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  Once Alexandra informed her that the pirates were in place and all appeared unarmed, Sarah opened the access hatch. “Slowly, keeping in single file, I want you to exit the shuttle bay,” she said as she pointed her blaster at the lead pirate.

  “Where are you dropping us off?” one of the lead pirates asked her.

  “Somewhere you can’t do any more harm to anyone,” Sarah answered simply. “If you don’t like it, you’re welcome to choose the end of my blaster instead.”

  The pirate grunted, clearly unhappy. He walked out of the shuttle bay all the same.

  Five minutes later, as the last pirate walked through the access hatch into the shuttle bay where Lady Luck’s shuttle was now kept, Sarah let out a deep breath. “That went smoother than I expected,” she said to Divar.

  “Yes,” Divar replied. “Though seeing as you blasted several of their comrades to dust the last time they saw you, maybe it’s not so surprising.”

  With the touch of the access hatch’s control pad, Sarah locked the pirates in. Another couple of touches opened a COM channel. “Lady Luck’s shuttle will take you down to the surface. Get into her now or you’ll be killed when the shuttle bay depressurizes. The shuttle’s controls have been locked, don’t bother trying to commandeer it. One other thing, I wouldn’t go telling anyone about Destiny. We’re putting you down on an Elder colony. I’m sure if word gets back to the Elders about pirates bragging about being on a frigate, they’ll be more than happy to pick you up and interrogate you.”

  “They’re all getting into the shuttle,” Alexandra informed her.

  “Good,” Sarah said, pleased. “You can launch the shuttle as soon as they are ready to go.”

  “Let’s get back to the bridge and see what happens to the rest of the pirates,” Divar said.

  “Lead on,” Sarah replied.

  As he stepped onto the bridge they saw that Alexandra already had the holo-projector up and an image of a clearing just outside Lileaon’s capital city was visible. They were just in time. Seconds later the first escape pods came into view, fired their deceleration boosters and gently landed on the planet’s surface. Sarah had already sent the landing coordinates to Lileaon’s government. She wasn’t surprised to see a number of armed vehicles and military personnel quickly move in to surround the first wave of escape pods.

  A firefight broke out as the first pirates charged out of their escape pods, laser beams leading the way. Almost instantly, the military personnel who’d come to arrest the pirates returned fire.

  “It looks like the pirates have decided that becoming prisoners of the Elders isn’t the most attractive option,” Alexandra observed.

  As more escape pods landed, it looked like the local defenses might be overrun. There were at least fifteen dead Lileaonians lying beside their armored vehicles. The pirates were clearly far more used to battle. “Power up the laser cannons,” Sarah ordered. “Target those escape pods. I want them destroyed. I’m sick of seeing innocent beings killed because of our actions.”

  “Let me,” Divar said as he rushed over to the tactical station. “It would be my pleasure.”

  “Quickly,” Sarah replied.

  “Of course,” Divar said.

  True to his word, it only took him matter of seconds to lock onto several of the escape pods that had already landed. The gamma beams were travelling so fast that Sarah didn’t see them on the holo-projector. One moment there were at least twenty pirates using four escape pods as cover. The next, the entire area was a blazing fireball.

  “Open a COM channel to the rest of the pirates,” Sarah requested. “Any more resistance and we will destroy you all,” Sarah transmitted.

  Divar let out a grunt as the pirates who were still on the ground threw down their weapons. Sarah wasn’t sure if he was satisfied or disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to kill more of them. If it was the latter, she understood perfectly. Though she regretted it, she remembered just how she felt when she had shot Draxler.

  As they watched, more escape pods landed. As the pirates began to come out, it was clear that they were not armed. The surviving defenders quickly moved forward to apprehend them. It was clear that the pirates weren’t being treated kindly.

  “I hope they don’t treat the slaves in the same way,” Alexandra said.

  “You care about how they are treated?” Divar asked.

  “Of course, why wouldn’t I?” Alexandra asked, sounding insulted.

  Divar looked over to Sarah with a raised eyebrow. She knew what his expression meant. “It seems our friend is going through some changes,” she said. “We can talk about it later.”

  “Sounds like that will be an interesting conversation,” Divar replied.

  Sarah nodded. As they travelled to Lileaon, she and Alexandra had discussed the artificial intelligence’s actions in Elaijar. Sarah didn’t pretend to understand what was happening. As best as she could describe it though, it seemed like the artificial intelligence was developing her own conscience as well as her own personality.

  “New contact accelerating into the system,” Alexandra reported before Sarah could reply to Divar.

  “Turn us away from them, put us on a trajectory straight out of the system,” Sarah said. She made her way towards the pilot’s chair. Sitting down, the interface helmet rapidly descended to connect to her. Moments later she was peering out at the Lileaon system through Destiny’s sensors.

  “It has to be an Elder warship,” Alexandra said. “It’s acceleration profile is too high to be any other vessel.”

  Sarah projected both the new contact and Destiny’s course given their current acceleration profiles. “We should be safe,” she said. It looked like Destiny would reach Lileaon’s mass shadow at least four hours before the Elder ship would catch up with them. They would have a bit of a head start on getting away.

  “We’re going to have to play a game of cat and mouse again.” Divar said as he saw what Sarah was looking at. “I know we’re getting better at it, but sooner or later our pursuers are going to get lucky. How did they know we were here?”

  “There could still be an Elder destroyer out there using its advanced subspace sensors to track us,” Sarah said. “Maybe it is directing other ships after us.”

  “It’s possible,” Alexandra replied. “Yet it would be extremely inefficient. An Elder destroyer would be more than capable of taking us on and winning. It would be a waste of time to simply sit back and watch our movements. There would always be a chance we would manage to escape from them. I doubt the Elders would take such a risk.”

  “Then how did they manage to track us here?” Sarah said. “If they were following us, surely they could have caught up to us sooner than this.”

  “I don’t know,” Alexandra replied. “Perhaps there is another explanation. Maybe this Elder warship was scheduled to visit the Lileaon system. When they detected signs of battle they accelerated into the system. If that were the case, we would only be detecting their acceleration profile now anyway.”

  “Perhaps,” Sarah said slowly. “Though it seems to be too much of a coincidence.”

  “I think I have an idea,” Divar said. “It’s going to cost us some anti-matter but I think it’s worth a try.”

  “Explain,” Sarah said intrigued.

  *

  Five hours later and Sarah was about to give the order to put Divar’s plan into action. “Wait,” Alexandra said. “We’re getting a COM message from the Elder cruiser.”

  “Is it a trick?” Sarah said, concerned that the message contained another virus.

  “I have already analyzed it,” Alexandra answered. “It’s a simple visual message.”

  “Let’s see it then,” Sarah said.

  Sarah’s view of space disappeared and was replaced by the image of an Elder sitting in a large command chair on what was clearly the cruiser’s bridge. “Alien scum,” the Elder said. “My name is Admiral Klixar. My younger brother captained your ship. You killed him. Know this, I won�
�t rest until I have hunted you down and devoured you myself. You may escape the system, but I will be right behind you.”

  “Well he certainly is a friendly chap,” Divar said after the Elder’s message ended.

  “Send the final orders to the other ships,” Sarah said. “Then jump us into subspace.” She wanted to join Divar in making light of the situation. However, though she had no experience of having siblings, she knew if someone had killed a member of her own family she too would desire revenge. Divar might not have grown any more concerned, but she had. The last thing they needed was an Elder Admiral with extra motivation to hunt them down.

  As Destiny jumped into subspace, Sarah couldn’t help but think of her dream and her mother. Though she didn’t know for sure that the dream was real, it certainly felt real. Her dream was her only memory of her mother, yet every time she saw her killed, it hurt. If the Elder Admiral was feeling a similar emotion, she didn’t ever want to meet him face-to-face. She knew that if she got her hands on the man who killed her mother in her dream, he would be in trouble.

  With luck, we won’t be meeting Klixar any time soon, Sarah said to herself. Divar’s plan is a good one. With nothing else to do, she watched it unfold. Accompanying Destiny, the fully operational pirate ship had jumped into subspace, like Destiny, it was towing one of the damaged vessels. As soon as all four ships were in subspace, Destiny and the other pirate ship split off. The operational pirate ship accelerated through subspace for half an hour and then cut the line that it was using to tow its consort. Its consort continued through subspace at a constant speed. The operational pirate ship then altered course and continued accelerating.

  By the time the Elder cruiser reached the mass shadow of the Lileaon system and jumped into subspace, its sensors detected three contacts moving away from Lileaon. As Sarah had kept Destiny’s acceleration through subspace to a rate similar to the pirate vessels, it was impossible to tell which ship was the Elder’s target.

  “They’re taking the bait,” Divar said.

  “Indeed,” Sarah replied. The Elder cruiser was accelerating towards the damaged pirate ship. As it was accelerating through subspace, it quickly closed the distance. Within five hours the cruiser caught up to the pirate ship. Immediately, it disappeared off Destiny’s subspace sensors.

  “Now we’ll see,” Sarah said. Destiny was still towing the final damaged pirate ship. If they had to, they could disengage its tow line and use it as another decoy. However, she was hoping the Elder cruiser would turn after the functional pirate ship. There was a 50-50 chance. As the Elder cruiser turned, Sarah let a wide smile spread across her face. “It worked,” she said.

  “Your idea was a good one,” Alexandra said to Divar. “I’m pleased we won’t be going into battle with such a powerful warship. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” Divar said in a bemused tone.

  Sarah disengaged the interface helmet and turned to give Divar a wink. Alexandra was definitely developing her own thoughts. “I’m pleased too,” she said. “I guess I’ll thank you as well then.”

  “Seeing as you just rescued me from misery and almost certain death. I think we’ll call it even,” Divar replied with a wink of his own.

  “Deal,” Sarah said, smiling back. For the next four hours, they chatted as they watched the Elder cruiser pursue the pirate ship. When the Elder cruiser disappeared off Destiny’s subspace sensors, they waited another half an hour before boosting Destiny up to her maximum acceleration.

  “Time to go back and get our anti-matter,” Sarah said as she stood and came around to help Divar back to his quarters.

  “Let’s hope it goes more smoothly this time,” he said as they made their way off the bridge.

  Chapter 19

  Destiny quietly jumped into the Elaijar system three weeks to the day after she had left. Though it took Sarah less than a week to get to Lileaon, she had spent more than a fortnight carefully retracing her steps back to Elaijar to make sure Destiny wasn’t being followed. As Sarah and Divar sat on the bridge, Destiny slowly accelerated towards the asteroid base. The damaged pirate ship they had towed all the way from Lileaon had been sent on ahead. During the last two weeks, they had managed to repair one of its main engines and most of its maneuvering thrusters. Sarah had also sent a COM message to Elaijar requesting an audience with Rozella.

  When they were still an hour away from Elaijar, Rozella replied. Not wanting to attract any untoward attention, Divar and Sarah once again got into a shuttle and set off for the asteroid. This time, Alexandra followed close behind as she kept Destiny as stealthy as possible. After landing on Elaijar and receiving their wrist identification bracelets, Sarah and Divar made their way to Rozella’s chamber. On the way, Sarah couldn’t help noticing that something had changed. Where before many of the pirates had eyed her menacingly, now they rarely raised their eyes to meet hers. At the first two checkpoints the guards only charged them one thousand credits for passing through.

  As she approached the third checkpoint, Sarah was surprised to see Hangal waiting for them. “What are you doing here?” she asked suspiciously.

  “I heard you were back,” Hangal answered. “After what happened last time, I thought I would offer you my protection. Again, I am very sorry. I’m glad to see your friend is safe and in one piece though.”

  Sarah’s fingers twitched towards her holstered blaster. She still didn’t trust Hangal. For all she knew, he still could have been the one who tipped off the Tuscan Fleet about her platinum. When Divar looked over to her for instructions, she gave a small nod of her head. He could get rid of Hangal, she didn’t want to risk working with him.

  “Things have changed,” Divar said as he shifted the laser rifle he was holding from one hand to another menacingly. “We can take care of ourselves thank you very much. I don’t think we’ll be seeing any trouble today.”

  “As you wish,” Hangal said, backing away.

  “What did you mean by that?” Sarah asked after they paid their way through the final checkpoint.

  “Look around,” Divar said. “Can’t you see everyone is afraid of us now?”

  “I know,” Sarah replied. “But I don’t understand it.”

  Divar laughed. “Everyone knows the Tuscan Fleet attacked us and left with our platinum. Yet here we are just a few weeks later back again. This time, we have a damaged Tuscan ship in tow. I’m sure the pirates are thinking that whoever we are, we are not to be trifled with.”

  “Oh,” Sarah said. It had never occurred to her the pirates might actually be scared of her. She had still been eyeing up every pirate they came across as a potential threat to be avoided.

  “Yes,” Divar followed up. “As strange as it might seem, we are now the ones to be feared.”

  Sarah barely had time to consider her change of circumstances before they came to Rozella’s chamber. Without Hangal with them, Sarah hesitated. The only interface beside the circular access hatch was a touchscreen where Hangal had placed his hand. There were no other buttons or input devices.

  “How do we get in?” Sarah asked Divar.

  Divar shrugged, mimicking a body behavior he had learnt from Sarah. “Rozella’s message told us to meet her here. It didn’t say anything about how to get in.”

  On a whim, Sarah reached out and placed a hand on the scanner. Almost instantly, the access hatch opened. It frightened her and caused her to jump back. Sheepishly, she looked at Divar and shot him a small grin. “I guess my handprint gets us in now,” she said.

  “Welcome, welcome,” Rozella said to them almost before they stepped through the access hatch. She was waiting to greet them and in two of her hands she held small cups. Slithering forward, she offered them to Sarah and Draxler. “This is water. It’s cool and refreshing. I hope it is acceptable for both of your species.”

  “It is. Thank you,” Sarah said as she took the cup offered to her. She moved it to her lips but didn’t take a sip. Alexandra had warned them about Rozella. Given that the
soothsayer knew her neurotoxins wouldn’t work on Sarah, Alexandra had surmised that Rozella might try a different tactic. Sarah liked to think that Rozella wouldn’t try and openly drug them but it was better not to take any chances.

  “Please, come and take a seat and we can open negotiations,” Rozella said as she turned and led them towards the table they had sat at before.

  “We have come to discuss our previous arrangement,” Sarah said as soon as they sat down. “Now that I have my friend back, we are still interested in purchasing anti-matter.”