Steal from Dirks. This is what she had said. We'll become rich! Richer than our wildest dreams!...this was three days ago and I had been running ever since. Where was she? Dead. Turned to ash by the mighty Dirks and his hoard armies. Now I'm here, floating through aetherspace. Almost out of fuel, and out of time as Dirks is tight on my trail.

  An alarm starts blaring, waking me from my revelries as I sit, holding the artifact in my hands. It was cold, this thing. I'm not even sure what it is. She told me it was priceless, but it weighs nothing.  I look over the console and see that another ship has come within firing range, has been for awhile. Why is it not firing? I should be dead by now...that's when it hits me. He wants to kill me up close. Get that revenge kill and watch as my life fades with his own eyes. I angered that which should have been left alone...and all because of a woman.

  The blaring alarm's incesant buzzing alerting me to the nearing ship fades into the background as I think upon the woman. How could I have been such a fool? I fell for her beauty, that's what happened. Her smooth tanned skin and voice of an angel. She worked me over and tricked me good. It will be easy she said, a fools errand. How did I even meet her, anyway...

  I was sitting in a bar, some spaceport out in the middle of nowhere, don't even think it had a name. There I was, in
my alliance garb. An alliance fifty years past destruction, but it was how we on the underbelly of the universe showed we were for hire. I'm not sure if she had picked me out by chance, or if she watched for some time, but I remember when she sat on the worn stool next to me and ordered her drink. That voice, oh that beautiful voice...I'll never forget the sound of that angelic whisper saying there was a job, before her soft lips kissed my earlobe. I was hooked from the start. Looking back now, I realize how much a fool I truly am. No one that beautiful would hire the likes of me.

  The alarms were droning louder now. I reached over and flipped a couple switches. May as well use the reserve fuel, I know I won't get away but maybe I can think up how to survive this. I could give back the artifact that I had stolen...tell Dirks that I had been coherced by the woman. Wouldn't matter either way, this I knew. He would either kill me on principal that I had stolen something sacred to him...or because I was coward and ran. He's already chased me through twelve sectors. I was running out of time and I knew it...the fumes in those tanks wouldn't hold out forever. Why didn't I turn her away...

  I knew it was a trap from the start, but I wasn't thinking with my head. As soon as I heard her whisper, it was a done deal...I was going to do this job. She took me by the hand, leading me to the back of the bar. Towards the inn at the rear, as though we were lovers and I was just awaiting her arrival before bedding down before the next long haul through aetherspace. She played her part meticulously. Not a single flaw in her performance to give away that she was a client. I however, was the bumbling idiot, trudging along ruminiscing about how smooth her small hand was within my own larger, wart covered hand. It was in the room which we ironed out the details. She started in strong...we'll be rich. Richer than our wildest dreams! Her opening statement. If I had my wits,
I'd have told her right there to leave. But that beauty...

  What? What happened? Silence as I came back from my memory. Why is the alarm not going off? I began flipping switches, pouring myself over the console. The ship was gone? How could this...and then it hit me, he cloaked. FOOL! I am a fool...now I don't know where he is within the aether. I would fire a round from the ships guns, but I am unsure if he knows where I am either. I'm sure he does know, I left my own cloak off to try saving fuel. And then the ship groaned as the engines let out a deafening bang...the fuel was gone. I am adrift in the aether and no one is coming to help. I am such a fool...

  The job was simple enough actually. She was right...Dirks didn't have much security on the artifact. Who would be foolish enough to steal from him anyway? Me apparently. In and out...only that fool woman got herself caught by his demons before reaching the ship. Her screams weren't as angelic as her voice, but I smiled as I thought of the payment due me when we reach the broker. Only there wasn't one...just another cold body and an awaiting Dirks. He hadn't brought his hoard with him. He would have been attacked on the spot within the New Empire's Alliance. But he alone was worth running from. I don't know how I managed to get away from him, maybe he was blinded by the conduit I shorted out, but I made it back to my small fighter ship and back offworld into the aether. I've been running ever since.

  The alarm blared once more and I snapped my full attention to the console. This can't be right, he couldn't have found me. Red lights blinked all around the cockpit, the alarm blaring loudly, ringing it's alert in my ears...HULL BREACH! INTRUDER ALERT! HULL BREACH! INTRUDER ALERT! No, I needed more time! I hit the door lock, knowing the ancient mechanism would only give moments, but maybe that's all I needed...but now I was stuck in this room. As soon as I returned to my seat, I could hear his heavy boots in my ship, looking room to room. My ship was small, but there were many...COMPARTMENTS! Yes, I'm a smuggler, fool.

  I ran to the hidden floor compartment, yanking it open and forcing my bulking mass into the small, cramped space. It wasn't easy, but I was in...I heard the door open. His heavy footsteps as he walked to my console, I could hear him flip a few switches. Then he was standing atop the panel above me. "I know you are here," he said, "I was going to kill you, but as foolish as you are, you've done my job for me." I heard his footsteps recede again towards the console, then I listened as he tore the entire thing from the floor. I waited until the alarm stopped before emerging from my hiding spot...knowing my fate at his hands. I would die, adrift...within the aethers...clutching a fools errand in my hands.