made people who looked at him uneasy, and Jason was silently glad the male Faey had come along to help. Fure's unsettling presence was the perfect test for the humans; if they could keep their composure around Fure, they'd have no trouble anywhere else.

With his new IDs updated with his picture, Jason took up a position next to Jyslin as the dropship and the skimmer made a slow approach to the large paved tarmac behind the warehouse. It was a beauty of a dropship, painted slate gray, and looking both widely spacious and graceful at the same time. She was wide through the beam, with no tapering at all from bow to stern, a flying cargo bay of sorts with short, stubby wings, barely more than fins to aid with aerodynamic stability when flying through atmospheres. The cockpit was separated from the rest of the ship, and as such there was no hull space under it, though it had the same width as the rest of the ship. It almost looked as if the trapezoidal cockpit compartment was welded on to the rest of the dropship. Heavy landing skids extended, and then the ship made a light contact with the cracked asphalt. The skimmer landed just behind it, and both ships extended their stairs and opened their hatches. Jason muted his own talent so that he could not hear them sending, so as not to tip them off, and settled himself into the thought processes of an ordinary man named Max Sterling, who did happen to have an unusual occupation for a human.

Four Faey, three males and a female, exited the two craft and approached. Jason and Jyslin approached them, then the lead Faey, the female, stepped up and extended her hand. She didn't speak, so Jason assumed that she was sending in her initial greeting. She had deep brown hair, almost black, cut almost militantly short, except for a pair of long, curved locks that grew over her eyes and reached all the way to her chin. She wore a simple gray suit of sorts with a golden medallion hanging from a chain around her shirt collar, under her double breasted jacket, and a thigh-length skirt that seemed to hug her legs, but stretched and contracted as she walked to maintain that tight fit. She wore soft gray boots that rose to her mid-calf, which had little silver buckles running all the way from the arch of her foot to the top of the boot. Like many Faey clothes, one sleeve was much too long and too wide, extending well past her hand, while the other ended at mid bicep. It was that short-sleeved right arm that was extended towards Jyslin. The three males all wore matching jumpsuit uniforms of a fashion emblazoned with the Thrynne logo on the left breast. She looked at Jason meaningfully, then glanced back to the three males behind her. "I'm Pola Thrynne," she said aloud, in a rich contralto voice.

"Thrynne?" Jyslin asked in surprise.

"Yes, the younger members of the family who have just started working are often sent out to work the field before we can take up positions in the main office," she said with a slight grimace, a condition it seemed with which she was not too happy. "So yes, I'm one of the Thrynnes. You are Maya Orinne?"

"That's me," she said with a nod. "May I present Max Sterling, our pilot."

"A human pilot?" Pola said with surprise.

"I have a class three," Jason said with quiet adamance, in deliberately broken Faey.

"I can tell you, he was willing to work for much less than a Faey pilot," Jyslin said with a glance at him. "Now then, I'm sure that no one here is in much of a mood to drag this out, so let's get the maintenance inspection under way."

"Certainly."

Jason was very careful to maintain his front as the three males conducted the inspection as Jason and Jyslin followed along behind them, observing as Pola Thrynne went down a checklist on a reader in her hands. They went over about every system on the dropship, inspecting it for damage and ensuring it was working up to spec. The inspection took about two hours, and it seemed that in that time, there was no signs that any of them were in any way suspicious. He was sure they were all wildly curious about a human being a pilot, but his false front of thought covered that curiosity. He included quite a few fake "memories" of a friendship with a Faey dropship pilot struck up at a civilian spaceport in Atlanta, Georgia where he worked as a systems technician, just one of the many humans trained in Faey technology working at a disembarkation point for Faey civilian spacecraft, mainly tours and vacationers. It was that pilot who taught him to fly, and after he got a class three, VulTech hired him as both a dropship pilot and a maintenance technician. A startup company often had need of multitalented individuals to fill many roles when they were trying to establish themselves, and the money was tight.

It obviously satisfied their curiosity, for none of them asked how he came to get a class three license.

Once the inspection was complete, Pola Thrynne signed off on the last of it, then handed the reader to Jyslin. "I need a corporate executive to sign this now," she said.

"Certainly. Max, take this and have it signed, if you would," she told him in English.

"Yes ma'am," he said, taking it from her. Jason went into the warehouse, took it to the office, then signed it himself using the false identity that was used to set up the company, Jack Brewer. He lingered for a few minutes, then took it back out to the tarmac and handed it to Jyslin. "Here," he told her.

Pola accepted it from Jyslin and inspected it, then signed it herself and pressed the screen in several places with her finger. "Alright then, it seems that our business is concluded. The final ownership form has just been registered, and VulTech is now the legal owner of this dropship. Congratulations."

"Thank you," Jyslin said with a nod.

"Might I trouble you for the use of your restroom? I can freshen up while the techs go over anything that your pilot might want explained to him."

Jason certainly didn't miss the veiled pomposity in _that_ statement... clearly she thought he was some kind of trained monkey, unable to so much as start the dropship without someone there to hold his hand.

"Yes, please come with me," Jyslin told him. "If there was anything you wanted to ask, now's the time," she told Jason in English.

"Please follow me so we can change over the pilot data," one of the three techs said, whose name Jason did not know, for none of them had volunteered them. Jason followed the white-haired male into the dropship, through the large cargo bay, and up the short ladder and into the cockpit. "The control codes are on this reader," he said, taking a reader off of the pilot's chair and handing it to Jason. "The key is already in the keyslot. Do you have your license with you sir?"

"Right here," he said, taking it out of his pocket.

The Faey nodded and sat in the co-pilot's chair, then motioned for him to take his seat in the pilot's seat. Jason did so as the other two technicians stood behind them. "Alright, go ahead and put in your license number, please," he prompted as a holographic keyboard wavered into being in front of him, above the flight stick. Jason looked over the controls and indicators on the dash before him, and noted that it was a very logical and efficient layout. The main controls were identical to his skimmer, but since this was a larger ship with more systems, it had a few more controls. But the flight controls were identical, and he would have no trouble at all flying it. He brought up the main computer with deft movements, then immediately started uploading his pilot number into the computer to identify him as the pilot of record, which would be what would go out on the dropship's telemetry.

"Nice setup, much better than the skimmers I've been flying," Jason noted aloud. "I will definitely enjoy flying this better."

"Oh? What have you been flying?" he asked curiously.

"ASV's mainly, but I've also put some time in a Derenne. Ugh," he grunted.

The male laughed. "Amen to that. Those things are terrible. Bad layout, bad engines, bad controls, bad everything. I think it was designed by engineers who'd been drinking too much. How did you like the ASV?"

"They're very nice. Good engines, a nice smooth ride."

"Yeah, they're a bit pricy though. Thrynne skimmers are cheaper, and built much better."

"You'll have to pitch that to the people I was flying, not me. I'm just the pilot. I don't think I'll ever have the money to have a ship of my own," he said, with a bit of a sigh.

"I find it interesting that a human would get a pilot's license so quickly," one of the Faey behind him noted.

"Yeah, well, I've been flying since before I could walk," he said without looking back. "I grew up in an airplane. Both my parents were pilots, and I was born with the same itch they had. It didn't take me much to get used to flying a skimmer instead of an airplane. I already knew most of what I needed to know, and me being in school for plasma systems filled in most of the gaps. When I saw a posting for a pilot for VulTech, I jumped all over it, cause I really missed flying. I've been a pilot all my life, and I felt like someone cut off one of my legs when I was put in a maintenance shop."

"I could see that," the third male agreed. "You speak Faey very well."

"You can say it. I speak like a five year old."

The male laughed. "I didn't want to be rude."

"Yeah, well, I'm rusty. I was implanted with it in school, but I didn't speak it for nearly six months. The Faey that worked at Fulton Spaceport all spoke English, so I didn't get to practice. I'm just getting back into the habit."

"Implanted languages never last unless they're used," the male in the copilot's chair said sagely.

"I can understand what I hear, I just have trouble saying what I want to say."

"Yeah, that's pretty normal when it comes to using an implanted language," one of the ones behind him noted.

"I'm finished," Jason announced, as the holographic keyboard vanished.

"Alright then, Master Sterling, it seems that we're all done here. Did you have any questions about the unit while you have our undivided attention?"

Jason did have a few technical questions, and they went over some of the dropship's systems as they sat in the cockpit, then continued their discussion as they came out and onto the tarmac. "I've always had the best luck using a 40-20 tool," the tech was telling him as the executive and Jyslin came back out. "You have to use a light touch that most of the newer techs haven't developed yet, but it gets the best results."

"You don't have any issue with ambient gauss?"

"No, just remember the right hand rule," he answered. "As long as you withdraw the tool rotating it in the right hand direction relative to plasma flow through to the conduit, you don't polarize the conduit at all."

"I'll have to remember that," Jason said earnestly. "I've always used a Parmon tool to realign conduit."

"Those work, but it takes more muscle than finesse," he added. "The 40-20 can't do any physical damage, where a Parmon can."

"True enough," Jason agreed. "Have you tried out using Tetryon striations in your main plasma conduit?"

The male gave him quite the look. "You certainly keep up on your journals," he said. "We haven't tested Tetryon striations yet, but I think it's something we're going to be adopting. On a reader, it looks quite promising, but you know how gravimetric engines are. They can be quite finicky. We'll have to see if the Thrynne design can use Tetryon striated conduit without any loss of efficiency. I think it will, personally."

"Well, when you're in school, they _make_ you keep up with the journals."

The technician laughed. "That they do. I wish I could make some of our technical staff keep current with the journals." He gave his companions a sidelong look, and both looked distinctly uncomfortable for a moment.

"Have you had your questions answered, Master Sterling?" the executive asked pleasantly.

"I have," he answered. "I can just use your message board if I have any other questions."

"Very well then." She glanced at the techs, and then nodded. "It would seem that we're done here, Mistress Orinne."

The Thrynne people all said their formal farewells, piled into the skimmer, and then it took off and ascended into the sky and out of sight. Jason and Jyslin watched it go for about a minute, then they looked at each other. _Any trouble?_

_She never suspected a thing,_ Jyslin sent smugly. _Everyone did great! How about the ones with you?_

_I have no idea, I had myself completely closed off, but they didn't seem suspicious at all. I think they bought it._ He realigned his thinking so that he could send to the non-telepaths in the warehouse behind him. _They're gone everyone, you did great! They never suspected a thing!_

There was an audible cheer that rose up behind them, and Jason and Jyslin looked at the dropship. _Well, now that that's done, it's time to get to work._

_How long do you think it's going to take?_

_About two weeks to draw up the plans, and about two months to do the work,_ he answered. _Since we have access to some technology this time, it should help cut down on the time it'll take, but the dropship is much bigger than my skimmer, so there goes all the time we'll save automating. But there's one thing that has to be done._

_What?_

_We have to go shopping._

                                        * * *

_Brista, 35 Romaa, 4394 Orthodox Calendar_
_Wednesday, 8 April 2008, Native Regional Reckoning_
_Lincoln, Nebraska (Native designation). Zurei Province, American Sector_

This... was... _nuts_.

To say that Jason was scared out of his mind was an understatement, but on the other hand, this test had to be done.

Jason, one of the most wanted criminals to House Trillane, was going to Draconis, the heart of the Imperium.

The mission was simple. Go to Draconis, to a shipping company in the city of Aryxa, on the southern continent of Merum. There he would pick up a shipment of materials and goods, and then return to Earth. The shipment was already bought, bundled, and ready for pick up. It was already affirmed that the shipping pallets would fit in the dropship coming to retrieve them. All in all, Jason would never leave the dropship, but that wasn't what this test was about. This test was about seeing if Jason could fly the dropship through Imperial traffic control without incident.

He was looking forward to this, in one way. He would get a chance to go through the Stargate, to _see_ the planet Draconis, and to get his chance to look upon another world, the world of his fiance, and if only once, to stand on an alien world and know that he had walked on the soil of a planet that was not Earth. To be one of those first humans to set foot off of Earth, though he certainly wouldn't be the first. The former leaders of the nations of Earth had been to Draconis, and certain human governors and other humans in the Terran political system visited both Draconis and Arctus, the seat of Trillane, to meet with house nobles and personally deliver reports and missives. He was terrified of the idea of putting himself out in the open like that, but a part of him wanted to see Draconis.

To say that he was nervous was an understatement, but this is something he needed to make sure of. If there was an emergency, he wanted to make sure that the dropship could fly through the Imperial network without any challenges, and this was really the only way to do it. The name and pilot number of Max Sterling were just that, names and pilot numbers. Anyone could fly the ship using that identity, so long as they kept communication audio only. That was something that couldn't be done more than once or twice, or someone would notice, but it could be used in an emergency.

The reason for this trip was so they could begin the refit of the dropship. Jason, Tim, and Luke had pulled up the refit plans for his skimmer and started modifying them to be used for the dropship, but they weren't alone for long. Jyslin went from being an observer to getting involved herself, and it was then that Jason got a good idea just how much engineering she'd had. She quickly adapted to the ideas behind the system, and her knowledge of Faey engineering was a benefit to them. With Jyslin's help, they quickly worked up a refit plan that included knowing how much material they'd need, how many men per shift, and how long it would take. It would be a seven week operation. Jason bristled a bit at the time it was going to take, but they really had no choice. They could not do anything else on a large scale until the dropship was refitted for stealth... but they could get some things going. Kiaari had organized an advanced survey and inspection team of thirty men and women that would go to Cheyenne Mountain and conduct a complete survey, and also draw up some plans for the cleaning out and reconstruction of the facility. It basically turned out that whoever wasn't going to be working on the refit was going to be at Cheyenne Mountain, which removed the resistance from Charleston completely. The inspection team was going to be led by Tom Jackson, since he was their resident expert on civil engineering. He would be the best man for the job.

Jason's hands trembled slightly on the controls as he finished the preflight, and his hands weren't the only ones that weren't calm. He had two passengers with him, and neither of them were very happy about this either. Luke sat at the copilot's station, nervously gnawing on the corner of a clipboard, and Doc Songa sat at the engineer's station, trying to figure out where to put her hands without hitting any controls. Songa was their emergency out in this scenario. She was one of the three doctors, and as such was one of the three Faey in the community that could still actively return to the Imperium legally. If they had any trouble or if the Faey boarded the vessel, Songa would try to talk them out of it. Jason wasn't sure what she could possibly say to pull that off, but the doctors had insisted that one of them go, and Songa had won the draw for it.

"Preflight done," Jason said aloud. "Remember your protocols for space transport, Luke?"

"Yeah, whether I remember them or not is the question," he grumbled. "After Jyslin baked my noodle last night, I'm surprised I remember my own name."

Jason chuckled. Last night, Jyslin had implanted the Faey language into Luke, Tom, and six other humans in the community, those who had either completed flight training, like Luke, or would be finishing it very soon, like Tom and the others. It was something that Symone couldn't do, and something that Jyslin planned to do to everyone in the community. The rebels absolutely _had_ to be able to speak and read Faey, and besides, Luke would need that knowledge to fly this dropship. Unlike his skimmer, all the controls, labels, and readouts were in Faey, _not_ in English. Jason had converted his skimmer to English, but did not intend on changing the dropship. To fly it, the pilot had to be fluent in Faey.

"Ready, Songa?" Jason asked, trying to clear the quiver out of his voice.

"I'm ready, Jason," she answered.

"Alright then, let's get this over with." He put on his headset, and clicked the might. "Lincoln Control, Dropship Vultech-1."

_"Dropship Vultech-1, this is Lincoln Control,"_ a female Faey responded.

"Vultech-1 requesting permission to disembark from Vultech Enterprises warehouse. Destination is the Stargate."

_"One moment, I'm not sure where that is."_ There was a moment of tense silence, while Luke seemed ready to arm the ship's weapons. _"Alright, I have the location. Hold for local traffic, stay on comm."_

"Understood," Jason answered, killing the mic.

"I hope this works," Songa said under her breath.

"It better, or we're hosed," Jason grunted. "Since I've already called traffic control."

_"Dropship Vultech-1, you're clear for takeoff. Follow the northeast 60 ascent vector and be aware you will be in traffic. Limit speed to 750."_

"Northeast 60 ascent, speed 750," he repeated.

_"Handoff is to Orbital One once you clear the atmosphere."_

"Orbital One, understood," he acknowledged. "Vultech-1 out."

_"Control out."_

With a light touch on the controls, Jason picked the dropship up off the deck, navigated it through the warehouse doors, then immediately picked up the nose and aimed her at the morning sky. "Lock that chair facing the nose, Songa!" Jason barked over his shoulder when he heard and saw her chair suddenly swivel.

"Sorry, I thought it was!" she answered, swinging the chair to face the front, then locking it in.

The ascent was steep and slow, but that was what he was told to do. Besides, the scanners told him that there was a small freighter just ahead of him and a Stick behind, all of them following a 60 degree ascent vector out of Lincoln. Luke's fear and trepidation faded as they cleared the atmosphere and found themselves looking out into the starry expanse of space, with a large orbital station to the left and the moon visible just out of the right side of the windshield. "Orbital One, Dropship Vultech-1," Jason called over the radio, breaking the silence in the cockpit and startling Luke back into paying attention.

_"Vultech-1, Orbital One,"_ came a male Faey's voice in reply. _"Destination is the Stargate?"_

"Affirmative," he answered.

_"Take heading 213 at 342, speed is restricted to one quarter."_

"Understood, 213, mark, 342, one quarter."

_"Take note that there are large movers along the flight path. Contact Stargate Control at 20,000."_

"Understood. Vultech-1 out."

_"Orbital One out."_

"What does large movers mean?" Songa asked.

"It means that there are large freighters or warships that might block our vector," Jason answered. "Large ships always have the right of way. If one comes into the lane, we have to go around it, and we're allowed to do so without calling control for permission to leave the lane."

"Ah, I see. I guess it's easier for a small ship to move than a big one."

"Basically yes," he nodded.

"I guess I should learn what all this flying vocabulary means," she laughed. "I didn't understand any of that."

"Well, ma'am, I guess I can teach you if you'd like, if you answer me one question."

"Sure, Luke," she told him as the dropship turned into the assigned lane. Four large ships hung in the distance ahead of them, a freighter and three military warships, three destroyers that were part of the Trillane house Navy.

"Well, I've been meaning to ask something about telepathy."

"You could have asked Jason, you know," she laughed.

"Well ma'am, he's admitted that he's still being taught. Since you were born with it and all, I figured you might know the answer."

"Well, it sounds like a very involved question," she told him, the she gasped as the ship's new orientation and settle into a constant speed caused it to lose gravity. "This ship has no artificial gravity?" she asked quickly.

"Nope," Jason answered. "So just hang onto your stomach."

"Oh my," she said, putting a hand to her mouth.

"I hope I get used to this," Luke said. "It's like a roller coaster."

"Just you never reach the bottom of the hill," Jason chuckled. "You do get used to it."

"Anyway, what I meant to ask, ma'am," Luke said.

"Please, Luke, call me Songa," she told him with a slightly queasy smile.

"Songa. Well, Miss Songa, I was curious about how Miss Temika handles things with the rest of you. I know she doesn't speak Faey."

"You mean telepathy?" she asked, then she laughed as he nodded. "Luke, dear, language isn't a barrier with talent."

"You mean you use telepathy in English for her?"

"No dear. Let me explain," she said, leaning forward a little. "Telepathy is the exchange of thought, not words. Yes, we frame that thought in a language, but it's the _thought_ that Temika hears, not the _words_. Her brain picks up the thought, and frames that thought in words that _she_ can understand. I usually send framing my sending in Faey, but she _hears_ my sending in _English_, because she processes the thought, the _meaning_, of my sending, not the words."

"I'm not sure I understand."

"Telepathy is the exchange of thought, not words," Jason told him. "Two telepaths don't have to speak each other's languages to be able to understand one another, but it _does_ restrict what they can say to each other if they don't. When Jyslin sends to me, she sends in Faey, because that's her native language. It's how she thinks, and that's how she structures her sending. When I hear her sending, I'm not hearing her sending Faey words, I'm hearing the _meaning_ of her sending. And since my native language is English, my brain processes those meanings in English, so I hear her sending as English. But, since I _do_ speak Faey, the more complex thoughts she sends, which depend more on language and words, I can also understand, because I understand the _words_ as well as the _meaning_. Temika doesn't speak Faey, so those very complicated thoughts are something she can't comprehend. Her brain can't work out the meaning, because that meaning is dependent on the words, and those words tend to be abstract when one deals with complex subjects. Without the ability to understand those abstract words and the thought they represent, her brain can't process the meaning of the thought behind them."

"Just so," Songa agreed with a nod. "Temika wouldn't understand everything I send, because she doesn't speak Faey, and those thoughts that are very complicated or are very dependent on understanding the words are beyond her. But for normal communication and basic chitchat, she would have no trouble understanding me. But since I _do_ speak English, I can specifically frame my sending in English, structuring that thought in a way she _can_ understand, which lets her understand me perfectly. Because we know Temika doesn't speak our language, most of us go out of our way to frame our sendings in English for her benefit. She's very suspicious of us, and we don't want her thinking that we're holding anything back or anything."

"So language does make a difference."

"Up to a point, yes," she agreed. "But, if she didn't speak Faey, and I didn't speak English, we could still effectively communicate with each other by using the similarities of our thoughts as a base to build on. And we're _very_ similar that way," she chuckled. "I could communicate with Temika on a high school level if we didn't share a common language, because humans and Faey are very, very similar. Gora's Law," she giggled.

"What is that?"

"It's an old theory that the more similar the development of two different planets are, the more similar the life on those planets will be to each other. Humans and Faey are genetically compatible, Luke. That's almost _exactly_ identical. Yohne believes it's because our planets are almost exactly identical. Draconis has the same nitrogen oxygen atmosphere as Terra at the same proportions, the same air pressure, the same proportion of water to land, the same basic climate, and both of our planets are approximately the same age. Draconis is a little larger than Terra, our year is a little shorter, we have two moons instead of one, and we have slightly more helium in our atmosphere than Terra, but those are about the only differences. You'll see it very soon," she told them.

"I hope we don't see it long," Jason grunted.

"Amen," Luke nodded in agreement.

A Faey battle cruiser drifted into the lane, which forced the smaller ships to go around it. Luke gaped at the Herculean vessel as they flew over its midsection, a ship that was about an eighth of a mile long. Jason remembered reading about them on CivNet. It was a standard Faey destroyer, armed to the teeth, with a ship's crew of 140. A ship that size didn't use MPACs as primary weapons, but used something similar to one. Its primary weapon was plasma torpedoes, which were massive scale versions of an MPAC, huge charges of metaphased plasma, crushed under tremendous pressure, that would penetrate shields and then detonate on impact. That ship was also armed with plasma cannons, weapons that fired a stream of metaphased plasma instead of a compact bubble of it. It was also armed with heavy ion cannons, weapons designed not to damage ships, but to damage and disrupt power systems and equipment. From what he remembered reading, those ion cannons were obsolete, but they were very effective against the Skaa, and quite amusingly, could also damage a Faey vessel's systems as well if the ion charge penetrated the shielding protecting plasma conduits and PPGs.

"My god, that thing is big," Luke breathed.

"That's a destroyer, Luke. It's _small_ compared to most other Faey starships," Jason told him. "If you recall, you could see that big battleship they first brought here from orbit without a telescope."

"And to think we're gonna be fighting people who can build shit like that," he breathed soberly.

"I never said it was gonna be easy," Jason sighed. "And besides, Luke, one point of what we're going to be doing is making _sure_ those never get involved.

Being limited to one quarter of maximum engine power, it took almost an hour to pass the orbiting starships and reach the moon's orbital track. Both Jason and Luke took a moment to stare at the moon as they passed within 50,000 miles of it, and then the lights of the Stargate became visible ahead.

It was like a gigantic window in space. The Stargate was a rectangular, hollow construction, a frame that was empty in the middle, just like a window... but this window was nearly 10 miles wide and 15 miles long. It was so huge that four of the Faey's largest battleships could go through it, side by side, at the same time. The area inside that massive frame didn't look unusual at first, but as Jason looked closer at it, and they got nearer to it, he could see a dark shimmering, as if the area inside were distorted, warping the view of the stars behind it. It was like it was filled with water, or a soap film, a surface that didn't remain still, and reflected back distorted images.

Once they were within 20,000 _shakra_, Jason motioned for Luke to remain silent and activated his comm. "Stargate Control, Vultech-1."

_"Vultech-1, Stargate Control,"_ came a female Faey response; a Faey that was most likely in that flared cubical pod at what Jason would consider t