"Young lady, get back here!" Rachel skidded to a stop as if lassoed by her mother's rebuke. The thirteen year old sighed and turned on her heel. "What is it, Mom?" Her mother stepped out of the shadow of the covered porch, thin arms crossed sternly over her apron. "Where're you off to in such a hurry?" "Down to town. I finished all my chores, and old man Rawls always gets new shipments in on Tuesdays." Rachel's mother squinted into the searing afternoon sun, then nodded. "All right, but take your sister." "Mom!" "Yin wo yun ran!" Rachel rolled her eyes as her mother vanished through the kitchen door, then the girl circled back around the side of the house. Jasmine was probably playing with that stupid mud-puddle again. As Rachel cleared the side of the house, she heard splashing—sure enough, there was Jasmine, laughing, hands cutting through the muddy water, trying to grasp the white tadpoles that stuck out against the brown surface. Rachel shook her head—what a baby. "Hey, qiang shi dou lie ren!" Jasmine looked up and grinned as her older sister approached her pond. "Come on, we're going down into town." "Okay!" Jasmine bounded up and, before Rachel knew it, the six year old was in front of her. Rachel let out an exasperated sigh as she jogged to catch up—when would this kid run out of energy? Rachel had finally managed to catch Jasmine's hand as they reached the middle of the hill that led into town. Rachel squinted as she looked out over the laughably named sun-baked mud pit of Pierson City. Something was wrong. Usually at this time of day, there would be people about: farmers talking about their crops, tradesmen hawking their cheap wares, old men sitting on their porches, whittling or smoking. But there was no one. Rachel squeezed Jasmine's hand as they walked onto the clay main street. She had a bad feeling about this. As they rounded the first bend in the road, Rachel heard muted noise coming from Rawls' Miscellany, the general store. Rachel pushed open the door and blinked in confusion; it looked like the whole town had crammed itself into Mr. Rawls' tiny one-room shop. Rachel craned her neck to try to see over the crowd; all she could tell for sure was that the Cortex screen, the only one in Pierson City, was switched on. Rachel grabbed her sister's hand tighter as she tried to push through the crowd. "Excuse me, excuse me…" she tugged on the coat of one of the farmers. "What's going on?" The man cast an annoyed glance downward and shook his head. By the time Rachel fought to the front of the store, she was more worried than she'd ever been. She grabbed the owner's sleeve. "Mr. Rawls, what's goin' on?" Rawls cast a pitying glance downward and pointed at the screen. This close to the front, Rachel could now hear the news report. "…leaving over one hundred dead or wounded. The Parliament has issued a new policy in response to the incident, saying that the inclusion of the outer planets in the Allied system will be mandatory, and ensured by military and Interpol forces if necessary. Multiple independent factions have already…" Rachel looked up at Rawls in confusion. The old man had a grimace plastered on his face. "Alliance comin', bi niu. We're goin' t' war…" "Kitties!" Dex dodged out of her path as Mona made a beeline for the wooden box with five kittens milling about in the bottom. She leaned her face down, a dumbstruck grin on her face. "Oh, they're so cute. Cap'n can we please get one? I promise I'll take care of her, and feed her, and play with her every day…" Dex glanced sidelong at Rachel, half expecting her to snap at the teenager again. Luckily, Rachel wasn't paying attention at all. She seemed to be staring at the hills that bordered Orville. Come to think of it, she had been ever since they'd stepped off the ship. "Rach?" Seeming almost reluctant, she shook her head and glanced over at her mechanic. "Why don' I take Mariah n' Saul, find Tyco about this job?" Rachel cleared her throat and nodded. "Right." Before he began to move off, Dex placed his hand on her shoulder. "You sure you're all right?" Rachel tried to smile. "Yeah, I'm fine." Dex wasn't convinced, but the best thing he could do right now was give her some time to mull it over. If she wanted to tell him something, she'd tell him. With one last skeptical glance at his best friend, Dex shook his head and began to lead the others off toward the center of town. Rachel watched them go, then turned her head back down to Mona. The girl had selected the smallest of the kittens, a ball of orange and white fluff, and was making kissy faces at it. Rachel turned her head to look more closely at Mona. God—she was so much like Jasmine. Dex held the door open for Mariah as they left Tyco's Feed. The deal was all set up…he'd have the canisters of alfalfa on their ship as soon as it was collected, and at a much more reasonable cost than Dex had expected. Tyco's original price had been an arm and a leg, of course, but he'd seemed more than willing to lower it as a favor to Mariah. Dex cast a glare at the large, sweaty man in the shadows of the feed store—the look Tyco was giving Mariah made him more than a little uneasy. He swung the door shut in what he hoped was a clear and pointed manner. Saul cracked his shoulders as his eyes swept the dusty town. "Well, we got a good two days 'til he gets us that shipment. What now?" Dex shrugged. Before he could make a suggestion, he noticed that the few people who had been on the street when they went in to the feed store were gone. Now, there were just the men at the other end of the road. The middle one on a horse, the other two on foot. All armed. And there was the young man at their feet. Mariah squinted. "What are they doing?" Dex narrowed his eyes. He'd seen this kind of thing back home, too often, from the ranch owners' prods. "Ta men bei za." Mariah's eyes bulged. "They're not going to lynch him!" Saul nodded. "Wonder what he done." Dex strode forward. He didn't have his gun with him, but he wasn't listening to the part of his mind that would have told him that. "Don't matter. Ain't nothin' as deserves that. Come on." Saul hesitated. Mariah cast a glance up at him as she followed. The cook sighed as he drew his gun and jogged after them. Sometimes those two were almost as bad as Mona. "…think I like makin' a example o' you, Patrice? I had my way, we'd all jus' get along, but you don' wanna seem t…" One of the others tapped the mounted man and he halted his speech. Stoltz grinned as he looked up at the three approaching them. He'd never seen them before—it was likely they belonged to that fancy ship that had landed that afternoon. "A'ternoon, folks. What all can I do fer ye?" Dex crossed his arms. "You can show me your badge or you can untie that man." Stoltz looked back at his compatriots and began to chuckle. "Guess you's new here, boy. I's Davey Stoltz, an' I runs this 'ere town." Mariah grabbed Dex's shoulder and pulled him back. "Looks like a protection racket. Be careful." "Girl's smart, four-eyes. Y'all oughta just be on yer way." Dex looked at Saul out of the corner of his eye. The cook nodded slightly. Dex stepped back toward the horse. "Y'all oughta cu qiang jian bi ci." Stoltz burst out laughing. "Hot damn, boy, you do got guts, don'tcha?" His laughter faded. "Kill 'em. Even the girl." As the standing men raised their guns, Dex dove for Mariah. He had her on the ground as they took their first shots. Unfortunately for them, both those shots were aimed toward the movement—that meant that by the time they saw Saul raise his pistol, they were already on the ground. One was obviously dead, but he'd hit the other in the knee. Without a word, the cook leveled the gun at Stoltz. He looked down the barrel, then at his men on the ground, then at Patrice. Then he shook his head. "Y'all just killed yerselves." Before Saul could mutter his witty response, Stoltz had turned the horse and was off back toward the hills. Mariah looked up at Dex as she saw the horseman ride off out of the corner of her eye. "Thanks." "Yeah, well, I din't want you to get shot." "So…I can get up now?" Dex climbed off of her and cleared his throat, his entire face red. He offered her his hand. As soon as she was standing and Dex straightened himself, Saul grabbed the mechanic by his shoulder and wrenched him around. "What the hell were you thinkin', man?" Before Dex could answer, if he would have, they both turned to the sound of the young man, Patrice, groaning as Mariah helped him to his feet. "You all right?" The man, dust and blood stuck to his face, nodded weakly. "You shouldna done that. Y'all don't want to deal with that man." "We couldn't just let them kill you." Mariah cast a bitter glance up at Saul. "Right?" Saul grimaced, and finally sighed in spite of himself. "You live around here?" Patrice nodded, wincing in pain. "Come on." Dex shot his eyes around the town before they began to walk. He could swear there were a few people looking back at him from between window shades and slatted doors, eyes wide, and the sound of astonished muttering drifting into the street. Dex gulped. He believed he might have just had the bad fortune to have turned himself into a hero.