JORG WAS IN DEEP TROUBLE, and he knew it. He was in one of the most remote sections of space, and his ship sounded as if it were about to fall apart. The spacecraft had not been running smoothly for the last million or so parsecs, and JorG was afraid it was going to break down on him again. He looked at the gauges one more time and hoped the ship would at least keep running until he got to a civilized part of the universe.
      For the hundredth time he swore to never again buy a ship from HnsT-Jon's Planet of Previously Owned Space Vehicles. That Jon was a crook and a liar. All you ever got with a used spacecraft was someone else's troubles.
     And for the thousandth time he swore to never again take a shortcut home. He'd been trying to save a few thousand light years, sure, but shortcuts weren't always a smart idea, especially when it meant taking a route through the Sol galaxy. If he hadn't have been in such a big snarfeling hurry, he'd never have come this way.

      In just a little over a hundred parameters, JorG was being joined with NanZ. They were scheduled to take their solitude time on O-Pree, the most beautiful planet in the Federation of United Galaxies. It took a lot of political pull, as well as enough wealth to buy a small planet just to get your solitude time reserved on O-Pree, and it was all NanZ had talked about for months. If JorG messed this up, he was in for a long time in the barg house. And JorG didn't even own a barg.