FLIGHTPATH TO BITER SPACEPORT<br/>BITER<br/>BITER SYSTEM<br/>OCCUPIED SWORD WORLDS<br/><br/>PRESENT<br/><br/>Captain Bello's tired voice came over the intercom.  He grunted and cleared his throat.  On his ship, he didn't need to adhere to the think-push-talk method of communications and instead sometimes forgot himself, and reverted to the push-think-talk method.  Not that he cared; as far as he was concerned, the members of his crew could wait for him to speak, just as they did when he spoke to them face to face.<br/><br/>"All hands, we'll touch down at Biter Spaceport in about half an hour.  All of you finish what you're doing and be in the galley in five minutes."<br/><br/>Captain Bello waited in the galley until his passengers and crew had gathered.<br/><br/>The table had been folded up and returned to its niche in the wall.  Almost every bit of free wall space held a recessed cabinet filled with cooking utensils and foodstuffs.  There was a minimum of conversation among the crewmembers as they waited for Captain Bello to speak.  They were all there, save for the pilot, who remained at his station fighting the storm.<br/><br/>"We'll be on Biter shortly now," he began, "and I want all of you to keep your heads.  They don't like us, and they'll take any chance to show it.  They'll do what they like under the Emperor's Starburst.  He's given them Biter as their prize.  It looks like a measly trinket, but underneath the tarnish it's gold."<br/><br/>The crewmembers nodded as he spoke.  They knew only too well the contempt and suspicion that the Caladbolgans held for free traders such as they.  They knew too, that the Countess Khidamsarkiir of Caladbolg was a favored vassal of the Duke Atriyan of Lunion, and her service as a bulwark of strength on his Spinward border would not go unrewarded.  Other rewards found their way to the subjects of loyal vassals such as the Countess, and quite frequently such rewards took the form of allowing her loyal soldiery to  ignore the restrictions to which tradition and the balance of power between the nations of Caladbolg demanded they adhere.<br/><br/>The crew of Captain Bello was a mixed bunch. There was Pitr Gritchnayav, the pilot, who had learned to handle ships in the unforgiving asteroid belts of Glisten; Milensten Riichi was the ship's engineer, a man whose understanding of physics ran unerringly to the practical.  He had coaxed the most from the ship's drives under conditions which would cause other men to take up another calling in life.  He was also a gifted machinist who had fabricated many mechanical necessities when there otherwise would have been none.  Amalan Ekalstin was the astrogator.  He was a longtime merchant spaceman who had plotted courses for free traders in the Vargr Extents.  Things had gone bad somewhere out there among those alien kingdoms; he bore the scars of grievous injuries and a heavy silence.  Lastly, there was Inku Orance.  She was young woman, barely more than girl.  Captain Bello had brought her on board a few years ago somewhere in District 268.  Since then he had taught her the secrets of the culinary arts, of which he was a master.  He was a talented chef, and she was an apt pupil.  He also taught her what he knew of the rough and ready medicine practiced on independent merchant ships throughout Charted Space.<br/><br/>(More to come on Captain Bello's speech)