for his free hand, making his fingers wrap around hers instead of another bottle. "What did you end up seeing?"

  "I dunno, but it was better than literal nothin'. I think, maybe there is somethin' out there but… I ai'n't smart enough to figure out what it is. Still fuckin' scared shitless o' it…"

  "Maybe that's enough? Or… maybe thinking on it is part of the process. It's better than those zealots that just blindly believe in something without question anyway. In the end, it's what brings you peace, I suppose."

  "Does it surprise ya? That I… might not be as loose with my mora- ow!" Fangs closed on his thigh, the sharp snap of teeth silencing him.

  "Hush. It doesn't surprise me at all and you shouldn't be ashamed. In fact, I'm happy you shared that about yourself and I'm more than willing to help you think those thoughts through to a healthy outcome."

  "You sound like Lily…"

  "Ugh, you have so much training to do on what not to say to your girlfriend… In fact, I thi-ack!" Lix found her tail wrapping around the Human's waist as he lifted the Kux'lar to his shoulder, holding her like a sack as Lily returned with a double set of kababs. Jack saw she had more to say, more to accuse… surely by now she would now of Tik'Tik's departure. Not only was that a loss for him… but for her as well… they'd all been family once.

  Once…

  That had been another life, another family, one that now lay broken most likely without hope for repair. Jack had new priorities, and one of them was currently beating on his back and demanding he return her to the deck. Turned backwards as she was, her flailing paws and tail waggling in her Human's face, she couldn't see the heavy stare that lingered between Lily and Jack. There was a goodbye in those few moments that seemed to stretch on longer than either should have let. Words were left unsaid, feelings left unexplored, and both knew it was for the best. Happiness just wasn't in the equation for the two of them, not together, be it romantically or as friends. Sure, Lily would continue to supply painkillers and plug his wounds when he staggered into her clinic. Beyond that however…

  This was it and they both knew it. The old crew was gone, Koorka Station only had stories to tell of their grandeur, their voices hushed whispers of a bygone era while the titans would brood in their own territories. Maybe that's why Jack had jumped feet first into this adventure Lix had dumped at his boots… What had once been days of violence, planning, gunpowder, and nightmares… had devolved into the monotony of fixing ship after ship after ship… Jack only had a turning wrench and tales of what he had been to look forward too. While the former wasn't so bad… to do so for years? It was maddening to think of…

  Jack was rotting.

  And Lix was his escape… though… perhaps the spunky lizard had become something more.

  "Are you just gonna stand here? Or am I your new decoration?"

  "You've always been my new decoration."

  "Yeeeesh… that one was pretty bad. Wanna try again?" Jack smiled one last time as Lily shook her head, mouthing something along the lines of 'treat her right', before tearing into her kababs and walking away. The doctor didn't look back. Lily had always tossed a two-finger salute or flipped her hair with a grin before… not this time… No matter, Jack had everything he needed to get back to the Last Stop Staryard. The Gerthtrude was always ready for whatever he threw at it, the pinger was safe and secure in her hold, Skrunkles was a crack pilot to accompany them, and Lix would make his fat ship dance. Now he just had to get the crew in and out without dying to the myriad hazards that awaited them.

  "Alright!" Jack adjusted the fuming Kux'lar on his shoulder, earning an 'Oomph!' as he knocked the air from her thin chest. "No more dragging our feet. Let's get this show on the road. You need to get that scaly ass back in a pilot's seat anyhow."

  "Fucking finally, my claws have been itching to fly again! Even if it's your fat girl. She's growing on me."

  "She grows on everyone."

  "Like a scale fungus, but sure. I'll message Skrunkles to finish his orgy and meet us at the Stripped Bolt." Lix' eyes unfocused while she accessed her comms as she ignored the jeers and catcalls from the Rippers watching Jack cart her away, their minds thoroughly in the bottle. "Can we change out that crazy claustrophobic bucket seat for a racer's module like mine?"

  "No." Jack thought to the almost racing bike-esque command cockpit on the No Safety Measures. Lix would straddle the actual pilot's chair like… well… a racing bike, her muzzle right in front of the displays and her paws on the controls. Supposedly the strange configuration would assist in the high speed maneuvers demanded of a pilot. "You look hot in the bucket seat. Besides, I cut and padded that tail hole for you and by the stars, you're gonna use it."

  "Fine fine, now put me down!" Chuckling, Jack waited until they had left the hubbub of the memorial service, easing his cargo down onto her paws. A nip to his chin let him know how she felt before his arm was in her claws. "So, we've got everything we need now, huh?" Excitement bubbled underneath the pilot's barely controlled countenance. It had truly been too long since she'd flown, since she'd felt the responsive twist and turn of roaring drive bells behind her and the power of a rumbling ship under her paws. Adrenaline had run dry in her blood, it felt as if years had passed since the final preliminary race. Lix needed to get behind the controls again. The Kux'lar needed to put a ship through her paces and push it to the absolute limit of its prowess. If not, she'd go mad soon.

  Whirring automatons and the crackle of heavy machinery grated on Lix's ears, or ear holes to be more precise, as they returned to the comfortable home away from home that was the Stripped Bolt. The shop was in full automation putting the No Safety Measures back together, leaving certain panels free to more easily install the parts they brought back from the Last Stop. None of the outer damage that had left a gnawing pit in Lix's stomach had been left, every blemish, scratch, and dent had been repaired, leaving the sleek ship gleaming like factory new. The pile of warped pipes and charred plating sitting off in the marked corner, for recycle and meltdown supposedly, brought a smile to her face. Memories of the crunchy response her controls had given her were like a kick to the tail, but now she'd run like new.

  "There's my giiiiiirl! What all do we need from the Last Stop to get her running, along with the weapons to go on her two hardpoints I mean."

  "A drive to pilot module command sensor, it's one of the parts that burned out and I can't find a replacement on Koorka." Jack started listing off on his mechanical fingers, each one lifting with a gleam from the overhead lights. "And a fuel heat monitor, Koorka usually has a supply but the parts embargo saw to that. There be about fifty million of 'em in the Staryard. That little sucker right there will keep the girl grounded, without it the coolant systems can't get a good enough read on the temp in the engine."

  "Ah, more fallout from pushing her so hard…"

  "Yup, don't worry, we'll have 'er roarin' in no time."

  An alarm, nearly drowned out by the hard-working machines, drew the duo's attention to the entrance and the Hux who hobbled in with the goofiest, most self-satisfied grin one could find on a rat. His new limp did little to dampen the rodent's good mood as he gingerly sat on a crate near his new crew. It was obvious what he'd been up to, and the silent glare from Jack had the little half pint pilot snickering.

  "Fine, fine, Skrunkles not talk about the amazing time he just had. We ready to go? Uh… we get a brief or what?"

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  "Yeah so, here's the plan. Y'all gotta stick to it or we'll wind up as vapor before we even get close to the Staryard." An air of professionalism fell across the small band, Lix bouncing on the balls of her paws as her predatory eyes thinned to slits. "We'll need to fling into several FTL lanes, but one of which we'll input a manual emergency exit near the third quarter stretch. From there it be a boring little drift to the next flinger. It's active don't worry." Jack lifted his hands in placation as Lix and Mo'Ona both looked at each other in worry. Dead flingers weren't uncommon, either abandoned or deactivated as new lanes were established, leaving the old ones nothing more than literal dead space. Oh sure, one could rig the internal power systems to activate… but who would want to get flung into a random region of space? "Trust me, leave the flinger to good ol' Jack. Now, the moment we leave the fling lane we hard burn down from the exit while launchin' the flinger via Skrunkles'e railgun. We'll be goin' dark an' council ships will be all over it. If'n it looks like we'll get caught, we all start tossin' the same signal on bursts."

  "What's stopping 'em from coming after us in the Staryard?" Lix wrung her claws, her tail wrapping around her own legs as nervous energy filled her veins. "And what kind of presence does the council maintain there?"

  "A full assault fleet, they hold the whole system down as a no-fly zone. You pull up the area we're goin' though and all you'll see is a blok globule." Jack wandered over to his workbench for a datapad, his fingers dancing over the screen before returning with a quick search. It displayed a region of space core-ward of the galactic center from their position that was just… blank. It was rare for a blok globule, those terrifying regions of space where literal nothing resided, to form inside a galaxy, which usually meant something catastrophic happened. Or much more likely, that something was being hidden. Everyone knew to avoid them either way, it just wasn't worth the hassle of finding out. "Once we're actually inside it though, it's a maze, so Skrunkles will dock back on the Gerthtrude via tow cables." A smile crawled across Jack's face, crooked and cocky. "It'll be all you then scaly lady. We gotta get deep in the Staryard an' quick. We won't be followed inside it. Nasty debris fields, hazardous radiation everywhere… the works. If someone gets inside, they let the Staryard kill 'em. Gettin' back out will be much easier, just gotta get through the flinger quick is all."

  "An' theys won't have anyones waitin' for us on the far side?" Skrunkle's little nose wiggled as he crossed his arms, his eyes gleaming with desire.

  "The far side is dead space, no idea how long one would have to wait an' they ain't wastin' a capital ship on blockade duty. It be a simple plan but we gotta go quick, that's why you two 'Roid Racers are at the helm. Once we're in the Staryard we can slow, cold roll through the fields until you find the parts ya want and I'll spacewalk 'em into the Gerthtrude. Skrunkles, that mean you too."

  It was as if he'd proposed to the rat, tears streaming down his furry muzzle as he hiccupped with joy. Dreams of the untold loot and fields of parts just drifting in the black, free for the taking! Normally he'd have to be careful about his scavenging, especially in person, lest he take a boot to the ribs or worse. Further still, looting the crash sites after every Asteroid Race was an even deadlier affair. Every wreck, every rock, every blind corner could potentially hide another drooling scavenger waiting to disable his ship and pop his little rat skull for a nice haul. The rush, the thrill that came with the threat of death, was half the reason he even risked the trips in the first place. This though, this was treading council territory, this was the stuff of legends.

  "Dooooh! I's gotta go! Meet yous outsides! This will be great I tells ya!" With his whipcord tail a blur, Mo'Ona abandoned the briefing for his own ship, the Spitfire. It was an ugly thing, a repurposed shuttle with welds holding her oversized engines on her fuselage, but she was fast. It was exactly what they needed if they were going to survive the initial run from the flinger to the Yard, especially Skrunkles. His mass driver would be launching the pinger, so all eyes would be snapping his direction the moment they left FTL.

  "There he goes," Jack offered a hand to the still bouncing Lix, her talons closing around his fingers as he pulled her towards the airlock. "Ready to get off this station?"

  "Ready to get back in a pilot's seat, you mean? Thought you'd never ask."

  ***

  Once again, Lix found herself snugly in the pilot's seat of a space craft. The Gerthtrude greeted her like an old friend, the strange sphere controls comfortable in her paws. Ships of all shapes and sizes formed a queue before her, the line stretching far ahead and promising a long wait. Not so terribly bad but the lack of actual traffic meant her favorite pass time, watching other ships come and go, had quickly become stagnant. Throwing the vessel in autopilot, the Kux'lar hopped from the seat with a stretch that turned into a screech as her mind wrestled control of her body away, making the reptile bend and twist and flex until the pain culminated in a glorious release of tension. Skrunkles, his ship latched to the side of Gerthrude's fuselage via magnetic tows, was off… somewhere in the bowels of the ship.

  Jack, however, was in his cabin. Supposedly there was some minor damage he had to take care of. An oscillating growl left Lix's maw as she squeezed into cockpit's lift, swiping at the second deck button. To say he had damage and then park her at the controls where she couldn't leave for a few hours? The Human had much training to endure if he was going to earn the title of Perfect Mate, but he'd get there kicking and screaming. Skrunkles wasn't on the main thoroughfare that ran the length of the second deck, dark red running lights illuminating the passage and each crew cabin, nor was he bumbling about the galley at the end of the hall.

  "Hm… most likely rifling through Jack's tools in the cargo bay…" Which meant, thankfully, she had the mechanic all to herself. Images of pouncing him onto his bed and messing the sheets ran through her scaly head, her tail drifting back and forth as the tasty thoughts slammed her like a speeding hauler. It had been far, far, too long since the celebration after the last race and Jack had proven he was very good at celebrating. "I bet we could smack out a quick atomic cloacal suplex session while waiting on the flinger queue ah…. oh…" Lix froze in Jack's doorway, the sight of his left arm simply detached and left on the table while he worked at some internal bits and bobs poured icy water over her growing need. "That's unsettling."

  "Need a hand? I've got one for rent here ya can borrow. Just clean it before ya return it." A resounding CLANG nearly brought Lix out of her scales as the man raised a rubber mallet and brought it down with full mechanical force on his own detached arm, finally pinging out a minor dent from some errant round he'd suffered while assaulting the Keelhaulers. Lix squinted at the offending noise, her eyes drawn to the bare socket in his shoulder full of painful looking connectors, sensors, and skin to alloy grafts. Was… was that bone in there? Nausea rose in her throat as she tore her eyes away, but not before noticing the subdued gray SA stamped into the black metal just below the primary connection. She'd seen that stylized emblem before… on Jack's revolver.

  "Huh… SA again, like your gun? What was it… Sevar Armory?" Jack flinched, small… nearly imperceptibly, but it was enough for a predator species like Lix to notice.

  "Yeah. They made quality shit, ya know? Too bad they went and got snatched up. Means I gotta do all the repairs myself." Huffing, Jack reassembled and lifted his arm back inline with the open socket, grinning at his queasy amore. "Wanna do the honors? Give it a good push!"

  "Ugh, ew! Noooo, Jack that's messed up just… put your arm back on!" Lix turned sideways, presenting her barrel, staring at the mean mechanical connections that sparked to life at the proximity of the cybernetic. "Nooooooo."

  "Yeeeeah, come on! It'll be fun! Just give 'er a good hard push straight in!"

  "I'm gonna hurl if this thing like… clicks or something…" It did, indeed, click when the Kux'lar gave it a solid shove, her scales shivering as Jack tested the arm, his other hand reaching for an inhaler of painkillers. "Ooooh, that always smarts." An overhead alarm, as gentle as an elevator ding, alerted the crew to their upcoming flinger departure. "Ah, looks like it's our turn."

  "Yup yup, let's get up there." Jack simply waved a hand, bowing to let her pass. He was rewarded for his chivalry with a bat of reptilian eyes and a tail in his hand, one he let slide until the tip was between his fingers.

  Then he pinched the shit out of it.

  "Gnah! You fucker! Ack!" As usual, there wasn't truly enough space in the lift for both of them, meaning the poor Kux'lar was squished to the cold and unforgiving metal as Jack purposefully leaned a good deal of his weight on the laughing pilot. "Jaaaaaaaack I'm gonna get squiiiiished! You're fat!"

  "Hmmmm… which deck was the cock pit in…"

  "You're holding up the lift! Skrunkles will need up too!"

  "Ah you're right, but like Hell am I getting stuck in here with him." Relenting, Jack thumbed the top floor selection, giving Lix one last press against he wall as she ineffectually beat on his shoulder. In reality, the wave of heat from his mammalian body was a welcome change from the cool pervading temperature that filled the cabin. She lingered on his side a moment before leaping into the pilot's seat and threading her tail through the custom-made hole.

  "This is captain Lix of the Gerthrude to fling ring number eight-niner-two-one, awaiting fling authorization."

  "Fling ring to Gerthtrude, that's good copy, you're green for fling in ten."

  "They love their rhymes, don't they?" Jack mumbled as Mo'Ona joined them, skittering on all fours not from the lift, but from a tight squeeze out of a junction panel. "How the fuck did you get in there?"

  "Ohhh 'dis ships a beauty! Her guts are almost sparkly! Neh!" The Hux covered his head as Jack rounded on his diminutive form, his maw split in a scared smile. "J-Justs lookin'! Didn't touch nothin's, honest! Be bad if'n the ship messed up while Skrunkles is on it."

  "Hm. True… but use the lift like everyone else, I don't want your… fur bugs in my systems."

  The temporary weightlessness of a fling prompted the two to cease their squabbles and park their asses in crash couches, both securing themselves with six-point harnesses. Mo'Ona had to stand on his seat, lest the buckle rest on his face. It had been some time since Jack had flung, not since they'd returned from the last race, limping and victorious. That… feeling of displacement, of subtle wrongness brought up a bile filled burp from deep within his belly.

  "Alright Jack, just so I'm clear, on the next flinger you do some secret handshake or something?" Lix asked as the view outside the cockpit turned from a black void to a starry nebula.

  "Not this one, just follow the next two jumps. It's the third where the fun begins."

  "So's… what exactly yous be doin'? Overridin' a flinger?" Skrunkles wiggled his nose, his eye boggling in curiosity.

  "Yup. That particular lane passes right by the Last Stop Staryard and used to link up to a flinger at a fork there. Council has had it disabled for the longest time."

  "Why though?" Lix tilted her head, her fangs chattering. "What's the point of disabling a flinger to a massive debris field and then listing it as an astronomical hazard zone on star charts?" True to her words, the navigation panel listed an area not too far, cosmically at least, from their projected flight path as a no-fly zone, claiming a star had died or collapsed or some such and took a system with it. Jack didn't answer, stoically sitting through the next two jumps until they arrived at the aforementioned third flinger.

  "Alright… no time to gawk."

  "Yeah, computer is telling me I've three minutes to fling before the next vessel arrives."

  "Roger that, open a one-way comms channel to the flinger." Jack stood, brushing off the minor grime and dirt from his pants. A bit of warmth bloomed in his chest as Lix did as he asked, even though it seemed nonsensical. These periodic flingers, jump after jump through the Great Black, weren't like those around planets or space stations. These were unmanned and automated by AI programs. The most traffic they saw were the periodic servicing they received every half galactic cycle. Jack didn't even want to know how the people who kept track of that time got their jobs…

  "And we're linked, channel open to the flinger, automated systems confirm connection. Do whatever secret cloak and dagger thing it is you're gonna do."

  It was a simple phrase; One he whispered to the dark of his cabin every time he lay his head upon his thin pillow. The words were ingrained, burned into his mind… dementia could take him and all that would be left would be those words…

  "We're headed for the Eros II system, y'all ever heard of it?" Lix and Mo'Ona shook their heads, silent at his hesitation. Jack hadn't been back for a very very long time… The man shook his head, clenched his fists, and took a breath. "Ambition culled, the stars dimmed, ice crusted home again…" The automated systems didn't ping a confirmation or sound an affirmative, the only indication anything had happened was Lix glancing at her navigation panel.

  "Course changed, we're headed straight into the heart of that blok globule you were talking about… yeesh, if there's no flinger there it'll be a hard burn for seventeen years to get back out."

  "There's a flinger. Skrunkles, get to the Spitfire, it's showtime."

  "Yeeeessss!" Paws scurried on the deck as the Hux leapt for the lift, remembering Jacks words, his tiny claws saluting as he slowly slid down out of sight. Lix let a moment pass, awaiting the tell-tale thump of releasing mag clamps, before turning to Jack. The man's face was stone, his mechanical eyes hard, and were his hands of flesh and blood, they'd be white knuckled with the grip he had on his own crash couch.

  "Jack?" It was as if he'd been snapped from a trance, his head shaking and eyes blinking.

  "Yeah, yeah, let's do this. Skrunkles, you in flight yet?"

  "Spitfire's rattling an' rollin'! Ready ta slip in the flinger with yous!"

  "Alright both of you remember to go transponder dark the moment the little rat launches the pinger and burn hard away from each other. Make for the debris field you… you won't miss it."

  Nothing was left but the plan. Like falcons in formation, the Gerthtrude and Spitfire, the latter comically smaller, aligned with the humming ring before slowly inching forward. The weightless stretch grabbed hold of the crew once more, the cosmos thinning and slicing away into black nothing before popping them out like balls through a pressurized hose. There was no time to admire the admittedly gorgeous system they found themselves in. Thick roiling cosmic gas clouds interfered with the protective viewport displayed on the inside of the cockpit, turning the backdrop from a black expanse to fields of purples and blues. Closer still were several rocky planets idly orbiting what… appeared to be a… star? Only something was very wrong with it, it seemed as if something was… surrounding it?

  "Quit gawking, full burn down towards the debris field! Fifty degrees ventral! Mo'Ona, launch the pinger dead ahead!" Engines roared and drive bells sang as the duo of vessels rocketed away from the shining flinger behind them, the small mining satellite Taran had died for blasting into the void with a CRACK. "Transponders going dark, pinger singing in five seconds." Jack flung himself into the navigator's seat to assist, leaving Lix to focus on flying.

  And she'd have to bring out all the stops.

  Before her, stretching between the planets and forming their own rings in the gravitational pulls, was a debris field that spanned half the solar system. Ships of every manner of design, shape, and use floated like corpses in water, each and every one glinting the staccato light of the distant sun. The need for such speed became quickly apparent, several flotillas of capital ships, each and every one larger the Racer's Heart, hovered around a space station that boggled the mind from its sheer size, able to put even moons to shame. Sensor readings and alarms filled the cabin as sweeps blanketed the area, most focusing on the loud broadcasting pinger. Lix blanched, her desire to see the new system dying quickly as one of the massive dreadnaughts began to come to life, a wing of fighters leaving her side as tiny little blips on her sensors.

  "Full burn into the debris, they can't see us in there. Aim for that dead freighter, thirty degrees ventral and twenty-five port."

  "Yeah yeah, got it! Skrunkles, you copy?"

  "We's gotta move, theys fast. Too fast!" Lix worked her claws over the spherical controls of the Gerthtrude, dipping the vessel down into the field of shattered ships and sheared metal. The Gerthtrude screamed in protest as several sharp impacts rang against her hull, harmless yet loud. Port and starboard thrusters sang red as Lix pushed the fat freighter to her limits, the Spitfire barely visible on her sensors as it weaved between the rows of derelicts. A beam of light, the telltale flash of a mass driver shot, lanced from the distant capital ship to zip the pinger from existence, leaving nothing but space dust and drifting atoms. "Whats was that? Skrunkles never seens a shot travel that fast!"

  "Anti-matter railgun, keep flying!" Jack hollered, his fingers dancing across the navigators panel to paint a course through the dizzying array of chaos. "Aim for the tear in her side! Scanners already can't snag us, they sure as stars won't see us in there. Those fighters close in an' we're dead, they sport neutron beams. At least they did last time I was here." Sparks scattered from the belly and roof of the Gerthtrude as Lix threaded the gap in the much larger freighter's belly, twirling the heavy vessel on her thrusters to kill her speed before she slammed into the oncoming inner bulkhead. The metal grew red hot from the burning engines, slagging before freezing just as fast in the absolute zero of space. The Spitfire joined them not moments later, both vessels running dark as the dreadnaught's patrol circled the dense field like vultures. "Niiice, now we just wait for the heat to die down. They'll poke an' prod but as long as we avoid that space station, we'll be alr-"

  "Jack what in the Great Scale was all that? What happened to the freaking sun, why is the debris field half a damn solar system?" Lix swiveled her pilot's seat as Mo'Ona joined them on comms, his face just as tight and confused as the Kux'lar's. "What the stars is an antimatter railgun? I though only engines could be antimatter. And the sun! There were… these… things around the sun an-"

  "Look just ignore all that, it's council bullshit. We're just here for par-"

  "They just shot a target the size of a briefcase from several planets away!"

  "And now they can't even tell we're here." Jack's hands rose, palms out, trying to calm the lizard. Lix sighed, taking them both in her claws.

  "That's not what really caught my eye though… Jack is there something you aren't telling me about this place?" That the man couldn't look her in the eyes told the Kux'lar everything she needed to know.

  "Why ya makin' a big deal outta this? We're here, we're in the Last Stop Staryard! Let's let the heat die down and go shoppin', yeah?" His smile was weak… worried…

  "Jack… what's the Sevar Plantary Defense Corps?" The tension… the fight… left Geoffery 'Jack' Morgan's eyes, his half metal half flesh shoulders slumping. The moment he opened his mouth to protest he found the words dying on his lips, cast aside from Lix' worried squeeze, her claws clenched around his hands and refusing to let go. Jack sighed, his head tilting as if was suddenly too heavy to hold upright. "It was plastered on the side of every ship we passed… and it just happens to have the same name as your gun? Your cybernetics? What's going on?"

  "Ya want to know? Ai'n't gonna let it go?" Lix simply stood, silent as the void that surrounded them while she was pulled to the cockpit. Out in the distance, just barely visible through the tear in the freighter they were hiding in, passed the thick debris field and dreadnaught returning to its vigil beside a sun that seemed to be swarmed with… something Lix couldn't make out, was a planet Jack indicated with one curved metal finger.

  It was barren of atmosphere, its crust a distant landscape of ice… and yet… even from this great distance, without even using the viewport's zoom function… Lix could see the horrid gashes along her surface.

  "That's… that's Sevar… that's uh…" His finger straightened, indicating the largest blemish upon the frozen planet's surface.

  "Jack?"

  This would be when old Jack lied through his teeth. This would be when the old Jack redirected, discarded the worry, focused on the goal at hand… But Lix?

  It was getting impossible to lie to Lix…

  Damn her…

  …

  …

  …

  "That's home."