Her current dream, somewhat predictably, had her tumbling through the dark reaches of space, alone in her Stealth Dart. Her controls were locked. Her life support was failing. At least this time, the second seat was empty — the headless, single-breasted body that was so often there was absent. She should be having a wet dream about Celeste — she would never have anything more of her than memories and the dreams they evoked. She shuddered when she realized she was as likely to dream about Celeste’s sudden death as she was of the more pleasant times spent with her.

  She jolted suddenly awake when the ship started stridently demanding a mission code. Until then, it had been quietly insistent, a noise she had been able to ignore. She surprised herself by crying as she came awake. Since she had left home, she had been almost an automaton — refusing to let herself grieve, to even think of poor, dead, headless Celeste. She might as well have had her brain burned, for all of the life she had exhibited.

  Ignoring the ship’s demands for a mission code, Mary canceled the alarm she had set to alert her when she was close to Narlarkic. As she soared through the planet’s moist atmosphere, she located a horizontal shaft in the side of a mountain. The shaft was doubtless the result of an ages-old excavation of the valuable ore, ore which had long since played out at this location.

  The shaft was wide enough that she could back Celeste, the name which she had christened her Stealth Dart, far enough that it was hidden. It was a tight fit. Then she shut everything down. She didn’t want to linger. If it had a bomb on a timer, it might still blow. If it was still here when she came back for it, that still wouldn’t prove that it wasn’t rigged to explode, just that the charge wasn’t on a countdown timer. She doubted her father would have chosen to destroy the valuable little ship. She just couldn’t be sure.

  Narlarkic was one of several worlds where she had hoped to go to ground with Celeste for a few years. With Celeste dead, those plans had now changed. She had been toying with the thought that she might enjoy spending some time executing other corrupt politicians or nuking other crime lords. She laughed silently to herself. That should keep her busy for a while, like for the rest of her life — there were plenty of them. It was just possible her life expectancy would be limited by taking on such a dangerous hobby.

  As soon as she knew she would need to abandon ship, she had prepared a pack with supplies, extra charges for her personal weapon, and a couple of changes of clothing. As much as she hated leaving Celeste alone in the cave, until she found someone to hack the mission code, the ship had been rendered useless to her. The dust on the cave floor was the accumulation of centuries. Celeste should be safe enough in the cave until she came back for it. She patted it on the nose. “I’ll be back, honey. Wait for me.” Erasing her footprints from the thick dust as she backed out of the cave, she felt secure enough. Then she began the two-day hike to the port.

  MC wound up signing on as a pilot/navigator on an old, clunky freighter named the Felix. Ship Master Lamont — he refused to call himself ‘captain’ — had to be talked into taking her on. Having no credentials, she didn’t blame him for being difficult about it. There was nothing MC could present indicating she had ever flown a starship. She didn’t even have a diploma from an accredited flight school. Who knew such things would be expected on a tiny tramp freighter? She would have paid to have papers forged, if she had known.

  It helped that Lamont pretty desperately needed a pilot. He and his first mate had been alternating day and night shifts at the console since his third pilot had died from complications of some disease or another on the trip to Narlarkic. Lamont assured her it had been a metabolic condition and not infectious.

  MC was happy enough to find a position on a ship heading in more or less the opposite direction from the radioactive, slag-lined pit she had left behind her on Segue Five, her homeworld. According to Ship Master Lamont, Lyrexa, Felix’s next port of call, boasted a more technological civilization than Narlarkic did. On Lyrexa, he would be picking up a consignment of computer equipment for delivery to a world light years further away from her dead. She allowed herself to be hopeful that she might be able to hire or, worst case, kidnap her computer wizard there.

  Celeste would be safe enough nestled in her dusty cave until MC could get back to claim her.

  Chapter 6

  The Felix

  Felix had a small crew consisting of two engineers, a cook — who, unfortunately, also cleaned the lavs — the Ship Master and the First Mate. The “cook” had an easy job, as far as that went. All of the meals were prepackaged. That didn’t mean that they were bad. They had a decent variety on the ship — some exotic and some more prosaic. The availability of ready-pack meals purchased in bulk was something else — like needing papers in order to land a job on a lousy freighter — that had been lacking in MC’s education. Apparently an assassin with her own small ship didn’t need to know that purchasing a thousand ready-pack meals was unremarkable.

  There are companies near almost every spaceport where, when told how many people need to be fed, for how long, and if there are any food allergies to be concerned about, will take care of supplying a ship. For a very reasonable price, they deliver however many cartons of ready-to-heat meals it takes to the ship’s loading dock. The quality varies with the price, but even the cheap ones are nutritious and edible. MC had eaten much worse during her training. Spiders — living spiders — came readily to mind. At least she had been warned ahead of time that they were venomous.

  Felix’s newest pilot was assigned the position of Second Mate. Once MC had been hired, after what had been a fairly thorough technical interview, the ship had three people who could staff the bridge. The freighter had to be close to a hundred years old. It seemed to be a solid ship. During her brief tour, she had frowned at some jury-rigged equipment down in the engine room. Agnis Ferguson, one of the engineers, had assured MC that it performed better than the original equipment. Then he had suggested that she ignore the duct tape. She didn’t think he had been joking.

  The bridge controls were simple. As MC looked around at the navigation controls, the comm panel, and the weapons console she realized that she would have no problem working any of the stations. That led her to wonder if she had been trained to handle any ship she was likely to encounter. Looking at the navigation console, she found it interesting that, as a pilot, she could make this thing do barrel rolls, but hadn’t known the first thing about ordering prepackaged food to feed a crew. Of course, she and Celeste would have had to eat on the Stealth Dart. MC had always figured they would pick up food at a market. That started her wondering what other gaps existed in her education.

  Felix left Narlarkic within six hours of her signing on — its cargo holds filled with refined ore, bulk seafood, and a small load of seafood delicacies. No edible fungi this trip, which was a shame — the stuff was really very good. Felix was headed to Lyrexa, a planet with a good deal of industry — hence the ore — and no very large bodies of water — hence the seafood. Even the bulk product commanded an unbelievable price there.

  Ship Master Lamont was quite excited about the profit this run would bring in. His ship was overdue for maintenance and Lyrexa was a good choice for a place to have it taken care of. His two engineers would oversee the work on alternate weeks. The rest of the crew had vacation for at least the two weeks the engineers projected the job would take or until it was complete, whichever was longer.

  MC spent her vacation hanging out in bars in the city. She was still looking to find a hacker. Narlarkic, unsurprisingly, had been a complete bust in that respect. It wasn’t quite the type of job she could stroll into an employment agency to inquire after candidates. Neither of the engineers on Felix had the skill set to handle what she needed to have done.

  Unfortunately, Felix’s next stop, carrying a load of fresh meat products and exotic hardwoods in addition to computer hardware, was not back to Narlarkic. That meant that even if she found the perfect hacker, she didn’t think she would actually hijack Lamont’s ship in order to get recover her Dart, nor would she kidnap her hypothetical hacker, in order to get Celeste functional again. She admitted to herself that she found it to be a moral conundrum. She needed to have the use of her ship.

  In a high-class bar a couple of cities distant from the spaceport, MC met a couple trolling for a bed partner. They were both attractive people, well dressed, and while talking with them, she picked up that they were politically connected. The woman, Anne, just might have the skills needed to alter Celeste’s programming.

  Once in the couple’s suite at a nearby hotel, eating chocolate covered fruit and sipping a sparkling white wine, MC explained to Anne what she needed to have done. She had to tell her that she was a spy — which was more socially acceptable than being an assassin — in order to explain why her ship had been rigged to kill her. When asked if she thought she could deactivate the failsafe, Anne’s answer sounded honest.

  Anne explained that trying to disable what was most likely a sophisticated self-destruct was fraught with danger. It would probably have metaphorical trip wires and other traps for the unwary. She doubted that triggering one would permanently disable the ship, although that was possible. She thought it more likely there would be a very large boom destroying the ship and the impertinent hacker. She further said that it was unlikely that anyone other than whoever had set up the failsafe in the first place could safely handle the problem. She didn’t even want to try, leaving MC with her only option being to kidnap her.

  MC decided against that course of action. Anne seemed nice. MC didn’t want to rip her away from her husband for twenty or more weeks, only to ultimately be responsible for blowing her up. Anne’s husband, Jebo, came across as nice too. MC was happy to know that there were nice people in the world. Until she met these two, she honestly thought that Celeste might have been the only truly nice person she had ever known. For the first time, it occurred to her that Celeste might have had the right idea about something else. MC hadn’t understood it at the time. Celeste had wanted to help people. MC wondered if, in addition to killing evil people, she could someday find other ways to help people.

  The entire night was enjoyable for all three of them. In fact, they made a date to meet again at the same hotel the next weekend. In the meantime, Jebo — who was quite talkative — inadvertently identified MC’s next victim. He mentioned a corporate magnate who corrupted police and politicians to get away with anything he wanted. That gave MC something to do with her second week off while she rethought what do about her ship’s computer.

  Lada Linkcone had impressive security around his residence. At least, he must have thought he did. The fact was, compared to her father’s compound, Lada’s place was no more secure than a cardboard box. MC guessed that since he controlled both the police and the government in his city, he felt secure.

  Her talons came into play scaling the stone wall surrounding the property. From there, she managed to get into the main house without killing any of his guards. He just didn’t have enough to ensure full coverage. To eyes that see in the dark and ears that pick up every single sound, they were easy to avoid. Once inside the wall, MC was able to circumvent the electronic sentries as she went. They were relatively sophisticated, but she had been trained on better.

  In theory, she had been trained on the best security hardware that money could buy. She wasn’t naive enough to believe that to be true. If nothing else, Human-occupied space spanned an enormous expanse of the galactic arm. She felt that she could almost guarantee that somewhere, someone had come up with something more impressive. The hardware she had learned on probably came close, though.

  It looked like the easiest access point of the main residence was going to be one of the third-floor windows. Dressed completely in non-reflective black, she scaled the fancy stone wall, using the talons extruded from her fingers to lift herself from one mortar joint to the next. She kept her boots on — this was an easy enough climb that she didn’t need an assist from the claws she could extrude from her toes. Adhering one of her climbing disks on the window, she etched around it with the talon on the index finger of the same hand. Then a quick jerk broke free the glass disk.

  She had already verified that the window lacked any sensors. This incursion was approaching being too easy. If she hadn’t let herself into a trap, then Lada was depending far too much on his exterior security. That wasn’t uncommon. Most people were uncomfortable when they had to get up in the middle of the night to use the lav and needed to remember to adjust the interior alarms. Having a kid who wanted a snack go downstairs and set off alarms throughout a residence was an awkward situation too — especially if you preferred not to traumatize your child.

  After unlatching the window, she pushed it gently open. Then she climbed into the room after scanning for active sensors. She had a device strapped to her wrist for that. Her eyes would have seen any laser beam trips if there had been any. She padded silently through the room to the door.

  Pulling a fiber optic cable from her wrist device, she slid it under the door in order to look up and down the hall. It was empty. Easing the door open, she ghosted down the hallway. While she was out on the street, she had observed all of the windows. Lada should be in the room three doors to her right. Considering the late hour, it was probably a bedroom.

  His door was unlocked. He wasn’t asleep, as she had hoped, but he was thoroughly invested in what he was doing. She closed the door behind her as silently as she had opened it and blended into shadows. The body he was on top of was significantly smaller than his. She could hear crying. MC was debating whether to end what she suspected was a rape or to let the man finish. She wanted to get in and out of the house unseen.

  Then a boy’s voice, muffled from being face down in the pillows, shrieked, “Daddy, it’s hurting me.” That decided her. It took her less than a second to get to the bed, reach out with both of her hands, and snap the man’s neck with a quick twist. She yanked him off the boy and onto the floor. Reaching down, she pinched a nerve on the boy’s neck to ensure he didn’t get up and start screaming. She was careful — he should be out for one to two hours. By then she would be in another city. Then she retraced her steps and left the compound.

  Chapter 7

  Survivors

  There was no longer any doubt on the bridge — Felix was being followed. Their pursuer had first been picked up two days out from Lyrexa when it had crept into sensor range. If it had shown up while they were still in the Lyrexa system, MC would have been pleased to play hide and find with it in the system’s vast asteroid belt and among the multiple gravity wells of the planets. Out here, where they were now, there was nothing — not even an asteroid or a comet to hide behind. Still, she did the best she could, skewing their course from a straight line from time to time. She didn’t expect to lose her pursuer, if that is what the ship back there was. At least, if the other ship continued to follow the course she was setting, it would leave them with no doubts that they were being chased.

  Felix was outfitted with dual phase cannons. They were somewhat antiquated, like the ship itself, and didn’t pack that much of a punch. Her shields weren’t much better. They were designed more for dealing with space debris on planetary approaches than for fighting off other ships. According to Ship Master Lamont, he had indeed fought off the unwelcome advances of a pirate or two over the years. Be that as it may, Felix wouldn’t stand a chance against a determined attack.

  MC had thought, since it had first been pointed out to her on her tour of the ship, that having a shuttle on Felix was a waste of space. As she sat, alone for the moment on Felix’s tiny bridge, she realized that she might have been mistaken about that. Like Ship Master Lamont, she too believed that Felix was doomed. The pirate that had come after them had caught up and had already punched a hole in the cargo bay. The bay had the weakest shields to begin with. Now that the ship was under attack, all power had been diverted from the cargo hold shields to those covering the more critical areas of the ship.

  Trusting to her reflexes, MC avoided the next two shots by jerking Felix onto a new heading at the best speed she could get out of it. Lamont, who had rejoined her on the bridge, said, “Impressive, MC.” He had brought her a protein bar and a hot beverage. He had already acknowledged that she was the better pilot. If they were attempting to dodge attackers, he wanted her at the helm. Lamont was seated in front of the weapon panel. First Officer Candrin was covering the sensor array.

  Sure, jockeying the ship the way she was was impressive. She knew that ultimately, impressive maneuvers weren’t going to matter. It was a waste of time trying to escape the faster, more heavily armed ship. As the pirate closed the distance, she would have less time to anticipate its next shots.

  Before he made a ship-wide announcement, Lamont had asked, “MC, do you think you’ll be able to get us away from the pirate?” Before she answered he fired off a chain of bursts from Felix’s dual phase cannons. It was a heavy blast and the pirate’s shields wavered. He doubted it did any significant damage.

  Despite her best efforts at the navigation console, MC knew the old ship couldn’t escape the newer, faster ship that was pursuing them. “No, sir. We lack sufficient maneuverability and power. I can make it difficult for them but I can’t get us away from them. That’s a younger ship. It’s just plain faster than we are.”

 

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