Crew of Screaming flea:
Capt Perneft, cougar
Cheryl, Tigress
Uri, Bear (brown)
Rio, Ferret
Pachebel, Rabbit

Chapter 2.  Balance due


	Rio grinned mischieviously as she ran a finger up one of 
Pachebel's bare feet.  The rabbit yelled from within the walls of the 
ship, since he was laying down and half-inside the bowels of the 
Screaming Flea.

	"Hey!  Rio, knock it off!" he shouted out to her.  "I'll never get 
the air cooling systems working again if you keep tickling my feet 
like that."

	Rio snickered at him, but took her hand away as he asked.  She 
was dressed in a very loose pair of shorts, just like Pach.  She was 
also wearing a brilliant purple halter top, worn so tight it showed 
every curve and bump of her breasts.  Not that they were large.  
Ferrets were known for lots of things, (a couple of which were 
actually true) but large busts wasn't one of them.  

	They were both on the bottom floor of the Screaming Flea, 
which was itself on the desert world of Corinth.  They had arrived 
about 12 hours ago, delivering a load of frozen methane.  After 
awhile in the hot desert sun, the ship began to display some of it's 
"personality", as the captain prefered to call the various 
malfunctions.  The life support system was broken.  Oh, it was 
sufficient enough to heat the air while they were in deep space, but 
the cooling system was useless.  

	And naturally, they didn't discover it until they were on a 
concrete tarmac in the middle of a desert.

	"I'm getting hotter Pach." Rio said, fanning herself.  

	"Huh.  So what else is new?" Pachebel sarcastically replied, his 
voice muffled as it came through the panels and cablebundles.

	Rio stuck her tongue out at him, and reached down to tickle his 
enormous foot again.  Again, Pach yelled in protest.

	"Your never going to feel cool air again if you keep that up." he 
huffed, kicking his feet in a lame attempt to stop her taunting.

	"Some of us like things hot." she replied, taking her hand back 
and resuming her fanning. 

	Pach laughed out loud from inside the accessway.  "Yeah, I 
know.  I've read about what you did on Regas, before you joined the 
crew."

	Rio couldn't help but look surprised.  She stared at his bare 
feet, all that was still visible of the rabbit.  "Now how could you have 
read about that?" she said, unsure whether or not the rabbit was just 
taunting her.  "The only place that tidbit of information is written is 
within my diary."

	"Yep." he flatly replied.  "You shouldn't leave that thing laying 
around."

	"That was private information Pachebel!"

	"It was in the ship's computer."

	"In a locked directory, accessable only by myself!"

	"And also by the ship's computer master.  Namely, me."

	"It was also encrypted!"

	"Off the shelf program." the rabbit snickered back to her.  "Ho 
hum."

	"I ran it three times.  The secret key was 256 letters long!"

	"Well, I was bored."

	Rio shook her grey-black head.  "You read the whole thing?  
Even the part about the penguins?"

	Pach laughed again, his lapine voice reverberating through the 
ship's body.  "Yes, that part too.  And I'll tell you what, I may never 
have ice in my drinks again."

	"Well, I kinda wish we had kept some of the methane ice we 
brought to this blasted planet." she grumbled as she wiped the sweat 
off her muzzle.  "This place is way too hot.  Even at night.  I thought 
deserts got cold after dark."

	"Most of them do." he replied.  His voice was strained as he 
pulled hard on something inside the ship's body.  "This dustball of a 
world is the exception I guess.  Gimme a few minutes more, and I 
should have the air cooling systems back up."

	She smiled evilly, and grabbed one of his big toes with a hand. 

	"Too bad you're so busy.  I'd like to see what else you can get 
up."

	"Gods, woman." he complained.  "Don't you ever think of 
anything else?  Besides, you know that I've taken a vow of chastity.  
You know that I'm not interested in you.  So why do you keep 
pushing my buttons?"

	"Let's just say that I love a challenge." she snickered.  "And the 
idea of a rabbit losing interest in sex just because some vixen 
dumped him a few worlds away rubs me the wrong way."

	"Huh!  From what I've heard, there is no wrong way to rub 
you." he shot back.  "And I am going to find her again Rio.  I'm going 
to find her, someday."

	"You mean Figmo?" she asked, still teasing his toe.

	"Yes, Figmo.  I'm going to find her again.  That's why I am 
saving myself for her."

	She shook her head slowly, not that he could see her of course.  

	"You shouldn't be saving yourself for someone who dumped 
you Pach.  You're just setting yourself up for more heartbreak.  
Besides, what makes you think Figmo will want you back anyway?"

	Pach pulled his foot away from her.  "Call it a hunch." he 
grumbled.

	"You gamble a lot on a hunch." she said, looking sadly at the 
retreating foot.  "Also on the odds that you will ever see her again.  
It's a huge universe you know."

	"Yeah, I know." Pachebel agreed morosely.  "But if I don't have 
faith that I will ever see her again, then what's the point of even 
trying?  I have to believe in it Rio, or it will never come true.  If I 
don't, who will?"

	Rio couldn't help be feel a little bit envious.  She loved her 
adventurous thrill-seeking lifestyle.  Especially with this bunch, and 
on this ship.  It was very exciting, to say the least.  But sometimes, 
sometimes she wished she could know the sort of love and affection 
Pachebel had for Figmo.  To know the dedication and devotion of a 
male like him.

	That is, like he currently was.  As she understood it, Pach used 
to be quite the ladies man.  

	"Okay." he excitedly called out.  "I think I've got it!  Stand by 
for cool air."

	There was a snap somewhere inside where Pachebel was 
working.

	All the lights on the ship went out.

	Suddenly the cabin was plunged into darkness as every 
instrument and panel went black.  Only the green emergency lights 
along the floor still worked.

	"Funny." Rio chuckled as she looked around her.  "I never knew 
cool air would be so dark."

	Pachebel uttered a very rude comment, and the snap sound 
came again.

	The ship remained dark.

	"What happened to the lights?" Rio asked pleasantly.

	Pachebel didn't answer right away.  "Damn screwed up 
machine.  Why can't Cheryl be around to help me figure out her 
cock-eyed color code?"

	"It's not so cock-eyed." Cheryl remarked loudly as she walked 
up the ramp from the outside.  

	Both Rio and Pachebel jumped in surprise at the unexpected 
sound.  But where Rio was sitting crosslegged on the floor, Pach was 
laying down inside a small hole in the body of the ship.  The rabbit 
yelled in pain as he banged his head on something metallic.

	"Sorry gang." Cheryl glumly said as she put down a black bag 
on the floor.  Cheryl was dressed in a skintight suit which was 
completely black from top to bottom.  It was hard to see her in the 
dark.  If she hadn't removed her facemask, revealing her orange and 
black fur, she would have been nigh invisible.  But then, that was the 
point.

	"You been out sneaking into government complexes again 
Cheryl?" Rio asked the tigress, recovering from the shock of Cheryls 
entrance and climbing up into a chair.  She swiveled the plastic seat 
about to face the tigress.

	Cheryl unzipped her black body suit down the front.  "That's 
right.  Same as I do on every world this ship visits.  And what 
happened to the lights anyway?"

	The rabbit inside the panelling made some hard to understand 
remark.  It didn't sound very polite.

	Rio watched as Cheryl pulled the skin-tight black sneak-suit off 
her body.  Soon the tigress was standing in nothing but shorts and a 
tshirt.  She eyed the tiger's ample figure with just a bit of envy.

	"Did you find anything more about what happened to your 
parents?" the ferret asked.

	Cheryl shook her head dejectedly as she laid the black bodysuit 
down and picked up a dress that was lying there.  

	"No, not on this trip.  Seems this government isn't even 2 years 
old yet.  They didn't exist 5 years ago when my parents disappeared.  
So there is no way they could know anything about it."

	Rio nodded as the tigress began to pull her bright green dress 
over her head.  The green showed off Cheryl's orange and black 
striped fur well, even in this darkness.

	"Well, what about the previous government here on Corinth?  
Any files from them?"

	"No." the tigress sighed while settling down into a seat on the 
opposite wall from Rio.  "There are no files from the previous 
government, because there has been no government on the planet 
before this one.  Only a bunch of warlords and two-bit potentates.  
No wonder nobody wants to come here.  If there were a definition 
for "Backwater world", Corith would have to be it."

	"This place can't be that bad."

	Cheryl looked at her and grinned slyly.  "Would you believe 
that they treat every inch of sand like a communal toilet?"

	Rio was aghast.  "No!  You can't be serious!"

	The tigress nodded, still grinning.  "Oh yes, I am serious Rio.  
Whenever they want to go, they go.  Sometimes they bury it, 
sometimes they don't."

	The ferret began to look sick to her stomach.  

	"But anyway Rio, I don't think the Corinths had anything to do 
with my parent's disappearance."  Cheryl then walked over to the 
chair next to hers, and sat down, facing her and the pair of rabbit's 
feet sticking out from under the ferret.

	Rio stared sympathetically at Cheryl.  "Well, you are the best 
catburgler I have ever known.  You get into and out of places that 
even a breeze can't penetrate.  And one day, you will find out just 
what happened to them, and who made them disappear."

	Cheryl sighed sadly, but nodded back just the same.  "What I 
want to know most of all is why.  Why did my folks just vanish 
without a trace 5 years ago?  They were working on something they 
wouldn't talk about.  They wouldn't even tell me who they were 
working for, other than to say it was some off-world government.  I 
just want to know why they disappeared."

	Rio sat there staring at the tigress for several moments.  "You 
don't suppose they're still alive, do you?" she asked hopefully.

	"Ha!" a brusque deep voice from further in the ship called out.  
"No way can still be alive.  If gone 5 years, been dead 5 years.  And 
what is wrong with lights anyhow?  I was reading in my cabin..."

	"I'm going to bite the next crewman who bitchs about the 
double cursed lights!" Pachebel angrily shouted, still working on 
something deep inside the wall.

	Cheryl shot a dirty look at the brown bear now coming toward 
them.  

	"Nobody asked you for your opinion Uri." she grumbled.

	Uri put his hands in his pocket, and just stood there in his 
jumpsuit.  In the near-darkness, the giant brown bear looked quite 
ominous standing there.

	"No need to ask.  Opinion is free." the bear said.  Even among 
bears, Uri was a giant.  He could barely stand inside the ship, as his 
head grazed the ceiling of the ship.

	"And worth every penny!" Cheryl hissed.

	Uri hung his head, but whether in sympathy or to duck away 
from the roof only he knew.  "Apologies." he said to Cheryl.  "Sounded 
mean to you, and not meant it to be mean.  Was not thinking of 
tiger's feelings.  Sorry."

	Cheryl humphed, and crossed her arms angrily.  There was 
something about the bear she just didn't trust.  He was hiding 
something, she knew.  She could sense it.  He was keeping some dark 
secret hidden from all of them.  She just couldn't figure out what 
kind of secret.  She didn't know if he was a threat to the ship and 
crew, or just had a few skeletons in his closet.

	But until she knew, she wasn't going to trust Uri any farther 
than she could shoot him.

	"Hey Uri.  You were in your cabin reading huh?" Rio's musical 
voice chimed in, breaking the tension in the air.

	"Yes." 

	"All alone?"

	"Yes, of course."

	Rio snickered.  "Care for a bit of company in your cabin 
tonight?  All the lights are out, as you can plainly see.  Be a shame to 
waste a perfectly good evening doing nothing."

	"Thank god!" Pachebel said, his voice echoing throughout the 
inner bulkhead.  "Now maybe the oversexed little ferret will leave 
me alone, so I can work in peace."

	Uri just stood there, unmoving.  "Little ferret has lost her 
mind." he rumbled.  "Uri much too big a creature for her to take to 
bed."

	Rio extended her leg, and rubbed it against Uri's. 

	"I can probably teach you one or two things, big boy." she 
softly trilled, looking up into his face.  "I've been in space longer than 
you have."

	"And once or twice, she's actually been out of bed." Pachebel 
laughed.

	Rio kicked the rabbit squarely in the foot, and smiled to herself 
as he yelled out in pain once more.  

	Uri was shaking his head sadly.  "You are nice to offer.  But Rio 
not Uri's type.  Trust Uri.  You not enjoy evening with me."

	Rio was now really interested in Uri.  She couldn't imagine 
anyone not wanting to have sex.  For any reason.  It was what made 
the galaxy turn!  And here she was, onboard the Screaming Flea 
along with a celibate bunny, a cougar who was offlimits, and a bear 
who didn't want anything to do with her.  Intolerable!  How was she 
supposed to keep her sanity during long voyages, with no-one to 
share her quarters?

	"There is nothing you can do or show me that I haven't seen 
before Uri." the ferret teased.

	"And probably helped make a film about." the rabbit 
commented again.  

	Rio jumped out of her seat, dropped to the floor, and went 
inside the open panel Pachebel was working in.  She climbed in after 
him, crawling over his body inside the tight little space despite his 
protests.  

	"I'll show you a moving picture, you bunny you!" she grumbled. 

	"Hey!  Rio, stop it!"

	"I'm going to shut you up one way or another."

	"I told you, I'm celibate!  Get off of me!"

	"Some people just never learn..."

	"And put those pliers down!  I need them!"

	"Oh, I'll give them to you all right."

	"   gulp... "

	In the meantime Uri had turned around and walked back the 
way he came.  He bowed his head, not because he was ducking 
various beams and pipes, but because he was depressed.  Very 
depressed.  He wanted to be able to trust these people.  To tell them 
the truth.  He wanted to explain to them what he entered space to 
find.  

	He wanted to be able explain what it meant to be a bear.  To be 
larger than any other male around.  To be one of the strongest bears 
anywhere.  To be from a society that valued a man's strength more 
than anything else.  To be from a society which didn't value women 
at all.  Not even women who were stronger than all the other males 
in the country.  

	Not even a woman like Uri.

	Uri wiped a tear from her right eye, and hoped one day she 
would be able to find a place where she could be herself.  Someplace 
where she could finally drop the charade that she had been carrying 
since her youth.  Oneday, she decided.  Oneday, she would be able to 
hold her head up high, and take the tape off her breasts so she could 
finally be a woman, as nature intended her to be.

	Uri slowly plodded away, returning to her cabin.  As she heard 
Pachebels crys for help echoing throughout the ship's inner 
bulkhead, she decided that the time wasn't yet right.  She would 
need to pretend that she was a male for yet little while longer.

	Cheryl just watched Uri walk off, and wondered what it was he 
was so carefully hiding.  

	A beam from a handheld flashlight pierced the darkness of the 
ship as someone walked up the ramp.  Cheryl turned and looked 
down the ramp at the approaching light.

	"Is that you lover?" Cheryl asked the darkness.

	"Yes, stripes.  It's me." came a male cougars voice.  As he 
replied, Captain Perneft shone the flashlight on his face, identifying 
himself before coming aboard.

	Cheryl smiled brightly.  "Good to see you back so soon Cap.  We 
weren't expecting you back until dawn."

	He walked the remaining short distance up the ramp into the 
ship's body.  Perneft quickly put an arm around the lovely tiger, and 
hugged her tightly.  

	"Now why would I want to spend my time bickering with a 
client when I could be here holding you?"

	Cheryl gave him a quick kiss.  "Flatterer." she teased.  

	"Just calling them like I see them." he flatly replied, not 
emotion in his voice whatsever.  "And speaking of seeing, just what's 
wrong with the lights anyway?"

	An exhasperated sigh came from the wall.

	Perneft pointed the light toward the sound, and found two sets 
of legs sticking out from an access panel in the ships wall.  Both sets 
were easy to identify, intertwined or not.

	"Pach?  Rio?" the cougar puzzedly asked.  "What are you two 
doing in there?"

	There was a long pause before the rabbit spoke.  "Um, we are 
trying to get the lights back on."  His voice was followed by the sound 
of a ferret giggling.

	"I thought you were working on the cooling systems."

	"So did I."

	"And what is Rio doing in there with you?"

	Again, the long pause.  Broken by the occasional giggle.

	"I'm... helping." Rio finally answered.

	Perneft snorted, not believing a word of it.  "You'd learn a lot 
more if your face wasn't stuck to Pachebel's.  And for that matter, 
are you forgetting your vow Pach?  That doesn't look like any chaste 
activity to me."

	Both Rio and Pach laughed, their giggles echoing throughout the 
ship.  "Well, she chaste me into here.  And now I'm, well, sorta stuck 
between a rock and a hard place."

	"Ohhh." Rio breathed.  "I must be a rock then..."

	"Look, Rio.  I don't mind your kisses, but that is about as far as 
I'm gonna go with you."

	"Don't make me get out the pliers again."

	Captain Perneft shook his head in disbelief and handed the 
light to Cheryl.  She took the light with a grin.  Perneft then reached 
down, grabbed both of Rio's feet into his paws, and pulled.  Rio EEPed 
with surprise as she was bodily pulled out of the access panel.  

	"Okay Rio." the cougar huffed.  "You've teased your hare 
enough.  Let him be.  I need him to fix the lights and the cooling 
systems.  Not play muzzle wrestling with you."

	"Geez.  Anybody ever teach you to knock first?" Rio sourly 
grumbled as she sat on the floor, adjusting her top.  

	Captain Perneft just stood there, unmoving and silent. 

	Cheryl was the first to suspect something was amiss with the 
cougar.  "Is anything wrong?" she asked her lover.

	Perneft paused, then slowly nodded.  "Yes Cheryl.  There is 
something wrong.  And it affects all of us here on the Screaming 
Flea."

	Cheryl's brow furrowed at the tone in his voice.  "Oh oh." she 
growled softly.  "I don't like the sound of that."

	The cougar just stood in place, and looked from crewman to 
crewman.  

	"Well, as you know, I went out tonight to collect our fees for 
the delivery of 100 tons of methane ice.  To make a long story short, 
Ka'tell, the bigwig industrialist who hired us, is now stiffing us with 
the bill."

	Cheryl and Rio both were suddenly standing, loudly wondering 
just how the jackal could get away with such a breach of contract.  
Even Pachebel inside the walls was upset.  Perneft raised his arms to 
quiet them all down.

	"Hey!  Hey!  Yelling at me isn't going to get you anywhere!" he 
cried.

	"What the hell is that jackal up to?" Rio fumed.  "We brought 
him his damned ice!  What more does he want?  A little umbrella 
and a shotglass to go along with it?"

	Perneft nodded to her as he rapidly replied.  "Yes Rio.  I know 
all that.  But Ka'tell has managed to get his lawyers to tie the matter 
up in local court, saying that we MAY have contaminated the 
material and thus we should have to pay a fine.  But first, he must 
have a lab test the methane.  And that will take weeks to setup, if 
not longer.  In the meantime, we are stuck here at his beck and call."

	Cheryl bared her teeth.  "I knew there was something about 
him I didn't like." she complained.  

	"Yeah.  He's giving us the shaft alright.  We can leave anytime 
we want, but all we will then get is the 5000 credit bond he put up 
in advance."

	Rio slowly slouched down into her chair again, a look of concern 
plain on her muzzle.  "Captain, that bond just barely pays for the fuel 
to and from this dustmote of a world.  It won't pay for our salaries, 
our repairs, not even our landing fees!"

	The lights began to dimly turn on again.  A faint red glow filled 
the room as the lamps came up to about half power.

	Cheryl slunk down into her seat as well, eyeing her lover and 
captain as she slid into the shaped cushions.  "So, cap." she quietly 
mumbled.  "What are we going to do?"

	Then all the lights came on the rest of the way.  The cabin of 
the Screaming Flea was once again brightly lit from the overhead 
lights.  All the displays in the walls and consoles came alive again, 
showing countless displays of pressure, temperature, fuel 
consumption, and more. 

	Perneft grinned a toothy smile.  "I've got an idea."

	"Honest?" Rio asked inquisitively.

	Perneft shook his head, still grinning.  "Nope.  Not in the least."

	Rio grinned.  "Good!" she murred.  "Just making sure you 
weren't turning soft or anything."

	"Oh, no chance of that!" Perneft laughed.  "Our employer wants 
to play hardball.  So we will play hardball with him.  Only I don't 
think he knows what he is getting himself into."

	Pachebel crept out from the hole in the wall, feet first.  "This 
isn't going to be another episode like Taura, is it captain?  I really 
don't feel like being tied to a spit and roasted over an open fire 
again."

	"Complain, complain, complain." the cougar snickered.  "We got 
to you in plenty of time.  And besides Pach, you looked cute with 
curly fur.  But no, you aren't going to be in the thick of it this time.  
Only Cheryl, Rio, and myself."

	He caught Rio and Cheryl glancing at one another.  Their eyes 
seemed to both say that the captain was out of his mind.

	"Don't worry ladies.  I'm sure you will both enjoy yourselves a 
great deal.  After all, how often do you two get to go to formal 
dinners?"

	"Well, I almost became the main course once..." Pachebel 
grumbled, getting to his feet again.  "But it was hardly a formal 
dinner.  More like a military campaign."

	Cheryl hushed the rabbit, then turned to face Perneft once 
more.  "I'm dying to hear how a formal dinner is going to get us our 
money."

	"You still have that stealth-suit?"

	Cheryl nodded.  "It needs cleaned." she proclaimed.  "The 
charcoal lining inside needs rejuvinated, or I can be scented.  But 
that won't take but a few hours.  And other than that, it's perfectly 
servicable.  Why, what's your plan?"

	"Our employer, Ka'tell, has suggested that bringing my two 
lovely female crewmates along to the formal dinner he is hosting 
tomorrow night may loosen up his pursestrings.  So, I'm going to 
bring you two along with me to the party.  Just as he asked.

	"Only, I don't think the jackal really knows just how loose his 
pursestrings are about to become!"