"Whoa there big fella." Alejandro said his hands in front of him an a placating way. "Araken! Control your beast for God's sake!" He snarled.

"Is Cat in there?" Tom asked no one in particular.

Gort's abdomen slit open and a slimy Cat fell out and landed nimbly on her feet. She still felt the effects of the adrenaline as she stood there in front of them, slightly shaking. They observed the condition her body was in. Her swelled up face. The way she was holding her ribs. She then said a single sentence that stunned them all to silence.

"JAB'S DEAD!" She shouted at them, angry at the world in general.

"Jab's... dead?" Araken said.

"Granny..." Tom mumbled shocked.

"Don't even joke with that!" Alejandro said.

"She didn't even tell you, huh? Typical Murakami." Cat said with a short bark of a laugh.

"She can't be, we revised all the parts of the plan with her. She didn't mention anything about..." Tom still mumbled.

"She did so this escape would look like the real thing. How fucked up is that? She did it for our safety!" Cat said in a much subdued tone. She felt the artificial effects of the chemicals Gort had filled her with, dissipate. She fell on her knees.

Tom came closer to help her. She instantly pick up an enormous spanner and threw it at him. It barely missed his head and lodged itself in the loading bay's bulkhead.

"Okay, okay. We'll leave you alone." Tom said as Cat sank back to her knees. Crying.

Gort went to the far wall and sat cross-legged. His job was done.

"Guys!" Jimmy's voice shouted over the intercom. "You better come here!"

They all ran up the stairs to the main area where the pilot's station was. Catherine stayed where she was, still on her knees with slime dripping from her. She shifted sideways and lay on her back looking at the ceiling. The floor trembled under her. Jimmy really must be pushing her ancient ship to its limits. Shaken like a sack of old potatoes, she fell asleep on the metal floor.

Alejandro was the first to reach Jimmy's station. She was busy plotting Drop Drive courses and applying them in what seemed to be a frantic and random way. Tom saw this encouraged the pursuing ships to follow them more closely than was safe. They thought they had her. But Jimmy was smiling and Alejandro knew that smile.

"The currents?" He asked her.

"Hmm, mm." She half-answered, concentrating hard.

"Try not to hurt them too much Jimmy." He admonished the girl.

"They're the ones flying way too close to my baby." Jimmy said, her eyes not leaving the plot display. She had a small and very ugly lizard on her shoulder. It looked at Alejandro in its cold way.

"What currents?" Araken asked.

"Space stations are put in tight orbit at the poles, so we have the currents of space. It's mankind's solution to space pollution. Put all the satellites in an orbital ring around the equator of the planet, leaving the rest of the planet's area free. There's a lot of collisions, it's bound to happen. Those collisions produce debris and stuff going at speeds that give them enormous kinetic energy. Enough to damage a ship foolhardy enough to fly into them." He smiled. "Like we are doing right now."

"We are!?" Tom asked flabbergasted. "Jimmy you maniac!"

Jimmy's laugh was all the answer she gave him.

"Jimmy knows these currents. She's a bit of a space nerd and she studied the history and orbits of all the crap in here. She's hoping to do this..." He pointed at the screen.

On it, they didn't see much. The three pursuing ships from Trantor's Peacekeeper garrison were doggedly following them behind, trying to match Jimmy's crazy maneuvers. That didn't last long for one of them was suddenly impacted by some invisible object. The flash of light was blinding. When they could see the ship again, it was adrift venting precious air. The other two frantically tried to change their vectors but it was too late. More blinding flashes burst in the screen's display and it was over in two minutes. Three venting hulks were floating away from them powerless.

"They should have known better. I was hoping that in the heat of the pursuit, they would forget that little fact." Jimmy said as she put the Machete in Drop Drive and the scene disappeared quickly from her rear display.

"What fact?" Araken asked.

"Never cross the currents of space." Jimmy recited from memory something she had probably read in a space flight manual.

"Why didn't we get hit?" Tom asked her.

"Because we were in one of the rare empty spots. They change all the time but it's relatively stable here. Human stupidity and the resulting impacts make this place unpredictable and dangerous. We had a fifty fifty chance." Jimmy announced flatly.

They all blanched, including Alejandro who apparently hadn't been aware of that fact.

"You maniac!" They all shouted as one.

"Where's Cat? Is she still in the cargo bay?" Jimmy asked them, getting up and stretching her limbs. The ship was on its automated course and free of pursuers.

"I wouldn't go close to her right now. She's a bit disturbed by her experience with Gort." Araken said.

"Anybody would be after piloting a Reyjak war bio-machine from inside its guts. Eww." Jimmy said, shuddering.

"She threw a tool at me!" Tom said.

"We all want to throw stuff at you sometimes Tom. You're a sweet kid but you're clueless." Jimmy observed.

"Kid? I'm older than you!" Tom exclaimed outraged.

"Girls are more mature, it's a scientific fact. Look it up."

"Ah, Jimmy." Alejandro hesitated. "It's about Jab."

"What about Jab? She's hurt?"

"No, Jimmy. I really don't know how to tell you this. She... died. I'm sorry."

"Jab... dead? Shit!" Jimmy concluded and went down the stairs to the loading bay.

When Jimmy reached the loading bay, she could hear whimpering noises at the far end. She couldn't see anything. Lights had turned off by the lack of movement. As soon as Jimmy stepped through the threshold of the cavernous room, the lights came on all at once. Catherine was sitting next to Gort's immense back and was leaning on the Juggernaut. She squinted in the brightness, trying to see who her visitor was.

"Too bright? Wait. Isaac? Could you shut off all lights except the one over the door here?" Jimmy said to the room.

"Of course Jimmy, right away." A disembodied voice replied.

All but one shut off. Jimmy could barely see but she knew Cat could see her very well.

"Thank you." Cat said.

Jimmy wrinkled her nose. "What's that smell?"

"The slime seems to stink after a fashion." Cat said.

"From Gort?"

"No, I just sneezed. Yes from Gort!" Cat shouted.

"Okay, okay. Peace offering. I'm offering my room's shower. Is that okay? I can't have you walking all over the Machete smelling like rotten meat. I have my standards."

"I bet you do." Cat said, barking a short laugh. "Did you lose our pursuers?"

"Don't worry your pretty head about them, I took care of them. Here are my quarters." Jimmy opened the door for Cat.

"Thanks."

"Join us on the bridge when you're finished."

"Did they tell you? About Jab, I mean." Cat asked her.

"Yeah... they did." Jimmy said, she turned around without a word and left Cat.

"Fuck." Cat ejaculated. She went inside to take a much needed shower.

Fifteen minutes later, feeling like a human being again, Cat rejoined the rest of them on the bridge.

Tom looked up from his long-range scanner and said. "Hey, feeling better?"

"Hm, mm. Thanks. Sorry about earlier." Cat said.

"How?" Alejandro asked simply.

"Gort killed her in his rampage." Cat said.

"What!" Tom said, already heading for the cargo bay to do God knows what.

"Wait! It was at her own bidding. He obeyed her. He had to. He's basically a machine." Cat explained.

"I resent that. Reyjak bio-tech is much more than..." Araken said.

"Have you been in control of one?" Cat asked the alien.

"Nobody from my race has for many centuries." Araken replied stiffly.

"Are you about to lay an egg? Because if you are, I got this nice spot. Away from us. Near the antimatter reactors." Jimmy said.

"An... egg?" Araken understood a few seconds later that the joke was on him and he huffily walked past them to his quarters.

"Jimmy... be nice with him. He's just a teen." Alejandro admonished the girl.

"Like I am. And like me, he will learn to toughen up. He's a freaking Reyjak! He's supposed to be from this fierce alien warrior race." Jimmy said hotly.

"He's here to learn from us. I have a feeling that he's showing us his calm face. Don't push him or he might show you his other." Tom said.

"As if. That would be a welcome change from his snobbishness. Sissy." Jimmy hissed between her clenched teeth.

Alejandro motioned for Cat to continue. "Sorry about the interruption. Go on dear. Why on Earth would she order Gort to kill her?"

"For this to look and feel real. To add a layer of authenticity to it all. For our safety. She sacrificed herself for us." Cat said sadly.

"That's totally crazy!" Tom cried.

"That's what I thought at first, but a few memories resurfaced. Memories about visits to quite a few doctors." Cat said.

"Doctors?" Jimmy asked.

"She had Cancer. Generalized. She had a few months at the most. She wanted to go on her own terms." Cat said choking on the last sentence.

"Jab..." Jimmy went to the pilot's chair and quietly sobbed.

"That's my Jab! Fierce to the end." Alejandro said as a tear ran down his stubbly cheek.

"I... Shit! This is so unfair. She never had it easy. She deserved peace at the end of her life." Tom said hiding his eyes behind his raised arm.

Cat let them have their grief, pick-up a lizard from a console and petted the cold thing as she sat down at the scanning console. Where were all these lizards coming from? She'd seen a few on her way to the bridge.

Jimmy turned around and smiled through her tears. "Ah, you've met Aristotle."

"They're yours?" Cat asked her.

"They're all over her ship. Ugly things if you ask me." Tom said.

"I find them charming. I've never seen their like before." Cat said.

"Althea gave me two when a was little. After my little incident with the Sky-Dragon, I had grown afraid of anything with more than two legs. She wanted to re-kindle my love for animals. It worked wonders. Soon, one of them had eggs and I had a litter! She had unknowingly given me a male and a female. She didn't look too happy, but since it had been her idea. her hands were tied." Jimmy remembered happily.

"She's got a whole army guarding this ship, but the worst one is Achilles. That one you better stay away from." Tom said.

"Why?" Cat asked.

"He spits little flames." Tom answered.

"He breaths fire!? Like a dragon?" Cat exclaimed.

"No! No. He's the result of some genetic fiddling to make his teeth spark and his venom slightly flammable." Jimmy said.

"Modifying an animal is cruel, it's not like it can give you its consent." Cat said feelingly.

"Like they did with you." Tom said.

"Not they, he did. That devil disguised as a man, Dr. Moses." Cat spitting out the name as if it was dirty.

"He's the one who worked on Achilles. He asked me if he could do some 'tinkering' on him when I was little. To make him cooler. Ironic, he became a lot hotter." Jimmy.

Cat started to grind her teeth.

"What are you doing?" Jimmy asked her.

"Nothing." Cat answered.

"You're worried he did the same to you?" Tom said.

Cat laughed at the idea now. The other two joined in. Soon, they were laughing like loons, holding their sides.

"What is it?" Alejandro asked. He looked impatient.

"Cat's afraid she's capable of breathing fire." Jimmy said, her eyes full of tears. From laughter this time.

"What?" Alejandro said, annoyed.

"Never mind, inside joke. What's eating you?" Cat asked him.

"He should be here right now. What the hell is taking so long?" Alejandro answered.

As if to answer him, the long range console chimed in front of Catherine. She looked in amazement at what was displayed on it.

"Well, fret no more. He's here and your friend doesn't do things in a small way." Cat said.

"How do you mean?" Alejandro said coming over to look at Cat's display. Coming at them at maximum military deceleration was a gigantic Martian dreadnought in all its fiery glory.

The comm station chimed and Alejandro opened a channel. He read the header with wonder on his face.

"What is it Al?" Jimmy asked, getting worried.

"Well... huh..." He mumbled, which was uncharacteristic for him.

Tom went over and after reading the message, whistled. "The message itself is a standard message of greeting and an approach vector. The header and the title of the person who sent the message is of much greater interest for us. The dreadnought name's is the UMS Tyran and its commander's name is captain Darvin McGriffin."