ANDERS

The light was dim in the empty docking bay. I started to sweat thinking about what I had told Ayrie. A thousand doubts filled my mind, but Gwen immediately took my mind off them by speaking about practicalities.

“I’m going to do the fastest check I’ve ever done.” She opened the door to the fighter and jumped down with a thump of her boots. “You better figure out how to open the hangar. Otherwise, we aren’t going to be taking this baby anywhere.”

I looked at her beautiful face and her red hair bouncing in a ponytail as she turned away, and felt inappropriately happy that she was coming with me. I used my computer to open a virtual screen and keyboard. I could hear Gwen walking around the ship.

The pirates had set up some basic security protocols, but I was able to slice through them and disable their tractor beam. The barriers protecting it were pathetic. It was like the walls were paper and I had a firehose. I identified our docking bay door and managed to isolate it from the rest of their security network. Now I could open it whenever I wanted. Finally, I set up a few false leads to cover my tracks. With luck, they wouldn’t be able to figure out which parts of the code I had changed.

I took a moment to check the ship’s maintenance log to make sure someone had recently changed the paralytic converter. I didn’t want it failing on me if we needed to land on a planet.

“We’re ready to go here.” I jumped out of the ship. “Are you done?”

“Almost. Help me finish up.” She was crawling around, checking the undercarriage points. “Do me a favor and look at the service log.” Her voice was muffled under the ship.

“I did it already.” I smiled. “We don’t want to end up crashing like Ayrie and Elle.”

“Yeah, we definitely don’t want that.” She sounded worried. “Of course, it worked out well for them.”

I froze. Ayrie and Elle had fallen in love on a deserted island on Vandwa when they got marooned after a shuttle crash. “I guess it did.” Why was she bringing that up?

I shook my head and continued the inspection. It was probably just me reading into things again. Gwen was brokenhearted about being cheated on and divorced by her asshole husband. She was still in love with him. And I was traumatizing myself by thinking she might be implying anything else. Even if she weren’t still in love with Jake, she would never be interested in me.

“Last one.” Her voice sounded strained. One inspection point on this model was a tight fit.

The door leading into the docking bay opened and I heard the sound of heavy boots entering the room. None of our crew would be in here. It had to be pirates. Why hadn’t we locked the door?

“Do a thorough sweep and make sure there’s no one in here,” a rough male voice ordered. He was probably a commander. I heard the door close.

“There’s nothing I enjoy more than doing an exhaustive search of an empty docking bay,” another male voice complained.

“Let’s just get it done.” This time, an agreeable female voice spoke.

“Shit,” I whispered under my breath. Gwen didn’t say anything from under the ship, but she must have heard them too. What should we do? Opening the hatch would make a lot of noise and draw attention to us.

The footsteps came closer. I dropped to the ground and rolled under the ship until I was face-to-face with Gwen. She looked frightened. We stared into each other’s eyes as the footsteps proceeded across the docking bay, stopping at every starship.

I hoped they wouldn’t look underneath any ships. I needed to prove I was worthy. I didn’t want my chance at redemption to end before it started.

The boots came closer until they were walking around us. I could smell the metallic odor of the ships. On top of that, tickling my senses, was a floral scent coming from Gwen. I hoped they couldn’t smell her.

The boots stopped right beside our fighter. I could see them on the other side of Gwen. Her eyes got big, and she pressed her lips together.

“Do we have to check under each one?” the first voice complained. “There’s no one hiding out in a docking bay. Some of these ships are brand new. The flight crews even haven’t taken them out yet. There are still seals on the doors.”

“There aren’t any seals on this one.” I heard suspicion in the woman’s voice as she moved next to the first set of boots.

Their conversation was interrupted by a new male voice yelling from across the bay.

“Are you two finished in there yet?”

“Yeah, we’re done,” the first male voice said.

“But Dorron...”

“Took you long enough. Get over here. We need you. Some of the men are being difficult.”

“I don’t want to execute everyone on the ship,” the female muttered.

“They won’t, Oona,” Dorron voice answered her. “That would be too much work. He’s just making threats so they’ll roll over. You know that.”

“Don’t forget that ship in Sector 78 where he decided to follow through on his threats. I have no desire to do that again.”

“He won’t this time. The ship in Sector 78 was small. I’m telling you, he’s lazy. You remember how much cleaning up we had to do after that one.”

Oona made a disgusted noise in her throat.

“Exactly. He won’t do that with this ship. There are too many people, and it would be a lot of work.”

“If he takes all the women, he could execute the men and set the ship adrift. That way nobody has to clean up.”

“Even so, that’s not our problem. I predict no executions.”

“Let’s go!” shouted their superior.

The boots sped away from the ship, and we both let out our breath. When the door slammed, we scrambled out and jumped into the cockpit. Gwen roughly pulled her console towards her, starting the fighter. I went back to work on my holographic keyboard and screen to get the landing bay door open.

Gwen tapped at her console. The humming in the background increased. “Strap in.” She sounded brusque and already had her belts secured.

I pulled on my restraints, clicking them in an X across my chest. At the same time, I discovered something had changed on the monitor. Maybe someone was paying attention to their security after all.

The starship lifted off, piloted by Gwen’s steady hand. “I can’t help noticing that you haven’t opened the door yet.” Gwen kept her eyes on her console as she carefully maneuvered between the other ships.

“I’m still working on it.” I could hear the tightness in my voice. I tapped at the keyboard and tried to stay calm.

Gwen flew slowly and carefully, not wanting to graze any other ship in the hangar. We had spoken several times about how much they cost. The massive docking bay door loomed in front of us.

“Anders?” She started to reduce our speed.

“I’ve almost got it.” I hoped no one had discovered what I had done. With luck, it was only an automated security response that turned on while we were trapped under the ship all that time.

The speaker relaying sounds into the starship from the docking bay came to life. We heard the door slam and the sound of boots again.

“I want to finish up in here, just in case.” It sounded like Oona again. “If we miss someone, the commander will have our asses. Hey, what’s that over there? Stop!” Oona was shouting at us.

“They’re trying to escape.” Definitely Dorron.

“If they do, we’re going to be in trouble.”

“Come on, Oona. You have your class three license, right?”

“Yes, but these are class four ships.”

“It’s just a number. We can’t let these guys escape.”

“They’re not going to escape.” Oona sounded determined.

I broke through the security again and entered the command to open the door. Gwen picked up speed.

“Can’t we just lock the door? Then we wouldn’t have to go after them,” Oona said.

“Have you ever been on one of these transports before?”

“No.”

“Me neither. So get in the damn starship, Oona.”

“They’re stealing one of our fighters,” Gwen moaned.

“That’s the least of our problems right now.” I put away my computer and pulled the console toward me. The door was opening slowly. Gwen had timed our approach so we would be right in front of it when the door was open just enough to let us pass through. I glanced at the pirate’s ship. Its lights turned on after a few seconds.

“They didn’t check anything,” Gwen said through her teeth as she carefully steered. “I hope the techs didn’t bother changing the paralytic converter on that one.”

I ran through three different systems checks simultaneously. “That’s not very charitable of you.” I kept my eyes on the console as I started the fourth and final verification that would make us ready to launch.

“Those assholes don’t deserve charity.” Her fingers fluttered over the console. It was the only sign I saw which indicated she wasn’t feeling as composed as she looked. “They’re ruining our lives.”

“You have a foul mouth, even for a starship pilot.” I shook my head. The opening was finally big enough to let us through.

“Fuck you, Anders.” She had a smile on her face as we accelerated out into the blackness of space.

* * *

We sped quickly away from the transport while finalizing our interrupted launch procedures. A few minutes later, I sat back and looked at Gwen. She was watching the rear monitors like a hawk. The vastness of space spread out before us. Our giant transport ship was already becoming small on the viewscreen.

“I think we can relax. If the pirates were going to come after us, they would have launched something by now.”

One of our new ships appeared on the monitors, accelerating toward us. At their speed, they would intercept our ship in four minutes. Gwen gave me a dark look.

“These ships are called fighters for a reason.” I pushed away my console and headed for the gunner’s position.

Gwen stayed in the cockpit, where the two pilot seats could move in any direction. Our consoles moved freely in three dimensions. There were four monitors for each of us in addition to the main screen. The pilots of these ships had plenty of information. We just needed to use it correctly.

I liked being in this ship with Gwen. Any cockpit was comfortable, but this one, in particular, seemed made for us. I was more connected to her when we were sitting and working together than at any other time. I thought the feeling was what it would be like if we were a couple.

To move to the gunner’s slot, all I had to do was face the rear and advance ten paces. The area had a single chair and console. Monitors showed the stern and sides of our vessel as well as information about our weapons and the pursuing ships.

Between the cockpit and the gunner’s position amidships, there was the bathroom to the right and a changing room on the other side. It was all compact and designed to save space. This spacecraft had one purpose — combat.

“Keep it on a steady course.”

“I’m a pilot too, you know. Did you think I was planning on an unsteady course?”

Sitting down, I buckled the belts over my chest. This was my second-favorite place in the ship. It was also the only other place for a pilot to do anything. In the gunner’s position, I felt like I was in control and the absolute best at what I was doing. I switched on the electromagnetic pulse cannon. All the weapons on the fighters could be set to disable or kill.

I wasn’t ready to kill anyone yet, especially if it meant blowing up hardware hardware we’d spent good money on. I lined up the enemy ship in my sights.

“You’re sure you know what you’re doing back there, right?” Gwen called from the front.

I locked onto the fighter and fired. We had thirty seconds until they reached us. “There are four things I do well.”

“Four?” She sounded intrigued. “Let me guess. Gaming, eating, sleeping, and taking a shit.”

“You’re hilarious, Gwendolyn. First of all, I’m the only pilot ever to beat the computer.” I didn’t take my eyes off the monitors.

“Everyone’s heard you tell that story at least twice.” I could hear her tapping and making adjustments to dodge any incoming fire.

I watched as the pulse hit. The fighter zigzagged slightly but kept coming after us. We hadn’t tested shooting live guns at the new spaceships. It was an important piece of information, that these ships wouldn’t be knocked off course easily. It just wouldn't be passed along if we died.

I increased the power and started aiming again. “I don’t like talking about myself that much, but people say I’m one of the best hackers around.” I focused carefully and fired. “And there were a lot of hackers at the university.”

“I bet. Okay, I’ll give you those two. I’ve seen you in action.”

“My third skill, honed by many hours of gaming, is blowing up stuff.” She came up behind me and watched while I fired again. We both looked at the other ship’s velocity and noticed that it was decreasing.

“Big deal. What’s number four?” I spun around in my chair.

She wasn’t married anymore. She would never go for me anyway, so it didn’t matter. “I never kiss and tell.” I gave her a wink, and she blushed furiously.

“Right. Like the guy from Auxem who’s not married — the virgin — knows anything about stuff like that.” She rolled her eyes.

But I wondered about the blush. Gwen had told me about being in bed with Jake. She had never changed color before. And don’t get me started on the jokes we had to put up with from the older pilots. Gwen wasn’t embarrassed easily.

“Just because you can’t go all the way, doesn’t mean you can’t have fun.” I studied her carefully. “That’s what Ayrie always said when we went to the bars.”

“I don’t want to hear about you picking up women like they were take-out food.” She shook her head and stormed back to the cockpit.

“I’m going to take a shot at their port wing. I hate to damage another fighter, but we don’t want the pirates following us. We can’t be satisfied with slowing them down. We have to cripple them.”

She turned around. “You can’t wreck another ship, Anders. You won’t be allowed to fly anymore, and you won’t be able to talk your way out of it.”

“I’m not going to destroy it.” I adjusted my console until I had access to our missiles. “I’m just going to blow off their fuel cells.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“The pirates won’t be able to go anywhere. They won’t be hurt or killed, as long as I don’t miss. The fuel cells are on the stern. It’s an easy solution that won’t cost a lot of credits to repair.”

“We’re assuming that you can make the shot.”

“Don’t worry about me.” I adjusted the flight path of the missiles. “Slow us down by twenty-five percent.”

“You got it.”

I pulled up the targeting screen. It was harder to get a lock because the other pilots were deliberately flying in a random pattern. Those guys were pretty good.

Not as good as us, though.

Their so-called random pattern didn’t deter me. It was hard to make anything truly random, anyway. There are usually telltale repetitions. Gwen had already adjusted our speed. I let myself focus, feeling myself drop into the flow. Everything else fell away from my mind. The enemy starship was the only thing I could see. After a minute, I achieved a targeting lock and fired, feeling triumphant.

“Missile away,” I called out.

Gwen came back and joined me. We watched as it flew through space and took off a piece of the left wing. On the monitors, it looked like a perfect shot. The fuel cells were gone.

“Hmph,” Gwen muttered. “One out of four isn’t bad, I guess.”