"Sir, incoming message," the comms operator said.

"Is it from the Consortium?"

"No, sir, it's data from one of the border scanners."

"Show me."

The operator brought up the data and Alex watched it scroll by, and bit his lip.

"Keep that comms line open. Constant monitoring." Without waiting for a response, Alex hurried to the central tower. The ride up on the lift platform felt like a slow agony and he had to restrain himself from abandoning the platform and climbing up the emergency ladder ahead of it.

But he kept his cool long enough to wait, though he stepped up off the platform before it actually reached the level of the office floor.

"Captain!" The cool didn't extend to his voice. He heard a frantic edge in it. "The border scanners are reporting enemy ships massing. Six so far, but more on long range scanners."

Bara looked up from the desk and laughed.

"Good!"

Good. She said good. They'll kill dozens, if not hundreds of people, and she said good. Go on and explain it, you bloodthirsty savage wearing stolen Captain's stripes. Tell me why it's so good.

"Let them come! We'll prove to the Klaff that we can hold the station against attack. Then they'll have no choice but to leave us in charge."

Well, there was a kind of twisted, distorted logic there, Alex thought. A logic that would get them all killed.

Unless he did something about it.

~o~

Alex strode through the corridors towards the Watch HQ, a grim frown on his face. How did he do this? Just walk in there and shoot all the Watch members? He had no stomach for killing. Not so close. Starship officers killed at a distance. He probably couldn't take them all down before they stopped him anyway.

His communicator sounded and he glanced at it. If it was the captain she could go... It wasn't the captain. It had no identification code. Baffled, he answered the hail.

"Who is this?"

"Lieutenant," a man's voice said. "Please listen to me carefully."

"Who are you?" Alex demanded.

"A friend. You're coming up on an empty room on your left. I'll open the door."

"What?"

A door to his left slid open and Alex flinched back, drawing his gun. Lights came on in the room.

"Please step inside, so we can talk in private."

Alex hesitated, not prepared to trust this mysterious, door-opening voice.

"How can you see me?"

"Please, there's no time to waste. If you go inside, I'll tell you where Sev is."

"What?" A couple of Watchmen, on patrol came up the corridor. They nodded to Alex.

"Do you need any assistance, sir?"

"No. Carry on."

They moved off and Alex watched them go then spoke into the communicator again.

"What do you know about Sev?"

"Go into the room."

Alex gave in to the voice. Still cautious though, he cased the room before he stepped inside. The door slid closed behind him. Two more doors led off from this room. He checked those out, finding a bedroom and bathroom. All the rooms were empty.

"Okay, I'm in here. Now who are you? What do you know about Sev?"

"He's off the station." The voice came out of the air now, from the room's speakers, not his communicator. "Maiga sent him to do a job for her."

"What job?"

"She wouldn't tell me."

Alex grimaced. That wasn't much good to him. Who the hell was this man? How could he tap into comms, open doors, see Alex over the station's surveillance system?

"She did tell me that you are an ally though; ready to help us against Bara."

Alex didn't answer at once, fearing a trick. But the voice went on anyway.

"We've set up a few things around the station to help. You're quite close to one of them now. Check your communicator, it will direct you to some equipment that will help you free Maiga and the others. Once that's done, she'll give the orders."

"I keep asking, and you haven't answered me. Who are you?"

The man laughed. "You can call me Jimmy."

"Jimmy? Like the station? What the hell? Look, can't you tell me anything else about Sev?"

No answer.

"Hello?"

Still no answer. Alex sighed and checked his communicator. A room number showed up on the screen, and a floor plan. Just a couple of corridors over. He decided he might as well check out what this "Jimmy" had waiting for him.

Strange, how working for one lunatic for so long had left him prepared to accept the instructions of someone who sounded quite as mad.

~o~

"Maiga." Jaff nodded at the office outside their cell. "Something's shaking."

Maiga joined him by the door, to see Alex had come in.

"The captain wants the prisoners transferred to station security's holding cells," Alex said. "Right away."

"I'd suggest moving them in small groups, sir," the officer in charge said.

"Of course."

Alex walked over to the cell. He wore a determined look. Game on, Maiga thought.

"Now," Alex said. The guards beside the cell looked at each other, baffled. Now what? But Alex wasn't talking to them. The force field dropped and the guards gasped and sprang forward, but too late. Alex stepped into the cell, throwing a small dark cylinder back over his shoulder as he did. The force field came up again.

"Grenade!"

Someone yelled it and the prisoners in the cell ducked, along with the Watchmen outside. Only Alex remained standing. The grenade went off, belching out not an explosion, but gas, that expanded fast, filling the room. Maiga glanced up at the vents, fearing the gas would seep through them, but Gry must have sealed them.

After a moment of coughing and staggering around, everyone in the room outside fell down, and lay unmoving.

"Flush the gas," Alex said, speaking to the air - no, to Gry, Maiga realised.

"Wait a second," Jaff said, standing up, and helping Wixa to her feet. "You mean Gry could have dropped the force field any time?"

"Of course," Maiga said. "But then we'd have had to get past that lot out there."

"Like that would be a problem." Jaff grinned. "Remember us in Dav's?"

"These ones have guns."

Behind Alex the force field dropped again, the gas now flushed from the room. The air felt cold as the prisoners left their cell. The doctors at once started checking over the people on the floor.

"They'll only be out for about fifteen minutes," Maiga said, then stopped as someone pushed her out of the way from behind, and the various gangsters shoved their way out of the cell and headed for the door.

"Hey!" Wixa yelled. "You ungrateful bastards! You could help out you know. It's your station too."

"Sorry," Etta, the one woman among them said. "Gotta look out for number one now."

"Bitch," Wixa muttered as Etta left.

"Forget it," Maiga said. "We don't need them; we have our teams and our plans."

"If you're taking the station back," Alex said, "You'd better be damn quick about it. The Big Four are massing ships. If Bara retains control they'll break the treaty and attack this place."

"They haven't broken it yet though?" Maiga said. "Haven't entered the sector?"

"Not yet."

"Gry," Maiga called up. "Are you monitoring the long range sensors?"

"Of course." His voice came from hidden speakers. "I'll let you know the moment they cross the border."

"Gry?" Alex said, looking puzzled. "So why did he ask me to call him Jimmy?"

"Gry asked you to call him Jimmy?" Wixa said, an alarmed look crossing her face. "Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear."

"What if they do cross the border?" Chervaz asked, bigger fish to fry than Gry's strangeness. "I mean even if we take the station back before then, I can't see them just turning around and going home."

"Yeah, come all that way, gonna want to shoot something," Jaff said, passing by dragging a Watchmen towards the cell.

Maiga smiled, "In that case, I'm relying on Sev to have good timing."

"Are you going to tell me where he is?" Alex asked.

"Safe," Maiga said and Alex threw up his hands in frustration.

"People keep saying that. They'd better be right."

Maiga turned away from him ands surveyed the room. All the Watchmen were locked in the cell now, the force field back in place. They'd be fine, till they woke up. Then they'd be pissed off. Maiga's allies, her friends and the lifers stood waiting for her orders.

"Doctors," Maiga said. "You go to your clinic. Use the routes Gry sends you on. I'll send guards down when we release the rest of our teams. I hope there won't be too many casualties for you to deal with."

"I hope you're right," Sheni said. "Come on, you two." She led Lon and Anishk away. Gry's instructions would keep them from being picked up by Watch patrols before they made it to the clinic.

"You have your assignments," Maiga said to the others. "Pick up the other members of your teams and get into position to take the key facilities. Alex, I want to take advantage of your being trusted by the other side for as long as possible. Take some Watch badges and use them to take Station Security."