Carth's magical adventure, ROUND TWO, MOTHERFUCKERS!

[Anastasia]

"......t........at......ra.t.........RAT!"

As if emerging from a deep fog, your mind is thrust towards the waking world once again, Tir shaking your shoulder. "Man, wake up. It's been nearly twelve hours," he grunts, yawning himself.

[Carthrat]

"Are we there yet?" asks Carthrat, dragging herself out of bed.

[Anastasia]

Tir ignores that, going to lay on a bed himself once you're getting going. "It's going to be awhile, Rat. The nearest system that's even worth looking at is Paxis 4, and that's a good two weeks.

Oh, and more good news," Tir grunts, annoyed. "Guess what? We're phoning back to the mothership as we speak. They built a tracker into the shuttle - probably just in this case, if someone had the balls to steal their ship."

[Carthrat]

"Joy," replies Carthrat, flatly. "Where's the nearest sun?"

[Anastasia]

"There's a red giant about three days away, but it's a day off course," he answers, shifting to get comfortable. "Oh, and Rat. Go take a shower, you need one," he comments idly. "The bathroom has personal hygience supplies, at least. Thank God for THAT one."

[Carthrat]

"You can't get the tracker off? finishes Carthrat, not responding to Tir's jibe.

[Anastasia]

"It's pretty good and intergrated," he shrugs helplessly. "If I were at a starport and had the right people doing it, we could get rid of it. But by ourselves? It ain't happening, unless you have a miracle handy."

[Carthrat]

"Huh. That's me. The miracle man," replies Carthrat, faintly. "Always coming out on top, against all the odds. A miracle every day.

Hey. Tir. Wanna do something suicidal?"

[Anastasia]

Tir laughs a bit. "Sure, Rat. What's up?"

[Carthrat]

"We're at warp speed right now," says Carthrat, sounding depressed. "Their tracker can't have limitless range. They'll have to stay on our tail to really keep a lock on it, won't they?

So they must have something permenantly following our course, huh. Probably at least one of those capital ships, or maybe another bunch of shuttles.

Am I right so far? I can't remember anything about ships. Yuki was the one who did all the flying. I just fixed the things and shouted at crewmembers."

[Anastasia]

Tir is quiet a moment. "Yeah, more or less," he says, the humor gone from his voice now.

[Carthrat]

"We can change our course to take us to the red dwarf," continues Carthrat, dreamily. "We'll drop out of warp, fly within metres of the heat-kill-zone of the star, then go back into warp.

Anyone chasing us won't be able to compensate. They'll all die."

[Anastasia]

This gets Tir to sit up, sighing. "Rat, are you out of your mind? Sure, we could do it, and maybe even succeed. But, on the other hand, we'll more likely get burned into cinders."

[Carthrat]

"I lost my mind on Earth. There's no use for it out here," replies Carthrat, glancing out the window to the endless expanse of stars.

[Anastasia]

*Snort*

"Don't  bullshit me, Carthrat," he says, unamused. "Take it from me - this never helps. In the end, it just gets you into deeper shit."