Chapter 2

Sean slammed his fist into the table.

"Why, damn it?!? Why?"

He looked around the conference room. The kids, packed in around the table, on the floor or against the walls, mostly avoided his eyes. They were crammed into a space designed for less than half their number, a meeting place for bridge officers. Why the hell had fearless leader Don made them meet here, instead of down in one of the large rooms in the heart of the ship? Sean's eyes slid over to the fool in question, sitting at the head of the table. Maybe he figured that by crowding them together they'd look like a larger force. Or, it would be harder to pull a weapon.

"I told you before," Don replied, calmly. "They were going to get a missile lock on us. It was either take them out or face the same fate as Garon." His eyes focused solely on Sean, but Sean noticed Kine, leaning against the wall behind Don, eyeing the mood of the room. Must be nice to have a giant like that at your beck and call. Sean was starting to get pissed.

"Not good enough, damn it!" He pounded the table, and rose up. "Not good enough!" The kids on either side of him, around two years his junior, flinched back, as it seemed did many in the room. He noticed the two girls sitting across from him didn't. Lessa seemed to be leaning forward in an interested manor, which couldn't be good, and the dark haired slut next to her was openly smirking at him. Sean turned back to Don, taking a breath to calm down.

"Look ... I left the Guard..." That was the wrong thing to say. Sean could practically feel the hate now focused at him. Those in old Federation uniforms had daggers in their eyes. Those in Rebel garb looked away, ashamed. Kine's hand was now on his side arm. Sean started again.

"I left the Guard because I was tired of the killing. Tired of following orders I didn't believe in. I do not want to start my new life drenched in blood." He looked around. "We can't accept this!"

"HA!" The smirking girl stood. "WE," she pointed around at everyone, "killed six people to take this ship."

Sean's hand whipped out to point at Don.

"And he killed dozens, maybe hundreds in our name!"

"No, I killed them in my name."

Don once again had all eyes on him, motioning Sean and Shelly to sit. He rose, Kine pushing himself off the wall to step forward behind him. Don barely came up to his shoulders.

"Look," Don told them, sounding to Sean's ears as if forcing himself to at least sound reasonable, "we are free. We are responsible to no one except ourselves. My actions and sins rest no more on your head than yours do on mine." His eyes focused first on Lessa, who returned it challengingly, then on Sean. The dark skinned teen met his eyes for a moment then dropped them. "Hell," Don continued, "we've probably all sinned enough to have built up some sort of immunity."

He looked around the room. His right hand, as it tended to do when not otherwise busy, lightly touched the gold locket hanging from a chain around his neck.

"From now on, 'Do what you will shall be the whole of the Law'. So, unless someone else has a problem with my having saved all your butts, we'll move on to other business."

Kine was the second to last to leave the conference room. Don was still in his chair, playing with that damned necklace again. Shrugging, Kine turned and followed the walking and bouncing crew onto the bridge.

Crew ... well, he guessed that's what they were now. A crew. Better than a mob, certainly, and probably better than an army. Harder to leave, to be sure, and Kine had a feeling at least a couple would want to jump ship the first chance they got. He for sure wouldn't stop them. Don was right about that, everyone should be free to do what they wanted.

Too bad options were rather limited.

Kine saw Amanda down on the second level manning the helm. She had stayed to keep an eye on things, trusting he'd let her know if anything important happened. Meetings were boring boy things. In a way, he was glad she had, of yet, no interest in the things of boys.

Laughing at his own silly joke, Kine bounced down to her. They were keeping the artificial gravity at about half normal, high enough to let them drink and piss normally but low enough to keep power consumption down. This ship drank energy like a mother fucker. Trust the military to not worry all too much about that while his old village had been starving.

"Yo Bro." The twelve year old didn't turn as he landed behind her, and he gave her blonde head a light bop on the top with a closed fist. She responded with a quick no look attack on his groin with her swinging left arm, but his body was slightly turned so it just whacked his thigh.

"Hey, 'manda. Anything happen out here in the real world?"

She shook her head.

"Naw. Not that we'd know. I don't think we have the sensors fully up yet. I think Villa was going to look at it."

"Flying blind in a stolen ship with a war going on. Ah, good times..."

"Have fun at your meeting?" Amanda leaned back against the high backed chair, playing with the ends of her braids. Kine thought she might be the only one of their group with braids, most of the older girls going with pony tails if they didn't just cut their hair short. Well, there was that cute half bald one...

"Oh, yes. Lots of yelling and kicking. I only had to toss a few out of the airlock." Amanda giggled at this. "Oh, we picked our cabins and jobs. Bridge detail was divided into three shifts, and you're with me on shift 2."

"I don't know if I WANT to be with you. You're a big meanie." She turned as she said this and stuck her tongue out at him. Kine, laughing, responded by lightly cuffing the back of her head with an open hand. His smile faded, however, hands moving to massage her shoulders.

"There's something else, though. I can't explain it, but I just have the feeling something is ... wrong."

He felt Amanda stiffen. Her voice came out low, with a hint of desperation ... even madness.

"Wrong? Wrong?? Something was 'wrong' when Mom and Dad died. Something was 'wrong' when the Guard raped Jimmy. We're together, and safe. Nothing. Is. Wrong."

Kine looked down at his little sister. The love of his life. His bright star, keeping him alive and sane. Leaning down, he kissed her cheek.

"You're right, of course. Everything is fine."

"Damned straight."

She moved her hands up to her shoulders, placing them on top of his. They stayed like that, looking out over the now empty bridge. All was right with the universe.

Lessa was getting a LITTLE pissed at her companion Shelly. Walking down the central corridor of the ship towards their cabin, the girl was much too bouncy. In more ways than one. While her pants were long, form fitting, and ALMOST regulation, somewhere she had found a loose short sleeve shirt with an open neck. Her breasts were bouncing freely, even dangerously, in the low gravity. Shelly seemed to be experimenting, figuring out what movement created what reaction, not just with regard to her breasts but also the various males (and females) they passed. She was also keeping up a stream of conversation about the meeting, and that probably was the most annoying to the quiet Lessa.

"I mean, come ON, Lessa!" the black haired sultry beauty said as they reached their cabin. "You? A MEDIC?"

"What? Think I'm not good enough?" Lessa moved to her bed and sat down, as Shelly closed the door. It was your standard one person bed, one of four in the room. Incredibly comfortable compared to what she was used to, she poked the mattress to double check that in fact it wasn't really a rock.

"No, no, that's not it. I mean, you patched me up great that one time, and nobody else in this sorry group seems to have experience. It's just..." Shelly plopped herself into a chair facing her, her breasts flopping down a moment later. "I mean, you're ... well, I would have thought Storm Trooper would have been more up your alley."

Lessa gave her a dangerous look.

"I mean," Shelly continued, not worried, "medic is so ... BORING!"

"What's wrong with boring? I could use some boring."

Lessa started taking her shoes off, wiggling her toes happily once they were free of their prison. Happy feet made a happy person. That had been learned early in life. She looked over at her companion. They'd known each other for almost a year, Lessa having come across the broken body of Shelly in a ditch while trying to catch up with her unit. Normally, she'd have just left her there, but for some reason Lessa decided to check if the girl was alive. Most of what had at first seemed to be blood turned out to be the local wet clay, and a low moan confirmed life was still holding on. Lessa had dragged the girl with her that night, and Shelly had been tagging along with her ever since. Hell, she stayed so close many were ready to assume the two shared a bed ... if it wasn't for the fact Shelly was sharing so many of theirs. Well, that and not believing Lessa could be with someone.