The crew was frightened. It was unprecedented that Jalldrid would take command and the only explanations they had was for the current situation was that their passenger had gone rouge and blasted up the bridge. That explained why they were trying to fly the ship without the interface, but it didn’t explain why Jalldrid had taken command. It was clear something big was going on, and that Rafel knew what it was. Rafel wasn’t speaking of it, but it he was scared and his fear spread to the rest of them.

“What’s going on?” Roota asked angrily, stuck at the roto-engine controls with Fallin still. “We should be scrapping the delivery with this kind of damage!”

“There is something amiss,” Fallin replied anxiously, looking over at his brother-in-law who stood at the starboard thruster control. The reptile was continually performing his superstitious ritual and shaking slightly. “I’ve never seen Rafel like that before!”

Foota was at the port thruster control, standing nervously as well. “We’ve never done this kind of landing before; we don’t have training for this. What is the Captain thinking?”

“Acting Captain you mean,” Fallin replied, “Didn’t you hear? I thought you said that nobody was seriously hurt on the bridge? Nothing short of death would make the Captain give up her command!”

“She wasn’t hurt!” Foota replied defensively, “She was perfectly fine.”

Fallin slammed his fist against the roto terminal, “THEN WHY IN THE BLASTED RACTOR DEPTHS IS JALLDRID ACTING CAPTAIN!?”

There was no answer for him.

On the bridge, Bob entered back onto the scene. Jalldrid was nervously plotting the delivery with his sister. “Shouldn’t we put Fallin at Port thruster control? He actually has experience in that system.”

“No,” Jerall replied, “Fallin is also the most experienced with the roto-engine. Our top priority is the goods, and we can’t under any circumstances let us slip in our grip on it.”

“But that doesn’t do us any good, if we can’t control the ship,” he mumbled back. He didn’t pursue it any further though. He looked up as Bob entered.

“Citizen! Please give me some good news.” Bob entered with the headpiece attached to his forehead, and Jalldrid admitted to himself that somehow, he really did look like a Citizen with it on.

“I’m getting it set up right now,” He grimaced back. “This will work though; I might be able to tie the communication directly into the ship too, if you’ll let me try.”

“Here,” Jalldrd replied handing Bob the Key again. “If you can that would be fantastic. We need communication as soon as possible as we’ll be exiting cruising speed soon. We’ve been out of communication for 5 hours now.”

Bob frowned as he came to the communication terminal and entered the key. “Five hours? How can that be?”

Jerall answered, “We don’t keep the communication opened all the time, that would be a waste of energy. Instead we take communication dumps twice a day instead. Still, we always check for updates before we exit cruising speed to make sure we haven’t missed anything important, like a cancellation of delivery. We should have done that a half an hour ago, but we missed that. We’ll be exiting cruising momentarily. Not like it matters anyway.”

“Yeah,” Bob answered, “There a good chance I won’t get this up before we exit then.”

Jerall shrugged apathetically, “Like I said, it doesn’t matter. This isn’t the type of shipment that can cancel.” Jalldrid grunted in response. “Acting-Captain,” Jerall spoke suddenly with a slight mockery in her voice, “We’ll be exiting in 30 seconds.”

Jalldrid opened the comm, “We’ll be exiting cruising speed in 30 seconds. I know you are nervous about this delivery, but I want you all to know that I have complete faith in our ability to do this. Jerall will be handing specific instructions to our thruster operators and I’ll be relaying commands to the roto operators. We’ll exit, maneuver in and unload the goods quickly and without any trouble and then make our way to the nearest station for repairs. Please put your faith in us for a smooth delivery.” With a flick he turned off the comm.

“Great speech,” Jerall commented dryly.

Jalldrid scowled, “please open a line to the thruster operators.” He turned to Bob, “Any luck?”

“Yes,” Bob said, frowning at his work, “I’ll have this on momentarily.” Jalldrid nodded.

“Exiting in 10... 9… 8…” Jerall started. The whole ship seemed to seize up in apprehension.

Jerall never made it to 1. At 4, the shop shuddered and dropped out, exiting cruising speed out of control and tumbling slowly in space in obvious peril.

Bob was impressed how the siblings handled the crisis. Jerall immediately started barking orders into the comm to Foota and Rafel regarding control of the thrusters while Jalldird did the same to the roto operators.

“Reduce roto hold by .23%, Fallin,” Jalldrid said steely into the comm, “and increase ionization to 40%. Roota, I need you to keep the inertia ratio at 23/42.”

Jerall was barking inter her comm, “Foota, I need the port equilibration at 40 degrees, but keep thruster pressure up at 60 BSI! Rafel, put steady thrust at 40% for 5 seconds, and then give it bursts at 80%, then bring it down to 20!” She stole a look at the view screen. “We’re losing roto-cohesion, Jaldrid!”

“I know!” Jalldrid shouted, “Roota! You’ve gotta keep up your ratio! Increase output through the tertiary manifold if you have to.”

“I’m trying!” Roota shouted, dimly heard on the bridge.

The ship continued to tumble and a terrible groaning sound started to sound throughout the ship. Bob looked around at the sound apprehensively. “You’re stressing the bulkheads!” Jerall shouted.

“Just get the ship under control, Jerall!” Jalldird shouted back, “I’ll take care of the roto!”

The ship continued to groan agonizingly as the crew tried to steady the ship. A few seconds more and Jerall shouted again, “The ship is going to tear apart!”

“She’ll hold! Fallin, reduce roto hold by another .23%!”

“At that low of a hold, we might lose the shipment!” Fallin called back.

“Better than the ship getting ripped apart!”

The ship continued to tumble; now red warning lights attacking the crew from the consoles. Bob stood frozen bracing himself unnecessarily against the wall and hoping that Jalldrid wouldn’t ask him to perform some action. Then, slowly, Bob felt the ship right itself and he heard the groaning cease. Looking at the view screen he saw the stars become steady. And then, only the red lights still flickered, the remnants of the crisis. He let out a slow relieved breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding.

Bob asked tentatively, “Did we make it?”

“Yes, Yes we did.” Jalldrid answered, still paralyzed in his seat. Then he turned to his sister savagely, “Galaxy, Jerall! What happened? The ship almost got destroyed!”

Jerall swore viciously, “It wasn’t me; something pulled us out of cruising speed prematurely!”

Jalldrid ignored her and attacked the comm, “Rafel! Is everybody alright down there?”

“yes, what happened!?”

“We don’t know yet.” Jalldird answered as Jerall threw her hands up in the air in frustration. “What kind of damage is there?”

“No real damage, beyond existing of course. If anything, this shows us that the ship is working properly. The only thing is the roto engine, the shipment is hanging on by a particle. We were that close to losing it.”

“Considering how low we reduced the hold, it’s amazing it held on at all. Do you think we’ll have to reset it?”

“Definitely, I suggest performing a full cycle run on it, to make sure it is running properly and then engaging it to the goods again. Shouldn’t take more than ten minutes.”

“Will it get these blasted lights to stop flashing at me?”

Rafel laughed halfheartedly. “Yeah.”

“Then make it so,” Jallrid ordered. Then he added, “Put a tracker on the goods though, just in case.” After he got an affirmative from Rafel, he switched off the comm. He sighed, putting his hand on his head. “Do we know what happened, Jerall?”

“I’ve got nothing,” she spat, punching buttons on her counsel, “The only thing that could pull us out of cruising speed early like that is a massive gravity well, and there was nothing like that on our route. Even now, there is nothing, planet or otherwise that could have pulled us out. I’ve got nothing, check your precious Drive engine for faults!”

Jalldirrd closed his eyes and sighed in exasperation. After a moment, “Are we close enough to make it to destination on our regular drive?”

“We’re quite a bit out,” Jerall answered, hitting some key and bringing a map of the system onto the screen. A green dot appeared marking their position and she looked up at it. “But if we can get moving quickly, then we might make it on time.”

“Good, then we’ll restart the system and get moving again. We’ll run a full diagnostic on everything when we reach a repair port in this system. For now, we’ll complete the delivery as scheduled. Not that we have a choice.” Jerall grunted at the last comment.

Bob stared out at the map on the screen. “Citizen,” Jalldrid interrupted, coming up to him, “How’s the communication coming? Have you reached the station yet?”

“No,” Bob replied, shaking his head, “I’m certain I’ve got the correct program, but I’m simply not able to make connection with the station. I’m not sure why. I have, however, managed to tie on by headpiece with your ship, you should be able to manipulate the call yourself now from your terminal. Perhaps you’ll have better luck reaching them, than me.”

“I’m sure I will,” Jalldrid chimed, reaching for the terminal, “I doubt you’ve ever used one of these things in your life, anyway.” Bob rolled his eyes.

After playing with it for a moment Jalldrid frowned. “Are you sure you programmed this right? I’m not picking up any communication traffic in the system.”

Bob clucked his tongue in disgust, “As sure as I can be. I’m going to try to go for a data download and see if can’t just get some information on this system.”

“Hold on, I’ve got a ship coming up on our starboard, I’ll see if I can’t get into contact with him.”

“What kind of ship is it?” Bob said, wincing at his connection.

“No idea, I don’t even recognize the registry on it. I should have them on in a moment. Actually,” he added, brightening up, “It looks like they are hailing us! Now we know your system works, let me pull them up.”

Bob stood still for a moment, and then his face paled in horror. “Oh my God.” He whispered.

“What?” Jalldird answered, distractedly.

“This system has been attacked by the Hulian navy.” Jalldrid snapped upright at Bob’s words, “That ship is a Hulian scout.”

Jalldrid froze at Bob’s words, then quickly switched off the system map off the view screen and pulled up the short range scanners. On the screen, an ugly red blip approached them steadily from starboard.

“Hey!” Jerall called out from her seat, “Give me my map back!”

“Jerall!” Jalldird cried out, “That’s a Hulian short range cruiser! This system’s been attacked! We’re in a danger zone!”

Jerall stood up quickly. “Keep calm, it’s going to be okay.”

“But sister, what do we do?”

“What pulled us out of cruising speed then,” Bob spoke slowly, “Was probably the Hulian Navy. They surely brought equipment to drag approaching ships out of cruise so they can’t be surprised by anything. They set up a non-approach communique over two hours ago that we missed. Jalldrid, they are not going to like us coming into the system.”

“And they really won’t like whatever it is we are hauling.” Jalldrid answered, sweating hard, “We’re an illegal carrier now in forbidden space. Galaxy!”

“Just stay calm,” Jerall answered her eyes wide in fear, “our communication gear was destroyed by that brat! They’ll understand that, we are a ship under duress! We just let them do their thing, and we’ll be let go.” Despite her words, she didn’t appear too confident.

Suddenly, the comm in the bridge exploded in harsh words, “Interstellar Hauling carrier renegade, this is the Hulian Family Light Cruiser Starcry, you have entered a class 3 forbidden territory without proper permits and are under suspicion interstellar crimes. You are to stay put and prepare for boarding. Any attempts at escaping you will be fired upon. Interstellar Hauling Carrier renegade,” the message repeated itself.

Jerall reached forward and turned down the volume, cutting down the voice. “What does that mean,” Jalldrid cried out, “What’s going to happen to us?”

“It means nothing is going to happen to us!” Jerall shouted, “We are too small for them to worry about, they are in the middle of attacking a system for Asdred’s Sake!

“That’s assuming we haven’t got anything truly criminal in the valahide!? Much more than losing our license, We could be talking about prison, or even execution in this setting!”

“Then we should run then brother, while we have a chance!”

“You heard them though! If we even drift the side, they’ll blow us to space dust!”

“Then what do you want to do, acting-captian?” Jerall answered savagely.

Jalldrid was paralyzed in indecision.

“We’ve got another problem, you too!” Bob cut in frantically, “We’ve got the God Damn Hullian most wanted child on board! What do you think they meant by criminal activity?”

“What in the blazes are you talking about?!” Jalldrid shouted at him.

“That passenger of yours! Now we know why she was so scared of coming here, she knew what was happening! She’s a child of the Asdred main family; I’m pulling her id off the Netsphere now. If the Hulians find out we have her here with us, we’re toast!”

“We’re what?” Jalldrid responded angrily.

A loud banging on the hatchway below saved Bob from a response. Rafel entered in without permission, “What in the galaxy is going on? Was that a hulian ship on the comm?” Roota was coming in behind him. “What are we going to do!” Rafel demanded, looking at Jalldrid.

Jalldrd remained frozen. The small sounds of the angry Hulian ship reverberated throughout the bridge.

“We’re running, now!” Jerall shouted, taking command. She turned off the Hulian words, and opened the ship wide channel. “We’ve entered a warzone people! We’re bugging out of here as fast as possible. We’re making a line straight starboard until we reach space were we can enter cruising speed. Understood? Roota, I need maximum Port thrust now!” She jumped down in her seat and started punching her controls. After a moment, she turned back to Jalldrid, who still hadn’t moved, “Jalldrid, Wake up! I need you downside!”

“Right,” he said softly, reaching up to his now red face. In a moment he was gone.

The bridge was silent as the clamoring down beneath barely made its way up.

“I’m sorry it has come to this.” Jerall said softly from up front.

“You should be,” Bob replied angrily, “Since technically all this is your fault. I’m not the one you need to apologize to most though. It’s your brother and your crew that really deserve it. This looks like the end of Freeline, either way you look at it.”

Jerall responded through gritted teeth, “We’ll survive and I’ll make it up to them. I’ll make it up to you too! You’ll see, I promise.” Bob merely nodded in response.

Jerall’s comm beeped and her brother’s voice came through frantically, “We’re all set, go go go!”

“Right.” Jerall spoke and a moment later, the renedage shot off, away from the approaching ship. The moment after, the Hulian ship started firing.

A few shots grazed the renegade, shaking it up and Bob heard Jalldrid groan from the comm, “They really are shooting at us…”

“Of course they are you idiot!” Jerall growled back, “Give me all the power you can!”

“But we’ll lose our shields if I give you any more...”

“Shields aren’t going to save us, give me the blasted power!”

A moment later, Bob felt the ship increase velocity. “What are our chances?” he asked quietly.

Jerall stole a look at the side interface. “We’ll reach cruising ability in 30 seconds,” she answered, “Or not at all!” Bob didn’t comment that she didn’t answer the question.

The firing got more concentrated as the enemy ship sensed the possibility of escape. Despite the moment, the bright silent streaks of light passing them by looked pretty to Bob. The moment seemed surreal.

“There are not really trying to hit us, are they?” Bob commented, “They can’t be that bad of shots.”

“Who cares what they are up to, we’ll be out of here in 20 seconds.” Jeral responded loudly, not bothering to wipe the sweat accumulating on her brow. She chuckled nervously, “we might even make it.”

Her last comment was a mistake, for as soon as she said it the ship was hit. It didn’t blow apart the ship as Bob had expected, but rather cut power completely, leaving them in the dark. The ship continued forward turning slightly, powered by inertia.

“They’ve hit us with an ion array!” Jerall shouted, “They’ve got us.” She sat still, seeming unable to believe it herself.

Bob let that statement sink in for a moment. He watched as the enemy ship came over them triumphantly. It felt anti-climatic. He added, “How come I feel the engine still running in the ship?”

Jerall stared back at him for a second, then jumped out of her seat and screamed down the hatchway, “The Cruise Drive is still on!” She clambered down the hatchway, “Shut down the Blasted Cruise Drive!”

Bob heard violent shouts from the lower deck. He crossed over and poked his head through. The men were panicking.

“The Ion array should have shut down every circuit on this ship,” Jerall was shouting. “How can the Drive still be on?”

“Galaxy if I know, the Drive’s a separate system!” Jalldrid was yelling, “They are all separate systems! We’ve hobbled this ship together so much; it’s a miracle it still flies!”

“Why can’t you shut it down?!” Jerall screamed, now looking at Rafel who was working in the engine room. The other men looked on in terror.

“I’m trying! But some many of the system controls are out now, I can’t even…” Rafel didn’t finish his sentence, but buried his head into his hands.

“What happens if we can’t shut down the Drive?” Bob asked, the calmest one there.

Jerall whirled around, “It means we go shooting off into Cruising speed with no direction and all odds that we crash into a star or planet, or some other mass capable of destroying us! It’s a sure death!” Rafel was working frantically again.

Bob thought about it. “Aren’t we okay? We have probably haven’t exited the artificial mass that the Hulians created holding us here by now, and if I remember the countdown correctly, we should have shot off already. Aren’t we safe?”

Jalldrid and Jerall stared back at Bob blankly. A second later, Bob felt the Drive give a great shudder, and then kick into full drive, sending the renegade and its crew out of the system in a bright flash.