I could feel Ilyurier Vrus staring at me from her station on the Luna Fuwuyothi's command deck. I attracted the same sort of crew where ever I went. Young, idealistic Keldons. Usually they have lineage that goes back to Urlafa or one of the other worlds were Keldons suffered in the abortive war for independence years ago. They seek me out, fresh from their clutch-mothers, because they believe I can lead them to some sort of revenge against the Ska'ari for what they did to their friends and family.
They don't often realize that the road to revenge doesn't lead straight to Ska. Which is why I suspect Ilyurier was staring at me. We were near the border to Empire space cloaked in a nebula and within optics range of a preywinder. How could she have known when she was a clutchling on Zaniah that the road to revenge led to the spot under the shadow of the business end of a preywinder?
She asked me with trepidation, "How long will we wait here clutch-brother?"
"The appointed time approaches young one. Have faith in our far-cousins."
Ilyurier looked down at her terminal and said nothing else. I decided to reassure her.
"Listen to the songs in the nebula. They will tell you where the preywinder wishes to go."
I had recently ignored the songs the galaxy sang to me in my rush to hunt down an enemy. That mistake ended, once again, in a trip to Phao in an escape pod courtesy of a different preywinder. I always try to make a habit of learning from my mistakes. Here I was trying my hardest to make another.
To my relief Aceeas Muriten, my second mate, excitedly reported a contact transmitting priority codes.
"Very good young-ones, let's get our guests aboard and get out from the shadow of this blasted preywinder."
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