"Hey, fur face," one of the humans said. "This is our table."

The Sylebine stared up at the scowling men. One said, "It is reserved? I'm sorry, I did not see."

Damn, Bara thought. Are the little blue bastards just going to move and give up the table without an argument?

"It's not reserved, bud," the group's spokesman leaned over the table, planting his big hands down, knocking over cups. "It's just ours."

"There are no others free," one of the aliens said, looking around. "But it is a large table and some chairs are free. Join us and I will buy you a drink to make up for any inconvenience we have caused you."

Bara groaned. Of all the people to try to start a fight with, they had to pick on people who worshipped the concept of goodwill. But if a man is determined to start a fight, anybody can provoke him.

"Are you suggesting we can't pay for my own drinks?"

Now the Sylebine just looked confused. "So," one said, "you want to buy us a drink?"

"Oh that's it. Stitch this, pal."

It only took seconds for the fight to spill from that table to the next and the next. Once people stared knocking things over, all that tension Bara had felt down in the cheap accommodation spilled out. The rest of them didn't even need paying. They'd been waiting to hit someone.

Behind the bar, Dav and a barman started yelling. The bouncers ran in from outside. At the table where Bara's crew people and Marines sat, the senior NCO glanced at her and she gave a small nod.

Go.

They all leapt up, the officers following a second later and joined the fray. But not to fight, not to escalate, rather to break it up, calm it down. They joined the bouncers, who had started to grab people and toss them outside. They forced other combatants back against the wall, making them stop fighting.

As the noise started to diminish, as more people flew out of the door, Bara heard Dav yelling.

"Where the hell is station security?"

She grinned, then helped one of her Marines lift a man, yelling, punching at nothing now, and heave him out of the door.

Slowly, the last of the fights stopped, people either thrown out, or too exhausted to do more than slump down on the debris-strewn floor. In the sudden quiet, noise told her that fights were going on independently outside.

Remarkable, none of the ones fighting out there had been from the group she'd paid to start things. Again, they'd just been waiting for someone to light the fuse.

Dav leaned his elbows on the bar, head in his hands, groaning at the sight of his smashed up tavern. Bara looked around at the people. All humans. She'd seen to it that all of the aliens were among those thrown out. The humans looked scared, or angry. Now. Now was the moment.

A bench lay beside her, on its side. She righted it and then stepped up onto it. You needed to be tall for a moment like this. She faced the room, the now staring faces.

"Humans should have the right to relax here without fear of attack." Her voice, trained for command, filled the space. "It seems that you can't rely on Station Security to respond quickly enough to prevent injury and property damage." She looked at Dav as she said that last part, then back to the others. "Perhaps, my friends, they don't consider us humans much of a priority." Nods and murmurs now. Of course, they started with her people, but spread quickly to the others. "So I am placing this establishment under my protection." Dav gaped at her, and she looked directly at him again. "I plan to return to Hollow Jimmy frequently. So, pass on the message. Anyone who causes trouble in here, I promise you, they will answer to me when I come back. Make sure everyone knows that."

She waited a moment; let it sink in, so they were clear. She didn't even have to leave guards here, like she was going to at the whorehouse. Just the threat of her was enough. She spoke again to the room.

"If any of you need medical treatment for your injuries, you can come to my ship. My doctors will be happy to help you. In fact, any medical problems you might want to see them about, while my ship is still here, please, feel free any time, at no cost. Contact... the lieutenant here." She pointed at Sev. "He will arrange for your visit."

Let the freak be the tour guide to a lot of freeloaders. That would keep him occupied and keep his hands off her first officer.

"Now." She looked around at their faces, eager for her next words. "My officers and I are going to help Mr Dav to tidy up in here. Please, feel free to help us."

They laughed and some at once started righting tables and chairs. A sound behind her made her look around. A Klaff in Station Security uniform stood in the doorway, looking around.

"Thank you, officer," Bara called. "But we've got it covered in here."

That got a cheer and it didn't even start from one of her people. A few catcalls were directed at the officer, who just made a movement that Bara guessed was a shrug and stomped off. Before the cheer died away, Bara stepped down from the bench, one of her bodyguards there at once, to give her his hand down.

"Thank you," she said. "Do help with the clearing up, while I speak to Mr Dav."

She walked behind the bar, as if she owned it. Perhaps she did. She favoured Dav with a warm smile and offered him her hand.

"Thank you, Captain," Dav said, shaking her hand, an awed look on his face. "If you hadn't been here, my place could have been totally destroyed!"

"Oh, I'm sure Station Security would have got here eventually."

"Hah! Eventually is the word. I think you're right, they don't care much about us."

"I hope I wasn't being presumptuous, placing the bar under my protection like that."

"Of course not! I'm delighted. I'll tell you what, if you and your crew people want to come back later on tonight, I'll give you the best dinner you've had in months! I've got a private room out back, you can use that."

"Oh, that would be nice. But we don't want to put you to any trouble. We were just doing our duty, maintaining order."

"I insist. Let me show you the back room, please."

He led her through a locked door, into a rather dim, but richly furnished room. A round table sat in the middle, bare but for a playing card dealer and boxes of poker chips.

"Yeah," he said, gesturing at the table. "It's used mostly for private games. Invitation only. Consider yourself as having a permanent invitation to join any game, Captain."

"Thank you, Mr Dav. I do like to play a few hands now and again." The games on the Trebuchet were so dull now. She always won. Either the others had forgotten how to play, or she had become much better.

"Will you come for dinner?" Dav asked, sounding eager to please his new patron. "Is the room to your liking?"

"Oh yes, indeed. Very much." It's just perfect. Quite perfect. "Now, can I ask you something, Mr Dav?" She took the Chronicle from her pocket, where she had folded it up and put it away as the fight started. Turning to the back page, she pointed at the small print at the bottom of the page. Contact details. "Can you tell me how to find this address?"

~o~

Jaff looked up from drinking his pre-shift cup of coffee, when Kiral ran into the maintenance crew's break room.

"Thought I was going to be late!" She panted. Her face was flushed and her hair wild.

"You okay?" Jaff asked, raising his eyebrows. She wasn't usually this flustered.

"I was just in Dav's, having a late breakfast, and wow, you should have seen what happened!" She poured herself a cup of coffee, but didn't sit down, almost bounced on the balls of her feet. "There was a huge fight, and that Captain Bara was there and her people broke it up, and then she announced she's putting Dav's place under her protection and anyone causing trouble will answer to her next time she's on the station. It was crazy, Jaff, you should have seen it!"

Great, he thought, I practically live in that place and I miss something like this. Then he frowned at what she'd said.

"What does she mean, under her protection? It's under the protection of station security, like everywhere else."

Kiral made a pfft sound. "Oh they were useless! They didn't show up till it was all over."

"I think they've been busy," Jaff said. "One of the other crews said they've got a big section of the heavy cargo docks sealed off. Something about a freighter smuggling illegal weapons they've had a tip off about."

"Oh, so they were right there at the docks and they still couldn't get to Dav's for like twenty minutes!"

"The heavy cargo docks," Jaff said, but she wasn't listening. Heavy cargo was the lowest level of the docks, then two levels of light cargo and small courier ships, like the Friss, and finally passenger docking on the top, same level as Dav's. So a large number of the station's security team were in the docks, but three levels down and rather tied up from the sound of it.

"Well, at least now we know we can be safe in Dav's."

"Safe? Come on, there isn't that much trouble in there," Jaff said. "I mean it's rowdy, but not dangerous. There aren't that many actual brawls." I'm turning into Chervaz, he thought, questioning everything.

"Well now there won't be any." Kiral drank some of her coffee. "She was amazing, the way she spoke. Oh and generous! She said anyone who'd been injured could use the sickbay on her ship, for free. And said people could use the sickbay for any medical stuff while the ship's at the station."

"What about Sheni's clinic?"

"She charges."

"Not very much."

Kiral shrugged. "Free beats that anytime."