It had been a long time since I'd been to Odia and actually stopped. Needless to say, members of the Itani military weren't looked on too kindly here. The disguise helped a little, but I still felt uneasy. The "man" sitting across the bar glaring at me didn't help the feeling. I used to frequent these places with BLAK, but a lot had changed since then. Unfortunately, if I were to find Shape, this was the place to start.

I played over the fragmented message again in my head. I'd had it stuck in my mind the whole voyage to Odia and had unknowingly comitted it to memory.

"Compensation will be arranged ... crash the trade routes ... combat vessels ... [SKV] squadron ... planning stage ... Itani forces ... pincer movement ... Deneb-Geira Rutilus border ... full load of cargo ... take part in this assault"

I needed those fragments decoded.

"(cough) Now here's a fella tryin' much too hard not to be attractin' (cough) attention." A gritty voice from behind me spoke.

I turned to see a crippled old man, who looked like he'd been swimming in the waste tank for a weeks voyage, approach and take the seat next to me.

"(wheeze)Aye, you be all wrapped up in ye cloak there, tryin' much too hard not to be makin' eye contact (cough) with anythin' a'tall" he said.

"Listen," I replied. "I'm looking for someone and would appreciate it if you would leave me alone."

"No matey, he be lookin' for you." Suddenly, his cough was gone, his voice clear and any signs that he was crippled seemed to disappear. "But the shape of things be that he already knows where ye' are. Bay 4, 1 hour and 37 minutes."

"I'll be there." I said.

"Yarr, I be needing (cough) a grog! Barkeep!! (cough)." He said as he walked away from me, back in character.

The fact that Shape had already found me didn't really surprise me in retrospect. He probably knew I was looking for him before I left Itan. At first it seemed strange to me that he was keeping me waiting 1 hour and 37 minutes, but knowing Shape he was probably already there and just yanking me around for fun.

I walked straight to Bay 4 and attempted to open the door only to find it locked. I pulled out a small rectangular computer pad. SKV issue lockpit kit, never leave home without it.

Just as I began to hack into the door, it flew open. My hand went straight to my pistol, but before I drew it a familiar voice spoke:

"You're 1 hour and 28 minutes early," said Shape.

I stepped inside as the door closed behind me.

Shape wasn't, in fact, much of a stickler for being on time. He preferred "Fashionably late", Stylish. But there were so few opportunities for that these days.

However, he surmised that the illusion of punctuality could be useful, and did his best to test that hypothesis as often as possible.

In this case, he wanted Ghost on the defensive. This is not to say that he felt any particular animosity toward Ghost, far from it, he considered him a good friend. But Wars do divide people, even friends, and whatever Shape would get out of this, would likely not coincide with Ghost's aspirations for the itani people.

Ghost entered the bay cautiously.

"Come in, Come in" Shape groaned.

Ghost didn't smile. Shape found this odd, and chalked it up to perceived BLAK-SKV tensions.

"If I was going to kill you, I wouldn't have given you the opportunity to be cautious. I'm a pirate, not a sadist. And while I may have found your recent career choices rather... disconcerting. A friend is a friend."

Ghost didn't really relax.

"Well, apparently death ISN'T on your mind..." Shape mused.

"Which begs the question as to why you think you can convince me to help you...?"

Shape gestured toward a small cruiser.

"Lets take a ride and talk about it"

....

I climbed into the transport just ahead of Shape. His remarks about a friend being a friend had comforted some of my concerns, but with other matters at hand I just couldn't force myself to relax. I didn't bother to ask where we were headed as Shape manned the controls and took off.

"It's good to see you again old friend," I said.

"Likewise, it's certainly been a while." he replied. To be honest, I would have loved to shoot the shit with him and catch up on things, but I just couldn't get that message out of my head.

"Maybe once this whole thing is over we can catch up on things and reminisce about the good old days over a pint, eh?" I said as a grin forced its way to my face.

"I'd like that matey," He replied with a smile. "But what thing is it exactly that you're talking about?"

"Well,as you've already gathered I need your help," I said. "I recieved this message two days ago. It was intercepted from somewhere in grey." I plugged a small data storage device into the ships system. The message played.

"Compensation will be arranged ... crash the trade routes ... combat vessels ... [SKV] squadron ... planning stage ... Itani forces ... pincer movement ... Deneb-Geira Rutilus border ... full load of cargo ... take part in this assault"

"Interesting..." mused Shape. "And what would you have me do with this?"

"As you can tell, there's a lot of fragments that are not decoded. I need them deciphered." I said.

"Ah, and should we be able to decipher it, what's in it for me?"
He asked.

"The satisfaction of helping an old friend?" I said with a grin. Shape chuckled. "But should that not be enough, a portion of SKV funds could be... diverted to you."

He remained silent, considering the offer.

"Come on, you, me and the rest of the gang. It'll be just like old times." I said. Part of me was really looking forward to seeing all my old friends again. "Well?"

"I'm thinking" he said flatly.

I nodded and stared out the cockpit. "So, where are we going?"

The ship flew on in silence.

Shape hummed a little tune and ignored Ghost's question. Another hour to go... How to kill the time?

"So Ghost, we've got roughly another hour until I make my decision, how bout a game of go?"

Ghost looked perplexed, "An hour? Why?"

"Well, the hyperdrive hasn't been invented that will get us there instantaneously.." Shape mused.

Ghost wasn't amused. "Where's 'There'?"

Pulling out the Goban and his stones, Shape knelt and gestured for Ghost to take the seat opposite.

"So, Shidougo? or a Handicap?"

Ghost would not be sidelined apparently,

"Shape, I'd like to know where we're headed"

Well, that was easy enough to answer. But it was also too much fun drawing this out.

"Excellent question. Now, I think I may be disinclined to chat, so perhaps Shidougo is out. So, place 9 stones."

Ghost looked non-plussed, but seemed to resign himself to Shape's games.

The next hour passed in relative silence, except for the click of the stones against the board.

Finally, the game ended...

Shape smiled as he stood up, "Right on time."

"Shape?"

Shape gestured toward the radar. "Look for yourself."

Ghost walked up to get a better look at the HUD, but it was just as visible from any of the windows. A Constellation-class vessel, with UIT Senate markings.

Shape watched as Ghost ran the numbers in his head, delivery times for itani equipment shipments specifically.

"Keep your funding Ghost. I want that."

"That's my price"

"Goddamnit." I said, still staring at the massive ship in front of me.

"Well, what's your answer?" Shape inquired.

I thought for a minute. "You want to play some chess?"

"No," came Shape's flat reply.

"Shit," came mine. I sighed and went over my options. There weren't many. The intel I would get in return could be invaluable to the Itani people... or it could be garbage. Unfortunately, there was only one way to find out. "Alright, whatever you're planning, I'm in."

"I knew you would be," said Shape with a grin.

"On one condition," I said turning to face him. "I'm not a pirate anymore Shape. We had some good times as BLAK, but that's all over now. I only have two loyalties left, one is to the Itani people. Word of this can't get back to the Itani or I'll be finished."

"Of course mate," He said in that calm, non-chalant way that only Shape could do. He clapped me on the back, "What did you think we were gonna do, broadcast it to the universe?"

"Alright. Let's get started then, I don't have a lot of time. I'll make a call to Bojan, given the circumstances he may be willing to help. Do you have a plan?" I asked.

Shape and I stared at eachother for a moment before speaking in unison.

"We always have a plan."

"So where's the rest of the gang?" I asked. "I'm not sure how Borb's going to take working with me again."

"They're coming," Shape said as he began to steer the transport away while humming the same tune. "And don't worry about Borb, I spoke with him recently and I think maybe he won't kill you."

"Maybe?" I blurted.

"Out of curiosity," He said, cutting me off. "You mentioned you had two loyalties left; what's the other?"

"To my friends mate, to my friends."

"He wants.....whaaaaat!!!???" I screamed over vid-com at Ghost.

"Are you out of your mind? You know what will happen if it gets out that SKV is involved...", after the initial shock i was starting to cool down.

"I have a plan." Ghost replied.

"You always have a plan but... its Shape and BLAKs you are dealing with now and knowing that my crazy brother is among them too I can think of a million things going wrong.
OK, proceed with extreme caution, tell Shape ill play along, you can count on one SKV attack squadron as your backup.
SKV will however officialy deny any involvement if anything leaks out.
I dont want to spend the rest of my days hiding in Akanese space if things go sour you know.
Keep me informed, Bojan out." my vid-com screen turned black as i punched the off button.

Yoda stared at his console, he could not believe what he was seeing. He considered it for a moment, and then drank a large glass of Odia whiskey. “Hmm, what do I do with this information, and who can I share it with, this could potentially earn me a load of loot, but at the same time, turn half my old friends against me! But if I told them I knew, I would be in exactly the same situation!”. 'Them' were the other half of the family I was once involved with. And yes, family was the only way to describe it.

What I could do with this information could get me rich fast, but is that all that matters? I am not as sure of that as I should be, I'm worried, even without my influence, this can only be bad news. Maybe I should just lay low for a while, because surely, somewhere along the way I am going to get dragged into this...

He hated the long rides from UIT space to the GR-Deneb border. But this time he was in a particularly fey mood, almost giddy in fact. The problem was : he didn't know why.

He recognized the two characters of course, though he had no idea why. Mind you, he didn't get a good look at both, damn the grainy spycam video. But that small bald head guy with the addiction for go, he knew was a character named "Shape". The other dude, man, he should take a few lessons about disguises, was clearly that Itani patriot guy.

"Well then," thought he, "Now what should I write in my report to the Boss?"

He has about 159 hours and 41 minutes to decide before he get plunged into the war over at the border again. He often wondered why they keep shifting him between the border and this spy-gig. "For evaluation," seems like a lame reason.

"Well," he muttered to himself as the stars streaked by the window of his cell on board the SMV Vengeance. "I suppose they made me for some reason."

With that, he plugged himself into the nutrition socket on the wall, powered himself down, and drift into what could be considered "sleep". And then he began to dream.

I haven’t thought much about the old crew in a few months. Been too busy with my new work, weaving threads within threads, sewing an elegant tapestry slowly through the stars. Heh, Poetic right? I do tend to reminisce, I miss the old days, just haven’t had much time to lately.

Imagine my surprise to find a new message blinking in a sadly neglected encrypted channel, containing only two words:

“Family Reunion.”

<BEGIN REPORT>

CLASSIFIED [Project REFORGER] Report ABT-4132-19-C

From : Pantomine
To : Rear Admiral A. <-------->

Subject's cognitive abilities are satisfactory. Subject is able to make operational decisions without supervision or intervention from his handlers. He performed six minor espionage survey missions of low intensity with nominal results. In particular,his linguistic pattern demonstrate a tight correlation with recorded transcripts of his progenitor.

Subject's battle performance is unsatisfactory. We might need to integrate the regenerated parietal lobe into his control system. His current organic component of his brain apparently does not possess sufficient neural density to recover his progenitor's abilities. Please advise.

<END REPORT>