Vera Lippson was eleven years old and peeved. Peeved about herself.

She was sitting on a narrow wooden bench in a waiting room of the Coock City Spaceport security office and had her arms crossed before her in a sullen way. She ignored the two security officers standing to her left at the door, watching her warily, as well as she could. Besides that the room was empty – the information desk facing her was vacant, and there were no windows or holoscreens or anything worth her attention. On the other side of the closed door – the only door leading out of this room, hence guarded by these grim security officers – she could hear other security men going about their business of keeping law and order at the spaceport. That she ignored as well.

But when she heard a distant buzz, her face became even gloomier than before. The buzz increased, then changed its pitch and started to disappear. She knew what it meant. The buzz came from the engines of a starship. That starship which was supposed to take her away from this dull planet. Now it had left without her.

It was not very long before she could hear a male voice on the other side of the door. Despite the door between them Vera could clearly understand what they spoke: "... looking for my daughter, Vera Sofia Lippson. About that height, long dark hair, blue eyes."

Grey eyes, Vera corrected in thought with loathing. That bloke could not even get this detail right. Her mood dropped another two levels, and adding to her defiant pose she puckered her lips and looked gloomily at the door. Then she turned to the empty desk in front of her.

The officers on the other side seemed to make no heads or tails from that description. "I have nothing on her in the system. Could you state any more details?"

As she heard the words from the man on the other side of the door claiming to be her father, Vera was not sure whether to laugh or run berserk instantly. "Cocky, disrespectful and a bonafied pain in the ass."

"I see. Through this door, please."

The door slid open with a hiss. In came Igor Lippson, freelance mercenary, former transport captain and farm owner on this backwater planet Geshtachius Prime bursting with lush green meadows. Vera gave him but a short glimpse. He didn't look awfully happy. Big, with broad shoulders, short black hair, an edgy beardless face and a look Vera had encountered many times before on him, he even managed to impress the two security officers to both sides of the entrance. They took a small step back when he entered the room.

But she had nothing more in store for him than this short glimpse. She leaned back on her bench, staring at the empty desk in front of her. As the door closed hissingly, Igor stopped and looked grimly down at his daughter. Uncomfortable silence was building up between them.

Until Vera finally broke the silence. "I'm not talking to you," she hissed at Igor.

By crossing his own arms before his body Igor almost turned into a bigger, more muscular reflection of Vera. "All right," he said. "Then don't talk! Just come with me!"

"No." Vera defiantly shook her head. "I'd rather stay here."

She would have liked best to be aboard the starship on its way to planet Aquatica, a place a thousand times more interesting than this one. It drove her crazy that it hadn't worked out. It drove her even more nuts being on Geshtachius Prime in the first place – a planet on which the law was seemingly created to just keep children from doing anything. She did have the money for a ticket. But as soon as she had put her data into the booking computer in the spaceport main hall, she had triggered an alarm. Five minutes later she had been here, accompanied by these two security guys who wouldn't let her out of their sight.

Maybe she shouldn't have kicked the one's shin. Or maybe, just for that, she should have done so twice.

Igor took a few steps further into the room and rose to his full size in front of her. "Vera," he said insistently. "I'm serious: Come!"

In her mind Vera could only give it a dull smirk. Her dad was always serious about such things, but he wouldn't enforce it. She didn't care whether she would have to spend the night at the spaceport. But giving him the satisfaction of going with him now was out of the question. After all, he was to blame for all this. "I am not coming," she insisted and finally looked him straight in the eyes.

Only now she saw something in them that made her question whether she had gone too far this time. Igor Lippson kept a hold on his feelings as well as he could, but now she could clearly see how the anger simmered inside of him. She wasn't afraid of him – there was no reason for that – but maybe this time his anger would give him enough courage to do what he had never been able to. To make his daughter finally follow his orders.

Or at least to ground her for several months.

She looked at the two security officers. "This man wants to kidnap me. Help me! Please!" She put on her most pleading innocent face.

That didn't work on the officers. "Kid, let it go!" one of them replied. "It's time for you to go home."

Igor turned around to the officer. "Did she cause you any trouble?"

The officer shrugged lightly. "She kicked my partner's shin, and she did use some nasty vocabulary when we brought her here. But she is not the first kid that we had to deal with that behaved like her."

"You got any clue as to why she wanted to leave the planet?" Igor inquired. But the officer raised his hands defensively.

"No, Sir, we keep out of internal family matters. Better you talk to her."

Again Vera puckered her whole face when Igor reacted with puzzlement: "But we didn't even fight. I don't understand..." He ended his sentence in a sigh as he realized there was no way around it. Slowly he turned back to her. "So, what's the matter, Vera?"

"I'm not talking to you," Vera uttered gloomily.

"You said that already," Igor answered. "Is there a reason to that?"

There was. And Vera was sure of it: If her father ever effectively used this giant malformed sphere sitting on his neck, then he would understand it. Because it was his fault. All of it. Entirely. Starting with the fact that he had dumped her and her mother on the dullest, most boring planet ever on which you could do nothing but watch robots work the farm whilst he travelled the galaxy from one end to another, having adventures as a mercenary. Him being away so often and for such long times while she sat at home and felt like the ceiling of her room coming down to crush her. Or her falling up into the endless blue sky and drowning in it out of sheer solitude when she was on the fields, far away from anything resembling civilization. That he left her and her mother alone like they meant nothing to him, so he could enjoy his freedom and his life in the far corners of the universe without having to waste any more thoughts on them. But mostly because he was able to do all that, and she wasn't allowed to, no matter her ability. That of all planets this one had to have hundreds of laws protecting children that now had prevented Vera from following through with her plan. Just like her father had chosen this planet deliberately – to keep her prisoner for all eternity.

Of course she said nothing of it out loud but kept staring at the wall without even showing any reaction to further questions. Igor sighed again. "That's no use."

The two officers weren't ready to accept this. "She's your daughter, Mr. Lippson, and she cannot stay here."

"Surely you must have a prison cell somewhere to put her in." Igor glimpsed at Vera, but his daughter wasn't the least bit intimidated by this threat.

The officer put his hands akimbo. "Sir, it is against the law to imprison children who haven't committed any severe crimes." The other one nodded in agreement, though he brushed his shin a little.

Igor raised his shoulders helplessly. "So what now? Shall I just grab her and drag her out of here?"

"Why don't you try?" Vera hissed in his direction. She imagined what kind of scene she would make if he really tried. The loud screams for help she would utter, the attention she would gain and direct straight at the coarse thug obviously trying to abduct her. She even tried to calculate how far he would make it like this.

Deep in thoughts Igor brushed his beardless chin as similar thoughts crossed his mind. "I guess the law forbids me to put a gag on her, too?"

"Yes, Sir," the officer replied. "Besides, I don't think it would make the best of impressions."

"I figured that much." Igor went even deeper into his thoughts. Had it been other circumstances then Vera would have been quite amused about how clueless her father was right at this moment. But then his look came across the belt of the other officer, the one Vera had kicked. He frowned. "Does it work?" he asked, pointing with two fingers.

The officer looked down. "Well... sure, but..."

Igor needed no more. Nothing but a lightning-quick move, a skill that had saved his life in many far more dangerous situations during his mercenary career. The two officers had no time to react before he pulled the laser pistol out of one officer's holster, aimed it in the tiniest fraction of a second at Vera and pulled the trigger. The stun blast took immediate effect as it hit Vera in her stomach and made her collapse with a surprised gasp of air. Fortunately she had been leaning on her bench so far back that she wouldn't fall to the ground unconscious.

Another quick movement, and Igor turned the gun around in his hand, presenting its handle to the distraught officer. The other one had his hand on his own gun, but had not been vigilant enough to draw it. Igor smiled disarmingly.

"My speeder is waiting outside," he declared. "Is there a back door I could carry her out through?"

As Vera came back to her senses they had almost arrived at home. She was lying on the back bench of her family's speeder which Igor steered with focused movements over the plains. She put her hand on her stomach and groaned – the stun blast had felt like a fist getting rammed into her belly. Her suspicion grew – it seemed like she had gone too far this time, for sure.

Igor had noticed that she had woken up. He put the controls into automatic and turned around in the pilot's seat to look at her. But he said nothing. He just watched her attentively while she worked herself up into a seated position. "You shot me," she grumbled.

"I'm sorry," Igor replied and shook his head. "I would have bagged you, but since I had no bag..."

"I am still not talking to you," she insisted and put on a grim face.

With a shrug Igor turned back to the speeder controls. "You know, you don't have to. I know you better than you might think, Vera. I think I can tell what is bothering you."

That felt to Vera like a shameless exaggeration. "How would you know, being gone all the time?"

"I know." Was she hearing things, or was there real remorse in her father's voice? "That is exactly the problem, isn't it?"

Vera mumbled something unintelligible and kept staring out of the speeder's rear window. Though she tried to ignore him, she did pay half attention to what he said when he kept talking: "You believe I abandoned you on this planet because I don't want to be around you. But that is far from the truth. I know that mum and you are safe here. This planet is so peaceful and protected by its laws so I am sure nothing bad can happen to you while I'm gone. That's why we are here." He turned around to her once more. "I don't know whether you do realize that, Vera, but my job creates enemies. Real enemies, who are not satisfied with just not talking to me, like you. They would do anything, even really vile things, to hurt me. And they would do vile things to you and mum if they ever knew about you. I don't want this to happen."

"Then why do you keep doing this?" Vera finally asked. "If it is such a dangerous job and you make so many enemies, why don't you quit?"

"Because that is how I care for my family," Igor explained. "But to be honest, I was wondering that myself for a long time. And you know what? I've decided to change that."

Vera looked through the window again. She saw the farm she lived on beneath them. They approached it... flew over it... and kept going. Amazed she turned to the pilot's seat. "Where are we going?"

"Just a short detour," her father explained. "I have found new employment. And I would like to discuss a new idea with my boss. One that concerns you."

He didn't disclose any more. Not until he was sitting with her in the office of Hank Bodderias, head of the mercenary academy on Geshtachius Prime, discussing his idea with him and Vera. Bodderias, an elder, but very lively man paid great attention and seemed enthusiastic. Vera on the other hand who probably understood half of what the two grown-up men discussed traded bemused looks with them. Her name was mentioned several times, and some statements were made about her that she didn't entirely agree on. She only knew one thing: After that spaceport episode she was on thin ice with her father already. And whatever those two were cooking up in her presence, it could only be better than being grounded.

Or so she thought. But as soon as she left the office and returned to the farm, she was no longer just a little girl or a runaway looking for adventure. Now she was a mercenary. Technically.