The Republican battlecruiser Dauntless Courage was still hanging crippled in orbit around the very pissed off independent world of Metra Litko. The Merchants’ Council of Metra Litko was eager to have her gone, but for the time being, the Dauntless Courage wasn’t going anywhere, for her nav array had been disabled by a well-aimed missile strike. In the captain’s office, Colonel Brian Mayhew was lounging in the visitor’s chair. Across the desk, Captain Natalya Shepkova was sitting in her own chair, brooding at the damage reports displayed on the screen before her. She did not look happy at all. And once again, it was all Brian Mayhew’s fault. “I’m really sorry about this, Natalya,” he said, not for the first time, “I had no way of knowing that such a small freighter would be able to do so