Charlotte watched the big holographic screen in front of her with mild interest. This “tol-bot” thing that Lenya was playing wasn’t exactly like watching a normal sporting competition. It was interesting, but there were many parts that seemed to drag on for ages, and frankly Charlotte had a hard time figuring out what was going on. It was rather like when she was a kid and watching her brothers play their videogames. She couldn’t tell if a strategy or move was a good idea because she didn’t understand the rules.

It wasn’t surprising when, after an hour of watching Lenya’s little holographic soldiers build walls, Charlotte began to wonder what Molly was up to.

“Molly?” She called out into the vast room where Lenya was staying. “Molly, where are you?”

“Over here!” Charlotte was surprised the voice was coming from so far away; she’d thought Molly was off sulking nearby.

She ran to the edge of the dresser Lenya had left her sitting on and looked over the edge. She ignored the fact that it was like looking over the edge of a cliff. Eventually, she spotted Molly frantically waving to catch her attention from a corner of the room.

“Charlotte!” The young redhead yelled. “Over here!”

Charlotte bit her lip and searched for the safest way to make it to the floor. She had a bad feeling, and wanted to get over to where Molly was standing before the girl did something foolish.

Finally, Charlotte noticed that the chair nearby to the dresser was not too far of a drop. The landing onto the leather upholstered seat wasn’t pleasant, but neither was it painful. From there it was a simple matter to shimmy down the leg of the chair and onto the floor.

One rather long jog across the floor later, and Charlotte met up with Molly by the wall.

“What are you doing?” Charlotte panted. On the holographic screen, cheers erupted as one of the players scored a point or whatever it was they were trying to accomplish in Tol-bot.

“I’ve found it!” Molly told Charlotte with a grin, clapping her hands on the taller woman’s shoulders and shaking them slightly. “Charlotte, I found it!”

“Found what?”

“Come see! Come see!” Molly grabbed Charlotte’s hand and forcefully dragged her to the corner of the room, where a small metal vent had its grate pried loose at one corner. The resulting hole was large enough for a human to squeeze through, though it would probably be a tight fit.

“Look, I’ve found us a way to escape!” Molly said excitedly, peering into the darkness beyond the grate.

“This again?” Charlotte sighed, crossing her arms over her chest. “Molly… How many times do I have to tell you, Lenya ain’t gonna hurt us, okay? She’s trying to help us.”

“How do you know?” Molly snapped, pulling herself back into the light and brushing dust off of the front of her shirt. “How do you know that she means us no harm?”

“Because I do, okay?” Charlotte grumbled irritably. “Why can’t you just trust me?”

“Why can’t you just trust me!?” Molly yelled, stamping her foot on the ground in frustration.

“What?” Charlotte blinked, her anger suddenly evaporating and being replaced by confusion.

Molly sighed and shook her head ruefully. “You’re asking me to trust you about Lenya. Asking me to believe you when you say that Lenya doesn’t mean us any harm, and yet you won’t trust me, won’t believe me, when I say the exact same things about Vanser.”

“I…uh” Charlotte licked her lips and swallowed as she tried to think of a comeback, a way to put this conversation back onto even footing.

“I mean, fuck, Charlotte do you think I’m some kind of an idiot or something?” Molly snapped irritably. “I’m not a kid, you know!”

“I know you’re not a kid!” Charlotte yelled back, raising her arms in frustration. “I know! But who was it that looked out for you all those years? Me! That’s who!”

Molly’s lip curled. “Yeah well, thanks for that, but this isn’t Los Angeles anymore. Out here, you’re just as clueless and out of place as I am.” She turned and made to duck through the grating and into the vent beyond.

“Hang on a second!” Charlotte gasped, rushing over to her friend and grabbing Molly by the shoulder. “Where do you think you’re going?”

Molly turned around, and Charlotte was momentarily taken aback at the anger blazing in the girl’s emerald green eyes.

“Away from here!” Molly snarled. “Come with me if you like, Charlotte, but I’m leaving before that woman does something terrible to us.”

“You idiot.” Charlotte’s hand clamped onto Molly’s forearm and she dragged the other woman forcibly away from the grate. “You stupid, stupid idiot. What kind of mess do you think you’re getting yourself into?”

Molly didn’t respond other than to try and pull herself from Charlotte’s grip. It didn’t work.

“Come with me.” Charlotte growled, dragging Molly towards the chair situated under the window. When they got to the building sized piece of furniture, Charlotte pushed Molly ahead of her, just a tad roughly.

“Go on up there, I want to show you something.” Charlotte ordered.

“I’m not-”

“Go!”

Huffily, Molly started climbing up to the top of the chair, with Charlotte following closely after. After several minutes of climbing, the two women made it to the top of the chair, just in front of the window.

Molly collapsed and tried to regain her breath. A few seconds later, Charlotte pulled herself to the top as well, sitting down next to Molly.

After a few minutes to rest after their climb, Molly turned sullenly to Charlotte. “All right, what are you going to show me?”

Charlotte pulled herself to her feet with a sigh. She reached back to help Molly up, but her offered hand was ignored. Charlotte rolled her eyes and turned towards the window.

“All right, look out there, what do you see?”

Molly hesitantly stepped to the window and peered through the glass and out at the city below.

“Uh, a street?”

“What else?’ Charlotte asked pointedly.

“People? Some kind of vehicles, I guess. I don’t know… it looks like a normal city…”

“Wrong!” Charlotte snapped, as she stepped up next to Molly. “What you see is not just a normal city. It is a giant street full of giant people. Each person you see out there is the size of a small building, Molly. You and me? We’re mice here. As much as I hate to admit it, we can’t survive on our own. We need to stay here where it’s safe.”

Molly’s eyes blazed for a moment and she looked like she was about to launch into another rant, but after a moment her shoulders sagged and she sighed. “I know, okay? I know. But… I…”

She collapsed onto the windowsill with a muted sob. A second later, Charlotte was there, holding her close. “I know. Look, kid, I’ll make you a deal. If you trust Lenya, I’ll trust that Vanser wasn’t going to hurt you. Okay?”

Molly nodded. “And if you’re wrong and Lenya sells us on the black market or something, then you owe me a drink.”

Charlotte chuckled. “Deal.”

Molly sighed and sat up, turning to face her friend. “Does this mean you’ll help me convince Lenya to seek Vanser out?”

“Er… Well…” Charlotte muttered evasively. “I mean he is still trying to arrest her, after all…”

“For taking us from the store?” Molly shrugged. “I doubt he cares about that, I mean he had a chance to return me there and he didn’t.”

“That’s not exactly what I’m talking about. Lenya has broken the law, after all. He might not have a choice on the matter” Charlotte shrugged. “Especially after what we did…”

Molly’s eyes narrowed and she leaned forward expectantly. “Why? What did you do?”

“You see…” Charlotte smirked and shook her head. “There was this factory….”

*.*.*.*

Across the city, Vanser sat in a bar and stared into the bottom of a glass that had once contained adlela, but now only held a few flecks of white foam.

On the holovid screen across the room, the Iron Maiden/Dibilique match was playing. The two were well into the Air round and as Vanser looked up, Iron Maiden’s zeppelins were carpet bombing Dibilique’s main airfield.

Despite the fact that his friend and his favorite player (or rather, second favorite player) were locked in a rather intense match, Vanser couldn’t seem to work up any enthusiasm for the event.

“Get you another one?”

Vanser looked up at the young waiter standing in front of him, holding an empty tray under one arm.

Vanser shook his head and pushed the empty glass across the table. “No thanks, time I was heading out anyway.”

The waiter nodded and slid the glass onto his tray. Vanser, meanwhile, gathered up his coat and made his way towards the exit.

The harsh light of the midday sun hit him square in the face and he grimaced until his eyes had adjusted from the darkened interior of the tavern.

When he could see again, he made his way across the street. The city seemed very empty for that time of day, likely because most people were indoors watching the first rounds of the Tribute. Occasionally, Vanser would spot another pedestrian or a vehicle, but for the most part, he was alone on the street.

As he wandered, Vanser tried to find some inspiration as to how he could rescue Molly. He’d put out every feeler he had in the city and so far nobody had turned up anything. None of the spaceports reported a woman matching her description leaving the planet. Vanser could only hope that meant she hadn’t jumped the atmosphere and was still on Vorsha.

Not that it wasn’t a good place to hide. The planet’s normally middling population had been swelled by tournament organizers, corporate advertisers and fans. Across the city at the Arenas, the area was likely to be jam packed.

As he walked, Vanser noticed more of the promotional posters of the Tol-Bot players that he’d pointed out to Molly when they’d first arrived on Vorsha. He caught sight of one for the Iron Maiden and smiled. He wondered how Rixie was doing, if she’d managed to come back from her initial loss in the land round of the match.

The next one down was a poster for Dibilique and Vanser couldn’t help but stop and admire her. Perhaps Molly was right, perhaps Vanser did have a ‘crush’ on the tol-bot player but then, who could blame him for…

…Wait a second.

Something about Dibilique’s face seemed oddly familiar. Not in the sense that she was a player he admired. No, he felt he recognized her from somewhere else. But… where?

Eyes narrowing, Vanser peeled the image from the side of the building and held it up to get a better look at it. He still had that niggling feeling in the back of his head. Something was…

And then it was like a gear clicked into place and his brain starting whirring away. Vanser realized where he’d seen the woman before. Not from watching tol-bot, that was certain.

No, he’d tried to arrest her once.

A storm of conflicting emotions welled up in him. On the one hand, he was ecstatic that he found some sort of lead, anything that would give him a direction. On the other… this was Dibilique.

Still, Vanser needed proof. He slapped the poster back onto the wall. He decided to head back to his lodgings for the day to plan his next move.

His datapad beeped.

He dug the small device out of his pocket and raised it up to his face before answering. A second later, a middle-aged, balding man appeared on the screen.

“Sebastokrator Zisko.” Nix instinctively stood a little straighter when he found himself in view of his superior officer. “what can I do for you sir?”

“At ease, Legatus.” Zisko’s lip twitched as he held back a smile. “I heard a rumor you were on Vorsha.”

Vanser’s stomach sank. There was only one reason Zisko would be concerning himself about Vanser’s whereabouts. “Er, yes… I uh, managed to score some Tribute tickets.”

“Well, I really hate to pull you away from your leave…” Zisko began in a tone of voice that told Vanser he really didn’t mind that much at all. “But there’s a minor situation that’s developed on Vorsha. Nothing too big of course, but as long as you’re there…”

Vanser bit back a sigh and held back his eyes from rolling on pure force of will alone. “I see. Of course I’m happy to help whenever the Empire needs me.”

Zisko smirked. The superior officer could also tell his junior meant no such thing. “Excellent. And of course, I’ll be more than happy to extend your leave once this is all dealt with. I’m sending the intel to you now.”

“Aye sir.” Vanser sighed.