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“Well, it started out okay,” Triss replied. “Until I noticed the third brother.”

  “That would be a good clue things weren’t going to plan,” Jack agreed.

  Triss sighed. “In retrospect, this was a terrible plan.”

  Jack couldn’t help but make an I-told-you-so eye roll. “Didn’t I say that, Alyssa?”

  Triss let out a long breath. “Anyway, on our way to the shower we ran into the third brother—the first of several we didn’t know would be here. I tried to work my charms on him, but either I’m not his type or the three-way competition wasn’t going to work. At any rate, that’s when the third brother—whose name was Derek, I guess—took out a radio to call up the other four. That’s when I knew things were really off, so I faked twisting my ankle to buy some time.”

  “Oh, not that routine…” Alyssa groaned.

  “Well, it was very effective,” Triss shot back. “Derek held off on calling the other brothers, which gave Finn the time to crack the safe. We may even have been able to get the modules back on the ship without anyone being the wiser if it weren’t for their stupid gerbil.”

  Everyone except Jack nodded solemnly.

  “Figures they’d have one,” Finn said.

  “Am I missing something?” Jack asked. “What about a gerbil?”

  “Gerbils are known to be very protective of their human caretakers,” Alyssa explained. “They have an uncanny ability to detect ill-intent and will go to great lengths to warn about an impending double-cross.” She returned her attention to Triss. “Lemme guess—it started barking?”

  Triss nodded. “Yep.”

  “Barking, huh?” Jack’s brow furrowed.

  “Well, it’s more of a soft cooing,” Triss clarified. “But anyway, my cover was blown. So, I knocked Don’s and Bill’s heads together and started a firefight with Derek.”

  “What happened to Don and Bill?” Finn asked.

  She shrugged. “Not sure. Derek and I ran out here shooting at each other, where the remaining brothers joined in the fun. You know the rest.”

  Alyssa frowned. “So, that means…”

  The pew-pew of laser pistol fire sounded in the hangar outside as the shots struck the Little Princess’ hull.

  “They’re awake,” Triss completed everyone’s thoughts aloud.

  “Time to go!” Alyssa dashed to the cockpit with Triss.

  Jack and Finn braced on the couches.

  “I do feel a little badly about killing their brothers,” Finn admitted. “I’ve always been more of a thief than a murderer.”

  “For what it’s worth, they would have killed you if you hadn’t,” Jack told him.

  “I know, but we broke into their station. Of course they’d try to defend it.”

  The ship’s engines hummed and it lifted off the ground. Laser blasts continued to bombard the hull outside.

  “Uh oh, Finn isn’t getting all remorseful, is he?” Alyssa called out from the cockpit.

  “A bit, yeah,” Jack replied.

  Triss groaned. “This happens every time. Just tell him about the Plot Device Principle.”

  “The what?” asked Jack.

  “It’s a term I coined just now,” Triss continued. “Life would be pretty boring if everything always went according to plan.” With that, she activated the main laser array on the Little Princess and cut a hole in the side of the cargo bay.

  Everything not tied down was sucked across the floor toward the new opening, including Don and Bill.

  “Oops. Did I do that?” Triss stopped firing.

  Alyssa directed the ship toward the hole. “And that’s how you make an exit.”

  The ship passed through the opening with almost no room to spare, but Alyssa’s precision piloting got them clear of the station and the random pieces of cargo drifting out into space following the rapid decompression.

  “Okay, so everyone’s dead,” Jack stated. “What do we do about the station? Someone is going to stop by for a delivery or something eventually, and we didn’t exactly make any effort to hide our presence.”

  “That’s a good point,” Finn realized. “I really don’t want to go back to prison.”

  “Uh guys…” Alyssa began slowly. “I don’t think that’s going to be an issue.”

  Jack and Finn ran into the cockpit to look out the front window at a massive Vorlox ship posturing over the Winkelson Brothers’ space station.

  “Where’d they come from?” Jack wondered aloud.

  “An excellent question,” Finn replied, “but I suggest we don’t stick around to ask.”

  “I’m with Finn.” Alyssa activated the hyperspace drive.

  The engines whined in preparation for the jump and then made a sad sputter followed by a clunk.

  “We’re not in hyperspace,” Finn observed.

  “You think?” Alyssa’s hands raced over the controls as she brought up systems reports in an attempt to identify the problem.

  “I think I know what’s wrong.” Jack gestured at the containment net that had been cast around the Little Princess.

  Alyssa paused her work. “Yeah, that would do it.”

  “Is there any way out?” Finn asked.

  Triss grimaced. “Nothing that might not leave us in a worst position than we’re in now.”

  Before anyone could offer further commentary, the radio crackled to life. “We have your friends. We know you’re after the MEC,” a gravelly, male voice growled.

  Alyssa paled. “What do you want?”

  “The MEC, same as you,” the Vorlox representative replied. “Bring it to us and your friends will live.”

  “We need proof of life,” Alyssa continued. “Live video, now.”

  The line muted for ten seconds. “Very well,” the Vorloxian conceded.

  Several moments later, an incoming video request came through on the front HUD and Alyssa accepted. Jack and Finn crammed into the cockpit, huddling around the back of her chair to see.

  Onscreen, Svetlana and a dozen women were seated cross-legged on the floor of what appeared to be a dormitory.

  “Svetlana! Are you okay?” Alyssa asked as soon as she saw her.

  “Could be worse,” the other woman replied. “Mostly just pissed about the Luxuria getting all shot up.”

  “Did everyone make it out?” Triss asked.

  Svetlana didn’t reply at first. “Just do what the Vorlox are asking.”

  “You always told us never to negotiate lives, no matter what,” Alyssa countered.

  “This is different,” Svetlana insisted. “The Vorlox aren’t—”

  The video cut out and the original voice stated, “You have proof of life. Your friends won’t be harmed if you bring us the MEC.”

  “We don’t have it yet,” Triss stated.

  “You have two days” The radio disconnected.

  Out the window, the Vorlox ship fired six blasts from the oversized lasers mounted on the side, which annihilated the remains of the space station.

  “There goes our physical evidence problem,” Jack said.

  The enemy ship maneuvered away from the wreckage and jumped to hyperspace in a flash.

  Alyssa stared out the window, her face drawn with worry. “What would the Vorlox want with the MEC?”

  “What wouldn’t they want with it?” Triss countered. “They could use it for anything from a weapons system to powering a biosphere.”

  “Has anyone else noticed that they seem really organized and have great tech for being supposedly radiation-crazed people?” Jack observed.

  “I do have to agree—this encounter did not support my previous impression of them or their reputation,” Alyssa agreed.

  “Yeah, aside from being a little trigger-happy with their laser array, they seemed pretty rational.” Triss thought for a moment. “What do we really know about them?”

  “The trigger-happiness isn’t an isolated incident,” Alyssa said. “At least five other space stations have reportedly been taken out by them in the last seve
ral months.”

  “You might shoot me for saying this,” Jack began cautiously, “but were there criminals operating those space stations? Don’t get me wrong, you’re—we’re—not the bad kind of criminals, but what we’re doing isn’t exactly legal, either.”

  Triss was about to punch him in the arm but Alyssa stopped her. “You might be onto something, Jack. I knew of the stations that were targeted because they were known black market trade posts for weapons and defense tech.”

  “With the exception of the GiganCorp research center,” Triss pointed out.

  “Maybe it’s all connected. Who knows?” Finn speculated.

  Alyssa pursed her lips. “Svetlana was starting to say something about the Vorlox not being something.”

  “ ‘Who they seem’, maybe?” Triss completed.

  Alyssa shrugged. “As good a guess as any.”

  “Then who are they really?” Jack questioned.

  “I don’t know,” Finn cut in, “but we have two days to deliver the MEC to… somewhere. They didn’t actually tell us. But if we’re going to have it in-hand by then, we need to get going.”

  “He’s right. We have a mission to finish.” Alyssa turned back around in her chair to face the controls. “Now that we have the nano induction modules, we need to mine some thorium and get to the GiganCorp lab ASAP.”

  “Right, the part where go play with glowing green rocks…” Jack muttered.

  “Oh, it’s barely radioactive. We just need a slight trace.”

  Jack frowned. “All the same, I really thought you were joking.”

  CHAPTER 11: Positively Glowing

  Jack stared with dismay at the asteroid gently tumbling through space a kilometer away. “You really weren’t joking.”

  “Seriously, this isn’t a big deal,” Alyssa repeated. “Of everything we have to do for this mission, this is the easiest part.”

  “Famous last words,” Jack muttered.

  “All right! The extraction assembly is ready,” Triss announced from her seat in the cockpit.

  Alyssa took the controls again. “I’ll bring us in. Take the shot as soon as you can—it’ll be tough to hold us in position with those rocks orbiting the asteroid.”

  “Roger that,” Triss acknowledged.

  Jack took a seat in the common room and grabbed onto the handholds beneath the cushions as a precaution. Regardless of Alyssa’s insistence that everything would be fine, he’d been through too many “sure bets” to believe such statements.

  “This might be a little bumpy…” Alyssa warned as she directed the Little Princess closer to the four-hundred-meter-long rock.

  The ship shuddered as its shields were bombarded by the cloud of rocky debris and dust surrounding the asteroid. The grapple line for the extraction assembly only had a three hundred meter reach, meaning that they had to fly closer to the asteroid than any flight manual would advise. In fact, in the fifth edition of How to Avoid Huge Spacerocks, the author had specifically warned against the very maneuver they were attempting.

  Jack’s objections had been overruled, of course, because his companions were insane, by his estimation. However, they were also the competent type of insane so he had reasonable confidence they’d get out of the mission alive.

  Alyssa aligned the ship above a thorium deposit using the targeting overlay on the HUD.

  “A little closer…” Triss urged.

  “I’m trying!” Alyssa gritted her teeth as she fought against the controls.

  “Almost…. Got it!” Triss fired the extractor.

  The claw-like assembly and tether shot out from the belly of the Little Princess and embedded in the asteroid.

  “Drilling underway,” Triss stated. “We need a minute and then we should be all set.”

  Alyssa remained focused on maintaining enough slack on the tether to keep it from prematurely ripping the assembly from the rock.

  After a minute, Triss beamed. “Extraction successful! Now to reel it in.” She pushed the button to activate the servos.

  Nothing happened.

  “That’s not good,” she murmured.

  Alyssa groaned. “Nothing ever went wrong before you were here, Jack.”

  “Hey, I warned—”

  “Not now!” Triss cut him off. “I can’t override the servos from here. They may have been damaged in the laser fire on the station.”

  “How securely is the extractor connected to the cable?” Alyssa asked.

  Triss nodded. “I was thinking the same thing. It should hold.”

  Gently, Alyssa began pulling away from the asteroid, increasing the tension on the cable connecting the ship to the container now filled with a sample of thorium.

  “If we lose that sample…” Triss warned.

  “I know, I know. Quiet.” Alyssa’s gaze darted between the readings on the HUD and out the window for visual confirmation of their position relative to the tether point. “Almost…”

  The taut tether snapped free of the asteroid and whipped back toward the ship, the extraction claw still attached to the end. The metal claw crashed into the portside window of the cockpit next to Alyssa. The window held but small cracks radiated from the impact site.

  Alyssa pointed the ship away from the asteroid into open space and cut the thrusters. “That was way too close.”

  “Someone has to go out there to retrieve the canister,” Triss said. “And we should probably seal that window before the crack spreads.”

  “Not me!’ Finn said. “Those EVA suits are too claustrophobic.”

  “I should monitor the servos from in here,” Triss suggested.

  “And I’m the pilot, so…” Alyssa looked to Jack.

  “Oh man. Seriously?” Jack let out a heavy sigh.

  “Let’s get you suited up, come on,” Alyssa said and led him to the airlock at the stern of the craft.

  Dragging his feet, Jack followed her. “I hate EVA.”

  “New guy gets the short straw,” she replied as she pulled a gold-tinted suit and helmet from a storage closet.

  “This smells like bile,” Jack commented when he caught a whiff of the helmet.

  “There may or may not have been an incident during the last EVA.” Alyssa shrugged. “I’m sure you won’t notice it as soon as it’s sealed up.”

  Reluctantly, Jack donned the suit and slipped on the helmet. Contrary to Alyssa’s statement, the smell was in fact much, much worse once the suit was sealed. Nonetheless, he didn’t like the idea of a crack in the window of the spaceship, so he was driven to complete the job at hand.

  After securing some tools to his waist belt and performing a comm check with Alyssa, he entered the tiny airlock toward the stern of the ship and waited for the pressure to drop. When all the air had been vented, the light on the outer door turned green and he opened the hatch.

  “Heading out,” he said into the comm.

  “Slow and steady,” Alyssa said on the other end.

  Jack strapped onto a lead line and connected it to an anchor outside the door. He then carefully exited the ship, hanging onto handholds that seemed far too shallow in the feeble grasp afforded with the gloves of the EVA suit.

  He inched along the side of the craft, gulping as he saw the tether line for the extractor stretching out into space next to the ship. Any sudden change of direction and the line could easily pin him against the hull and slice him clean through.

  First, he passed by the anchor for the tether to inspect the crack in the front portside window. It wasn’t pretty, but the crack appeared to be isolated to only the outermost of the two layers of aluminum silicate glass windowpanes. He unclipped a canister of sealant from his belt and slathered it along the crack. The material oozed into the crevasse and within moments the impact site was invisible.

  “Good. Now for the hard part,” Alyssa said.

  Jack backtracked toward the tether. Once in position next to the reel, he locked the gravity boots on his EVA suit and began bashing his fist on the reel’s extern
al control panel. The random button mashing did nothing, so he flipped out a hand crank to reel it in manually.

  “You owe me a shoulder massage after this,” Jack panted as he cranked the reel, trading off hands when one arm tired.

  “I’ll get Triss right on that. She gives amazing massages,” Alyssa replied.

  “I’ll bet you’d know.”

  After seven minutes of vigorous cranking, the end of the tether was finally close. Jack slowed down as the final length of line came in, and he retrieved the canister from inside the claw. Holding the canister in his left hand, he made the final cranks to return the claw to its casing in the hull and closed the cover for the control panel.

  Cautiously, he unlocked his boots and made his way back inside.

  “Great job!” Alyssa praised when he was safely back in the airlock.

  Jack sealed the door and began to repressurize the chamber. While he waited, he examined the material inside the canister through the transparent window in its side. “Huh. Is it supposed to be glowing like that?”

  CHAPTER 12: A Tasty Detour

  “No. No, it is not.” Alyssa’s concern was audible over the comm.

  Jack took a closer look at the canister containing the sample they’d collected from the asteroid. He knew it was supposed to be thorium, but as far as he knew, thorium didn’t glow.

  “Don’t take off your suit just yet,” Alyssa stated. “We need to figure out what’s going on.”

  The light blue glow emanating from the canister looked almost magical in the dim lighting of the airlock.

  “It’s kinda pretty,” Jack commented. “What do you think it is?”

  “I’m not sure…” None of the concern had left Alyssa’s tone.

  “What color is it glowing?” Triss asked, jumping on the comm.

  “Pale blue,” Jack replied. “The material itself looks to be kind of metallic white.”

  Triss’ face appeared in the tiny porthole window in the airlock door. “Show me.”

  Jack held up the canister for her to get a better view.

  Her eyebrows drew together. “Uhh… that looks like actinium.”

  “Sounds fancy.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s not supposed to exist on its own in nature.”