"Bonjour..."
    The mare started imperceptibly and stopped typing, looking up to he who had spoken. Obviously a Renardènian fox, as the accent revealed. With all the noise in the hangar she hadn't heard him approach, which wasn't fine - damned inventory update - but he smelled cleaner than most station denizens if nothing else. He was holding a burnt- smelling item which could have been something like a computer board once. "Welcome, sir. May I help you?" she asked with a smile.
    The fox raised his cap and fingered the badge upon it. "Jean Devereaux, of the Renardènian Engineers Guild. I'm looking for the new manager of this department, they said his name's... Mr.Sparks, if I'm not wrong. I need some hardware replacement for a ship there" He pointed at the repair docks, his tail waving slowly.
    She giggled, putting the palmtop into her pocket. "Well, actually, that's me... 'Sparks' is the callsign I've been given by the crew..."
    The fox seemed around twenty-five, about six feet tall: a bit above his species' average, though he barely reached the mare's shoulders. Besides the rather old-fashioned hat, he was wearing jeans and a flight jacket, as well as a glasses computer, and a subtle feline scent of some sort was upon him.
    A polite and patient one, to her relief, yet the list of the spare parts he needed was long and a bit odd. Uhm... decidedly odd.
    "Well, I guess all the pieces you need are available at the moment, Mr.Devereaux. They will be delivered immediately, just the time to place the order. It was dock nine, right?" She began to select the pieces on a nearby terminal, while Jean gave a better look at a somewhat strange item he had noticed on a display table.
    Their ears tracked a loud noise of clashing cans from a near cargo bay. Fifth cycle, that was usually the rush our on the station...
    Not that there was so much traffic anyway. The station had been considered a major merchantile harbour in the past, especially in the years right before the cold war between the Alliance and the Rijan Confederation, but after being chosen to host the military outpost for sector five of the frontier, it had quickly lost a fine part of its importance. Too many controls on the load of passing transports... even after the Tukana treaty was signed, five years before, commerce hadn't taken up well. The main source of wealth for the quadrant now were the mining facilities in its huge asteroid fields, but they were all far from Hynos, the planet - her home planet - the station orbited around.
    "...done! Seems all the pieces are available. Only..." she gave a doubtful look at the list, "out of curiosity, Mr.Devereaux, may I ask what kind of ship needs a device like a level seven plasma channeler?" Jean smiled and smoothed his whiskers, not hiding a little bit of pride. He pointed out a large ship anchored on the far side of the hangar. "I'm second pilot of that ship, the Mjolnir. I and my captain have been off for a while, but usually we visit Border Space Five quite often..."
    It was just the ship she had first noticed when she had entered the bay that morning. It would have been quite hard not to notice it actually\x85 Warhammer class corvettes were largely employed by the Alliance navy, but very uncommonly seen in the hands of pirates or bounty hunters: they were closer to tactical bombers than ordinary fighters, about one hundred and fifty
metres long, and an extremely impressive aspect.
    She had gave it a better look during the lunch break. A fine piece of hardware... Like most ships of Renardènian manifacturing it was fish-shaped, its form resembling that of a huge torpedo, with the exposed guns and missile racks under its wings conferring upon it an even more imposing appearence.
    Most surprisingly, that one had been entirely painted with deep black instead of being decorated with the popular shark jaws picture. Many parts seemed to have been modified: in order to host a larger cargo hold and additional manoeuvering jets on the tail and fins, she'd have said. Its weaponry wasn't that ordinary too, including ion cannons, mining lasers and other items hardly ever useful on that type of ships. It was of Rah'warian registration though. The writing under the ID number red "K.R. Mjolnir".
    She had heard that name somewhere before. So, he was a privateer...
    From what she had heard so far, the essential difference between privateers and the usual scum was that they actually cared about their reputation, acting more like freelance bounty hunters, but not only... how could one say... they were privateers. There was no other term. Nobody had ever cared about finding one, as the name  had come to be used again since the beginning of the Alliance era and was fine - and quite fascinating, undeniably.
    She handed him the receipt. "This should be all. The delivery droids will be at the docks in a few minutes."
    "Ok, thank you..." Jean walked towards the exit but then he hesitated for a moment, looking at the power supplies display area, and returned back. "One last thing, by the way. I saw a very strange model of battery there..." he went near the display tables, where some droids were unloading large battery containers.
    Sparks reached him and looked at the item he had noticed. And something very strange it was, too. It looked simply like a large, opaque crystal with the structure of a neat dodecahedron, with twelve pentagonal faces, measuring nearly three inches in diameter.
    Jean crossed his arms. "I was just curious about this device. Never seen anything similar... maybe it's a new type of superconductor?"
    She was rather clueless though. The thing had no serial number, and it didn't even figure in the delivery schedule on her computer.
    "No, I suppose it isn't. Must have been an error made by the sorting staff..." She took a closer look. It was incredibly smooth, smelling just like plain crystal, and it even seemed to be glowing from some inner light source.
    Glowing!
    They went some steps away from the table, suddenly struck by the same idea. A large crowded starbase, plus an unidentified active device, equals...
    Sparks' tail shook nervously as she began to feel quite sweaty. "We... I guess we'd better call security..." "Ahem... yes, much be--"
    ...
    It took him a few seconds to realize, though feeling a gun pointed to his back was a sensation he knew way too well... Sparks, stiffened in terror, had one too.
    A sharp whisper came from behind them. "I wouldn't call security if I were * you. Now keep quiet and do exactly what I tell you ."
    Whoever was speaking had a strong Wuyan accent, and most certainly had used a scent masker: his being a male wolf was barely perceptible, even so close to him.
    Jean inhaled slowly. "Now are you going to shoot us, with so many witnesses around? The shot would be tracked down immediately..."
    "Of course..." The wolf whispered closer to their ears. "That's why I'm pointing two high pressure air syringes filled with nervine fluid. You know, after I'm gone it would take some time for the witnesses to realize you're standing there because you're dead."
    Sparks swallowed. "Now our lady will simply take that crystal and we'll all bring it to the office there. We are just two customers interested in the article. Fear not, it's no bomb. And remember, these syringes can shoot through clothes and have a very long shooting range..." He chuckled, slowly moving them from their backs.
    As Sparks carefuly picked up the crystal, Jean looked at the mysterious character. He was actually a Wuyan grey wolf, with a rather anonymous aspect and hostile, nervous gaze. His long brown Wuy mantle allowed him to hide his hands, though he was intentionally pushing the weapon tips against the fabric. His face wasn't a completely new sight though...
    "Well, guess what a coincidence..." thought Jean.
    He began to study the place around him. The ship dealer's was in fact nothing more than a reserved slot of the repair hangar, separated from the landing docks by a huge security door, about one hundred metres large and currently opened. Most of the space inside was blocked by a bulky fighter left on display, so that from outside it would have been extremely hard to notice what was happening. There were just  enough containers, ship components and display tables to make a quick
run impossible, and just not enough to provide any cover. There was little to do as long as the wolf was armed, but maybe there was a way to deal with this.
    They all headed towards the office - a small room with plain, essential furniture - where the wolf ordered Jean to drop his weapons and Sparks to put the crystal in a small pressurized box. His tone was getting even more menacing... Jean was counting every single second, trying to find the right one to catch him unprepared, but he had obviously understood Sparks wouldn't have reacted and was focusing his attention on the fox. He barely managed to switch the glasses on with a proper cheek movement. It was hard to do but if he could just... The scent of their sweat had become quite evident by then.
    In the end he even put away one of the weapons, keeping distance from Sparks and mantaining him within range. Jean noticed what seemed a regular laser gun under the cloak. No good, but maybe he wouldn't have risked using it...
    "You seem nervous, fox. It will hurt you. Try to relax..." he muttered.
    Jean held his breath and tried to keep his tail from swinging more. By unusual luck, the wolf hadn't noticed his eyes and muzzle movements were made in order to frantically operate the computer...
    The mare's hands shook like leaves as she placed the device into the box. It was clear the wolf didn't have the intention of leaving any witnesses around.
    "Very well. Now lock it and give it to me."
    He had just pronounced the last word when a loud beep echoed through the room, followed by the sound of a tiny item shattering near the wolf's feet.
    His ears stood up straight. "What...?"
    "YEAH!"
    Jean snarled and leapt upon the wolf, his claws aiming at the throat; but the dog dodged him with incredible speed, spun, and delivered a powerful kick to his face, throwing him over the nearby desk. Sparks seized the occasion to hide behind the desk and activate the silent alarm, but the wolf seemed to lose control of himself, grabbed the box with a snarl and fled trough the automated door.
    He had just passed the threshold when he gasped for a second and stopped, taking a few steps back.
    Silence fell on the office. Sparks didn't even dare to move, her ears tracking the wolf's breath still close by. It seemed somewhat tense. Security should have been there in a few moments, nevertheless he found herself praying...
    No other sound, but Jean's moaning and the constant vibration of the station's engines. After a few endless moments, a female voice spoke from the hangar. It had a clearly tigerish accent, yet its tone was strange, somewhat calm and cold at the same time.
    "Vetis Yasa, of Wuy III. Nice to meet you. Can you guess my name too?"
    The wolf answered with a low growl. "I really couldn't care less. I warn you, get out of my way!"
    A few more moments passed, then the first voice spoke again.
    "Oh, bad idea. Another duel added to your file is really the last thing you need at this time, and security is coming here soon anyway. You know, you'd better just stop and surrender." Then, silence again.
    Recovering a bit of courage, Sparks carefully peeked from her hideout.
    The wolf was on the threshold still, nearly motionless, his ears pricked up, while he had parted his mantle and his hand was grazing the handle of the laser gun hanging from his belt. He was staring at someone in front of him, outside the office.
    Sparks spotted the second figure only for a moment, before the wolf's mantle dropped back . The white fur was a surprise, but she quickly realized she was really a white Rah'warian tigress, dressed in long dark clothes. She seemed ready for the duel too, her tail was waving slowly and rhythmically, but Spark couldn't see any weapon at her side.
    Now where in the hell was security... they were going to kill each other...
    She was no longer hearing the sounds from the outer hangar. The silence was growing heavier every moment. She could almost smell fear.
    Then in split second a rustling, a mettalic sound, a violet flash. The wolf snarled as Sparks heard another strange noise, then another, a growl... and finally an icky sharp sound which depicted awfully clear a shattered bone in her mind. A rather desperate howl. Finally, something fell to the ground with a thump.
    Sparks wasn't sure whether to breathe or not, yet the warning siren of yellow alert immediately began to sound through the station. She carefully moved from her hideout as Jean managed to climb over the desk, grumbling and trying to stop the bleeding from his nose. "Whew! Nice to see you, mon capitaine. Seems there has been a little unforeseen event, just for a change..."
    The tiger stepped into the office, stretching her right arm. She was actually a white, dark grey striped tigress; she looked surprisingly young, about twenty, in spite of her height and strong build typical of her species. Her hair was cloud white too, long and wavy but really a bit neglected. Besides  jeans she had quite odd clothes, a long, worn, black jacket over what
recalled a dark blue seaman shirt, and also a little dragon-shaped steel pendant.
    "At least the tip was correct this time. Good job disarming him, anyway. I was getting a bit worried when I saw he had took hostages." Jean was examining the broken glasses with a disconsolate expression. "Not such a smart ass after all - he didn't even notice the old weapon hacking trick... well, at least they served their purpose."
    She gave a disgusted look to the wolf, then turned to Sparks with half a smile. "Are you all right?"
    The tigress' eyes were of a beautiful water-green, but she seemed to find something slightly disturbing in her gaze. Her voice was always calm, nearly absent, but it seemed an actual feature of her normal tone.
    "Well... y-yes, I think." She gave a worried look at the wolf.
    "Oh, don't worry, they wanted him alive. He'll just sleep for a couple hours, and his arm's still attached more or less. By the way... my name's Blink."
    "Uh, ok..."
    A beeping sound from a corner of the room suddenly seized their attention.
    It was the crystal. Only, now it was obvious that it was something more.
    The crystal had left the box and was floating in mid-air, glowing with pale light and sending light pulses to the optical link device of Sparks' desktop, through one of its faces. The box was turned completely off, as if its power supply had been exhausted.
    Sparks began to sweat and her tail froze again... even worse, the others were surprised too, so nobody knew what was happening...
    The light pulses stopped. Then the crystal floated away from the desk and placed itself in front of them, spinning slowly in midair.
    *Can you understand me?*
    Jean and Sparks stepped back at the same, staring at the crystal. It had spoken... well, not actually spoken, but it had vibrated just enough to emit an articulated sound, with a perfect accent too.
    The tigress was still calm. She looked at her mates, but they had no clue. In the end she answered.
    "Yes."
    The crystal floated higher, placing itself at the height of their eyes. *I come in peace. I have downloaded all the information about your official language, so we can now communicate. I am what is classified as a 'level six silicium based life form' among your scientists.*
    They were still suspicious, but security was already entering the hangar. In a few seconds, four equines encased in battle armors arrived and quickly surrounded the office exit. "Everybody, step out slowly and keep your hands in sight."
    The tigress sighed.
    "Well, whoever you are, welcome to the Fur Alliance space. Sorry you had to see the worst part first."
 

    As they all hoped, the interrogatory didn't last long, as the sequence of events was pretty clear and Vetis Yasa was a smuggler well known by the militia of the Hynos Quadrant. A larger than usual bounty had been set for his capture by the powerful Ron & Dell Corp., and that was why they had been persuing him.
    Nobody seemed to know about the crystal though: the memory reading devices confirmed that Yasa was only due to retrieve it and deliver the item to somebody aboard another starship, but it was too late for the rendez-vous . The crystal entity itself had had its memory damaged and couldn't remember anything of what had happened to it before awakening, except its name and a few details about its form of life. After being transported with the ship components, it  was running out of energy, so it had linked to the closest active power supply - that of the box - in order to recharge, and then immeditely sought a way of communicating. After the interrogatory, the officer in charge handed Yasa over the privateers and sent the alien to the government offices on the planet for all the formalities.
 

    Blink and Jean met it again by chance nine days later, as Jean noticed him wandering the hangar of that same space station while they were returning to the starship. Blink *waved to it , inviting it to join them.
    "Hey, that's you. Back from the usual week of controls and diplomatic meetings, right?"
    The crystal floated near them, spinning in front of them, on the threshold of the ships's main access.
    *Yes. I have been certified a sentient being and given basic civil rights. I was just looking for you in any case.*
    "For us? And why?"
    *First of all I wanted to thank you for my rescue, probably I would have been used for some illegal experiment without your intervention. I also have a request.*
    "Well, thank you too, but that's what we're here for, right?" answered Jean. Blink chuckled. "So, let's see what's that request."
    *I would like to join you as part of your ship's crew.*
    Jean and Blink gazed each other. "Well... that's a strange request by you... you're just safe after a long travel, why would you want to do that?"
    *That's exactly why I am asking you. I am a total stranger on all the Alliance worlds, and while I would match the requirements to work in many scientific fields, there are too many parameters I would need to make a choice I don't have yet. Of many alternatives, the most logical thing to do at the moment is to travel as much as possible, in order to know the
people and culture of the worlds, as your communications network is too large and dispersive to provide an adequate information. According to my researches, your profession involves intense travelling, as well as constant dealing with many of the most revealing aspects of your society; also I cannot ignore the debt of gratitude I owe you. My conscious elaboration abilities could significantly improve the functions of most Alliance ships and devices. The concept of money is not my interest; I would not require payment of any sort. I exclusively feed on a daily amount of energy which would be negligible for the engines of your ship.*
    Could we trust him? thought Blink. The purpose of gathering information was enough to get her ears on the alert, but it was true in fact that any general and tecnological information could have been obtained from the network, if that would have been the purpose. Jean just shrugged, waiting for her decision. She licked her fangs.
    "Listen, we don't consider you bound by any debt of any sort, that's for sure. If you want to know our civilization, you'd much better join the crew of a merchantsman. Our work is dangerous, you see... you would often risk your life by travelling with us."
    The crystal seemed to elaborate for a moment.
    *According to the statistics, experienced merchants have a higher probability of getting killed in comparison to experienced privateers.*
    Flawless. Jean smiled and nodded in approval.
    She held out her handto it , touching the warm surface.
    "In that case, well, welcome among the crew of the K.R.Mjolnir. I am 'captain' Rashka Erah T'kr, but call me just Blink. Glad to have you aboard." "And I am Jean Devereaux, second pilot, engineer, mechanician , coiffeur, and a bunch of other
things... what's your name?"
    In response the crystal emitted a flash of cyan light, followed by two low notes and three flashes of white, purple and green in quick sequence. *I understand this is no longer practical to use though.*
    "In that case we'd better find an easier callsign for you." Muttered Blink as they all entered the ship and headed towards the bridge. "Do you have any preference, 'entity'"?
    *Sounds good.*
    Her tail stopped waving. "Sounds good what?"
    *'Entity'. I find the sound pleasant.*
    "Uhm... it will be easy to remember, if nothing else." said Jean.
    "So it's decided. Entity. Welcome aboard, again, and please try to ignore the mess..."
    They reached the bridge, which was in effect cluttered by heaps of blueprints, manuals, odd instruments, and even some clothes. Blink sighed, hanging her jacket on her seat back. "Ahem, we really need to do some cleaning up... anyway... now let's just take off from here, and then we'll take an essential tour of the ship..."