Dusty became distant and taciturn, and Zeera had the intuition not to push the issue. But even one of the uninitiated could tell something was wrong. Chad could feel it in the stale recycled air of the old shuttle. On the way however, Zeera felt that she had no choice but to try to see that regulations were followed.

"I need to contact headquarters and tell them where we’re going." She said as she looked to Dusty, who was once again at the controls.

"Go ahead." He replied with a careless shrug.

"It would be easier for me to do so if you told me where we’re heading." She said, making clear that he was expected to do so.

"It sure would. It sure would." Dusty chuckled and kicked his feet onto a panel as he spun the stick, sending the vessel off course. He’d been changing his direction seemingly at random just to prevent anyone from getting a heading or guessing where he might be going, and even Chad was starting to get nervous.

"Tell me where we’re going, Dusty! This is serious!" Zeera’s voice was getting louder while Chad simply stared out the window, trying to remain a neutral party. He was quickly growing tired of Dusty treating Zeera like an object, but his admiration for the older bounty hunter precluded any action on the matter.

"You’ll find out when we get there. I’m sure you’ve been trying to triangulate the coordinates the whole trip, hasn’t that processor in your head figured it out yet, or is my driving too erratic?" He asked with a mischievous grin as he began to jerk the controls in another seemingly random direction. He found that they were stuck and looked down to find Chad’s hand holding the course steady.

"Answer her question, Dusty." Chad stated in a rather flat manner as he looked into the veteran’s chiseled face.

A stillness descended. Chad wandered if he had made a mistake, if perhaps Dusty was going to whip his hand off the controls and draw his weapons. But nothing happened. Dusty simply turned to Zeera and muttered:

"Trillos. We’re going to Trillos." He tipped his hat to her as if to excuse himself and then returned his attention to the controls with a more steady hand. Zeera looked on in surprise for a moment, unable to think of anything to say. She stuttered out a thank you, but Chad wasn’t sure if it was to Dusty or himself.

The long uncomfortable silence continued almost uninterrupted until they reached Trillos. Chad was expecting Dusty to take the lead, but his friend seemed a bit less energetic than before as though Chad’s words had knocked the solar wind from his sails. Dusty was still the first up, but this time he was opening the door for Zeera. Zeera smiled at this gesture and nodded politely to Dusty.

"Thank you sir." She nearly curtsied before heading out of the ship into the docking bay. Chad stood up and Dusty motioned him forward. Chad had felt he’d over stepped his bounds ever since his outburst and now he was sure he was about to go one step further. He looked down at himself as if he weren’t sure if Dusty was inviting him to go ahead or not.

"You can go ahead, Dusty. I… I didn’t mean to…" Chad stammered out as the two stood near the open door.

"You’ve got some guts, kid. And you were right. I gotta say I like you even more now than I did. Let’s go get us a hover beast." Dusty said, tipping his hat as he walked out. He was too busy appreciating the chivalrous nature of Chad’s words and his humility to have any time to be insulted, and he had a mission to do. Chad followed along after him curiously.

"A what?" He inquired.

"A hover beast is an animal that exists only on Trillos. They evolved specialized lungs and fur to allow them to hover rather than walk. That was before the planet’s rotation was slowed down with the magnetic pulses Gbay fired at it. When the rotation slowed the gravity was reduced enough that humans could live here, and the hover beasts became a mode of transportation for the poor. But why are we taking a hover beast and not a jet or dune crawler?" She asked, the focus of the questions once more turning to Dusty.

"Because when a hover beast breaks down you can at least shoot it. The sandstorms on this planet make transportation by regular means treacherous, and the magnetic interference that the corporation caused doesn’t do anything to help. Besides, I bet neither of you have ever gotten to ride a hover beast." He smiled to them both and they admitted via nodding that they hadn’t. Dusty soon found the bazaar and disappeared into a tent among a collection of sand dunes.

Zeera and Chad sat outside trying to gather in the shade of one of the dunes. It would have been a nice day if the heat hadn’t been so intense. The sky was a lovely reddish color from the morning sun and the winds were soft enough as to bring some relief from the heat but not to drive the sand. With Dusty’s behavior previously Chad half expected Zeera to be suspicious, but she seemed rather relaxed, especially with Chad resting against her as they lay in the meager shadows.

"You really think we’ll see him?" Chad asked curiously.

"Lux? We already have. Dusty was talking to him in an alley on the satellite." Zeera answered off hand.

"What!" Chad demanded.

"I don’t think they were up to anything. By regulations I’ll have to report him after this mission… but I almost feel as though I don’t want to." She seemed less certain than ever before, and Chad was almost worried that all of his feelings for her might be a bad influence. He was starting to think that perhaps the man who was his mentor might not have been so good at all. It would surely explain his aggression to Zeera, a corporate devotee.

"I’m not so—" Chad was about to voice his reservations when there was a whistle from the door of the tent where Dusty now stood. The sand dune they were laying against began to quake and then exploded, throwing Chad and Zeera both backwards. Chad immediately gathered himself and drew his weapon, moving into a defensible crouch and trying to see through the falling dust.

On to Chapter 22!