“I don’t know, but are those ships coming out of them?”

“My gods. I think they’re heading this way.”

••••

There must have been a hundred of them. Possibly more. They streaked directly for Parsona from every direction, having pulled out of what Molly assumed were small space docks of some sort. It was hard to tell at this distance.

“BUCKLE UP!” she yelled over her shoulder. She could hear Edison banging his way back toward them and hoped Walter was doing the same. She turned perpendicular to the oncoming ships and gave her crew time to strap themselves in.

“I have over two hundred contacts. You think we should get back in the rock? Because there’s way too much mass here to jump away.”

“I’m never jumping blind again. Are the boys strapped in?”

Cole pulled up the cargo cam and used the control stick to twist the view toward the crew station. “Yeah, buckling up now.”

Molly hit the thrusters with a sharp burn, zooming along the wall of rock and looking for any strays. They were really being squeezed here. Luckily none of the attackers had launched any missiles yet. She wouldn’t consider diving back into the asteroids until they did.

That’s a weird formation, she thought. The SADAR showed bizarre flight patterns: the ships were blazing toward them, but they continuously crossed each other’s flight planes, jostling against one another rather than fanning out to prevent various escape vectors.

“Geez, girl, do you have a bounty on your head? Because those guys are coming at us like the first one wins a prize.”

“I was just thinking the same thing. It’s like junior cadets playing Galaxy Ball, each kid running after the orb and nobody running to space for a pass.”

“Yeah. And now we know how the orb feels.”

Molly pulled a few Gs and flew closer to the field of debris. She placed a large straggler the size of a small moon between her and the herd of eager pursuers. The Parsona was fast for a civilian craft, but every single one of the ships coming after them was reeling her in like she was sitting still.

“I’m starting to agree with you on feeling a bit naked without some defenses.”

“Some consolation. Hey, no two of those ships are the same. SADAR doesn’t even register the designs.”

They were already halfway upon them. “And?”

“I don’t know,” Cole said, “it just reinforces that these guys aren’t together. That and their tactics.”

“You want me to pull over and roll out the welcome mat?”

“Yeah, when hyperspace freezes over. I’m just sayin’ that they don’t seem happy with us, but we’re not under a coordinated attack.”

“Oh, great. So all I have to do is defeat each ship, one at a time, without weapons? Remind you of something?” She had the long trail of ships in a tight clump now, slanting down from their distant docking stations and toward the meteor field. Now that their angle of attack had been herded into a single vector, she pulled the stick up hard, hoping it wouldn’t be too many Gs for Edison.

“Good idea,” Cole said. The flat trajectory along the rocks had everyone lined up. Instead of running from two hundred ships, Molly could now act like she was running from one. If they could get clear of the mass from the asteroid belt, maybe they could jump back to the coordinates they’d just left, the one known landing zone they could be comfortable with.

“Some of them are wising up,” she said. Dozens of the pursuers were branching out in various directions while the bulk of the pack just altered course straight toward them. They still weren’t acting coordinated, it’s just that a few were willing to take a gamble. Molly looked at how far they’d need to get to make a safe jump and it didn’t look good.

She altered course again as swiftly as she dared. The vid screen still showed the two boys, and Edison seemed fine. With the new vector, Parsona was heading slightly toward the mysterious, dark stations. The herd shifted, adjusting course and jostling around each other for position. Again, their selfish tactics were hurting each individual, slowing them down and giving her an advantage. As soon as the pack had itself arranged, she went back to her last vector and watched them jockey once more.

Three of the gamblers had gotten lucky and were clear favorites. They would reach Parsona well ahead of the others, who were too busy fighting amongst themselves. Molly could almost sense the frustration of the herd as their vectors fluctuated. The uncoordinated insanity made her more nervous than a textbook attack would have.

“Not enough space,” Cole said. He’d completed the mass equations on the computer that Molly had performed in her head.

“I know. I’m just culling a few from the herd. I want to see what they’re up to on a small scale. Didn’t want all the pack getting to us at once.”

“You thinking piracy?”

“Yeah. Scavengers or pirates. They want us alive and they want us bad. Hell, I haven’t felt this desirable since my first day at the Academy.”

“Ha. Until the boys realized you were better than them.”

“Yeah, I guess the romance didn’t last too long. Hold on.”

Two more maneuvers widened the lead for the three closest ships. Parsona felt a little sluggish to Molly. Maybe they’d done some real damage backing down on that asteroid.

When the trio behind them got within a hundred kilometers, Molly knew for sure they weren’t out for a quick kill. She was being evasive, with random spirals and some standard low-G stuff, but they still could have tested her with laser fire. One thing she could see was that these guys were good, one of them especially. He was flying as the leader with the other two only keeping up by mimicking his every move. And some of those moves reminded Molly of the Tchung AI, but with more creativity.

Cole whistled at one point, obviously admiring the same thing.

“How are you guys doing back there?” Molly called over her shoulder. She really needed to get a suit and helmet for Edison; it seemed they couldn’t go anywhere in this galaxy without needing to pull serious Gs.

“Edisson won’t give me my game back!” Walter hollered.

Molly smiled and shot the vid screen a look. She was going too easy on them. She moved the G-warning up to twenty, giving her more room to play. Now she really started toying with the guys behind her. She’d set up some obvious habits earlier, like a boxer who would always lower one glove before a hook. She quickly switched to the same tell for jabs. It was a feinting process that worked well on experts, the pilots that memorized patterns during dogfights. It almost made two of the ships careen into one another. The third seemed to anticipate it—or he was just getting lucky again and again.

“I think they just want to play ‘tag,’” Cole said.

He had a point. Mr. Lucky was within a few hundred meters now, and there was no other reason to get so close at these velocities. She could hit the brakes or turn the wrong way and they’d both be in a galaxy of trouble. In fact, the closer the ship got, the less she could try to do in order to shake him. Any bold move would spell suicide and the two stragglers were making up ground. Parsona was pinned.

The lead ship rolled around her and presented its belly; Molly recognized the maneuver, even if she didn’t understand it. She eased back on the throttle and held a steady course. “Turn on the outer airlock lights and prepare for boarders. Whoever this ’troid is just won the rare honor of meeting a Glemot.”

Cole laughed nervously and flipped the docking switches. He unplugged his suit and gave her shoulder a squeeze before heading aft.

Her suitor made his move, darting in with such suddenness and skill that the maneuver was over before she realized it’d started. The airlock collar clicked, confirming the union. The rest of the blips on SADAR reacted at once, breaking off the chase and vectoring back to their lairs. In a way, the response was even eerier than the manner with which the hunt had begun.

Molly didn’t waste time pondering the strange behavior; she launched herself away from the helm and headed after her crew, ready to kill with her bare hands if needed.

Edison had already set up for an ambush; he stood aft of the airlock passage, just inside Walter’s room. Molly took up a position with Cole and Walter at the end of the cargo bay to serve as a distraction. Cole handed her a wrench, his eyebrows arched with worry.

The airlock door hissed open. Their own door. Not blasted down, but sliding aside as if welcoming company. Molly tried to stay focused, expecting a flood of boarders with weapons drawn.

In strolled a man wearing a business suit and swinging a briefcase.

••••

“Wai—” She nearly got it out before Edison lunged. The Glemot pup swung a set of claws at the man’s head, and it looked like a direct hit. But instead of decapitating the man, Edison’s fist snapped back and he howled in pain. Molly reached out to grab Cole and Walter, but they were both too stunned to make a move anyway.

The businessman seemed untouched. He turned his back on Edison and approached Cole, a pale, meaty hand outstretched. Fine wisps of hair were combed from one ear to the other over a bald pate and his fat cheeks were held apart by a small, smiling mouth. His suit sang as it rubbed on itself, shiny in the way expensive things were when they begged to be admired.

“Excellent choice, my good sir,” he told Cole. “You’ll not be disappointed. Albert Gaines at your service. I look forward to doing business with you.” His jabbering filled a cargo bay full of naught else but shocked silence.

Molly watched Cole accept the hand and allow it to be pumped. Edison, still holding his arm, looked to her for orders to try again. She raised her hand slightly, palm down. Edison nodded and examined his hand, brushing aside fur as if some mystery lay beneath.

Albert dropped Cole’s hand and looked appreciably around the cargo bay, sizing it up like someone looking for an apartment to rent. “Excellent. Wonderful bones. Obviously in need of some improvements, am I right?” He met each of their eyes with a glow that suggested they were all his favorite. “I’m right,” he confirmed. He held out his briefcase level with the ground, his bushy eyebrows raised as if to say, “there should be a table here for this, but there isn’t—what gives?”

Molly broke the spell that had fallen over her crew. “Just what in hyperspace do you think you’re doing here?” She stepped forward and pulled Cole back at the same time, a maneuver he seemed more than happy to go along with. “I’m the Captain of this ship, and I want to know who you are and what you were thinking out there. You nearly got us all killed!”

Albert dropped the briefcase to his side and let out an exasperated sigh. He reached into his coat, creating a clichéd sense of panic in the entire crew. Out came his pudgy hand, holding a business card. The expensive-looking suit made more noise as he extended it to Molly. “Albert Gaines, Ships Armaments and Defense Procurement. And I assure you that I was not trying to get you killed out there. The opposite is true, my dear lady. I was merely protecting you from those . . . vultures.” He spat out the last with clear contempt.

Raising the briefcase up with both hands flat underneath, like a babe being offered to the gods, Albert asked, “Now, where should we put this so we can go over the contracts?”

Molly and Cole locked eyes, each probably hoping the other was going to take over. The stalemate left Molly in charge. “Contracts?” she asked.

Albert pulled in a breath and looked her up and down. There was nothing sexual about the leer, but it gave her the creeps nonetheless. She felt like he was sizing her up for a coffin, or figuring out the best way to shear her. He smiled, brushed past Walter, and plopped into one of the crew chairs with the briefcase placed across the perfect creases along his thighs. Two gold-colored locks flicked opened with a loud click. The lid swung up and out came several pieces of paper. He tapped their edges on top of the briefcase to line them up.

“This is obviously your first time in the Darrin system for business. Not many regulars jump into the middle of old Darrin The First, you see. Crazy business, that. Trying to sneak up behind us or get yourselves killed. But hey, I like your style, and the customer is always right!

“As you can see, if you look outside, my ship is taking us back to Albert’s Arms. There, we will be able to set you right up with whatever you need. Provided you can pay for it, of course. But before we go over that, I need you to sign these sales representation agreements. I’ve already worked hard to win you over as a client, and I sure don’t want you to make the mistake of working with my competition. Not a one of them would look after you the way that I will. I give you my guarantee.”

The smile returned. Molly looked from it to the view out the cockpit windows and saw that they were turning slowly back to that string of distant lairs.

Albert cleared his throat. “Now then, the contracts. . .” He held them out to Molly.

26

Even a decade of military jargon and naval technical manuals did not prepare Molly for the convoluted abuse of the English language she held in her hands. She gave Edison’s immeasurable IQ a chance, but it was even worse for him. His need for absolutes in communication recoiled from the lawyerly phrasings. Each sentence could mean three or four things when read individually; taken together, they had all the potential of a chess game prior to the first move. His advice was to burn them, not sign them.

She considered giving Walter a chance, he hailed from a planet of devious barterers, but the boy was too distracted by their new guest. He kept sizing Albert up like a direct competitor, but he also wore something of a leer, an expression Molly often saw him direct toward her. Other than his video game and loot, she’d never known anything to fascinate him so.