Laurice sat in the bar aboard Bao Orbital, sipping a glass of cheap wine, while
the local starship maintenance crew fitted the new Advanced Discovery Scanner
to her Cobra Mk3. She knew they were having a lend of her when they said how
long it would take.

Although the freshly minted Pilot's Federation Licence in her pocket was in the
name of "Loopy Laurice", that wasn't exactly the same name she used in her
previous life. Her previous life being starship maintenance crew. Most grease
monkeys never got to be where Laurice was now. The job simply never paid
enough. But there was a loophole. Travelling about doing temporary assignments
as a locum paid way over the odds for this line of work. Most who trod this
path never really got ahead, because the cost of getting to the new location
ate up the extra payments. But Laurice had a knack of smiling sweetly at the
right Commander, and hitching a ride to the next gig at the "right price".

Of course, for this to work in the long run, one needs the right insurance
policy. And Laurice's insurance policy was the Gilya Signature weapon tucked
discreetly in her work coveralls. She had only had to pull it out and wave it
around a couple of times. But it had never been fired in anger.

Although she had always carried a discreet weapon, this particular beauty was a
new acquisition. A gift from her good friend, Adept Geraden. She had bumped
into Adept a number of times over the years. Worked on a number of his ships.
Hitched a ride a few times. Probably the only Commander who hadn't tried to
take advantage of her. Adept was the reason why, when Laurice got her freedom
by bribing a minor starport official with her life savings, to "borrow" one of
the starports runabout Sidewinders, she headed straight for Sepp space.

Just a pity her one and only friend in the whole galaxy wasn't currently at
home. After asking around, the best she could get on Adept's current
whereabouts was "somewhere down in Empire space, basking for the Empire rank".

Laurice started to have second thoughts about her choice of new name. Everybody
she had dealings with insisted on a rundown of where the handle "Loopy" came
from. Her latest grilling coming from the bar tender who had just served her.
You see, mechanics get a limited licence to test fly ships they are working on.
And Laurice repeatedly got distracted test flying other peoples ships, and
regularly returned to Starport too fast for a safe drop from supercruise, and
had to perform a "loop of shame". Hence the nick-name "Loopy". Had nothing to do
with her general mental competence.