Redirection

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

12/01/96:

Rubbing my temples, I flopped down hard onto the couch,
giving Sierra, who was laying on the far side, a bit of a
scare, causing him to jump off, and dash to the far side of
the room.

I smiled a bit at the fox, he had been semi-scares after
what happened with the HammerHeads. I guessed he spent a lot
of his time wondering around in the miles of forest
surrounding the house, but I didn't know, or really want to
know.

"Another long and boring day?" Oria asked as she came down
one of the staircases.

I nodded. "Too bloody long. I've listened to more rigmarole
and drivel then when I was doing anything else! I might as
well be some kind of card-board cut out for all they cared."

She nodded a bit, sitting down next to me, placing on of her
paws on my leg. "Fox, they seem to have cast upon you the
role of hero, and they won't settle for anything less."

Shaking my head, I muttered. "Less is about all they will
get."

She gave me a half smile. "Some how, I doubt that. They want
you, and they get you. Just try not to fall asleep during
it, ok?"

I snickered. "Oh, I don't usually get THAT board at them,
there are usually a few things to write down as I go. This
and that, bits of interest, you know, gossip."

She laughed a bit. "Only you would make light of something
as serious to everyone as this is."

I raised one side of my mouth. "Only to them Oriana, only to
them. To me, it's just what I have to go through to make
everyone else happy."

She patted my leg a bit. "Come on, I'm sure it's more then
that."

I shook my head. "You didn't see the fit Page had about all
this. She flat out told me that if I didn't, I was to kiss
you goodbye, go back to Earth, and never come back."

She smiled. "And would you?"

"What, never come back? Hardly, I enjoy this--"

She cut me off with a finger against my lip. "No silly, kiss
me."

I smiled, then snickered again. "I'm not sure actually."

Oria kept the smile on her face, but I watched as her ears
drooped a bit. "Oh..." she quietly said. Then she reached
over, and snagged a padd from the table. "By the way,
someone dropped this off for you about an hour ago."

I took it from her, flipping it over in my hands. The only
thing on the padd's screen was a small outline of a cube
that was spinning on one axis. I raised an eyebrow. "What is
it?"

She shrugged. "I don't know, the guy who dropped it off said
you would know how to read it."

I wrinkled my nose a bit, and gently tapped the screen with
my finger. The cube paused, and started to spin on another
axis. "I see." I said, smiling a bit.

"Care to share it?" Oria asked.

I nodded. "It's a code lock, using a kind of a puzzle as the
key, I have to set the cube to the right vectors to unlock
it."

"And that is?"

I ran my finger over the screen, causing the cube to speed
up it's spin, rolling like half a set of dice. "Well, that's
the hard part. The position is a simple one, the problem is
this cube doesn't have the sides labeled, which makes it
about a thousand times harder."

She nodded. "Think you can do it?"

I shrugged, make a few more adjustments to the cube. As it
spun faster, one side turned green. "Well now, that is a
plus."

"Oh?"

I ran my finger in an arc under the cube, which stopped or a
second, then changed it's spin again. Two more sides turned
green, and a third side became red. "It's based on the idea
of hot and cold. Green means I have one of the vectors
right, yellow is close, red is very far off. Clear is when
it's anything else."

She nodded again.

I have it bit of a spin with my finger, and the red side
went to clear, and another side turned green. It now was a
box of green, only the top and bottom where clear.

Giving it a quick tap on one side, and a twist on another, I
grimaced as two of the green sides went clear, and the top
turned green. "Oh well," I muttered. "Easier this way."

"Is it always this complex of a game?"

I shook my head. "Not really, usually you get a running
series of numbers so you can have a better guess as to how
close you are, and which way you need to go." I twisted the
cube, and the bottom flicked to green. Leave the only two
clear sides touching.

"Is it usually that easy to get it green?"

I shook my head again. "No, far from it, I usually can't
even get yellows, let alone green."

"If this one is that easy, then anyone could have done it."

I smiled. "Or, it's set up for how I play." I stabbed my
finger down, and pulled it down along the screen. The last
two sides turned green, and the cube stopped spinning. It
paused for a second, then the cube shattered, and broke into
a screen full of text.

Nodding I started to read over it.

"So, what does it say?" Oria asked.

I cracked one side of a smile. "Change into about the
rattiest clothing you have."

She twitched an ear. "Why?"

I pulled my army jacket off the couch, tucking the padd into
a pocket. "Because, we're going to Mydisia Base."

She raised an eyebrow. "I've never heard of it."

I nodded, pulling on my jacket. "That's because it's not
exactly in Council's spear of influence. Or anyone's for the
matter, it's more of a free lance multi-system, multi-verse
trading post."

She sat back a bit. "I think I see, smugglers."

I shrugged. "Well, yes, exactly."

She gave me stern look. "Fox, why in the world do you have
any kind of pack with smugglers?"

I tapped her nose. "I use to bunk in brothels, remember? So
why are you surprised that I would know smugglers."

She frowned. "How many know you well enough to pull of that
little code trick?"

I stood. "None actually. I don't know any smugglers at all
in truth, but I do know the barkeep over there. He's been
keeping a few feelers out at my bequest, looking for
something. I've had him on this sense the day I first pick
up the ship."

"And what is he been looking for?" She near demanded.

I smiled. "Get changed, and I'll tell you."

I watched as a handful of expressions slide over her face.
Finally she smiled. "Well, someone needs to make sure you
don't get yourself shot."

* * *

'Forget getting shot,' I though, as I looked over the bar.
'He has to worry more about getting stabbed.' The bar it's
self was a mess, about half bright as it really needed to
be, a few isolated tables hand candles, the rest where
almost pitch black.

The floor was cover with what felt like a mixture of saw
dust, and ten brands and alcohol. The population filling the
room was about the same. Most ragged looking, a few drunk.
The only real person who didn't look about ready till jump
you for a side look was the barkeeper, and he had a shot-gun
sitting on the counter.

I pulled my trench coat tight around myself, more trying to
hide then anything else. Fox had picked the coat up a few
minutes before, buying it for a few bits of local currency
from a drunk we found in the corner. The ugly thing reeked
of beer and swill. I expect to take more then a few showers
when we got back home, trying to get the smell out of my
fur.

Fox grabbed my sleeve, and pulled me inside. "This is not a
place to dally." He explained, finding us a table that had a
candle burning in the center of it. I quickly sat down, and
slide back into the corner.

"Why are we here? I'm tired of waiting for an explanation."

He twisted his eyebrows a bit. "The message said there
currently is an arms trader here who has a trelyne weapons
array for sale."

I leaned forward a bit, shuffling my feet. "Why here though?
Why can't you get it inside the Council?"

He licked his lips. "Well, it's not exactly legal to sell,
buy, or use one according the Council rules. I can own one
though."

"What's so special about it that it's so illegal?"

He sank down, resting his head on his hands, his elbows
propped up on the table. "It has the ability to be used as a
mass-weapon."

I raised my eyebrows. "Mass-weapon?"

He nodded. "It can be used to launch small rocks, up to
about a eighth of a mile wide. At ships, or more
destructively, a controlled points on a planet. A few good
placed shots, and you can seriously damage a world as a
whole."

I let out a slow whistle. "I see."

He nodded, then set a few bills on the table. "You stay
here, get something to drink, though make sure you tell them
you want it pure. You never know what might get slipped into
a drink around here."

Then Fox stood up, and headed over for the bar.

Slowly I let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding.
I keep my eyes on Fox, as he stopped at the bar, then over
into extremely dark table in the far corner of the room.

I grabbed the cash Fox had left, just as a feline waitress
in a piece of cloth barely enough to cover an ant let alone
her, stopped by the table. "What is your pleasure?" She
asked.

"Coffee would be nice, black, and if you please, with
nothing else in it?"

She nodded, jotting a note down on a pad she pulled from
someplace. "That will be three fifteen."

I flipped through the bills in my paw, pulling out one that
looked like a five. I handed it to her. "Anything left over,
keep it."

She smiled, and headed off else where into the room. I sat
back on the seat, clicking my claws along the table top. I
was genuinely surprised when the waitress got back with my
coffee in just a couple minutes. I must have given her more
then I first had though.

I ran my finger over the rim of the glass, which was sticky
all around the edge, it pulled at my fur as I fidgeted. I
wanted Fox to get back soon, I didn't like being here at
all.

It was interesting that, exactly at that time, I heard a
familiar voice among the collection of voices. Swiveling my
ears a bit, I tried to see if I could hear it again, hopping
that it wasn't my imagination.

Again I heard the voice, clear as day, behind me. I turned
in my seat, looking over at the tables along the wall. Three
down from me he sat, looking over his shoulder, talking to
someone. If it was for me catching a few whips of his
conversation, I would have overlooked him in the darkness of
the room.

Picking up my drink, I slowly walked down the length to the
table, and quietly slid into the seat accost from him. I
watched as his finished up his conversation. He slowly
turned around, and saw me. He jumped back a bit in his seat,
one paw dropping below the table.

He pauses as he recognized me. "Oh..." He slowly muttered, a
frown crossing the white fur of his face.

I smiled. "Hello Marn."

"Hello Oriana," he said, twitched his ears, or rather one
ear, and the stub of the other. "What are you doing here?"

I sipped at the coffee. "I came with Fox."

He nodded. "Fox, of course. Why else? By the way, the
rolling in the dirt style looks good on you."

"I'm not sure if I should thank you, or strangle you."

He laughed under his breath, sipping his own drink. "So, did
you come looking for me, or is this just an accident."

"Accident. Fox is here to buy some equipment."

He nodded. "I see..."

I leaned forward. "Now, why are you here?"

"Well..." he stopped for a second. "I might as well tell
you. I'm a regular here."

I glanced around the room. "I don't think there is any
regular here who doesn't have at least ten governments after
them."

Marn gave me a wide grin. "Actually, the average is about
twelve."

I leaned farther forward. "How many do you have?"

He blushed in his ear. "Come on, do you really think--" I
cut him off with a look.

"Marn, Ken told me what you did. I have no doubt that if
you're a regular here, it's part of that in some way."

He grumbled under his breath. "Three actually. Just being
sloppy."

"Care to tell me what you do?"

He shook his head, standing. "You don't want to know. Now I
must be going. It's been nice talking to you again, maybe
I'll show back up on Prid one of these days."

Then, before I could respond, he turned on his heal, and
headed right out the door of the bar.

I sighed, heading back to my table, and waited for Fox.

It was about another thirty minutes before Fox came back. I
was already on my third cup of coffee, the waitress having
brought me the second and third cup for free. Convincing me
I gave her a lot more then I had though.

When Fox finally came back, he looked extremely happy.
"Well, I got it, and it cost me about as much as I guessed.
The system will be delivered some time in the next month or
so, depending on how much the smuggling costs."

I nodded a bit.

He stood, dropping a bill on the table. "So, enjoy
yourself?"

I smiled a bit, pulling the trench coat closer around
myself. "It was interesting, to say the least."

He smiled back. "Well then, lets go home."

"Yes," I said, "let's go."