Mitzner had little trouble catching up, and the three decided to head to Sar's nearby apartment. It was conveniently located in the vicinity of several casinos.

"I've never seen anything like that in my life," exclaimed Sar once they were safely inside "You saved our lives back there. I wouldn't normally do this but after what you've done I'm going to cut you in on my winnings. How does 10, no 15... no, no 10. 10% sound? You earned it."

"You can keep your money," said Mitzner "And I'll consider the debt paid if you can get us access to an ansible or something similar."

"Who are you two, really?" asked Sar "You're those Huxley Foundation agents from the news aren't you? The ones who took down the security perimeter."

"Probably," said McAfree "Unless there are other Huxley Foundation agents we don't know about doing surpringly similar stuff to us."

"I'm Lieutenant Commander Mitzner," said Mitzner "And this is McAfree. She's just a civilian."

"Graduate student," said McAfree.

"Well you can count me out then," said Sar "I appreciate the help but I'm not going to aid terrorists."

"We're not terrorists," said Mitzner "Our shuttle was shot down by your people. We're just trying to get into contact with our mothership so we can get back home. We don't want to hurt or threaten anyone."

"We come in peace," offered McAfree.

"Mostly," corrected Mitzner, remembering her recent fight.

"You say you just need an ansible, right? To contact your people?" Sar's eyes shone "And you'll forfeit your share of the winnings if I can get you one? I think I may be able to arrange something, then. My brother-in-law works as a starship mechanic at the second ward starport. The star ferries have ansibles, I think, so they probably have some spare ones over there right?"

"If you can get me five minutes alone in a starship hangar," said McAfree "I could cobble something together."

"I want you to give me your word though," said Sar "That you're not going to commit any acts of terrorism against the people of New Marduk."

"I promise," said Mitzner.

"Shake on it," said Sar, offering his hand.

Mitzner took it. He forced McAfree to shake hands too.

* * *

The bribe that Sar's brother-in-law required to grant access to his work space turned out to amount to 5% of Sar's total winnings, still leaving his with a profit of 5% for helping Mitzner. While he felt this was worth the risk he was starting to wish he had never made the offer to her in the first place. After all, it wasn't like he had asked her to save him or anything. He had been the one who won the money.

McAfree jury-rigged an auxiliary power core intended for a secondary ship's computer up to an ansible unit. The result was bulky and inelegant, but functional. That was all they needed.

"You do realize," said McAfree, after she had presented her finished product "That they're going to trace the source of this thing seconds after we activate it right?"

"Well let's get away from this place, then," said Mitzner "We don't want Sar's relative getting implicated. Sar you might want to leave too."

But Mitzner was talking to no one. Sar was long gone.

* * *

The two women dragged their strange, conspicuous contraption away from the starport and into a nearby park with Earth-type trees and other plants. That would give them some cover, at the very least.

McAfree booted up the ansible and Mitzner took the controls, dialing the Armstrong's priority ansible frequency.

"This is Lieutenant Commander Mitzner to Starship Armstrong. Starship Armstrong, do you read us?"