I walked along the streets of the station just enjoying the freedom of being outside my room. Even knowing I was living in a big metal shell surrounded by the cold vacuum of space didn't bother me. Nope, the weight of a zap-stick on my hip, while different from my colt, along with the simulated sun overhead was making me a might giddy.

Not that I was totally happy. I'd been on the station for more than a month now and I was longing for home. Commander Xxyshen still came around to have dinner with me every coupla days and I had a few comrades much like when I was with the Texas Rangers back on Earth. Thing was, Orion Rangers are a closed-mouth sorta group. I don't mind that but it does make being friendly tough. And since I hadn't been off-station yet, they all considered me a rookie still and kept their distance.

Cain't say that I blame them. Even if I did now know the difference between being on-planet and on-station, I hadn't seen nothing of the bigger galaxy. Yeah, I had spent time with a dozen or so of the species that occupied the station with me, but it wasn't quite the same.

What I wouldn't have given for another night out on the plains with my horse, Clive. Quiet nights under the stars. Just the sound of his breathing settled me.

That thought stopped me in my tracks.

"Hey watch it, pipsqueak!" a voice behind me growled.

I turned toward the speaker, my hand dropping to the zap-stick on my hip. A pair of Gnausicaans, each one over seven-feet tall, practically stood on top of me. Their protruding jaw-tusks were stained a dark red and their small, piggy eyes glared down at me from under heavy brows.

The glares went away quick enough when they saw the glowing six-point star on my chest that proclaimed me an Orion Ranger. They both took a step back from me, almost crushing an Eiballian that was immediately behind them.

"You boys talkin' to me?" I asked innocently. I pulled the zap-stick from its holster and made a show of examining it.

"Not us, Ranger," the left Gnausicaan said. "We must have had you mistaken for somebody else."

"My mistake," I said. I stepped aside and made a show of waving them both through.

The giants took the hint and moved on, giving me as wide a berth as they could. I watched them go and reholstered my zap-stick, shaking my head as I did. Nausicaans were nasty varmints who were offended easily and regularly stirred up trouble. Their reaction just proved how feared the Orion Rangers were.

My wrist communicator buzzed then. I tapped it and spoke. "Champ McKay here."

The commander's voice came to me then. "Champ, I need you to report to headquarters. I'm putting together a mission team and I'd like you on it."

That was interesting. I hadn't yet been on a mission team. At least not a real one. A couple scrum teams on the station was about it. "I'll be there shortly, Commander."

"See you soon, Champ. Xxyshen out."

The communicator went silent. I tapped at it a couple times to get my bearing and followed the gentle tugs it provided to direct me back to headquarters. Even after a month on the station, I could still get turned around. All the structures looked the same. Not like being out in the desert.

In a matter of tiks I was back at headquarters. Folk on the station knew to give a Ranger space when they were moving with purpose so I didn't have any further repeats of the Gnausicaans.

I took a lift up to the floor indicated by my communicator and followed its lead to the briefing room. I was the last to arrive. The expressions on the faces of the other Rangers clearly said, rookie when they looked at me.

"Hey McKay, nice of you to bother showing up!" one of the Rangers, a reptiloid named Q'isling, said. "You must think it's pretty funny keeping your betters waiting."

"Stow it, Q'isling," Commander Xxyshen said. As always she was resplendent in her dazzling white uniform.

As always, she almost took my breath away.

I must have look a little stunned because the commander said, "Could you take a seat please Champ and I'll get this briefing started?"

I could only nod dumbly and sat down in a spot near the back of the room. That was fine. It meant no one was watching me plus I was no where near Q'isling. I swear, there have been many times when I was tempted to stuff the bastard's tail down his own throat. Perhaps another time.

Command Xxyshen sat down on the desk that dominated the front of the room. "Okay, folks. Here's what we have. A surveyor ship disappeared in the belt yesterday. They managed to get off a distress call before they went quiet. From what little we can glean from the message, they were attacked by pirates."

"Pirates?" one of the rangers, a tall thin Ornathoid squeaked out a flutelike laugh. "No self-respecting pirate would be so clumsy. Any ship a pirate wanted wouldn't know about the attack until it was too late."

"Normally I might agree with you, Magnus, but the part of the belt the coordinates indicated is known for the extremely high concentrations of asteroids. It's possible the pirates didn't see the survey vessel until they themselves had been scanned."

"Or maybe the surveyors were clumsy and got wiped out by floating rocks," Q'isling muttered, loud enough for everyone to hear.

"I thought one of you might say that," Xxyshen said. She tapped at the desk for a moment. The image of a ship came up.

Predatory was the first thought that came to mind when I saw it. It was all angles and ugliness. What looked very much like gun barrels protruded from all over the thing like quills from a porcupine. A couple of the barrels looked to be spouting some kind of energy.

"What the..." I wasn't quite sure who uttered that, my attention being fixed on the image. Whoever it was stopped speaking as fast as he started.

"This was part of the transmission. The surveyors got the image to us just before the message ended."

"And you said we received the coordinates of the attack?" Xxyshen's second-in-command, Lieutenant Dag, asked. Dag could almost have passed as normal on Earth. Tall, muscular and humanoid. That's where almost kicked in. His bright blue skin made him stand out even with the diverse group of the Orion Rangers.

"We did. Mid-belt on the opposite side of the binary from us. Maybe the pirates are just lurking in the asteroid field and maybe there is more for us to find."

"Like a base," Dag said. "If that's the case, it could go a long way to stopping piracy in this solar system."

"Maybe even the quadrant," Xxyshen agreed. She looked out over the assembled group. "I don't like taking everyone off station but this is too big an opportunity. I've already let the station security commander know what's going on. He doesn't like us being gone either but he does understand. He will be beefing up his staff a little while we're gone."

"You mean you're going to pull the entire unit for this wild goose chase?" Q'isling blurted out.

"If it means shutting down a pirate operation, then yes," Xxyshen said.

"And we could loan a few of our uniforms to station security," Dag said, musing out loud. "Keep up the appearance that we are still here."

"Good idea, Lieutenant. Could you take care of that for me?" Xxyshen asked. When Dag nodded she spoke again. "Okay. So you all have thirty tiks to get locked and loaded. I want you to go down to the shuttle bay in singles and pairs. No being seen as a large group. Is that understood?"

"Aye aye, Commander," Magnus said, standing.

"Thank you. Dismissed," Xxyshen said. "Oh, and Champ. I'd like to see you before you before you leave."

***

I waited until the others were gone before getting out of my seat. "Yes, Commander. You wanted to talk with me?"

Commander Xxyshen didn't say a word, instead she walked to the door and deliberately closed it. She hit a button on the jamb of the door and a muted hum sounded.

Only when that was completed did she turn to speak with me. "Yes, Champ, I did." Her expression held the tiniest hint of sorrow. "I was hoping to avoid this, but I simply cannot."

"Avoid what, Commander?" I didn't like the sadness that was suddenly surrounding her. I suspected I was the cause. I liked that even less. "Ma'am, my daddy always used ta say, when you have ta swallow something sour, it's best to just get it over with."

Xxyshen looked at me for a long moment before she offered a small smile. "Your daddy was a wise man. Yes, what I have to say won't make your time with the Rangers any easier."

"Shucks commander, I didn't join cause I thought it would be simple," I said.

"I would be surprised if you had, Champ. But what I'm about to ask you to do is going to be hard. Mainly because I think it goes against your character but also because some of the Rangers will probably resent you for it."

"Ask away," I said. Truthfully, I had been expecting the commander to show me the door. I wasn't exactly standard Ranger issue. The fact that she wanted me to do special duty meant she valued me rather than the reverse.

Commander Xxyshen started to pace. "Champ, it doesn't surprise me that we've received an emergency transmission from the surveyor vessel."

"It doesn't?"

She shook her head. "No. It was only a matter of time. I've actually been tracking this particular gang of pirates for some time. But whenever we get close to shutting them down they disappear."

"You think someone has been warning them off?"

She looked startled for a moment. "Actually, that's exactly what I was thinking. Is it that obvious?"

"Well, I don't know if it's obvious or not, ma'am, but I've seen it before. Varmints like them pirate fellas are pretty common where I come from. They always seem to have some joker on their payroll, warning them off whenever the law is closing in."

Xxyshen nodded. "I think that's probably exactly what has been going on. I think the surveyor vessel came upon something it shouldn't have seen and was attacked immediately afterward."

"So, Commander, what do you need me to do?" I asked.

The commander's smile was wider this time. "I hoped you would ask, Champ. I knew I could count on you."

I felt a brief weakness in my knees. I'm not sure if it was the smile or the words that did it. It didn't really matter. I had her approval. "Always, Commander."

"Thank you, Champ." Xxyshen walked back to the front of the room and activated the front screen once again. This time a two-dimensional map of the local solar system came up. The station glowed a brilliant pulsing blue on one side of the system primary. On the other side, in amongst what looked like fine gravel was a sickly pulsing yellow beacon.

She pointed at the map. "As you can probably see, the station is blue. I have some very good intelligence that tells me the pirates are where you see the yellow. Our mission is to secure the pirate's lair. That's where you come in."

"You want me to lead our squad?"

Xxyshen shook her head. "No, Champ. I need you to come in on cleanup sweep and keep an eye open for anything odd."

"Odd?"

"Yes, like one of the Rangers taking something he shouldn't be."

"I see." I had a sinking feeling I knew only too well what she was asking. "You want me to be a spy." I shook my head. "Ma'am, where I come from we don't hold much value in spies. An honest man hasn't got much to value, but his honour."

"I didn't think you would like it, Champ. You can still opt out of the mission but I will have to leave you behind."

I shook my head. I didn't like it but I could see why she was asking. "No, I'll do it. I just won't like it and I hope above all hope that I disappoint you and don't see anything."

"I hope that too, Champ. Now, get geared up and meet the rest of the Rangers at the shuttle bay."

***

When I first joined the Texas Rangers I was little more than a boy. The first time I hunted a man I clearly remember nights on the prairies looking at the sky and wondering what was up there. And now I was among the stars wondering if I really belonged.

The Orion Rangers around me didn't think I should be there. I was strapped into the troop cabin just like the rest but I was clearly not one of them. The looks they were sending my way ranged from confused to hostile. It was up to me to prove myself to both them and me.

That was new for me. I wasn't the oldest member of the Texas Rangers when I was still back on Earth but I was respected by all my peers. To be treated as a pariah was hard. It made me wish I still had my horse Clive. He, at least, always accepted me for who I was. But Clive was back on Earth. I could only hope he was still alive and well.

The commander stood and looked around the cabin, catching the eye of each one of us. "We will soon arrive at the coordinates of the suspected pirate stronghold. If the information I've received is correct we will come down on the opposite side of the asteroid from their camp. We should be able to come in undetected."

"What's the mission, Commander?" Lieutenant Dag asked.

"We hit 'em hard and fast," Xxyshen said. "Non-lethal if possible but don't put yourselves into undue danger. Use terminal force only if absolutely necessary. We need some live bodies for the Judicar."

A series of grunts met her words, some in simple acknowledgement and other clearly unhappy.

"What if we feel threatened?" a Ranger asked. This particular individual easily stood seven feet tall and was built like a bull with the face of a wild boar.

Xxyshen turned a cold eye on the Ranger and stared at him until he began to fidget. "Montral, I know the difference between necessary force and unnecessary force just like you do. If I find out you took the easy way out, you will be doing foot patrol until you retire or I throw you out of the Rangers. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Commander," he mumbled, looking anywhere but at Xxyshen. A few of the other Rangers took the opportunity to have a laugh at Montral's expense.

"Any other questions?" Xxyshen asked? She waited for almost a tik and then nodded. "Good! We will be touching down on the far side of the asteroid shortly. There is an atmosphere that is thin but breathable so you shouldn't need your helmets. Check your weapons. Teams will be as usual." She looked at me. "Champ, since this is your first ground mission, I'd like you to tag along with Sergeant Q'isling."

"Yes, Commander," I said, wishing I was working with anyone but him.

"But..."

"That's my order, Q'isling. You will show Champ the ropes. You will not leave him behind and you most definitely will NOT shoot him by mistake. Do you understand?"

"Sure, Commander. He just better not slow me down," Q'isling said sullenly.

"You don't need to worry too much about that, sergeant. You'll be running cleanup this time around. Make sure no one or nothing slips through our net."

"Yes, Commander." Those words were practically spit out. I was going to have to watch my back.

I for one was very glad she had specifically instructed him not to shoot me. The thought had crossed my mind when I heard who I was working with.

"Commander. We will be touching down within the tik. Is everyone ready?" the pilot's voice over the intercom asked.

Command Xxyshen sat down and buckled herself in, then punched the intercom button. "We're all tied in. Land when ready."

The interior lights on the transport went from white to red and our seat straps tightened. It couldn't have been more than a few moments later that the ship gently touched down.

The lights went from red to green and our straps automatically released. The back of the transport lowered as we all jumped to our feet.

That was when I proved what a rookie I really was.

I hadn't anticipated the lower gravity of the asteroid when I got up. I sailed out of my seat, smacking into the bulkhead above. Sergeant Q'isling, without missing a step, grabbed my ankle and hauled me down as he tramped by.

Q'isling brought his face close to mine and spoke so that only the two of us could hear. "You do that again, McKay, and I'll let you launch yourself right into space."

That gave me pause. This brute didn't like me to start with. He was under orders not to shoot me. No such orders had been given to keep me alive on the surface during our raid of the pirate camp. I was going to have to be very careful.

"Understood, Sergeant," I said via my throat microphone. That was one of the things I really liked about my new environment. All the technology, as they called it, at our disposal, made it easy to communicate and track things. Back home, if some varmint decided to bushwhack me out in the middle of nowhere, no one would be any the wiser until my carcass was eventually found. Here, everything was recorded and sent to a central monitoring station.

The commander hadn't been wrong about the air. I could breathe it but I had to work at it to get enough to keep going. It had a funny metallic taste to it too. Yup. It might keep me alive, but that didn't mean I would like it.

The ground was like the worst badlands I'd ever been through except no plants. Rocks littered the areas as well as wide cracks in the soil. None of that bothered me. No, what made me more than a little squeamish was how close and small the horizon was. And where I expected to see clouds or sky at the horizon was nothing more than a thin haze topped by the most complete blackness you might imagine. And overhead? Overhead were other asteroids and rocks tumbling thick as flies on a corpse. The thin atmosphere made me think I could almost reach out and grab one.

"McKay! Stop gawking and follow me!" Q'isling's voice barked over my comm. While we weren't wearing our helmets, we still had the skull caps that contained our vocal communication systems and audio/video recording systems.

I picked up my pace to catch up with my comrades, careful not to leave the ground again. When I caught up with them, Q'isling and two other Rangers were crouched down behind boulders at the crest of a hill looking down.

"Keep your head down, McKay!" Q'isling ordered as I neared. "If you're spotted, I'll shoot you myself, commander's orders be damned.

I did as instructed, keeping low as I neared the top of the ridge. I peered over the top of a boulder when I got there.

We were near the pirate camp. VERY near.

"Holy Cow!" I said, just loud enough to be heard over the microphone pickups. "How'd we get here so fast?"

"It's not a big asteroid, McKay," Q'isling said, his voice condescending. "Now, watch how the grown-ups do things! Cadg'r, Miqrl. You work your way down to the camp, removing any guards as you go. I know we are cleanup so tuck them away until the commander asks for them. Don't let anyone through. McKay and me will swing around wide and meet you at that boulder just outside that camp. Be careful to jam any electronics you come across so they only see blank landscape. Understood?"

He waited until the two Rangers nodded and crept down the hill before turning to me. "Seems I'm your babysitter today, McKay, so we are going to do this nice and safe-like. Follow me!"

Q'isling was such an ass, but he was in command of me for this operation. I bit my tongue and followed him as he slowly wound his way along the ridge toward the canyon floor.

We were almost all the way down when we rounded a particularly large boulder. That's when we saw them for the first time.

Q'isling's face lit up like a kid's in a candy store. "Commander told us not to kill pirates. Even worse, she tied me to you and gave me cleanup duty. Me! So, now I get to have a little fun. She didn't say nothing about using stray animals for target practice."

I had been staring at the herd when he spoke. The creatures were magnificent. They looked like something out of an Earth history book. I remembered seeing something like them when I was a boy still in short pants in school. We had been reading about Greek mythology or some such. The creatures in front of me looked just like the centaurs described in those books. It took the movement of Q'isling raising his weapon up to get my attention.

I knocked the barrel of his weapon down. "What do you think you're doing, sergeant? You can't shoot at those things."

Q'isling glared at me. "Watch me, human." He raised his weapon once more.

Here were creatures straight out of Earth stories. Even more, they reminded me of Clive. At least, the lower body did. I couldn't let Q'isling just shoot them down for fun.

I knocked his weapon down again just as he fired. His shot went wide, missing the herd. They startled and began to run in various directions. I watched them get away with a smile. Q'isling would have to get his fun elsewhere. I looked over at him just as the barrel of his weapon crashed into my skull.

I knew I should have watched my back. Then everything went black.