When the hatch opened, I stormed aboard looking for answers with a grex12 shotgun ready to fire. I needed to know who was after us, why, and if anyone else was going to get in our way as we tried to rescue @bitchfrog. And, of course, I wanted to free @auroraloon if she had made it aboard.

  We were a small crew by comparison, but they didn't necessarily know that. What they surely knew was that this was a v90 Dominator ship, with a Vanquisher on board. As with any boarding of a hostile vessel, there was always the risk of having the situation reversed on you, so I was prepared for another fight.

  I needed @zerogstar and @biclops to prepare for a quick exit if they tried to take our ship. That left @astrowave and I to do the boarding. I quickly reprogrammed Rufus and Doofus to be pseudo-combat droids, but it's not like you can teach a robotic flamingo to fire a gun. The best I could do was strap a wrist cannon to each of their heads and wire it up so that I could command them to fire.

  You might think storming their ship was rash. Why not open the hatch behind cover and wait to see what happens? That's smart. That's wise. Sometimes I'm neither of those.

  The four of us crossed over to their ship immediately. We didn't wait to see what was there. We opened fire first, no questions asked, and as soon as we were on board Graviton, @biclops closed and locked the hatch behind us. I'd rather die than let them take The Pharaoh from us. @biclops would stay by the hatch, ready to provide medical services.

  Our shots fell on nothing but an empty passage with rounded walls. Ten paces away was another doorway.

  "Masks," I ordered.

  I wouldn't have put it past them to try to gas us here in the transfer chamber or burn us to bits. Sabotage, suicide explosion, anything was possible. They could always reanimate. The only thing that would keep us alive was the value of their cargo, their desire to talk with us, or both.

  If they did try anything, they had to know that we would jettison our ship and blow them up. The choice was theirs. Blow yourselves up, let us blow you up, or hold and try to survive. They were still in a position to negotiate.

  I walked slowly forward, taking the lead, energy shield blazing in front of me, Rufus and Doofus bobbing forward at my sides. What a difference I felt from the first time @astrowave and I had done this, back on the starlab. Back then, I was the nervous Wavepilot, hidden in the back while the real soldiers took the lead. I was the soldier now.

  "Welcome aboard," a message played through the intercom. It was a man's voice. He didn't sound anxious, dangerous, angry. He sounded … bored.

  The door opened in front of us. I sent Rufus forward down the passage, checking the visual feed from its cameras, while I pinged the area with my sensors to get a feel for the layout of the ship.

  The room ahead of us was what I expected of a ready room, full of armor, weapons, and supplies for departure from the ship. I held up my hand and stopped a few paces short of the entrance. @astrowave and Doofus remained with me, while I cautiously let Rufus enter.

  Inside were five people. Three men and two women. All but one of them had weapons raised, ready to fire. But this wasn't a trap. I thought for sure we'd walk into a trap.

  One of the men stepped forward, waving at Rufus while holding a pistol in his right hand. He had ruffled brown hair and a slight beard, dressed in dark grey fatigues, a sort of utility outfit with various pockets and a strap of ammunition across his chest.

  "That was quite the battle you gave us," the man called out. "It's okay. We won't fire unless you do."

  I watched him through Rufus's eyes, waiting.

  "We're not idiots," he said. "None of us is interested in dying today. You know we could have trapped you, blown the ship up, lured you inside." He looked at one of the women. She nodded at him.

  What were they planning? I wondered. I thought about what he had said. I still didn't feel good about it, but they had a point. They could have set multiple traps by now.

  "Drop your weapons then," I called out.

  The people in the room disbursed, but slowly. Instead of dropping their weapons, they carefully put them away, hanging them on gun racks or putting them in holsters.

  "That's not what I meant," I said, anger building up.

  "Let's talk, and then we can go our separate ways," the man said. "We have information we can trade if you let us go."

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Typical. Back in my Wavepilot days, I knew this was a stupid exercise. We just blew up pirates whenever we found them. In this case, however, I needed to know how they found us and why. It couldn't be coincidence.

  I walked into the room, grex12 held high, energy shield sizzling, trying to look intimidating so I could control the room. Doofus and @astrowave joined me so that the four of us could cover everyone.

  "I told you we should have taken the flamingos," someone said from the back right, a squat bald man, eying Rufus and Doofus.

  So this was the same pirate ship. That meant @auroraloon had been killed or captured by the Graviton crew.

  "Kneel," I ordered. "All of you."

  They slowly complied.

  "Why are you here, and why did you attack us?" I demanded.

  The man, whom I took for their leader, exchanged looks with the others. Before he could say anything, another door opened in the back.

  In walked @auroraloon, dressed in the same attire that the man was, but without the ammo strap. The outfit looked a little big on her, but her authoritative presence filled the gaps.

  "You?!?" she said, eyes wide.

  I shrieked and dropped my grex12, launching myself at her. I was going to hug her, but she held her arm out, shoving me in the chest.

  "Not broken," I said, maybe more to myself than to @auroraloon, flashing a big smile.

  She motioned for the Graviton crew to stand up.

  "Nope," I yelled quickly, remembering where I was. "Stay down."

  I backed away and retrieved my grex12. "Tell me what happened."

  @auroraloon shrugged. "I told you I'd live. I took over the ship. This is my ship now, and my crew. I killed the rest." She surveyed the people in the room. "They didn't like their previous captain anyway."

  Her crew nodded in agreement. One of them laughed and muttered "asshole."

  "So, you're a pirate now?" I asked.

  She smiled. "For now. It was the appropriate choice."

  I wondered if the Graviton crew knew she was an Infiltrator with the Solar Union. I wondered if I would blow her cover if I said anything. I wasn't sure what to do. This caught me unprepared, as @auroraloon was prone to do. My futurecasting was useless again. She was an outlier, the outlier of all outliers. But I had trusted the old @auroraloon, and she hadn't let me down. I decided to trust the new @auroraloon as well.

  "Why are you here? Why did you attack us?"

  She narrowed her eyes at me. So, I trusted her, but she hadn't made up her mind about me.

  "Given our track record," I said, "I can probably just blow you all up and move on, knowing that I'll bump into you again." I patted Doofus on the back of the neck. "And we have places to be, so … you choose."

  I stared at her violet eyes, remembering that the last time we met, she had pecked me on the lips before abandoning me to die. I refused to toggle my Puppy Eyes, although the thought was tempting.

  "We're tracking a ship," she said at last, grimacing at me. "After we delivered our haul to Eros, we picked up a contract. It looks like you're tracking the same ship that we're tracking."

  I nodded along, but a plink message came in, for my eyes and ears only, distracting me.

  zerogstar: "@kittyboy, the Gravemind contract must have gone through. I've got the location of @foxcutter and the lab. It's not a place. It's a ship."

  Well, fuck me. Black Balloon Girl was right. The Alliance Starmada had made the deal with the Gravemind Syndicate. What that deal was, I probably didn't want to know, but it sure meant that any trust I had left in the Alliance Starmada was basically gone.

  I messaged her back.

  kittyboy: "Understood. Almost done here."

  No time to waste.

  "Why are you tracking it?" I asked.

  @auroraloon must have noticed the change in my behavior. She tilted her face at me as she answered. "Our contract says to relay the coordinates back to the source, which is anonymous." She spoke slowly. I was sure she knew more than she was sharing, perhaps only disclosing to me what the Graviton crew itself knew. "And to intercept anyone trying to interfere," she added.

  Fair enough. The source was probably Black Balloon Girl, knowing I might go after my crew. She had underestimated me. People often do.

  I was resolute now in what needed to happen.

  "You're coming with us as a prisoner," I said to @auroraloon. "We'll leave your crew to repair the ship. They can do this?"

  She was going to object, but my stare stopped her. I figured she wouldn't exactly be a willing prisoner, but that ultimately she wanted to go where we were going anyway. It was a gamble, but a safe one.

  "Is Sango with you?" she asked.

  I couldn't help but laugh. Good thing I got a cat. I was glad she cared at all, considering that she left both Sango and I dangling from the grappling hook in the face of death.

  "He is," I replied, adding a gentle note to my tone. "He's fine."

  "They can fix the ship," she said, making up her mind. She addressed the man whom I had thought was leading. "@crazysnake, you're in command. @switchgear, oversee the repairs."

  The man, @crazysnake, looked up at me from his knees, then over to @auroraloon, and then back to me. I motioned for him to stand.

  "Head to Steve's Ship & Shop," I said. I wanted to earn their trust if I could. "Tell him the Vanquisher sent you, and have him bill me for the work. It might take you a bit to get there unless you can repair your DEAD drive, but he'll take good care of you, as long as you don't make trouble for him."

  @crazysnake nodded at me. "Thank you, I guess."

  "You make trouble for him, and I'll make sure all of Dominion hunts you down." I doubted I could get the Vanquisher collective, Dominion, to actually do that, but you never know. They did have an open contract board for capture, kill, or delete (the CKD Board), so it wasn't an empty threat.

  "You're coming with us," I said to @auroraloon.

  I gestured to @astrowave. He lowered his rifle as @auroraloon walked forward. She presented her arms, crossed at the wrists, to @astrowave, who nervously bound them with a zip tie. We both knew she could free herself in an instant, but we hadn't thought to bring proper cuffs. Even if it was just for show, it made a point to the Graviton crew members.

  She and @astrowave headed back down the passage to The Pharaoh.

  "See you all later," @auroraloon called back to her crew. "To the dust!"

  "To the dust," they hollered back.

  I shook my head. I didn't want to know what that was all about, but I had to hand it to @auroraloon. She was good at her job. She would live.