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crews worked on
the yacht, but never while the ship was in flight. Even preoccupied with his
pursuers and a throbbing head, the compartment was impressive.  Shaped
like an egg, the narrowest part of the room was toward the bow and opposite
from where Justin stood at the entrance.  Visual displays covered the
bulkheads of the forward half.  Just below these images were half-a-dozen
workstations. At the center of the room was a captain’s chair with a desk-like
control panel arching in front of it.
    Justin walked past
the captain’s chair to the forward end of the room.  Mara lay in what
appeared to be a pod-like reclining chair, arms beside her, eyes closed. 
Her general look gave the appearance of someone asleep, but Justin knew better.
Optical fibers connected to the implant on the back of her skull linked her
brain to the ship’s helm, navigation and engineering systems.
    “Mara,” he called
softly as his eyes darted about the room.
    A holographic image
formed on the right side of the captain’s chair. “How are you doing brother?”
    “I’m alive.” He
stepped in the direction of her image, but plopped into the captain’s chair.
“Where are we headed?”
    “Just
away at the moment.” She pointed to a display showing aft sensors. 
“The nearest ship is a police cruiser the other is the Acheron.”
    Ferren .   “Are they
gaining on us?”
    She nodded. 
“Got any ideas?  They’ll be in firing range in less than twelve minutes.”
    “Then we need a
plan, a place to go, in less than eleven.”  
    “Justin,” Naomi said
softly, “I know where we could go.”
    They both looked at
her.
    “I have not
been…ah….” Naomi bit her lip. “I have not been entirely honest with you.”
    “Yeah, I know,” he
said without emotion.
    Mara looked at
Justin, her eyes wide. “You knew she was lying and…”
    “Not right now,
Mara. Go on Naomi.”
    “The man I was
traveling with, Dr. Carl Saul…well, that was not his name and he was not my
father—he was my creator.”

Chapter
8
    “Creator?” Even though it was
merely a holographic simulation, Mara’s eyes seemed to fix like beacons on
Naomi.
    Justin’s head sank
into his hands. I’ll be glad when this day is over. Gently he rubbed his
temple. “What do you mean, Naomi?”
    “Dr. Galen, that was
his real name, was not taking me to Gatewai , he was taking me to a jump gate in the Spitzer system. I
had never heard of the star before we left Earth.”
    Justin smiled
knowingly. “Yesterday you said you were from Epsilon.”
    Her face flushed.
“Dr. Galen was from Epsilon.”
     “Okay, but why
were you traveling to Spitzer?”
    “Galen said there
were people on the other side of the jump that could hide me.”
    Mara’s eyes flared.
“Most of those gates haven’t been used since the Titanomachy war—over four hundred years ago.”
    “ Navsys on,” Justin commanded. He turned to the console before him and mumbled, “Dr.
Galen was taking you to Spitzer.” Tapping his finger on the holographic map, he
brought up the appropriate region of space. The display zoomed in and
annotations appeared over several celestial bodies. “Spitzer is a white, dwarf
star. The system has one gas giant and two rocky planetoids.” He shook his
head. “No habitable planets.”
    “Are you actually
thinking about going there?” Mara raised her holographic eyebrow incredulously.
    Justin again tapped
his finger on the holographic map. “Do you have a better plan. ”
    “Well….” She turned
to Naomi. “Did you say ‘hide ?’ Why did you need to
hide?”
    The holographic
image of a uniformed man appeared to the left of the captain’s chair, opposite
of Mara.  He seemed to look Justin in the eye as he said, “Surfeit,
decelerate and prepare to be boarded.  Comply or we will open fire.”
    A flash of light
swept the bridge and alarms sounded.
    Justin’s eyes locked
on the fireball just ahead. 
    The words ‘fugitive’
and ‘Titan’ echoed in