The lounge was deserted at this time of ship day. His eyes took in the emptiness of the huge deck with it's expansive views of space and softly lit terminals and data stations. With several long steps he reached one of the terminals and seated himself before it. His fingers touched it and he began his task of coaxing information from the terminal. He caught himself wishing for the easy grace of Sally's touch with the machines and smiled ruefully. He was beginning to understand why the Big Man had been upset with him. As he probed the security systems and wheedled his way around them he thought of the almost impossible task the Big Man had set him. The crew of the ship were as soft and worthless a lot as he had anticipated. Still he had about ten who would do. They probably would never be great but, then again, cannon fodder didn't really need to be great. This was proving much more difficult than he had expected. He was starting to sweat and he had almost fallen into a "honey pot" which had seemed like a promising lead. He found himself hoping that he hadn't set off any tripwires before he ascertained the nature of the little trap. Finally he was getting somewhere. Maybe a couple of more security layers and he would be able to get at the information he sought. A change of lighting caused him to look up and he glanced at a port. Revealed there was stark, silvery light reflecting from a huge moon. There was something slippery about its appearance though. A faint bluish shimmer seemed to make it hard to see. Sending in a side query he got a read on the object. It seemed that some eight thousand years in the past it had been an inhabited planet. He gloried in the apparent spasm of destruction which had ended it even though it was not his normal way of finding enjoyment. He preferred things close and personal. Shrugging he want back to his task. He had no idea why they would be interested in such a place. Ah! At last. He had found an area marked "personnel files" and he was working on accessing it. He finally found his folder and briefly glanced through it. Entries in there told him that the Big Man had competent and thorough spies. He found their report on the Sally fiasco as it was labeled. It seemed that no body was found in the hostel though there were indications of his enjoyment all about the place. Interesting but not what he was looking for. With more digging into the system he found the four files he was looking for. He glanced through the latest one. It described the hiring and vetting of one Vance Kadarian. He had apparently served the Big Man for thirty years all told. The final page showed the picture of a strangely bloated but still bleeding corpse. Below it was inscribed "Proditio ecce mors," and "Now I need a new one." He grunted and opened up the file before that. The record of one "Atavian Etuce." He had, according to the file, served fifty years and retired on a pension. Disbelief had begun to grip him and he ran tests to make sure that he wasn't reading some kind of dummy file. The first two files did nothing to take away the sense of unreality he was feeling. The Big Man appeared to be forty-five, fifty at the most. These files indicated that he was well over two-hundred years old! The first assassin had served for sixty years and the second one had served for seventy. The records showed that they had retired on pensions. He cleared the system and sat back with a thump. Just what had he gotten himself into here? He didn't know and not knowing made him feel strangely threatened. He thought for a long time and finally rose, wiping the sweat from his forehead and stalked out of the lounge. The huge ship changed course yet again and left the dead world behind. To Be Continued.....