Mitchell's Revenge
U.S.E. shipyard, the boardroom

Once Sibil stopped crying they wereable to piece together what they thought might have happened. The crypticmessage was the key.

Grabb explained that the Tarasovfamilies had a long history of dance. He believed that Yuri Orlov’s fortune hadbeen founded by a bet on a championship result, most probably Yuri and his wifeDaria winning the final round.

“They were the most successfulcouple from the Tarasov families,” he said. “When I was competing you learnedto stay clear of them. The rumour then was that he had founded theIntergalactic Mafia. The families always travelled together, even if only oneof them was competing.”

“Why?” asked Lucy.

“They have very tight familyunits,” said Grabb. “They support one another. They bring the children up intheir dance tradition and they are expected to grow up into champions. Theparents put a lot of pressure on the children to succeed. I heard rumours aboutDaria Orlov after she retired to have children, but up until now I didn’t thinkthey could possibly be true.”

“What do you mean?” asked Sibil. Shehad dried her tears and was sitting up straight, listening intently to everyword.

“The Orlovs had three children, twogirls and a boy,” Grabb said. “The rumour was that Daria planned for the twogirls to be champion dancers, but both refused. The younger one ran away fromhome. The older one we had the misfortune to pick up on Topernicus. Shetravelled with us for months and we had no idea who she was until we got toTiberion.”

“What about the boy?” asked Lucy. “Didshe make him dance too?”

“Oh, they all dance,” replied Grabb.“But I don’t know much about the boy. Bot Ramsay seemed to think that he wasliving on Tarasov and that he’s some kind of coms genius.”

“So why did they take Anja?” askedLucy.

“Revenge,” said Grabb simply.

“What?” asked Sibil and Lucytogether.

“If the younger one was killed whenone of your ships went rogue, then they would want to take revenge.”

“That’s what I felt from Natasha,”said Lou quietly. “She wanted to take revenge on whoever killed her sister.”

“But it wasn’t our ship,”interjected Jake from the end of the room. “Tigerline owned it. Tigerlineemployed her as crew.”

“Yes, but you built it,” said Grabb.“They view you as responsible for the fault that killed their daughter. The IGMtake things very personally. That’s why they took Anja. It’s personal.”

“And you can tell all this from thepattern on Sibil’s handpalm?” asked Lucy sarcastically.

Grabb glared at her. “You have tounderstand how they think. Daria will have thought along the lines of: UniversalStarship Enterprises took my daughter from me. I will take their daughter fromthem. My daughter refused to do as she was told. My new daughter will do as sheis told or she will die. And we’ll hurt her family.”

Sibil shuddered at the implication.

“So if you were Anja, and wanted tostay alive, you’d do what you were told,” said Lou.

“So she’s learning to dance?” askedSibil.

“Yes,” said Grabb. “I’d say so,because the pattern for the costume is so specific. You’ve all recognised whatit is. The Competition scheduled for Tiberion is massive. There’ll be couplescoming from everywhere. If the Orlovs want to taunt you, they’ll bring Anjaback into her home system and make her compete under your noses.”

“So that’s what Natasha is doing onTiberion,” said Lou. “Setting things up for her family.”

“That probably wasn’t her intentionwhen she jumped ship at Topernicus,” said Grabb. “But things change.”

“They sure do,” said Lucy. “So wewait until they bring Anja to Tiberion and then we snatch her back at theCompetition.”

Grabb looked at her as if she wascompletely insane, but Tim responded first. “Are you crazy! She could getkilled. We could get killed. A lot of other people could get killed!”

“What about the pylon race?” askedJake coming closer to the group seated at the table.

“What are you talking about now?”Sibil asked in exasperation.

“We were thinking about holding apylon race at the same time as the ballroom competition,” he explained. “Thiswas before we knew about the message. We thought it would be a way to bring theZond back into the Karhu System. Maxim Volkov is a pylon racer. He would replaceit hard to resist because there hasn’t been an event for years. We thought wecould capture them and interrogate them about Anja.”

Tim rubbed his hands through hisshort greying hair. He rubbed his eyes. “Have you all gone completely mad? We’renot a bloody mercenary outfit. We’re spacecraft manufacturers and we have abusiness to run!”

Lucy looked at Jake and then atGrabb and Lou. They started to laugh. Tim glared at the four of them.

“What?” he said angrily.

“But we are, Dad,” said Jake,grinning widely now.

“Are what?”

“A mercenary outfit. I was amercenary, remember. Lucy has skills now that she didn’t have before. Grabbhere is a freelance pirate and ex ballroom dancer. Lou is an empath. Andthere’s Em. If we can’t figure out a way to rescue Anja now there’s somethingwrong with us.”

“Who’s Em?” Tim asked even moreangrily.

Jake smacked his hand over hismouth and looked at Lucy. She started to laugh.

“Now you’ve really let the cat outof the bag!” she said.

The boardroom door slid open and Empadded silently to where Lucy sat. She reached down to stroke the panthers’head. Lucy smiled at Tim, who had backed against the wall, looking nervously atthe big cat. Sibil sat motionless with fright and looked anxiously at herhusband.

“This is Em,” explained Lucy. “Mypartner.”

“I knew I wasn’t seeing things atthe welcome back party!” exclaimed Tim. “How dare you bring an animal into theshipyard. You know the rules!” Lucy smiled at him.

“As Grabb so eloquently said,things change. I can’t be separated from Em. She’s bonded to me. Jake broughther to me to help me recover from the surgery after the crash. I won’t functionproperly without her.” Lucy continued to stroke the animals’ head. “And she isa stand out asset to our crew.” Em rumbled with satisfaction.

“But she’s a panther!” said Tim. “She’sdangerous!”

“She’s only dangerous if Lucy’s threatened,like she was at the party,” said Jake. “Otherwise she’s just a pussy cat.”

Em growled at Jake across the room.He laughed at her. “She can talk to Lucy. But only Lou can hear them.”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” said Tim. “Animalsdon’t talk. You’re making all this up.”

“He’s not,” said Lucy and Loutogether.

“You’ll just have to trust me onthis Dad,” said Jake. “Don’t make any decision about Em until we’ve got Anjahome safely. We need her with us. OK?”

Tim rubbed his hands through hishair again. He looked from Em to Lucy to Lou and Jake. He nodded his assent.

“Alright, so what’s the plan then?”

“Well,” said Lucy, “Flex has aproposal for you. And if you agree, then Grabb and Lou might help us out. Tim,please just listen and ask questions when he’s finished.”