TALES OF THE RELIANT

FLAGG'S GUN RUNNER DAUGHTER

Captain Yager was sitting in his office onboard The Reliant when ship's pilot Zack Renjay informed him via the intercom he had a private message coming through from Admiral Flagg.

"Put him through, Mr. Renjay."

"Aye, sir."

John turned on the computer console atop his desk and, within seconds, was staring face-to-face with Admiral Flagg. He sat there at his desk and stared at him with his usual disdain.

"Yes, Admiral," John said curtly to his former friend, "what is it?"

"I have a new mission for you," the Admiral said to him just as curtly.

"Which is?"

Richard paused before answering. "You'll be conducting a rescue mission."

"Who is it you're wanting me and my crew to rescue? One of your Alliance buddies or something?"

"No, Captain," Richard said, pausing again. "It's my daughter."

"Your daughter?" A surprised look swept over John's face. "What daughter? I thought you only had a son Michael?"

"My daughter's name is Emily, John." He sighed before continuing, "I had an affair on my wife Debra some years ago with a woman named Mariah. We ended up having a child, our daughter Emily."

"Did Debra know about the affair and your daughter?"

"No," he replied, shaking his head. "She never found out about the affair or my daughter. Mariah and I decided that, for the sake of my marriage and career, we had to keep everything hush-hush. I discreetly sent them money every year while Emily was growing up."

John was disheartened to hear that Richard had had an affair, though he wasn't surprised. He knew Debra back when he and Richard were friends. He liked Debra, and Debra liked him in turn. He always thought Debra to be a kind-hearted person, and he could never understand why she was with a man like Richard Flagg, even back when they were still friends. Richard had been arrogant and a little too sure of himself ever since John had known him, and he certainly was never the easiest person to be around. Sometimes he wondered why the hell they had ever been friends even before they stopped being friends after what happened during the Karnin war.

"So, tell me, Richard, why does your daughter no one ever knew about needs rescuing and from whom?"

"Emily works as an independent contractor."

"Which , of course, means she's either a pirate, a mercenary or maybe some sort of gun runner." He waited for Richard to protest. He didn't. "Go on."

"I've hired Emily to do some jobs for me before, and she's always managed to complete them without any trouble."

"So what happened this time?"

He sighed. "This time I had her take a shipment to the planet Yanar."

"Yanar? That's all the way out in the Delta system. So what was the shipment?"

"I don't think that information is really necessary."

"Oh, I think that information is very necessary if you expect me and my crew to risk our lives rescuing this daughter of yours, especially someplace as dangerous as the Delta system."

He paused and sighed. "Are we on a secure channel"

John reached over and flipped a switch on his computer console.

"We are now."

"I was sending a shipment of weapons to a man named Daner."

"Weapons? Did you say weapons?"