Night came slowly upon the mountains, and slowly Vera started to loose her courage.

Finally the dent on the back of her head had stopped pulsing. But the oncoming darkness made her nervous, and she came to realize that she would hardly make it to a safe place that night. She wasn't sure whether she wanted to walk through the night to find civilization, or whether she'd rather look for a place to sleep in the wild. Both options didn't please her, so she dragged out her final decision as long as possible.

But it kept getting harder to find a way through the darkness. The little light of dusk still remaining was barely enough to make the silhouettes of the mountains visible, but everything else sank into dim creepy darkness. Although Helen had packed her daughter a bag full of provisions enough to survive hiking around the world, it didn't contain a sleeping bag or a blanket. Not that it was really cold, but Vera shivered and tightened the collar of her jacket. She didn't like spending the night away from home at all, and spending it on unknown territory, far away from any settlements was nothing to look forward to.

When the ground under her feet became increasingly rocky she realized that she soon wouldn't be able to go any further. It was too dangerous to climb rocks or mountains in the dark. She couldn't even see whether this gloomy stripe before her was the plain or a deep abyss. Then, just as she tried to remember whether she had come across a passable place to sleep, she noticed a faint, but warm light in the distance, flickering in orange-red, illuminating the night. It didn't seem to be far. Vera gained new hope and headed for it.

Apparently other humans had come to this part of the world, too.

The path towards it wasn't difficult at all, she could almost walk it like a road. Sometimes Vera stumbled, but that was due to her tiredness, not because of an obstacle. Soon she could make out more. It was an open fire, apparently some campfire, with several shadows moving around it. It could only be humans! They would certainly offer her a place to rest. Maybe even the dog was with them.

But the closer she came, the queasier she started to feel. An inner voice seemed to whisper words of warning to her. What if those people were not friendly? Didn't her father always say that this job created enemies? Vera shook her head vigorously about this thought. She was thirteen, she was too young to have enemies. Who would ever wish her harm? Still, the queasy feeling stayed with her. And the shuttle crash came to mind once more - someone had fired on her, for whatever reason.

Being approximately 300 feet away she said to herself that it could not hurt being careful. She crouched the last part of the way and ducked behind a big rock from which she could examine the camp unseen.

The shadows she had noticed were indeed humans. She could make out two of them, a man and a woman. The woman was pacing restlessly from one point to another. the man sat quietly by the fire and looked like he was studying something. Vera took a closer look and tried to find out who or what they exactly were. But then her breath caught. Those people carried weapons! Laser pistols, like Vera had seen lots of at the academy, but without the obvious markings identifying them as stun guns. Besides, she could make out the handles of two knives on the woman's belt, each one big enough to cut Vera completely in half.

It was not a good idea to have come here. She had to leave now!

On her guard Vera crawled slowly away from the rock, trying her best to stay in the dark and the shadows. The rustling of the bushes behind her she noticed too late.

Suddenly she was grabbed by her upper arms. Hands big as bear claws kept her in a merciless grip as if she was welded into it. She screamed in fright and terror. A deep raspy voice sounding like it came from six feet above her grumbled: "Gotcha!"

She didn't stand a chance. Whoever had grabbed her turned her around and pushed her to the centre of the little camp. The two adults in it looked at her stunned. They were close enough for Vera now to notice details on them. She didn't like what she saw.

The woman was young. Still much older than Vera, and also older than Tammy, but she hadn't reached Igor's or Helen's age yet. Thin and wiry she looked like someone hardly taking any solid food. Her long uncombed hair shone silvery-fair in the glowing light of the campfire, but her tattoos on her bare forearms, her neck and part of her chest not being covered by her clothing were more impressive. Beside the knives and the laser pistol Vera had already seen several other sharp and pointy objects were attached to her belt and other parts of her clothes.

The guy behind her, the one that had caught her, was holding her so tightly that she could barely turn around to look at him, but those first impressions she had did suffice. The hands holding her upper arms were huge and full of stains, the fingernails unkempt. The legs behind here were covered by a pair of shabby trousers while her upper body was pressed against a large suit of body armor long past its best days. As she tried to look up in his face all she could see was a wild bushy beard covering a fat mean visage. Still the worst part was the smell: The clothes hadn't been washed for a long time, and the man stank of sweat, smoke and liquor.

Finally she turned to the third adult. Her blood seemed to freeze in her veins, and she didn't even know why. The man was about forty, looked well-groomed in contrast to his companions, and unter a retracting hairline there was a beardless, fierce, but still smart looking face. The clothes had been worn often from the looks of it, but were in fair condition. It reminded Vera of those soldiers of fortune trying out at the academy. The only weapon on him that she could see was his laser, and judging by his pose he wasn't going to use it at once. All of that should have been enough to pacify her.

Then sho looked into his eyes... and shivered again. She couldn't bring herself to utter a single sound.

"What's that supposed to be?" the woman flared furiously. "We opened up a nursery, or what?" Her voice sounded like long fingernails on ruste steel sheets. It made Vera's teeth ache.

"She spied on us" the giant declared, still holding her. As affirmation he grabbed Vera's arms even tighter, and Vera let out a quiet yell of pain. "We can't have that, can we?"

"No we can't" the other man confirmed. Vera had had enough dealings with mercs and other sorts to know that he was their leader. He took one step closer and examined her carefully. "What are you doing here, girl?"

She had several options now, but most of them were embarrassing, unrealistic or just plain stupid. Had she acted on her instinct she would have given a snippy remark that would at least have put her on the wrong end of being beaned. She looked around again, and it was clear for her that this was the wrong moment for acting like a brat. Instead she tried the way of being heart-melting that Hank taught her for the training missions.

"Please!" she pleaded and added a slight sobbing to her voice. "I'm all alone and lost out here. I was just looking for a place to sleep."

The woman coughed contemptuously. "Bollocks!" she almost spittet. "No one's got any deals out here. Next settlement is miles away. Come up with something better!"

"Easy!" the leader soothed her. But he seemed sceptical, too. "You are an awful long way from home, wherever that may be. So why are you here?"

The stories Vera had heard before came to mind. She wasn't the only one being bored to tears by this dull life on the planet, under the control of security forces just prohibiting children from doing anything. There were many children who had run away from home and tried to survive on their own in the wild. After all she had experienced this would be a better idea than most of the others she could come up with. "I ran away from home" she explained - sticking to her sobbing and also adding a little shakiness to her act. "I couldn't stand it there any longer. I just wanted to be gone."

"I think we can help with that, right, Johnson?" The giant let out a cackle. "How about we throw her down the cliff? Then we'll be rid of her."

"We could also gut her first" the woman suggested. Her eyes flashed dangerously, and she had one hand on the grip of one of her big knives already. "That will keep her quiet for sure."

That didi it for Vera. "What have I done to you?" she yelled angrily, completely forgetting her role as the helpless victim. "I don't want anything from you. Why can't you just leave me alone?"

The knife blinked in the light of the fire as the woman drew it quickly. "Shut up! Or I will cut your tongue out" she flared, holding the pointy end of its dangerous blade right before Vera's face. But before something else could happen the leader grabbed the woman by her wrist.

"Stop it!" he ordered her - and even to Vera his voice sounded frightening. He spoke calmly, didn't raise his voice at all. But his commanding and threatening undertone sent cold shivers down her back. She didn't know the secret of this man. But if she was scared of anyone here, then it was him. "You keep your hands off her, Sykes, until I say otherwise. You got that?"

For a moment the woman seemed reluctant. But she caved in. "If you say so" she hissed, putting her knife away.

Again the leader turned to Vera. "You ran away from home then? Don't you have any parents that will miss you?"

"No" Vera replied instantly and stared back at him defiantly. "My mother doesn't care about me, and my father is always somewhere across the galaxy to make money. I don't mean anything to them." But inside she pleaded for forgiveness from her mother who had cared for her so lovingly and had never let her down. This lie did hurt her more than the giant's grip.

For a while the leader - apparently called Johnson by his people - considered her words. Until the giant became unpatient. "So, what are we going to do with her?" he asked.

Johnson glimpsed at him shortly. "I have to think of something. You put her over there and see to it that she doesn't do anything funny." With a nod of his head he showed the direction, and the giant dragged Vera there without hesitation. Under a tree at the edge of the camp, surrounded by thick bushes, they came to a halt.

Vera knew exactly what Johnson was up to with his command, and she grimaced. She hated that. Really. But anyway it had to be better than getting slashed or stabbed by the woman with her knives. As the giant let go of her arms and took off her backpack she considered running. But he almost instantly grabbed her wrists and put them on her back. Suddenly she remembered her escaping lessons. Her personal record to get out of such a situation was twenty seconds. Those three people would be in for a nasty surprise. She wouldn't be their prisoner for long.

The woman, Sykes, joined them. Vera couldn't see what they were doing behind her back. She just felt something firmly wrapped around her wrists, holding them on her back. But something was wrong. All of a sudden she became aware of the fact that she was in deep trouble. It were no modern handcuffs from the security forces or similar binds that they were using. Sykes did it the primitive way, usind a rope to tie her wrists together. It was so tight that it dug into her skin, and with a brutal jerk Sykes tightened the knot. "Ouch!" Vera uttered.

They made her sit down on the ground, and Sykes tied her ankles together with a second rope. Hardly anyone in this galaxy was capable of doing this anymore - at least no one that Vera had heard of. Hadn't it been her own hands and feet being treated so viciously she might have been fascinated by the skillfulness of the woman doing it. It took only a few seconds before Vera was rendered immobilized. Grimly she returned the hostile look Sykes gave her. Without another word the two adults returned to their leader, leaving Vera alone - knowing all too well that she had no chance of getting away.

Twenty seconds, Vera thought and pulled at her bonds helplessly. What the hell was I thinking? Sure, the trainers at the academy had gone easy on her, and in all her eagerness to learn Vera still had preferred to practice her self-defense than learning escaping techniques. But how was she supposed to know that one day she would be in a situation where even these techniques wouldn't do her any good. Her biggest adavantage with these modern handcuffs, being that they didn't properly work on her thin wrists, didn't help her at all in this moment. On the contrary, it hurt her, and already she started to feel a tingle in her fingertips due to her hands being tied so tightly that the blood circulation didn't work properly anymore.

For a moment Vera thought of Tammy, how she had left her in the shuttle, severely wounded and as helpless as she herself was now. Her eyes got watery as she thought of how little she had been able to do for her friend, and that she had had no other option left than to leave her behind. Would Tammy ever be found? And if so, by whom? Hopefully not by these people here. But Vera also worried about herself and what would become of her if she didn't manage to free herself.

And a thought started creepingly crawling its way into her mind that she might have been better off if she had chosen to be grounded two years ago.