On the farthest reaches of inhabited space, Malstyx was the only planet in the Mal solar system. Gates, pioneered by human scientists—allowed instantaneous travel between two points in space. Gate’s couldn’t operate within any strong gravitational field, so they were placed further out where no problems would arise.

The Malstyx Guard—or MG for short, was the military force that protected the lone world.

A light-skinned man with black, but graying hair sat at a table in Station One’s cafeteria. He wore a pair of black denim pants and black boots. A dark blue long sleeved jacket covered his torso. The zipper came midway down his chest. There was no standard uniform for members of the MG, but all members had to signify who they were. A black patch with red lettering resided over his left breast. A similar one rested on the white shirt beneath. His patch read ‘Jonas Grim - Cruiser Captain - Grimwold’; it signified name, occupation and the ship’s designation.

Jonas had finished his meager breakfast and was sipping away at a steamy beverage, which was supposed to be a close substitute for coffee. Well at least the color was a close substitute, but the similarity ended there. He wondered if a non-human scientist had created the stuff. Usually other species had different taste buds. He had a hunch it would taste better if he wasn’t human.

“Are your armament requests taking longer than usual?” came a voice from over his shoulder. He didn’t need to turn his head to find the source, the voice was one he knew well.

“Yeah, our weapons cache is getting lower than I’d prefer. I’m guessing there’s something delaying the weapon shipments to the station,” he answered as a dark-skinned woman came around and sat across from him at the small table. Lyra was the captain of the Saturn’s Lament. She was Jonas’s rival and closest friend, among other things.

“Well I put the request in nine days ago. I’m running desperately low on all missile types. Not to mention my guns are almost fully depleted. The armor of the Saturn’s Lament isn’t thick enough to take many direct hits if my guns can’t take out missiles,” she told him of her troubles with the requisition office of the Malstyx Guard as she began to pick at the meat and lumpy orange mass on her plate.

“I thought you were going to fit her with laser countermeasures?” Jonas asked as he neared the end of his mug of ‘not coffee.’

“It seems our reactor can’t handle the load,” said Lyra. “I tried fitting one and we fried all the relays to that turret and almost overloaded the reactor. I’ll never touch the damned things again.”

“So what you’re saying, is that your cruiser is an underpowered piece of dreck,” Jonas said with a grin.

“Doesn’t take much power to fire a salvo of twenty missiles,” Lyra gloated. Her missile-platform of a cruiser had decent offensive capabilities, compared to the Grimwold.

“You win, you win. It’s too early for me to be competitive,” he groaned. All Lyra ever had to do was bring up the offensive capabilities of her ship, to win most arguments between them—as far as space warfare was concerned. Jonas brought the plastic mug to his lips, only to find he’d already finished the last few drops. He sighed and set it down. He leaned back in his seat and watched Lyra eat. A minute later, the data-band on his wrist vibrated. He touched it and brought up a holo-display.

Jonas’s eyes ran over the information. “Looks like the Sorrow of Mars and the Giant’s Fist are engaged with a squadron of raiders at station three,” he said. He then silently read more from the report. Harriet—his second in command, usually kept him apprised of ship movements and engagements in the system, when he wasn’t onboard. Pirates could come through any number of gates, even legitimate ones. Sometimes it took a few jumps and paying off the right owners. Far too many times the excuse ‘we had a malfunction’ was the cause of allowing unverified ships to places they weren’t supposed to be; that, along with lazy and careless gate operators. Jonas had seen a video that recorded a lone operator watching a movie on his data-band. When requests came in, he just reached over and accepted them. There was always an abundance of the slothful.

“Poor raiders, they picked the wrong gate to come through today,” Lyra commented as she placed a bite of orange mush in her mouth.

“Apparently they’re just drones. They were attached to a transport that unwittingly brought them into the system,” Jonas said after reading the additional excerpt from the report.

“Unwittingly, sure,” Lyra scoffed. Jonas smirked at her remark and eased his chair back and stood up. He walked over to her and set a hand on her shoulder and leaned down to place a kiss on her cheek.

“Don’t leave me out there alone for too long,” Jonas whispered into her ear.

“I never leave you alone, if I can help it,” she said under her breath. His lips curled into a grin. He raised a hand and brushed over his hair as he stepped away to let her finish her breakfast.

Jonas made his way to the docking port where the Grimwold awaited his return. Lyra was right, his requisition requests seemed to be delayed quite a bit. He wondered what was going on. As an officer in the MG, any ammunition expended or damages accrued on duty, could be written off and reimbursed through the requisitions office. Funds were still being allocated to pay the station’s repair fees, but no new ammo was arriving at Station One. If this kept up, He’d have to check into manufacturing some cheap ammo with the station’s fabricators. Some weapons were decent at utilizing cheap ammo effectively. His weapons weren’t that type. The fabricated ammo would probably jam or damage the guns on the Grimwold, but cheap ammo was better than none at all. There was also the option of the black market, but any credits spent with black market traders couldn’t be reimbursed.

Jonas headed down a hallway towards one of the lifts. The lights in the station were dim white specs that dotted the tops and bottoms of the walls. He reached the lift and tapped the button to enter inside. He chose the docks as his destination and the lift slid down the tube. The doors opened soon after and he strolled onto a ramp which connected to the ports ships were docked at. He headed straight for the Grimwold’s hatch.

The Grimwold wasn’t much to look at, mostly a space-worthy slab of pointy metal. What counted was all the devices, scanners and weapon ports. A ship was only as good as it’s capabilities and its crew. A pretty ship didn’t account for much in space.

Jonas made his way through the hatch and entered the ship. He turned down a brief hall and approached a door, it read his data-band and swooshed open. The command deck of the Grimwold awaited its captain.

“Morning, Jonas,” came the voice of his ursari weapons technician. He was often scoffed at for his choice of placing an ursari as a weapons tech. Some people thought the ursari were a bit hot-headed and too prone to emotion during a firefight. It was that unique ability that made Alexa the perfect candidate. The ursari could tap into their adrenal glands at a moment’s notice. This allowed them strength, speed, and above all, clarity. She could become laser focused on her task, drowning out everything else that wasn’t important. But from time to time, that also included his orders.

“Morning, Alexa,” he said. “Sorry, but the requisition still hasn’t come through. I just spoke to Lyra a few minutes ago, she’s having the same issue. She’s been set back nine days.”

“Nine days?” asked Alexa. “I put our request in six days ago! You better hope things are quiet out there,” She turned back to her console. Alexa had a point, perhaps they were spoiled with having new shipments to the station every two to three days.

“Second!” Jonas called. “Get us underway!”. He looked around for the person he’d barked the orders to. “Where are you my darling?” Jonas’s voice was louder than needed for the size of the room. He glanced around for his second in command.

“I wish you would stop calling me that,” a human woman spoke up. She brought her head up from under the navigator’s console. Her name was Harriet and Jonas couldn’t hope for a better second officer in the entire galaxy, unless he was able to pull Lyra away from her own command. But even then, Jonas and Lyra would surely butt heads over what to do in any given situation.

“Something wrong with the nav?” Jonas asked as he came to a rest in his captain’s seat.

“No, just routine checkup,” said Harriet as she input commands into the nav system to undock the cruiser. A low hum emanated from the core of the ship as it moved and disengaged from the station and headed towards the patrol route of gate one.

“Not sure how we’d keep afloat without you,” he said

“I’m not sure how we keep afloat despite me,” she countered.

Jonas grinned as he tapped his data-band. It had already synced to the command terminal. He brought up a holo display of the ship’s charts. He started his own routine of checking inventories and systems.

“If we get into a fight,” said Alexa. “You better hope we fight something big, cause missiles are the only thing we’re in good supply of. Maybe pick a fight with a battleship, or one of those pretty vampire vessels,” said Alexa.

Jonas chuckled. “Wouldn’t that be something?”

“You shouldn’t call them vampires, they’re verean,” Harriet countered. “It’s disrespectful.”

“Don’t blame me for a word your people invented,” said Alexa.

Harriet knew there was no use in trying to change the ursari woman. “In any case, I bet the Krikadia Bloc would pay nicely for bringing one down, especially if they weren’t directly held responsible for it,” said Harriet.

Jonas glanced to his second. “The KB is still feuding with the vereans? You’d think they’d have greater concerns than territorial disputes with each other.”

Harriet shrugged. “Last report I read said that they’re fighting over some planet that they both have gate access to. They both claim they need the resources to defend themselves.”

Jonas slumped in his seat. “Might as well just hand themselves to the demons if they keep acting like that. I gotta give Malstyx credit for that at least, it may be a pirate haven of a world and corrupt all the way to the roots, but at least it doesn’t use us for conquest. We’re out here to defend civilians, and that’s what we do.”

“And yet, I can’t get ammunition to ensure that,” Alexa grumbled from her terminal behind Jonas.

“That reminds me, how’s gate three? How did Sorrow and Giant fair?” Jonas asked and turned his attention to Harriet.

“You could look it up yourself you know,” she replied.

Jonas frowned.“But I have all this other stuff to read. Just sum it up for me, they never bulletpoint these things when they report it to command.”

Harriet rolled her eyes. “Fine, your bullet-point summary is that they took no casualties and the raiders were eliminated. No significant damages, save for the sorrow’s engine being down, but she’s parked near the gate while repairs are ongoing, so she can still defend it.”

“Good, good,” he murmured as a new column of information was flowing on the side of his holo-display. His lips curled as he knew that any moment—

A new screen appeared in front of him. Lyra’s face showed prominently.

“Keeping our spot warm for me?” asked Lyra in a sing-song voice.

“We just arrived. How’s the Saturn’s Lament?” he asked as a way of small talk.

Lyra turned her head, looking back to someone off screen, before turning her attention back to the viewer which relayed her image to Jonas. “Not so good. Remember those relays I mentioned—the ones I had to replace? Well...the replacements were shoddy and started shorting,” she said. “Only half of them are reading as active. I wasn’t sure I was going to get a comm going. My mechanic says that he’s going to have to replace them with more shoddy ones, in hopes that we can luck out with some that work.” Lyra looked off screen again. “James, you got an ETA for me yet?”

“Two hours!” came a gruff male voice from Lyra’s side of the comm.

Lyra looked back to the viewer and sighed. “Two hours and then hopefully we’ll be out there with ya,” she said. “Think you’ll survive without me for a bit?”

Jonas smiled. “Should be, unless Alexa gets her wish and a battleship squeezes its way through gate one.”

“I was joking!” called Alexa.

Lyra laughed as she leaned back into her seat, having to cover her mouth after a few seconds before shaking her head to compose herself and lowering her hand away. “Well...unless someone wants to bring one through the gate piece by piece, we’ll never see one. Even battlecruisers can’t easily get through the gates around here.”

“Least we have that going for us. No one’s going to attack Malstyx with only a handful of cruisers alone, that’s for sure,” said Jonas. He had always been under the impression that the best attack against Malstyx would be organized in such a way that the attacking force would manage to get one or two cruisers through each gate all at once, before command had a chance to shut them down. If that were the case, it’d be an even fight since two MG ships watched every major gate into the system. There were also all the private ships that could come to the aid of Malstyx if need be. But the private sector couldn’t be counted on for much of anything, unless it benefited them.

“Captain, first ship coming through now,” said Harriet.

“I’ll let you get to it then,” said Lyra. “We’ll join you when we can. Lyra out.”

Jonas didn’t have a chance to wish her luck or say goodbye. The screen holding Lyra’s image had dissipated and instead a new one pulled up. A metal frame loomed in space and gradually powered up. He stared at the image as a flicker of light shined at the center of the large metal portal. Then, the gate materialized and expanded a window from that single flicker of light. The doorway across the universe expanded to the confines of the gate’s structure. From across space, a vessel slipped through and crossed the vast distance in the span of seconds.

Watching the gate power up never got old for Jonas. He could remember the very first time he’d seen it. It was beautiful, yet ominous. Just as the gates could carry aid from across the stars, they could also spell the arrival of much more nefarious forces. The gates were often a boon to space-travel. But at times, they were also a bane to the inhabitants of secluded worlds.

“Just a freighter, foodstuffs,” said Harriet, who was checking records and flight data for the ship, as she did with every vessel that passed through gate one.

Jonas nodded from his reverie and tapped through the various forms of information for the freighter. Checking its previous destinations as indicated by the ship’s flight log, which had to be made public in order to enter the Mal system. He usually let Harriet take care of all of this, but he had little else to do. A second set of eyes to check incoming ships never hurt.

When ships came through the gate, they had to supply information to the gate owner on the other side of space. If all checked out, a request would be sent to where the ship intended to go. Gates were always open, but the window in which something could pass through, was only large enough for data to be sent. If the gate owner on the receiving end felt that everything checked out, they would open the gate’s window from their end, and allow the ship to come through. If both windows weren’t open and a ship tried passing through, the ship would be torn apart.

The information ships had to supply, was usually kept at the installation overseeing the gate. In the Mal system, those installations were full-fledged space stations, with crew, military guard, civilians, the works. The information for incoming ships was passed to on-duty MG vessels patrolling the gates, so that their own crews could give incoming ships a little peer review to make sure everything checked out. But in reality, it was just a way to outsource the work to the captains and their crews, while the station personnel slacked off.

After two hours, Jonas was slumped in his captain’s chair. He was already tired of reading flight reports and documentation. He wasn’t sure how Harriet kept up with things as well as she did.

The doors slid open to the command deck. A fair-skinned and well-built man walked through. He was dirty and his undershirt clung to his muscled torso. “Captain,” he said. “Any word on the Saturn?” He asked.

“Nothing yet...I’m sure your brother’s fine, Toby,” said Jonas.

“I worry about James,” said Toby. “Maybe I should take a shuttle back to the station and give em a hand?”

Jonas held his chin as he tapped a few holo-buttons to initiate a comm with the Saturn’s Lament. “Well, we need a mechanic in case something happens...never know what’s gonna come through that gate,” said Jonas.

“Yeah, like a battleship,” said Harriet.

“Can’t even make a joke around here without getting teased about it,” said Alexa.

“But,” said Jonas, ignoring the banter between his subordinates. “I’d feel a lot better with Lyra our here with us.” Jonas watched an icon on his display as the comm attempted to make a connection with Lyra’s ship. “Strange...usually she auto accepts my comms.”

“They might’ve blown out some more relays, cap,” said Toby. ”Maybe they lost comms and who knows what else. We got plenty of spares which won’t be missed. Let me fly back and give em a hand?”

“Fine...but leave us enough to fall back on. No reason to debilitate both of us. These supply rations are really pissing me off. Hate relying on the fabricated dreck at the station,” Jonas grumbled.

“Thanks cap, I’ll get em out here right away!” Toby nodded and headed back into the hall.

Jonas cleared his throat “Harriet, free up a—”

“Already done,” she said.

Jonas sat up in his chair. “Could at least let me pretend I’m good for something on my own ship, even if it’s just relaying orders you’re already carrying out.”

“Sorry captain,” she replied.

Time passed and Jonas brought up a display of the internal cameras for the Grimwold. The command deck had the three of them. The engineering bay still had several occupants but lacked Toby. The drone deck had several of Jonas’s fighter and drone pilots milling about with several engineers.

“No issues with the drones, I’m hoping?” Jonas asked as he glanced to Alexa.

“Infantry and flyers are all working, but the pilots complain that you don’t let them shoot anything,” she said.

“Broken drones are the last thing I want to worry about fixing. Those are always the slowest requisition requests,” said Jonas.

“Too many types of drones and not enough mechanics for them all. But I’m glad to have them as backup when Lyra’s not out here. In fact, I remember when—

“Captain,” Harriet interrupted. “Take a look at this freighter’s cargo and flight report.”

Jonas grumbled as he pulled up the appropriate report for the vessel currently in transit through the gate. “You could just tell me if you think they’re hiding something,” he said.

“That’s not it, It’s in plain view...check the cargo and their destination,” she said.

Jonas did as his second instructed. The more he read, the more he tensed and his fists clenched.

“Put a hold on that ship,” he ordered.

His fingers flew over the holo-buttons to initiate a comm line with Malstyx Guard Command at the station. Within moments, a uniformed officer with short brown hair appeared. His eyes were half-lidded and his face had the tell-tale red marks from where it’d been resting against something, like his desk.

“This is Commander Perkins,” he said. “What do you have to report?”

“This is Jonas, Captain of the—”

“Yeah yeah, I know who you are. What’s the comm for?”

Jonas’s hands clenched as he stared at the officer’s image.

“I have a freighter here with supplies intended for station two, but the ship is set to land at Malstyx for three days and has no itinerary for unloading. Its log say that it’s going to just sit there for three days, without unloading or loading, and then proceed to station two.”

Commander Perkin’s eyes seemed even duller now than when Jonas had opened the comm. “And? This doesn’t sound like an issue for the guard and certainly not an issue for a cruiser captain on gate duty.”

“If station two is in the same condition as the one you’re sitting in right now, then they need those munitions and components. How are we...are they, supposed to keep the gate safe when they’re out of critical supplies which are being sent to sit and wait for three whole—”

“Captain Jonas,” Perkins broke in. “As I said. Supplies and logistics aren’t your concern, if you want to—”

“Get me your commanding officer immediately, Commander Perkins,” said Jonas.

Perkins almost portrayed a sneer, but cut his screen to black just in time. The comm was still connected, officer Perkins had initiated a video and audio mute.

Jonas rasped his fingers on the armrest of his chair. His fingers stopped when an older man appeared on screen. There were several more ribbons on his chest and he certainly had more years than the dreg Jonas was just speaking to.

“This is Admiral Thompson. I hear you have a complaint about logistics...Captain Jonas?” asked the Admiral.

“A complaint?” Jonas almost scoffed. “I have a ship with supplies for station two, coming through station one’s gate...just to land on Malstyx and sit around. What’s the purpose of this? The ship’s instructions come from Malstyx HQ. There has to be a mistake, it doesn’t make a bit of sense and I’ve never seen this behavior for supplies.”

“Thank you captain,” said the admiral. “I’ll look into this immediately, but in the meantime, you’re to let the ship pass. I’m not going to order that ship to an alternate designation without doing my own investigation first, but I appreciate your interest in this matter. I’m lifting your hold request on that ship. Remain at your position at the gate and stay vigilant, captain.”

“Admiral, I—” The screen went black, the communication cut.

Jonas stared at a view screen, watching the freighter move from its idle position. It gained momentum as it headed towards Malstyx and not station two.

Jonas slammed his fist. “Damnit!” his hand came up and gripped his chin as he stared at the bulkhead. He glanced to Harriet who sat idle at her terminal. “Tell me I’m not insane.”

Harriet shook her head and started tapping at her holo-display. “You’re not insane, it doesn’t add up. It sounded as though the Admiral had no intention of looking into it. You could contact whoever his superior is?”

“No, I can’t,” he said. “He was at the top. I can make an inquiry elsewhere, but it won’t matter. Whatever game they’re playing...I’m betting there’s just another useless dreg in front of a terminal back at HQ to deal with my inquiry. I’d just get tossed around and then someone would try and slip something through the gate when I’m dealing with this stupid situation and then I’d get reprimanded for my inability to catch contraband or...whatever...damnit!” he shifted in his seat then pulled himself to a stand. His hands found his pockets while he paced around the command deck. He came to a stop. “I wish Lyra was out here.”

“It’s only been an hour since Toby left,” said Alexa.

Jonas glanced to Alexa as he made his way back to his chair and sat down. He released a held breath and leaned his head back. “Wish he’d hurry up,” he said. The corner of his eye caught a screen displaying the gate letting another ship through. Harriet was already tapping away at her terminal, checking up on the ship’s info.

Jonas half expected Harriet to say something about this next ship. He didn’t even bother looking at the report. He stared at the visual of the ship, watching it pass by and head towards its intended destination.

Another hour passed as Jonas brooded over the ordeal with the freighter and station command.

“Captain,” said Harriet. ”There’s a skirmish at gate four. The Giant’s Fist is being called from gate three to assist. The Yumori was disabled by an EMP. More raiders—same as this morning.”

“Two incidents in one day?” Jonas murmured. “How’d they sneak something through the gate with a big enough EMP field to take out the Yumori?”

“I don’t know, captain,” she replied. “The report is limited, the engagement is ongoing.”

Another ship came through gate one.

“Harriet, back on gate duty. Alexa, keep an eye on that skirmish for me,” Jonas said as he brought up the new arrival’s manifest, wanting to give Harriet another set of eyes so they wouldn’t have any surprises.

Jonas and Harriet checked the reports for the next several ships that came through the gate. Jonas’s fingers began to rasp along his armrest again.

“I’m sure Lyra will be here soon enough, captain,” said Harriet.

Jonas wanted to refute the accusation that he was thinking about Lyra, but he’d been caught far too many times with Lyra on his mind. There was no denying that he was worried about her and how the repairs on her ship were going. He could contact the station and inquire about her vessel, but then that’d be asking a favor of that damned Commander Perkins. Surely Jonas could wait a few more hours.

“Captain, their engines went silent,” said Harriet.

“What?” He asked, realizing there was a new ship that had just slipped through the gate. “Comm them, see what’s wrong,” said Jonas.

Jonas re-ran several scans of the vessel. Their engine was down, their reactor was down as well, but there was a power signature within the ship. A backup of some sort?

“No response sir, should I try—” Harriet’s words cut off as she stared at the display depicting the drifting freighter. Jona’s eyes returned to his own view screen in time to see several sudden flashes of light coming from the underside of the ship.

“Was she hit by something? The reactor was dead, did it overload and blow out the underside of the ship?” asked Jonas, frantic for answers.

Harriet shook her head. “I’m not familiar with the design of that freighter, I recommend deploying drones to scout the damage and try and make short range contact with anyone alive inside.”

Jonas pressed his fingers together as he stared at the vessel. “Alexa, have the pilots deploy two drone fighters and a full lifter. We’ll land some infantry drones on the ship and see if we can get in through one of the hatches.”

“Right away,” said Alexa.

Jonas looked to his second in command. “Harriet, send word to command, let them know we have a situation developing. We need a medical shuttle out here. Have them put a freeze on gate one. Maybe they’ll actually listen to that request.”

“Yes sir,” said Harriet

“Drones are prepping, sixty seconds,” advised Alexa.

“There’s something suspicious about this. Is there anything in the area?” asked Jonas.

“Nothing,” replied Alexa. “There’s us, the gate and the freighter, ”

Jonas kept his eyes on the freighter, but pulled up the logs on an adjacent screen to see where the freighter had come from. He scanned the information, his gaze flicking back to the freighter every now and then. There was nothing to warrant suspicious behavior. The freighter should have a crew of at least ten, plus drones.

“Drones are on their way,” said Alexa.

Jonas brought up another screen so he could follow the progress of the drones. A tactical overlay displayed the locations of his ship and the freighter, along with the position of the gate and the drones he’d deployed. The drones proceeded towards the freighter, closing in by the second.

“Sir,” said Alexa. “That ship has been drifting right towards us the entire time. The explosions should’ve made it spin or move in a random direction, but it’s not spinning and it’s drifting right towards the Grimwold.”

Jonas’s eyes narrowed at the depiction of the freighter. Its flat and elongated top was the only portion he’d seen of the ship so far. “Get one of the drones beneath the freighter, I want to see what’s on the other side of that ship.” Jonas tapped a button on his chair to deploy hard-controls for navigation of the Grimwold. His fingers flit over the keys as he set the ship into a gradual reverse.

“More explosions,” said Harriet.

Jonas looked up to the screen, seeing several more bright flashes emanating from the bottom of the other ship.

“It’s closing in faster now,” said Alexa. “I’m reading engine signatures, they’re faint...but definitely coming from the other side of the freighter. The energy signature at the center of the ship is increasing!”

One of the drones reached the freighter and soared around it. Jonas stared at the live-feed from the fighter drone. When it managed to view the underside of the freighter, his eyes widened.

“Withdraw the drones!” Jonas shouted. He smacked the keys at his terminal and increased power towards reversing the ship. Another series of flashes came from beneath the freighter. Thanks to the video from the drone, Jonas knew exactly what those flashes were.

Several large chunks of metal broke away from the freighter.

“Grapplers!” Alexa growled. “Damned raiders were hitching a ride! The freighter is heading right for us, I can’t get a line of sight on the grapplers.”

The drone which had illuminated the underside of the freighter went dark.

“Drone one is down,” said Alexa. ”The lifter and drone two are heading back. Sir, I’m worried about that energy signature in the freighter. If it’s a bomb—”

“It’s already in range,” Jonas muttered.

Jonas kept an eye on the power signature within the freighter. It had reached a tipping point and they were in range of it. It wasn’t a bomb, not the exploding kind at least.

“Deploy flak!” Jonas yelled. “Harden for EMP!”

Alexa’s hands rushed over her terminal display. A series of dull thuds echoed from further inside the ship. The Grimwold unleashed a torrent of metal shards to defend against incoming missiles. Another groan came from all around the ship as it’s framework shifted under the pressure of moving metal to cover essential components of the ship. Metal poles jutted out from the Grimwold’s hull, which jutted out smaller spikes from within them.

“Countermeasures deployed,” said Alexa.

In the blink of an eye, the energy reading inside the freighter dropped to zero.

Less than a second later, the lights within the Grimwold sparked and blew out.

Jonas winced from the bright flashes inside the command deck. “Harriet, status!”

“Life support is good,” said Harriet. “The reactor is good, engine is good, sections of the ship are dead. Lights, external comms are down, scanning appears to be limited. Alexa?”

Alexa’s fingers flew over her terminal, trying to determine what she had. “I can’t see those grapplers. I can’t detect their engine signatures either. I can send a message to the drone bay, but I’m not reading a connection to the drones any more, not even the ones in the bay.”

“Damnit, they’re all fried.” Jonas grit his teeth. “Alexa, take control of the ship, use whateer scanners are still available. Find those Grapplers and take them out. I don’t care if you have to blow up that damned freighter to do it. If there was anyone aboard, they’re probably dead now anyway.”

“Well this is tragic,” grumbled Alexa. “Captain, I have turret control, but not the scanners to gain a lock and without long range comms, I can’t direct our missiles. I could dead-fire them...but...with targets that small, you’d have to hope that they run into the shots or missiles themselves.”

“Maybe if we ask nicely,” murmured Harriet.

Jonas directed his attention back to the visuals he had. They could fire at the grapplers, but without target locks, they’d be wasting their nearly depleted ammo. The drones were fried, so they couldn’t be deployed to deal with the raiders.

“Maybe they’ll just keep their distance with the flak,” said Alexa.

Jonas closed his eyes. He visualized the Grimwold sitting there with a field of magnetic flak which would detonate missiles on impact. It was an expensive countermeasure, but it was a good one. He pictured the freighter, still flying towards them, the grapplers were probably still behind it, but there was no way to be sure. They blended perfectly to the blackness of space and didn’t seem to be using their reactors. “Bring us to a stop. Go ahead and knock the freighter off course with a missile. Try not to destroy it completely, I want—”

“Captain,” Harriet interrupted. “Engineering is reporting sounds coming from outside the hull. They’re comparing it to sporadic hammering...and now the drone bay is reporting the same thing.”

Jonas narrowed his eyes. Hammering?

Clunk clunk clunk... clunk clunk…

The sound echoed through the command deck.

Jonas looked around the room. “Is that what I think it is, Alexa?”

“If you think it sounds like those grapplers are firing cannon shots at us, then yes,” she replied.

Jonas tightened his fist. “Damnit, they’re going to rip through the outer armor. Try and get a visual on their fire-bursts. They’re running silent, they must be manually maneuvering and shooting. We should be able to catch sight of them. Alexa, can you manually fire towards those flashes?”

“That’s a really hopeful strategy, captain,” said Alexa.

Jonas caught sight of small flickers of light which coincided with clunks on the hull shortly after. There were four grapplers. Each one a fair distance from the others.

“At this rate, they’ll start breaching the armor in under ten minutes. It won’t be long before we start venting atmosphere and losing whatever systems they hit,” said Alexa.

A brief flash came from the freighter. The missile Alexa launched managed to impact the aft and forced it to spin. It began moving off its course from the Grimwold.

“Well, that helps a little. We need to buy ourselves time to take them all out,” said Jonas. “Plot-out their locations and start turning us, see if we can shift around a bit so they have to alter their fire. If we’re lucky, the flak will eat some of their shots.”

Alexa shook her head, but obeyed his commands.

Jonas watched the view screen as the grapplers continued to fire on the Grimwold.

A streak cut through space and pierced through one of the raiders. That grappler wasn’t firing any longer. Another streak and another grappler went dormant.

“Sir,” said Harriet. “I’m detecting a vessel, I think it’s—”

“Lyra,” he said with a wide grin. “bout damn time too,” he laughed as he rose out of his chair, watching as two more streaks proceeded to nullify the last two grapplers. The hammering sound on the outside of the ship came to a halt.

“There’s a shuttle attached to the starboard hatch, reading it as one of Lyra’s,” said Harriet. Without another thought, Jonas turned and headed for the door.

“Captain?” she asked.

“You’re in command!” Jonas called back as he headed down a hall towards the hatch. He came around just in time to be standing in front of the doors as they slid open.

Lyra’s gaze met his own. “So you’re not dead?” she asked. “You could’ve blinked a light or—”

Jonas stepped towards her and cupped her face, his thumbs rested on her cheeks as he locked his lips with the other captain’s. Lyra’s hands went slack behind her, before her fingers curled and entwined together as she kissed Jonas.

Jonas smiled as he pulled from her lips, but then realized Toby and James were in the small hatchway as well. The two men were both staring at the walls. Jonas shifted to the side.

“Toby,” said Jonas. “You have a ship to fix.”

Toby nodded and grabbed his brother’s arm. “Yes sir, that’s why James is here, we’ll get her...er, the Grimwold in working order, lemme just...slip by,” he said as he shifted his bulky frame to the side of Jonas. The two ursari brothers made their way out of the hatchway and headed down the hall.

Jonas returned his attention to Lyra, whose fingers were running down his chest. “So…” said Lyra. “We’ll pretend that it’s not my fault that you were in this predicament in the first place and that I just saved you and your crew from impending demise?”

“We can do that,” said Jonas. “We’ll subtract this from the number of times I’ve rescued you.”

Lyra’s lips curled into a smirk. “Sure, we can do that. Unfortunately for you, it still puts me ahead.”

A soft buzz sounded three times. Jonas leaned back and glanced to his data-band, despite the fact that he hadn’t felt it vibrate.

“That’s me,” said Lyra as she brought her arm forward.

Jonas gave her some room as his hands clasped together behind him.

Lyra tapped the band on her wrist. “Go ahead,” she stated.

“Captain, we’re getting another request from the gate,” came the voice of Lyra’s second in command. ”Another ship wants to come through. Command wants to know if we have the means to properly protect the gate, considering the Grimwold’s condition. Command and the waiting ship are getting pretty pushy about it. More than usual. You may want to head back over here, if Jonas and his crew are fine, that is.”

Lyra looked up to Jonas and lifted a brow at him. “Are you and your crew fine, Captain?” she asked with a playful smirk.

“We didn’t take any casualties, unless you count some expensive equipment,” he said. “Why don’t we leave the brothers to the repairs, and I’ll pay the Saturn’s Lament a short visit? Harriet would love to be in command for a few hours anyway.”

“In command of a dead-in-the-water hunk of metal?” Lyra quipped.

Jonas shook his head in defeat. He reached over to seal the airlock door on his ship’s side.

“We’re heading back over,” said Lyra to her second. “Don’t let anything through the gate till I’m aboard.”

“Yes captain,” her second replied.

Lyra reached over and opened the hatch to the shuttle she’d come over in. She’d piloted it herself. The two captains headed into the shuttle.

Jonas’s lips curled again as he followed Lyra. “Can I fly?” he asked.

“Only if I’m dead.”

*** The shuttle ride was short and uneventful, save for Lyra’s teasing about Jonas’s ship. The two captains were docked at the Saturn’s Lament in less than three minutes. Jonas had been aboard Lyra’s ship dozens of times. The walls had a better metallic gloss to them, as opposed to the darker browns of the Grimwold’s interiors. The only thing he had to tease her about, was a few scratches of paint and a single light fixture which wasn’t working. Her reply was, ‘we could’ve taken a little extra time to fix the lights and I’d have been the only ship left to protect gate one.’ After that, Jonas decided he’d keep quiet for a bit.

Lyra stepped into the command room, which was laid out similarly to Jonas’s. Jonas delegated a console to Harriet and Alexa in his command room, to split the tasks among more people. Lyra only had a lone old man in the room as her command staff. The rest of her crew worked in other places of the ship.

“They still complaining?” Lyra asked as she went over to her captain’s chair.

“They’re inquiring every sixty seconds for an update,” said the old man. Lyra’s second in command was a man of the age of sixty or so, by the name of Edgar. “I keep sending the same response,” he said in a low hum-drum voice.

“Well, let’s make them wait a little longer while we get situated and comfortable,” said Lyra. She turned her head to see Jonas taking a seat at a spare console. He shifted around quite a bit. It just wasn’t like his own captain’s chair.

“Thanks for the fine shooting, Edgar,” said Jonas, after finding a decent enough position in the chair.

“Oh I barely did a thing,” said the old man. “The Saturn’s Lament is a fine marksman. I just tapped a few buttons.”

“Good ol’ Edgar,” said Lyra. “He may not be able to run around the ship, but his hands can wisp around the console as fast as a person a third his age.”

Edgar chuckled. “Ah...well, I do what I can, captain. I just work smarter, is all.”

Lyra directed her attention to Jonas. “He’s always in here, messing with alerts and triggers for the ship’s responsiveness. He takes hours creating new subroutines and macros to expedite commands.”

Jonas lifted a brow, glancing between the both of them. “Why not install a rudimentary AI to handle the basics?” he asked.

Edgar chuckled again. “An AI is only as good as it’s programmed to be,” he said. “We don’t need a fancy and expensive AI to deal with things. We just need the right...triggers. I have the Saturn’s Lament all triggered-up, better than any AI could do. You see, an AI needs a CPU to think. So therefor you have to buy a hefty CPU and the AI. With my triggers, I just utilize the systems that are already in place.”

“He likes to think he’s saving us tons of money by being incredibly useful,” said Lyra.

Jonas tapped at the terminal he sat behind. He began to peruse some of the customized settings. He hadn’t known Edgar did so much work behind the scenes. His eyebrows lifted as he was greeted with seemingly endless lines of code, all done by the old man—which weren’t part of the system’s default structure.

“I think,” said Lyra. “Edgar is setting the ship up to be ran without him. So he can just retire and just sit in that chair and collect a paycheck,” she tossed the old man a smirk.

A bellowing chuckle emanated from Edgar’s chest. “Ah, you found me out, captain!”

“I bet Harriet would love to replicate some of this,” said Jonas as he diverted his gaze back to the terminal.

Lyra laughed. Edgar had a big smile painted on his face as he looked back to Lyra, then to Jonas. “The...good captain already knows this,” said Edgar. “But I only joined as her second, under one stipulation.”

Jonas turned in his seat to face Lyra and Edgar, always up for a good story.

Edgar coughed once and cleared his throat. “The Saturn’s Lament, is a fine ship. It’s thirty years newer than the Grimwold,” he said. “But...that’s just fact, I don’t mean to pick at your pride or anything, but anyway...the grimwold uses systems designed when the grimwold was built. But I’ve retrofitted the Saturn’s Lament with systems that were designed for a ship thirty years older than the Grimwold.”

Jonas blinked and took on a contemplative look. He glanced between Lyra and Edgar, before looking back to Lyra. “So your operation systems...are some sixty years old?” he asked. “On this ship?”

Edgar nodded sagely. “That’s right.”

Lyra sighed. “Yeah, I thought he was mad when I took him aboard and heard his proposal. But I gotta say, I love what he’s done with her.”

Jonas tapped his fingers idly on the terminal. “So then I guess none of this would be useful to us on the Grimwold. Our systems are ‘too new’ for your additions,” he said.

Edgar nodded. “That’s right. The...the...oh, that ship from earlier…” the old man grumbled as he tried to remember something, before tapping at his terminal, “Ah, the Giant’s Fist. That ship could utilize my triggers, since it’s an old beast of a vessel. But, I’d never trust a vampire captain. Even a freelance one in the MG. Nope, can’t trust them, not since that mess on Progo.”

Jonas’s eyes narrowed in thought. Progo...where had he heard that name before?

“Edgar was a trade-ship captain’s second in command,” said Lyra. “He was on the first vessel to make it to the planet Progo, after Progo’s gates came back online.”

The new information had sparked Jonas’s memory. “Are you serious?” he asked, his attention went back to Edgar.

The old man nodded, but turned his attention to his terminal. “Afraid so,” he said. “Progo was a lifeless world before humans and those vampire dregs colonized it for resources. Neither of us had any business there. So when the supplies, the food and the blood ran out, the humans got hungry and so did the vampires. But vampires don’t starve like humans do. Humans might go mad in the head, but starving vampires are something else entirely. I couldn’t believe the things I saw when we landed on—”

The old man’s words were cut short as a notification appeared on his screen.

“Oh, they lifted the lock on the gate...guess we were taking too long. Well, story time is over,” said Edgar.

Lyra brought up the incoming ship’s report to glance over the details. “Time to get back to work,” she said.

Jonas decided he’d stick around for a little while longer, just enough to look over the incoming ship’s manifest and itinerary. Then he’d head back to the Grimwold when he was sure all was safe.

Gate one opened and a cruiser flew through.

“Well if that ain’t a fancy ship,” said Edgar with a whistle.

Jonas looked up to the viewer and watched as the ship crossed onto their side of space. “Looks like it was built yesterday,” he said. It was only a cruiser-class ship, like his and Lyra’s, but it was probably worth more than both their ships combined, and then some.

Jonas’s curiosity peaked and he looked back to the ship’s manifest. It wasn't carrying goods. Its destination was to orbit Malstyx. There wasn’t anything about unloading cargo.

“Guess they’re sightseeing,” said Lyra, as she read over the same information.

“Probably another band of mercs,” Edgar guessed.

Jonas would’ve dismissed it, but he remembered something he’d been told. He noticed where the cruiser had stopped before coming to Malstyx. He tapped his chin. The cruiser had been to a dozen worlds in the last month. For a merc, that wasn’t entirely unusual, but for a fancy merc ship? Jonas’s eyes narrowed as he watched the ship accelerate towards Malstyx. The image of the pristine vessel was now ingrained in his mind.

Jonas tapped the terminal, making the selections to send a communication to the planet.

Lyra peeked over to him. “Who ya calling on Malstyx?” she asked.

“I owe someone an incredible debt ,” he said. “I doubt I’ll ever manage to fully repay it, but this is a start. I need to warn someone.”

“Warn someone?” asked Lyra. “Warn who?”

“A phoenix,” he said.

Lyra’s eyes widened. “A phoenix?” she gasped. “There’s a phoenix on Malstyx?”

Jonas nodded.

“And this phoenix has something to do with that ship just came through?” Lyra was desperate for answers on this new development.

“Yeah,” said Jonas. He’d just finished the outgoing comm-link, and was waiting on a response from the recipient.

Lyra shifted in her seat. “Damn, Malstyx must be worse off than we thought. You don’t think a phoenix would be here to burn the planet, do you?”

He lifted a brow and looked to Lyra. “I sure hope not. But there’s no telling what she’s really capable of.”

Lyra rasped her fingers on her armrest as she stared at Jonas. “How’d you find out a phoenix was on Malstyx?” she asked.

Jonas swallowed, staring at the screen before his eyes. Waiting for the phoenix to answer his call. “Because I’m the one who brought her here.”