Wolf's Daughter - Ch. IX

[Pakkrat [N7LA]]

Wolf's Daughter - Ch. IX
by Pakkrat

IX. Their leader had said to let nothing stand in their way to complete the mission to capture a gene-thief of Progen Republic secrets. The Sentinels had also been ordered to leave no asteroid without a search. The taskforce began to strip mine the asteroids. One by one in this sector, the gene-thief and her accomplices would be rooted out eventually.

Meanwhile, the leader of the overheard Defenders was confronting Magister Hellstrom. Protesting the presence of the 'invading' Progen, this Joo Li of the Shinwa chastised the Sabine Sentinel.

"I don't know why you are here, Magister," said the Ken'shao, "but you and your rag-tag explorers are to leave Jenquai space. The fact that you managed to open Vishao's Gate is proof enough that you have committed espionage and have crossed uninvited into the Antares solar system, the jurisdiction of the Jenquai Hierate."

Caius Hellstrom fired back, "From what we just overheard, Ken'shao, you aren't supposed to be here either. You know, you Jennies need to get your act together. It was your wing of Defenders that made my entrance possible and I thank you. But I am here on business and that mission is inviolate. Stay out of my way and you Jennies can have your frontier."

"You pompous, insufferable-" the Defender commander was cut off, much to the laughter of the mining Sentinels who continued to dig for the hidden gene-thief. But it was not the Magister who had disconnected the signal. Across the sector, a ship exploded and garbled the signal connection.

"Sentinels," called Magister Hellstrom, "the indigenous lifeforms have attacked the Defenders. I declare a state of alert. All craft are to return to combat readiness as you continue the search for the gene-thief and her accomplices."

Across the scouring Sentinel ranks, Repulsor Fields lit up the plane of the asteroid fields as the mining beams continued to break asteroids and tractor them into cargo holds. Of course the field was much too large and numerous for the entire taskforce to take in. So, the Sentinels spaced the slagged and pulverized crystals as they removed one hiding place after another from the frontier.

One asteroid exploded with the eruption of five tiny specimens of the winged creatures who attacked the Sentinels in a small swarm. The Sentinel fired with its Sparta! Mortar projectile weapons, killing two before the blast of the asteroid engulfed the ship and the young bolted the unlucky Sabine caught in their storm. The young destroyed the ship even as the Repulsor Field, flickering as the ship 'died', killed another of them.

High-energy calls on frequencies off the transceiver scales bounced from every asteroid, resonating with the wails of the angelic space fauna. Like whale-song, their calls echoed off every surface in the high-end electromagnetic spectrum.

* * *

In a tight, line-of-sight lasercom beam, the Pakkratius called to Dot. "Dot, do you see that massive crystal asteroid out there past that point? I need you to thrust, on impulse only, to it. Do not use warp as the cone and your wake will alert the Defenders and the Sabine of your presence. Go there and hide your ship behind its refracting crystal."

"What about you?" asked Dot. "You can't move or you'll be seen."

"I'll be behind you after you are almost there. Trust me."

"If they harm us, I will destr-" she was cut off by the Doctor. Anger in her surged.

"No, Dot. No matter what happens to me, you must live. Live and get away."

"But you-" protested Dot. She was beginning to think that the Pakkratius was becoming suicidal in the face of the approaching Defenders and the Sabine who were tearing the asteroid fields apart in their search for them.

"But nothing. I am Progen and will answer the Call Forward if I die. Now go."

Wolfsdottir was torn. This was the man who had offered to help her off the deck of Paramis Station. He had chased her across Terran space, just to talk to her. The Pakkratius had verbally complimented her abilities and attainments. He had helped her meet her biological father and held the crying Dot at Wolf's banishment. The Progen had fought Mordana with Dot in her defense by drawing the Followers' ire. She was the ex-Defender, the ex-Sev Tushnim. She had been the one to give aid unconditionally. Never before had someone given so much of themselves, their career and even their life for her. It hurt her heart to have the tables turned so sublimely.

The girl tore off her black head ribbon and wrapped it about her right hand on the flight stick of her craft, the *Warchild*. Her silver-ish hair fell wildly about her shoulders in a bush of spikes. Then, winging over, Dot made for the glittering glass spire that would later be given that name. On impulse thrust and under her invisibility cloak, she left the Pakkratius.

* * *

"Perhaps this one is the apprentice proceeding under assumption," apologized Ariad to Grandmaster Vitaes. "How the Shinwa and the Sabine have arrived unbidden is a flaw upon the part of the Hierate."

"It's too late to analyze what cannot be undone, Lady," said Vitaes. "What can we do to help Wolfsdottir and the Pakkratius?"

Ariad closed her eyes in a pause for meditation. Then she smiled and opened her eyes. Taking the Shad'ha'dem Grandmaster to a cargo container and opening it, she explained to him, "This shipment was to augment our communications. Take this device to your friend, the Progen Reporter. Have him install it. He will know what to do next."

Vitaes saw the device and lifted its heavy bulk. It was an antenna converter, used to translate communications signal frequencies between the various galactic communications systems. It allowed all races, Terran, Progen, and Jenquai to match signals and communicate freely. It was analogous to the ancient Earth "red phone line" between warring governments. Now, on Antares 1 Station, it was an attempt to make translatable the inscrutable garble that was the Voltoi signals.

"Ascendance to the Jenquai, Grandmaster," said Ariad as she ushered Vitaes to his Explorer craft. "Antares 1 will be ready."

"Contemplation and compliance, my Lady," acknowledged Vitaes as he entered the sleek vehicle, with the device in-hand. By now her voice and courage had his chromesthesia feeling a positive and vibrant feedback to his senses. Just by the colors in his vision, the Grandmaster could trust Ariad. He now had to make it alive to the Pakkratius.

* * *

He had waited until Dot was just outside of his own scan range, extended as it was by his devices, before spoiling the holographic disguise over his vessel. The *Culler* thrust from the planetoid Anci. As it gained momentum and speed, travelling in the direction where he had last seen the *Warchild*, the Sentinel was hailed immediately by the nearby Sabine Order. They had been mining one or two fields over and stripping away any chance of hiding among the fields.

"Doctor Pakkratius of Net-7 News, you are to stand down, heave-to and prepare to be boarded," called one crimson-sailed Sentinel. "Don't make this harder on all of us, Magister Magna."

But before they could lock their Gravity Link beams on the white vessel, it was out of range. Just how fast was the *Culler* at impulse speeds the pursuers wondered. The Pakkratius' ship was still accelerating deeper into the fields. It was dangerous to fly so fast in such cramped quarters of the sharp crystalline asteroids. There were calls of warnings among the orders to surrender. Then came calls to the taskforce detailing the fugitive Sentinel ship's position.

Pakkratius sailed between the glittering asteroids, his white, armored plates fanning each asteroid as he flew past. Putting as many of the rocks between his craft and the Sabine Order would obscure any targeting as well as slow the hunters. Beads of sweat formed on his brow as he lent all his attention to the most acrobatic stunt flying he had done in his Sentinel-class ship.

Yet, even as he dodged another spiked crystal rock, the *Culler* could no longer be termed a Sentinel-class ship, given the strange and alien infestation of weapons, shields, engines and devices from all over the galaxy and beyond its swirling boundaries. The darkness of the bridge was lit only by those empowered systems as the pilot wrenched his sails sideways to fit between two massive asteroids.

Now at a full impulse speed, pouring everything but the warp drive into his weaving, Pakkratius had to dodge asteroids, but also weapons fire. Zipping past mining Sentinels, he saw them turn and fire with no time to spool up their Gravity Link beams. Crystal shattered at the ordinance that struck it. This created a cloud of glittering debris that only served to confuse scanners the more.

A tail fin on the *Culler* caught an asteroid fragment that tore it off near its base. This caused a screeching sound to reverberate through the ship. Pakkratius gritted his teeth against it as he flew on.

His scanners warned him of movement in the field ahead. Activating his Skirmish Omega shield again, the red hex-grid over the shield revealed the cloaked and nimble Defenders trying to cut him off. They were cloaked but revealed to Pakkratius alone. He wouldn't allow himself to come any where near him and try Dot's favorite trick, the Fold Space maneuver and shunt him where he had no control. He pulled to port and heard his sails wail in the force of the banking turn. The Defenders were not as fast as Pakkratius' devices allowed, but they were having no problems navigating the field. The lithe and sleek darts of the Shinwa were designed for such acrobatics.

Ahead was the massive spectral colors of the crystal asteroid Pakkratius had sent Dot to conceal herself. As he rounded yet another crystal-rock asteroid, the Doctor could see the embedded and tiny spheres of implanted, angelic, Voltoi young in its structure. There must have been tens - no far more than that - 'eggs' in that huge asteroid. Pakkratius could not count them.

The Sentinel felt sick at himself. He did the causal math. In trying to escape the Shinwa and Sentinels, he had sent Dot here. Then to catch up with her, he tried to make way here too. Now, seeing the 'nest' of the glassy, rainbow asteroid, he knew that the Sabine would rip it apart with their mining beams to get at Pakkratius and Dot. He was dooming the young Voltoi in his own preservation.

This was survival, one darker half of himself told him. Pakkratius fought his own inner war as he pulled behind the Glass Point and slowed to a halt. Dot's ship was there, still cloaked. She must have been watching the entire time with her passive Telescopium device. He felt her silence meant she knew too what they had both done. His other, more humane half chided him all the more.

The two sat there as the Sabine Order continued to grind down field after field in their fervent search. Being too fast for the Defenders, they too searched the sector for the renegades, but again came into contact with the Sentinels.

* * *

Ken'shao Joo Li had just about had enough of this incursion of the Sabine Order in Jenquai space. She may not have had the entire sector mapped, but the Sentinels were now an aggressor, stripping the fields in obvious chase for her prey.

"This is Ken'shao Joo Li of the Shinwa Defenders," called the wing commander. "Sabine commander, you are to depart this space immediately!"

An answer returned with the face of the most square-jawed Progen man Julie had ever seen. His grim and determined face also featured anger. "You will address me as Magister Caius Hellstrom of the Sabine Order. I already hold the Jenquai responsible for aiding, housing and hiding a gene-thief named Wolfsdottir. Surrender her or there may be consequences."

It was confirmed. The Sabine were after the AWOL girl too. Julie winged over to the source of the answering signal. "The Wolfsdottir is a warchild and a citizen of the Jenquarum. You will not have her. Turn back from Jenquai space and return to Beta Hydri neutral territory or face the exacting wrath of the Shinwa!"

"So be it then," called this Hellstrom. "You are hopelessly outnumbered, Defender."

"You know nothing of the Shinwa then, gene hunter."

The Shinwa and the Sabine began clashing across the Antares Frontier in small spurts where they found each other. One Defender was able to confound two or three of the sailed Sentinels at a time as they tried to rip apart fields of asteroids. Beam weapons and mass-driver projectiles lit up the night in each micro-theatre of battle.

*They fight each other as they approach our nest.*

*Bite them! They gorge on and make the night loud with their energy and plasma.*

The atonals sped forward while the tonals veered off. The tonals had seen the slow progression towards the home nest where younglings were housed.

*Khizz, I will cull them in hopes they will turn away.*

*No, Xaxx, destroy them. Bite them all.*

Defenders split the formations of the Sentinels, just as they found themselves unable to move under their increased mass. Black-brown Gravity Link beams made maneuvers insane to attempt. The Defenders countered with seemingly random Fold Space shuntings. Just as rapid in succession, the Sabine found their reactors drained by the siphoning beams of invisible ships appearing behind them. Streaks of energy and plasma were answered by heavy-element slugs coated in corrosive casings. Weapons fire exchanged.

Those few, beleaguered ships that sought to make for the sidelines of the battle were set upon silently by the Deviant Voltoi.

*Bite!* A lightning bolt of electromagnetic energy struck the already tired ship of a Sentinel. It's armored hull shredded even as the reactor was emptied by the electromagnetic pulse of the Voltoi's discharge.

*Tear!* Another atonal, Khizz this time, let loose his lighting pulse upon one of the dart-like metal craft. Its bolt landed on the shields, but it was the EMP that overloaded the already-full reactor inside. The capacitor containment field failed and the reactor erupted in a cascade release of energy that destroyed the Defender outright.

*Shred!* Xaxx's bolt caught a Sentinel ship too slow to dodge. The armored sails went in all directions as the ship broke apart.

* * *

Pakkratius watched with hopelessness as the fields surrounding the Glass Point were slowly chewed by the mining beams of the Sentinels. It would not be long now that their hiding place would be discovered. Dot had given up on cloaking at this point. If he was visible, then it stood to reason that she would also be close. The Doctor could have made calculations of how much longer the two had before their discovery, but he no longer wanted such details. Instead he began re-rigging his devices to fight off his own kind, the Sabine Order, to protect the girl.

"Let them come," said a resigned Dot. "I'll cut their ships in two."

"No, Dot," warned the Progen man. "Incapacitate them if you must, but in the end, try to escape. If that fails, pray to your Ben Joseph that the Sabine are merciful."

"The Defenders will not let the Sentinels escape this system now that they have crossed the line."

"From what I can see and hear over the comms, the Defenders are fighting the Sentinels to get at you themselves."

The two pilots shelled their ships with Psi-Shields and Repulsor Fields and waited for the first ship to come in range. It was inevitable.

The arriving Sentinels were immediately followed by the Defenders who warped in once they had the mining pattern down to this focal location.

"For the Republic!" shouted the Sabine leader.

"Honor to the Shinwa!" answered the female Defender commander.

The two Factions were upon Glass Point. There was little hope for escape. Vishao's Gate was still blockaded by the Sabine Order. Pakkratius stared at the numerous sails of the Sabine Sentinels bearing down on them. The sleek Defenders, not to be outdone raced in as their warp signatures dissolved. There was an immediate standoff despite the pitched battles between the two Factions elsewhere in the sector. There was a pause as each side waited for the first shot to come.

Arriving behind the Defenders was a single Jenquai Explorer, the *Rocinante* who over-shot the two Factions and dropped out of warp, right on top of the two who waited out their exposure.

"Pakkratius!" called Vitaes from his ship, "You must make use of this device immediately!" A tractor beam pushed the device towards the white sails of the *Culler*. "She said you would know what to do next!"

"Out of our way, Sha'ha'dem!" called the commander of the Shinwa. "You are already in trouble, Grandmaster Vitaes!"

"Agreed," said the Sabine leader, the Hellstrom. A mining beam lit up his ship and began ripping into the huge crystalline asteroid Glass Point. More beams from the gathered wingmen Sentinels followed suit with their own mining beams.

"No! You don't understan-" called Dot. She swung around the crystal and interposed her ship between the mining beams and the massive crystal. This halted the beams but exposed the girl to the spooling Gravity Link beams. She was hit several times, paralyzing her craft.

Pakkratius saw all of this as he received the Jenquai device and proceeded to install it in place of another. The connectors were not compatible but still fit. He worried that when he threw power through the device that the conduits would not hold. It sat in the cradle just fine, but the connectors. They would need some form of binding to keep contact.

The Doctor reached into his hip medical kit for some form of binding material and came up, surprisingly with a large roll of silvery tape. He would later remember that the Terran on Dahin planet had slipped him a roll of the 'miraculous' duct tape, a wonder of ancient Earth technology. Pakkratius frantically wrapped the conduit connections.

Outside, a third fleet of ships arrived. The Sharim merchants, tenders, cargo ships, repair haulers, and other sundry craft arrived. They had followed Vitaes from Antares 1 to Glass Point.

"Defenders and Sentinels," they called. "By the authority of Lady Ariad and the Sharim, you are in violation. Depart this sector immediately."

Both Factions ignored the Sharim announcement. Their mission was before them and the standoff was almost broken.

Pakkratius reached his pilot's chair and snatched up his flight controls. Swinging the *Culler* around to face his aft towards Antares 1 space station, he lined up for the signal. The Net-7 News equipment came online in conjunction with the Jenquai device and a special coat of Manes essence on the backside of his ship's sails.

"The pen is mightier than the sword," Pakkratius said to himself. The ship became a massive comm dish. He threw all remaining power from his reactor and shields into this transmission.

Outside the white Sentinel ship, a tremendous white light of coherent masercom energy shot forth from the sails. It reached across the remaining asteroid fields, heedless of their mass. Its light was blinding and all scanners were temporarily overloaded in the vicinity of the huge beam. The masercom beam contacted the relay antennae of Antares 1 and bounced again across the sector to Vishao's Gate.

* * *

Across the galaxy, at NET-7 SOL, Zona Mason stood before the receiver terminal for incoming transmissions out of Capella. It was late night here at the station in Saturn sector and the service hall was empty. She knew that the rat would try to make contact with Net-7 News and she felt it a greater good for the newsorp if the Progen were to die in the field. After all, weren't the Progen immortal via their medical-thingy, the Call Forward? She would be rid of him for good. All she had to do was disconnect the cables in this large box.

With a breath she had the panel off and gazed over the cables, deciding which to start yanking first. Then Zona Mason felt another body behind her and gasped a silent breath as a thin *tanto* dagger touched her throat.

"Don't touch that dial, viewers," whispered the ShadowWalker. He then edged Mason up and away from the receiver terminal and its cords. The ex-assassin held her against the wall at knife's edge when the masercom beam from beyond Capella made contact with NET-7 SOL and was routed through to the station, forwarded to the rest of the galaxy. The Pakkratius had the attention of all of human space.

* * *

The theme music jingle played as the image of Pakkratius came on every monitor in the galaxy. "Tomorrow's news today, this is the Pakkratius, brining you a special report from - you guessed it - the Antares Frontier. Tonight we have a truly epic tale for you concerning a brave little girl, your Anchor-rat and a resourceful and noble Explorer......"

Dot sat there before the trained weapons of the Shinwa Defenders and the Sabine Order Sentinels targeted upon her. She listened to the Progen man on her speakers as her scanners were still recovering.

The Pakkratius told of their meeting and adventures. She smiled at all the funny things she did to him and his admitted reactions. He displayed and spoke of the paths they took across the galaxy. Dot cried at the re-telling of her father, Wolf's rejection of her. With his Sabine Doctor training, the Pakkratius told how he learned of the mission to capture or kill her. The details went on as the various ships around her recovered their sensors and were forced to listen to the Reporter.

The white-sailed Sentinel blew the cover off of both secret missions of the Shinwa and the Sabine, their reasons and their means. He made the galaxy aware of the secret of Antares Frontier and how it was lawfully discovered and the protectorate of the Sharim after the Sha'ha'dem. The Reporter set the stage and continued the tale.

All the while, the huge white beam kept the connection from his ship to the galaxy.

Through the transmission, the Pakkratius set the story straight, with all the journalistic integrity he could muster. The galaxy was listening.

Everything the Reporter said, gestured and the multitude of images about his craft were visible to all watching Net-7 News. All was recorded. There was no mistaking the events surrounding the trio of 'fugitives'.

Over the sector-wide communications, the Sentinel commander protested, "You arrogant little rat! I'll destroy you and your gene-map for betraying the Sabine Order!"

But it was the Shinwa commander who pointed out the truly precarious situation. "Look, Progen! We are surrounded. Take your shot if you dare, but there will be consequences."

Everyone looked as the story on the galactic news still continued through the voice of Magister Magna, Dr. Pakkratius. All about them in a sphere were the angelic creatures, the Voltoi. They flapped their wings and yet were motionless as their antennae registered the immense power behind the Reporter's transmission. They were listening to him. Did they understand him as well?

Everyone was outnumbered by the Voltoi in Antares Frontier , here at Glass Point.

*They have stopped eating the crystals. Our young are unharmed.*

*But perceive that one's counsel.* The tonal pointed an antenna at the white beam creature.

*I perceive it, but nothing is making sense.*

*This one makes gentle gestures. The creature holds back the darts and the rock-eaters.*

Khizz tried to protest, but the tonals outweighed the atonals in this web-counsel. Xaxx attempted to lend weight to Khizz's argument, but both were silenced by the distant counsel of the Ascendant Mother.

*Tonals and Atonals. My children. These quiet ones are young. Leave them be for now. Their own Mother approaches to herd its young.*

Khizz and the rest of the atonals heeded the Mother, but forever would they aggressively guard their food and the younglings here. All, towards the end of the counsel of the white one at the nest, began to disperse slowly.

* * *

Using the galactic masercom beam from Antares as a beacon, *The Implicate Order*, Magna Vinda's personal frigate, entered the Antares Frontier and signalled to all ships present. The Jenquai capital ship, *Tonatiuh Maru* arrived seconds later.

Zyrith Sky watched as quietly and and invisibly as she could on the bridge of the frigate as Vinda chastised Magister Caius Hellstrom for embarrassing the Sabine Order over a little Jenquai girl in a Defender.

"B-but, Magna Vinda," stuttered Hellstrom, "The girl is in possession of Progen genes."

Vinda called back as her frigate's capital class guns trained on the Magister. "Magister, do you know how hard it is to steal genes from the Restorers, once they have been stored?" The leader of the Sabine Order looked over at the image of the Jenquai girl in question. With a dismissive frown, she declared, "I see no stolen Progen genes here and my scans detect none aboard her ship."

Caius broke in with, "But, M-Magna Vinda, look at-." He was cut off by her raised and punctuated voice.

"I SEE NO PROGEN GENES IN HER POSSESSION, MAGISTER!" Vinda bellowed. Her brow was furrowed and her face frowning at him.

*She's lying of course*, said Zyrith's inner voice.

*Shut the hell up,* responded Zyrith. *I know that. But what this woman says, goes.*

Zyrith looked to the monitor showing the Pakkratius's ship. The transmission by now was over and all eyes were on the gargantuan Progen capital ship and her commander. Only now was the white Sentinel regenerating his reactor power from such a demand of energy. He had made his news spot. Who knew what Vinda might do to him?

The declaration over the entire sector killed the claim in one sentence, any chance that the Shinwa might have a case against the Progen Republic through the Wolfsdottir. Thus the *Tonatiuh Maru* stationed itself in the Antares Frontier to funnel the remaining Shinwa Defenders from the sector and back to Swooping Eagle to report their mission failure to Du'shao Silva.

The Sentinels were herded from Jenquai space as Vinda, against everything Zyrith knew of her, apologized to Ariad at Antares 1 for her Faction's mistaken actions.

Ariad, in her soft-spoken voice responded, "Many have proceeded on assumption on both sides of this adventure, Magna Vinda. May the wisdom of the Ancients be further blessed upon you and yours."

"Perhaps," said Vinda as her frigate made for Vishao's Gate. Her eyes too were locked on the white Sentinel still at Glass Point and forming with the Defender girl and the Grandmaster Explorer.

* * *

Magna Vinda stood over her subordinate crew on the bridge of her frigate and gazed intently at Magister Magna Pakkratius' white vessel.

*Again, the Pakkrat Master Genome shines to brighten the galaxy. Well done, my little Pakkratius. You have shown us that through cooperation over competition humanity can step back from the brink, forgive itself of its past, put away its weapons, have a conscience both fatherly and motherly, to help re-discover itself.*

*Yes, I knew of the girl, yet did nothing. It was a test you see, to see if Man were still fit to become a father to even his own enemy. You, my little lab rat, have proven worthy where monsters of the past fear to tread.*

*Go back to your news, Pakkratius. For while I must make example by banishing you from the Sabine Order, I see that you will have your paws too full to serve me directly. Teach her well, that the knower and the known are one in the Implicate Order.*

Zyrith Sky was ordered by Vinda to strike the Pakkratius from active duty of the Sabine Order, indefinitely. The Sentinel would be allowed to continue his work at Net-7 News and as an independent Doctor of the Call Forward in Saturn. The Reclaimer woman transmitted the verdict to him herself.

Vinda then was escorted back to the Gallina system by her Sentinels.

* * *

Dot sent a message to her mother a week later, telling her of the adventure she had undertaken. She spoke about the new 'father' she had found aside from the Wolf in its cage. This seemed to satisfy her mother, Dr. Juna Wa, that her daughter was happy to have found herself, her purpose and a lasting occupation with the Pakkratius, the so-called Anchor-rat for Net-7 News.

Dot became an intern with her new Progen 'dad' and followed him around everywhere he went. She aided the Pakkratius with reporting for the galaxy's most trusted news source. With the neutrality of NET-7 SOL as a rising galactic Faction protecting her, the Wolfsdottir never again feared another hunt. She was able to drop the desires in her to kill or destroy, having seen the beauty of the angelic Voltoi and the mercy they too showed all that day in the Antares Frontier. The black sash from the Kaojin, the Destroyers, went into the rubbish, where it belonged.

Happily, Dot stood smiling behind the cameras as the Pakkratius sat down next to Anchorwoman Zona Mason for today's galactic news broadcast. Next to Dot stood the ex-assassin, ShadowWalker who gazed at the Terran woman and smiled.

Zona Mason returned the smile meekly and then brightened as the cameras went live and on air. She straightened her hair rather than adjust her glasses as the theme music played.

"All the news from space, this is Net-7 Saturn," announced Mason.

Grandmaster Vitaes had been vindicated from the complaints of the Shinwa and given his choice of posts throughout known space. He chose the quiet and yet growing beauty of the Antares Frontier. He had told Dot to 'behave' and to follow her heart. Now, the Explorer aided the Lady Ariad at Antares 1 in making further contact with the crystal angels the Sha'ha'dem called the Voltoi.

The Defender girl had learned through the ShadowWalker that the Shinwa were recalled and that a command shakeup had been ordered. Something about a spatial anomaly in Swooping Eagle, Sirius had redirected the Defenders' attentions. Dot would never hear from Ken'shao Joo Li again.

On the opposite side of the galaxy, Dot had learned from an odd contact who called herself only 'Sky' that the Progen Magister Caius Hellstrom had been re-assigned to investigate a strange, nebular cloud in the Vega solar system. Like Joo Li, the Wolfsdottir never again encountered the Magister.

All seemed well to Dot as she began an early career in field journalism. She wanted to escort Reporters into the field and keep them safe under the neutral press banner of NET-7 SOL. Hers was the first hug the Pakkratius received as he stepped off the set of the studio in the newscorp station.