Blood and circuits exploded out from the Serco's head, splattering the stunned Smittens and his cockpit.

"No..." he whispered, as the body sloped forward to the ground. Crawling forward, Smittens picked up the body, staring at the face so similar to his own. Hugging and cradling the corpse, Smittens began to whisper to it, as tears rolled down his face.

"My little brother...why...why..."

Minutes passed, and another clunk signaled a third ship docking. It had probably been a response to his distress call, but Smittens did not look as the door opened and an Itani came in. Still holding Karun he felt a hand on his shoulder. He was now openly crying. "Why again? Why! Why did he do it? Why did this happen?" He looked up to the hand's owner, expecting LeberMac or even Genotype. He blinked to rid the tears from his eyes, and saw Mogul looking down at him.

"It's alright Smitt...it's alright..."

Smittens seemed entangled in a mess of conflicting thoughts. Mogul could relate to that. His hand reached inside a pocket of his old IDF Cromwell squadron jacket and, touching the bottle of Placebo-Xin, thought perhaps something else was better for Smittens.

Mogul was surprised to see Smittens crying at a dead Serco. He never cared before. "I... er... came as soon as the distress hail buzzed on my screen. What's going on? Are you drunk still? Who the hell is that?"

Smittens could hardly pronounce a thing. Sorrow and remorse kept interrupting him. "my... brother..." was all he managed to say.

Surprised at this revelation, Mogul kneeled down and gently removed Smittens hands from what was left of Oernon and moved the corpse along side of Smittens, closing the eyes in the process. Indeed, he looked a lot like Smittens.

"Look at him carefully Smitty, Mogul said. Ignore the blood. We all have it inside. It's nothing. Just look at him. How peaceful he is. Try to remember that. We all fight our own wars. Our own deamons. How we deal with it makes us unique. Heroes, sometimes. He chose a path and you must respect that.

- But... it was my fault..." cried Smittens, hiccupping through the tears. "If I had known, if I had gone looking for him...

- But you didn't know Smitty. You didn't. It can't be your fault." Mogul added with a tear running down his cheek. "You didn't know. And you couldn't prepare for that. On the other hand, I have been responsible for the death of close family members. I know the pain you're going through but you are not responsible.

- I didn't do it! He killed himself! He came here to kill himself!

- He hoped you could take care of him after this, I suppose. Smittens, whatever path he chose you must respect. Perhaps his death served a grander purpose. Only time will tell."

Mogul reached inside another pocket and pulled a location beacon, activating it in the process. "I'm calling for someone trustworthy" he said. "His name is upper case. He's Itani. At hearth too. A merc for hire I've used a couple of times already. He'll take care of Oernon when he gets here. Come with me. We can't stay here.

- We can't leave him here! Smittens sobbed.

- He won't. He'll take care of it. He can come in here unhindered."

As Mogul pronounced these words, a Centaur Mark II docked on Mogul's ship. It had an Itani transponder and so did the small human that walked into Smitten's ship, through Mogul's. The ships were now forming a string of hulls, like an improvised station.

"hi there mr. velaio. what can i do for you today?

- Our friend here needs to be cargo-ed out of here and brought back to ..." Mogul hesitated for a while. He knew he couldn't bring Smittens himself in Itani space. Not yet anyhow.

upper case looked at Smittens and recognized him as commander of that guild wich he sought. He saluted him with the awkwardness of a recruit and asked "Where will be it, sir?

- No, upper case, I'm talking about the Serco here" Mogul replied for Smittens. "I'll take care of the commander myself.

- whatever you say mr. velaio. i'll take care of this. there's a strike force out there. they're looking for someone. i managed to kill off a couple and lost the rest of the pack with a few pre-programmed jump. i suggest you do the same on your way out." said upper case in his characteristic mono-toned voice.

As Mogul picked up Smittens, still mesmerized at the sight of his dead brother, upper case wrapped up Oernon's body into a clean sheet, picking up the larger pieces of his exploded head as he could.

Mogul caught Smittens' attention by placing himself in Smittens' line of sight. "We can't be seen together Smitty. Not yet. I'll take you to gray space. My refuge for now. upper case will meet us there and we'll arrange for a descent way to commemorate Oernon's last fight. We'll use my ship. I have a transponder-cheater on it. I can spoof my way into most stations. A gift from the Corvus people. These people really needed a hand with their paperwork."

Mogul walked Smittens to his ship, in a slow procession behind upper case wich was respectfully carrying, still not without difficulties, Oernon's body to his ship.

"We need to discuss a few things, on our way there" Mogul said.

upper case moved the corpse into the cargo bay of his centaur and lowered the cargo bay's temperature to near freezing in attempt to control the stench of the body.

washing his hands, upper case noticed a number of hard objects in the blood. it looked like electronic circuits, but upper case was no expert in the field. he had heard that the serco had implants of all sorts but, he had never seen the nature of these implants.

back in the cargo bay, uppercase gathered all cranial implants he could find and cleanse them as best he could and then washed his hands again. he stored the implants in a little pouch wich was, until that moment, reserved for his personal communicator and his location beacon he shared with mogul.

after verifying the air-tightness of the ships, uppercase un-docked from mogul's raptor and moved back 100 meters. after a few moments, mogul's raptor un-docked from from the commander's valkyrie. when mogul had moved out to a safe distance, upper case moved back some more and fired a volley of rockets into the valkyrie, destroying the ship to space pulp.

"this is uc-5 to merc central; proceeding to rendez-vous point alpha; beware of ion storm in f7; good luck; uc out" he radioed-in to mogul.

upper case's ship turned about and fired off it's turbos. the centaur ship jumped out a few seconds later, leaving the raptor behind.

Mogul pre-programmed a series of jumps in case the strike force would close in on him and sent his Raptor on auto pilot. Pulling out a couple of cups from a saddle bag hanging off the piloting chair, Mogul prepared what seemed like tea and gave a cup to Smittens.

"Smitty, I need you to snap out of it for a moment. I have something important to tell you, said Mogul.

- But... Oernon! Where are you taking him? sobbed Smittens.

- He'll be safe, don't worry. This mercenary, upper case, he can really be trusted. I owe him my life already. We'll rendez-vous with him in Latos. He knows where. Drink up Smitty, it'll relax you a bit.

- But when will I see him again? asked Smittens after he took a large sip.

- Soon Smitty, soon. Forget your brother for a moment. The war. I might know how to stop the war. For good. Everyone will be happy. There wont be enemies anymore. But I might have to do something... Drink up man.

- What? What are you going to do again? You put be in a tight spot with your wrongdoings! We all trusted you, you fool! Now all the pressure is on me!" shouted Smittens, as Mogul moved Smitten's cup up to his chin. Smittens took another large sip and continued "Let ITAN take care of it Mogul. We are responsible for the nation. Not you. Not anymore. said Smittens.

- When the time comes, Smitty, think back to this day. When the wormholes collaps, remember that both Eo and Akan will have given their lives to close the wormholes!" said Mogul, with a hazy look in his eyes.

Smittens stood up and looked right at Mogul, wiping his tears off his chin. "What are you talking about you doof? asked Smittens after another sip.

- I'm saying Eo and Akan have agreed to do something. Something big, Smitty! They're going to use it! Yeah... the big bore! KA-BOOM! They're going to DO IT! The hell with galactic treaties. The big bore will bore a hole in space and close them damn Serco wormholes! Ahaha! The look on everyone's face when it will blast off! Yeah!... the bore.... the Big bore... hehe..." said Mogul as if he was speaking to a gallery. He walked and extended his arms around as if he was pointing to people as he gave out his speech. It was almost comical. But mostly scary.

"You need help, Mogul. Someone needs to have a peek at your noodle soup and add some salt." said Smittens.

Mogul stopped his act for a moment and turned a critical eye to Smittens. "Sorry!" he said as he tilted his head on the side.

Smittens' view of Mogul's last gesture seemed really weird. As Mogul tilted his head with his ear right down to his shoulder, Smittens realized Mogul's eyes were leveled throughout the whole gesture but the universe seemed to tilt in the opposite direction. A sense of dizziness overcame Smittens wich sent him down into netherland, dropping his cup on the cockpit floor in the process.

Mogul looked at Smitten's unlikely position on the floor and said "Sleep tight buddy. You can't know just yet!" as he sat down at the controls.