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"So, are there any questions of what I've shown you here today?" The otter clasped his paws together, looking at the small group of to-be employees at Wikipaw Publishing. "No? Okay, we'll see you all tomorrow at your assigned starting times and assignments!"

Calvin walked off, along in the directions of the other applicants. Being inserted by the Independence Alliance to intercept the IPF package was a call that was made not lightly, due to the fact that it held the possibility of trapping any agent who happened to be in. He was brought in successfully however as his records were clean and virtually ordinary, the perfect sort of person.

The star system of Arcturus was a major advancement in space colonisation in the 24th century. With the beginning use of FTL drives and beacons meant that colonies were no longer as isolated and remote as they used to be. The majority of those were those of the cooler countries of Earth, due to the expectancy that conditions on planets or colonies wouldn't be as warm nor as balanced.

The polar bear was one among many, and was virtually able to blend into a crowd due to the high rate of them signing up initially. Calvin was born to a family of fairly high standards, though he had never really had much contact with them due to their scientific work at the labs, which led him to look around for something that would earn him a living. He hadn't thought that of all the issues he had to face, that earning a living would be an actual issue. There had been many issues in the past which held an inherent risk to their grown establishment, but they had been eliminated before that time.

As he returned to his home, he wondered whether the information he would be retrieving be proper to use. He would ultimately be making the decision whether or not the sensitive intelligence would be seen by the Independence Alliance, even though he was technically wasn't supposed to. No one would really know, since they had decided that more than one agent in the operation wasn't a risk worth taking.

It was a reasonably small apartment, but it suited him comfortably. There was a minor issue in the case of living with himself, in that it seemed to favour bad habits, including having old clothes still strewn about even though he had been expected to ensure that his conditions were favourably received when the local council inspectors made their rounds.

His parents position allowed certain developed technologies to somehow make their way to his apartment, and Calvin was glad that they were present so that he could use them. The light accelerated communicator allowed his communication to far distant locations with relatively minimal latency was one of such bits that had made Calvin's apartment their home. His parents were never too far a distance away, and he was glad to remain in contact, though it had never quite fully been a good substitute for their physical presence.

Wikipaw Publishing if it was a military operation by the IPF was pretty well shielded. They had a track record of publishing a number of good and varied works, appearing to be very neutral when it came to official affairs. There had been a number of individuals that he had seen though, armoured personnel that caught his attention. He had figured that the IPF had been contracted to act as security though there had been a number of private security firms well established. Whether through these companies themselves, or if they had inserted officers of their own wasn't something that was certain to him.

Picking up the communicator, he issued a command. "Call Anderson."

The status screen blinked a few times in acknowledgement, and dialled appropriately. Being 36 light years away was no issue when using a light accelerator. As much as uses were discussed in form of travel, it hadn't gotten to that stage where it was feasible. Right now, the hypercharge drive was the best that they had.

"...Ah, hey Calvin." It was definitely Anderson alright. He was in a fairly okay mood, though knowing of the tone of their last conversation, it was to be expected that there was some sense of nervousness. "What's up now?"

"Well, with your success, I'm surprised I didn't call you during the party."

"Just tell me what you're planning. I didn't like the tone you used last time, especially when it sounds like you're making a threat against those that I know."

The bear snorted. "Look, the Independence Alliance is losing its nerve. It's acting right now to see that whatever information he IPF has sent along with your company, it gets."

Anderson felt really nervous, with the new information that Calvin had brought to light. If the Independence Alliance knew of what the IPF were doing, there was going to be trouble. He opened up a message to Faren. 'Trouble. Independence Alliance aware of the package.' He responded to Calvin, "Look, your group or whatever... you're making a big mistake thinking that it's about the IPF, or about intelligence. I can assure you--"

"Look, I know that Faren's involved in this. I know that the IPF is for sure involved in it. So whatever lies you're planning to spit out from that mouth of yours, I'm telling you to not bother."

Anderson was left speechless, unable to say anything. "I'll be the one to judge its value," Calvin continued. "If it truly isn't anything to be worried about... Then you shouldn't have to worry about it."

"Is this what our friendship has come to, Calvin?" snapped the wolf, anger surging through his veins. "Threats, deception and betrayal? It's disgusting!"

It was this time that Calvin was left speechless. He had never heard such an outburst ever from the many years he had known Anderson, and such a development at such at time began to worry him. "I... I--"

"You've gone cold," spat Anderson. "And I've had enough of this behaviour from you."

The communicator clicked dead, and Calvin sat motionless, mind scrambling to figure just what it was that happened just then.

---

Their time of rest had gone uninterrupted, and Taylor was glad to see that Carlos was still there, even though there had been little reason to believe that he would have left. He had felt quite a bit more relaxed in recent times despite the events of days past.

Looking at the resting form of Carlos, Taylor had to admit that there was some attraction. The thought of being with Carlos seemed not only idealistic, but also realistic. He had never given much thought to it though, and so he had never brought the subject up on a serious note.

They had only two more jumps left to go, and though it had only been a short time, every moment felt crammed with things they had spoken, discussed, acted. The trip on the way back would no doubt be without the worry of the cargo that they held. If it weren't for the fact that the client happened to have requested the fastest service possible, they might have been inclined to give it a few more days.

Having brought the bridge lights up to the equivalent of daybreak, Taylor noted a change in the ship's systems. Everything had been fine before, but it looked like the engine limiter for the hypercharge drive had been worn down due to heavy use. That was to be expected with something that Anderson happened to introduce. It was often the case that anything practical often had to have measures placed after being set in motion on a commercial level, generally missed during the tests which the Shiba had suspected to be nothing more than one line of criteria: Did it work?

He left Carlos at the bridge, heading towards the main reactor components. They were mostly kept out of sight so as to avoid any needless stumbling about on their ship. Carla Wallis was one of those ships that were part of the 7th generation, at which people had settled most of the issues surrounding their equipment in space and got around to streamlining it. The 8th generation wasn't ready yet, but the hypercharge drive happened to be one of the technologies which came about as early results.

Of course, by worn, the computer had made quite a bit of a statement. It didn't look visibly worn, but a quick check through the stress simulations suggested that the limiter needed extra time of its own to cool off for maximum efficiency. While it hadn't become an issue yet, Taylor could only suppose that it was a matter of time before it did. Though he had an array of tools to work with, the last thing that Taylor needed right now was to try and operate on a piece of equipment which happened to be live.

"Morning Taylor," groaned Carlos as he pulled himself up. "You're up early."

"I saw the alerts on our system diagnostics," said Taylor. "Had to take a look at our HC limiter since the computer issued a warning for overuse."

"I suppose we aren't going anywhere for the moment? Could imagine things for us to do in the vast emptiness of space..."

"We don't have much of a choice. I can't work on fixing the limiter with the limited tools that we have, not to mention that it happens to be part of a live system. Too risky in my opinion," assessed Taylor. "We need to keep moving."

"Righty then," said Carlos. "Guess we'll have to wait a little longer before we eat. Are we good, otherwise?"

"Just had a look at our cargo hold. It's still secure and hasn't melted yet, so yeah." Taylor pulled on the safety restraints with a reasonable click, and Carlos did the same. "Cycling up the impulse drives..."

The systems spun into action, something that they had both gotten used to the sensations of, though any typical person would most likely be jarred from the jump. "Okay, they're online now."

"Gotcha. Preparing to enter hypercharge sequence," said Carlos. The indicators and various output levels from the computer screens were very much within operating levels. "Sensors are picking up an anomaly within flight path."

"Okay, diverting path to give 1,000 kilometres clearance. Looks most likely like rock matter or decommissioned equipment."

"Good." Carlos brought in the manual instructions, following expertly to the navigation computer. Though he could've left the computer to automatically handle them, it was nice to manually manoeuvre the ship. It would at least justify the two years he had spent learning them before being told that a computer could do it all by itself.

"Manual navigation? Didn't think you'd be the person to remember that much," remarked Taylor.

"Best not to let old skills fade away," the wolf responded, smiling if only a little bit. "I hate coming back to old hobbies after setting them down, only to realise all my skills have dried up. It's a little bothersome."

Taylor felt a jolt as their ship began its change of course. The front thrusters spun up to slow it into the appropriate speed ranges, before the side thrusters began adjusting the ship's pitch. There was then another jolt as the ship's rear engines began their adjustment according to Carlos' commands.

"Wow. That was... something." The Shiba Inu was finding himself more surprised by Carlos' actions, and the degree of skill that he displayed. Sure, they had worked together for a good deal, but it had been the first time that he had actually shown it. An odd thought popped into Taylor's mind at that moment. Was Carlos trying to impress him?

"Something indeed," smirked Carlos. "Anyway, now that that's settled, how about we hear some of the local news spin from around these regions?"

"There are relays around here?" questioned Taylor. "What's available?"

"I'll just give it a check." Carlos tuned the radio receiver with an analogue dial, one of the few things he had done to personalise Carla Wallis, among others. There was a whirr as he listened out for any clear signal, but he knew that there wasn't any after half a minute of tuning. "Guess we're not having anything today."

There was a moment of silence as the ship completed its manoeuvre. "Hypercharge Drive launch path clear," read Taylor. "We could get lucky, wherever we end up."

"We'll see about that. But we do need to wait for our limiter to say that it's safe for us to jump," added Carlos.

"Glad to see that you remember even that," chucked Taylor.

There was a brief moment of quiet as they made a quick check of the computer systems, just to make sure that nothing else would surprise their ship during the jump. It was a pretty high risk activity as they had so far discovered, and smashing into another ship was a situation that no-one really liked to think about. For Carlos and Taylor, it was only to not think about another issue that was cropping up increasingly in their minds.

One had to ask though, and the silence was broken. "Hey, Taylor?"

"Huh? What is it?" The Shiba Inu didn't let his gaze wander over to his colleague, his green eyes staring off at the ship's instruments.

"Your friend, Robert." Taylor knew then that the subject matter was something that Carlos would carefully tread. He could already tell, as he spoke a little slower than usual, and also in a far more timid tone. "Yeah?"

"I came to him to ask after you, what your friendship was like." Neither had averted their eyes' courses, still fixated on the instruments.

"And what did Robert say?" pressed Taylor, trying not to be fully interested in the subject despite the lingering curiosity of the evaded topic.

"He told me that you had grown up alongside him, and that the bond you shared was something he thought could not ever be broken," the wolf answered. "That was, until he was pressured to doing something by the paws of his parents..."

"Heh. That was true." Taylor's eyes locked on to the face of his friend, who too had been turning.

They stared for a moment, before Carlos sighed, and then chuckled to himself. "What's got you laughing now, Carlos?" asked Taylor, irritated that the wolf of all things would start laughing at such a sensitive moment.

"Oh, I'm sorry. It was just something else he said, after I asked about you."

"After you asked about me?" The question caught Taylor, and he was lost for words. "W-what was it about?"

"Oh no, it wasn't anything serious," said Carlos, continuing to smile. "Your friend just implanted a thought in my head that won't go away!"

"What?" barked Taylor, staring at his friend in disbelief. "Tell me!"

---

"Robert said that?"

Carlos had stopped laughing, and returned to the familiar smile that Taylor recognised well when the wolf was glad. "Yup. I thought it was a joke or something, but I couldn't stop thinking about it. Sure I had thought of it a few times before he said that, but now..."

"You don't need to say more," said Taylor. "He actually said a similar thing to me, when I spoke to him."

"Is that so? Well, that certainly shows a lot on his part." Carlos made a small smirk. "Shows he's the sort to go and idly matchmake people that he knows of, or at least those that he was close to."

"Really now?" Taylor said, raising an eyebrow at the wolf.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding!" Carlos said. "But in all seriousness though..." he trailed off, suddenly aware of the words and the feelings he almost let out. He blushed and looked away from the Shiba Inu, looking out of the view port.

Taylor didn't know how to react, having half-guessed, half-known what his co-worker was about to say, but was saved from having to do so as the ship's systems gave the all clear for the jump. He engaged the hypercharge drive, and no words were spoken as that familiar numbing sensation came back, and a jolt as they accelerated deep into space.