The one wherein the Mayor decides to hurt people who desperately need it

I don't like Slavers. I really, really, don't like Slavers. I consider them less savory than, say, Reavers and Ministers of Parliament. Worse even than Lawyers. That's how much I dislike Slavers.

In the aftermath of Lily and Cody making a mess of Krenshar's labs on Caliban and the other assorted issues to come out of that, I'd had my hands full. We'd already had Cody picked up here on Hale's by an under cover Federal, who bypassed our land lock and subsequently hooked up with a patrol boat. We got word a couple days later that they'd taken him out near Caliban, where he was promptly busted out by some friends. Who? No idea. Well, that's not really true. I had an idea. A fairly good one. Just wasn't going to say anything about that or probe into the facts much.

But what the hell was it with the recent interest in Caliban? It was like when I first came out to Hale's Moon, and they had the Sun Tzu station-keeping smack in the middle of the colony's primary approach. That and the First Marine Raiders making regular, ill-planned, under-strength, attacks on the colony. It never made sense. Even knowing that Weyland-Yutani had been doing some testing on the KM series out here, it was hard to fathom a full scale cruiser like the Sun Tzu. Hell, if it really was Weyland-Yutani who'd weaponized the von Neumann drones, it made even less sense to have a cruiser on station.

Knowing the research Krenshar was doing out there it doesn't make sense to have that much random traffic and comms chatter. Covert research like that needs to be kept hidden, and having everyone on the Rim making quick flights to the ass end of the 'Verse does not keep the profile low. I genuinely worry that all the extra traffic's hurt his research more than it's helped. Still not sure I agree with his assessment of Lily and Aurora, but I've got no doubt he believes he's doing right.

But I digress.

I wasn't sure where Cody had gotten off to. In some ways I didn't care. Though I was sure I wasn't thrilled with another federal showing up on Hale's nosing around. Paid me a courtesy call, as per protocol, then got all cagey about just who he was looking for. Given the sort of folk we get dropping by, could have been any of a dozen people they'd be wanting as a 'fugative.'

The Federal put me in a less than pristine mood, so when x0x0 came by to give me some intel on Aurora I was both elated and very, very, annoyed. Did I mention my attitude on Slavers?

Aurora in the hands of slavers was not something I wanted to contemplate. 'Brina was with me when x0x0 gave us the news, and she was as adamant as I was, though calmly so, that we would recover her ourselves.

It didn't matter where she was, or where she was going. We would find her. We would find her, and we would bring her home. If anyone tried to stand between us and her they would know a new definition of pain, though only briefly.

When Sabrina, Belize, Td, and I had recovered Imrhien from the Feds on Persephone, we'd made a point of not hurting any of the Alliance personnel. They weren't evil. Just doing their jobs. They didn't need to die.

Slavers are evil.

I set some feelers in motion to try and track down the Slavers. We didn't have a lot of intel, but we didn't really need a lot. I had contacts all of the Rim well before restoring my commission. Even without the considerable resources of that specialized slice of Intel Section, getting an idea where they were and where they were going was just a matter of time. That we would find her was not a question. It was only a matter of time.

While my feelers ran their course, I started working through the hypothetical scenarios. Most of them involved a small, intimate, team. All of them involved a trail of bodies. Sabrina was a given. Archangel. My lifeline. Backup? Few people out here I trusted with our lives in that role, which made General the obvious first choice. Assuming he was willing, of course. If not? If not I would worry about it later. Same if it looked like I needed a bigger team.

But now. . .

Now it was find Aurora.

Fear not, Little One.
Mother Dragon comes for you.
We protect our own.