Destiny didn’t like the fact that I was working for a known criminal figure, and she let me know it. She said crime bosses always have cops of some kind watching them. I agreed with her, of course, but I felt it was the best way to buy a ship of our own. We had a few disagreements, because she thought I should be able to buy a ship without being in his employ. Maybe she was right — I don’t know. Once, she even said that maybe we shouldn’t get a ship, if it meant I had to get that close to the police. After several months, I was ready to quit, when I found the ship I wanted. I had worked for The Boss for about a year, known to him only as Philipp Dester.
    For one million newdollars, I bought a 150-foot barque, from a contact I had met while working for the Boss. The chassis had begun as a Shimki-made scientific cruiser, hence the clear bubble dome on the upper side. It had since been refitted as a luxury yacht, with back-yard type deck furniture replacing scientific instruments under the dome, and a game room and a spa replacing other equipment inside.
    I paid a little extra to have further refitting done; I took out the game room and added a wide back door. This created a small cargo area, and the door was large enough to drive a large car through. I also upgraded the ship’s meager defense system. It had been equipped only with COWS (Close Object Warning System) and AADS (Asteroid Avoidance or Destruction System). To these, I added several rocket launchers and a new program for the AADS, which allowed the lasers to aim at other space ships or objects besides asteroids.

*

It wasn’t long after buying the ship (and several well-faked registrations) that I quit working with Gwandon and the Boss. I quit without hard feelings, and remained in contact with Gwandon who continuously tried to get me to rejoin.
    Maybe I got a little greedy, but I got the idea into my head that Gwandon could help us in our own trade. After discussing it thoroughly with Destiny, we let Gwandon help us with our next robbery. I was a little nervous about it, but I made sure that we never met him at our home, and that neither of us had been followed. The only reason that Destiny agreed to let him in on our scores was the fact that he had always been very discreet, and she didn’t think he was the type of person that would leak any information.
    Destiny drove the car, while James and I went inside the bank in Pleasure City, Junxle. We made three million newdollars and gave James one million. That was in late 2489. By early 2490, the three of us had robbed three more banks, always giving James a third of the take.
    When Destiny got another promotion and transfer (to Tuf), James Gwandon made a tough decision. He quit working for the Boss, and came with us. I thought it would be an easy decision, since we were making so much money, but I didn’t take into account that he had been working for the same man for more than twenty years.
    We sold our house and Destiny’s Cyr Sport car, bringing the Grumman Cruiser along in the new hold of our ship, which we named the S.S. Baron. Destiny became New Planet Spaceline’s youngest office manager ever, at 23, in the spaceport at Tabumb, Tuf. James took a nice apartment in Otok, and made several contacts with the organized crime syndicates there.
    So, after twenty years, I had come full circle. I was living in the very city in which I had been born. I spent the first few weeks in Tabumb going to some of the sites, and even took a tour through Jerth, the ancient capital city of the Trayaks. The old throne room, where Kthorpa had made his treaty with the People’s Ruling Council is now a tourist spot, with plaques and photographs commemorating that historic time — the end of the Ninety Year War.

*

After a few months of vacationing and touring humanity’s oldest colonized planet, I began planning more robberies. With James’ help, and the help of some of his new friends, we robbed banks in Tabumb, Otok, Jingbill, and other towns across the planet. Of course, we paid off those who had given us computer help and inside information, but the three of us kept most of the earnings, and James and I made a special trip in our ship to Justine, where we deposited a lot of the money. Destiny and I decided that it really was easier to rob banks with more people. With computer hackers on our payroll, we could walk into the bank, already knowing the combination of the safe, and the general layout of the place. With a paid getaway driver, we didn’t have to worry about one of us staying with the car. Extra guns meant that we were less likely to get shot.
    Still, though, Destiny and I made our own getaway plans, every time. We never walked into a bank without having a backup plan. Just because you’re paying someone, doesn’t mean you can trust them.
    After James bought his own ship — slightly larger than ours, he set off on his own, robbing several jewelry stores and banks in Otok with his own crew. I think he had just stayed with us long enough to learn the trade, knowing the whole time that he wanted to work on his own. I heard, through the grapevine, that he wasn’t paying his partners nearly as much as we had been, and so his personal fortune was growing much faster than ours was.
    Then he got caught, along with two of his accomplices.

*

The court in Otok sentenced him to fifteen years on Taak, the smaller of Tuf’s two moons, thinking he was the Robber Baron that so many planets were looking for. It was reported in the papers that he had named Philipp Dester and Destiny Bates as accomplices in earlier robberies, in an attempt to get a lighter sentence. On the evening holovision news, an anchorman said that Gwandon’s sentence would only be shortened if his two accomplices were caught.
    So, we destroyed all documents bearing those two names, and considered moving. James had also given the police accurate descriptions of us, nearly matching the descriptions released on Persiphone, years earlier, by the Tarkin Police Department.
    Destiny was brought in for questioning because her first name and description matched those given by Gwandon. However, there was no other evidence incriminating her except the fact that she had lived on Persiphone at the same time as the other robberies years before. And, in those years, the police forces on different planets weren’t cooperating much with each other. She told the police that she had once dated a Philipp, but that his last name hadnt been Dester. The detectives seemed to believe her when she told them that she had broken up with that Philipp on Junxle, and hadn’t seen him since. She also denied knowing any James Gwandon. Destiny proved to the Tuf Planetary Security forces that her real name was Destiny Dester, not Bates. After making sure that she was indeed the office manager at the Tuf division of New Planet Spacelines, they let her go. There were quite a few other women named Destiny that they needed to question. The cops attempted to get warrants for her banking records, but Destiny surprised them by showing up with paperwork in hand. She showed them only one account, of course, the one that matched the name she had given them. The account’s activity matched her current salary. She also showed them other financial statements, showing car payments on her Cyr Luxury Sport and house, all in accordance with her recorded earnings.
    I saw on the news that police on Junxle were looking for me on Junxle and Persiphone. Nothing ever came of it. I was glad that the Great Separation hadn’t quite ended yet. If it had not been for that, they might have caught up with us. Later, the police quit looking for me, deciding that Gwandon had merely been trying to get a reduced sentence by naming some people he had met on Junxle.
    Destiny got a letter from her father, saying he had been questioned briefly about the two of us. He had called Harry Bates (now in his second term as governor on Persiphone), who had put an end to the investigation on Persiphone. Harry even went the second mile, and wrote a letter to the heads of government of Tuf and Junxle, telling them that Philipp Kaplan Bates was his own adopted son, describing the entire situation of my parents’ death. He also informed them of the trust fund that I had closed on Persiphone, so they would know that I was financially able to drive a nice car, or live in a nice home.
    Things settled down for a while.
    After that little scare, though, I always kept the news on, wherever I happened to be. If at home, I kept the holovision set tuned to an all-news channel. I bought a police scanner, and a wireless earphone. That way, if I had to leave the house for any reason, I could still know what was going on. In the car, I listened to the police scanner in one ear, and kept my other ear tuned to a news channel on the radio.
    I wanted to be ready, if we were really in trouble.

*

By 2492, the older planets had come to terms once and for all, and the Second Galactic Rim Federation came into being. Otok, Tuf, became the capital of the new Federation. Word was sent out by special couriers to all other colonized planets, and a special delegation from the new Federation met with the leaders of the Colonial Commission, still the most powerful organization in the known Galaxy. A new age was dawning for mankind, an age of interplanetary cooperation and great economic expansion. Those of us who had lived through the Great Separation were finally going to find out what it was like to live under an all-encompassing government.
    Persiphone’s population finally passed the one million mark. In 2491, Golian had joined the ranks of incorporated planets, choosing a complete and total democracy. Every citizen on Golian was provided with a special voter’s computer, with which to help control the planet. Every issue for the entire planet was debated by and voted on by every citizen who wished to participate.
    The people of the new planet Wederr elected to be ruled by a constitutional monarchy, while Jalla took the popular route of a representative democracy.
    Talks continued with the newly discovered Sleebb people, and the new Federation began a flashy ad campaign, in an attempt to build a new Federation military force. The spokesmen for the new Federation military announced plans for a small Space Navy, for scouting, transporting, and planetary defense forces. In addition, the new Federation Infantry was planned, for any ground fighting that could be expected in a future war.
    People who read too much novice science fiction, or who like to watch the older, Terran video movies, can easily be fooled into thinking that a space war will actually be fought in space. This is only rarely true. I’m not really speaking from experience here, just from logic. Spaceships cannot possibly fight like the sea ships of old did. Space is not like the oceans, where two fleets of ships can draw up a battle line, and fire salvoes across the waters. Space is simply too big.
    Yes, I know, many of our larger ships are equipped with laser weapons, and missiles of different kinds, to ward off pirates. And, once in a great while, these weapons will actually be used. But it is not an efficient way to fight an interstellar war.
    For instance, if I were the leader of a military organization that wanted to take over a certain planet, I would not try to shoot down their ships. If my fleet comes out of the Jump near a solar system, my main goal is going to be to land my troops on the planet. Even if that planet’s fleet was in orbit around her, defending the planet, the ships would be spaced too far out. Do you know how many ships it would take to set up an orbital defense screen?
    For one thing, the average inhabited planet is about 7,500 miles in diameter. That makes her circumference — the distance around the planet at her equator — about 23,500 miles. That makes her surface area about 175 million square miles. But were talking about ships in orbit, right? Say the ships are a thousand miles from the surface of the planet. That makes a new, imaginary sphere, with a surface area of almost 285 million square miles. Now, how far apart did you want to place your ships? Do you see what I mean? To defend your planet with to any reasonable degree, you’d need thousands — perhaps millions — of warships.
    Besides, I don’t want to conquer the space around your planet; I want the planet itself. So, I’m going to land ground troops, after first attempting to bomb your main defense installations.
    The point of all this is to say that a space war will not be fought between ships in space. It will be fought between invading ships and ground-based defenders, at first, and then between two opposing ground forces. The space fleets will be comprised mostly of troop carriers and bomb platforms. And both sides would use the bombs sparingly, since no one wants to take possession of a ruined planet. And that’s what the new Federation wanted, a force that could successfully defend or conquer a planet without devastating it.
    New taxes came into effect, for the planets under the new Federation. In addition to any planetary taxes, the Federation charged every citizen exactly five percent of their annual income, unless they made over 30,000nd per year; then the tax climbed gradually to nine percent for the richest of folks.
    The Cyr Corporation received the government contract for all ground fighting vehicles — tanks, boats, a-grav attack ships — and their stock went through the roof. The Shimki Corporation got the contract for the Space Navy ships — mostly troop carriers, and moved their headquarters to Tuf. Grumman, the other major vehicle builder, did not get any government contracts. But, of course, they didn’t need them: they still held the contract for the Colonial Commission’s spacecraft.

*

Throughout the years, Destiny and I kept a diary of our exploits, listing every bank, every city, every planet, where we did what we did best. We kept the diary in a safety deposit box in — you guessed it — a bank. After every score, we would retrieve the diary, make our entry, and then return it to its resting-place.
    Let it suffice to say that after the Federation came into being, we tripled our number of false IDs, and false ship registrations. We robbed banks on Tuf, Tiffany’s World, Yavin, Junxle, Willsworld, Aurora, Johnny’s World, Garbage, Paradise, Maze, Ibeen, Leech, Mars II, Bliss, Blrange, Earth II, Graph, Bleen, Gooey, Blown, Yurple, Moonworld, Fod, Habachi, Malachi, Old Yeller II, Poois, Reblown, Yink, Flekzedge, Orblu, Blabrow, Grack, Pred, Reenue, Orblack, Mouwor, Yeblink, Brink, Feebellight, Laust, Skledge, Pinky II, Wotfrov, Pluto III, Saivalaurie, New Earth, New Luna, Hemm, Saturn II-C; Turner’s Planet, Glucose, the nine worlds of the Jagg-Mall system, and others.
    At first, we decided not to rob any banks on Justine, since that’s where most of our accounts were handled, but we thought that it would be awfully suspicious if we didn’t, so we held two small and amateur heists there.
    We visited Persiphone in 2494, the year of their Monarchy elections, using New Planet Spacelines for travel accommodations. Destiny traveled as herself — an employee — and I traveled in a separate cabin, under a different name. While there, we robbed two banks.
    During that same trip, acting as ourselves, we visited Habdes I, her father’s increasingly crowded and wealthy space habitat in the asteroid belt. I didn’t really like it there, even though it was neat, clean, and well organized. I guess I’m more of a planet type person.
    I spent a lot of time with Harry on the surface of Persiphone. He was trying to get out of the government business, while at the same time, the people of the planet were trying to vote him in as their first Monarch. Just after we left, they succeeded, and Harry gave in, accepting a 20-year term as the First Constitutional Monarch of the Kingdom of Persiphone.
    While traveling with Harry, I went with him to Basplace, and met Michael Hubbard Cyr again. He seemed amused when I told him that Destiny had bought stock in his company. In fact, he was so amused that he pulled a sheaf of papers out of his desk.
    “How many shares did you say your wife owns?” His eyes smiled at me.
    I looked back at the richest man in the galaxy, noting his athletic form and active manner. “About twenty, I think. Just the basic shares.”
    He handed me the sheaf of papers. “Here’s a hundred executive shares. Worth about a thousand newdollars apiece right now, but quickly rising. I was going to give them to Harry here, but that would be illegal, since he’s the ruler of the planet. Someone might think it was bribery. But I guess it’s okay to give them to his son.” He signed over the shares, and gave them to me.

*

Throughout all of this, Destiny kept her job with New Planet, getting good deals on tickets for us, and making enough money to afford wherever we lived. We transferred to Turner’s Planet, then to the NPS home offices on New Earth, in 2496. I was twenty-six years old, and Destiny was twenty-nine. That’s when she suddenly decided to have a child. We talked about that a while, since I wasn’t so sure.
    “So are you considering giving up our prime occupation, dear?” I leaned back in my deck chair under the bubble dome on the topside of our ship, looking into her still-beautiful eyes.
    “You mean robbing banks?” Her eyes twinkled at me from across the table. “I don’t think I can give it up, Philipp.”
    We just looked at each other for a while, the stars shining brightly through the reinforced plexiglas dome, dimly lighting our deck.
    Finally, she put her elbows on the table, and looked down through the glass table top at the deck below. “I guess there’s just some instinct inside me that wants to raise a kid. You know, to bring a real, live miracle into existence, and raise him or her to maturity, teaching values, loving a vulnerable, helpless being, and helping to make it into an invulnerable, loving being in its own right.”
    “You’ve obviously given this a lot of thought, baby. Have you given any thought as to what kind of parents we might be?”
    She sighed. “Philipp, you sound like you’re starting to feel guilty about what we do. I mean, we’ve stolen half a billion newdollars, faked our IDs, falsified our ship’s registration several times over, hurt people, killed people, falsified bank records to hide our money, lied to police investigators, carried illegal weapons, and other crimes I can’t even think of right now. I guess you have a right to feel a little guilty. But I don’t. Or, if I do, I suppress it really well.”
    “Not guilty, really, Destiny. But I do wonder if it’s right to bring a child up under that kind of environment. Of course, it would give me something to do while you’re at work.”
    She laughed at that. “Yes, Philipp, you’ll be the housewife. And we don’t have to tell our kids that we rob banks, do we? At least, not until they’re older. And by that time, maybe we can retire.” She winked at me. “I still remember all those times you talked about wanting to move with me to some empty planet, where we can raise our children and homestead in peace.”

*

Ten months later, in the middle of 2497, Destiny took a week off from work to bear our first child. A lot of clinics on New Earth were offering minor genetic manipulation, to make sure a child would be born healthy and strong, and giving choices of eye color, hair color, etc. We just did it the old fashioned way, the way our bodies were intended to reproduce.
    Our son, to whom we gave the name Philipp Howard Dester Kaplan, was born weighing nine and a half pounds, and was twenty-three inches long. He had dark brown eyes like my own, and brown hair.
    A month later, we took him to the Hollis System, so his grandparents could dote over him like grandparents have a habit of doing, and he even made a planetary newscast there. He was descended from the Monarch of Persiphone (legally), through my relationship with Harry. Not only that, he was the grandchild of the Desters, one of the richest families in that star system. Besides, he was unique in the sense that both his parents had been raised from childhood on Persiphone, and he had been born off-planet. The newscasters made a lot of supposed historical connections and showed live pictures of little Philipp for about ten seconds.
    Then we were off, back to New Earth, to our sprawling estate in the rolling hills of the Newer York region. Destiny returned to work in her office in Newer York City, while I stayed at home with my son.
    Shortly thereafter, we hired a full-time nursemaid (Destiny was a major executive by this time, and we could afford it, legally). Our son’s caretaker was a small dark woman named Isabelle.
    At first, she was just a single woman looking for a job, who answered our ad in the newspaper. After a while, though, we came to think of her as part of the family. When she had slept over at our house several times, Destiny and I invited her to move in with us, to take care of our child around the clock. For that, we increased her pay, charged no rent, and fed her for free. Destiny made sure that Isabelle got one full day off every week, and at least one evening during the week, so she could have a social life. That way, Isabelle wouldn’t feel too tied down with us.

*

Three months after we hired Isabelle, I took the S.S. Baron to Justine’s new shipyards, where I had her old nuclear reactor replaced with a fresh one, had new seals installed in the airlock, and got a complete inspection. Then I took her to Nubase, where a small shipyard helped me install several hidden compartments in her, for caching weapons or other valuables. Days later, Destiny and I robbed two more banks on Saivalaurie in the same day. On the way back to New Earth, I overtook and cleaned out an armored transport in open space. We had a lot of inside info on that one, for which we paid top dollar, but it was worth it, seeing that it was our largest cash score, up to that point.

*

Early in 2498, when I was twenty-eight, the war finally broke out between the Federation and the Sleebb Empire. The ten years of the popularly titled “War of Revenge” are what I’ll call my “good ole days”. Not only were they the best years of my son’s life (toddlerhood, early childhood, first day of school, etc.), but a lot of the best cops and security guards joined the Federation military forces. That left a lot of banks wide open.
    In addition to all this, with a good private space ship like the Baron, I could make my own forages into the Sleebb systems, and bring back valuable information to the Federation. I found a willing officer in the ranks (Jason Quivers) who was authorized to pay for any information that resulted in successful military action. I had found out from Harry where Jason was stationed, and contacted him myself. I never told Jason how I received my information; I just told him to trust me. If I told him I had a private ship, he would wonder how I had gotten enough money for it, and I didn’t want to lie to him. So I just told him that my sources were confidential. That was true enough.
    Those trips were the most dangerous enterprises that I ever engaged in, but I found that it got my juices flowing, just like robbing banks. Not only did I make a little money from selling information to the Federation, but I also destroyed a few Sleebb ships of my own. And twice, I made bombing runs on one of the Sleebb home worlds.

*

The spaceliner business had a hard time of it during the war years, so Destiny had a lot more time off from work. We spent a lot of time with little Phil and, and robbed quite a few banks. Toward the end of the war, I got a part-time job with the Federation forces on New Earth, teaching hand-to-hand combat, again through the influence of Jason Quivers. He sent a letter of reference to the base there, telling them that I was completely learned in all of the necessary fighting skills. By 2500, partially due to the unified war effort, the Second Galactic Rim Federation had encompassed most of the colonized planets, and the war was going well.
    I spent two years in part-time employment with the Federation, from 2502 to 2504, then quit to enter full-time criminal enterprise. When I was at home, I taught little Phil (who was seven years old, already) some basic self-protection moves, and we went camping on a few weekends. I found I enjoyed being a parent more than Destiny did. Even with my lack of higher education, my son asked many questions to which I actually knew the answers. He liked to talk about guns, cars, rocks, farming, animals, video shows, his friends’ pets, food, and a lot of other things that I knew a lot about. At least, it seemed to him that I did.
    He was beginning to look a lot like I had at his age, and it made me proud. I assured him that I had been just as skinny when I was younger, and that he would fill out soon enough. I think he had his mothers brain though, because he caught on to most things more quickly than I had.
    In 2505, Destiny and I had our second child, a daughter, which I insisted on naming after her mother. Destiny Samantha Bates Kaplan was born on my birthday. Little Phil, then almost eight years old, helped out a lot with Sam’s care, and our nursemaid, Isabelle (who was still living with us), took a big raise to stay on and watch both of them.

*

I picked the right time to buy my own planetoid. It had been popular for years for a rich man to build his own space habitat to retire into. Others, like Michael Cyr, had bought a small continent on a new planet. But selling used-up asteroids became a whole new market.
    I saw an ad in a newspaper, from a mining company that was selling hollowed out asteroids, small ones for twice the price of a new home, and up to a million newdollars for a big one. The add read:


    The advertisement gave the mailing address of the company, and the galactic coordinates of their home office.
    I went (in my own ship) to the space-based offices of this company, and told them I was the representative of a certain well-known business executive in that system. They really didn’t care what name I gave — they just had to fill out a receipt. Once the planetoid was mine, they didn’t care what I did with it. I selected a large planetoid, almost perfectly spherical, and about forty miles in diameter. It had already been completely drained of every mineral known to be worth mining, Gravity generators had been installed on it, for the comfort of the workers, as well as a small living quarters, with a kitchenette, a bunkroom, and a supply room. The office manager said that all the quarters and equipment would be left on the asteroid, for the buyer. It would have cost the mining company too much to clear all that out.
    I accepted the offer of one of the company big wheels to ride through the asteroid in a small maintenance craft. He had the pilot show me through several immense caverns from which iron ore and other minerals had been extracted, and the maze of tunnels that connected the caverns.
    For two million newdollars, I bought the whole planet, lock, stock, and barrel. Of course, in the past, the mining companies had always just abandoned their used up asteroids, leaving their living quarters in place. Now, with a higher percentage of the population looking for a way to get away, and more people coming up in the financial ranks, the mining companies had seen another opportunity to make money.
    When a mining firm sets up camp on an asteroid, they are required to set up a planetary charter with the local star system’s government. That charter says that the company in question owns the planetoid, and can do with it whatever they wish, except move it or destroy it. Moving the larger asteroids can cause orbital problems, and destroying one creates millions of tiny asteroids, which are dangerous for passing ships. Otherwise, the rock is theirs.
    I thought it would be a wonderful place to retire. For once, I saw the big picture in my head. I envisioned the planet after I poured some more money into it. There would be lakes, parks, farms, animals, houses, etc. And it would all be mine.
    I bought several spare gravity motors from shipyards on Mouwor, and installed them on my planet, which I named Destiny’s World. With the help of a computer expert at Destiny’s office, I selected a good computer to use on Destiny’s World, and bought it, getting the same man’s help to install it for me. He then helped me to work the computer to set up the desired gravity fields. The reason I needed multiple gravity fields was this: I wanted a normal field for the surface of the planet, pulling toward the center (down) at about 0.9 gravities. In this way, we could walk on the surface, and an atmosphere would stay around — if I could figure out how to acquire an atmosphere. But, for all the caves and tunnels inside, a gravity field pulling toward the center of the planet just would not work. So each tunnel and cavern had a gravity field of its own, not necessarily pulling in the same direction as any of the others.
    I bought three nuclear reactors and a large power cell unit to power the gravity fields, the computer, the lights, etc. And I put in a hyperdrive motor: as far as I know, it was the first hyperdrive ever installed on a planet. Then I pulled the greatest caper of my life, and one that no one else could ever explain. I had figured out how to acquire an atmosphere.
    The inhabitants of Jalla never knew exactly what happened. A lot of them suddenly noticed a fifth moon in the sky, hanging just a few hundred miles above them. The Jalla Planetary Protection Service immediately dispatched interceptors to apprehend the inhabitants of the new planet. Then the new moon disappeared. Only the most astute and observant scientists noticed a very minute change in the air pressure of the planet on Jalla.
    From a full-sized planet, I had stolen enough air to coat Destiny’s World to a depth of about two thousand feet. I then went to Astropolis IV and bought a load of seeds and farming equipment, which I used to seed DW. I bought animals: cows, horses, pigs, geese, rabbits, earthworms, etc.
    And I did all this without Destiny knowing a thing about it. So, when the new Federation Investigative Bureau (FIB) announced on the galactic news service in the later days of 2506 that they were onto us, I had a place where we could go.

*

Somehow, several agents tracking bank robberies on different planets had collaborated, and decided that a lot of them had many things in common. A long-haired female, usually driving the getaway car. The getaway car was always either recently stolen, or bought used the day before. And the car was always found abandoned the next day. A bulky male, sometimes alone, sometimes with a smaller partner, always wearing bulletproof armor. Every member of the team wore masks, gloves, armor, etc. Those banks with visible cameras always had the power cut first. Many times, the vault combination had been discovered through computer hacking; other times, the robbery had occurred when the vault was known to be open. Security guards were always hit with dart guns, and knocked unconscious.
    Then, these investigators dug into the old investigations, and found the names: Destiny, Philipp, and James Gwandon. Gwandon was out of prison by then, and still sticking to his story. He told investigators that the Destiny he knew had worked for one of the Spacelines. And they plastered it all over the evening news, on New Earth. The Second Galactic Rim Federation had been our demise.
    I began to wish that we had never found the Sleebbs. I thought to myself that if the Sleebb threat had never come about, then the Federation would not have drawn together so quickly. And if the planets had remained divided, their law enforcement agencies would not have been working together. Even so, it had happened, and we had to deal with it. But I was ready for that day.
    I watched Destiny cringe as the news anchor named Persiphone as the planet of the Robber Baron’s origin. They posted a picture of both of us, from our high school days, and a computer enhanced photo, showing what we could possibly look like now. The new pictures looked remarkably like us. We would have to leave, and soon. The spacelines — Destiny’s employers — knew where she lived, and they would soon turn the records over to the authorities.
    Thats when I told her about my new planet, Destiny’s World, that I had bought and fixed up for her. She looked up at me. “Philipp, have I told you lately that I love you?”
    “Yes, as a matter of fact, Destiny. I think you were hollering just that phrase late last night.”
    She took a playful swing at me, which I parried, and then I took her down in a judo hold. We wrestled a little bit on the floor, and soon Phil and Sam rushed in, to join the fray. The happy bank-robbing family wrestled for a few more minutes, until Isabelle entered the room.
    Destiny extracted herself from the human pile on the floor, and held a hurried conversation with our baby-sitter/housekeeper/maid. She explained to Isabelle that we were going to move, and we were going to move now. She told her that she was welcome to come along, but that she would not have time to gather many possessions. When Isabelle asked where we were going, Destiny didn’t tell her. Isabelle said she’d rather not go, if she didn’t know where we were going.
    I continued to play with my eighteen month-old daughter and nine year-old son for a few minutes, during that conversation, then I got up.
    It took maybe fifteen minutes to dump our most important valuables (pictures, souvenirs, a couple of favorite weapons, and a couple of favorite toys) into bags, then we dumped the bags into the trunk of the car — my new Grumman Cruiser. As we packed, Isabelle helped us, then changed her mind, and decided to go with us.
    “I guess I don’t have to know where were going”, she said to Destiny, as they piled my wife’s clothing into a packing case. “I don’t have a good reason to stay here, you know. And I love all of you.” She was a selfless woman, that Isabelle.
    Fifteen minutes later, we were driving in through the private ship-owner’s gate at the Newer York City Spaceport, under false names. Our kids were a little confused, but they could sense the excitement and tension in the air, and were jabbering away in the back seat.
    When the Baron was in sight, Destiny flipped the remote control, and we saw the rear door open up, and I drove our cruiser up into the ship, watching the door close behind us.
    Destiny ushered the kids up into the living area while I rushed for the control room, slipping on my Captain’s headset.
    I heard Destiny’s voice in my ear, “Honey, I’m on the deck, and the news is on. The police are arriving at our home as we speak. Let’s get out of here.”
    “Powering up, dear.” I was pushing buttons and flipping switches while listening to her. The ship’s power system began to hum, and I called the tower.
    “S.S. Grover, calling tower, Captain Blordan speaking.”
    “Tower to Grover, go ahead.”
    “Requesting permission for take off. Quickly, if possible, my wife’s just received word of her father’s death. Over.”
    “Sorry, Grover, the city police have shut down the space port. Please hold until we contact you again.”
    I grimaced, and cut off contact with them. Then I heard Destiny’s voice. “Honey, there are squad cars coming this way. They must’ve just talked to the guys at the gate. Someone must have ID’d the car.”
    I couldn’t believe that they had found us so quickly. “All right. We’re out of here.”
    I noted on the screen that there was an overhead suppression field, of about 50-gs. Well, I didn’t have the power to get through that, and the field domed all the way over the spaceport. I would just have to do what no one does. I keyed my hyperdrive control pad.
    Isabelle’s head poked into the control cabin. “I see you’re in some kind of trouble, Philipp”, she said calmly. “Are you the Robber Baron?”
    I twisted my head back at her. “Maybe. Do you want out?”
    She looked me in the eyes, sensed my confidence. “If I stay, we’ll be safe?”
    I nodded. “They’ll never find us.”
    “Okay, then”, she said, and smiled. “I’ll watch the kids.” She slipped out of the control cabin.
    I turned back to the hyperdrive control pad — we’d have to Jump out of the spaceport, which was patently dangerous. Jumping from inside such a deep gravity well was almost unheard of, but it was our only way out.
    After checking my power levels, I aimed for a spot near the edge of the galactic rim, several light years between planets, knowing I would end up far from there. I hit the Jump key, and New Earth disappeared. Most pilots would consider such a move to be suicide. When you’re that close to a gravity field as large as that of a planet, you just don’t Jump. I did.
    I felt and saw the heat at the same time; we had come out too close to a sun. Without recalculating, I Jumped again, heading for the edge of the Milky Way. We made it, appearing in open space, about a hundred light years from the edge of the galaxy, which is not too far. Really, the only way to tell that you’re outside the Galaxy is that all the bright stars are on one side of your ship, and all the dim ones are on the other side.
    I checked the power levels again; by a curious phenomenon, we had picked up an outrageous amount of power by appearing close to and Jumping away from that Sun. So I Jumped my way back to where I had left Destiny’s world, in the asteroid belt of the Hollis System. After checking my coordinates, it took about six hours to get to our planetoid. The kids had gone to bed by New Earth time, even though it was mid-morning by ship’s time — our ship, like most others, was run on Galactic Standard time.
    Destiny gasped when she saw her world; the biggest present I’ve ever given her. Although the atmosphere was only two thousand feet thick, there were small clouds, and a close look showed that it was snowing on the surface.
    Within minutes, I had parked the Baron next to the small living quarters on Destiny’s World and gotten the children inside.
    While Destiny explored the meager living area that the mining company had left for us on the planetoid, I went into the office/control room, and piloted the planet out of the system, using the hyperdrive systems, heading for Gabriel, the gas giant of Banard’s Star System. Once there, I hid Destiny’s World among the many planetoids that circled Gabriel. I set the planet on a rotational period that would fit the kids’ sleeping habits, and went to find Destiny.

*

That was in late 2506. Over the next two years, I turned Destiny’s World into a virtual paradise, although if my power ever went down, it would all be over. I got two more nuclear reactors, and hooked them into my central computer, for backup systems. I also backed up the gravity generators that I already had. I put ten communication booster satellites up around the world, so anyone anywhere on the surface could communicate with anyone else by a low power radio. Then I put up remote control cameras on high poles in various places around the surface, to keep track of my kids, animals and farms.
    I made all these purchases on lightly populated colony worlds, and ship-repair space stations, using false names, disguises, and always paying with cash. Since a description of the S.S. Baron had been given out, this was risky. But it wasn’t too difficult to repaint the ship and to change the transponder signal. The only people who actually saw the Baron were dock workers, who were either too glad to help a known criminal or could be bribed.
    We began to build luxurious quarters inside the large cavern nearest to the old mining quarters. Inside the cavern, the heat could be more easily controlled, and besides that, we could park the Baron inside. There was no weather inside the cavern, so the housing could be open to the air.
    Wearing lavish disguises and using fake ID cards, we went to the planets where our money was hidden away, and closed accounts, one by one. We used this money to buy the building materials for our home and I bought a small freighter to transport all the supplies to Destiny’s World. The freighter was five times the size of the Baron, and helped us avoid further risks.
    By mid-2508, when the Revenge War ended, we had finished our home, and I had regular animal herds growing on my own planet. Water, I had obtained from catching ice crystals that made up most of Gabriel’s rings, and melting them. We had regular lakes and rivers on the surface of Destiny’s World, and irrigation systems watering our farms.
    We intercepted news broadcasts being sent from Tuf to the outer scientific outposts, so we could keep up with what was going on around the Federation. On Aurora, Destiny bought a load of schoolbooks and holographic teaching robots, so our children could continue their education.

*

For a while, the authorities offered a reward for our capture, but no one ever saw us again. Or at least, no one saw us looking like ourselves, until after the interest faded away. Two unauthorized biographies were published, one of which I bought on my next trip to Justine. “The Unauthorized Biography of Philipp Kaplan & Crew: The Greatest Bank Robbers Ever”. I read it, mainly for amusement.
    According to this book, supposedly based on official records, bank security cameras, and anonymous tips, I was a bitter man, trying to punish society for taking away my parents. The author insinuated that I had used my position as Howard Bates’ son to cover early criminal activities, and to meet high society contacts. I had accumulated a veritable gang of nearly 20 people — from computer experts to hit men, to weapons dealers — and I had a harem of 10 to 15 young girls, which I used to satisfy my enormous sexual appetite.
    I felt good after reading the book, because it let me know to what depths I could have fallen, and reminded me that I wasn’t really too bad of a person. But the harem part intrigued me... Who had made up that part? Gwandon? Was he really so jealous of my success that he had tried to make me look so bad?
    I couldn’t imagine having a harem — it would be too much trouble, I think. My wife Destiny more than satisfied my sexual needs, and my needs for companionship. And when she was busy elsewhere on the planet, or off making a purchase in one of our ships, Isabelle was a good friend — very intelligent and good-natured. And I always behaved circumspectly around her, whether Destiny was present or not, even though she was attractive. I did not allow myself to get into a position where either of us would be tempted to betray Destiny’s trust.
    If I wrestled with the children, Isabelle would not join in. If she were playing, I would watch from a safe distance. Say what you will — a harmless touch is not cheating, some have said. But I’ve seen the holo-shows. I know that a harmless touch can soon lead to an affair. And I couldn’t bear to think of the consequences.
    Howard Bates, still in his first term as Monarch of Persiphone, publicly rebuked the author of the book, and brought up old films to be played on Persiphone newscasts — the hero films. He tried to remind his public that I had done the best with what I could, and said, “...even if he has committed these crimes, I’m sure he never killed anyone out of malice, or hate. I stipulate that it was self-defense... No, I am not endorsing criminal activities of any kind. I am merely defending the character of my adopted son. I never knew him to be anything other than a levelheaded, hard-working kid. And people everywhere should remember that he served as a valuable information gatherer during our recent war with the Sleebb people. Without men like him, risking life and limb to find out strategic and tactical information, the war may have gone on for years more, and maybe even with a different outcome. Not only that, I am told that he voluntarily took part in training some of our Federation soldiers. So if you read these books, or listen to some of these news reports, take it with a grain of salt.”
    I know he must have been hurting inside, though, knowing that at least some it was probably true. I made a mental note to visit him when it was possible, and tell him my side.
    We laid low for quite a while, and finally explained our secret to our son Philipp. He just thought it was great. In 2510, when little Phil turned 13, I turned 40 (!), Destiny turned 43, and Sam turned five, we robbed another bank. This time, we went in without masks or gloves, but armed to the teeth. With the new needle guns (the smaller version of the old tranquilizer dart guns), we just walked in and put everyone down.
    When we stepped out onto the street, someone hollered out, “Hey! It’s that guy! Philipp Kaplan, the robber baron!”
    Before anyone could get close, I dumped the contents of my bags onto the sidewalk, and Destiny and I flew up into the air, using my new-and-improved a-grav vest. We made nothing on that haul, and didn’t expect to, we just did it to get our juices flowing again, which it did.
    That one job did so much for our self esteem, that we kept doing it that way for a while: no masks, no gloves, no disguises, just knock everyone out, and dump the money on the street. Of course, when we took the Colonial Commission’s armed transport, we kept the 15 million Colonial Credits.
    Every now and then, we’d keep some of the money from one of the banks to buy something we needed, but most of it we just dumped. Sometimes, we’d wait to dump the money until we were high over the city, so the bills would spread out a bit as they fluttered down.
    Then Destiny got pregnant again, It was in the early weeks of 2515, I was 45, Destiny was 48, Little Phil was 17, and Destiny Samantha was almost 10. They really didn’t need Isabelle by that time, but she stayed with them anyway, teaching Phil how to run the computer that controlled our planets ecosystem.
    Three months into Destiny’s pregnancy, we robbed the First Central Commercial Interplanetary Bank and Trust in Charta, Turner’s Planet. Or, rather, tried to.

*

On my way out of the vault, laden with four moneybags, I looked up at the male teller in front of me. Just as I was thinking he looked vaguely familiar, Jason Quivers jumped me. I hadn’t seen him in nearly 11 years, so it had taken just a split second for me to recognize him. That was all he needed.
    I found out later, reading the papers in prison on Meela, that Jason had been hired by the FIB, specifically to bring me in. Old records on Persiphone showed that I’d taken his classes there, and military ledgers noted that he’d been my contact when I was selling information to the government, during the Sleebb war. So they had called him in.
    But Jason Quivers was smarter than a lot of people gave him credit for. And much more loyal.
    He had somehow read a pattern into my robberies, and showed up at the right place and at the right time, He disarmed me and held me until the police arrived.
    He’s probably the only person in several systems that could have pulled it off. I had paused, while trying to figure out who he was, and that momentary advantage was all he needed. Besides the fact that my hands were full.
    As he held me to the polished marble floor of the bank, he whispered, “Tell me where Destiny is, Phil, and I’ll get you out of this. Just make it worth my while.”
    I realized then, that he was only doing his job, a job that he didn’t want to do. He was protecting his self-interests.
    I know you’re living off-planet somewhere, he continued in a hoarse whisper, talking quickly, glancing at the front door of the bank. I’ll go there, get Destiny, and break you out.
    So I told him. I didn’t tell him where Destiny’s World was, in case he was wearing a recording device. But I told him that Destiny was parked two streets over, in her a-grav car, waiting for me to exit the bank.
    Then the cops busted in.
    So that’s how I ended up being sentenced to two years in the Meela Penitentiary, at the ripe age of forty-five.

*

I was there for just over a year, until the Meela Penitentiary caught fire, and burned itself to destruction. And then, as far as anyone else was concerned, I was dead.

*

I know, I started writing this account for the prison psychiatrist. And I gave him the first part, up to and including my first two or three robberies. The rest of it, I have written for my own interests, for future generations.
    Let me say this. I do not approve of crime, generally speaking. Just because I made my fortune as a criminal, doesn’t make it right. I know that many young people, reading the other books about me, seeing the movies based on the books, or even, perhaps, reading this one, will get funny ideas. Some people will think I’m a kind of anti-hero, or the good bad-guy.
    Don’t do it, please. For one thing, it’s against the law. And laws are in place for a reason — many of them. For another, you’ll live the rest of your life looking over your shoulder, wondering when the cops are going to come looking for you.

*

Oh. One last thing: don’t come looking for Destiny’s World in Gabriels rings. Don’t think that after all these years of being so careful, that I would screw up and tell you where to find me. I promise, if that’s where you look, youll be very disappointed, indeed.

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