Tanj's Tale:  The Start of Vengeance

By Kittiara


 


Stardate 2298.00

Tanj knelt beneath the station manager's desk.  He was talking on the vidphone, and from the waist up, looked very proper; however, from the waist down, beneath the desk, he was bare.  Tanj knelt between his feet, like a good slave, his limp cock held in her mouth.  This was a favorite pastime of his.  He'd conduct a normal day's business... most of the time.  But when Tanj's tongue got him hard, the Weasel would take a break until she'd sucked him off.  It was her job to keep his cock in her mouth, holding him there, until he got hard again, and she could bring him to another orgasm.  Luckily, his work day seemed short, and she was only on her knees in that situation for a few hours, four at the most.  Sometimes however, it was preferable to the other 'pet activities' the station manager liked to indulge in....  Still, she wished he'd put a pad down there for her to kneel on.......

Tanj had been doing this for almost six weeks now.  The Lion, in his guise as the head of an asteroid mining concern doing business with the dominant trading station in orbit around Elysium, had presented her to the Station manager as a "gift", a "small token of his esteem".  It had been a very effective bribe, easing the access of the Lion's company to the station and the markets beyond.  Of course, the station manager had no way of knowing, not the least suspicion, that the mining company was a cover for a band of pirates, small, but growing in "influence"..... Even if he'd been aware of that, he might not have cared.  Many illegal things happened in the Elysium system, and even more immoral things.....

Tanj had been delivered in a box wrapped with a ribbon; a comparatively tiny box.  The Cheetah morph was curled up, bent double, wrapped in translucent stretchy stuff, impossibly squeezed and contorted into a ball.  All that was recognizable, not hidden by the wrap, was her muzzle, and at the other end, her pussy.  Her legs were bent up and secured not to her chest, but spread, her knees actually on either side of her breasts by her shoulders, and this so stretched her ass apart that her tight little anus was also exposed to view.  The rest of her was a mass of slightly opaque plastic wrap, tightly compressing her.  While she'd been bound in this fashion only shortly before being carried from the Lion's ship into the station, the Station Manager, having opened the box, seemed quite content to leave her in that predicament, as if on display, not only as he concluded his business with the Lion, but through the course of several more appointments.  Finally the business day seemed to be done, and Tanj found that her business day started at that point.  First the Station Manager, leaving her bound, fucked her hard in her pussy; having emptied himself there, he came around and presented his limp cock to be cleaned by Tanj's mouth.  It wasn't until she'd not only licked him clean, but licked him to another orgasm that he slowly started unwrapping her.

Tanj spent that first night, chained to the foot of his bed, tied tightly in a hog-tie.  Her jaws were spread wide by a ring gag, and before he retired for the night, the station manager kneeled by her head and drove his cock into her mouth; however, as he orgasmed, he pulled back, to spray his seed over Tanj's head.  Chuckling, he climbed over her into bed, leaving his cum to dry on her fur.  The following morning he retied Tanj with her wrists tied between her ankles, face down on the floor, ass high in the air; he then proceeded to crouch above her and fuck her in the ass, tugging on her tail as he did so.  He then left her tied like that while he took a shower.  Tanj thought this was going to be a long assignment..........  Finally he released her and led her to the shower stall.  Locking a chain from her collar to a ring in the wall of the shower, he closed the door behind her and locked that too.  "You've got half an hour to clean yourself up, and wash your hair.  I'll be back to let you out then".  And with that, he left the room, and the water started.  Tanj yelped at the cold water, and frantically fiddled with the knobs, only to find that ice cold water was all she could get!  She felt like she was blue with the cold, shivering violently, when the Weasel finally came to collect her.  Still dripping, she was led through the corridors to the Station's business offices, as the Weasel started his daily routine.

Tanj stood stiffly in the Station Manager's office, balanced on tiptoes in a weird contraption.  A rod extended from the floor, straight up, between her legs, its tip about 8" into her sex.  About mid-way up this rod, another branched off, and came up in front of her to form a Tee.  At each end of the tee was a little electrical switch; from each of the switches a thin gold chain ran to Tanj's nipple rings.  As long as she leaned back, pulling on the chains, the switches remained open, but if she released the tension, even just a little bit, electric current would flow from the rod in her pussy to the chains connected to her nipples!  Since she'd been standing there, she'd gotten three such jolts, and although her back was starting to ache from the constant leaning back, and her nipples were quite sore, she was determined not to get another jolt.  As she stood there, muscles trembling, she felt the slightest of touches around the edges of her mind.   <Tanj?  Are you there?  Can you hear me?>  "Oh, Lord", she thought, "its Mark"

After the little incident where she and Mark had marooned themselves in a crippled Raider vessel, where Mark had somehow delivered a mysterious warning to Tanj, probably saving her life, the Lion had been quietly prodding, seeking to determine how Tanj had been warned.  Mark had finally admitted the possibility that he might have some telepathic ability, and that he might just have some sort of "special link" with Tanj.....  Of course, the Lion locked onto this like a homing missile, and insisted that they conduct tests; one of the tests had been a double blind where neither Mark nor Tanj knew they were being tested until _after_ Mark had released Tanj from a supposedly malfunctioning airlock.  The Lion just grinned as they both raged at him; "worked, didn't it?  Now we know, and I think that little talent will be _very_ useful...."

Tanj concentrated, doing her best to block out her current physical situation.... <Mark..... Yes, I can hear you......  Listen, there's a convoy going out of here tomorrow, headed for Taurus.  The Captain of the convoy escort was in the Weasel's office yesterday, and I heard everything they discussed.  Six cargo ships, escorted by a destroyer and a wing of six fighters.  The weak point is that one cargo ship has particularly slow acceleration and they'll all have to hang back to stay with it.>  Tanj paused for a moment, and "heard" Mark; <Got it; I'll pass it on; anything else?>  Tanj responded; "<Yes, they're having power management problems and will have to take one of the three reactors off line next week.  They've decided to maintain power to shields and weapons, and one of the things they'll be cutting back on will be the long range sensors.  To compensate they'll be running more patrols>  Tanj could feel little tendrils probing her mind when she finished; she could almost feel Mark's concern for her situation, as if for a moment he was looking out of her eyes.....  Ridiculous, she told herself; no one's that good a Telepath......  <Is your situation stable?> Mark sent.  <Yes, its a bit hard, but I'm "safe"  I don't believe they suspect a thing.  The operation at Teldor did raise suspicions of a leak somewhere, but they're concentrating on watching for transmissions from the station.>  <OK, I've got to go, we've picked up the spare parts we ordered, and they want us to clear the docking port.  Security does seem tighter here these days.  Take care!>  And with that he was gone.  A few seconds contact every week or so.  Still, she was doing her part.  Relaxing a little, glad that Mark hadn't asked how she was being treated, Tanj relaxed, and then YELPED as the current once again surged through her, making her body jerk back reflexively.  She panted, closed her eyes, and moaned, resolving once again NOT to let that happen, no matter how long he made her stand here.

Mark jerked upright in his acceleration couch; he could almost feel the current flow, feel Tanj's sore muscles, and pained.... anatomy.  He turned to look out the viewport at the receding station and just shook his head....

Tanj tried to ignore the pain.  She was balanced on the very tips of her toes, straining to touch the floor, to relieve the pressure on her crotch.  The Weasel had fastened her into a strange device; it consisted of a pole mounted in the floor, with wide metal cuffs to go around her ankles.  These were loose enough that she could rise or fall on her toes, but tight enough that she could not slide her feet out of them.  At the top of the pole was a crescent moon shape, made of metal; this passed from in front of Tanj, between her legs, to behind her, almost perfectly matching the shape of her body.  The Weasel had stepped on a small pedal, slowly raising the crescent until it pressed painfully into Tanj's crotch, part of the metal actually spreading her sex, until she strained on tiptoes to relieve the pressure.  Leaving her there to mewl into her gag, he went to his desk, to start the day's work, grinning up at her occasionally.  It had seemed like an eternity to Tanj, but probably wasn't more than an hour when the Weasel's comm chimed and he answered it.  Again, Tanj couldn't hear or see whoever was on the other end of the link but as the Weasel talked it became apparent that someone had completely drained the Weasel's personal financial accounts.  This didn't surprise Tanj, as she had overheard the Weasel talking to his bankers and investment councilors, and had passed the account numbers and passwords on, via her contacts with Mark.  The Weasel broke the connection by slamming his fist down on the commconsole, and rose from behind his desk; as he headed towards the door, however, he stopped and turned to stalk over to Tanj.  He looked at her closely for a moment as if accusing her of causing this disaster.  Then he shook his head as if dismissing the notion.  Still, before he stormed out, he slammed his foot down on the pedal, raising the crescent another half inch, leaving Tanj's toes barely touching the floor.  Later, Tanj found out that not only had the Weasel's personal funds disappeared, but that all the station accounts had been scrambled.  It would take them a long time to straighten everything out, and in the meantime, the Weasel's superiors were MOST displeased.

"What do you mean, the convoy was taken by pirates!"  The snarling face of the head of Elysium planetary security, a bear morph, looked out of the viewscreen.  The Weasel was standing behind his desk (fully dressed for once), and while Tanj was out of range of the vid pickup, if she turned her head as far as possible, she could just view the situation from the corner of her eye.  Today, the Weasel had suspended her upside down from the ceiling, ropes from her ankle cuffs to widely spread pulleys.  Her arms were encased in a binder behind her, the ring just beyond her fingertips pulled harshly down, the rope looping through a ring in the floor to be tied off to the end of her hair.  Of course, a large plug gag filled her mouth, this being no time to have the mewlings of a distressed slave detected by the audio pickup.  A rather heavy metal dildo had been placed in her pussy, and she struggled to control her muscles, to prevent it from being pulled by gravity far enough into her to hurt her.  The Bear snarled and screamed and yelled at the Weasel, calling him an incompetent, demanding to know how the pirates had found out about the convoy, demanding to know how they knew that the cargo ships were particularly slow.  It seemed the pirates had staged a small raid against the screening forces, and then fled, as if realizing that they'd bitten off more than they could chew.  Seeking glory, the defenders had chased the pirates, and run square into an ambush; while thus occupied, the main Pirate force had overwhelmed the defenses of the cargo ships, and boarded them.  The convoy was a total loss, taken by forces that would have been vastly inferior in a head to head battle, a classic example of "divide and conquer".  The Weasel was insisting that no transmissions had been made from the station and that all visitors to the station had been watched from the moment they arrived to the moment they left, and that no one, NO ONE had passed them any information!  The Bear demanded that the Weasel investigate his own staff as the leak had to be coming from SOMEWHERE!

It was about three days later....  Tanj was bound in a frame, spread eagled, an inflatable gag filling her mouth, stretching it painfully wide.  Nearby a small wheel rotated; attached to its edge was an enema bag, and as the wheel turned, the bag rose and fell.  As it rose and fell, the liquid within surged through the connecting tube, alternately filling and purging Tanj's backside.  While this was uncomfortable, what made it really devilish was that as her back passage was filled, it compressed her insides, making the effects of the rather large vibrator buried in her twat felt that much more.  The combined effects were slowly driving Tanj mad, and she mewled softly into her gag.  The Station manager had departed a little while ago, and Tanj jerked in her bonds as the door opened and he came in leading another slave by the leash.  Tanj's eyes widened as she beheld a male Cheetah, perhaps just a little taller than her.  He had a hood over his head, his paws bound behind his back.  The leash was attached to a small ring at the opening of his sheath, secured with a little lock.  The station manager pulled him over by Tanj and deflated her gag.  Shoving the handle of the leash between her teeth he grinned "here, hold your new playmate.  What do you think?  A matched pair?  Just think of the interesting Tableaus we'll be able to stage now!"  And with that he went behind his desk, to sit down.  They were ignored for about the next hour as the Station manager tried to clear out the day's crisis, but after a bit he turned to them; "now, what can we do........"

Tanj sighed with relief as the Weasel had the male Cheetah release her from her confinement.  For a moment, just a moment, she was tempted, being unbound, to attack the Weasel, but then she thought of her mission and swallowed that, and kneeled submissively before him.  The Weasel decided that to initiate Tanj's new "playmate" that they'd form a threesome.  He had the Male lie on his back, with Tanj on top, the Male's cock nicely filling Tanj's pussy.  The Weasel then knelt between their spread legs and proceeded to fuck Tanj in her ass, a favorite activity of his.  Tanj mmmmmed and rocked back and forth a little, thrusting back against their cocks; this sort of thing she'd been well prepared for by the academy, and aside from the Weasel's hard thrusts, she rather enjoyed it.  However, it wouldn't do to let the Weasel know that, and she made a point of gasping and mewling.  She did find some time, however, to use her vaginal muscles to stroke the male Cheetah's cock, milking him, teasing him, and by the look on his face, she was definitely having the desired effect.  As he pumped his cock into her ass, the Weasel instructed them both not to cum until he told them they could.  Of course, he was under no such restraint and it wasn't long before he pumped his load into Tanj's ass.  Pulling free, he told them to continue, but that they dare not cum, as he crawled around, to present his cock to Tanj's muzzle for cleaning.  Now this was a task she really hated, but performed anyways, despite the terrible temptation to emasculate him with one quick clench of her jaws......  When she'd cleaned him to his satisfaction, the Weasel rose, and fished a vibrating butt plug from the toy chest, and inserted it rather roughly in Tanj's ass.  She moaned as he turned on the vibrator, and with a slap on her ass, walked off to sit in an easy chair, to slowly sip a drink as the two Cheetahs continued to fuck, trying hard not to yield to temptation, and cum.  He finally relented after what seemed an eternity, and as the male shot his load into her, Tanj writhed in the clutches of a massive climax.  She would have loved to have just laid there, cuddling, but that wasn't to be.  The Weasel bade them rise, and then told Tanj to lick her partner clean.  Tanj, however, was left dripping, the fur of her thighs damp and matted.  Leashed to each other, they were led to the Weasel's quarters where he spent an hour intricately tying them muzzle to crotch at the foot of his bed.  He was just finishing when the commlink chimed.  Tanj heard him answer it; while she couldn't make out what the party on the other end said, the Weasel screamed "THEY WHAT?  NO!"  With a snarl, he broke the connection and dashed out the door, leaving the two Cheetahs to themselves.

Tanj grinned, and gave the male a long sloooooow lick, and was rewarded with a soft moan; "Heya, kiddo, welcome to Hell.  I'm Tanj.  He purrrrred and returned the lick; "sure you are, I'm Hinoki.  Pleased to meet you!  Where ya from?"  Tanj nibbled just a little, and was rewarded with just a touch of pink as his cock started to emerge from his sheath.  Tanj noticed that not only was he pierced at the opening of his sheath, but that he had a matching ring in the head of his cock, the ring passing into the bottom portion of the slit in the end, emerging from its underside, something called a "Prince Albert"; "have to ask him about that later" she thought.  "Oh, I'm from no where in particular.  I was an engineer on a tramp freighter when I got shangheid into the Academy on Elysium.  Hinoki nodded; "I got sold into this life over on Aquarius; defaulted on a college loan.  BIG mistake!   They put me through the Performa Kennels, and that was a weird experience!  Got sold to Tasvarka, of the Tasvarka banking consortium.  Then he sold me to your master here.  I think I'm just as glad; I was really getting fed up  with him buggering me all the time...."  Tanj just laughed; "don't know if this'll be any better.  This guy likes to tie you up in strange positions, and unusual situations and leave you on display, like a piece of perverse art.  AND he's got a thing for anal sex."  Tanj prrrrrred and licked softly at his growing cock, eliciting some very nice moans, and some even nicer licks in return.  They talked and teased for several hours until the Weasel returned.  Something had obviously gone wrong, as he ignored them completely, to change into a more formal uniform, before heading out again.  A while later, the station rang as something large docked.

The Weasel was gone all night, and in that time, Tanj managed to coat her muzzle and the inside of her throat rather nicely with Hinoki's cum, and he in turn, managed to coat his own muzzle, and chest, as well as the inside of Tanj's thighs with her own juices....  When the Weasel did finally return, he was in a foul temper, and the fact that his two slaves had been having fun threw him into a frenzy!  "Who told either of you that you could cum?" he hissed.  In an instant, both were gagged, their mouths filled with inflatable gags pumped way beyond where they should have been.  The Weasel then retied each of them, standing several feet apart, to rings in the ceiling; strain as they might, they couldn't touch each other.  Returning with a double pawfull of weights, the Weasel proceeded to hang the little devils from the rings in Tanj's nipples and labia.  Turning to Hinoki, he produced a cone of leather, with a hole at the tip, and snaps down one side.  Unsnapping the seam, he worked the cone around Hinoki's balls, the narrow circle at the top of the cone between his sack and his body.  Snapping the seam closed, he then proceeded to hang weights around the lower edge of the cone, the weight tugging at Hinoki's balls.  Growling, he then proceeded to select a rather nasty looking Cat 'O Nine Tails, and wielding it wickedly, proceeded to make all the weights dance, alternating strokes between Tanj, and Hinoki.  After what seemed an eternity, he took the handle of the whip and shoved it deep into Tanj's pussy; "that falls out, you'll both get more when I return!" And with that, he stalked out.

It was the following day, and Tanj and Hinoki were tied in the Weasel's office.  Tanj was suspended by her wrists, , arms and legs spread widely.  Hinoki had his arms bound tightly behind his back, and was standing on tiptoes, his hard cock buried in Tanj's pussy.  Hinoki strained to hold his position; the Weasel had fitted electrodes between Hinoki and Tanj, the sensor checking for 'electrical connectivity', and if Hinoki's cock fell out of Tanj's cleft, the motors driving the winches holding her off the floor would slowly tighten her bonds, stretching her as if she were on the rack!  On the other hand, that devilish leather cone was again around Hinoki's balls, its rim chained to the floor, forcing him to maintain a wicked tension on his balls to stay in contact with Tanj.  As he strained, muscles quivering from the exertion, they overheard enough to piece together the previous day's events.  It seemed the pirates had staged a particularly bold raid, taking out one of the minor stations in Elysium orbit, a station that forces from this one were supposed to protect.  But with one of the reactors down for repairs, the long range scanners had been off line, and most of the patrol ships had been out trying to act as picket ships in lieu of the scanners........  The pirates had slipped through the cordon, and by the time the forces had been recalled and assembled for a counterattack, the pirates were gone.  The head of Elysium Planetary Security was furious, it seemed, and had blamed the Weasel for the entire affair.  It had been his ship that had docked at the station the previous night, and he had kept the Weasel up all night as they turned the place inside out looking for the spies that must have passed the critical information to the pirates.

<Tanj, are you there?>  Tanj mumbled something into her gag, and stirred slightly; it was the middle of the night, and she was again chained to the foot of the Weasel's bed.  But she wasn't getting much sleep.  The Weasel had filled her ass, pussy and mouth with inflatable gizmos, tubing leading to a small box that filled the balloons to the point of agony, or deflated them, in no particular order or pattern.  Hinoki was nearby, tied in a very strict hog-tie, bent back like a bow.  <Yes, I'm here, Mark.  Where are you?  Are you safe?  Security here has absolutely gone through the roof!>  <Yes, I'm safe, but shouldn't I be asking you about that?  I'm in a cloaked ship, a short distance outside the station.  We're in that sensor blind spot you told us about, and I don't think they'll be able to detect us.>  <Glad to hear that; listen, the Head of Elysium Planetary Security is bearing down pretty hard on the Weasel.  He's been tearing the place apart looking for the spy.  In fact, he's coming back in three days, to do another sweep.  I think its getting a bit dangerous for you, perhaps you guys should lay low for a while!>  <Dunno if the boss will go for that, Tanj.  Anything else of interest?>  Tanj relayed what little she knew about ship and convoy movements, financial arrangements, and such, doing her best to ignore the stretching of her pussy or her ass, or her jaw as she tried to relay the information.  Then Mark was gone, leaving Tanj to worry about her friends.

Several days later, the Weasel was still treating Tanj and Hinoki harshly, their little interlude still unforgiven.  With a smirk, the Weasel had given Tanj a bottle of solution, and had, in public, forced her to douche herself with it.  It must have been a solution of alum or something like it, as Tanj's pussy immediately dried out and contracted painfully.  The Weasel then put Tanj in a pair of stocks, in the lobby of the Station's office area, on her knees, head and wrists imprisoned at floor level.  He then staged a little exhibition, chaining Hinoki between her legs, having him fuck her roughly.  Normally Tanj would have relished this, but in this instance, the well hung Hinoki made her feel as if she was about to rip apart.  The Weasel had left her ungagged, and her cries and moans echoed off the walls, eliciting looks that might almost have been pity from the office workers.  The Weasel made a short speech about how punishments like this, and worse, would befall any spy they captured, and then left them there, threatening dire things should Hinoki cum without permission, and even more dire things should he stop.  It was only a short while later when the alert alarms sounded, with furrs running past the two, too distracted to even look, and then all was quiet.  Then the station rang with the shock of multiple ships disconnecting from their docking ports.

Hinoki slowed his motions, his hips barely moving; obviously he was aware of Tanj's plight, her pussy amazingly tight around his cock.  Tanj, for her part, worried that the Weasel would review the security camera films of their activities, even though the offices were deserted, and punish Hinoki for "slacking off".  They were there for hours, and to Tanj's amazement, Hinoki never quite stopped, never got soft, and never came, either.  Finally, furrs started to filter back in, and their mood was black.  It seemed that the ship transporting the Elysium Head of Security to the station had been ambushed by the pirates, in a daring long range strike, and had been destroyed!  The general consensus was that the Station Manager may have arranged it himself, either as a self-defense measure or because they were getting too close to uncovering HIM as the spy!

Shortly thereafter, one of the Weasel's assistants came to release Tanj and Hinoki.  This was done in a very distracted fashion, the Wolf not even pausing to appreciate their little exhibition.  They were led to the Weasel's "playroom" and unceremoniously locked in separate cages.  They didn't see the Weasel for two days, their needs cursorily being attended to by servants.  Finally, they were released, groomed, and led to the Weasel's office.  There were a number of well dressed furrs there, all with sour expressions on their faces.  The leashes were given to the Station Manager who then turned and presented them to a Wolverine morph with a slight bow.  This fur in turn handed the leashes with less formality to an assistant who led them out of the offices.  As they were led through the station, towards the docking ring, Tanj couldn't help but wonder what was going on.  The assistant led them through an airlock and into a personal shuttle, the type of craft that a very rich person might have.  There, they were made to kneel in the back, their leashes secured to a ring in the floor.  A while later, a number of the distinguished looking types that had been in the Weasel's office came in and seated themselves, and Tanj felt the shuttle undock, and head towards the planet.  It wasn't until they were in the atmosphere, cruising, that the Wolverine came to look at them.  "You might be interested to know that your Master is walking on very thin ice, and the consortium that funds the station decided that he needed to pay more attention to his job, and less attention to you two.  Hence, you'll stay with me, until this mess is straightened out."  With that, he grinned, and returned to the forward part of the shuttle.  As they flew onward, Tanj wondered what the pirates would do when they found out she was no longer on the station............

The Lion stood in the Station manager's office, looking at the bound form of the Weasel.  The pirates had found him cowering in a supply locker, and had trussed him up and hauled him in there.  Ben, the Wolf-morph in charge of Pirate Ops, strode up to the Lion and reported; "stations's secure, Sir.  We've started stripping it of everything useful, transferring the prisoners to the ships, and I've got three crews planting demo charges.  Are you SURE you want to destroy it?"  The Lion nodded; "Yes; without this station, Elysium defenses will have to be planet based.  Any ship coming to interfere with our operations will be at the end of a long hard climb out of the gravity well, and moving slow, with shields depleted from the atmospheric friction.  They'll be at a massive disadvantage.  It goes."  Ben nodded and turned to leave, to oversee the work, making sure everyone moved as fast as possible, knowing that a counterattack was on the way, but before he left, he paused to kick the Weasel; "what you going to do with him?  Care to turn him over to the troops?  I'm sure we could, ah, give him a "proper send-off"".  The Lion just shook his head; "No, I've something even worse planned for him; we're going to turn him loose over on Tedium, with a considerable amount of cash."  Ben blinked, and then his face lit up; "and the Elysium government will find out about him being there, and assume that he sold the station out!  Yes, that'll distract them nicely.  _Very_good, sir, I'll have a crew come collect him, and, ah, "escort" him to one of the ships!".  Grinning, Ben grabbed the Weasel's  bound feet, and dragged him through the door of the office, yelling commands to the pirates.  The Lion moved back around the Weasel's desk.  He used the Weasel's own codes to unlock his computer, and then used the codes Tanj had passed to him, to strip the Station's financial accounts, sending it to double and triple blind accounts far out-system.  It would be ages before the funds were "clean" enough to tap safely, but in the mean time, they were at least lost to the Elysium government.  While he was doing this, Reggie and Slasher entered the office.  "Uh, Boss...." Reggie started.  The Lion looked up from the computer display, fixing the Lepine with a hard stare.  "We found out what happened to Tanj; she was sent down to the planet in the company of the "auditors" from the Harrich Consortium.  Mark's right; she's not ON the station".  The Lion just nodded as he looked back at the computer display.  After a few keystrokes he looked up again.  We'll get her back.  It may take time but we WILL get her back.  I promise you that.