Her name was Lieutenant Hope Brennan, she said. "You can just call me Hope." She was a Terran adjutant to the Cygnan Fleet and had been for nearly two years now. Her service was almost up. She was talkative and not very hard to look at, but Nico wasn't feeling talkative. "Merlinus said you'd probably be in a bad mood," Hope said after seeing he wasn't real responsive. "Guess I should shut up." Nico noticed there was a phaser gun strapped to her thigh. "Nah, that's alright Hope. Talk all you want. I'm listenin' but I got a lot on my mind. How long 'til we get there?" "About 12 hours. I came down from Ikas-4, since it was the closest to where you were." "You always wear a gun?" "Always. Too many pirates and smugglers running around. A girl's got to protect herself, you know." "Sure. I can understand that. Seems like dangerous work...." "For a little girl like me?" she laughed. "I'm tougher than I look. I have 2 black-belts in karate. Goin' for the third when I can go home." "You're lucky you can go home," Nico smiled tightly. "Wish I could. I hate bein' out here livin' on man-made worlds. Or at least back to Terra. It's more like where I come from than anywhere else I've seen. But mostly, I want to see my son. I haven't seen him for..." he exhaled, scratching at his jaw, "goin' on 17-18 years now." "That's terrible." "Not my fault. Just how things worked out. Long, long story." "Well, we've got 11 hours and 45 minutes, if you feel like telling it." Merlinus had warned her about Nico. He was very attractive to women, Merlinus said, and could be charming as hell. It was a curse as well as a 'gift' - that dragon-blood. Hope had a feeling though that what she was seeing was the real person. She felt sorry for him by the time they reached the Corvums' ship and understood why he was so down at the moment. Not only that, when he was done, he asked her about her story and why she was out here in the 'wild frontiers'. More importantly, he actually listened. She couldn't remember the last time someone had just listened without interupting and starting to talk about themselves. ***** One door closes and another opens? Maybe. Maybe not :) Yes, there are 3 stories going on but eventually they all come together in varying degrees. Thanks so much for stopping by, for your views, comments and faves my dears. Thanks most of all for your inspiring works of art! Hope your new week is great! Cheers, Ray! Background, foreground and seats done in CS5 and PaintShop. Models are SRG_Nico and SRG_Hope.