Being on the receiving end of more than one tongue lashing had taught Panu to tread with care around Rana's things. It was the stupid clown figurine that was in the wrong place (the Tardy Traveler's navigational chassis) at the wrong time (a forceful sweep of Panu's tail as she mentally replayed her last discussion with Rana). Muscular tail met fragile porcelain, and the clown figurine took a header off the chassis and broke.
       "Black holes and barf bags." The Arullian weapons trader cradled the five-inch high porcelain figure in one lilac-colored paw and the two broken halves of the figurine's conical hat in the other. "Rana's gonna kill me."
       Panu's tail swished as she tossed items from one storage bin after another onto the Tardy Traveler's main deck. "No need to panic!" Her voice echoed hollowly in the otherwise empty ship. "I know there's some super nanite glue around here somewhere. . .oww!" She emerged from a bin, rubbing her horns.
       The tiny clown figurine was Rana's latest purchase. Wow, Panu thought as she rummaged through another storage bin, has it already been four cycles since Kiuna Station? "It's a Humm-el," Rana had announced, her voice lingering on the second syllable when she'd brought the figurine back to the Tardy Traveler. "A rare find from Old Earth. Highly valuable."
       The value of the figurine, which sported an ugly red and white motley outfit, a doe-eyed face and shoes too large for its small stature, was lost on Panu. Plus, she found it hard to admire the artifacts of a race too apathetic to keep their planet from becoming a toxic sludge pit, yet industrious enough to create treacly junk and invent a fail-safe means to blow their entire population to smithereens with the touch of a button. She had responded to Rana with a non-committal "umm hmmm" as her Arullian mentor affixed the figurine to the navigational chassis, which was already chock-a-block with Old Earth nostalgia bought from inter-dimensional pawn shops, trans-alien flea markets, and planet-going-out-of-business sales across the Known Galaxy.
       After more rummaging and mild cursing, Panu dug out a half-dried tube of super nanite glue and used it to fix the figurine. She held the tiny clown at arm's length and examined her handiwork. If she squinted, she could barely see the vertical crack where the hat halves met. "Not. Too. Shabby." Panu set the figurine back on the navigational chassis. Rana would be so impressed when she got back. Which would be very soon. Hopefully. Maybe she'd even let Panu tag along the next time she went weapons buying in the Unruly Galaxy. The young Arullian fiddled with her necklace and imagined wheeling and dealing with the galaxy's most dangerous species as her mentor looked on, a proud gleam in her eyes. . .
       A soft, sticky sound interrupted this daydream, as the broken halves of the tiny clown's hat split apart and tumbled onto the chassis. Glue oozed into the figurine's eyes. Panu's horns tightened against her skull. The nanites in the glue must've expired. What if I can't fix the figurine before Rana gets back? What if she gets back and she's still angry? The young Arullian winced as she remembered the look on Rana's face at the end of their last discussion. It was a look that said, "You are a huge disappointment, Panu" times infinity. That was three cycles ago, just before Rana left for the Unruly Galaxy. What if Rana doesn't-
       Panu took a deep breath. No need to panic. Three cycles was the longest Rana had ever been away on a weapons buying jaunt to the Unruly Galaxy. But that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. She'd probably gotten lucky and made a bunch of great deals! Yes, credits to crustaceans Rana'd be back within a cycle, with new weapons and good stories in tow. Plenty of time to fix the figurine. But right now, Panu had places to go, aliens to see, weapons to sell in Rana's absence. The Arullian wrapped the figurine and its broken hat in a cleaning rag and placed it in an empty box of caramelized smoke maggots for safekeeping.

       Panu's troubles with the Humm-el figurine took an unexpected turn on Yrg, as she tried to find a buyer for a small case of discontinued photon blasters.
       Selling the blasters was taking longer than Panu expected. Knowing with 99.9% certainty that Rana would've off-loaded this weaponry in short order gave Panu a stress hornache. She sought temporary relief in the embrace of her sixteen-foot tall Yrgian friend who happened to be gifted with a sturdy trunk, flexible branches, and supple leaves.
       "Where'd that come from?" Byr asked Panu as the two friends with benefits basked in the afterglow of a fourth round of rambunctious relations on the Tardy Traveler's main deck.
       Panu cast a sleepy glance at the object towards which Byr had swept their uppermost branches. She did a double-take and sat up. "Uh. . .it's Rana's. . .her latest Old Earth junk." What was the tiny clown figurine doing back on the chassis? Any further speculation on Panu's part was put to a halt by Byr, who began to stroke Panu's horns, a gesture which provoked more snuggles, which led to a fifth round of rambunctious relations.
       When Panu emerged from the bathroom, she expected Byr to have disembarked from the Tardy Traveler, per their typical post-coital modus operandi. She expected to order the ship's agrimorph to produce a steaming bowl of jade frog innards, and then put her feet up and spend the remaining port time on Yrg scanning the planetary news feeds for a species with an ax to grind and in high need of photon blasters with which to grind it.
       What Panu did not expect to see as she opened the door to the bathroom clad in her last pair of clean underwear was Byr standing on the main deck with one branch wrapped around the Humm-el figurine while another branch held one of the discontinued photon blasters.
       "Flippin' flingerfloppers!" Panu stopped mid-stride in the bathroom's open doorway, arms akimbo.
       Byr trained the photon blaster on Panu and picked up the figurine from the navigational chassis. "This is the long-lost prince of Yrg! The Great Plank tells of how he was imprisoned in a low stone form long ago by the Lava Tree People. The prophecy says that one day he will be found and released by his own kind and lead all Yrgians to glory!"
       "Farts and stars, Byr," A deep purple blush swept over Panu's sleek furry face. "I let you touch my horns," she said in a hushed, urgent tone. "I don't let just anyone do that."
       The Yrgian paused, then set the power level on the photon blaster from "light discombobulation" to "hard scrambled brains." "Sorry, Panu, but when dominion over the galaxy comes calling, a Yrgian's gotta do what a Yrgian's gotta do."
       The midnight-blue streak of fur that ran from between Panu's head horns to the tip of her tail stood on end. Her lips curled back to reveal a mouthful of small but sharp teeth. No way was this big fat grubersploot waltzing off with anything in Rana's Old Earth collection, much less her newest, most valuable piece. Panu tugged on her necklace, which broke free in her paw. She pointed the slim cylindrical rod that dangled from the chain at the Yrgian, silently thanked Rana for nagging her to always, always, always keep a molecular minimizer handy, and fired. Byr dropped the Humm-el figurine as the bright white blast from the minimizer reduced their tall, sturdy, and sexy lushness down to a twelve-inch sapling.
       "Aren't you a hardy little thing?" Panu said as she bent down to pick up the tiny clown from the ship's deck. To her amazement, it'd come through the unfortunate scuffle unscathed. Moreover, when she went to put the figurine back in the empty box of caramelized smoke maggots, Panu discovered that its conical hat was intact, although the jagged vertical line and chipped paint marking the previous break remained. Panu smiled down at the figurine. Looked like those super glue nanites were alive and kicking after all. "Still, better safe than sorry." She nestled the Humm-el figurine back into the box, next to the conical hat, while her now very small Yrgian friend made incomprehensible squeaks and angrily shook their fragile branches.
       Before she hyper-hopped from Yrg, Panu beamed Byr to the planet's largest and greenest public park. It'd been a swell hook-up while it lasted, and, as Rana always said, just because they were Arullian weapons dealers didn't mean they had to behave like scoundrels.

       "Where'd you find that?" The grizzled Avvitsi trader twitched her antennae at the pile of objects Panu had yanked from her carryall and set on the bar at the Bumble and Drone Tavern.
       Based on the planetary news feeds, Avvits was an ideal place to off-load one small case of newly miniaturized photon blasters. Sure, the Known Galaxy Treaty of 21344 banned the Avvitsi from possessing photon weapons, but Panu was under the gun. Rana'd be back from the Unruly Galaxy any time now, and Panu had little profit to show her mentor. Besides, how much harm could a handful of photon blasters the size of one's thumb do?
       Panu glanced up at the objects on the bar. Her almond-shaped eyes widened. The Humm-el figurine stood there, arms outstretched and a playful smile on its tiny pink-cheeked visage. "I -" She paused, mouth agape. What was the figurine doing in the carryall, rather than in the empty smoke maggots box on the Tardy Traveler? Then she remembered. A cycle ago, in an attempt to stave off unpleasant thoughts about Rana's lengthy absence, she'd instant messaged a string of Old Earth collectibles dealers and found one on Sadruthea who promised to fix up the figurine good as new. Yes, she must've put the Humm-el in the carryall then.
       Panu flashed the Avvitsi trader a toothy grin, "It's nothing. Mere space junk when compared to some mini photon blasters, am I right?" She continued to rummage around in the carryall and pulled out, in rapid sequence, a defunct gravity grenade, an empty bottle of horn polish, and a nearly expired, 2-for-1 ice cream cone coupon for Mr. Tolliver's Emporium of Galactic Wonders and Soft-Serve. Where were those stupid photon blasters?
       Meanwhile, the Avvitsi scuttled around the figurine and ran her feelers across the clown's conical hat and oversized shoes. "Incredible! The properties of this strange tiny Old Earth person could be used to feed our planet for ages to come!" The Avvitsi's mandibles clacked together. "How much for it?"
       The old Panu would've sold the figurine in two shakes of an Arullian's tail, would've handed over all of Rana's sad junk from a sad, failed civilization without a second thought. But that was before Kiuna Station and the incident with the trauma pulse mines. Her mentor couldn't believe Panu had let such highly prized weapons slip through her fingers. "Flat-headed lagerbeasts have more personal responsibility and common sense than you," Rana had said and shaken her head, "and they eat their young." She'd left for the Unruly Galaxy a short while later, without saying goodbye to Panu.
       "Sorry. Not for sale." Panu plucked the tiny clown from the bar and thrust the figurine and her head back into the carryall, thus missing the way the Avvitsi's antennae drooped and the fanatical gleam that flickered across her beady eyes. "Ha--finally!" With a triumphant sweep of her arm Panu pulled the box of mini photon blasters from the carryall.
       The rest of the sale went swiftly, and Panu parted ways with the Avvitsi with more credits than she had expected and a more confident swing in her step. After she'd paid what she owed on planetary docking fees and trading route tolls, she'd have enough credits left over to get the Humm-el figurine back in tip-top shape. She imagined Rana's return, and the praise she'd heap on Panu for a job well done. But what if she doesn't come back? It's been five cycles now. Panu's horns started to tighten, but she shrugged off the feeling and picked up her pace. Rana'd be back any day now. . .of course she would. . .
        Panu's plans were interrupted when, a short time later, the Avvitsi trader hacked the Tardy Traveler's security system and beamed herself, plus a thousand armor-clad Avvitsi friends, onto the ship's main deck.
       "If you're looking for more mini weapons, I'm afraid you're out of luck," Panu told the assembled swarm as she wrapped a towel around her naked body. "Annnnd I was about to take a turn in the ol' on-board watering hole, so. . ." she gestured downwards, where the Tardy Traveler's modest simulacrum of an Arullian riverscape lay two decks below.
       "Silence, Arullian scum!" the Avvitsi trader squeaked. She scuttled over to Panu's carryall and used her mandibles to drag out the Humm-el figurine. "We are the Avvitsi Liberation Army! Me and my sisters in arms are here to free the Famine Breaker so we may rid our planet of starvation!" The trader pointed the mini photon blaster towards Panu. "The Avvitsi shall at last rise and take our rightful place as masters of the Known Galaxy!"
       Panu raised her paws, palms facing the swarm. "Oh, no! The little itty bitty Avvitsi is gonna shoot me with her little itty bitty photon blaster and give me a little itty bitty sunburn. I'm soooo scared."
       The trader cocked her head and emitted a series of short screeches. One thousand sets of insectoid arms reached into carapaces, pulled out mini photon blasters, and aimed the weapons at Panu's towel-wrapped form.
       "Son of a quasar," she muttered, kicking herself for leaving the necklace with the molecular minimizer resting on the edge of the faux riverscape. Then she realized the minimizer would have little effect on the already-small Avvitsi, and she kicked herself again. Her gaze flicked to the Humm-el figurine. Inexplicably, the tiny clown's conical hat was now affixed to its head, as if she'd never broken it. The figurine's round eyes were trained on her own, and its whole body radiated with a captivating glow. Panu shook her head. Was this a trick of the docking bay lights? Were the poorly poured beer and stale dehydrated grubs she'd scarfed down at the Bumble and Drone, causing her to hallucinate? Was she really going to die without seeing Rana again?
       These near-death musings were interrupted by the arrival of three Yrgians who, like the Avvitsi, had hacked the Tardy Traveler's security system and beamed aboard.
       We really need a better security system, Panu thought.
       The Yrgians trained their flesh rippers on Panu. "We found Byr in Dyorb Public Park, crying uncontrollably in a patch of dewthistle," said the first Yrgian, who sported a shaggy blue trunk and weeping willow branches the color of moonbeams.
       "They told us what you have," said the second Yrgian, a lanky lavender-toned elm attempting to hide a bad case of root gigantism with a flower-patterned tree skirt.
       "We've come to free Prince Cyr!" declared the third Yrgian in the trio, pointing towards the Humm-el figurine. The dull color of their branches and leaves signaled they were the youngest Yrgian. That, and the fact they held their flesh ripper backwards and upside down. "We shall restore the Yrgians to their rightful place as masters of the Known Galaxy!"
       "Over our dead bodies!" the Avvitsi swarm screamed in unison and swung their photon blasters towards the three Yrgians.
       "Oh, for the love of Jupiter," Panu said. With the two species' ire now trained on each other, the Arullian weapons trader dove towards the main deck's controls, losing her towel in the process. She then beamed all one thousand and one Avvitsi plus the three Yrgians to the Great Ordure Grasslands on Avvits.
       Panu bent down and picked up the Humm-el figurine from the ship's deck, put it back in its empty cardboard box, and, for good measure, sealed the top with a heavy dose of super nanite glue. She programmed a series of hyper-hop coordinates into the Tardy Traveler's navigational system. First to the old Earth collector on Sadruthea to drop off the figurine for repair, then onto Lyell. After all this blasted slurdge, Panu needed some rest and relaxation.

       Panu had just paid for a third mimosa with compressed stinky chestnut juice at the fourth-level swim-up bar of Lyell's levitation pools when she felt the unmistakable pressure of a cold, well-honed blade against her ribcage.
       "If you're looking for photon blasters, mini or regular-sized," Panu said to the Kryberian assassin perched on an adjacent underwater stool, "I'm fresh out." She gave the assassin an up and down glance. "Terrific swimsuit, by the way. The blue color really complements your eye."
       The assassin smiled, revealing double-sets of long, needle-sharp teeth. "I wasn't sent all the way across the Known Galaxy for some stupid blasters. Where is the device?"
       "The device?"
       "Don't play dumb. We know you have the device of Extraordinarily Ridiculous Power. It looks like a tiny Old Earth creature cursed with two eyes and dressed like a half-wit Kryberian farmer on market day."
       "Oh, that device," Panu replied. "Tell me: what's so special about," she made air quotes with her fingers, "'the device'? Why are you and every other species in the Known Galaxy so eager to get your hands on it?"
       The assassin's eye narrowed. A tentacle wrapped around Panu's waist. "Not everyone has hands. I find your pro-metacarpus language offensive."
       "Sorry. Figure of speech. I sold the Humm-el fig -- uh, I mean, the device -- to a trader on Avvits." Panu sipped her mimosa, while her fingers drifted to the molecular minimizer around her neck. "Go talk to her because I don't have it anymore."
       "Liar." The Kryberian assassin pressed the blade's edge into Panu's ribs. "My spies on Lyell tell a different story." With one tentacle, she yanked the minimizer off Panu's neck and tossed it across the pool, while a second tentacle wrapped around Panu's drink. The assassin raised the glass to her lips. "Ugh, stinky chestnuts. Your taste in cocktails is as bad as your ability to lie."
       "You're wasting your time. I'm telling you, the figurine isn't here," Panu said for the twelveth time as the assassin led her at knife-point back to the floating bungalow she'd rented on Lyell.
       The assassin used Panu's key card to open the bungalow door and made a beeline for the room safe. Keeping one tentacle curled around Panu's neck, she wrenched open the safe and pulled out the Humm-el figurine.
       Panu gasped, both from the shock of seeing the tiny clown figurine, which was supposed to be on Sadruthea where she'd left it for repair and from the rush of fresh air filling her airway, which was no longer being squeezed by a Kryberian tentacle. The tiny clown, conical hat set at a rakish angle on its blonde head, glowed with radiant good health as if it had been a cycle or two rather than thousands of years since its creation on Old Earth. Panu was seized by a strange impulse to reach out and wring its tiny porcelain neck.
       "At last!" the Kryberian assassin cried. She cradled the figurine against her chest but kept her cycloptic gaze and sharp blade trained on Panu. "With the device, we can power the Very Large Array of Destructiveness on which my people have labored for a hundred paryons and restore the Kryberians to our rightful place as masters of the Known Galaxy!"
       The assassin's triumph was cut short by the sound of one thousand and one very angry and very vengeful Avvitsi ripping the bungalow's door off its hinges and scurrying en masse into the room. This was followed by the sight of a trio of equally angry and equally vengeful Yrgians bursting into the bungalow and sending the roof flying upwards to Lyells' eighth level levitation pool and scaring the collective swim trunks off a Culuthian centipede family on vacation.
       Flustered by all the chaos, the youngest member of the Yrgian trio fired their flesh ripper straight into the Kryberian assassin's face.
       "My eye!" The assassin dropped the Humm-el figurine onto the dusty and debris-strewn bungalow floor.
       "At last! The Famine Breaker is ours!" squeaked an Avvitsi as she hopped and scuttled atop the figurine and waved her tiny photon blaster.
       "At last! The Lost Prince is ours!" the tree-skirted Yrgian roared as they squashed a large swath of Avvitsi to a smooshy smear and swept the tiny clown onto a leafy branch.
       "Not so fast!" the Kryberian assassin growled. Leaking tears from her round blue eye, she leaped atop the Yrgian's uppermost branches and hacked away with her blade, causing the alien to drop the figurine.
       "Asteroid farts!" Panu sidestepped a swarm of Avvitsi firing their photon blasters at the Yrgians, whose branches whooshed into a blue-flamed blaze. She scooped the Humm-el figurine from the floor, ducking an air-whistling, flaming right hook from a Yrgian that instead connected dead center with the Kryberian assassin's enormous blood-shot eye.
       Panu pressed the communicator embedded under her right ear flap -- a security measure she'd picked up for a song on Sadruthea -- which sent her location to the Tardy Traveler. Within moments, the ship hovered over the now-roofless bungalow. Panu beamed aboard, punched in a random set of hyper-hop coordinates, and left the multi-species battle below to sort itself out.

       Clad in her still-damp two-piece bikini, Panu crouched on the Tardy Traveler's main deck. Her gaze bounced from the tiny clown clutched in her hand, to the mounds and hillocks of Rana's old Earth collectibles on the navigational chassis, and then back to the tiny clown. Her horns and mouth tightened. Where did Rana get off, gallivanting across the universe for who knows how long and leaving Panu all alone to maintain the Tardy Traveler, look after her stupid collection and keep the business afloat? And she had the nerve to say Panu lacked common sense and a sense of responsibility? Pustulant pink pulsars!
       Panu grabbed a discarded box of hyperdrive parts and, with more bitter expletives bubbling from her mouth, shoved one piece of Rana's Old Earth collection after another into the box, starting with the Humm-el figurine. She filled the box to the brim with collectibles and was about to close it when a high-pitched voice cried out, "No, no, sugar! Please don't leave me in the box again! Anything but that!"
       Panu's ear flaps flattened back against her head. She peered inside the box. "Say what?"
       "Oh for crying out loud. . ." The mound of collectibles shifted and parted to reveal the Humm-el figurine, its back braced against a Doctor Demento album, while its legs fended off the weight of a half-desiccated chia pet. The tiny clown's rosy cheeks huffed and puffed with effort. "A little help? Transporting myself from Sadruthea to Lyell wasn't easy, I'll tell you what!"
       Panu plucked the figurine from the box and stood it up on her palm. The figurine rolled its head and shoulders, and relief washed over its tiny porcelain face. "Oh, that's better!"
       "What are you?"
       I. . .am an Oraidd." The tiny clown grinned from ear to ear and threw its head back. A long pause followed this announcement, as Panu stared blankly at the figurine. The tiny clown's expression collapsed. "A thousand years ago, you would've been all 'How would you like to be worshiped today, O Wondrous Oraidd? What kind of blood sacrifice shall we prepare?' Now. . ." The figurine sighed, then dug into its pockets and brought out three golden balls, and began to juggle. "I'm a shapeshifter, sugar. A creator of destinies."
       "Creator of destinies, huh?" Panu said. "More like nasty little troublemaker." Her fingers tightened around the figurine, which emitted a squeal of alarm. "What I want to know is: why me? Rana bought you, cared for you. Why am I on the receiving end of all your mischief?"
       The figurine kicked its tiny legs against Panu's fist. "Hey, now! No squeezing the magical shapeshifter if you know what's good for you!" Panu loosened her grip. The figurine made a clucking noise with its tongue, before continuing in a lofty tone. "Rana treated me the way I deserve." The figurine gave Panu a pitying glance. "You, on the other hand. . .well. . ."
       "What?" Panu gestured impatiently with her other hand. "I cared for you the exact same way Rana did."
       The figurine raised a palm towards Panu's face. "Puh-lease! You knocked me over. You broke my hat. And then you shoved me in a box! Three times!" The figurine shivered. "To you, I was just a piece of junk belonging to someone else. Any love or attention you deigned to give me was all for Rana's sake. And, sugar, if there's one thing Oraidds need to survive, it's pure, savage love and adoration. If I didn't want to waste away, I needed to take matters into my own hands."
       "So you shifted to be whatever item the Yrgians, Avitsii, and Kryberians wanted most. You knew I'd protect you no matter what because you belong to Rana."
       The figurine winked at Panu. "Tapping into the gaping hole of emptiness in the individual and collective unconscious is my spe-ci-a-li-ty, sugar."
       "You almost got me killed, you little space booger!" Panu raised her fist overhead, ready to smash the tiny clown onto the deck of the Tardy Traveler.
       "No! Stop! Please!" The figurine screeched. "I was wasting away without Rana, but so were you! You needed all the fussin' and fightin' just as much as I did!"
       Panu grimaced. "Shut up."
       "I'm not the one you're really mad at, Panu!" The figurine's voice trembled. "Put me back in the box if you have to, but please don't hurt me. . .I'm all alone in this cold, cruel universe. . ." The tiny clown let loose a piteous wail and began to weep.
       A lump swelled in Panu's throat. She placed the tiny clown down on the navigational chassis and looked at the box containing Rana's old Earth collectibles. "You're not the only one who's all alone, Oraidd." Her tail lay motionless on the deck. The figurine, realizing it was no longer in mortal danger, collapsed backwards onto the chassis.
       "This is the longest Rana's ever been away," Panu continued in a steady but flat voice. "And she wasn't exactly happy with me when she left. If she was planning on coming back, she'd be home by now."
       The figurine propped itself up on its elbows and stared at Panu. "For a smarty-pants weapons dealer, sometimes you have as much sense as a chef who cracks eggs with a hammer." The figurine shot Panu a look of disgust, then adjusted its lopsided conical hat. "And here I was, all this time thinking you were hustling to scrape together enough credits for a rescue mission!"
       "Rescue mission?"
       The tiny clown snapped its fingers. "Earth to Panu. Rana didn't go on a weapons buying trip to the Unruly Galaxy. She was kidnapped."
       "How do you know?"
       "Because I saw it happen!"
       Panu's eyes widened. "Did it happen on Kiuna? Who took her?" She grabbed the Humm-el figurine's tiny shoulders. "Tell me everything. Right now."
       The figurine tilted its head. "Weeeelll, maybe 'saw' isn't so much the right word to describe it as 'heard'. . .it was dark, and I was having what you might call some private time with the velvet painting of the saguaro cactus --"
       Panu held up a paw. "Stop." She continued through gritted teeth. "What did you hear when Rana was taken?"
       "It was during the stopover on Kiuna. You were off somewhere sulking after Rana yelled at you for losing those pulse mine thingies. There were three abductors. They spoke in a language that sounded like a sack of howling kittens being beaten with wet noodles. Oh!" The figurine's eyes widened. "I know they had cloaks on! Because when they roughed Rana up, at one point, she asked where they'd gotten their outfits because she'd been looking for the perfect evil black cloak for ages."
       Panu's eyes brightened and her lips tilted upwards. That sure sounded like Rana. Her brief smile turned into a scowl. "If you're lying-"
       "I'm not!" the tiny clown leaped up and crossed its hand over its chest. "Cross my heart and hope to die. Stick a thousand needles in my eye-"
       "Okay, okay. Calm down." Panu's brow furrowed. "Let's say I believe you. Black cloaks and the language you describe could apply to half the inhabitants of the Known Galaxy." Her expression darkened further. "And it's been almost eight cycles since Rana was taken on Kiuna Station. She could be anywhere in the galaxy by now. Beyond that even. Searching for her will take a lot more credits than we've got."
       The figurine gave Panu an annoyed look. "Are you the same Panu who outsmarted an entire swarm of Avvitsi, three big ol' Yrgians, and one Kryberian assassin? Because it feels like I'm talking to a different Panu, one who as much can-do attitude as a half-dead flingerflopper."
       Panu lunged for the figurine, which skittered across the navigational chassis to hide behind the saguaro cactus velvet painting. "Easy! Imagine what we can do if we work together! Why, with my shapeshifting power and this ship and your smarts--"
       "We could earn enough credits to upgrade the Tardy Traveler," Panu continued slowly, paw resting on the side of her face, "and hyper hop to our hearts' content around the Known Galaxy and beyond."
       The figurine peeked out from behind the painting. "We could find Rana."
       Panu folded her arms. "Why should I trust you?"
       The figurine gave Panu a somber look. "Because we both want the same thing, Rana back on this ship. Where she belongs."
       Panu's head cocked to the side. The figurine's statement had the ring of truth about it. But what if this is just another trick? The answer to that question was loud and clear: she didn't care. She'd do anything to find Rana, even partner with this marginally trustworthy creature. Besides, now she knew what she was dealing with, Panu was confident she could handle whatever sneaky business the Oraidd might throw her way.
       "Okay, we'll team up." Panu grasped the tiny clown's outstretched hand between her thumb and forefinger and gave it a firm shake. "But if you screw with me, Oraidd, I'll shove you inside a box and take you to Old Earth and bury you under a half-ton of radioactive rubble. I don't care how many credits it takes." Her lips curled back to reveal both sets of teeth. "Understand?"
       The Humm-el figurine smiled sweetly up at Panu. "I sense the start of a beautiful friendship."

       "Oh goody, it's there," Panu said as she confirmed the credit balance on her tablet. "All 100,000 credits." She pulled the Humm-el figurine from her carryall and placed it on the marble counter at Mr. Tolliver's Emporium of Galactic Bargains and Soft-Serve.
       The Kryberian assassin coiled a tentacle around the tiny clown. "The Sub-Committee on Total Galactic Domination will be pleased to have the device in its possession." She glanced at Panu. "Sorry about Lyell. If I'd known how eager you were to sell the device, I wouldn't have jumped straightaway to the whole stabby-stab, chokey-choke part of my job. No hard feelings?"
       "Nah." Panu waved her paw. "All part of doing business, right?" She tilted her ice cream cone and sucked out the premium stinky chestnut soft-serve dribbling from the cone's bottom onto her fingers. "Glad you walked away from it all with your eye intact."
       The assassin gestured to her bandaged forehead. "It was touch and go for a while, but the doctors say I'll be back to work full-time soon."
       Panu waggled the ice cream cone in the Kryberian's face. "Interest you in some soft-serve before you go? My treat."
       The assassin's gaze drifted from the cone to the melted ice cream pooling on the marble countertop. "Uh. . .thank you, but no." She stood up. "I must return to Kryberia with the device straight away."
       "No time like the present for total domination of the galaxy, I suppose."
       As the Kryberian slithered out the shop door, Panu turned her attention back to the tablet. Look at all those credits. Panu smiled and nibbled at the ice cream cone. Once they tracked Rana down, her mentor would be so impressed with Panu and the Humm-el figurine's teamwork and the upgrades to the Tardy Traveler. For the first time in many cycles, the thought of Rana's return didn't make Panu's horns tighten at all.