Nathan Justice glanced up just in time for a falling wing nut to smack him in the forehead.  Somebody called, "He-eads up!" Under ordinary circumstances, the collision would be no problem, but this was an industrial-size wing nut.  Red haze clouded his vision for a moment.  Justice yowled with pain and dropped his tool to clap a hand to the bruise forming on his head.

"Apologies, sir," came an electronic voice.  A gunmetal form hovered in and picked up the offending wing nut.  "But Dirk did warn you."

"That ain't gonna change the fact that it hurts!" Justice howled.  He rubbed the bruise as the oval-like form of DT-Three carried off the wing nut.  The well built, bearded man looked up at the smirking face of Dirk Manning.  "Goddammit, Dirk!"

"Hey, like DT said, I warned you."  Dirk was a smallish, stocky man with red-brown hair with two forelocks that framed his eyes.  The tough leather glove on his right hand concealed the extensive tattoo job on said arm.  He wore a faded blue mechanic's jumpsuit with several dark patches where things had been sewn on and then removed.

"Next time warn me before it hits me in the face!" Justice said.  He grumbled a bit as he picked his tool back up to go back to work.  "How's things up there?" he asked as he bent to the plate he'd been welding in place.

"Almost done here, Nat," Dirk said.  "Sil should be back soon, and then we can get going to the next system over.  How 'bout you?"

"Just about finished welding this plate in," he replied.  "You got your stuff packed?"

"Yeah," Dirk said as he worked.  "Even installed a power port for DT so he doesn't have to keep looking for spare batteries to tap."

"Oh, thank you, sir!" DT-Three chirped.  The mech hovered in towards them.  DT-Three had been a security mech, until someone had tinkered with it, slapped on a pair of grasping hands, and installed an AI chip.  A camera served as DT-Three's eye, and a laser cannon was installed underneath it to serve as the mech's only form of defense.

There was a low rumble from the entrance to the garage.  Justice looked up to see a big, hairy animal growling at him.  The hulking, wolf-like figure woofed loudly and lunged forward to tackle him.  It growled at him again, showing an impressive set of teeth, then started licking him furiously.

"Ach, Sentry!" Justice tried to push the big Irish wolfhound off him, but he might as well have been trying to shove a mountain.  "Get off me, ya stupid mutt!"

A high whistle pierced the air.  Sentry immediately bounded off to his mistress, a lean, shapely F'Val in a dark purple jacket.  She scratched Sentry's massive chin.  "Bad Sentry, tackling Nat like that."  The big hound whined a bit.  "Get on the Grizzly, that's a good boy."  Sentry wuffed an affirmative, then loped into the brazen ship.

"You're early, Sil," Justice said, wiping Sentry's drool off his face.

"The supply trip went faster than expected," Sil al'Nasen replied.  "It's waiting outside."

"DT, Dirk, get to it," the bearded man ordered.  "Sil, you all set?"

"I packed last night, Nat," Sil said.  "I already stored my stuff."

"Good girl," Justice nodded.  Then, without another word, he went back to work, ignoring the throbbing on his forehead.

Justice nodded, then swiveled in his chair to look at Dirk.  "Set the coordinates, then take us through.  DT-Three hovered up with a thermos of nearcaf.  "Thanks, DT."

"No problem, sir," DT-Three replied before flitting off to hover around Dirk.

"ETA to System Vector?" Justice asked as he drank his nearcaf.

"Looks like about thirty minutes," Sil replied.  "You want I should put something on the viewer?"

"Yeah, how about that Martin O'Brien holo we picked up?" Justice said.  He scratched at his beard and sat back in his chair.  He tugged his pistol from its holster and began to clean it.

The pistol resembled an old flintlock gun, circa the American Civil War.  The difference was that Justice's didn't use gunpowder and it certainly wasn't flintlock.  Like a flintlock, however, it had a hammer placed where the gunman could cock it with a thumb.  It had a laser sight installed under the barrel and a small, narrow tube-like secondary barrel installed on the right side of the gun.  Over time, as Justice used it, it collected tarnish and the like from the air.  Thus, it required cleaning to continue functioning properly.

Sentry plopped himself down beside Sil, who calmly watched her controls, periodically looking up to watch snippets of the O'Brien holo that played wildly on the screen.  Sentry would perk his head up every so often as loud explosions emitted from the viewer.  Dirk half-watched the holo as he monitored his own console, which fed him readouts about the Grizzly's systems.  DT-Three merely inserted itself into the power port to recharge.  Justice was engrossed in the holo, cleaning his pistol almost as a second thought, without even looking at it.

The trip ran a bit long as they had to contend with the datastream in their channel.  Eventually, however, as the O'Brien holo showed a car chase, Sil piped up, "Approaching System Vector.  ETA two minutes."

"Cut the holo," Justice said, reholstering his pistol.  He swiveled his chair to Dirk.  "Deactivate the secondary drives.  Slow us down.  Sil, take us in."

"On it," the pilot reported.  Her nimble fingers glided over the controls.  Along the side of the bridge, Dirk touched his own controls, taking the Grizzly's secondary engines offline to reduce their speed.

That's when things went wrong.

The Grizzly rocked wildly, a loud rumbling shaking the ship uncontrollably.  Sil screamed, "Intense energy storm of some kind!  Lateral thrusters are offline!"  She ducked as DT-Three suddenly rocketed out of the power port, trailing sparks.  The mech spasmed.

"Energy overload!!" DT-Three warbled.

"Goddamn it!" Dirk snarled.  "It's a Mousetrap!"

"What?" Justice demanded.  "Sil, can you get us out of it?"

"Not at our current power levels," the F'Val said.  "We'd need to bring the secondary engines back online."

Dirk rolled his eyes at Justice, giving him a look that said Way to go, boss, then slapped controls.  The panel lit up in red lights.  Justice scowled.  "Bad?"

"Yeah, Nat," Dirk said.  "Red lights on control panels are universally considered to be bad.  That first hit we took from the Mousetrap damaged our automatic pressure vents.  I can't activate the secondary engines with the pressure in the system.  We need to manually release it."

Justice got out of his chair, grabbing a multi-purpose tool off his belt and activating a crowbar-like extension.  "I'll take care of it.  You stay here and keep an eye on everything else.  Sil, try to stabilize us."  He looked down at DT-Three.  "And somebody get DT off the deck."

Justice shouldered open the bridge hatch and moved quickly past the small crew quarters as he headed for their engine room.  The power core glowed a dull orange-red, which Dirk would also say was a universally bad sign.  Sparks flew periodically from the core.  Two panels winked red lights at him.  Justice looked back and forth between them, then leapt at the port-side panel with his tool as the Grizzly rocked again.

Justice inserted the tool's extension into a slot in the panel, then thrust his weight against it, trying to flip the lever inside that would vent the pressure building up.  It slowly began to give, but not fast enough.  Dirk's voice came over the internal comm-system.  "Good start, Nat, but we need to vent that pressure before the core overloads.  When that happens, it's all over."

"I know, Dirk!" Justice snapped as he grunted against the tool-lever.  With a metal creak, the tool finally snapped into place.  The panel's light went from red to yellow to green.  A small readout informed him: Pressure venting.  Justice removed his tool and swung around to the other panel, which was now 'uphill' as the Grizzly listed to one side.

"Sil, realign us!" he ordered as he pulled himself up using the hatch's door as a step to climb up to it.

"I can't!" Sil said.  "We're tilting because only one of our secondary engines is online!  If you don't get that other one up soon, we'll start spinning, and then the Mousetrap's gonna eat us up for lunch!"

Justice muttered curses under his breath as he stuck the tool into the lever slot.  He braced himself against the console in the center of the engine room and tugged with all his strength against the lever.  It stubbornly refused to budge.  The ship continued to shake around him as the Mousetrap mercilessly beat at it.  Justice gritted his teeth as his hands grew sore.  He grunted, then actually jumped forward a bit to get the lever to move.

With a crack, it did so.  The red light quickly went to green, the pressure venting.  Justice fell to the floor as the Grizzly righted itself.  The tool came loose.  Sil trumpeted, "It's working!  We're pulling out of the Mousetrap!"

"Terrific," Justice said bitterly.  "Just get us into the system."

He pulled himself to his feet, retracting the tool's extension and putting it back on his belt as the shaking grew to a minimum.  He staggered back to the bridge, throwing himself back in his chair.  He swiveled to Dirk.  "How we doing, Dirk?"

"Engines are looking good," the mechanic said.  "A little stress damage from the Mousetrap, but nothing I can't fix."

Just then, as they pulled out of the Mousetrap, a particularly nasty blast threw them to the side.  Sentry, who had been growling all through the Mousetrap, gave an alarmed bark as he was dislodged from his spot.  DT-Three rolled on the floor, trying to get up.  Justice ordered, "Report!"

"Looks like that was the `trap's parting shot," Dirk said.  "Severe damage to our rear stabilizers and main engine."  He turned to the Grizzly's captain.  "Sorry, Nat, but once we land in Vector, we're not going anywhere for a while."

Justice stewed for a moment, digesting this information.  "All right, Sil, try to minimize the damage we'll take when we land by finding a relatively soft spot to land.  Dirk, shift all the power we can spare to structural integrity and shielding.  Buckle up, guys, `cause the landing's gonna be rough."

"No shit," Dirk muttered.

Sil shrugged.  "Aht-serat," she said serenely.  She tapped controls frantically, then gave up and smacked a control that read manual control.  Two control sticks and foot pedals emerged from her chair.  She gripped them and placed her feet.  The F'Val pilot bared her teeth as they descended toward the metropolis of Vector below.

"I've spotted a park sector," Dirk said.  "Feeding you the coordinates, Sil."

"Got it," she said.  "Sentry, hush," she admonished the growling hound.  Obediently, the dog did so.

DT-Three managed to get its repulsors back up and hovered fitfully into the air.  It went over and gripped Dirk's console tightly with its grasping hands, then attached itself magnetically to the side.  Dirk strapped himself in.  Justice had long ago done the same, but he leaned forward in his seat, watching the viewer with his customary frown.

The ground was getting uncomfortably close now.  Justice shouted, "Brace for impact!"

The Grizzly lurched horribly, and the lights sparked angrily and exploded in sparks, plunging them into darkness.

"DT?" he inquired.  There was a quiet beep from somewhere to his right.  The Grizzly's captain gingerly stepped that way and found the mech still clinging stubbornly to the console.  "You okay?"

"I am fully functional, sir," DT-Three said.

"Detach yourself and turn your light on," he ordered.  The former security robot did so, hovering up to Justice's eye-level and activating a small lamp on its underbelly.  Dirk was unconscious on his console.  Justice gripped his shoulder and shook him awake.  "Dirk, you okay?"

"Aside from this roaring pain in my head," the mechanic said, "yeah, I'm fine."  He unbuckled himself and stood.  He glanced around in the meager light.  "I wish I could say the same for the Grizz."

"She'll be fine," Justice said, looking around.  "She's taken worse."

"Yeah, but she didn't have to crash-land after taking worse," Dirk retorted.  "Sorry, Nat.  Nothing I could do.  I did my best to minimize the damage.  Even though the computer's down, I don't need it to tell you this is going to take weeks to repair."

"We've got weeks," Justice replied.  "As long as we get word back to our employer, he doesn't care how long we take."

"Yeah, well, I don't like weeks," Dirk mumbled as he looked over the damaged console.

Justice moved over toward Sil's console, shining his light on the furry mound there.  As he approached, a pair of yellow eyes glinted at him.  Sentry growled.  "Easy, boy, it's Nat," he soothed the hound.  "Sil okay?"

Sentry whined a bit, nosing his mistress.  With a light moan, the F'Val looked up, her rust-colored fur dark on her head from a few cuts.  Sil saw Justice and smiled.  "All hands present and accounted for, cap'n," she whispered.

"You okay, Sil?"

"Just a few cuts and bruises, Nat, nothing to worry about," Sil said, sitting up.  She scratched Sentry's big head.  "Now we just gotta get word to Vector's Principal Office that we need help."

Justice stood up and looked at the inactive viewer, his frown deepening.  Sil stood as well.  "What's bothering you, Nat?"

"Why was there a Mousetrap up?" the bearded man asked.  "What sort of troubles could Vector have been having to warrant such extreme measures?"

"You're the expert on these things," Dirk said.  "You tell us."

Justice turned to Dirk.  "For a Mousetrap of that magnitude, I can think of only one reason."

The fur on Sentry's back stood up as he growled, as if understanding what the captain meant.  Sil looked at him.  "Viruses?"

Justice nodded grimly.  "And pretty nasty ones, if the Mousetrap's any indication."  He unconsciously gripped his pistol tightly.  "Let's get outside and get word to the PO."

Many of the buildings had severe war damage.  The tops of many spires had been sheared off, others had large chunks taken out of the side.  The sky was a gloomy dark gray.  Smoke wafted up into it from numerous places.  The park sector itself was largely bare--and not due to the Grizzly's crash landing.

Sil nodded.  "Definitely viruses."

"And real nasty ones, too," Justice added.

DT-Three piped up.  "Um, sir, I should warn you that my sensors are picking up several hostile tech-signs approaching fast from the northeast."

Justice spun in that direction, crouching and drawing his pistol.  He placed his thumb on the hammer and scanned the horizon.  After several moments, he said, "I don't see anything, DT, are you sure--?"

Justice broke off as several large, flying forms swooped in, unpleasant sharp implements glinting and energy weapons charged.  Justice cocked his pistol and aimed at the nearest one.  With a flash and a sharp bang, the pistol fired a mid-sized pulse into the attack drone, cracking it to pieces.  DT-Three targeted another one, firing its small laser, damaging the drone's repulsors.  The drone dropped to the ground.

Sil, meanwhile, had reached to the back of her armor and withdrawn a gleaming disc with blue trim.  As a drone fired at her, Sil gripped her disc and swung it into the path of the energy fire.  The pulses were deflected easily, the drone swooping up and away.  Sil turned and flung the disc like an Olympian would.  The disc hummed through the air, smashing through the drone and curling back around to be caught by Sil.

Justice continued to pump pulses at the oncoming drones, who numbered about two dozen.  As seven drones lined up to fire simultaneously at him, Justice fingered a secondary control.  He aimed at the leftmost drone, then fired a piercing scarlet beam from the secondary barrel on the side of his pistol.  It cut through the first drone.  Justice swung the beam in an arc that included the rest of the drones, bisecting all of them.

DT-Three flitted up and down, left and right, weaving in and out of the drones' attack patterns, strategically finding weak points in the drones' defenses and using its pinpoint precision to shoot down the attackers.

Sil's defense was almost like a dance, deflecting shots from one direction, then pivoting and throwing her disc in another, catching it and immediately reversing and throwing it in another direction.  Her movements caused her to move fluidly out of the drones' lines of fire erratically, preventing the drones from discerning a pattern.

Before long, all but five of the drones were down.  Those five hovered up high in the air, out of range of Sil's disc and Justice's effective range.  DT-Three, who wasn't designed for high-altitude manuevers, dropped back.

Just as the drones were about to drop in a final attack, there was a dull thud of artillery fire from the west.  An explosive charge went out in the midst of the drones, blowing them all to pieces.  Justice, Sil, and DT-Three all spun to face west, weapons up and ready to fire at any threat.

A voice called, "All right, men, hold your fire!"  There was a pause, then the same voice called, "Ahoy at the ship!"

Justice straightened.  "Ahoy!" he called back.

"Sound parley?" the voice asked.

Justice and Sil shared a glance.  "Sure!" Justice replied.

After several moments, a human in the uniform of a system militia officer approached.  "You the captain of that ship?" he asked Justice.

"Nathan Justice," he said.  "Yes, I own and captain that ship."

The officer saluted.  "Colonel Jimmy Kimball, sir.  Artillery Commander of Vector's system militia.  Are you from the Government?"

"That's who hired me to come here and get a sit-rep from you, Colonel," Justice said.  "What happened here?"

Col. Kimball sighed.  "That's difficult to explain in short, sir."

Justice crossed his arms.  "Well, do it in long, then."

"That's not for me to do, sir," Col. Kimball said.  "That's for Acting Dot-com Marcus."

Sil spoke up.  "Acting Dot-com?"

Col. Kimball nodded.  "Our Dot-com was killed by viral forces within days of our cutting off Net-access."  He waved it aside.  "Look, Mr. Justice, I can't tell you more.  Can you get your ship operational and get it deeper inside our perimeter?"

"I'm afraid not, Colonel," Justice said.  "The Mousetrap damaged it on the way in, and the crash didn't help matters."

Col. Kimball sighed.  He turned back to the ridge where the artillery was stationed.  "Major!  Get the data cranes out here!"  He turned to Justice and Sil.  "We'll try to move it for you.  It's not safe where it is."

"Why isn't it safe?" Sil asked.

The artillery commander looked at her.  "Because, ma'am, it's near our border with Ünres."

"Who?"

"Ünres, one of the viruses that's taken over this system," Col. Kimball said.  He looked at Justice.  "Mr. Justice, if you'll just come with me, I can get you in touch with Dot-com Marcus."

Justice shook his head.  "I'm not moving until my ship is safe."

It was about fifteen minutes later that the data cranes arrived.  The four heavy lifters hefted the hulk of the Grizzly and slowly moved it west, toward the Principal Office.  Dirk watched it.  "Careful!" he admonished the crane operators.  "That ship's fragile!"

Justice stood with his crew and watched from Col. Kimball's artillery battery.  The artillery commander approached, another human following.  The second wore a semi-military uniform.  An embroidered patch in the style of a faux-icon adorned his pocket.  He walked up to Justice.  "Nathan Justice?"

"Yeah, that's me," Justice said.

The man offered his hand.  "Frederick Marcus, Acting Command.com of System Vector," he said.  Justice, through half-lidded eyes looked down at Marcus' hand.  Marcus blinked, then lowered it.  "Col. Kimball tells me you're from the Government?"

"Yeah," Justice said.  "I was hired to visit out-of-the-way systems--you know, the ones that fall between the cracks?--and get sit-reps from them.  You were next on my list."

Marcus sighed.  "Well, you couldn't have come at a worse time, Mr. Justice.  System Vector practically doesn't exist."  He glanced at the rest of Justice's crew.  "Who're your friends?"

"My crew," Justice said.  He indicated each as he introduced them.  "Dirk Manning, my mechanic.  DT-Three, all-purpose mech.  Sil al'Nasen, my pilot, and Sentry, her dog."

"And that's your ship, the Grizzly?" Marcus asked, pointing at it.

"Yeah."  Justice's frown turned into a scowl.  "Look, Marcus, how `bout you start your sit-rep by telling me why you've got a Mousetrap up around your system?"

Marcus sighed.  "Let's get back to the Principal Office.  Let me get my staff together so we can formalize this."

Marcus sighed.  "Not again.  Cal!  Cal, wake up!"  The man didn't stir, just continued to snore.

Col. Kimball tried.  "Cal!  Get your lazy ass up!"  But again, Cal didn't wake up.

"Let me handle it," Justice said.  "Sil?"

The F'Val nodded, then crouched and whispered something in Sentry's ear.  The dog wuffed softly, then loped over to the console where Cal's feet were resting.  Sentry stood up, placing his paws on the console and leaning forward, sniffing at Cal's boots.  Then, Sentry let loose a loud, sharp bark.

Cal's eyes snapped open.  He saw the large, furry face of a big Irish wolfhound in front of him--big, impressive teeth slightly visible underneath its muzzle--and freaked out.  Cal yelped with alarm and toppled backwards in his chair.  He rolled back, bounding to his feet and watching Sentry warily.  Sentry barked again.

"Sentry!" Sil said.  The dog immediately returned to his mistress.  Now Cal noticed the new arrivals.

Marcus did the introductions.  "Cal, this is Nathan Justice, Sil al'Nasen, and Dirk Manning.  Mr. Justice, this is Calvin West, our computer expert."

Cal nodded a bit sleepily at them.  "What's up, Fred?"  Then something seemed to click.  "Wait a sec.  New people in the system?  What happened to the Mousetrap?"

"It trashed my ship," Justice said darkly.  "I want to know why there was even a Mousetrap up to begin with."

Marcus sighed.  "All right.  Let's start back at the beginning.  About twelve months ago, a system-patch was downloaded from the Government.  Somehow, there was viral coding in the patch.  When we activated the patch, it siphoned off our core power to allow the virus inside to get loose.  That...was Ünres."

"Oon-ress?" Dirk asked.  "How d'ya spell that?"

"U-N-R-E-S," Cal said.  "With those two little dots over the U."

"An umlaut?" Justice offered.

"Yeah, whatever," the computer expert said.

"Ünres is a Class Twelve virus," Col. Kimball said as he tapped a console.  A holographic map of System Vector shimmered in the air.  There were several distinct zones marked off.  The Principal Office and the area surrounding it was colored white.  Five other zones were surrounding it.  The largest, which took up the northeast half of Vector, was colored red.  Two mid-sized zones, covering the southern third of the system total, were colored green and blue.  The rest of the system was divided between two smaller zones, yellow and purple colored.

"Ünres controls the red," Col. Kimball said.  "He started taking over that portion almost as soon as he initialized.  Then he called for backup, I guess you'd say.  Four more viruses moved in.  Seize, a Class Three, controls the blue.  Vice, a Class Four, controls the green.  Ytter and Soovas, a couple of Class Threes, control the yellow and purple."

Marcus picked up the thread now.  "When they got here, they started infecting every sprite they could get their hands on.  They were trying to cripple the succession of the command.com.  Humans can't accept the full protocols because we're not designed to.  Neither are Anthros, who were brought under viral control by Mysadt probes."

"What about the humans who lived here?" Justice asked.

Cal grated, "They were massacred.  Every human who hadn't already been evacuated to our sector of the system was killed by Ünres or his buddies."

"Cal was put in charge of activating our spy protocols so we could keep an eye on the viral sectors," Marcus said.

"And I suppose you put up the Mousetrap to keep Ünres out of the Net?" Justice said.

"Actually," Cal said, "I didn't create the Mousetrap.  That was the work of my partner, Avi Greenberg."

Justice crossed his arms.  "All right, so where's your partner?"

Cal looked down, his Stetson hiding his face in shadow as he muttered, "He was one of the ones Ünres killed."

Justice said nothing, but Dirk and Sil bowed their heads out of respect for the dead.  Justice spoke.  "Go on."

Marcus spread his hands.  "There's nothing much else to say.  The viruses carved up Vector to create their own little empires.  We've spent every waking moment keeping them out of the Principal Office.  If Ünres or his friends get their claws on the core, you can kiss the Mousetrap good-bye.  They'll be out on the Net in no time."

"Why didn't you just contact the Government for assistance?" Justice asked.

Col. Kimball and Cal shared a glance.  "They thought of that," Cal said.  "They knock out our comm towers and satellites as soon as we repair them.  We don't have the resources to keep rebuilding them."

Justice sighed deeply.  "All right," he said.  "Give us a few minutes to discuss things."  He exited the control center, his crew following.

"Take out the viruses?" Sil asked.  When he nodded, Sil shook her head.  "I want to help these people, too, Nat, but we're only three people."

"Five!" DT-Three piped as Sentry wuffed.

"Four-and-a-half," Dirk said.

Justice slowly shook his head.  "Sorry, guys, but we need resources to repair the Grizzly.  You've seen the system.  The only places likely to have the necessary things are the viral zones."

"Nat, you're crazy!" Dirk said.  "These people have been fighting for almost a year against these viruses.  If they could have beaten them alone, they would've done it by now.  Three people--" DT-Three beeped in protest.  "Three people, a dog, and a mech are not going to make a difference."

"Maybe not three ordinary people, an ordinary dog, and an ordinary mech," Justice said.  "But we're the crew of the Grizzly.  And Sentry's a goddamn behemoth and DT's smarter than the average mech."  He didn't smile as he spoke his next words, but it was detectable in his voice.  "And besides, we've got something on our side."

"What?" Sil asked.

"The element of surprise.  Ünres only sent those drones to try to secure the crash site," he pointed out.  "He didn't know we were going to destroy them all.  He'll just chalk up their loss to Kimball's artillery."

Dirk slowly started to smile.  "I like this.  We get to bust some heads?"

"We get to bust all the heads we want to get the resources to repair the Grizz," Justice said.  "Once that's done, we go straight back to our employer and get the Guardians here."

Justice stuck out his fist.  Dirk immediately placed his gloved fist on Justice's.  Sil reluctantly did the same.  DT-Three hovered in and placed one of its hands on theirs.  Lastly, Sentry nosed his way in and placed one of his massive paws.  They all pumped their fists in solidarity.

When they re-entered the control center, Justice looked straight at Cal.  "You have the spy data on the viral sectors?"

The computer expert nodded.  "Yeah."

"All right, then," he said, "where are the resource centers with supplies necessary for repairing our ship?"

Dirk added, "If we can repair the Grizzly, then we have extra firepower to use against Ünres and the viruses."

"In addition to getting word out to the Guardians," Sil said.

Cal pushed Col. Kimball out of the way and punched in codes.  Small, blinking green boxes appeared scattered over Vector.  There were a few within the white boundaries of the PO-controlled zone.  Dirk pointed at them.  "What about those?"

"We exhausted them months ago," Marcus said.  "Cal, filter out that stuff."

He did so.  "I'll even filter out the store-houses we know the viruses drained," he said.  The boxes now were more concentrated in Ünres' territory, a few in Vice's, and some in Ytter's.

"All right, then," Justice said.  He moved forward and tapped in a few commands.  The map now flashed the words Possible Scenario.  The PO-zone boundary expanded to consume Ytter's zone.  "We move in real slow like.  We'll start by rolling Ytter.  Add his armory to ours, then use it on Soovas and Seize and Vice."  The boundary absorbed Soovas' territory.

The map showed flashing arrows, indicating the avenues of attack.  "We take out the border guards for Seize's zone, then--"

"Wait," Col. Kimball said.  "Seize and Vice have been known to ally together.  It's possible they could be sharing resources.  We'll need to do some reconnaissance."

"I'll take care of that," Cal said.

Justice nodded.  "Fine then.  In the meantime, is there some place where my crew and I can stay until we've got all this worked out?"

Marcus nodded.  "I can show you to our guest quarters.  They're pretty small, but--"

"Buddy," Dirk said, "we do small all the time.  Just lead the way."

Cal jumped, spinning around.  "Justice!  Jeezus, don't sneak up on me!  I was half-afraid you were some viral who'd snuck in to kill me."

"Hmph," Justice said.  "Working late?" he repeated.

Cal turned back to his console.  "I'm a night person.  I do all my work at night, when the virals are in sleep mode.  Less chance of being detected that way."

"Not with Ünres," Justice said.  "He uses drones.  Drones don't need to sleep."

Cal waved it away, typing at his computer.  Justice watched him again.  "So you do the spy work, huh?"

"Yeah," Cal said.  "Back when Avi and I worked together, I'd run block while he did the hack-work."

Justice looked at him sharply.  "You're a hacker?"

"Semi-retired," Cal said.  "They called me 'Cowboy.'"

Justice harrumphed.  "For obvious reasons," he said, flicking the brim of Cal's Stetson.

Cal shrugged.  "Avi and I were called in to help with the system-patch.  Then, when the viruses started going crazy, Avi and I set to work writing spy protocols and the Mousetrap.  Then an infected sprite forced his way into the PO and shot Avi in the back."

Justice harrumphed again.

Cal typed quietly for a few minutes, then said, "Why aren't you asleep?"

"I don't need much sleep," he replied.  "It has to do with my metabolism."

Cal nodded.  "I can understand that.  I don't think Avi ever slept.  He was on a permanent caffeine-high."

Justice snorted.  "Fun."

"Only sometimes."

Justice nodded.  He turned to Col. Kimball.  "Colonel, have your men saturate coordinates 23.9-34.6.  A half-hour afterwards, my crew and I will move in."

Col. Kimball scanned said coordinates.  "Mr. Justice, those coordinates are--"

"In the middle of the zone, I know," Justice said.  "Any of Ytter's non-drone forces will be pulled away from the perimeter to affect repairs to the damaged area.  That'll leave things open for us.  We'll move along the eastern portion of the zone.  Most of the virals will be concentrated to our west.  We'll send you a signal.  When you get it, fire a stun-charge into the midst of the virals.  That'll take out most of them."

"Roger," Col. Kimball said, noting the orders.

Justice turned to Marcus.  "Your job will be to get enough power ready to transfer to Ytter's zone once we knock out his control headquarters.  When power is restored, we can make use of all resources in that zone."

The Acting Command.com nodded.  Justice looked to Cal.  "And you, Cowboy, are going to brew a pot of coffee and keep an eye on things using your spy protocols.  Contact us if you see anything diverting from my plan."

"Translation--if the virals don't do as predicted, let us know," Dirk said.  Cal nodded, tilting up his Stetson to remove the shadow.

Justice nodded.  "All right, then.  Col. Kimball, commence bombardment at 1143 hours."  He leaned on the console, his face severe.  "We're gonna take this system back piece by piece."