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"Freeport IV, this is the Aedos, requesting clearance to undock," I said as I gently lifted off my ship off the hangar floor.
"Roger, Aedos," the response came, "clearance granteed. Godspeed."
I eased the throttle into reverse, backing out of the narrow hangar. I was almost clear when I cought something out of the corner of my eye...without thinking, I slammed in my downward thrusters and pitched up, just in time to miss the armored transport that flew past at full speed, barely missing my ship.
"What the space was that, control!" I yelled back to the Freeport IV tower. "Don't you check to make sure the space is clear before granting clearance?"
"Sorry, Aedos, that ship was not under our control. Some hotshot pilot decided to buzz the station between trade lanes."
"Well, he nearly got me killed."
"At least you have a seatbelt," said a voice behind me. I spun around and fumbled for my sidearm, then relaxed when I saw the figure standing in the cockpit doorway, grimacing and rubbing his shoulder.
I was surprised...what was Leroy Fenning doing on my ship? At least he was a friend. Still, I thought, I need to take a better look at my hatch locks. I gestured towards the (perpetually empty) copilot seat, and keyed in autopilot settings while Leroy settled himself in. Soon, we were on our way.
"So," I ventured, "why are you here?"
"We need your help again," Leroy responded simply. "And I needed to be sure that our conversation would be secret: even more so than usual."
I nodded. "What's the deal? Hang that, first tell me how you got onboard." Friend or no friend, if there were security holes in my ship, I wanted to know about them.
"Fair enough," Leroy said. "It wasn't terribly difficult, actually. I just followed you and slipped into the access ramp behind you." I did a double take at the gaunt, middle-aged gentleman. Of the skills I would have credited him with, stealth was not one of them. He noticed my look and smiled. "I suppose you think I've been an administrator my entire life?" he said. "Don't worry, it wasn't too easy. As for my purpose here, have you ever heard of the Phantom Empire?"
I nodded slowly. "Mostly just vague rumors," I responded, "none of them pleasant. I think I briefly saw one of their ships once, here in Magellan actually. Other than that, I don't know much about them."
"Neither do we," Leroy said. "But they are certainly very, very dangerous. We consider them to be the greatest single threat to the Discovery project."
"Even more so than the Nomads?" I said, surprised. I had assumed that the perpetually hostile aliens would be the greatest threat.
"Much more so," Leroy continued. "For one thing, the Nomads are a known quantity. We know what to expect from them, and we know reasonably well how to fight them. The Phantoms, on the other hand, we know almost nothing about. We don't think they know anything about the project...not yet, at least. We hope to keep it that way. It's quite certain, though, that if they choose, they can completely wreck the project. But what they don't know can't hurt us."
I nodded. It made sense so far. Leroy continued. "We need more information about them, as much as we can get. We'd like to know where their holdings in the Sirius sector are, as well as an idea of their actual local strength. In other words, we need recon. Tannik, be very sure before you accept the mission I'm offering. It will be extremely dangerous. The Phantoms are likely to shoot on sight anyone they catch snooping around their territory. At the same time, we need you. The reason is obvious if not glamorous: If you are caught, we'll be able to deny we sent you."
"Thanks," I said. A grim proposition indeed. I couldn't live with myself if I refused, though. The most important effort in Sirius, maybe in the history of mankind, and I was in a unique position to be able to help. I thought for a moment, then nodded.
"Thank you, Tannik," Leroy said quietly. "good luck. If you could please drop me off at San Diego station, I'll make my way from there."
Shortly after that, I pulled away from San Diego Border station...gratified to note that no passing transports threatened my well-being this time. I've got plenty of other things to do that, I thought darkly. Besides trying to convince the Hellfire Legion to sell some of their top-secret scanning technology to the Zoners, I was now on a quest to scout out the legendarily lethal Phantom empire. I smiled uneasily...it was the best I could manage.
![[Image: aedos_mini.jpg]](http://students.cs.byu.edu/~sushi/aedos_mini.jpg)