Time was running out and Ballas knew it. Round the clock efforts on the part of the select techs to bring the crashed TALON Medical Transport back to life were paying off it was true,but the fact remained that somewhere out in the black a courier ship belonging to the Pan Galactic Mining Consortium was missing with a cargo that was priceless.

Sitting on the plateau outside of Central as the sun set it was almost peaceful. The wind which buffeted the plateau constantly was more pleasant than irrititating. As he surveyed the site below the wave relay station, his gaze turned to the approach of Vasily Chernikov. Vaz, as he was known, had turned out to be an incredible asset. There was nothing he didn't know about the engineering systems on the crippled transport. In particular his knowledge of the ships Cassandra drive system excelled that of the two so called experts that PGee had brought in at considerable expense. From his knowledge of Vasilys' dossier he knew he was a crewchief in the war and as such a certain amount of knowledge about reaction mass, avionics and life support was to be expected but Vasily went beyond that.

"How is it going Vaz?"

"Goes well it does", he replied, "I reconfigured standard surveying torps to function as seeker drone, should help in search".

"You WHAT!?" asked an incredulous Ballas.

"Reconfigured standard Mark 8 expendable survey drone to search for drive , emission and magnetic signatures" replied a non plussed Vasily.

" Do you realize you just increased our search capability three fold on this mission?".

"I confident your people would have thought this eventually", responded Vasily, " I go now to take a shower, oil leak finally fixed with hammer and bond seal after dripping all over mechanic" he said with an impish grin moving on.

Incredible thought Ballas, PGee has no clue about the quality of people they have hired for this mission. Walking a short distance off the wind buffetted ridgeline, he entered the small temp shelter that was serving as a combination dining hall and planning center. Bent over a small table at the end of the shelter deep in thought was the nominal mission commander David Ellis, formerly the pilot of a browncoat TALON class Medical transport SAGANAMI TWO FIVE in the war.

"Ahem" said Ballas clearing his throat. "Sorry, I was just thinking" replied Ellis. "I kind of gathered that" said Ballas with a sardonic grin.

"I just ran in to Vasily and he has basically multiplied our capabilities by sixety percent!"

"I figured he would do something, sixty percent though is kind of low for Vaz after he has been working on a problem" said Ellis.

"Are you nuts?!" queried Ballas in a tone of disbelief, "Thats incredible!"

"No Mr. Ballas, thats another day at the office for Vasily Cherniko" replied Ellis. "You see Vasily Cherniko was on the Colonial Transport Vessel PRINSENDAM"

"MY GOD! Are you kidding?" came the stunned reply .

"No I am not Mr Ballas."

"But the PRINSENDAM was a ghost ship with no survivors!" "Incorrect sir, there were three. It drifted for 8 and a half standard years without power before being found again when it drifted into the scan range of a defense platform on Aberdeen!"

"You know what happened dont you" asked Ballas. "Yes, Yes I do" replied Ellis. "Tell me"....."please" asked Ballas. Ellis looked off into the distance took a deep breath and sighed, "OK".

"Six years standard before the war began a group of colonists left NEW SIBIRSK bound for the rim. Halfway out they were hit by pirates or reavers no one knows, the survivors certainly don't. What is known is that the ship somehow got away with some loss of life and significant damage to not only its drive but its core systems as well. Astrogation was toasted, supplies were limited and the people that could fix the ship were dead or severely injured. They knew they were in trouble. At the same time they knew that among them they wouldnt quit. Hell they were colonists after all. Those types of folks strive on a challenge. So they began learning the ships systems by trial and error. They used the ships comp cent refrences, hard copy manuals and plain old guess work to begin repairs as they drifted. A few lost it, that was known. They killed themselves rather than face the hoplessness of the black. But the rest stuck it out. they kept at it and slowly-very slowly systems came back on line. Even Astrogation. As a matter of fact the technique they used to restore astrogation is a required first year course at the Academy on Persephone. Any ways, once Astrogation came back on line and they could finally fix their position they realized that with the limited drive capabilirty no one would reach safety before life support crapped out unless drastic measures were taken."

"What measures?" asked Ballas quietly. "Only enough life support was available for three." "My God!" "No Mr Ballas, God wasn't listening." Ellis went on in a steady detached monotone, " You see at that point there were over 36 men women and children on board." "What happened"? "They drew straws, or actually pieces of wiring conduit." "The three adults that "won" had to decide which of their children would live and which would die." "Oh Christ!".

"In order to hedge their bets they began training the "chosen". One concentrated on Astrogation,another on Electronics and a third on Engineering. All three were crosstrained in another in case of some unforseen emergency."

Ellis paused and looked directly at Ballas, "As bad as all that seemed it was nothing compared to the "Day". "The Day?" "Yeah, the day that it was determined that the three chosen had learned all there was to know. They were sent into what they thought was another training drill into EVA suits. A button was pushed and in the space of 14 seconds 33 men, women and children were sucked out into the black under voluntary ship wide decompression."

"What happened then?" "I dont know, no one does, only the three".

"Any ways the war had kicked off and things were getting confused. One day a watch officer on Platform 12Bravo off Aberdeen picks up incomming mass with a really wacked out drive signature. Identification shows a pretty smashed transport comming in on the eliptic to beat all hell. Luckily they launch a Medevac instead of a pulsed graser beam. When the Medevac got hard seal and accessed, the three survivors had been transiting for over six standard years. They ...had a tough time.

"You were there wern't you?" asked Ballas. "Yes I was Mr Ballas." " Yes I was. Thats were I met Vasily Cherniko, my crewchief, my friend".