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  “Let us in on it, come on!” Finn urged.

  Alyssa returned to the common room and handed him the cup.

  Finn sampled it. “Alyssa, you’re a genius.”

  “My turn!” Jack pleaded. He took the cup from Finn, only to find that there was barely a sip left. He took the warm, brown liquid into his mouth. It was the perfect temperature to satisfy without risk of burning, and the flavor exploded on his taste buds. The coffee had none of the burned or bitter flavor he’d come to expect, but instead it was like his mouth had just been hugged by a chocolate teddy bear. “Wow… This coffee is, like, really good.”

  Alyssa’s eyes lit up. “You really think so?”

  “Absolutely. I could see this being the next big craze.” Jack looked at the empty cup. “Can you make some more?’

  Alyssa enthusiastically prepared second, and then third, portions for everyone. In case anyone wanted more later, she also filled a metal thermos with extra coffee, which would hold it at temperature for at least eight hours. Considering that they had no idea when, or if, the Vorlox would show up at their chosen destination, an energy boost might be needed later on.

  The rest of the hyperspace jump was spent in a marvelous caffeine buzz. Jack made his bed and cleaned the bathroom, then completed all the dishes and straightened up the cabinets. Never had he felt so delightfully energized. The coffee must have had a similar effect on the others, as Jack noticed that Finn was organizing all the equipment for computer hacking and Triss appeared to be cleaning up the central database files while Alyssa programmed some new navigation subroutines.

  By the time the Little Princess was preparing to drop out of hyperspace, the interior was ready for a photoshoot and the systems were operating with fifteen percent greater efficiency.

  “I haven’t been this productive and focused… ever!” Jack exclaimed. “I think you’re really on to something with this MEC-brewed coffee, Alyssa.”

  “I was just going for flavor,” she replied. “I never dreamed it’d have these bonus effects. It must have something to do with the energy field changing the chemical properties.”

  “Regardless of the science behind it, I’m hooked,” Finn said.

  “I never should have doubted you.” Triss gave Alyssa a proud smile.

  Alyssa beamed. “Thanks, guys.”

  The ship exited hyperspace a kilometer from the wreckage of the Luxuria. To their surprise, the Vorlox battleship was waiting for them at the broken structure.

  “Well, looks like we guessed correctly,” Jack said.

  The front console beeped. “Incoming communication,” Triss told them. She accepted the call.

  The weapons on the Vorlox ship sprang to life—casings rolling back from the giant laser guns and massive hydraulic arms training the weapons toward the Little Princess. “Do you have the MEC?” the Vorlox representative asked over the comm.

  “Are our friends okay?” Alyssa countered.

  “They are fine,” the Vorloxian replied. “And they won’t be harmed so long as you give us the MEC without a fight.”

  The Little Princess lurched as it was suddenly grappled in a tractor beam and pulled toward the mammoth Vorlox ship. “Prepare to be boarded. You will hand over the MEC.” The communication ended.

  “I can try to break free…” Triss said.

  “No, if we resist the others are as good as dead,” Alyssa told her. “We’ll need to pretend like we’re cooperating until we can figure out another way for us all to escape.”

  “Um, would this be a bad time to point out that we can’t fit everyone in here even if the Vorlox lets them go?” Jack asked.

  “Yes,” everyone replied in unison.

  “In that case,” Jack said, “I’ll just say that it’s great we got everything all cleaned up before we have company.”

  CHAPTER 19: Trapped

  “We can’t just give the MEC to them until we know Svetlana and the others are safe.” Alyssa ran from the cockpit into the common room to remove the MEC from the coffee maker. With the device in hand, she stood next to the galley, paralyzed with indecision. “Where can we hide it?”

  “I don’t know!” Jack looked frantically around the room. “One of the thermoses over there, maybe? Hurry!”

  Alyssa dashed to the cabinet containing the drinkware and selected one of the polished metal thermoses. She unscrewed the top and dropped the MEC inside.

  The Little Princess shuddered as it came to rest on the floor of the hangar within the Vorlox ship. Fists pounded on the outer door.

  “What should I do with it now?” Alyssa hissed.

  “Why are you asking me?” Jack shot back, glancing between her and the door. There was nowhere to go.

  The door dropped open as the controls were overridden from the outside.

  The thermos launched from Alyssa’s hands toward the galley counter. It landed on the countertop, knocking over the thermos filled with extra coffee. Both containers clattered onto the metal floor and one rolled under the couch.

  “Hi! What can we do for you?” Jack greeted the Vorloxian soldier.

  “Where is it?” the man demanded. He was wearing black body armor and his face was hidden behind a full helmet.

  “Where’s what?” Jack shrugged, trying to nudge the other thermos into hiding with his toe.

  “The MEC. Hand it over now!” the Vorloxian demanded. “Is that it?” He spotted the thermos Jack was trying to hide and stepped toward it.

  “Be careful with that!” Jack warned, trying to stall while he thought up a better plan. “It’s… highly irradiated. It may cause a runaway reaction if it’s opened in this small a space.”

  The soldier hesitated with confusion, and rightly so. “Radiation and air exposure aren’t the same—”

  “You don’t have to take our word for it,” Triss cut in. “But what would the other Vorlox say if you blew up the only working prototype of the MEC?”

  “They would laugh,” he replied.

  Jack and Alyssa exchanged glances with Triss and Finn.

  Jack decided to roll with it. “That’s right—they would laugh. And just looking at you, I can tell that you are one to do the laughing, not the other way around.”

  “I crush anyone who laughs at me!” he bellowed.

  “That’s right! So let’s not open that canister here, okay?” Alyssa suggested.

  The soldier’s gaze passed between them. “Fine. Come with me to Grant Pumba.”

  “You mean ‘grand poobah’?” Triss clarified.

  “What? No! Grant Pumba is the name of our mighty Vorlox leader.”

  Finn snickered. “Oh, this is all going swimmingly.”

  The guard carefully picked up the thermos from the floor and then ushered everyone off the ship.

  Seven more Vorloxian soldiers were waiting in the hangar. They surrounded the crew of the Little Princess and directed them through a series of utilitarian hallways of polished steel and up a lift. Due to the elevator’s small size, four guards first rode up with Jack and Alyssa, followed by the other four with Triss and Finn.

  The destination floor had more refined finishes than the corridor leading from the hangar, including low-pile carpeting and integrated touch-displays in the walls.

  “What is your leader going to do with us?” Alyssa asked the guards.

  “He will need to tell you himself,” one of the guards replied.

  They reached the end of the hall, which terminated in a sliding door. The guards stepped forward and the door opened automatically, revealing a sophisticated conference room complete with an oblong conference table and holodisplay. Behind the table, a man and two women were seated in sleek swivel chairs.

  The guards took up position along the front wall with four to either side of the entry door. The guard carrying the thermos stepped away from his post by the door just long enough to place the container in the center of the table within arm’s reach of the three seated individuals.

  “Please, take a seat,” the ma
n sitting in the chair at the center of the table said, gesturing to four chairs across from him. He was just past middle-aged and, like his female companions, appeared to be a completely normal human.

  “Are you Grant Pumba?” Alyssa asked as she and the others complied.

  “I am,” Grant confirmed, smoothing back his brown hair touched with gray. “I must apologize for all the armor and pistol secrecy. The MEC is very important, as you know.”

  “Don’t take this the wrong way,” Alyssa said hesitantly, “but you don’t seem like the crazy murderers the rumors have made you out to be.”

  Grant laughed. “Oh, that all did get rather out of hand. It was necessary, though, to complete our work.”

  “What work is that?” Jack questioned.

  Grant looked to the dark-haired woman on the left. She folded her hands on the tabletop. “My name is Irine,” she stated. “I’m the Director of Research and Development for Competron.”

  Jack’s mouth fell open. A quick glance to his right confirmed that his new friends were equally shocked.

  Alyssa shook her head. “I’m confused.”

  “You’re not the only mole to have ever been placed within a corporation, Alyssa,” Irine stated. “Competron sent our own to GiganCorp, but unlike you with your position, ours came back to us. We learned that the MEC was almost production-ready and we needed to act.”

  “Most of the weapons and other dangerous black market tech circulating through the major channels originated with GiganCorp,” Grant explained. “With the MEC on the verge of going public, we knew that anything that could be augmented with the MEC needed to be taken off the street while there was still an opportunity to do so.”

  “As the Director of Humanitarian Aid,” the other woman at the table added, “it was clear to me that Competron would never be able to continue our mission-driven work if GiganCorp’s products became little more than tools of destruction.”

  “And we couldn’t go after GiganCorp directly,” Grant continued, “so the next best thing was to take out the supply network for distributing those weapons. With that severed, even once the MEC was released, it would take much longer for the technology to work its way back into the hands of the truly dangerous individuals.”

  Irine nodded. “And to take out that network, we couldn’t very well show up in Competron-branded ships. So, we invented the Vorlox persona as a distraction.”

  Grant examined the confused faces of the Little Princess’ crew. “Everything you may have heard about us was part of that fabrication. In reality, our sole mission has been to take out the distribution network that could result in the MEC being used for harm.”

  “Is that why you blew up Luxuria?” Alyssa asked.

  “That case is rather interesting,” Grant replied, folding his hands on the tabletop. “It was the next target on our list, but when we arrived, the station had already been destroyed. We fired a warning shot at your ship when we spotted you, but you jumped to hyperspace.”

  “If you didn’t destroy the station, then who did?” Alyssa asked.

  “I don’t know what to tell you,” Grant said. “We picked up the escape pods from Luxuria—as we would anyway after taking out a base, to see if the weapon’s dealers are open to an alternate career path. When we chatted with Svetlana, we learned that you, Alyssa, were a bridge between GiganCorp, Competron, and the mission of getting the MEC design out of GiganCorp’s hands.”

  “Beth,” Irine indicated the blonde woman to Grant’s right, “had the idea to allow you to continue your mission to get the MEC with the hope you’d be successful and be open to siding with us once you knew what we were doing.”

  “How is Svetlana cooperating with you?” Alyssa asked. “She’s was the top weapons dealer in this sector. I’d think she’d—”

  “We offered her and the other members of her crew jobs in medical sales. Very lucrative,” Grant replied.

  “Oh.” Alyssa shrugged.

  “And I do hope you’ll consider working with us, as well,” Beth said. “The MEC can help so many people if we leverage Competron’s connections. You’d be well compensated.”

  It took Alyssa several seconds to find her voice. “What do you have in mind?”

  “Improving planetary shields from stellar debris, power core for artificial organs to help the sick, portable electronics to bring education to children in remote settlements. The list goes on,” Beth replied. “The heart of it, though, is we want to spread happiness.”

  “And all of that is possible with what you have hidden in this,” Grant said, gazing with admiration at the thermos placed in the center of the table.

  “They said it might explode,” the guard who’d boarded the Little Princess warned from his post along the wall.

  “I doubt that,” Grant said, reaching for the thermos. He unscrewed the top. “Wait, what’s this?” He stared with dismay at the contents and sniffed. “Is this coffee?”

  “Ah, yeah, the MEC must be in the other thermos…” Jack mumbled.

  Alyssa glared at him, then looked back to Grant. “I’m not convinced you’re telling the truth. How can we know anything you said is true?”

  Grant didn’t seem to hear her. “Wow, this coffee smells incredible!” He took a small sip from the thermos. “Stars! This…” he took several gulps, “this is the most amazing coffee I’ve ever tasted! And I feel all tingly—and instantly energized! What’s your secret?”

  Alyssa’s eyes widened with surprise. “Well, I was playing around with using the MEC as a power source…”

  Grant grinned. “Forget everything I said before. This, right here, is the answer we’ve been looking for.”

  He passed the thermos to Beth and she tasted it. “Stars, you’re right! If anything would bring people together, it’s this.”

  “Come again?” Finn asked.

  “Making sure people are safe and smart is one thing, but a product like this would make them happy. No one would want to take up arms if they could start their day with a cup of this magical deliciousness,” Grant said.

  “You want to monetize it?” Alyssa asked.

  “Oh yes,” Grant confirmed.

  “What happened to wanting to make sure they were telling the truth?” Jack asked her in a whisper.

  “As long as we get paid, who cares?” she whispered back to him. Then, louder, “It’s my design and I already had plans to bring it to market. If you want to use it, then you’ll need to buy me out. And my friends here get a cut.” She smiled at her companions.

  “Do you have the actual MEC and the schematics?” Grant asked.

  Alyssa nodded. “I do.”

  Grant smiled. “Then I think we can work out a deal.”

  CHAPTER 20: New Horizons

  “I’ve never been rich before!” He still couldn’t get over the number of decimal places now showing in his bank account balance—or the fact that the numeral was no longer red with a ‘-’ in front of it. With his grandmother’s expenses pre-paid for the next ten years, his warrants cleared and debts paid, the future possibilities were endless.

  Alyssa seemed far less enthusiastic. “They’re paying us to stay quiet about the Vorlox and Competron being one in the same. That kind of money isn’t as satisfying as if we’d earned it.”

  “We’ll get Spacecups up and running,” Triss assured her. “I’m glad you didn’t cave on those licensing rights.”

  “Yeah, I know.” Alyssa sighed. “I guess part of me hoped I’d get away from corporate politics, but instead I’m locked in for life.”

  “Hey, money is money,” Finn chimed in.

  “I second that. We need to spend it!” Jack exclaimed.

  Alyssa raised an eyebrow. “You’re going to blow through millions in a matter of days, aren’t you?”

  “Do you know how many gadgets I can get now? Plus, I can finally get my own ship like I always wanted,” Jack replied. The Little Princess had been a compromise for his budget, but this was his chance to get a real ship wit
h more than four compartments. With the seed money, he could even start a proper transportation business.

  “You know,” Finn ventured, “we could get an even better ship if we pooled our resources.”

  Alyssa and Triss exchanged glances. “I guess we did say we’re a team now,” Alyssa said. “I saw too many people drift apart because of money while I was growing up. I don’t want the same to happen to us.”

  Triss nodded. “And, frankly, traveling through space alone is lonely and boring.”

  Jack lit up. “Does that mean we get to go spaceship shopping?”

  Triss released a long breath. “I guess it does.”

  “Four cabins and a wet bar. That’s all I ask,” Finn stated.

  “I like all of those things,” Jack agreed.

  “I’m sure we can agree on features we want,” Alyssa said.

  She was wrong.

  The shopping expedition began well, with the team salivating over spacious floor plans and the latest interactive features. As they started to narrow down their options, however, it became clear that each person had a distinct vision of what features an ideal spaceship should contain.

  “I don’t know what you have against a round, rotating bed.” Finn crossed his arms with a huff.

  “I have nothing against the bed, just having it in the middle of the common room,” Alyssa replied.

  “The sparkling lights were a nice touch,” Jack commented.

  “We need something practical that will work for all of us,” insisted Triss. She scanned over the digital catalogue again under the watchful eye of the shipyard proprietor. With the swipe of her hand, she selected a vessel they had previously bypassed due to its hefty price tag. “What about this one?”

  A model of the gently used yacht appeared on the holoprojector. It was ten times the size of the Little Princess and at least three times as fancy, based on the interior images.

  “Five cabins, three washrooms, separate galley, a dining room,” Jack read off, excitement building in his chest.

  Finn’s eyes lit up. “Full-wall viewscreen across from a wet bar.”

  “And a bathtub!” Triss looked to Alyssa. “I want.”