Thanks, Phoebe. I'll get you in.





Silent as a shadow, the battle station Conquerer turned and headed away from the surrounded Carrotus. It slid away towards the stars, driving towards an out-of-the-way planet called Firen, which hosted the numerous slave mines. They would stop for an hour at the half-way point to recieve Devan's shipments and the news from Medivo, then continue on.

All this Alpha figured out from tapping into the transmissions made from different parts of the ship. She also found out other things. As she had suspected, Kroys was behind the attack on her shuttle, as with the blasting of Carrotus. But other things she didn't understand. Who, for instance, was the "traitor"? And they had mentioned others, such as the "mercenary", the "bird", the "dragon-lover", and the three "magic-users". Occasionally a name was mentioned, such as "Claw", "Coppertop", and "Ducky". She had never heard of the last, and the first mention she could remember of the other two was from a tavern.



The two drunk cats were leaning up against the wall, discussing something in low tones. Alpha leaned closer, trying to catch a bit of their conversation, suspecting, unlike most, that the two weren't drunk but very sober. "-of course, the 'Empire' is keeping it very quiet," the darker cat was saying, and Alpha eagerly strained her ears. "Yes, well, you'd expect them to, wouldn't you," his friend replied. "Being beaten by two mercenaries is very humiliating- what did you say their names were?" "Ghaf said they were called Coppertop and Claw." "Coppertop! and Claw? Teamed up, those two would be unbeatable!" The dark cat glanced furtively around and hushed his companion. "Quiet! Anyway, they had outside help, a bunch of rabbits and slaves, Ghaf said. He couldn't figure out how they'd gotten inside such a well armed and guarded ship like the Deep Spacer.. Anyway, how would you know?" The grey cat half-smiled. "'Cause I insulted Coppertop once, and I had the luck to see Claw fight," he said, almost being sarcastic. The dark cat looked surprised. "Then you're lucky, Rroyvan. They say not many live to see the dawn after insulting Coppertop." The grey cat indicated a long, wicked-looking scar along his side and back. "I very nearly didn't, Zanzibar. But this is not the place for telling tales. Sometimes it seems the very walls have ears. . . if you want to hear it, you'd have to get to the War Tavern." The darker cat nodded and glanced over at Alpha, who quickly tuned out. . .



Alpha shook the memory away. Forgotten until now, it had given her a very valuable bit of information. . .

Unknown to the red rabbit, another was headed for Firen too. However, it was not willingly.



The prisoner opened her eyes. Pain shot through her body, but she ignored it, being busy trying to remember who and where she was. Images flashed by, something about blaster fire, and another type of fire. . . in the tops of trees? Yes, that was it, the treetops were on fire and she couldn't escape. Falling. . . she had fallen out of a tree. . . she managed to catch herself. . .

Unseen by the concentrating prisoner, a smirking guard strolled up. Thrusting a stick through the bars of her cage, he prodded her until she stirred. "So yer awake, are yer? Well I'm afraid yer goin' to be moved, bush tail!"

The words barely made sense. Bush tail? Where had she heard that before? As an insult?. . .

She was roughly dragged through the now unlocked door, and propelled towards a larger cage, which already held another. The memories came flooding back faster. . . Shouting, from others like her, encouraging her to make the leap to safety, across a large space. . . fear, uncertainty. . . a frantic scamper across the protruding limb. . . falling, again, but this time there was no recovery. . . turtles?

The prisoner hadn't realized she had stopped until the guard whacked her with his rod. "Git movin', yeh mangy tree hopper! Who d'yer think yeh are?" More memories. . . she remembered it all! She turned her attention to the guard. "I tol' yer already, git movin' or yer goin' to regret it! I musta been mad, taking this job. Both you an' I'm goin' to regret this choice o' yers if-" the squirrel -squirrel!- drew herself up defiantly. For the first time, she spoke. "Aye, you're goin' to regret this. You're goin' to regret that you ever messed with Phoebe!"



Sorry, nothing about the rest of you guys, but there'll be more to write, there always is!