"Ahoy!"

It had been relatively peaceful around the Cosho Cluster lately. The Wench and her Hench had left for parts unknown, and this in itself seemed to ease the unease that had become so omnipresent that nobody noticed it anymore. Like white noise that stops suddenly, they did notice its absence, but nobody dared speak that.

It being that point in the system's orbit when most of the training outposts were too close to a sun for comfort, the populated area was awash with novice pilots showing off their shiny new ships. Thinking themselves to be irresistible forces, many discovered, if only for an instant, what happens when they fly into unmovable objects. As always, the debris was cleaned up before all but the most observant even noticed.

There was a bit of trouble with a rogue slave who seemed to have exposed his eyes to one supernova too many, but the Skipper made short work of him and he scurried back to his obscurity, venturing out once in a while to set off the odd solar flare, but otherwise both gone and forgotten.

The Captain took advantage of the relative calm and current swimwear trends to invite a group of passengers to join him around the piano for an old favourite of his. He was just about to go into the second chorus when he heard the familiar voice of the Skipper shout "Ahoy! What evil goes there?" He knew this could not be good...