Across from Gabriel in the other pilot's couch, Enda let out a small sigh and reached into the holographic display that hung between them, touching to life the controls that would let their infotrading system speak to the Aegis drive-sat relay. As she did, the comms alert cheeped, and she gave Gabriel an amused look. "Punctual as always." Gabriel reached into the display and touched the comms slider. " Sunshine." "You're early," Helm Ragnarsson's gravelly voice announced. "Makes a change." "You are cruel to tease us, Helm," Enda said, undoing the straps and getting up from her pilot's couch. "And unwise, since next time we have dinner, it will be my turn to cook." "What do you mean next time? I thought you were cooking today." Enda glanced over at Gabriel. "I would have been," she said, "but something has come up." "What?" "I just got back from Bluefall," Gabriel said, "where I just shot somebody." Helm's eyes widened a little. "Boy, you and your father really don't get along, do you?" "Helm!" Gabriel said. "I did not shoot my father! I shot a VoidCorp Employee." "Making a corpse out of a Corpse, huh?" Helm said. "Redundant, but I have to appreciate the sentiment. He started it, I take it." "He was waiting for me, Helm. They plainly knew we were coming, and it can't be long, even on Bluefall, before the police show up and want to know who left this guy's brains all over the one road on the island. I think we should give dinner a miss this time and get into drivespace before they come after me. We can have dinner when we come out somewhere else." "Such as?" "I want to conference briefly," Gabriel said. "Have you heard from Angela?" "About twenty minutes ago. She's inbound on system drive. Going to be late. She miscalculated the distance to the rendezvous point or something."