Chapter 25: Lost

Four days had passed since arriving at the ICorp base and Mark busied himself checking the ship's systems. He unconsciously raised his left hand and touched the long tip of his left ear. There was no feeling as it had no nerves, but the surgeons had done a perfect job of bonding synthetic tissue to his own ears. He now looked like a Grojan.

Footsteps sounded behind him and he turned just as Arron and Minara walked onboard, followed by Theasa carrying Arron Jr. Minara smiled, showing perfect even white teeth. "What do you think, Mark?" She asked tapping her mouth with an index finger.

"And me two," Theasa added, a note of excitement in her voice. "I'm not a pointy tooth anymore!"

Mark laughed. "So where are all Major Cunningham's young men then, not bringing any with us Theasa?"

She raised an eyebrow at him. "No of course not!"

"There weren't any worth bonding with apparently." Minara chuckled as she settled herself down by the weapons console.

Theasa humphed and sat down by the computer console after she had put Arron Jr., in his playpen situated in the corner of the control room. "We need to select an outer world so I can program yours and Mark's ID chips correctly against your database entry and bank accounts I set up for you, Arron."

Mark spun his chair round to face her. "You haven't told me what name you gave me yet, I assume Mark Fuller is not going to work in Grojan?"

"Oh sorry, with everything else that has happened I forgot. There is a name that sounds similar to Mark, and as you have bonded with Varna I have given you her family name so you are Maraka Carask. As for you, Arron, your name sounds the same as a Grojan name and your family name has become Sermasas, having bonded with the newly reinstated Minara Sermasas."

Arron opened the navigation screen and selected the rim of the Grojan Empire "Any system in particular?"

Minara leant across from her seat. "That one would be a good choice, we don't want to chance visiting the last one we were on." She pointed to a sun off to the right of the screen. Arron zoomed in and found the habitable planet. He set the coordinates in the computer as Mark obtained clearance to take off.

As he piloted the ship to the designated jump point, Mark glanced over at Minara. "This journey is going to take a while, so I think it would be useful if you filled us in on the Grojan government system and the significance of the various important families."

Several days and six jumps later they arrived in the Gistalas system and docked with a vast orbiting trading station to obtain additional supplies and fuel. The trading station was why Minara had picked this particular system, she had visited it several times, security was lax and it would enable them to get away quickly if they had to.

After exiting the final jump Mark checked the sensors and gasped. "Bloody hell! Look at the size of that thing."

At Mark's exclamation, Arron glanced up at the front view port. "I can see it from here, shining in the sun light. How big is it?"

"It's nearly thirty miles across, and the ring is over two miles wide." Mark made a quick adjustment and looked over at Arron. "It's situated in the L4 Lagrange point between the sun and that large gas giant." He pointed at the planet hovering above Arron's navigation console. "Not even near a habitable planet. How much must that have cost to build?"

Minara snorted. "It was actually built by my ancestors long ago when the Grojan Empire was strong and vibrant. This system was once rich in resources and vital to the Grojan economy. Those days are long past and it is now reliant solely on trade, the lair of criminals, pirates and bounty hunters. It has a reputation for luxury goods and you can get almost anything you can think of for a price, no questions asked."

For security and control there were docking buoys equally spaced around the periphery of station with a shuttle service to the main ring. Each buoy could dock up to twenty scout class ships like theirs. Once they were docked it proved simple for Theasa to hack the station's security system from their ship and link the ID chips to Arron's and Mark's accounts, which she had already set up. Minara wanted to purchase the latest fashion, suits for the men and dresses for her and Theasa so they could move around in the upper echelon of Grojan society. Jumpsuits, overalls, swords and pistols strapped to the thigh would just not cut it on the core worlds. Minara had insisted the men's clothes would be purchased first, then she and Theasa could shop together and take their time.

As Mark, Arron and Minara were preparing to disembark, Mark pulled Theasa to one side. "I noticed there were a couple of glitches between the core and the jump drive during our last two jumps. While Little Arron is having his afternoon nap can you run a diagnostic?"