XXXXXX

Wash, back on the ship, had strolled down to the engine room to see what Sanka was doing. And to get him to turn down his music. Opening the door to the engine room, Wash was blasted by loud Reggae music. He winced, and called out.

"Sanka!"

Sanka poked his head up from underneath the engine. "Oh! What is it, mon?"

Wash rolled his eyes at the brightly-dressed man. "Cap'n wants us to keep the engines running. Could you keep 'em warmed up?"

Sanka laughed. "Can a ship fly?" He got up from the floor and reached over to turn the stereo off. The music instantly died, saving Wash's head from a massive migraine. Sanka wiped his hands on a towel.

"You know, back on Earth-that-was, my great-great-ect. grandfathers only had things called "cars" to get around on. In fact, my family had a car called a "Beetle Bug". It was the type of car back then." Sanka smiled, remembering his family history. "And we didn't have to warm up no engines back then. It was just like a mule, you could go whenever you wanted! And our "Beetle Bug" was painted all nice and pretty like the colors I have in the engine room." He pointed to the brightly colored walls.

Wash nodded. "I'm very glad you told me. Now, warm up the engines, okay?"

Sanka waved his hand in acknowledgement as Wash turned to leave.

XXXXXX

Kane watched as Jade dissappeared into the smoke filled hatch. All stayed quiet and he did not hear anything over the microtransmitter in his ear to cause him alarm. For now, all he could do was sit tight.

However, while he waited he thought he might as well get some more of the crew into the act.

Speaking as quietly as he could into the handset and still be heard, Kane said, "Wash, I need you to get onto the Cortex and find out what you can a ship registered under the name "Aces & Eights." I want all the usual stuff on it that you can give me in two sentences. She looks a little more luxurious that Odyssey and probably twice our mass--maybe 6000 to 7000 tons."

Kane called off the ship regist