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the Edorrians," Kleg suggested. Then he shook his spiked head. "Nah, those Edorrians are so gung-ho, they would have just nuked the place."
    "Agreed," Aura reluctantly replied. "But it's possible that some other culture might have taken charge of the station. A culture we either are familiar with, or never encountered before. If it's one we're familiar with, it'll only be a matter of time before a ransom demand is made of the Imperium."
    "Right," Kleg nodded. "And it'll only be another short time after that, before the Imperium responds with an attack fleet to take back their possessed or renegade outstation."
    Jamie wandered over to the lounge view port and stared into the endless night as if he could see the Outstation hanging in the field of stars. "We shouldn't be here," he said, uneasily.
    Aura looked up, frowning. "I hate to admit it, but I think Kleg may have a point. What if it's not a familiar alien culture that's in charge over there? What if it's something new…?"
    "Then we shouldn't be here," Jamie answered.
    "So," she said, turning to face him, "your suggestion would be to run. Cancel the mission, even after Turner Werch told us to proceed with all due haste."
    Zaxt suggested, "He didn't clearly specify in which direction we were to proceed."
    Kleg rose from the gametable and gave a mild growl. "He told us to proceed with caution. And, by the Imperial Exchange Rate, that's exactly what we'll do. Now who's for going over there and who's for staying behind?"
    Jamie's only hope of finding Cast seemed tied to the decision. "Go."
    "Go," the bot echoed.
    Aura gestured a thumb at Zaxt. "He doesn't get a vote. And I'm still uneasy about all of this."
    Kleg muttered in exasperation and sat back down.
    The discussion went on for almost another twenty minutes, during which time it dawned on Jamie that, oddly enough, they were starting to function as a team. He would not have believed it possible before, but now Aura, Kleg and himself had begun to share goals and separate problems and work into manageable loads. They still argued more than necessary, but they kept at it, agreeing to set goals and, slowly but surely, accomplishing them...without anyone getting hurt.
    Working together, they finally determined that Aura was best suited to take the ship's flitter over to the station, to investigate Zori's non-committal status. Her cover story would be that she'd been part of an archeological dig in the nearby Alpha Circini system, some eleven light-years away, and had spent the last week making the transit in the smaller vessel.
    Jamie felt a twinge of concern that Aura might be fired upon, but Kleg agreed they could move the Dagger into a position to rescue her if need be. At first, it seemed like it would be a good idea to take Zaxt along, since his diplomatic abilities might help Aura. But Jamie pointed out that it would be difficult to believe that Aura just happened to have had such a bot with her on an archeological expedition.
    In the end, the team's decision was the result of instinct and simple logic. Being a telepath, Aura could advise them of her impressions without resorting to the use of detectable radio waves. She also had years of experience dealing with intrigue and power-struggling factions. If there was an insurrection, or even an unknown alien culture working to exclude Outstation Zori from the rest of the Imperium, Aura would be the best person to have on point.
    As they exited hyperspace and drew within ten thousand klicks of Zori, Kleg fully switched on the ship's cloaking device. Soon they were maneuvering toward their target.
    * * *
    Aura steered the flitter out from behind the Dagger 's cloak and sent it on a direct course toward Zori. She knew that her tiny ship's image was massive enough to appear on the station's screens.
    The team had positioned Dagger in such a way that it would help create the illusion that she had not originated from a cloaked space in the middle of nowhere. Instead, it would