Dean Dean finds himself adrift in deep space after an unfortunate collision on the fold space highway. A chance discovery of an unusual artifact brings him to the attention of the feared Dedan Empire.
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Having just spent time with the richest creature in the galaxy Grath had expected the upgrade of his beloved Vorpal-3 craft to be spectacular and he hadn't been disappointed. Although the external structure had been altered it had retained enough of its original physical features to ensure that it rediscovered a modicum of the original mixture of grace and power which had been lost, over the years, to battle damage and asteroid collisions. The increased armour made it look fatter and the visible weaponry ensured that it could never be mistaken for a peaceful craft. However that didn't bother the mercenary as his mission didn't require covert subterfuge.
Internally the improvements had also been impressive. Every corridor and room had been cleaned and where there had once been outmoded, faulty or barely functioning technology there were now state of the art consoles which left him wondering what they were all for. To add to the joy, the strange noise in his control room chair had been removed so that it no longer sounded like a Caroobian hog breaking wind any time he got up from it too fast.
Having chatted with MAI, Grath was happy she had not been tampered with but there was one addition to his ship that he was certainly not happy about. Tal Garu had provided him with a couple of extra crew members that didn't fit his requirements and he could do without. He had tried to tell the two Miceand robots that they were surplus to requirements, but they had simply responded in cold, emotionless, electronic voices that they had been programmed to be his bodyguards and, contradictorily, that if he tried to remove, or somehow deactivate, them they would be forced to kill him.
During a couple of gangster wars Grath had seen the robots in action and despite their unimaginatively simple squat humanoid appearance he knew that the dark blue forms were packed with enough weaponry to take on a small army. Also, as their sensors could monitor his heartbeat from anywhere on his craft he couldn't easily run and hide from them if things went wrong.
If their purpose was solely one of protection, then that wouldn't be a problem, but he felt sure that his employer would have added plenty of other instructions to ensure his life would soon become less of a priority if he appeared to be neglecting his mission.
There had been several futile attempts to contact his employer as he tried to remonstrate and get rid of the unwelcome crew members but each message, and request for a meeting, had been met with an automated response informing him that 'Mr Garu is busy at the moment and isn't taking calls'.
Being a pragmatist, who didn't like being killed by his own automated bodyguards, Grath reluctantly had to accept the situation. He didn't trust any robot he'd not programmed. For now, however, there was little he could do about them. Anyway, he felt sure they weren't likely to become a threat to his safety, at least not until he'd completed his mission.
Despite having a few weeks until the timelines converged, so that he could earn his money, Grath had no desire to hang around Kualanandar for longer than was absolutely necessary. Money tended to attract the wrong sort of friends and he had no desire to be the target of some opportunistic thief or kidnapper.
