BANG. Something smashed Jake’s arm, and it went totally numb. Oh. Somebody was shooting at them. Another bang hit his leg. He lost purchase and fell backward. There wasn’t much gravity, so he kind of drifted toward the ground.

  “Everybody, inside! We missed somebody. They’re shooting at us. Move, move!” Nadine yelled over the radio. She shoved Jake ahead of her and propelled him up into the hatch.

  “Riley, get up front and pre-flight us. Power the engines. Jorge, get all these guys inside now.” Nadine paused. “Don’t forget the silver. Bring the crate.”

  Nadine hustled Jake up and dumped him in a corner of the airlock, then she reached back and helped Jorge and another crewman in. She swung the outer hatch shut, and pressurized the lock. She and Riley raced forward, Jorge and the other crewman right behind them.

  Jake laid on the floor of the airlock and rocked side to side. There was a large dent in his suit on his arm, and he had no feeling or control of his right leg or right arm. His breathing was becoming labored. His vision was filling up with stars. Was he in shock? Why didn’t his arm work?

  Jake looked up at the ceiling and addressed an uncaring universe. “Somebody always shoots me. Why does somebody always shoot me?” He sighed, and then blacked out.

  Jake wasn’t out for long. He woke up and felt the ship vibrating. The engines must be spooling up. He flexed his arms and legs, and felt some control in his arm. His leg still hurt. He tried to put weight on it and collapsed, banging his head on the wall on the way down. He cursed some more, then dragged himself up with his hands. His leg didn’t hurt anymore when he stood up, as long as he didn’t put any weight on it. He started to drag himself to the control room.

  The control room was crowded. Riley and Nadine were at the main stations. Jake dragged himself behind the auxiliary control board. Riley was running a check on the flight systems. Nadine was hammering calculations into her screen and had just pushed the acceleration warning gong. Jorge was in back but had sent one of his buddies up—an environmental tech. He was tinkering with his controls, setting pump flow rates.

  “I said, we don’t have enough fuel,” Riley said.

  “The fuel doesn’t matter. Just get us off this rock before that shooter hits something important, like a control run. Tomas, what’s the story?” Nadine said.

  “Senorita, I am pumping as fast as I can, but we will lose most of the extra fuel before we can burn it off. We will only have the internal tanks.”

  “Just get us up and away from here. We’ll be safe once we’re moving,” Riley said.

  “Provided we don’t get shot out of space,” Nadine said. “Switch to my screen number five for a second.”

  “What am I looking at? What’s this swinging red cone?”

  “That’s the mill. The red cone corresponds to the mass driver’s area of effect. If you can stay out of that cone, they can’t hit you.”

  “You think they’ll shoot entire containers at us, just to knock us down?”

  “I would,” Nadine said. “Or at least threaten to. Shoot one just to show I’m serious, and who could tell the difference.”

  “I’m fine, girls, and thanks for asking,” Jake said, slumping at the control station.

  “It’s not serious, Jake, we had Jorge check your vitals while you were out. He said you’ll do for a while,” Nadine said.

  “Jorge is a doctor now?” Jake said.

  “Stop your whining, Jake. Every time you get shot, you whine.”

  “I’ll have to stop that, then.”

  “The whining?”

  “No, the getting shot. I kind of like the whining.”

  “Right, okay,” Riley said. She keyed the intercom. “Jorge, get everyone back there strapped in now.” She turned to Tomas. “Tomas, you need to get strapped down somewhere.”

  “I will go back to the lounge and use one of the couches,” he said and returned to the lounge.

  Riley keyed the general intercom channel. “Liftoff in thirty seconds.”

  “No, no, merchie girl. I’m going to drive this thing. I’m the better pilot,” Nadine said.

  “You are not.”

  “I am. I’m taking over the board.” Nadine began to swap screens. She tapped a button. Nothing happened. She tapped it again, then a third time. Still, nothing happened. She turned around and saw Jake at the auxiliary board, laboriously typing with his left hand. She narrowed her eyes. “Jake?”

  “I’m sorry, Nadine. You are a good pilot, but our fuel situation is critical, and you are very profligate with fuel,” Jake said.

  “Profligate? Jake, speak standard.”

  “You use too much fuel on your maneuvers. Too many radical changes. Riley was raised on a merchant ship—fuel costs money, and she’s learned to conserve it. Her maneuvers are very efficient and precise. She’ll take us out till we’re on a docking orbit, then you take over.”

  “I’m a better pilot.”

  “Not at the short stuff you are not. You use too much fuel.”

  “And I knew what profligate means,” Riley muttered, smiling.

  “Shut up, merchie,” Nadine said.

  “Ladies, argue later. Let’s get out of here,” Jake said.

  Riley pressed a button, and a bong sounded. She keyed her mic. “Lifting now. Everybody stay strapped in till we tell you otherwise.”

  Chapter 29

  “I can just see them on the radar,” the navigator said. “Look at screen three. Near that asteroid.”

  The pilot tapped his controls. “That’s pretty far away, and they’re moving fast. If we wait, I don’t think we’ll be able to catch them.”

  “We’ll have to burn hard,” the navigator in the cab agreed. He looked at the pilot. “Where’s the major?”

  “Sitting in the lounge drinking his hot cider, probably.” The pilot smiled and looked at the navigator. The navigator grinned back, then put a hand above his screen, but didn’t touch it yet. He held his other hand out with five fingers extended and made a counting motion—five, four, three, two….

  The pilot placed his hands over the thruster controls and waited. When the count reached zero, the navigator pressed a button and an acceleration gong sounded. A split second after the gong started, the pilot keyed the thrusters, the ship pivoted on its tail, and then he fired the main engines. They were both pushed into their seats as they bled off speed, falling closer toward the moon below.

  A howl of pain and then a stream of curses came from behind them. An officer climbed into the control cabin. He was waving a cup around, and his previously immaculate uniform was marred by a large wet stain on his chest. Cider dripped from his chin.

  “Idiots. What are you doing?”

  “Sir, we are in pursuit of a stolen ship.” The pilot was very serious, and all traces of the grin had disappeared.

  “Stolen ship? How do you know it was stolen? And why did you alter course without asking permission first? I should heave you out an airlock for your disrespect.”

  “Sir, the message said ‘most immediate.’”

  “Message—what message? I received no message.”

  “It didn’t come over the ship’s system, sir.”

  “What?”

  “Gagnon here,” the pilot indicated the navigator. “He got it on his personal comm.”

  “Ridiculous. Not on the ship’s systems. What type of message was this?”

  The navigator coughed. “It was an unofficial message, sir. Not from HQ.”

  “Unofficial? On your personal comm. You are taking direction from your friends, now?”

  “From a member of the Officers’ Council, sir,” the navigator said. He stared at his screens and kept his mouth in a straight line.

  The officer froze. He dropped the hand with the cup to his side.

  “From the Council?”

  “Yes sir. Most immediate. Pursuit. As we are now. Should we tell the Council that we are delaying executing their instructions until you confirm them?”

  The officer coughed. “No, no, of course, anything for the Council. You did well.” He looked down at his shirt. “I’ll just go change my uniform.”

  The pilot spoke. “We’d rather you didn’t, sir.”

  “What?”

  “We need the freedom to maneuver as we pursue, sir. We might have to make split-second course corrections. If you were changing, we’d have to wait till you confirm you are prepared for acceleration. Of course, we could signal the Council that we’re delaying.”

  “No, no. That’s fine. I’ll just go and strap into my couch.”

  “Thank you, sir. If you don’t mind, could you lock the hatch shut behind you? It should be shut when we are at damage-control level three.”

  “Good idea. Of course. Carry on, you two. Good job.” The officer carefully exited the bridge, swinging the hatch shut behind him. The crew waited a second after the hatch closed before breaking out laughing.

  “Hey, they’re pivoting,” the navigator said a few minutes later.

  “Why?”

  “They’re slowing. They’re not trying to get away from Delta, they’re trying for an orbit.”

  “That’s good news. We should be able to catch them,” the pilot said.

  “For sure. We’ll still have to burn hard, but we should catch up with them. Huh. That’s a pretty low orbit.”

  “Will they be able to break out?”

  “They’ve dropped from their original one already. If they wanted to go higher, they could. If they have enough fuel.”

  “Do they?”

  “Not sure. I’ve got it in the telescope. It’s kind of a weird-looking ship. Looks like a shuttle without wings.”

  “It’s a shuttle? Are they going to land?” the pilot said.

  “Nope. Definitely not. It is streamlined, but it’s definitely not a shuttle. Just looks strange.”

  “How big is it?”

  The navigator brought up a picture of their cutter and put the two side by side. “Smaller than us.”

  “Less fuel, then. Anywhere it can go, we can go.”

  “For sure.”

  “How long till we catch it?”

  “We’ll be alongside in about fifty minutes at this course.”

  “Alongside? What if they run?”

  “They can’t run from us if they can’t see us. And I’m looking in the telescope, and I don’t see any radar. Or weapons.”

  “What do we do then?”

  “Don’t know. Let’s ask ‘I-am-in-command’ back there.”

  Chapter 30

  “We need a course to a station,” Riley said. She glanced out the forward viewport. It ran the entire width of the front of the control room, giving an excellent view of Delta, the rings, and the Dragon. “Our fuel won’t last forever. We’re out of that stupid month-long orbit. More like six hours. But it will decay. What next?”

  “I’m not sure we need to go to a station,” Nadine said. “Jake, you must have had a plan. Jake?”

  Jake was lolling in his seat. He was very pale.

  “Jake, are you okay?”

  “My leg hurts. I’m sleepy. Shiny flashes.”

  The two girls looked at each other.

  “Shit,” Nadine said. She slid over toward Jake. “He’s very pale. He might be going into shock.”

  “How can he be going into shock? He was talking a second ago?” Riley said.

  “Maybe he’s losing blood.”

  “He’s not bleeding. There’s nothing on his suit or on the deck, or anywhere. How could he be bleeding?”

  “It could be internal.”

  “He was hit in the arm and the leg, not the chest.” Riley locked her board, and then slipped back to bend over Jake. She was running her hands over Jake’s suit. “Emperor’s balls. Look at his leg.”

  Nadine leaned over to look. The leg of Jake’s suit bulged out, and the suit had sealed over two bullet holes nearby.

  “It went between two of the insets. He’s bleeding into the suit. We have to get it off.”

  “Can we cut it off?” Riley asked.

  “It’s a Belter suit. Anything that can cut it will cut his leg off. We should be able to unzip it.”

  Riley fiddled with the suit. “The zipper is inside the boots.”

  “We take his boots off, then slip the zipper up, peel it back,” Nadine said.

  “And have ten liters of blood pool on the floor while he bleeds out.”

  Jake’s mouth worked, “No, Riley, only five. Shiny flashes.”

  “Jake, just hang on, we’ll sort this out. We need a med kit, Nadine.”

  “I’ll get one,” Nadine said. She scrambled toward the rear cabin.

  “Just a minute, Jake. You’ll be fine. We’ll get you fixed up. What did you mean, what you said there?”

  “Five liters, not ten.”

  “Jake,” Riley said, “What do you mean, five liters?”

  “Only five liters of blood in a person. Not ten. Floor won’t get that dirty.”

  Nadine came in with a med kit. “How is he?”

  “He’ll be fine.”

  It took a few minutes to get the medical supplies ready. They found a full bottle of quick skin spray. It contained an organic compound that sealed over the skin. The spray functioned as a bandage, to keep the wound clean, and would dissolve in several days as the skin healed. In addition, it contained a strong antiseptic. Nadine had also returned with a medical stapler, a bunch of pads to soak up the blood that was bound to come out when they rolled up Jake’s suit leg, and a bottle of blood fluid replacer. She also searched for ‘what to do for shock’ on her comm.

  “Okay,” Riley said. “I’ll pull his boot off, then unzip and peel back the suit. You spray the bandage spray right into the wound, whatever it is, then we’ll staple, and spray again.”

  “Sounds good,” Nadine said. “Pull away.”

  Riley reached down and placed Jake’s leg against her chest. She grasped the side of the boots. She squeezed hard. “Ready? Hey.” The boot moved and clicked, and a compartment in the heel opened. Something fell out onto the deck.

  “What in the Emperor’s name is that?” Nadine asked.

  Riley picked it up. “A chip. Course chip. In the heel of his boot. The boot is loose.” The boot began to move, and blood started to well out from the cuff.

  “Forget the chip. Get the boot off and peel the leg. Do it now.”

  Riley clicked the chip back into the compartment on his boot, then pulled hard. The boot resisted for a minute, but then came free with a warm sucking sound. Blood flowed out onto the floor from under the cuff of the suit.

  “Now, the leg. Go. Go. Go,” Nadine said.

  Riley reached down and pulled the plastic zipper. The suit split up Jake’s calf, uncovering more blood. The blood pulsed rather than spurted, so it wasn’t an artery, but a long, deep gash that ran up the back of Jake’s calf muscle.

  Nadine leaned over and sprayed a quick film over the wound, stopping the blood temporarily. Then she traded the spray can for the pads, and sopped up most of the blood over the gash.

  “Squeeze the sizes of the cut together. I’ll staple.”

  Riley pushed the sides of the cut together, hard. Nadine pushed the medical stapler up against the leg and began stapling. She shot four quick staples in, and then moved the stapler to put a fifth in. She hesitated.

  Riley looked Nadine in the eye. “If you staple my fingers, I’ll know it wasn’t an accident. And I’ll take that stapler and jam it right up your pretty little behind.”

  Nadine laughed. “Just a thought,” she said. She moved her fingers slightly and fired a fifth staple, missing Riley’s hand by a few millimeters. “Okay, move your hand.”

  Riley let go, and Nadine ran a second set of pads over before spraying the whole leg with a film of quick skin. Nadine looked down at Jake. “Okay, it’s sealed. That will do for now. Riley, pull his suit back down and put his boot on. That will give extra support.”

  They zipped his suit back up over the quick skin. The boot went back on, and the compartment clicked closed. Jake’s head still lolled around, and he was barely conscious. “Five liters, not ten. Shiny flashes,” he mumbled.

  “He keeps saying that,” Nadine said.

  “He’s delirious. Will he be okay?” Riley asked.

  “He’s lost a lot of blood. I would put him in the med-robot.”

  “If we had a med-robot, which we don’t. Right, what next?”

  Nadine read from her comm. “It says, ‘After stopping the bleeding and sealing the wound, give the patient two liters of volume replacement.’ That’s this thing.” She held up a plastic package with clear fluid in it, and an attached tube that ended in a needle. “It has a pain killer as well. They say to put this in and squeeze it into a vein in his arm.”

  Riley rolled up a sleeve, examined Jake’s arm and located a blue vein. “Here, put it in.”

  This proved to be much harder than anticipated. Nadine messed up her first two tries, and ended up pumping the fluid under Jake’s skin rather than into a vein. Riley took the needle from her and tried a third and fourth time in the other arm, finally getting it on the fourth try, and they began to slowly pump the fluid into his arm.

  The improvement was immediate. Jake’s color began to return, and he stopped mumbling. After only a minute, his answers became clearer.

  “Jake, can you hear me?” Riley asked.

  “Yes. But I’m kind of sleepy. And my leg hurts a lot.”

  “We’ll give you something for the pain.”

  “Okay.”

  “We just want to make sure that you’re okay. You were saying stupid things. Like how much blood is in a person.”