Prologue

"Wake up Eyes," is the soft voice of my lover whispering in my ear, as he shakes me awake.

"What now?" I am not fond of waking up early, if I had the energy I would thrown a pillow at him.

"We have an emergency on the station," Palto says in a sing song voice as he gives me a quick kiss, right before he pulls the covers off of me.

"Gods, again, don't we ever get some time out?" I groan as I roll out of the bed, there is no rest for us.

"Never," he laughs at me.

But what can you do, right, this is all in a days work for us Defenders.

Although Palto has a strange sense of humor and it is one of the things I like about him, right now I just wanted to strangle him.

"Status?" I ask gathering my wits and look around for my weapon.

"Communications contacted me 2 Deds ago. There is some sort of energy build up in the core reactor," He reports to me in his precise Imperial.

"Oh?" Squinting at him, I try to remember where I laid it down. Ah, there it is on the side table. I can feel my eyes widen as I spot it. A small cylindrical tube of metal with a chain of gold wrapped around it.

"A terrorist group has claimed it is their actions," He adds just as calmly

"We think it is artificial, then?" Is my rhetorical question as I pick up the energy sword. The symbol of my office and my order.

"Yep," Palto then gives me one of his patented winks. I am not cheered by it.

I would rather have stayed in bed but the Pettada have our contract. We agreed to protect this station, it's population and the resources that it represents. That means dealing with so called terrorist till they become the ruling party then we either negotiate a new contract or we fight our way off the station and call it even.

"Alright," I decide. "I'll handle the reactor. You get to Communications and work on evacuations"

"What?" He gives me an indignant stare. "Why do you get the reactor?"

I hold back a sigh. I can not believe he is getting all huffy at this time.

"I am better at energy manipulation than you are, and you are much better at public relations than I am," I give him a dry look and add. " Now move it. You are wasting time."

"By your command," he gives me a short mocking bow, and a flinty smile to let me know that he will argue later. But he takes his leave of me.

With a grin I paw through the sheets, till I find the discarded night gown that I started the evening in.

Palto always makes fun of my need to be dressed. He always says, that with all the different life forms coming and going on this station, they would not notice if I went around naked.

He laughed even harder when I told him of all the things I could secret away on my persons if I was dressed.

Sadly my night gown is slim pickings for hiding places, but I feel much more official with it on. When covered, I wrap the chain that is attached to my sword around my waist and across my shoulder.

Now I am ready. Off to stop a bomb.

The station is on the large size for it's kind. But I have made it my business to know where the critical areas are. So getting to the is not difficult reactor core, having been there a number of times on inspections. Still it takes time, as our apartments are on the outer rim of the station. Palto likes the lighter gravity there.

Chapter 1 »