The seconds slowly ticked by as a small ship drifted between the dim Pelatus sun and a large xithricite asteroid, casting a sharp shadow onto the surface. The pilot of the ship watched his craft's silhouette skim over the rugged asteroid's face, undulating with the differing terrain, slithering across regolith and diving into craters. Eventually it vanished into the starfield on the other side of the rock as his ship passed the last known marker in Pelatus space.

Frowning, LeberMac sat in his Orion Rev C and scratched. He hated Pelatus, a godforsaken excuse for a starsystem in the ass-end of space, with nothing to recommend it except the xith. Which made it exceptionally good for one thing: thinking. Which is good, because that was what he'd come here to do.

He'd done most of what he'd wanted to, he supposed; he'd fought tooth-and-nail with the best pilots on either side of the itani-serco conflict and with vipers and pirates as well. He'd mined asteroids much like these until he drooled from boredom, and made trade runs from Deneb to Odia, making and spending several fortunes along the way. He'd fought the Itani government, resorted to pirating, died and been cloned into a Serco prophet, and died again and been re-cloned as LeberMac once more. But it had all started when he'd found the ancient tequila wreck.

Oh yes, that had been a happy day... he cracked a smile and allowed himself to reminisce about the heady times after the tequila discovery. The ship, which was radio-xith dated to the early days of the expansion before the abrupt closure of the Sol II wormhole, had crash-landed on Pelatus III and he'd had the foresight to buy up the parcel of land as quickly as possible.

The Pegasus Wind. Yes, that had been the ship's name. Undoubtedly, its tequila stores were lower than they had been, but the ancient containers (made of wood! - yes, real wood), still held a lifetime's supply of the liquor, aged over millenia, stored in real glass bottles and sealed with real cork. The potency and quality of it had been legendary.

Which why he'd tarried a bit here before heading off on his mission - time to tie up one last loose end. He'd looked over his entry in the logs one last time, and tried to think of a suitable steward for the cache.

It hadn't come to him immediately. He'd thought about entrusting its care to Borb Sarken, but the bottles were rather flammable, and, well, explosions tended to follow the younger Sarken wherever he went. Smittens had come to mind, but then he remembered Smitty's poor attempts at making synthetic tequila and selling it at that excuse for a bar in Sedina. Miharu had her own bar and respectable stores of the tequila as it was, although the larger amount of the precious liquor by far still lay on the planet's surface. Tumblemonster would undoubtedly immediately sell the stock or worse, enter into some kind of tequila market war with Miharu since they just couldn't seem to get along, so he was out. Many of the others he'd entrust it to had vanished off into the mists of space already; Broma, Screwball, Churin, Seta, Genotype, Holdan, the list was long.

Additionally, it needed to be protected from the likes of Obsidian, who had never really forgiven him for crushing her Collector's Edition Pink Axia Wraith. Or MechaTouriaus, who, even though he was a test tube baby obviously directly descended from LeberMac's own genetic material, would waste no time in obliterating the stores if he found out their location, simply out of spite.

The end choice was obvious, really. It was odd that it hadn't occured to him earlier. He picked up the comm and punched in the number. The comm paged for what seemed like forever, and finally went into vidmail. He braced himself for a final message.

"You've reached the [CLM] HQ General Mailbox for MysticRogue, please leave a message. If this is Yoda yes you are still KOS... <BEEEP>"

Clearing his throat and quickly patting down his matted hair, he spoke quickly into the vidphone,
"Heya Mystic, Leebs here. I'm off on a kind of ...personal mission for a bit, dunno when... well or even if I'll be back, and I'm entrusting you with the tequila stores. I'm leaving the coordinates & property deed here in a cargo crate, along with a few boxes of Divinian Chocolates, I know how you like those over the Sedina ones. Anyway, try not to drink it all in one week, and take care."

<CLICK>

Now, on to his last task.

He docked the Rev C into the larger Trident that he'd purchased with the last of his Itani High Command bribe money, sealed the hatch and took the helm of the larger ship. With enough foodstuffs and tequila to last several years, he pointed the nose at the last-known trajectory of Dr. Lecter. Determined to retrieve the blue agave from the hands of that madman, he gave a belated chase. Time would tell whether he would be able to retrieve the precious blue agave DNA and restore tequila to the galaxy, or if his remaining stores on Pelatus III were fated to be the last liquor of their kind.

Gunning the engines of the Trident, he shot out of the galactic ecliptic and into deep space and new adventures...

Goodbye, leebs. And, good call. I would of course destroy your tequila in an attempt to corner the market with Smittens Brand Synth Tequila.

MiexonBionic's Tunguska prospector ship slowly neared the entrance to the single and decaying station in Pelatus. Over his time in the universe he had seen many interesting people flying through this desolate and backwater part of space. Despite its distance from anything of importance it always seemed something interesting always occurred or someone interesting came along; in this case both.

As Miexon searched the nearby roids for anything interesting he noticed a large trident rapidly speeding through the numerous xith roids and away from this lonely part of space. With Lebermac at the helm of the Trident he knew that he was off on another one of his missions likely surrounded by his best friends, bottles and bottles of tequila.

Miexon knew that his departure from Itan likely meant that Leebs would likely disappear for a while but he knew that eventually Lebermac would return to this empty part of space again.

Miexon waved as he watched him veer off into the distance.
"He won't go to far, after all he doesn't want to miss out!"

Miexon quietly went back to prospecting and settled himself on a plump xith roid and quietly began to mine away as he sorted some papers and wrote a few messages...

Safe Travels Leebs..You will always be part of VO.
You are a legend.

Cheers!

Welcome to the Void, LeberMeat.

I was still waiting for Elbryon to leave that damned station, It had been days, fortunately the station guards could be bribed into bringing me supplies. Then a message came in from Miexon, "Hey Leebs is speeding off in a trident, any idea where he's going?". I scratched my head for a moment, "not really sure, rebrodcast me to him please," I paused a moment to let Miexon setup the relay, "See ya' round, maybe. Goodbye, good luck."

OOC: I take it this means your leaving VO? I'm sorry to see you go, drop by from time to time man. Been nice flying with ya.

Mystic was ready for some sleep, but first to check the messages, she needed to change that message so yoda doesnt think she is mad all over again. There was one from Leebs, he looked a bit worse for wear, but seemed sane enough..for Leebs anyway.

She made contact with Ethan at her little backwater paradise and asked him to retrieve the crate and contents for her, faster than flying from Latos tonight. She would take care of the stuff as he asked, for he would be back. When he had done what he needed to do he would be back..she could never drink all that tequila in her lifetime by herself. She sent off a reply quickly, hoping it would reach him.

"Leebs, its Mystic, got your message and everything will be taken care of. Fly safe and watch your back, see ya on your return"

Dangit... nobody left in ITAN who can fight...

See you when you get back... or sooner.

Looking down at my feet I smiled with satisfaction at not being able to see them, knowing the shadows hid my body well as I had hoped they would. I could hear my target slowly getting closer as she prepared to arm the night alarm system in her luxurious mansion.

With grace and agility seemed to deny my age I quickly grabbed the beautiful woman by her wrist and twisted in a way it was not meant to move sending her to the ground as she screamed for help. I couldn't help but swear under my breath at how easy this kidnapping had gone until I heard the muffled sound of gas exiting the barrel of a silenced handgun. The round knocked me back as it tore through my neck slicing my wind pipe as it passed through my flesh like a hot knife through butter.

The hopelessness of trying to breath through a severed wind pipe is an overwhelming feeling many can not work past similar to a sucking chest wound, it induces massive panic that should cause a target to no longer become a threat. If it hadn't been for my years of training and experience I'm sure I would have panicked as well instead of plugging the two wound with my fingers allowing enough air to make it in my lungs so as to stay alive while I returned fire. The small female body guard that shot me must have been shocked when the first round hit her in the face, though I'm sure she never felt the second that hit a few inches higher ending her life before she hit the floor.

"End the simulation!" I half yelled and half gasped as I made eye contact with my "target" while the room slowly got very bright and then turned into a small class room.

"Istiband what the hell was that? Your dead! Your boss is my prisoner! I'm raping Conserta right now, and your body won't be found till tomorrow!"

"Instructor Sarken I..."

"You fucked up, you just gave secretaries UiT space over a bad name, now Kate over here is gonna have a harder time getting a job!"

Istiband clenched her jaw as I finished my tirade. Shortly after my escape from Itani space and my reintegration into society I guess it dawned on me I was getting to old for all that, I had been rich, I have been poor, I had been loved, I had been hated, I had been bad, and I had even been good once or twice. I was an infamous assassin, a spy the likes of which some debated would ever be rivaled. I was loved and hated by every one with any power at one point or another, I was smart, funny, and good looking even with my scars and implants. I had a presence that made men want to follow me and women marry me. (Or just right out kill me depending one which side I was on at the time.)

Now I'm just a burnt out vet from the good ol days. I can remember when I got my first ship after running away from home, the old salts would walk by in the loading docks and say that it was over for them, some of the other old salts would come by and shake their hand saying how much they would miss flying together then talk about old fights or trade runs for hours on end. I used to think I would never stop flying or stop fighting, I used to mock the old salts for being weak and not sticking things out.

Not so any more, the docs can only do so much to fix a body that has been destroyed or broken as much as mine, pain and age has made me slow, things I used to do with ease are now harder, pilots I used to beat with out thought now seem to get more and more "lucky".

The UiT government has always viewed it's business men and women as the most valuable resources. Unknown to much of the galaxy the government trains and provides an all female group of highly trained body guards known only as secretaries. These women usually between the ages of 20-25 are hand picked from middle class families in the union to take part in the long two year training program to become the most elite body guards in the galaxy.

Feeling I was no longer able to do as I did before I decided to teach, it took some work and recommendations from some old friends in the Union such as Seta, Broma, and Screwball to become the first male instructor in the school house but I had done it. The class of 4438 would be my first, starting in this year I would instruct them by day and get more and more UiT teaching certifications by night for two years until they would graduate in 4438. A few months ago I had a class of 120 young and eager students, now as I looked past Istiband I saw the 47 remained in my class more then 50% having already succumbed to injuries or other problems that eliminated them from the school. I'm told by the time I graduate my class I will only have 20 or so left. I would like to keep all of my students but not every one was made to kill and it was my job to make sure they would love theirs.

"What did you do wrong?" I asked

"I aimed two inches higher then I should have and missed your voice box sir."

I let out a soft chuckle, I always encouraged my kids as I liked to call them to have a sense of humor, being able to see some thing funny in any situation would keep your moral high in even the worse case, which will provide them the will to live when most would give up and get killed.

"Conserta what did you do wrong? How come I got so close before you did any thing?"

"Sir, I uh, just didn't see you, the lighting in th..."

"You thought it would be nice to give Istiband realistic training by acting the part of a dumb business woman and not maintaining situational awareness or using your thermal implants to check for personnel other then your self in the building?"

Conserta just smiled awkwardly as some of the class giggled.

"Kate, since you can't get a job now thanks to the rape and brutal murder of Conserta, maybe you can tell me what you learned from watching their mistakes."

"Sir, they should have used thermal implants to check the house prior the Conserta the principle making any movement from a secured room, Istiband should have maintained a closer follow distance to Conserta so she could have reacted faster and she should have followed up her first shot with more to ensure you we're no longer a threat."

"Good observations, Istiband did you use thermal?"

"Yes sir."

"Why didn't you see me?"

"I guess I didn't look hard enough sir."

"You did fine, I had a jammer active preventing my body from showing up in a scan. Remember any tool you will ever have is going to have a tool out there that can counter it. Use the tools you have sure, but don't ever trust them to be right. As for your follow distance it was fine, you still had time to react before I could touch the principle which was good, the problem you had was with your follow up. You hesitated after that first shot. What happened?"

"I think I got scared when I missed your head and saw your weapon pointed at me sir."

"Ok, these live training scenarios ain't like the range, when that adrenalin starts pumping accuracy goes to hell what you have to focus on is follow up and acting before the threat. Remember nothing ever works right the first time so you need have and be ready to execute a back up plan. And in combat you need to execute fast or you will be executed."

I let my last words hang in the air for a few seconds before asking for my next two volunteers. I wont like I had really taken a liking to my new job much more so then any of the things I had done in quite some time, slowly these young women would become like family to me my own little bastard children I could raise up to be dysfunctional like my self I would tell people with a chuckle.

As I left the school house that night an incoming call came over my comm.

"Borby when are you gonna get your ass back in space!"

"I donno, maybe when your ass comes free with my ship."

Mystic laughed like she always did when I made excuses about not flying. She had been pestering me ever since I got my new job to get back into "the life" so far much to her dismay I hadn't changed my position."

"I just thought I would call and let you know I'm now the owner of a bit of land in Itani space..."

"Great we'll build our first vacation house there for any time we get sick of gray and want some alone time!"

I smiled as more laughter rang out over the comm.

"Shuttup and listen to me silly, it's the site of that old wreck Leber got all that booze and stuffs from."

"He got drunk enough to sell that off?"

"I don't think so, I think he's gone away or some thing no one can seem to find him and I thought you would like to know."

"Hehe, well don't worry about me, he too much of a drunk to be able to kill me so I should be fine but thanks for letting me know."

"Haha you clown, I talk to you later some of us have real job and ships to take care of."

I said good bye as the comm went dead and my thoughts turned to Leber. Now there was a real goofball, he was though mostly an "enemy" of mine and I use the term loosely he was what I like to call a good ol boy. He had heart, didn't do much wrong intentionally and even when he attempted to be bad he would fail miserably. Rumors even say one of the reasons he failed at being a pirate was due to him sending most of his money to non-profit organizations in Dau and Itan that helped poor kids pay for pilot school so they could get good jobs.

"Farewell you fat old drunk." I mumbled as I looked to space wondering what mishap Leber was up to now.