"Please try to hold still." Rachel sighed and relaxed under Doctor Chen's grip, letting her button-down shirt dangle in her free hand. He shifted his fingers slightly to the left. "Do you feel that?" "No." He nodded absentmindedly. "All right. The local's had time to start working." He leaned over to the instrument table and picked up a weave suture, then immediately began working the thin blue stitches into the captain's upper arm. "So, how exactly did this happen? If you don't mind my asking." Rachel shrugged with her free shoulder. "Fell into a corner durin' that fantastic landing Mona just pulled." She looked over at the doctor's progress, and saw that he was smiling. "Somethin' funny about that?" Leopold stole a glance up at her bemused eyes, then looked back down to his work. "No, not at all, it's just…when my uncle said we had to head for the frontier and that I might have to bring my skills into play, I imagined I'd be treating…" He shook his head. Rachel was looking at him again with interest. Over the past week since he and Sir Anderson had come on the ship, she'd seen more and more of a wild streak on the young doctor. "What?" He shrugged dismissively. "I don't know. Bullet holes. Knife wounds, laser burns, grenade shrapnel, like that." Rachel smiled just a little. "You're saying you wish we got wounded more often?" "Well…" The doctor paused for a moment, as if seriously thinking about it. "Not more often, just more…creatively." He grinned, and Rachel's smile widened momentarily. "Just, since we left Paquin, I've treated a headache, an ingrown toenail and, lest I forget, a severe case of the hiccups." Rachel grinned as she thought back on Daphne's 'medical emergency.' "I kinda wish you'd left her like that, now you mention. Seemed like we'd finally struck a surefire way to keep Daphne from talkin'." "You two really don't get along, do you?" Leopold pinched the sides of the applicator and the severed end of the last stitch adhered to the rest. "Why is that?" "We have different styles." "Yeah, I noticed that right off. Still, the way she talks to you, it's almost like…" He let the sentence trail off. Rachel's smile faded. "Got things need attendin'." She lifted herself out of the exam chair and slipped her blouse up over her undershirt, buttoning it half-way up as she headed for the door. Leopold set down the applicator and took a step after her. "Look, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry…" Rachel paused, then spun back to face the infirmary. "No, it's…fine. I just don't talk about…" She cleared her throat. "Thanks for the weave, doctor." "Please, call me Leo." Rachel slid her eyes up to meet his, and the ghost of another smile passed over her face. "Course…Leo." It looked as if she was about to say something more, but instead her gaze faltered. "We'll be on Persephone a day. You need any supplies, tell Saul or Mona, they'll be makin' a run this afternoon." Leo nodded. Again, the captain looked as if she was going to speak, then turned back toward the door and, without a word, stepped out toward the stairs to the upper level. Mona confirmed Artemis' departure time on the interface and leaned back in the pilot's seat, causing her to nearly fall over as the receiver began to buzz. Rachel stepped onto the bridge just as Mona brought the wave on screen. "Perfect timing, Cap'n, just got a message on local band." "Who from?" "See for yourself." Rachel leaned over the chair to look at the front console. "Bu lai ji xiang. You're sure this is for us?" Mona shrugged. "Our registry's in the receipt column." Rachel shook her head in amazement. Based on what she'd heard of the man, this could either be very good or very bad. "Send a response. Tell him we'll be by." Dex climbed the stairs to the bridge, wiping engine grease on the legs of his jumpsuit. "Happy to report that, just this once, we seem to have landed without a single critical part goin' boom. Nice flyin', ai zi wa." He ruffled Mona's hair and she squirmed out from under him, her nose wrinkling in mock disgust. "Surprised you had enough time to do a check at all. Figured you'd be off jie wen bu chi yu with Mariah…" Rachel had to shake her head as Mona grinned and Dex turned beet red. The two treated each other like brother and sister. Sometimes, it was cute. Others, it started to grate on the nerves. This was quickly becoming the latter. "Za suo you geng yao you xian…" The pilot and mechanic both backed off, shooting apologetic glances at the captain. "Mona, ask Mariah or the do…Leo to go with you when you head out for supplies. I'm gonna take Saul and Dex with me." "Where we goin'?" Rachel tapped the screen with an outstretched finger. "We got an audience." Dex adjusted his glasses and peered through at the wave. "Ci fo. I've heard of this guy. S'posed to be a big player in the underground here. Real xiu ji dan. What's he want with us?" Rachel shrugged. "Job?" "When do we meet him?" Rachel was already headed down the stairs. "Soon as we get there. Oh, and Dex?" He paused his steps after her. She looked down at the oil-covered gray jumpsuit. "Change." She turned back down the hall. "We want to make a good first impression, after all…" "So who is this ao huan, anyway?" Saul was a pace behind Rachel, on the opposite side as Dex, who smiled at the question. "Figured you would've run across him your last job." The cook elbowed his way through the dense crowd that mulled about the Eavesdown docks. "Yeah, well, bountyin' don't make you as many friends in low places as you might think. Some reason, wanted criminals didn't seem to buddy up to me." Rachel glanced back over her shoulder. For the first time in recent memory, Saul had very nearly made a joke. "Well, in the grand scheme, he's nothin', but he's a higher rung o' nothin' than we are. Got his hands in everything, so I hear." "Rach, you sure we oughta be dealin' with folk like him? Mean, cargo work ain't gettin' any more lucrative, but th' last thing we need is all our faces showin' up on a wanted poster." Rachel sighed. "I'm not sayin' there ain't truth to that. But we've taken illegal jobs before, and it wouldn't hurt to have the extra cash in hand. I think it's worth the risk." The trio fell silent as they approached a compartment building set up off the main road, two very large men with very large guns flanking the door. They raised the weapons as Rachel approached, hands spread wide. "I'm Rachel Wu. We have an appointment." One guard glanced at the other—he nodded. The first guard slid the door open and the three were admitted into the shadows of the office, a stark contrast to the merciless heat of the noonday sun. "Captain Wu." The chair at the far end of the room, partially obscured behind a desk and flanked by two more large guards, swiveled around to reveal a scrawny man with a hawkish nose and beady eyes. The new arrivals shifted nervously under his gaze, and Badger's features curled into a thin smirk. "Pleased to make your acquaintance."