“Yeah, well, if you don’t get me back home in the next twenty hours, I’m going to lose my job, my apartment, and maybe Kaiju.”

  “Your cat’s name is Kaiju?” I asked. “That’s awesome.”

  “Thanks.” She flashed a smile my way before her sourpuss swung back at Matt. “If I don’t sign, you’re responsible for re-homing me, right?”

  “Uh…” He swallowed hard. “Like I said, none of this is even admissible in an Earth court. Who would believe you’re suing a starship tour operator, anyway?”

  “But I can sue you in the Spiral.”

  “If you can file the lawsuit and appear in front of the judge.”

  “Which you would help me do, because you’re not a scammer, right?”

  Matt sighed in frustration. “Ally, I promise when we get back to Earth if you’ve suffered any losses, we’ll do our best to make you whole. We’re not scammers, but accidents do happen.”

  “Apparently, so do ambushes from starships that shouldn’t exist,” Tyler added.

  Matt pointed to him. “Exactly. We had no way to predict this would happen.”

  “Yes, you did,” Alyssa insisted. “You admitted you have enemies in the Spiral who keep trying to kill you. Why wouldn’t you expect them to follow you to Earth?”

  “They would need someone who knows how to use Sigiltech to open rifts. Ben and Keep are the only two people that can do it, and Keep would never betray us.”

  “How can you be sure they’re the only ones?”

  Matt opened his mouth, but no guarantees spilled out. “Please, just sign it,” he begged instead.

  “No,” she replied.

  “Ally,” Tyler snapped

  “Don’t,” she snapped back. “There are only two adults in this room, and I’m one of them. So butt out of it.”

  “Ouch.” Tyler clasped his hands over his heart in response to the vicious rebuke.

  “If that’s how you want it,” Matt said. “Stand up. Leave your ticket on the table.”

  “Why?”

  “I told you. I need to lock you up. It’s for your safety.”

  “Red, you may want to just sign it,” I said, taking a softer tack than Tee had tried. “We’re a team, and I don’t want us to split up.”

  She looked at me, and for a second I thought she might relent. “I’m sorry. I want to. But if this ends up costing me everything I’ve worked for, I need a backup plan. Crossing the galaxy to file a lawsuit is the best I can do right now.”

  “I’m sure I have money coming my way. I can help you out.”

  “That’s sweet, Katzuo. Really. But you need that money. I’m sure the last thing your folks would want is you to skip out on college to help a total stranger pay her rent.”

  “You aren’t a total stranger. You’re a Stinking Badger.”

  She looked down at the signature line, then at the offered pen, then at me. Completing the cycle three more times, she sighed and finally took the pen.

  “Matt,” Levi said, the computer’s voice breaking in over loudspeakers in the galley. “We have an unidentified contact on long range sensors.”

  Instead of signing, Alyssa threw the pen across the galley. This time, Matt didn’t care. He had bigger fish to fry.

  We all did.

  “ETA?” Matt snapped, already moving for the exit. I jumped up behind him. Tyler and Ally followed.

  “Twelve minutes at their current heading and velocity.”

  I expected Matt to turn left toward the elevator, and head to the flight deck. Instead, he hung a right, and we chased him into the lounge. He picked the television remote up from one of the sofa cushions and turned the TV on, flipping to a channel that displayed the sensor grid. Sure enough, a ship was headed straight for us.

  “Levi, can you get me a visual?” he asked, turning and opening the drawer of the end table next to the sofa. He didn’t find what he was looking for there, so he tried the other end table. Still nothing. He rushed over to the bar, looking behind it. “Damn it, Ben. Where’d you leave the RFD?”

  Meanwhile, Levi turned the channel into a split screen of the grid and a camera feed looking out into space. The camera steadily zoomed in, painting a red outline around the ship to make it more visible against the black.

  The good news was that it bore no resemblance to the ship that had attacked us near Earth.

  That was also the bad news.

  Matt ran up the steps to the bedrooms while the three of us stared at the screen. The ship appeared to be a few hundred feet long and nearly equally wide, composed of multiple bulbous spheres that made the entire thing look like a metallic tumor. There were no obvious viewports. thrusters, or energy trails, leaving its means of propulsion questionable. Fortunately, I also didn’t see any gun batteries or turrets, but I imagined not every vessel would make their weapons as obvious as Head Case did. As I stared, I noticed how the exterior of the ship’s hull appeared as if it was covered in reflective dragon scales, which shifted and moved across the surface of the craft, appearing to constantly morph their form.

  “That thing is sick,” Tyler said beside me.

  “I’m going to be sick,” Alyssa commented, her face pale. She looked over her shoulder as Matt hopped down the stairs, grumbling about Ben being a slob. “Do you recognize this one?” she asked.

  He eyed the incoming ship. “No. I’ve never seen a ship like that before.”

  “Wrong answer,” Tyler said. “How are we supposed to know whether or not it’s friendly before it starts shooting at us?”

  “We need to go up to the flight deck and try hailing them. I could have done it from down here, but I can’t find the RFD pad.”

  “And RFD stands for…?” I urged.

  “Remote Flight Deck,” Tyler answered for him. “I thought that was obvious.”

  Matt tapped his comm badge. “Meg, Leo, is the elevator ready to go?”

  “Aye, it is,” Leo answered. “But it will still need a recharge after you use it.”

  “Good enough.” He looked us over, gaze pausing on Ally while he considered whether or not to leave her in one of the bedrooms.

  “Look,” I said, my eyes still on the ship. The forward bulbous protrusions were shifting, collapsing in on each other and reconfiguring into a new shape, creating a long snout at the front of the vessel.

  “Great,” Tyler said. “Ben sent us through the void and into the Transformers’ universe.”

  Still morphing, sleek protrusions that looked way too much like gun barrels sprouted from the front of the ship beside the snout, taking on an appearance similar to a sea urchin.

  “That doesn’t look very friendly to me,” Alyssa said.

  “That doesn’t mean it isn’t friendly,” Matt countered. “Just cautious.”

  “If you say so.”

  “I hope so,” he answered. “Come on.”

  “Are you sure hailing them is a good idea?” I asked, giving Matt pause. “Since that ship doesn’t look at all like it was made by humans, there’s a very good chance they don’t speak English. Not to mention we have no idea where we are in this universe.

  “Considering our shields are still pretty beat up,” Matt said, “fighting isn’t an option. We can’t go FTL, so running isn’t viable either. Our only other option is to try to talk our way out of this.”

  “It’s kind of amazing,” Tyler said. “Space is so gigantic, and yet these guys found us in less than an hour.”

  “Amazing and terrifying,” Alyssa added.

  “It also means they were already nearby or have FTL tech also,” I said.

  “Or Sigiltech,” Tyler offered.

  “Maybe we’re near an occupied ILF planet,” Alyssa suggested. “Maybe this is a good thing.”

  One of the sleek protrusions suddenly glowed in bright orange before spewing energy across the gap between us and them.

  And there was absolutely nothing we could do about it.

  CHAPTER 20

  All four of us froze, nowhere near close enough to the flight deck to do much about the orange plasma heading straight for us, and since Levi didn’t try to fly the ship, I had to assume it was beyond the AI’s programming.

  The energy crashed into Head Case, the shields flaring blue but holding steady against the stream. It ended within a few seconds, without so much as rattling our cage.

  “That looked a hell of a lot like a warning shot to me,” Tyler said.

  “Aren’t you supposed to miss when you fire a warning shot?” Alyssa asked.

  “Or dial down the power so it doesn’t do too much damage,” Matt answered. “Either way, friendlies don’t usually shoot first and roll out the welcome mat later.”

  “So what do we do?”

  Matt shook his head. “I don’t know. I think I should go check on Ben.”

  “There’s no time,” Tyler said. “We need a plan, now.”

  “I’m the pilot, not the planner. That’s Ben’s area of expertise.”

  “And Noah’s,” Tyler volunteered. “Come on, man. Give us an idea.”

  All eyes turned my way. The sudden pressure of having everyone’s fate in my hands should have left me frozen in fear. It was one thing to plan a strategy for a video game, entirely different to play with other people’s actual lives. But after the day I’d already had, after the bad luck that had put us in this situation, it didn’t seem as though I had that much to lose. Best case? We remained potentially lost, the ship damaged, her captain incapacitated, with no obvious way home. Worst case scenario, we all die and this horrible, incredible, terrible, amazing day would come to an end.

  “Can’t fight, can’t run, can’t talk,” I said. “The next best thing to do is hide.”

  “Kind of hoping for something that makes a little more sense there, Katzuo,” Tyler said. “We’re drifting through open space. There is nowhere to hide.”

  “I didn’t mean the ship,” I explained. “I meant us.”

  “You mean play possum?” Ty looked skeptical. “They just blasted the ship’s shields. They know we have power.”

  “Maybe, but that doesn’t mean anyone is home. What if life support failed? What if we took an escape pod and abandoned ship? We’re under power in the middle of nowhere. For what reason?”

  “Noah’s right,” Alyssa agreed. “If everything was just fine, there would be no reason for us to be drifting aimlessly out here. But what if that ship has life sign detection sensors? Or what if that beam wasn’t an attack but a way of scanning us?”

  “You’ve watched too many Star Trek episodes,” Matt said. “That kind of sensor not only doesn’t exist, it can’t exist. It would need to be able to pass a signal fine-tuned enough to read DNA or pick up small atmospheric changes across a vacuum, not to mention through energy shielding, the hull, and all of the bulkheads, pipes, and wires.” He shrugged. “At least, that’s what David told me when I asked about life sign detection.”

  “It’s supposed to be impossible to open rifts in spacetime, too,” Alyssa rebutted.

  Matt laughed. “Yeah, I can’t argue with that. It may be that they can sense us, but it seems like a chance we have to take. Good thinking, Noah.”

  “Is it?” Tyler asked. “No offense, Noah-san, but what if they think Head Case is derelict?”

  ”Maybe they’ll come in for a closer look and then move on,” I answered.

  “And what if they don’t? What if they decide to board us? Even if they believe the ship is abandoned, they may decide they want this sweet, sweet, salvage…what then?”

  “There’s a good chance that could be the case,” I agreed. “But what other choice do we have? It’s the best of the bad options.”

  “I agree with Noah,” Matt said. “And believe me, I’ve had to pick from that menu before. The good news is, we aren’t entirely defenseless.” He tapped his comm badge. “Leo, what’s your sitrep?”

  “Hey, Boss,” Leo replied, barely audible over the background noise. “I’m knee deep in burned out wiring on that lost thruster. What’s up?”

  “You didn’t hear Levi’s alert?”

  “No. In case you can’t hear it, it’s kind of loud down here. Don’t tell me we’re being attacked again.”

  “Not yet, but there’s an unidentified ship approaching.”

  “Two in one day? What’d we do to get so lucky? It’s going to take me at least a day to work through this mess. Another day to replace everything, assuming we have it all in supply.”

  “Drop all that and head to the flight deck. We’re going to play dead, but if this interloper gets aggressive again, we’ll need to cut and run.”

  “Aye aye, boss,” Leo said. “Be there in two shakes.”

  “Try to make it one, and give me an update on our new friend when you get there.”

  “Sure. What happened to the RFD?”

  “I can’t find it.”

  “Maybe Shaq has it in his nest again. He likes it because it’s warm and smells like Ben.”

  “I looked there. Get moving.”

  ”On my way.”

  Leo had just disconnected when Matt tapped the badge again. “Meg, how’s the elevator supercapacitor?”

  “One hundred percent, Boss,” she replied. “You’re free to move about the ship.”

  “What about the hyperdrive? Do you have an ETA?

  “I haven’t had a chance to look at it yet. We’re in trouble again, aren’t we? I heard Levi say something about an unidentified contact.”

  “Yeah, we may be in a little trouble. It wouldn’t hurt to have the hyperdrive back.”

  “I’ll go take a look and see what I can do.”

  “Thank you.” He disconnected again, turning to us. “Now that the elevator’s back online, I can show you what’s on Deck Two.”

  “Aren’t we a little busy dealing with the mighty morphin’ space aliens?” Tyler asked.

  “Not too busy to go down to Deck Two,” Matt answered with a wink.

  Tyler smiled. “Well, now I’m curious.”

  Matt hurried us back to the elevator at a near-run. We all piled in, save for Ally, who stood at the threshold, suddenly more concerned with being left half-size again than the incoming vessel.

  “You can stay here by yourself if you want,” Matt said, out of patience over her attitude. He hit the control pad to send the cab to Deck Two.

  Ally frantically eyed Tyler and then me, obviously waiting for one of us to come to her rescue, I guessed. Tyler waved to her. I shrugged. She made a frightened, annoyed face before jumping in as the doors started closing.

  “I hate you both,” she said.

  I put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, only removing it once we reached Deck Two. “We’ll be fine,” I told her, feeling the same static charge I had the first time the sigils in the elevator triggered.

  “Meg,” Matt said, hitting his badge again. “What’s left of the energy stores after our resizing?”

  “Looks like fifty-five percent,” she replied. “You have enough to go back up to Three again, but then you’ll need to wait for another recharge.”

  “I don’t plan on going up to Three right away, but it’s good to know we can bounce to the flight deck if needed.” The cab doors opened, and we stuck behind him as he took off running down the corridor, finally pausing in front of a heavier steel blast door that looked like it had been ripped from the front of a bank vault. “This is the armory,” he said. “Levi, open it up.”

  The locks on the door clanged when they released, the thick door slowly swinging outward on motorized hinges, revealing the prizes inside.

  “What is it you do when you aren’t running space tours for charity, again?” I asked, staring in at the racks of long guns, with more shelves of odd looking weapons and ammo visible behind them and along both sides of the compartment. This wasn’t like a gun safe in a hunter’s basement. They had more firepower here than the entire Cedar Rapids and Des Moines police departments combined.

  “Hop racing,” Matt answered, adding, “and a few other minor incidental things when they crop up.”

  “Like what? Full-scale rebellions?”

  “Something like that. I can explain later.”

  “You’re assuming there will be a later,” Ally said.

  “You could at least try to be positive,” I replied.

  “This is me trying, Katzuo,” she answered. “I’m scared.”

  “We’re all scared,” Matt said. “Hopefully, we won’t need any of this stuff. But it’s better to be prepared.”

  He led us into the vault, pulling out a dark rifle that vaguely resembled an AR-15. Only this one had a counter on the side next to a dial labeled single, burst, and stream. It didn’t appear to have a magazine of any kind. Instead, what looked like a battery pack hung below the body. “This is a P-150 plasma rifle,” he said. “One of the most abundant and easy to use rifles in the Spiral. Standard issue for the Royal Marines. Have any of you ever fired a gun?”

  “Plenty of times,” Tyler boasted. “In Fortnite.”

  “A real gun,” Matt specified.

  “Nope,” Tyler replied. “My little brother was shot to death in a parking lot. I hate guns.”

  “Tee, you never told us that,” Alyssa said. “I’m so sorry.”

  “I don’t really like to talk about it, but I don’t want you guys getting the wrong ideas about why I don’t want to touch a rifle.”

  “Tyler, I get it,” Matt said. “Really. But I think your brother would want you to use a gun to save your own life and the lives of your friends.”

  “You didn’t know him.”

  “No, but I know that people who love others want them to fight to survive. I don’t think your brother would want you to join him wherever he is if you had a choice.”

  The comment was directed at Tyler, but it hit me just the same. It felt good to have that perspective confirmed by someone who had obviously been in some bad situations.

  “How does it work?” I asked, reaching out for the gun. Matt handed it to me and a second one to Ally. She didn’t look comfortable holding the rifle either, but at least she was trying.

  “Are you sure, Tyler?” Matt asked, picking up a third gun.