Jansen Locherbie marched through the lushly carpeted halls of the Parliament building. Of average height and middle age, he was just starting to get a little softness around his abdomen from the lack of activity being in Parliament afforded him. Otherwise, he was a powerfully built character, muscles bulging beneath his well-tailored suit. He could have been mistaken for a high-end bouncer or security guard rather than a planetary bureaucrat. In earlier times, that would not have been wrong. Now he stormed down the hall, eyes flickering beneath his black hair, and his mouth, framed by a neat goatee, curled down in a frown. The endless corridors of the building were lined with equally endless numbers of doors. Each led to the office of a representative from the myriad worlds in the Alliance. Locherbie was looking for one in particular. He stopped in front of the door when he found it. Hon. Representative Soong Chu-yu - Sihnon, the placard on it displayed. He swung it open. He bypassed the secretary who bolted from her seat, trying in vain to stop him, and made directly for the inner chamber. He threw open the door without knocking. Soong Chu-yu’s olive-skinned face looked up, took him in, and returned to the tablet he was writing on.

“M hao yi si, xian xian,” the secretary tried to apologize.

“Mei wen ti. Jin lai,” Chu-yu said. She nodded, with an apprehensive glance over Locherbie, and shut the door behind her. “Jansen. No hearings today?” Chu-yu greeted without looking up.

“Why didn’t you tell me that Serenity was captured today?” Locherbie demanded. Chu-yu raised his head deliberately slow, resting his stylus on the tablet. His dark eyes flicked distastefully over the other man, though his expression remained neutral.

“That information is not ready for public release yet. We have not accounted for all of the wanted who were on board, and we did not want to alert those still at large.”

“But you have most of the crew in custody?”

“Yes.”

“I want to speak to them.” Chu-yu smil