Mona raised her sword with only a second to spare and, with a click, Sir Anderson's blade stopped against hers, mere fingerwidths from her head. She pushed forward on the epee, and Sir Anderson backed up a few steps, flourishing and grinning smugly. The noble lunged, but Mona rolled onto her knees, ending up on his left. She swung the sword around toward his back, but he twisted his arm around for a parry. Mona, breathless, shrugged appreciatively. He was pretty spry for an old fellow. Leo watched the duel from the catwalk, smiling. It was nice to see his uncle finally making an effort to fit in. The doctor felt something drag against his thigh and his eyes wandered to the left. Daphne had slid along the railing and was now pressed against him. She gave him no coy looks, however, but merely watched the fight and let the feel of her skin through the sheer silk do its work. "Who's winning?" "I, uh…I don't think they're keeping track." Daphne smiled and shook her head, thinking just for a moment about something other than how to bed the good doctor. "How did this happen?" Leo sighed contentedly. "As I understand it, she was rooting around in his room, making a nuisance of herself, found one of his foils, started asking questions, and…" the doctor waved his hand out toward the duelists, "…this." She nodded, her momentary distraction by the spectacle fading. Daphne's foot slipped backward, wrapping behind Leo's and pulling his leg between hers. "I'd love a…blow-by-blow description." Leo shifted, a little uncomfortable. Since he'd come on board, the Companion had spent the majority of her free time trying to seduce him. It certainly wasn't that the doctor wasn't interested…but, like most everyone out here, she was a very different kind of personality than he was used to dealing with. On the Core, you sought out a Companion, not the other way around. Leo breathed a sigh, mingled relief and regret, when Rachel and Dex came down the stairs from the bridge. Rachel gestured at Daphne and scowled—Dex merely smiled wanly. Leo cleared his throat. "Captain…Rachel. I hope you don't mind, we're using your cargo bay as a gladiatorial arena." Rachel glanced down at Mona and Sir Anderson dancing around each other and shook her head. Only two people who hated each other that much could possibly get along that well. "Mona!" The pilot looked up to the catwalk just as Sir Anderson's jab fell, the ball-tip pushing against her shoulder and the harmless blade bending up under the weight. "Hey, no fair!" The old man merely grinned, saluted with the weapon, and dropped it to his side. Rachel was halfway down the stairs to the cargo bay. "Hate to interrupt the fencing lesson, but we are comin' up on Athens, and it might just be a good idea t' have someone sittin' in that big chair upstairs who knows how to fly the ship and keep us all from dyin'…you know, some kind of…what's the word…" Dex leaned over the railing. "Come on, Rach…" Rachel ignored him and snapped her fingers. "Pilot! That's it. Now who here do you think fits that description?" Mona's nose wrinkled in annoyance as she tossed the sword to Sir Anderson. "I want a rematch." The old man shrugged. "The loser always does." "Jus' scurry on up to the cockpit and get us to ground. I ain't payin' you to play at kun ba xi." Mona nodded meekly. "Yes, Miss Wu." Sir Anderson frowned at the captain's tone. "Now, Captain, you don't have to be so rough on her. It was my idea." "Yeah, and that's another reason you ought to stay out of this, you zi si cai zhu. What if she got hurt doin' that?" "I…I assure you, the blades are quite harmless." Rachel finally managed to catch herself, and bit her lip. "Just strap in for landing." As the others filtered off to take their positions for landing, Dex trotted down the stairs and settled into place beside his commanding officer and best friend. "All right, qin jie, what's up?" Rachel looked back at him, confused and a little annoyed. "You been ornery as all hell last few days. Sir Chen I can understand, but I ain't never seen you talk like that to Mona. You two get your spats, but…you ain't never been mean before." Rachel had to bite her tongue to keep from lashing out at him—and that more than anything made her realize that he was right. She shook her head. "I'm sorry. It's just…the Chafees reminded me of somethin'." Dex nodded. He would have liked to ask what, but he knew her too well; Rachel Wu wasn't one to talk about her feelings. "I…I'll be in the engine room." As Dex edged away from her, Rachel swore silently to herself. She had to stop taking it out on them—it wasn't their fault, after all. It was hers. When he cleared the stairs, Dex turned his head toward the dining room as Rachel tromped into the forward corridor. Shaking his head, he let himself slide into the engine room and practically jumped when he turned around to face the corner of the room. Mariah shrugged apologetically as Dex tried to regain his composure. "Sorry. I'm just…hiding." Dex glanced back to out into the corridor, where Rachel was just now disappearing onto the bridge. He could understand that. He gestured for Mariah to sit on the low shelf running around the small room. "I've been trying to avoid her for the past few days." Dex chuckled. "Why didn't I try that?" He shook his head. "Just wish I could figure on what's got her so yuan sha xiao gou." Mariah cast a token glance down the hallway, even though Rachel was long out of sight. "What do you know about her family?" Dex blinked in surprise at the seemingly random interjection, then shrugged. "Just what she told me. Folks died in the war. Think she had a little sister too, 's why she gets so motherly to Mona sometimes." Mariah nodded thoughtfully. "Why?" Mariah shook her head. "Just a feeling. This started right after we left Hobenson's. Maybe that Chafee girl got her thinking…" Dex sighed and nodded. "Guess I got lucky there. Never had no brothers or sisters, 'less you count Mona. My folks died 'fore I could know 'em…all the family I got's here on this boat." Dex shook his head out of his musings. "How 'bout you?" Mariah shrugged. "Oh, you know. Mother, father, pets. Quan shou. But we don't really talk anymore." Dex nodded sympathetically. He'd always been curious about why she'd left the Core, but she didn't like to talk about it—it seemed like no one on the ship was very excited about people knowing what they came from. Still, he was fighting with the temptation to ask when the comm buzzer rang. "Dex, you wanna come up to the bridge? We're about to break atmo." Dex smiled reassuringly to Mariah, then turned and headed out into the corridor. When he hopped up the stairs to the bridge, the view was filled with the white and orange curve of the planet Athens. The world's famously hectic weather patterns spun the clouds in lazy circles, casting shadows on the scrub below. As Artemis broke into the atmosphere, Dex could see the ruins of the old cities. The War had been hard on Athens; only the farms still had any measure of success, and that was slim. Rachel glanced at the markers on the side console representing landing beacons. "There. Head for Wai 4-6. That'll put us down right outside Orville." Mona nodded, subdued, and bent the flight yoke down toward the landing site. When the ground came swooping up and the ship settled into a sand-lined landing pit, Dex stumbled to keep up with Rachel's businesslike march down toward the cargo bay. When the cargo bay doors swished open, Rachel's breath caught in her throat. As if things weren't bad enough… She imagined that all Border world farming towns must have looked similar in certain ways—the same wood-frame houses, the same windmills, the same solar sheeting on the same adobe brewery. But somehow the town of Orville, Athens looked just like home.