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"As soon as I found out that you were alive I contacted the Department of the Navy and let them know what had happened. Your identity is yours to take up again."
    "And the loose ends here in Hobson's?"
    Ann giggled. "Well, it seems that a little old lady named Harriet Fairmont broke the bank at the Flaming ‘O’ Lounge in a rather spectacular fashion just a few days ago. The 'bank' didn't want to pay up, but she made such a fuss about it that the planetary authorities were brought in to sort it all out. For some reason they thought her son might be upset if they didn't." Ann smiled impishly. "They were terribly shocked to find that not only had Missus Fairmont beaten the games of chance, but those games had been rigged against her and she'd beaten them anyway. Shocking. Missus Fairmont was awarded the entire facility, and the owners were imprisoned on interstellar fraud charges."
    "And what is dear Missus Fairmont going to do with a resort satellite?" Sterling asked innocently.
    "Why, she is going to run it, of course. As a religious retreat." She paused and slapped Sterling on the back several times until he'd cleared his lungs of the bourbon he'd just inhaled.
    "You did that on purpose," he wheezed.
    "Of course. Now you're forgiven for almost getting yourself killed again." She smiled evilly and snuggled into his arm. "Mom's not really going to turn it into a religious retreat. That'd cost way too much to maintain. She's having the games repaired and certified, the girls vetted by a real doctor, and some of the more- esoteric -of the entertainments removed. Then she's reopening as the Silver City Casino and Resort. She likes the name Silver, by the way."
    Sterling chuckled. "I just might keep it this time. Sterling Silver is a really distinctive name."
    "And Lloyds of New London will be paying for the Jolly Jane soon. The records here in Hobson's indicate that the insurance goes to 'Whoever of the crew survives, or the Sisters of Stellar Peace if she should be lost with all hands.' The three of you will get equal shares, as well as splitting the ship's account."
    Sterling shook his head slowly. "I wonder what Denise and Olaf are planning?" he asked softly. "You returned my credit chip, and with it and the rest I think I can afford a small cargo ship."
    "With thirty million credits you could afford a not-so-small ship, Sterling, even without the rest. What would you name it, though?"
    Sterling grinned at her. "How about the Admiral Ann's Revenge ?" he asked with a wide smile, and then ducked as she raised a fist in not-so-mock threat.
    "And your friends?" she asked as she tilted her head to the side.
    "I have my old captain's certificate from when I commanded the Bryn Mawr. I'd still need a crew, and I owe Denise my life. Olaf, too, I guess. A lot will depend on what size crew the ship requires."
    Ann looked up into his face. "And us?" There was a note of pleading in her voice that he'd never heard before.
    "I could use a good First Mate-oof!" Sterling ducked away from the second blow, but he and Ann were both laughing. "Okay, okay, you be the captain and I'll be first mate!"
    * * *
    In a tall residential tower in New Erin's city of Galway, a man threw a 'Pad across the room as he shouted, "Bloody hell!"
    "What happened?" a woman asked in a mild tone from the far side of the room. She was knitting, an archaic yet remarkably soothing pastime in this modern era, and didn't look up. He was always blowing up about something.
    "We've lost the Flaming 'O' . The whole bloody thing!"
    "Destroyed, or something else?" the woman asked, still not stopping her knitting.
    He gave her a harsh bark of laughter. "Something else. A woman came in and started winning. Winning big. She broke the bloody bank. Then that fool Pahna Mah tried to brush her off and not pay. She screamed bloody murder about it and involved the authorities."
    "Our people in the system government should have been able to deal with it," she answered as she finally put