Sheila, Greg, and T’sunk’al, weapons at the ready, slowly made their way towards the bridge. The sensors showed nothing alive ahead of them but they all knew that sensors can be spoofed. They had all done it before.

It made them a little suspicious of such things. At Sheila’s signal Bunny, Jessie’s AI, now happily “living” in a true supercomputer opened each blast door in front of them and then automatically closed the ones behind, just like it was doing with all other squads and individuals moving throughout the entire ship.

Gunshots rang out in the distance. Sheila grabbed her communicator.

“Jessie, what was that?” she asked.

“Oh, there were some security goons running around the main promenade. They had gotten where the turrets couldn’t get them,” Jessie chirped happily, “We got ‘em, though. Everything between the docking bay and the promenade is ours now. Phase two complete.”

“Great,” Sheila said as she reached the stairwell leading towards the bridge level, “Have everyone hold positions there for now. How do the opposing forces look?”

“In pretty bad shape. Gloria did a good job smoking the pork. We have twelve security guards lurking around and a handful of crew. It’s much better than we planned.”

“Good to hear but don’t get careless,” Sheila said as she smiled, “The survivors are most likely the smartest and toughest of the bunch.”

“Don’t worry, I never get careless.”

“Except for the time you forgot to turn the security cameras back on...”

“Goddammit! Every fucking time you bring that up!”

“Only because it gets a rise out of you every fucking time,” Sheila laughed as she started to climb the stairs.

“The elevators work, you know.”

“Yeah, and how many people have we killed in elevators… sometimes with elevators?”

“I see your point,” Jessie laughed, “Enjoy your cardio.”

***

Roberts drug the last of the guards out of the Security Command Center and then shut the door. He winced as he heard the bolts slide into place. He had just been locked in by his own people. He checked the control panel. It was unresponsive.

This wasn’t good.

“Sooo,” Helena said quietly, “You’re a pirate.”

“Sometimes,” Roberts said as he sat down on a bench beside her, “We usually are drug traffickers or arms dealers these days but we still do a little piracy every now and then. We also do mercenary work or assassinations upon occasion if the target is good.”

“And that’s why?...”

“Why I straight-armed you hard?” Roberts asked, “Yeah.” He hung his head. “I was falling for you and the whole time I knew how this was going to play out. I hoped me being a dick would be enough to get you on that goddamn shuttle and off of this… off this ship before things went to Hell.”

“Well, you got the being a dick part down pat,” Helena said giving him a nasty look, “Too bad I don’t have the sense God gave algae. I was going to go but I ran into Jocelyn...” She looked down as she mentioned her name.

“Sorry about your friend. It wasn’t supposed to go down like that. We are supposed to be trying to not kill the passengers. Fucking Gloria… shit.”

“Your fucking friend straight up murdered Jocelyn Hernandez, one of the best most stand-up people in the Federation. She did so much good and hit the Federation harder than you assholes ever will! She… fuck…”

Tears started to form in Helena’s eyes.

“And she died trying to save me! A two-bit advice columnist… Jocelyn threw her life away for me… Why did she do that?”

“That question will tear you up inside if you let it,” Roberts said quietly. “She made a choice. For whatever reason, she made that call. It wasn’t your fault.”

“You are goddamn right it isn’t my fault!” Helena snapped. “It’s that fucking friend of yours… and you! It’s your fault! It’s your fault she’s dead! Asshole!”

Helena got up and walked over to the other end of the room glaring at him.

“It’s your fault, you fucking piece of shit!”

“Yes, it is. It is our fault,” Roberts said calmly, dying inside, “In war, there is collateral damage no matte-”

“Bullshit! This isn’t war! This is just some piece of shit raiders taking what they want! Don’t you dare try to hide this behind some 'noble' cause! That is some porkie scum level bullshit! I don’t care if you do call yourself Terran! This is some grade-A fucking porkie scum raider crap if I’ve ever seen it! You fuckers murdered an innocent woman just because some psycho bitch felt like it. How many other people have you killed today or are going to kill, huh? How many other innocent-”

“It is war!” Roberts yelled. “Just because the fucking Republic decided to let you assholes off with a little slap on the wrist-”

“SLAP ON THE WRIST !?!?!?” Helena shrieked, “Slap on the fucking wrist?!? My homeworld is ruined! My hometown is covered in fucking glass… GLASS!… You weren’t there when the fucking Retribution hit! You weren’t there!!!”

“And you weren’t there on Red Sunday!” Roberts snarled. “We made it through the Great War. We had to reorganize six different times because company after company after company was wiped out but we had made it! I go on leave to do some job interviews because guess what? I was getting out. Yeah, me of all people was getting out. I was done. I’m on Terra and guess fucking what? I got a job, a nice one. One good enough for me and my… fiance’...” Roberts paused and snarled, “My fiance’… to start a real life together, one good enough to see us through comfortably while she went to school to become an astronomer, what she always wanted to be… But guess what? You porkies had other plans...”

“Don’t you fucking dare lump me in with those… your fiance’?”

“Yeah, she was in my battalion… She… She didn’t make it. Fucking Federation orbital bombardment wiped out almost all of us. They knew right where to hit. Federation killed them all, Helena, all of them.” He said as he looked off into nowhere for a moment.

“Jesus...” Helena said completely at a loss. She didn’t know whether she wanted to be enraged or sympathetic, whether to try to hug him or stab him with the stylus that she had palmed as soon as she entered the room. “Christ, this is fucked up...” she said. At least she could be certain of that.

“Yeah, war is that… fucked up.”

“Stop calling this bullshit war, Paul. This isn’t war. This is just a bunch of assholes-”

“It is war to us. You thought starting the war was bullshit? Well, we think stopping it was! The Federation tried to cut our fucking throats and made a pretty damn good slice when they tried. When that bullshit treaty was signed a lot of us just… couldn’t take it… and quit. Officers resigned, enlisted people like myself just waited out their time and didn’t re-up, or managed to get kicked out one way or the other. Some of us decided that we wanted to keep going and linked up. My ‘band of raiders’ as you would call us is a real military organization and we have hit the Federation, hard, and will continue to do that until we are ‘done’.”

“Oh, yeah? What have you done, murdered a few innocent old-ladies?” Helena sneered, “Way to stick it to the man, there. Really badass, Paul. Really impressive… Really-”

“Oh?” Roberts snarled, “How about arming the Z’uush, including their nukes? How about hacking the Federation and dumping all of that info to the press? How about killing General Swarth, and Grant Shanks, and a lot of other people who had it coming? Councilor Morgan is next by the way. That’s just the beginning. We have done some shit, trust me.”

“Wait. You were the ones who armed the Z’uush? You were the ones who hacked the Federation?”

“Well, it wasn’t so much of a hack as it was a con-job but yeah, that was us.” Roberts said. “Needless to say Fed Intel isn’t too happy with us, like kill-order not happy.”

“Wait. The Federation actually issues kill orders?” Helena asked, her reporter’s instincts taking hold.

“Are you kidding me?” Roberts laughed, “Ol’ Director Axlea has no problem with those. If you don’t believe me just ask Cyrus Red.”

“The Federation is behind Cyrus Red’s disappearance and the mass murder of his organization?!?!”

“Oh you betcha,” Roberts laughed, “The idiot went and tried to get them involved with a little problem he was having and they definitely took care of it… along with him and everyone who worked for him, the whole fucking organization.”

“How do you know this?”

“He went to us first,” Roberts replied, “Cyrus was our main drug channel and someone with a hard-on for our boss decided to put pressure on him to try to get him to give her up.”

“Do you mean those really fucked-up attacks on his people just before-”

“Yup. Ok, here’s how it all went down...”

***

As Sheila, Greg, and T’sunk’al continued to climb Greg pulled Sheila aside.

“Looks like Roberts followed orders,” he said as he showed his tablet to Sheila.

“Thank God for that.”

“You know, if he goes off the rails and comes after us...”

“Yeah, I know, Greg. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

“But if it does...”

“If it does we’ll deal with it,” Sheila snapped, “We have enough on our plate right now as it is. Can you obsess about just one hypothetical threat at a time. You are starting to give me a headache.”

“If Roberts goes nuts and comes after us that’s a lot bigger problem than Logan.”

“If Roberts goes nuts and if Logan is a rat… Christ Greg, I know it’s your job to worry and nit-pick but you are going above and beyond here.”

“I’m just saying...”

“And I’m just saying that Roberts followed orders and right now is locked down tight in what is basically a bank-vault. He isn’t going anywhere… and if he does, well… then we kill him. It will break my heart to do it but that’s what we will have to do. Just use the blast doors and fire suppression and turrets.”

“And you think that will actually stop him?”

“Fuck, Greg, what do you want me to do? Kill him first? Have Jessie pump the air out of the room? Turn on the turret? Is that what you want?”

“No! No… you just need to be prepared.”

“As soon as we get this ship buttoned down I’ll take a squad down there with me and have a little heart to heart with him. I’m pretty sure as long as we don’t threaten his… whatever she is… he’ll behave. We have him by the short and curlies and he knows it. If and that’s a big if he is set to blow he won’t as long as he thinks she is safe. If he’s dead then there is nobody to protect her from Gloria. He’ll behave.”

“That’s not what I meant about you needing to be prepared...”

“I know, Greg, and yeah, I’m prepared to do what has to be done if it comes to that… Fuck! I’m starting to wish we never even looked at this fucking ship.”

“Yeah,” Greg quietly said. This one was going to go bad. He just knew it. He could feel the whole operation starting to slowly but surely start to slide off the rails.

They continued their climb in silence.

***

Gloria shifted uneasily in the bridge’s command chair. She had fucked up. She hated this. Normally when the haze lifted and she suddenly found that moment of clarity and was confronted by whatever she did this time it didn’t bother her. This is how the world works and she made peace with the fucked up galaxy and her own fucked up mind long ago.

But, every now and then she would fuck up and she fucked up royally this time. Roberts probably hated her guts right now and Sheila… fuck. It looked like she was in some real deep shit there, real deep shit. She actually threatened to fire her. She had never done that before.

Fuck, what had she done?

She wanted to make things right but how? She pulled up the Security Command Center on one of the monitors and reached over to trigger the intercom but stopped. What was she going to say, “Sorry for trying to kill this person you are clearly in love with… My bad...”? They were arguing and yelling at each other. That could be a good thing, right? No. They stopped. Now they are just talking and you can see… it… again. It’s in their eyes… Shit.

Fuck. It had to be the berserker. Yeah, that was it. She took a big lungful of it. She was high, that’s why she did it. It wasn’t her fault. She needed the berserker to accomplish her mission. It was approved and all part of the plan, right? Yeah, it was just the drugs.

That’s bullshit and you know it, Gloria she thought to herself and winced at the unbidden intrusion.

Shut up, she thought back.

You know why you did it, don’t you?

Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Gloria got up and paced back and forth. Ok, Gloria, get a grip. Sheila’s on the way. What are we… what am I… going to say to her? Get a grip. I gotta get my story straight.

Gloria sat back down and resumed monitoring sensor outputs and surveillance screens. She can’t fix anything right now. At least she can try to do her job, her actual task. Now that was straightforward enough. That was something that she could do.

Someone beat on the door to the bridge. Gloria pulled up the camera outside and her heart froze. It was Sheila. She went over, unlocked the door, and opened it.

“Sheila! Hi!”

Sheila just walked past her with barely a glance.

“Status report,” Sheila barked without even looking at Gloria.

“Everything went according to plan. We wiped out well over ninety percent of security personnel and crew. The stragglers are contained in small groups mostly in the equipment spaces in the aft section of the ship where breathing apparatus were more common and turrets exist only in truly vital areas.”

“Good.” Sheila sat down in the command chair and started to pull up various camera angles and status screens.

“Jessie,” Sheila said as Gloria fidgeted nervously.

“Yeah, boss?” Jessie asked as her face appeared on one of the monitors.

“How is the connection to Bunny?”

“It’s shit. One of the main data feeds is behind the bulkhead of bay seven like we thought but the connection is fucked. Maybe it was the tap I used. I don’t know. I’m looking at ten nanoseconds of latency and a bandwidth only ninety-eight percent of what I had hoped for.”

“So, it’s all good and only you would notice the problems?”

“Yeah,” Jessie’s face broke out into a grin, “I wouldn’t try to jump from here but that’s about it. Still not happy with my tap though. Maybe I’m getting rusty.”

“Bunny making herself at home?”

“Oh yeah, no problem. She already learned the ship so she was able to just superimpose herself right over the top of all functions. Right now Bunny is the ship.”

“Well at least that is going smoothly,” Sheila said with an annoyed tone in her voice.

“Um, Sheila...” Gloria started.

“Does it have something to do with phase two, phase three, or any threat to the mission?”

“No but...”

“Then save it. We will have plenty of time to chat later and we will have a little chat, trust me. Head to the promenade and co-ordinate with Jacob. He is running point there.”

“Yes, ma’am. I understand,” Gloria said calmly breathing a sigh of relief. Sheila was really really pissed off but this was normal really really pissed off. She had been here before. She took a deep breath and relaxed, her eyes turning into calm emotionless voids. She had a job to do, a mission to achieve. This was good. Everything else can wait until later. Now there was just the mission.

She nodded curtly and left.

“At least Gloria is back online,” Greg said with some relief in his voice.

“Yeah, ‘online’...” Sheila said somewhat unhappily.

“Ma’am?”

“Oh, nothing,” Sheila said and then grinned. “I guess it’s time to get this party started”

***

Councilor Morgan keyed his ship’s communicator again… nothing. He had been trapped in this corridor for what felt like hours. He checked. It had been hours, two of them to be exact. The captain was going to get an earful. No. The head of Axion lines was going to get an earful.

Wait? Were those gunshots? Terran gunshots? What the hell was happening? He looked over at his men, four professional security experts, former Federation special forces.

“Don’t worry, sir,” Hassan said pulling out his sidearm, “We have you.”

“Y-you better!” Morgan stammered, “That’s what I’m paying you for.”

“Excuse, me. Councilor Morgan?” Sheila asked in a syrupy overly-deferential tone over his communicator.

“It’s about fucking time! I’ve been trying to reach you for hours!”

“I know and I apologize, Councilor,” Sheila said almost whining, “It’s just that we’ve had an… ‘incident’ and you were safe at your current location. I apologize taking this long to get to you but things have been… hectic.”

“I could hear! Were those gunshots?”

“Yes, Councilor. Unfortunately they were. Some individuals slipped aboard on a cargo vessel and attempted to enter the ship. Sir, it seems that they were after you.”

“T-they were?!?!” he exclaimed as his guards surrounded him.

“Yes, based on what was found we believe they were here in an attempt to assassinate you. We believe that we have gotten them all.”

“You believe!?!?”

“Yes, sir. Until we have fully searched the entire ship we would like you to come to the bridge. It’s the most secure location.”

“I can’t go anywhere because of these doors!”

“We will open a safe path to the bridge.” The door behind Councilor Morgan and his guards opened. “Just follow the doors and a security detail will meet you shortly.”

Councilor Morgan and his men started to move. After a few minutes one of his men looked around suspiciously.

“This isn’t the way to the bridge,” he said.

“Where are you sending us?” Councilor Morgan yelled into his communicator.

“Sir, we apologize for sending you the long way around but this is the safest path and the fastest one to our security detail.”

They continued to follow the doors with his guards becoming increasingly suspicious.

“I don’t like this,” Hassan, their leader grumbled. “Stand ready, men.”

“Wait!” one of them shouted. “This opens onto the promen-”

He was cut short by a bullet going through his head. As the blast door slammed open, Sheila’s team posted all around the promenade opened fire simultaneously from multiple angles cutting down all the guards. Councilor Morgan tried to run but was quickly caught by squads flanking the doorway.

“You can’t do this!” he shouted to a burly Z’uush who pinned him to the ground while they cuffed him. “Do you know who I am?”

“Yes,” the Z’uush buzzed. “As a matter of fact, I do.”

***

Rupert Glent was eating breakfast with his family when the doors to the restaurant all slammed shut with a loud “bang”. At first he was alarmed but the staff told him that sometimes this would happen if the crew suspected damage such as from a meteorite impact and once everything was checked out the doors would open back up and everything would be back to normal.

“Hey, it’s just some added adventure,” he laughed as he reassured his family. He hoped it wouldn’t be too much of an inconvenience since it was the first vacation they had been able to take as a family in years. Since it was, they decided to do it in style and take a cruise on the White Star.

The past couple of years had been quite good. Adding a construction division was the best idea he had had in a long while. The reconstruction contracts were a never ending fountain of credits and with so many contracts open you could pretty much bid whatever you wanted. Someone was desperate enough somewhere to pay whatever you wanted to charge.

He had made millions. He often joked to his wife that they should have tricked the Federation into attacking the Terrans sooner. She hated that joke but she certainly did not mind the millions of credits flowing into their accounts.

At first their entrapment was amusing but as the minutes turned to hours and the staff became more and more nervous it stopped being fun and started being more than a little concerning. He could see the manager and staff huddling in a corner whispering. That couldn’t be good. Just as he got up to confront them the unmistakable sound of gunfire, Terran gunfire, echoed through the room. It sounded like it was just outside. His wife, shaking with fear, grabbed his children and dragged them under the table.

The staff dropped any pretense that this was normal and were hiding behind the bar and in the kitchen. The manager, gripping a long knife and his communicator, could be seen and heard yelling demanding to know what the hell was going on. It wasn’t long before panic gripped the entire room.

Then they could hear people and non-humans running past and shouting and there was no mistaking that accent… Terrans…

Then… an eternity later, another brief round of gunfire and more silence.

Suddenly a pleasant voice issued from the ship wide PA system.

Greetings, this is your captain speaking… well, your new captain. Your former one is quite dead, along with almost all of the guards and quite a lot of the crew.

This is an act of piracy. We have taken control of virtually all of the White Star and are in the process of mopping up what little resistance remains. To any security personnel and crew remaining, if you haven’t figured it out yet we are in complete control of this ship and all of its systems including the automatic turrets. At this point any resistance is stupid and will gain nothing. If you wish to seek martyrdom then by all means continue to fight but if you lay down your arms and surrender you will be well treated and have a very good chance of surviving this.

We are Terrans and we are killers but we would much prefer not to go through all of the hassle of killing all of you so please, just give up. You aren’t getting paid enough to die for Axion. Trust me, I know. I’ve looked at your personnel files. You are definitely not getting paid enough to die. Also, if you truly care about this ship and your passengers you won’t be starting any firefights. One, I would prefer not to get any passengers caught in the crossfire and two, this ship is very short handed right now. Each and every one of you will be necessary to keep this ship intact and operational after our departure so once again I implore you to lay down your arms. If you are unarmed and walking with your hands up we won’t trigger fire suppression nor will we target you with the automatic turrets. Proceed to the fountain on the promenade and you will be secured and escorted to a holding area. Your passengers need you.

To the passengers, you are now a victim of piracy. Fortunately for you we aren’t the raiders you or your parents or grand-parents or whatever were. We are professionals and here to do a job. You will be robbed but as long as you don’t decide to be an idiot you will not be harmed or killed. There are a few exceptions, such as Councilor Morgan who will be executed shortly. Yes, Councilor, you are going to be killed. Make peace with whatever God listens to the likes of you.

Our squads will now be moving through the ship collecting both passengers and staff and escorting them to designated holding areas where you will be placed under guard for the remainder of this operation. If you follow their instructions and do not resist, you will get through this with one hell of a story to tell your little porkie friends back home. If you oppose us, you will be killed.

That will be all. I look forward to working with each and every one of you and thank you for patronizing Axion lines.

Rupert just stood there in shock like many of the passengers. Things like this just didn’t happen to him. It just didn’t make sense. Pirates? Robbed? Here?

Ignoring his wife’s pleas to join them under the table, he just stood there for a very long time.

***

Lieutenant Soly and crewmen Burton and Sul-Kar-eee were crawling through a narrow access-way just above deck six when the announcement was made.

“Ma’am, maybe we should turn ourselves in,” Sul-Kar-eee, a Pol-ka and one of the few non-human crew aboard the ship said, his crest inflating and deflating in anxiety.

“C’mon, we are almost there,” Lieutenant Soly said breathing hard from her exertion and fear. “It’s not far now. Once we leave a message on the hyperspace distress beacon and trigger it there will be nothing they can do. There will be warships here within hours. They will have to run.”

“And you’re sure they won’t be able to detect it?” crewman Burton asked.

“Oh, they will be able to detect the beacon,” the lieutenant said with a smile. “I’m counting on that. They won’t, however, be able to detect where it was triggered from. We just set it off and then lay low in these access tunnels until the cavalry arrives.”

“I don’t know. It looks like they have control of everything.” Sul-Kar-eee said miserably. “What’s to stop them from just turning on the fire suppression like they did everywhere else?”

“That’s what we have these for,” the lieutenant said waving her breathing mask for emphasis. “The important thing is that there are no turrets in here and all the blast hatches have manual controls.”

“Well… ok, ma’am...” Sul-Kar-eee said, his pecker-crests popping in and out as they crawled.

“Ah! Here it is!” the lieutenant said as she opened a panel to reveal a computer interface. She quickly accessed it and entered in her password.

Jessie’s face appeared on the screen as she was eating some popcorn.

“Jessie’s pizza. Can I interest you in the porkie special?”

The lieutenant’s face fell.

“Oh, come on,” Jessie said with a grin, “You didn’t actually think it would be that easy do you?”

“Who are you?”

“I’m the hacker that took over the ship.”

“You!” the lieutenant snarled, “Do you have any idea how many people you killed?”

“Lemme check… three-hundred and seventeen,” Jessie chirped happily. “Not a bad day’s work if I do say so myself. Credit where credit’s due though. It was just my code. Someone else pulled the trigger on most of them. I’ve only snuffed thirty-eight of you.”

“You fucking monster!” The lieutenant screamed in pain and rage.

“Guilty,” Jessie said in her bubbly cheerful voice. “Now I know what you are thinking. If you can somehow get to the actual physical beacon you can override me and get a signal out. It’s what I’d be thinking right about now and we both know it is possible to reach it never actually setting foot near a turret. Bad idea.”

“Yeah?” the lieutenant asked.

“Yeah. One, I know exactly where you are and two, my men can get there faster and just wreck the thing. You are going to really want that beacon intact later on, trust me.”

“There is no way you can possibly know where we are.”

“Um, you do realize that we are talking… over interface 3487B… And… there are three of you… two human and one something else… Is it a pol-ka?”

“How… how do you know that?” the lieutenant asked in shock.

“Because of the minute electrical signals you induce as your bodies brush past sensors and move through the wiring. And yeah, I can do that. No reason you couldn’t do the same if you had the right software… and enough processing power of course,” Jessie grinned. “It’s something I whipped up for another job years ago where I had to get around a system that used a similar effect for a kick-ass security system… It was really nice. Still cracked it though.”

The crewmen looked fearfully at each other.

“One final thing,” Jessie said. “If you turn your head to the right you will see a little gray box with a high voltage symbol on it. Do you know what that is?”

“An automatic power transfer switch...” the lieutenant said her heart freezing in her throat.

“Now, hypothetically, if I was somehow able to… I don’t know… bypass a few safety protocols and just made that thing try to blindly close at this very moment… what would happen?”

The lieutenant just froze. The answer is that it would be bad, very bad, for anyone around it.

“Wonderful ship you have… so much redundancy… so much in fact that I could just blow the hell out of where you are crawling and everything would just automatically switch to one of several different other circuits. You, however, would be every bit as dead as my pervy foster-dad after I reprogrammed his fancy grav-car. Oh I wish you could have heard him scream.” Jessie chirped happily.

Everyone in the access-way froze, afraid to breathe.

“I tell you what. Why don’t you guys just crawl out, head to the fountain, and chill. Hell, I’ll even tell them to get you guys some beers. What do you say?”

The lieutenant just hung her head and wept. She was beaten and she knew it. Everything she had gone through to get here didn’t matter. The game was rigged from the start. She had risked her and her men’s lives several times over for nothing, absolutely nothing. It was just like the war all over again. She wondered if the people on the Alduin were smiling just like this hacker when they just rolled over them like so many ants.

“Aw, don’t be like that.” Jessie said consolingly. “You did good! You guys have come the closest so far to fucking us up. You should be proud! Now go and get yourself those beers.”

“O-ok…” the lieutenant said regaining her composure a little. “We surrender. Goddamn you to Hell, we surrender.”

“Atta-girl,” Jessie said happily, “Now what sort of beer do you like? I’ll have them waiting for you.”

***

Roberts was sitting next to Helena. They had been talking, a lot… about a lot of things. Her homeworld had been ruined by the Terrans. His battalion and fiance’ had been wiped out in a surprise attack by the Federation. So much anger… So much loss... So much hate...

Roberts was finally tired of hate and Helena had worn out her outrage over the last couple of hours. They finally wound up just sitting there holding each other’s hand in silence. Neither of them were exactly sure what to say. Roberts wanted to tell her how he felt but how could he? He was sitting in a room where he killed three people right in front of her without even blinking. Helena, well she was just all mixed up. Roberts was a good man. She didn’t doubt that for a minute but how can a good man do what he has done?

Was it justified?

That was a question she didn’t like having. Of course it wasn’t. It wasn’t war. It was crime and nothing he could say could change that or what he has done but still… No! It was crime. There was nothing noble about it! They were criminals, right? No, there was no question was there? Was there?

Despite everything she still wanted to just hug him and tell him that it was over and he was ok. How stupid was that?

So, they just sat there holding hands, each trying to savor each moment because they both knew that it wouldn’t last. Helena thought that Roberts would go back to killing in what he thought was war and he believed Helena would never understand or accept what he had done. Hell, both of them realized that they couldn’t even live in the same world without one or both of them being at risk. Both of them, calling themselves a fool the whole time, tried to figure out a way they could be together. Both of them failed.

Eventually the silence was broken by the intercom.

“Hey, Roberts,” Sheila said over the speaker, “Why don’t you switch off that blaster and put it over in the corner.”

“I’m not entirely sure if that’s a good idea,” Roberts replied.

“(Sigh…) I promise I’m not going to kill you or do anything to… Helena Sterling… Are we good? Will you put the blaster away?”

Roberts sighed and stood. Helena looked up at him with fear in her eyes.

“It will be ok,” Roberts said as he deactivated the blaster and leaned it against the far corner of the room.

The door opened and Sheila, flanked by squad six, entered. Helena’s eyes opened in surprise. She had never actually seen a Z’uush before. Her instincts kicked in and she started to reach for her camera before she decided that was probably not the brightest of ideas.

“So, loverboy...” Sheila said as she leaned against the wall, “what the fuck is going on?”

“Gloria tried to kill Helena and I freaked out a little, that’s all.”

“That’s all? Oh, I just lost my shit and threatened my commanding officer’s life, and meant it, during an operation, no big thing...”

“I still mean it,” Roberts said calmly. “Helena gets out of this safe. I don’t care what happens to me after that.”

“Jesus, Roberts, don’t get so fucking dramatic,” Sheila said, quite annoyed, “There is absolutely no reason to kill your little friend, none at all, so it isn’t happening. She is getting out. Happy?”

“Very.”

“So… no murderous rampage?”

“No. As long as-”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah… got it. Don't hurt the girlfriend. I got it. Gloria gets it. Everybody understands no hurting the Helena. She doesn’t get a scratch and she gets a golden ticket ride off of this shit-heap when we are done. She gets out and gets a trip to someplace safe, guaranteed. I swear,” Sheila said placing her hand on her heart.

“So what happens to Paul?” Helena demanded as she rose to her feet.

“Oh, Christ, you too?” Sheila asked shaking her head. “Well, according to pirate customs we will whip him, then toss him out of an airlock.” She smiled and then took an unconscious step back at one look in Helena’s eyes. “Nah, we are just going to have to have a real discussion concerning his future with our organization and there will have to be a vote concerning whether or not he remains with us. It’s the first time we’ve had to do something like this but it has been decided that is what is going to go down.”

“I’ll save you the trouble,” Roberts said quietly. “I’m done. I’m tired, Sheila, tired of the hate, tired of the killing… tired of everything. I just can’t do it anymore. You wanted to know what the fuck is going on. That’s what’s going on. I… I just don’t want to kill anymore. I’ve killed enough. I’ve served the Republic enough. I’ve fought enough… It’s… It’s over for me, Sheila...” Roberts just sighed and hung his head. “It’s… over.”

“… Ok...” Sheila said. “Fair enough. You want out, you’re out but I need you on this one, Roberts. Can I count on you? Can we count on you for this one last job? The butchering is pretty much over. I just need people I can count on,” Sheila said holding out her hand. “Can I count on you, please?”

Roberts took her hand and shook it. “Yeah, but this is the last one,” he said.

“Fine. You finish this one and you get your cut and then we buy you out,” Sheila said with a smile. She turned over to Helena. “See? No keel-hauling.”

“So, where do you need me to go?” Roberts asked.

“For now, you are just going to hang out here for a little bit longer,” Sheila said with a smile. “Need you to look after something for me.”

“Hey, Ms. Sheila? Right?” Helena asked.

“Yeah?” Sheila asked dubiously.

“Um, Hi. Helena Sterling, investigative reporter. Nice to meet you.” she said holding out her hand.

“Is she fucking serious right now?” Sheila asked Roberts. He just smiled and shrugged.

***

“Heya, Logan,” Sheila said lounging in the command chair, “How you guys holding up? Managing to stay awake?”

“Hey, pirate queen. How’s it going, baby-girl?”

“Oh going nicely. Cleared most of the ship, enough to start moving the passengers to cargo-bay four and plenty of the crew are giving up. Looks like it is going pretty smoothly. A few wounded but no deaths.”

“I can see that. Looks like that big black guy and some of those cockroaches you hired are a little busy back here.”

“His name is Eno and those ‘cockroaches’ are called Z’uush,” Sheila said with a little annoyance. “You’ve been around my men long enough to at least try to learn some names and those Z’uush are going to be the new badasses on the block. You’re going to be dealing with teams of those from here on out so be nice.”

“Yeah, ok, baby-girl,” Logan laughed, “So, when are we going to plug Councilor Morgan?”

“Eager beaver aren’t ya?” Sheila laughed. “Well, first we are going to have to secure the ship and get the prisoners moved and then I thought we would let the guys have a breather, get some shopping in.”

“I thought you were going to kill him right away.”

“Yeah, but why rush it. I want to do it right. You know, set up proper lighting, camera angles, get some nice microphones going. It isn’t every day we kill a Federation Councilor, you know,” Sheila said with a dark chuckle. “No need to hurry. Let’s enjoy this. Grab some nice shit from the bar, relax, get some looting in, and then line him up against a wall and… bang!”

“Yeah, but isn’t that risky?” Logan asked dubiously.

“Risky how? It’s not like he’s going anywhere and I would like to get a souvenir or two to remember the occasion. Maybe you could ‘buy’ me something nice. A girl likes presents after all,” Sheila playfully giggled in a flirtatious manner. “We should have this whole thing wrapped up with a bow and will have jumped in a few hours. Councilor Morgan can wait until then.”

“So where do you have him, anyway?”

“Somewhere safe, that’s all I’m saying,” Sheila said with a malicious grin.

***

Locked up in the Security Control Center Councilor Morgan was curled up in a ball in the corner of his cell.

Helena beat on the bars of his cell with a baton, camera in hand.

“Hey, Councilor, any final statements before you are executed by Terrans? How do you feel knowing that your presence on this ship has doomed so many innocent Federation citizens to die with you? Do you even care?”

Helena continued to badger him as she took picture after picture.

“Councilor! Is what the Terrans saying about you true? Did you knowingly betray the Federation? It is pretty clear that you did! How do you justify your actions? Councilor! This is your last chance to set the record straight before they blow your brains out!… Councilor!… How does it feel knowing that justice, even if it is at the hands of vigilante criminals, is finally at hand for you? Any final words? Councilor?… Councilor?… Anything you want to get off of your chest? Feel the need to ease your conscience? Councilor… Councilor…”