"Now that's a hell of a view," Hannibal said, as they approached Ganymede and Jupiter dominated the sky.

"Mm," Face agreed. "Shame they don't really get to see it much where we're going."

Jupiter's radiation forced the inhabitants of Ganymede to live under the ground, most of them in the moon's primary settlement, Galileo City. 'City' showed the resident's ambition if nothing else, since, according to the records, only about eighty people lived there. Another thousand or so lived either in small settlements, or isolated bunkers, all of them scattered around the light side, the face of Ganymede turned permanently towards Jupiter.

"There's the landing area," Murdock said, heading for a beacon that flashed on his scanner screens. "Ready for us. Okay, everybody sitting comfortably? Let's do it."

A moment later, the ship touched down gently on a platform, which began to sink into the rock. Heavy doors slid across and closed above them.

"How far down do we go?" BA asked.

"About a hundred metres," Murdock said. "Okay, there it is. I'll buzz Matt and let him know we've landed."

"End of the road," Hannibal said. "Everybody off the bus!"

He didn't have to tell them twice. By now, they were all desperate to get off the ship. Galileo City had a small hotel, to cater to the other residents of the moon when they came into town for supplies and company. After more than two weeks living together on the Chicago, the team couldn't wait to check in.

They disembarked and started heaving their gear along a well-lit passageway, passing through several bulkhead doors as they walked.

"What can I hear clinking in here, Face?" Hannibal said, unzipping and peering into a bag he carried. "Um, Face, is there anything you need to tell me?" The bag held several bottles of whisky. Hannibal rummaged in it, to find it also held bars of chocolate, bottles of perfume, fancy soap and cigars.

"BA has his tools, I have mine," Face said.

Amy looked into the bag too. "Tools?"

Face gave a long suffering 'why am I always misunderstood?' sigh.

"Look, this town is too small for me to do any scamming, since everybody will know who we are. Nevertheless, we'll likely need things from people and it always helps to offer a gift to, shall we say, open negotiations. Out here on the frontier some small luxury item is always well received."

"Ah." Hannibal glanced back at Amy and winked. "Bribes."

Face spluttered in outrage at once.

"Bribes? I said gifts! To give me an 'in' so I can start to weave the old Faceman magic."

BA and Murdock rolled their eyes at each other.

"Ah," Hannibal said in a mock serious tone. "So not bribes."

"Hannibal, I've told you before," Face scowled at him. "If I ever, EVER, sink so low as to offer someone a bribe to get what I want, then you can throw me off the team right then. Right then." He stalked off ahead of the group.

They caught up with him at the last set of doors, which didn't open at once. As they stood waiting, Murdock glanced up suddenly.

"We're being scanned," he said in a singsong voice.

"How can you tell?" Amy asked. She glanced around at the walls and the ceiling, not seeing anything obvious. Murdock just shrugged.

"Just can. Like with the Pseudo Suits."

BA snorted. Hannibal shrugged. "Oh, who can't see through those? I definitely can."

"No way." Face said, frowning at him. "Murdock I could believe, maybe, but you?"

"I can, I swear."

"So," Murdock said, "what you're saying is, you meant to go on that date with Gareth?"

BA and Amy both giggled. Face smirked, cheered out of his brief sulk. Hannibal scowled. Oh, right. Gareth. "Since then," he insisted. "I've figured it out since then!"

"Thank god you have that 'no sex on the first date' policy." Face said, still smirking. He looked sidelong at Hannibal. "Please tell us you still have that policy."

"Face," Hannibal began, the scowl becoming a glare. "How'd you like --"

A whoosh of air interrupted him as the doors cracked and opened. They expected to see Matthew, but a man they didn't know stood waiting for them. A bulky, muscular man, with blonde hair, aged perhaps forty, wearing a silver star pinned to his short jacket.

"Welcome to Galileo City, Miss, gentlemen," he said, in a British accent. "I'm the sheriff, Ted Barrett." He held out his hand, but not for a shake. "I have to ask you to surrender your guns."

"Our guns?" Hannibal had started to smile, but it froze on his lips. "I don't think so, Sheriff."

"Privately owned firearms are illegal on Ganymede, sir."

Hannibal looked the sheriff over. Outnumbered four to one and armed with one pistol on his belt and his tin star. A big man, almost as big as BA, and, if he had training, then Hannibal wasn't sure he could personally beat the guy in a fight. But he knew for sure the four of them together could put Ted on his back and stroll over his face. Yet he stood there, polite as you like, coolly asking them to hand over their weapons. Hannibal started to consider liking him.

"Ted!" Matthew Warner ran up to the group, looking flushed. "Ted, it's okay it's them, the A-Team." He turned to the team, grinning, "Colonel Smith," he shook Hannibal's hand, then Face's, Amy's and BA's before Murdock swept him up in a laughing, back-slapping embrace.

"Good to see you, rookie! Hey, what's the beef, Matt? The Sheriff wants our shootin' irons. You made guns illegal out here?"

"Yes." Matthew looked serious, stepped back from Murdock. "Most of us have had our fill of guns now."

"But, you're out on the frontier." Hannibal frowned. This did not bode well.

"Well, yes, but it's not like there's any bears or wolves to shoot."

"Well, pardon me, but it sounds like you do have a wolf needs dealing with."

Matthew sighed. "I know. Never saw that one coming."

"Matt," Ted said, interrupting the reunion. "I can't let them walk around with guns until the council makes the decision."

"Council?" Hannibal asked.

"The ruling council, we're having an emergency meeting, in," Matthew glanced at his watch, "uh well, now actually. You guys need to be there." He glanced at the scowling sheriff, then back at Hannibal. "Look, how about you agree to let Ted lock the guns up in his jail till later, after the meeting?" He smiled at the colonel appealingly, but Hannibal didn't give in to that appeal. He folded his arms and chewed on his cigar.

"You hired us. You knew what you were getting, you know how we work. If you don't like it," he glared at Ted, considering not liking him now. "You know what you can do." He turned away and grabbed a handle of the rifle case. "C'mon guys, looks like we made a mistake coming here." BA grabbed the other handle, Murdock and Face looked at each other, shrugged and turned too.

"What?" Amy gasped, "We're just going to turn around and go back!"

"Wait!" Matthew sounded shocked and rather desperate. Hannibal turned back, Ted still wore his scowl.

"Matt, I won't let them walk my streets carrying illegal weapons, I don't care who they are!"

"Dammit!" Matthew snapped. "You're all as bad as each other." He threw up his hands and said, "Okay, just, just wait there a second, all of you, please."

He moved away a short distance and took out a communicator and started talking into it. Meanwhile the team waited, still inside the passageway that led to the landing bay. None of them had crossed the threshold of the doors into the town.

Murdock sat down on the rifle case when Hannibal and BA put it down and took a toy plane out of his pocket. Face fished a bar of chocolate out of his bag of not bribes and handed it around. Ted just stood glaring at them, guarding the threshold, as if the team were invaders.

And they were invaders, Hannibal realised. Ted must feel like the people it was his job to protect had lost faith in him by bringing in the team. He wouldn't back down. He'd make this guns thing a point of principle, and stick to the letter of the law, to frustrate the men he must surely see as rivals.

"Okay." Matthew came back over to them, smiling. "Everybody just relax, it's sorted. If you can't go to the council, the council is coming to you."

A few moments later, they heard a babble of querulous voices and a group of about twenty people turned a corner into the short street leading to where the team and the sheriff waited.

The ruling council did not look happy to be dragged out of whatever cosy committee room they normally used and the babble of voices went on. Matthew hurried to a blonde woman a few years older than him and spoke rapidly to her. Hannibal realised after a second who she was, his wife, Caithlin and according to Murdock's information, the mayor.

It had taken him a moment to recognise her, even though for several months during the war he'd seen her almost every day, back at headquarters. She'd aged more than he'd have expected, but then again, he thought he shouldn't be surprised, he'd seen it starting even back then. When she'd first arrived, she'd been something of a breath of fresh air, with a ready laugh and an Irish brogue that Murdock insisted on imitating. But, even as part of the rear echelon, never going into combat, he'd seen the war take a toll on her, dimming the sparkle she'd once had.

She looked tired now, and shot the team and the sheriff an impatient glance before she stepped forward, and called out for quiet. It took a moment and some glaring, but eventually the others quietened and stood in a rough semi circle around the doorway where the team still waited behind the threshold.

"It seems we have to hold the council meeting here." Caithlin announced. "Is everyone here?"

"Doc said she'd be late, start without her," Matthew said. Caithlin nodded and looked around.

"Then I call this meeting to order. We recording?"

Amy was, Hannibal noticed, her notebook in her hand now, watching the council closely.

"Councillors, there's only one item on the agenda," Caithlin said, "Your approval is needed to allow the sheriff to deputise the A-Team, so they can carry firearms."

"Deputies?" Hannibal's mouth almost dropped open. What the hell? Matthew gave him a weak smile and shrug, seeing his reaction. He mouthed something. Looked like "only way". Hannibal scowled. Well being deputies could be interesting, but on the other hand, that made the sheriff his boss. Hannibal hadn't had a boss for some time now, and he was getting too old to change his ways.

"Shall we vote right away, or does anyone want to say anything?" Caithlin asked.

A middle-aged man in a good suit, far more formal than the others, spoke up at once, "I want to renew my objection to your bringing these men here." He frowned at the team. "They are, from what I understand, fugitives and mercenaries. Can you tell me how they are any different from Kyle?" Various people murmured in agreement, though all of them avoided looking at the team.

"We don't kill innocent people," Face said at once, his face flushing.

"He's right, Alistair," Matthew said. "I know they have some, um, issues with the authorities, but I know them. They are good people. We can trust them. And they can deal with Kyle, I'm certain of that."

"And what then? Even if they get rid of Kyle, what if someone else takes his place?"

"Mr, um?" Hannibal said.

"Lambert."

"Thanks. Mr Lambert has a good point. Kyle isn't interested in land, or mines, not for himself. Someone hired him to attack you."

"So what's to stop them hiring someone else?" Lambert demanded.

"Because --" Hannibal began, but Caithlin interrupted him.

"Look, Alistair." She sounded angry. "we all know your views, and you'll get to make your case when we have the vote about changing the firearms law. But that's not what this meeting is about."

"That's exactly what it's about!" This time he got louder voices of assent from around the group. "It's about protecting our homes and property. You think that bringing this A-Team in as a short term solution will sway the vote your way --"

"Can we stick to the agenda?" Matthew said.

"Could I finish?" Hannibal asked.

"Alistair, can I remind you that nobody has been shot yet," Caithlin said, not apparently listening either to her husband or to Hannibal. "And can I also remind you that the only person who's actually been beaten up by Kyle and his men is Ted? Who has a gun and knows how to use it."

The team looked at the sheriff, who looked embarrassed at their scrutiny. "I was outnumbered," he muttered.

"Can I remind you about the amount of damage that's been done to property. And the intimidation of --"

"And you think if the people getting intimidated had owned guns then everything would have ended happily do you?" She scowled and her cheeks flushed. "Where do you get this idea that more guns leads to fewer people getting shot? If you'd been in the war you'd understand that's not the case."

Hannibal bit his lip. Not good, Caithlin, he thought, divisive. Don't make it a them and us thing, vets versus civilians. He didn't even feel very comfortable with hearing her invoking the war. She'd not seen combat after all. Lambert seemed to feel the same way about her using the war as an argument, as he spoke with a hard edge to his voice.

"Ah, of course it always comes down to that."

This was clearly an old argument, but that didn't mean the council wouldn't happily rehash it. Well Hannibal decided they didn't have that kind of time. The sun would burn out in a few billion years and they'd still be arguing then if someone didn't stop them.

"Listen!" Hannibal shouted, making the council and the team look at him startled. He spoke more quietly as he continued, but keeping plenty of authority in his tone. Nobody could resist that voice. Even the civilians tried to stand to attention. "Look, you folks are paying me, so I can stand here all day and listen to you squabble, but I'm a little tired. What I started to say before, is that the A-Team doesn't do half a job. We'll not only stop Kyle we'll find out who's behind him and handle him too. I promise you, we won't leave until this job is finished. Now are you gonna vote, before we all die of old age?"

Lambert looked annoyed Hannibal saw, but Caithlin looked happier, the flush draining from her face. She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Okay," she said, seizing the moment, as Hannibal finished speaking. "Are we ready to vote? All in favour of deputising the A-Team --" She stopped and looked past Hannibal at the same moment that he heard doors open and close further back down the passageway. The sound of footsteps behind him made him turn, to see a woman walking towards them from the landing bay, a baffled look on her face at the scene. He stepped back with a nod as she passed him and she smiled at him.

"Sorry, I'm late. So we're, ah, doing the show right here?" She asked Caithlin.

"Long story," Caithlin said. "We're just about to vote." She spoke, as if to the air. "For the record, Councillor Maggie Sullivan has entered the meeting."