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The human crew's mess hall stank of human sweat and blood when the door slid to the side at Strong Soul's touch to the release. She stood in the doorway with Stargazer behind her and two of the Ferret's Mrr'tani crew on either side behind him. The humans all looked up at the opening door and though she couldn't feel most of them, she could one or two, and the ones that she could feel sang with suppressed anger and fear. She didn't need the extra senses to tell her that, though, she could smell it on the air.

She regarded them calmly and then stepped into the room, making a small motion to the other Mrr'tani with her. She heard their footsteps behind her as they took up posts on either side of the door, palming it shut as they did. Stargazer knew what she wanted, though, and he stayed at her side as she stepped further into the room. She suppressed a small smile at the thought of the image she must be presenting to them, a short Mrr'tanah, likely not anyone's idea of a threat, leading two of the largest Mrr'tanoun in the ship, with another just as tall, if not as muscular, behind her, all harking to her every gesture.

She focused on letting her face be a mask of calm and control. It was easier now that she'd gotten used to the others going about their business around her. Their calm confidence in the sudden turn of events gave her something to project to the assembled humans. While there was still anger and hatred behind the emotions of the others around her, she let that flow away, leaving herself open to pure calm mindfulness.

"Captain Jacobs," she called, standing purposefully away from the nearest human. She trusted Stargazer's reflexes and training, but she had no desire to put either to the test.

"I'm the captain," one of the humans said, standing from a table halfway across the room from where Strong Soul stood.

She wasn't what Strong Soul was expecting. Though she'd combed Jules' databanks for information, she'd only just glanced at the physical data for the captain. She was more interested in the service record and what the humans considered to be someone suitable to captain a tug. The woman was tall and muscular, but it was the sort of physique that told Strong Soul that the woman had let herself go more than she probably would have liked. This wasn't someone who kept up with what she'd obviously worked so hard to build.

"You know who I am," Strong Soul said, staying in her place while she held the captain's eyes with her own.

"You're that upstart furball that command's been searching for," Captain Jacobs said, almost spitting vulgar term as she said it.

Strong Soul felt Stargazer and the others behind her bristling at the term and she waved one hand gently at her side, sending a wave of calm down the links.

"Yes," she responded, "I am the Keeper of Hearts, Frr'a'tan'lass'i'ah of the Mrr'tani. As I said over the comm, this ship is now ours. But I have also promised you safe passage to the planet, and I will honor that promise, so long as you and your crew remain here."

"You expect us to just sit by while you take our ship?" Captain Jacobs sneered.

"Yes. But it's not your ship any longer, Melanie."

The captain's eyes widened and Strong Soul grinned at the flaring of the human's nostrils, a gesture she'd more expect from her own kind. She knew she'd hit a nerve with the use of the captain's given name.

"How dare you?!" the captain began, looking at the two Mrr'tanoun standing by the door. "You whisker-faces should be happy with what we've allowed you here. Any other ship you would have spent the journey in chains!"

"And they're supposed to thank you for that?" Strong Soul asked, putting as much contempt as she could muster into her words. It wasn't hard, there was plenty to go around, both in her own mind and in the minds of the others on board.

"Say what you want, kitty," the captain continued. "We all know what the promises of a cat are worth."

"You will remain here, in this room, until we've arrived at the station. Once we've docked, we will send you to the humans there. You will have plenty of food and water while you stay with us for the next few hours. However," her voice darkened and quieted, "if you attempt to retake the ship, we will stop you in any way necessary."

"You're just going to leave us on the planet to starve, you know that, right? We're bringing supplies to them because they're not self-sufficient."

"Jules has told me everything about this planet, so I know that they have enough stored away to see you and them through to the next supply ship. You will not play on my compassion, Melanie. I am the only thing holding back the Mrr'tani on this ship from tearing your arms and legs from your body and scratching your eyes from your face. Do as I say, and I will continue to hold back the darker desires of the Mrr'tani crew. Defy me, and I will leave you to them. The choice is yours."

She didn't give the woman time to answer before turning on her heel and striding out the door. The two guards, still tied to her mind, had already palmed the door open. It was a show of unity that she wanted to broadcast as clearly as possible to all of the humans. The Mrr'tani here were no longer individuals as they had once been. Now they were a part of something greater and deeper than any of the humans could understand.

"You did well, Keeper," Stargazer said when the door had closed behind them once more.

"Think they'll listen to you?" the larger of the two Mrr'tanou guards asked.

Strong Soul searched the links and smiled. Very few of the Mrr'tani had true names, most of them simply used the ones the humans had given them.

"Melanie will, Adam," she said, using his human name for now. "And as long as she's sufficiently cautious, I think the rest of them will as well. This isn't a military vessel, and even though the humans are technically military, none of them truly consider themselves to be a functional fighting force. They've all been assigned to a cargo tug for one reason or another, and they all believe they will spend the rest of their time on this sort of mission. Jacobs was the only one I had concerns about. Jules' records said she used to be in the combat division."

"Then she's the one most likely to try something," the other Mrr'tanou, Daniel, said.

"She's been beaten and she knows it. She'll keep the others from doing anything foolish. Once their fears of starving to death on the planet or being killed here on the ship were comforted, they all calmed down, I could feel it," she said, tapping the side of her head with a claw. "Just watch them and make sure that they stay here. We'll be rid of them soon enough.

Adam and Daniel both nodded and took up their posts on either side of the door. Strong Soul knew that there were enough Mrr'tani nearby that a call from either of them would bring enough running to subdue all of the human prisoners. Satisfied that she'd talked them into the smart course, she motioned to Stargazer and started walking along the corridor to the lift, letting Jules direct her in her mind. The tug AI had attention to spare, even with all the things going on within. She was used to having the machine-like thoughts in her head, spending so much time with Micah, and even with some of the other, older AIs at Mss'ranaw, and getting the data she needed from any of them was becoming second nature.

"You realize that it will not be this simple when we go against a ship of any consequence in the future," Stargazer said as they walked.

"I know, Stargazer, but right now, I'm not looking for hardware just yet. The ships are nice to have, and they'll be useful down the line," Strong Soul answered, thinking that Fire Thrower would obviously not complain about having a full tug load of supplies for Mss'ranaw either. "Right now, we need Mrr'tani. Like I said in the cargo bay, this is just the first of many."

Stargazer put his hand on her shoulder and stopped her, looking down at her with his wise and concerned expression.

"Be careful, Keeper, that you do not let this victory go to your head. You must look at each and every engagement as its own event, unclouded by the events of the past."

Strong Soul smiled and nodded. "That's one of the first things I learned from touching your mind, Stargazer. You've taught me more than even you know. But don't worry, my friend. I've been a hunter longer than I've been the Frr'a'tan'lass'i'ah. If there's anything that I know intimately, it's stalking for the kill."

Stargazer looked at her hard and she felt his mind touching hers, looking for something, she wasn't sure what. She opened her mind further to him and let him in, breaking down the walls between them and she breathed heavily as the corridor surrounding them fell away and there was only the two of them, standing in the middle of a sea of feelings, most about her.

The battle ahead will not be an easy one, he said in her mind, his hand reaching up to touch the side of her face. It wasn't the same as when Night Star made the same motion. When her lover did it, it was tender and loving, but here and now, it was paternal, though the love was still there. It will change who you are.

Everything changes who we are, Stargazer. Simply living does that, and I can't just hide from what I need to do.

I am not asking you to, Keeper. I simply want you to keep your eyes and your mind open so that it does not take you away from your essence. It is something that in the end, Catcher of Souls could never master. She let it consume her, this fight, and I do not want you to go down the same road.

That's why I have you and Night Star, she thought to him, to keep me sane and on the right path.

We will do what we can, but it is up to you to remain true to your purpose, Keeper. Just remember that.

The walls drifted slowly back up between them and she came back to herself. As the thoughtscape faded away, she lifted her hand to his, pinning it against her muzzle as she smiled up at him.

"Thank you, Stargazer. I know you're looking out for me, and I appreciate it."

"I will always be here for you, Keeper. You have only to ask."

"Then let's go. Firebreather is waiting for us on the bridge. We'll get these humans off the ship and be on our way."

Together, they turned to the lift and stepped inside and Strong Soul looked up at Stargazer, watching the way that his whiskers moved in the small air currents circulating around the small room. She never tired of looking at him, and though he wasn't her lover, she was intrigued by him, and she suspected she always would be. His wisdom was something she'd come to rely on always, taking his council more seriously than almost anyone save Night Star. He had never steered her wrong, so the weight of his words in her mind was heavier than others.

She'd started something that she would never be able to take back. When she dropped the humans off at the station, it would be starting a clock that would continue ticking until the dance had been played out. It was the dance of two predators, her on one side and the Alliance on the other. She didn't know enough about her adversary to face it head on, but that was a part of the dance, each one would be seeking information and intelligence on the other. No matter what she chose, once the humans had taken their tale of the mythical Keeper of Hearts back to their superiors, they would be looking for her.

The lift slid to a stop and she took a deep breath, pushing her thoughts to the back of her mind. She would discuss them later with Night Star and Stargazer, but right now, she had to put on the face of confidence. As much as she could feel the Mrr'tani around her, she knew that it went both ways, at least to a point. The others would be able to sense that she was hiding something from them, or if she was unsure of herself. She had to be certain in her decisions and her actions, and everything she knew and felt told her that she was doing the right thing.

When the doors parted in front of her, her face was again the mask of calm competence and she stepped lightly onto the bridge. It was much different than the bridge on the Pride. For one, it was much larger, built to accommodate at least ten people at their stations. She recognized it from the visions during the battle, and she knew which stations were which. During the battle, the bridge was manned by only three humans and thrice as many Mrr'tani. Now each station had a Mrr'tani sitting in front of it, working the controls as if they were born to it.

Her links were not the kind that would allow a full sharing of skills, as they would be if she was the Frr'a'narr'ah to a clan. She could tell that by watching the difference between the Desert clan Mrr'tani and the rest. First Spark was a Desert clan Frr'a'narr'ah, and through her, the clan shared their knowledge and skills freely with other clanmates who needed it. For all her power, that was something that Strong Soul couldn't do. She could subsume any or all of the Mrr'tani with whom she'd linked, she could even tie them together to work more efficiently and quickly, but even then, they could not share their skills and knowledge on the level that they could through their clan Mother.

It didn't matter, though. Each of the Mrr'tani on the bridge had gone through hundreds of hours of pressure-filled training under the watchful eyes of their human masters and the overseers that kept the order among the common Mrr'tani. She trusted each and every one of them.

"Looks like we've got everything cleaned up fairly well," Firebreather said when he saw her walking onto the bridge. "We're about twenty hours out from the station, so we'll dock shortly after that. Doesn't even look like anyone down on the planet is any the wiser about what's happened."

"Hopefully, all they saw was a cargo freighter docking with the tug. That shouldn't raise suspicions," Strong Soul said.

"Not at all. It's common practice for courier ships to meet tugs at some of their stops, and out here, couriers tend to be a lot of different things, so it wouldn't be odd for one to be a freighter."

"Then we're almost done. Once we finish offloading the humans onto the station, we'll set course for Mss'ranaw. Jules has the coordinates and the asteroid drift calculations."

"I can't wait to see it," Firebreather said. "I've heard about it on occasion, someplace where the Mrr'tani can go to get fully away from the humans. Even more free than Avalon."

"It's a nice place," Strong Soul said. "They help each other out, and you don't have to worry about being beaten or notched. But it's not easy. Everyone has to pull their load."

"After working for so long on this ship, it'll be good to have a place where your work matters to something other than the humans' bottom line."

Smiling, Strong Soul walked the rest of the way onto the bridge and took the seat to the right of the center seat, leaving the captain's chair for Firebreather, a gesture he noticed readily. She felt the wave of gratitude and deepening respect along his link as he took the center seat. With Stargazer standing behind her, they watched the screen as the planet came ever closer, all of them eager for this business to be done and to move on to the next journey.