<div class="floatright">(http://i68.tinypic.com/2h5r9ja.jpg)</div><span class="bbc_u"><strong>Katarina Serkova</strong></span>(https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wVXRhquFygpkGwtmLQhPvpwLT0_cpOaUCTlTt9vItM4/edit)<br/><br/>Two other things happened at the same moment, only fractions of a millisecond after her drink had been thrown away.  She had straightened, her eyes going cold and emotionless, and her bolter cleared the holster, the hand clutching it steady on the firing stud, resting against the table and pointed squarely at the intruder's chest.  "And I drink what I choose, as no man has the authority to command me any longer," she said in a voice hard enough to cut diamond.<br/><br/>But her jaw worked, and she looked down at the flask for a moment, before she sighed, and shook her head.  She spun the bolter, twice around a finger, and then slid it into the holster.  "And you're a bigger fool than you look if you think I'm that special.  Yeah, best in my class by a wide margin.  But I'm also a jinx, a bad omen, a hex on any crew that would even consider hiring me.  And if you know about my record in my graduating class, then you know<em>why</em>that is.  Something like<em>that</em>," she said, almost hissing the last word as her now free hand reached over to clutch tightly at her other forearm.  "It makes people nervous, and some outright hostile, toward me."<br/><br/>She leaned back in her chair, her lips drawing into a thin line.  "And if you're trying to bed me, it'll take more than a bottle of amasec for that," she said, the stare turning into a wry smile.