Mitchell's Revenge
U.S.E. shipyard, the boardroom

Once Sibil stopped crying they were able to piece together what they thought might have happened. The cryptic message was the key.

Grabb explained that the Tarasov families had a long history of dance. He believed that Yuri Orlov’s fortune had been founded by a bet on a championship result, most probably Yuri and his wife Daria winning the final round.

“They were the most successful couple from the Tarasov families,” he said. “When I was competing you learned to stay clear of them. The rumour then was that he had founded the Intergalactic Mafia. The families always travelled together, even if only one of them was competing.”

“Why?” asked Lucy.

“They have very tight family units,” said Grabb. “They support one another. They bring the children up in their dance tradition and they are expected to grow up into champions. The parents put a lot of pressure on the children to succeed. I heard rumours about Daria Orlov after she retired to have children, but up until now I didn’t think they could possibly be true.”

“What do you mean?” asked Sibil. She had dried her tears and was sitting up straight, listening intently to every word.

“The Orlovs had three children, two girls and a boy,” Grabb said. “The rumour was that Daria planned for the two girls to be champion dancers, but both refused. The younger one ran away from home. The older one we had the misfortune to pick up on Topernicus. She travelled with us for months and we had no idea who she was until we got to Tiberion.”

“What about the boy?” asked Lucy. “Did she make him dance too?”

“Oh, they all dance,” replied Grabb. “But I don’t know much about the boy. Bot Ramsay seemed to think that he was living on Tarasov and that he’s some kind of coms genius.”

“So why did they take Anja?” asked Lucy.

“Revenge,” said Grabb simply.

“What?” asked Sibil and Lucy together.

“If the younger one was killed when one of your ships went rogue, then they would want to take revenge.”

“That’s what I felt from Natasha,” said Lou quietly. “She wanted to take revenge on whoever killed her sister.”

“But it wasn’t our ship,” interjected Jake from the end of the room. “Tigerline owned it. Tigerline employed her as crew.”

“Yes, but you built it,” said Grabb. “They view you as responsible for the fault that killed their daughter. The IGM take things very personally. That’s why they took Anja. It’s personal.”

“And you can tell all this from the pattern on Sibil’s handpalm?” asked Lucy sarcastically.

Grabb glared at her. “You have to understand how they think. Daria will have thought along the lines of: Universal Starship Enterprises took my daughter from me. I will take their daughter from them. My daughter refused to do as she was told. My new daughter will do as she is told or she will die. And we’ll hurt her family.”

Sibil shuddered at the implication.

“So if you were Anja, and wanted to stay alive, you’d do what you were told,” said Lou.

“So she’s learning to dance?” asked Sibil.

“Yes,” said Grabb. “I’d say so, because the pattern for the costume is so specific. You’ve all recognised what it is. The Competition scheduled for Tiberion is massive. There’ll be couples coming from everywhere. If the Orlovs want to taunt you, they’ll bring Anja back into her home system and make her compete under your noses.”

“So that’s what Natasha is doing on Tiberion,” said Lou. “Setting things up for her family.”

“That probably wasn’t her intention when she jumped ship at Topernicus,” said Grabb. “But things change.”

“They sure do,” said Lucy. “So we wait until they bring Anja to Tiberion and then we snatch her back at the Competition.”

Grabb looked at her as if she was completely insane, but Tim responded first. “Are you crazy! She could get killed. We could get killed. A lot of other people could get killed!”

“What about the pylon race?” asked Jake coming closer to the group seated at the table. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ ꜰindNʘvel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“What are you talking about now?” Sibil asked in exasperation.

“We were thinking about holding a pylon race at the same time as the ballroom competition,” he explained. “This was before we knew about the message. We thought it would be a way to bring the Zond back into the Karhu System. Maxim Volkov is a pylon racer. He would find it hard to resist because there hasn’t been an event for years. We thought we could capture them and interrogate them about Anja.”

Tim rubbed his hands through his short greying hair. He rubbed his eyes. “Have you all gone completely mad? We’re not a bloody mercenary outfit. We’re spacecraft manufacturers and we have a business to run!”

Lucy looked at Jake and then at Grabb and Lou. They started to laugh. Tim glared at the four of them.

“What?” he said angrily.

“But we are, Dad,” said Jake, grinning widely now.

“Are what?”

“A mercenary outfit. I was a mercenary, remember. Lucy has skills now that she didn’t have before. Grabb here is a freelance pirate and ex ballroom dancer. Lou is an empath. And there’s Em. If we can’t figure out a way to rescue Anja now there’s something wrong with us.”

“Who’s Em?” Tim asked even more angrily.

Jake smacked his hand over his mouth and looked at Lucy. She started to laugh.

“Now you’ve really let the cat out of the bag!” she said.

The boardroom door slid open and Em padded silently to where Lucy sat. She reached down to stroke the panthers’ head. Lucy smiled at Tim, who had backed against the wall, looking nervously at the big cat. Sibil sat motionless with fright and looked anxiously at her husband.

“This is Em,” explained Lucy. “My partner.”

“I knew I wasn’t seeing things at the welcome back party!” exclaimed Tim. “How dare you bring an animal into the shipyard. You know the rules!” Lucy smiled at him.

“As Grabb so eloquently said, things change. I can’t be separated from Em. She’s bonded to me. Jake brought her to me to help me recover from the surgery after the crash. I won’t function properly without her.” Lucy continued to stroke the animals’ head. “And she is a stand out asset to our crew.” Em rumbled with satisfaction.

“But she’s a panther!” said Tim. “She’s dangerous!”

“She’s only dangerous if Lucy’s threatened, like she was at the party,” said Jake. “Otherwise she’s just a pussy cat.”

Em growled at Jake across the room. He laughed at her. “She can talk to Lucy. But only Lou can hear them.”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” said Tim. “Animals don’t talk. You’re making all this up.”

“He’s not,” said Lucy and Lou together.

“You’ll just have to trust me on this Dad,” said Jake. “Don’t make any decision about Em until we’ve got Anja home safely. We need her with us. OK?”

Tim rubbed his hands through his hair again. He looked from Em to Lucy to Lou and Jake. He nodded his assent.

“Alright, so what’s the plan then?”

“Well,” said Lucy, “Flex has a proposal for you. And if you agree, then Grabb and Lou might help us out. Tim, please just listen and ask questions when he’s finished.”

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