The ship closest to her had its ramp extended, and the only person standing nearby appeared distracted, talking to a trader as she twirled a paper umbrella every color of the rainbow. Jenny couldn't imagine anything evil of such a girl, or that she would be travelling on anything but a decent ship, with decent people. Her decision made, Jenny dashed up the ramp and hid amongst some crates. After a few tense seconds, she peeked arounnd the corner of her boxes; the girl with the umbrella had not noticed her.

Jenny breathed a sigh of relief and made herself comfortable; all she had to do was wait here long enough for her would be assailants to get bored, and then slip back out among the throngs of people in the shipyard. Of course, there would still be the little matter of stealing her shuttle back, refueling, and finding another planet to go to that was within her small ship's limited range, but Jenny was content to worry about those things later, and just enjoy this breif respite. She had been running for such a long time. It had seemed like fun in the beginning, but perhaps it was only fun when you had someone running alongside you.

Jenny quickly rejected that thought before it could continue to its inevitable and painful destiniation.

27 minutes, Jenny decided, should be long enough to wait for it to be safe for her to leave her hiding place, and soon enough that she was unlikely to be discovered by the people who owned the ship. Jenny didn't fancy escpaing one disaster simply to step into another. What was the phrase that funny old man had used, the one she met last week? Oh yes, 'out of the frying pan and into the oven', he had said. Of course, Jenny didn't have a clue in the slightest as to what a frying pan or oven looked like, but she like the sound of the words. She loved meeting people, and learning new things, liked it even more than the running, she had discovered. Because Jenny, in her mere 283 days of life, found she had a lot to learn, about everything, it seemed. It was exhilarting most of the time, so many new things to discover each day, places to explore and people to meet. But some days, like today, it was overwhelming, and confusing, and she felt so ignorant and out of her depth, and so very, very alone.

25 minutes now. Jenny settled in to wait, closing her eyes and letting the seconds trickle over her as they passed. Like a gentle breeze or the sound of the ocean, it soothed Jenny whenever she did this, just stopped and listened to the gentle hum of Time. Not that she knew that's what she was doing of course, or had any inkling of its significance. She just wanted to relax.

So relax she did.

So much so in fact that she began to doze, ever so slightly, but just enough that she was startled awake 7.46 minutes later as the sound of boots loudly coming up the ramp registered in her brain. Jenny scrambled to peek throigh a crack in one of the crates, and swallowed uneasliy when she saw that the two pairs of boots she had heard had stopped not three feet away from her hiding place.

Jenny took a breath and ignored the pounding of her hearts as she strained to listen; the owners of the boots appeared to be arguing.

"I don't think it'd be all that dangerous for us to stay just one more gorram hour."

"See now, I agree with you on about two words outta' that sentence; you don't think."

The first pair of boots muttered several things Jenny didn't quite understand ,something about not getting any decent trim in months, and then a resentful sounding remark in another language, and just because the second pair of boots had decided to become a monk why did he have to suffer? Jenny couldn't be sure, First Boots' voice was very low and growly.

Second Boots didn't seem to apppreciate these comments very much, as he interruppted First Boots very loudly.

"I don't wanna have to explain this again. I'm alreday in a bad mood over the fact that we're so desperate we're doin a job for Badger, which makes me just a mit twitchy considerin' what happened last time we had dealings with him, not to mention the fact that I'm currently down a gunman until Zoe heals, so I think even someone with your limited thinkin' abilities might be able to understand why I wanna get off this rock as soon as possible!"

Jenny jumped as Second Boots bellowed; First Boots scuffled uncertainly but remained silent.