A tiny frontier woman was on top of them as soon as they crossed the threshold, buzzing around Patrice in horror between brief, urgent hugs and kisses. His wife, Saul figured, as they set the young man down into one of his kitchen chairs. "Oh, God, Jim, what happened?" He winced as she wrapped her arms around him again. "'S all right, Annie. These folk showed up just the right time." Annie cast a worried glance at her husband, then straightened herself, smoothed out her apron, and turned to her three guests. "Xie xie, ke an le bian di kai hua nei tai ming!" "'Fraid they might as well have just left me to die." Annie cast a glance back at him, half scolding, half horrified. "Don't you say that." "Well, I ain't never gonna be able to pay Stoltz fer this house, am I? He jus' gonna keep comin' 'til no one bothers t' step in no more." "Wait…" Mariah stepped forward into the kitchen proper. "I don't understand." Patrice shrugged and nodded. "Davey Stoltz says I owe 'im five hundred platinum fer buildin' my farm here." "He owns this land?" Patrice furrowed his eyebrows. "Not exactly…" Annie set down the tea kettle she had been filling and took the seat next to her husband's at the kitchen table. "Davey Stoltz thinks he owns this whole town, on account o' his grandfather founded it. Says that since old man Stoltz gave out the first couple grants, anyone who wants to be part o' the town of Orville's leasin' his land. Ain't never been any law to back it up…" Patrice's hand came to rest on the table and squeezed his wife's gently. "…so he decided he'as gonna be his own law. Got a whole gang o' strong-arms and a bunch o' cash his family made by ownin' the mines before they dried up." Patrice cast a meek glance at his wife, as if ashamed to be telling this to outsiders, but Annie nodded for him to continue. "Nowadays, folk just mostly do what he says, let 'im run this town like his own personal plantation." Dex nodded. He knew the type—every backwater farmer did. "'Cept I don't got the money. We thought the house was far enough from th' town proper that Stoltz wouldn't say nothin', but then he starts sayin' that he gets to choose where the borders of the town is." Annie held her husband's hand as he continued. "Dirt the way it is here, we barely make enough for the two of us, and now we got a baby on the way…" At this, Annie looked warmly down at her stomach. The crew hadn't noticed it at first, but there was a small bump under her apron. It wasn't too far along, but it was there. Saul let his eyes wander around the small farmhouse and let out a muttered Chinese oath. They sure weren't making this easy. "Please? I promise to take really good care of her…" It had been over an hour now since they had left the farmhouse to explore the town, and Mona had been begging nonstop since then. It was just now occurring to her that Rachel might not be listening. "Miss Wu? Captain?" Rachel blinked and looked down at her pilot. "Shen me?" Mona looked askance at her captain, then frowned. "Captain, I'm tryin' to grovel, here." Rachel squinted down and Mona shook her head. She hadn't been listening to a word. "The cat." Finally, Rachel's eyes cleared in recognition. "Right. No." "Cap'n…" "I ain't gonna have any animal livin' on my boat. Probably get into the conduits or fill the air processors full o' fur." Mona sighed. She happened to know that the captain liked animals. What was wrong with her? Mona was about to speak when Rachel's comm clicked and Saul's voice warbled through. "Captain? Where are you?" Rachel scooped the handset off of her belt. "Mona and I are down in town. D'you get us a job worked out?" "We got a job, but…you see a farmhouse on the top of a hill, got a windmill behind it?" Rachel looked up. "Yeah." "You might want to get up here. We got into a situation in town, and…Dex and Mariah…" Rachel sighed. "What did they do now?" "We haven't done anything!" Rachel's father tried unsuccessfully to block the front door, but one of the Alliance grunts shoved him aside. The officer stepped into the house, looking around at the sparse but colorful furnishings with obvious distaste. "You're innocence isn't in question, Mr…" the officer glanced at the prospectus his attendant offered, "Wu. The Army of the Allied Planets needs this building to set up a communications interlink for our troops on this planet. We've already received word that the Independents have a ground base not far from here." "But, sir…this is our home…you can't just…" The officer turned his attention to Rachel's father and glared. He was thin, with a face that was beginning to show the wear of age and hard work. Rachel, held tight next to her mother, couldn't help but think how much bigger the Alliance officer looked, dwarfing the man who was trying to keep his home. "I feel compelled to remind you, Mr. Wu, that according to the Blanken-Sing Border Security Act, Parliamentary Bill 0401236, you are required to give aid and quarter to all representatives of the Allied Parliament and its military or be tried for noncomplicity." By now, the officer had moved closer to Rachel's father, leaning down over him enough to make the short man bend back. "My men are here to protect you from chaos. Have you ever heard what the Browncoats do to women and children they capture? Do you want that to happen to your family? Is that the kind of father and husband they breed out here at the pi gu duan zhan yu zhou?" Jasmine couldn't stand it any more. Her mother had a firm grip on her, but the girl's sudden motion caught her off guard. Rachel and her mother both snatched wildly at her, but the girl was already too far away. "Shut up, chwen yi dwei da buen chuo ro!" Rachel couldn't help but be impressed—where had a seven year old learned that? The Alliance officer seemed impressed too. For a moment, he looked like he might slap the little girl—then he began laughing. "I can see you've done an excellent job raising your children in the finest traditions of the Border." He was addressing Rachel's mother now, following Jasmine as she backed toward the rest of the family, suddenly very aware of what she'd said. His eyes shifted—Rachel didn't know what the look was at the time, but the officer smiled and raised his gloved hand to Mrs. Wu's cheek. "How a ke pa ha like yourself, Mr. Wu, could trick such a stunning creature into wedding you is beyond me." Rachel's mother flinched as he touched her cheek. His eyes shifted back, and now he was addressing her again. "You could have a wonderful future, you know. You don't have to be trapped on this go se pen quan xing xing." Mrs. Wu shivered under his hand, and Rachel saw her father's face twist in pain and his hand stray to the rolling pin discarded on the kitchen table. She opened her mouth in horror, glanced at her sister, then up at her mother, then one last time at her father. Rachel knew exactly what was about to happen. One of the soldiers saw him as he started the short charge to the officer and the rest of his family. The man shouted and tried to get between them, but Rachel's father drove right into the officer, the rolling pin landing a hollow-sounding blow to the side of his head. Rachel squeezed her eyes shut as the soldiers fired. Tears welled up in her eyes as the officer tried to right himself, staring down at the farmer's body with contempt. "Huen dan!" Now it was Rachel who charged, jumping onto the officer's back as he tried to pick up his hat. The man let out a shriek of pain as Rachel's fingernails dug into his cheeks. Rachel dragged her nails down his face, then cried out in pain as one of the soldiers slammed the butt of his rifle into the small of her back. She fell to the ground sobbing—Jasmine ran to her, and their mother hovered over them protectively. Finally taking his hands from his face, the officer glared down at them. He was bleeding, long streaks of red down his cheeks, and breathing hard. "Get them out." The last thing Rachel saw as the grunts encircled them was her father's body crumple as the officer kicked him…it…in the stomach. "We have work to do."