“Three bogeys, coming in hot from Tilluma.”

Alis’ voice was cold and precise, focused. They’d been a week jumping from Strade to Yehiri, and another week from Yehiri to Tilluma. Yehiri had been a nothing system with only the barest excuse for a starbase—they hadn’t even bothered berthing there, pausing only long enough to compute the jump to Tilluma. Zeph’s job so far had been a few brief spans of intense focus, punctuated by two weeks of nothing to do but read, study, and try to avoid Victor.

And now this.

Zeph was in the engine room, his assigned station while in-system. They’d been cruising toward some rendezvous point, but that was as much as he knew. No one was telling him who these attackers were. He didn’t even know why the Bedford Moy was in the Tilluma system in the first place.

At some point, he’d be instructed to execute another jump, using Kat’s latest astrogation work, but until then he simply sat and watched the excitement on the engineer’s terminal.

He felt slightly ill.

“Distance?” That was Victor’s voice.

“Not close, yet,” Alis replied. “I put them at about seventy thousand kilometers. But they’re moving fast. They’ll be here in a half hour, maybe a bit more.”

“What kind of ships are they?” Asked Roald. Zeph couldn’t see him, but his med bay was linked into the conversation, just as Zeph’s engineering station was.

“Looks like some old school fighters,” said Alis. “Hard to be sure at this distance, but I’ll bet they’re not less than a hundred years old. Still fast, though. They must have been running dark for us to not see them until now.”

“Fighters?” Kat asked. Her voice was soft, and slightly uncertain.

“Nothing to worry about,” said Alis. “I’ll bet we could take them.”

“With what?” asked Zeph, keying into the coms. “Launching caviar at them out the airlock?”

“Ha!” Alis asked. “Good one. But no. The Bedford Moy has a few tricks up her sleeve.”

“Let’s just get the rendezvous done,” interrupted Victor.

“Do we have enough time?” Zeph asked.

“Plenty,” said Alis.

From his terminal, Zeph could watch as their target ship drew closer. It was an old in-system freighter of a type he’d seen often during his navy days on Blue Station—little more than a maneuver drive attached to an enormous cargo hold. He could see the docking port now, but it still seemed so far away. He bit his lip and forced himself to take a few deep breaths.

There was no one else aboard except the five of them: Alis, Roald, Kat, Victor, and himself. It was a small crew for such a spacious ship, and Zeph felt more than once that he was “rattling around” in it. But this wasn’t a luxury trip, so Mr. Marks had stayed home, instead instructing Victor to captain the ship. No one but Victor knew what their objectives were, and he wasn’t telling. He’d only reluctantly told them to expect the freighter after they’d arrived in the system.

Zeph suspected they were there to pick up some contraband. The fighters that were now tracking them seemed to confirm that whatever they were doing was legally questionable.

Minutes passed slowly as the ships drew abreast. When he finally heard the dull “thunk” through the hull, he breathed a sigh of relief. Docked, at last.

“Those fighters are about 25 minutes away now,” said Alis.

Victor didn’t respond, but Zeph could hear him talking to the crew of the other ship. His words weren’t clear over the ship coms, though. All Zeph could make out was something about “having a room ready.”

There were footsteps outside the engine room, then, but Zeph kept his eyes on the terminal. Victor had made it clear that no one was to leave their station, for any reason. That meant Zeph was in the engine room, Roald was in the med bay, and the other three were all on the bridge.

More footsteps, and muffled voices. Zeph felt a bead of sweat trickle across his forehead and down his temple. The minutes ticked silently past.

“Twenty minutes until intercept,” said Alis.

“We’re almost done,” said Victor. “Kat, you’ve got the astrogation numbers ready, right?”

“I had them ready shortly after we arrived in-system,” Kat said softly.

“Zeph, you be ready to execute the jump on my mark,” Victor said.

“Standing by.”

Footsteps again, this time receding up the hall toward the airlock. Another minute. Two. Then the loud “thunk” through the hull, this time marking the separation of the two ships.

“Disconnected,” said Alis.

“Go,” said Victor.

There was a soft whine from the maneuver drive behind Zeph as Alis applied the acceleration. Zeph felt nothing, of course—the grav-plating shielded the crew from all but the most extreme acceleration—but through the terminal video he could see the other ship diminishing rapidly. Then the view slewed sideways as Alis changed the ship’s heading.

“What are you doing?” Asked Victor suddenly, his voice sharp. Zeph felt his pulse quicken.

“I just need a few minutes,” said Alis. “I haven’t killed anyone in weeks. These pesky fly-boys will do.”

“Alis, turn the ship to the correct heading, now. Zeph, get ready to execute the jump on my mark.”

“Ignore him, Zeph,” said Alis. “I’ll let you know when we’re ready for the jump.”

“Alis, Mr. Marks put me in charge—”

“And as soon as you give me a reasonable order, I’ll obey it--”

“Turn around, Alis!”

“Or what? I’m twice your size, Victor.”

There was a sudden metallic click, and Katixa spoke. “Turn the ship around, Alis.”

There was a pause, then, “Oh-ho! Look at this! Have you been hiding that pea-shooter this whole time?”

“I’ll use it, Alis.”

“And who will pilot the ship?”

“Anyone here could fly the ship in a pinch. No,” Kat said quickly, “not as well as you. But we don’t need to fly well just to turn to a particular heading.”

Zeph looked at the terminal. The ships were less than ten minutes away now. They’d be within pulse laser range soon.

Silence on the bridge. Then Kat said, “you know I’ll use this, Alis. I don’t want to, but I will. You have ten seconds to turn this ship around. One. Two. Three…”

Her quiet voice was as hard as steel. Zeph gritted his teeth, wondering if she would really pull the trigger on her own crew mate.

“Eight. Nine—”

“Fine!” Shouted Alis. “Fine! You’re a bunch of cowards, is what you are.” The m-drive whined again and the view on the terminal slewed about. The navigation numbers showed the heading to be the expected value.

“Zeph, jump. Now,” said Victor.

“Gladly,” Zeph said.