Cross Examine

(English)

There were a lot of ways this could go wrong.

Most of them involved Kemon finding out about my little mutiny too early and spreading misinformation like wildfire before I had the chance to set the record straight.

Sure, I had our recording of Serral’s warning, but if Kemon learned of it and tried to discredit it…he wouldn’t succeed with all his crew. But at least a few would flip back. Worst of all, I wasn’t sure how many of my own abductees would take Kemon’s word over mine or Serral’s.

But I wasn’t the only abductee worried about that prospect. It felt good that Sid and Drew were as worried about everyone else as I was.

Sid especially.

Not too long ago he’d been one of the abductees who might have believed Kemon, and it was showing in his focus.

Because his eyes were glued to the phone we’d borrowed from Ike.

“Chill, dude,” I said. “We’re not going to hear anything interesting until Win gets back in range.”

I’d heard from Jordan about an hour ago. We were officially in the clear as far as Fintuther was concerned. Donnie had gotten shot in the leg—a fact I was judiciously withholding for now—but overall, it sounded like we’d escaped the worst possible outcome.

“How long will it take him to get here?” Sid asked.

“Hard to say. We aren’t burning as hard, so…it took him somewhere between thirty-six and forty-eight hours to get to Fintuther…but he doesn’t need to go back to where he started. So the return trip is actually shorter by a pretty big margin, I think. He might be back here in the next twelve.”

“But he’ll contact Kemon before then, right?”

“We’re counting on it, aren’t we?” I nodded toward the phone. “You got this?”

“Sure. You need to talk to Dansi?”

“Ike and Drew, first,” I said. “Just keep that on low volume.”

He nodded and I ducked out of the storage room into the halls of Kemon’s ship. Specifically, it was a ‘frigate’. Or at least, that was how my fellow abductees had translated it. Crew complement was the defining trait for ships, apparently.

The Jack was a bit like a small apartment building carefully rearranged and stacked on top of a rocket. Strictly speaking, its maximum crew complement was flexible. But typically a ship like the Jack could fly between twenty and thirty people comfortably. If you were willing to get uncomfortable, that number could be flexed higher. The A-ships were similar.

But the Fafin had too many people to be called a ‘small’ apartment building. Rather, it stretched taller and wider than even the Saturn V rocket back home. It crewed more than a hundred Casti, divided between three main sections of the ship. Toward the bottom, near the reactors, was all the essential machinery. Power supply, regulation, and distribution. Water and air processing. Above that was the more livable space. Crew quarters, mess hall, and an embarrassingly small medical ward.

Cargo bays were a little more complicated, namely because there were two. One for large machinery and armaments, and the other to act as a warehouse for storage that didn’t require the same security as munitions. It caught me off guard how much of the storage was dedicated to food, but it made sense the more I thought about it.

Even more boggling though was the rate of delivery. Apparently Kemon had such an easy time ordering rations for the abductees because the Fafin crew ate just as much themselves.

Seeing just how much activity the Fafin saw on an hourly basis, it was a lot easier to understand why Kemon had kept only Win apprised of his plans.

As I planned my mutiny more, I understood that I wanted to disrupt the ship’s operation as little as possible. Only Win and Kemon were the problems, and everyone else actually posed to be helpful afterwards.

We’d sent Elaine and the other kids we’d rescued alongside Jordan to Nora’s enclave back in Shirao because we’d lacked the facilities and means to care for them safely ourselves. But if we successfully ousted Kemon…

The Fafin and her bustling, well organized crew was quite the asset.

That same bustle gave my little mutiny a lot of cover too.

Plenty of little-used corridors with no one watching them for me to sneak around.

“…Drew?” I asked. Psionic feedback placed her mind somewhere in front of me, but without radar, I couldn’t tell her precise location.

“Yeah, I’m here. Where the hell are my clothes?” she hissed, pulling open the door to a closet labeled ‘junctions’.

“Sorry, one door down, top shelf, left side” I apologized. “A life support tech said they were going to do inventory in here. Had to move them.”

Without another word, the next door in the hallway slid open and shut. A few seconds later, a set of clothes hanging on an invisible person stepped out.

“That’s better…” she grumbled.

“Everything go alright?” I asked.

“Well no one saw me, if that’s what you're asking.”

“There’s a big difference between ‘noticed’, and ‘seen’,” I warned her.

“No one noticed,” she assured me. “Psionic mirroring worked, and so did the Adept trick.”

“No one saw a floating phone bobbing through the bridge?”

“Nope,” she assured me.

“Where’d you hide it?” I asked.

“Rubber cemented it to the radio unit in his ready room,” Drew said.

“Ready room?”

“Yeah, it’s like a little mini-quarters for the Captain attached to the bridge. You’ve never seen Star Trek?”

“Of course I’ve seen Star Trek, little miss Sue Storm, I’m just surprised Kemon has one,” I huffed.

“The point is… Kemon’s the only one allowed in there. We’re set,” she said.

“Cool. Then you and I are going to talk to Ike.”

“We aren’t going to listen?”

“Sid’s on it,” I said. “I heard that more abductees were swapping between here and the A-ships.”

“Oh. Yeah, we want to stop that…”

Navigating the Fafin wasn’t the most familiar yet, but I wanted to learn quickly if we were going to take it over long term.

Down in Life-Support 1—wait, 1? There was more than one life support room? Wait, that actually made sense. Air, water, heat, waste. There were a lot of moving parts.

In the station dedicated to water purification I found Ike, a boy I recognized as either Cody or Edgar, a girl with bug antennae coming from her temples, and two more kids I didn’t recognize.

“Ike,” I said.

“Ted—I mean…C—”

His eyes darted toward one of the crew, diligently at work.

I whispered. “We need to talk about, well, all of you.”

I gestured to the other humans with him.

“We’re just looking at the water purifier,” he said. “Dansi left us down here. What’s the big deal?”

“The big deal is I’m staging a—” I mouthed the letters m-u-t-i-n-y, “—and I want to make extra sure you all aren’t in harm’s way.”

“Gee, thanks for your concern,” antenna-girl said dryly.

“Jean, I need—agh, okay…Ike, all of you? I haven’t talked with you as much as you probably deserve, but for the next few hours I’m more focused on making sure that abductees avoid gunfire than I am about being polite. So you guys are going to follow Drew, and you’re going to stay where she puts you until we get an all clear.”

“The way you were earlier, it sounded like it was just going to be arresting Kemon and putting him in the brig,” Ike frowned.

“Yeah, this is more of a precautionary measure. If Kemon tries winning his crew over, I want to make it as hard as possible for him to win over abductees too.”

They all gave me doubtful expressions.

“…Can every one of you tell me that you wouldn’t try helping Kemon if he asked you to? If he made a really passionate case that I’m misguided? Are you one-hundred percent sure?”

“…You do kinda sound crazy,” Cody/Edgar said.

“Cody—” I started, completely guessing on his name. He didn’t object, so I’d guessed right! “—you’re right. I seem crazy because I keep doing stuff that doesn’t make sense to people who don’t know what I do.”

“Should I say it again? Gee, thanks,” Jean repeated. “How many times are you going to call us stupid?”

“Just the one time before,” I assured her. “You’re not stupid. Kemon has just done an exquisite job keeping you in the dark.”

“And you’re just so much more enlightened than us?” she scoffed.

As a matter of fact…

I turned to the Casti at the other end of the room.

“Hey crewman, do you know any Vorak languages?”

The first one didn’t, but one around the corner leaned out, raising a hand.

“Can you tell my friend here what ‘Ajengita’ means?”

“Er…light…lumen…” I could see the unpracticed Casti flit through the psionic dictionary—a reassuring sight to know they hadn’t been trying to translate and overhear our conversation.

Finally, they arrived on an answer, saying; “Illuminator.”

“I’m not trying to mess with you guys,” I assured Jean. Ike too. “I really just want two things; for none of us to get hurt, and for Kemon to be exposed. You can help me with the first one.”

“As for the second one,” Drew added helpfully, “give us a few hours. Sid came up with something that should get us a real ‘Perry Mason’ moment.”

I had to keep myself from laughing too much at that one. It was too appropriate for Kemon.

“Who’s Perry Mason?” Cody asked.

“See, that makes sense,” I said.

·····

Eight hours later, Sid and I were gathered around a single table in the mess hall.

Dansi had caught a signal from the Askior-Minshia Beacon.

And two-hundred-ish feet above us, Kemon pressed a button to play a message.

“Wol, it’s Win,” the Farnata voice said. “It’s done. All six of them were left on the ground. The disruptors worked, the station didn’t ID my ship. They had every internal alarm blaring with every last rak scrambling. They’ll shoot first and ask questions later. No one followed me to the Beacon. We got away clean.”

Kemon grunted to himself, and tapped a few keys before starting to record his own response.

“Good. Forget about the alarm transmissions. Go over your data instead and compile your ‘rescue attempt’ first. We’re going to have to interrupt the forum, but it will get our evidence before every soul on Nakrumum. Hurry back, hard burn if you can take it; Young Ted is up to something, I believe and—”

That was more than enough.

I motioned for Sid, asking for his smartphone.

I tapped the ‘unmute microphone’ button.

“Oh Kemon…” I drawled. “You’re going to make me blush.”

Now, I had to imagine the look on his face, but I imagine it was mouth agape, heart clenching, head spinning. Somewhere in that neighborhood.

I whistled. “No, no, up here Kemon. On top of the console.”

There was a neat clack signaling him picking up the phone Sid had left in place.

“I’d say ‘hi’ to Win, but he’s still a few hours away,” I said.

she said, and the sound of a door flying open could be heard.

“Don’t move, Captain,” her voice said over the smartphone.

I grinned. So did Sid.

“Everyone hear that?” I asked the table.

Two dozen of Kemon’s own crew were pale at what they’d just heard. All according to plan.

“Good,” I said. “Then shall we go see?”

·····

I waltzed into Kemon’s ready room from the bridge, walking past several of the senior bridge officers held at gunpoint.

Dansi and another Casti were inside, both aiming pistols at Kemon.

“Kemon!” I smiled. “Sucks to be you!”

“Young Ted,” Kemon tried, “what is this?”

“It isn’t obvious?” I asked. “I got you. Listen, really listen…”

I gestured out the door to the main bridge where Sid held his smartphone out, replaying the conversation we’d captured.

“Wol, it’s Win. It’s done. All six of them were left on the ground. The disruptors worked, the station didn’t ID my ship. They had every internal alarm blaring with every last rak scrambling. They’ll shoot first and ask questions later. No one followed me to the Beacon. We got away clean…Good. Forget about the alarm transmissions. Go over your data instead and compile your ‘rescue attempt’ first. We’re going to have to interrupt the forum, but it will get our evidence before every soul on Nakrumum. Hurry back, hard burn if you can take it; Young Ted is up to something, I believe and—”

In unison, every one of them turned toward Kemon with varying expressions of horror and dismay.

“You want to do this in English or in Starspeak?” I asked. “I mean, personally, I don’t really care. In either case your credibility is one simple translation away from being completely ruined for everyone involved.”

“You are not speaking sensibly,” he said carefully, implicitly picking English. Figures.

“…You just confessed to enough to lock you up for a lifetime, and I know that’s not even half of what you’ve gotten up to.”

Sid swaggered into the ready room with me, prying Ike’s smartphone from where Drew had stashed it.

“This is quaint,” Kemon said, keeping cool. “But this has clearly been fabricated by your considerable psionic skill.”

“Oh you sweet talker, you,” I grinned. “Sid, you want to tell him?”

“Ted didn’t put that phone there,” he answered. “I did.”

“…What does that change?” Kemon started.

“Because kids these days are addicted to technology,” I said. “Even third graders know the basics of navigating digital devices…but some old dogs don’t want to learn new tricks. Certain folks still see them as magic little boxes. The technology is too arcane, too unfamiliar. So they never get a good idea of what’s possible with it. Turns out, certain aliens do too; we’ve got you on tape.”

“You’re babbling,” Kemon frowned.

“He’s not,” Sid said. “I put that phone there. It isn’t Adept made. It doesn’t use a single psionic component. Ted’s good with psionics, but even he doesn’t know how to manually create a credible digital audio-file from scratch. Think of it this way, you’ve been speaking within earshot of a handheld radio for twelve hours.”

“A radio…? Don’t be ridiculous…” he started. “That’s impossible. It’s…tiny…”

His tone could have made me swoon. Indignant. Bewildered. In disbelief. His voice sounded as good as my favorite song, my parents’ laughter, and uproarious applause all rolled into one.

“In the future, if you’re wondering how exactly we got you?” Sid said. “It’s called Bluetooth.”

I grinned at him.

Kemon was not having as much fun as Win or me. In fact, anyone could tell that his brain was firing on all cylinders, trying to think of a way out of the trap we’d snared him in.

He wasn’t going to give up. In that sense, disturbingly, he and I were quite similar.

“Go on,” I said. “I want to see you try talking your way out. Tell us all about how this isn’t what it seems. We’re live, by the way. Psionically shared audio to the A-ships.”

It would be one thing for me to send the signal. But Sid was sharing what he heard too. Maybe some people would still imagine we were faking whole conversations, but having another person corroborate all this in real time was reassuring.

“Come on,” I taunted. “Tell everyone how ‘the six of them were left on the ground’ or tell us all about the details of Win’s ‘rescue attempt’. I really want to see what kind of yarn you spin…”

Kemon pulled out all the stops, including abandoning pretense.

“No one will believe otherwise,” Kemon said. “It’s too late! The Ironwill have six Humans they killed! Even if they try to dispose of the bodies, we have proof they were there. We have proof the Vorak abducted you! The first time!”

Yeah, I figured he’d go that route. It was why he was still speaking English. You could almost see him fixate on the fact everyone on the A-ships could hear all this. He wanted to try winning over the only people left who didn’t know better.

“And I have proof otherwise,” I said. “And the fact that you’d frame the Vorak for abducting the Ronin and Jordan really doesn’t reflect well on you. How could you ask anyone to trust your so-called-proof?”

“That’s not the point,” he hissed. “The Vorak are your enemies! Even if they didn’t take the Ronin, they would have. Can’t you see that they won’t stop? There’s no place for Humankind among these stars as long as the Vorak want everyone brought to heel.”

“In the words of our very own Jordan Mazur…” I drawled. “This isn’t Star Wars. ‘The Vorak’ aren’t the Empire, and you aren’t a good guy just because you’re all rebellious and charitable to us poor abductees…you really think you get to lure six of us to die and then lie about who’s responsible? Tell us all again about how you’re not our enemy.”

“I’m not!” Kemon insisted. “Because it doesn’t matter now. The Vorak see you as a threat. The six dead Ronin at their doorstep guarantee that. The only hope you Humans have—no, the entire Earth has, is to band together with the Coalition. The Vorak need to be checked, and this is sufficient cause to storm Minshia system! It’s the only chance we have to really beat the Vorak. To do anything else is suicide! Only fools would consign themselves to death. But even worse, only criminals, scoundrels, or pirates would willfully take actions that would lead to the subjugation of their entire homeworld. The Ronin will be remembered for their sacrifice. They’re heroes who turned the tide on the Vorak.”

Sid clapped sarcastically. I pointed to him, as if to say ‘see?’

“Gotta hand it to you,” I said. “That was a nice try. In English and everything. You really did pick up the language fast. But you overreached. ‘Pirate’ isn’t the scathing condemnation you think it is in English.”

“That is not an argument,” he frowned.

“True, but I’m winning anyway, because this isn’t a courtroom,” I said. “Or rather, it is. But it’s a jury of my peers, not yours. And I don’t care how rude or insensitive I’ve been up until now. Everything I’ve done has been to try to help my fellow abductees. Meanwhile, you sent six of our brothers and sisters to their deaths so your little alien war could have…what was it? ‘Sufficient cause?’ Don’t make me laugh.”

“I’m not laughing,” Sid said.

Not a peep.

I added.

a voice asked. Edgar, by the sound of it.

someone else asked.

A few more voices rippled toward us, but the point came across.

“Ooo, yeah, Kemon, did I fudge the audio? Speak up. Did I twist any of your words? Did Sid?”

His lips pursed, and I could see him holding back an angry click in his throat. He had his pride too. He’d murder, cheat, and steal.

But stupid as it was, he wouldn’t give false testimony.

He was a lawyer.

That kind of lie was beneath him.

“The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,” I quoted. “Funny thing is? What Win just told you? He’s only half right. I heard from Jordan and those idiots already. They’re all still alive, and Fintuther station didn’t even fire a single shot. They’re upset, for sure, but more confused than anything. Your little attack hasn’t exactly unfolded the way you wanted.”

I leaned closer.

“Just between you and me? It was never going to work. The Coalition doesn’t want to invade Minshia. It would spread them too thin. The only reason Admiral Hakho’s been giving you rope was so he could trade you to the Majesty as a concession if he ever needed one.”

“You’re lying…how could you know…any of…”

“Oh please,” I said. “Took me a while to figure out why Hakho didn’t just play ball with us. But once I got to know your crew a little better, I solved it: Dansi’s been working for Hakho the whole time. She’s undercover! Hakho wanted to keep us out to protect his agent and, quite frankly, his investment.”

I gave Dansi a taunting grin.

“Of course, once I figured that out, it was pretty easy to blackmail her, but that’s beside the point. Sid, care to summarize for us?”

“Too bad, so sad for Kemon,” he said.

Kemon glowered at me. The look in his eye changed and he realized just how ruined he was.

“Win is still coming,” he snarled, abandoning English.

“I know,” I said. “He’ll either join you in the brig…or he won’t.”

“Bold of you to assume…”

I should have known Kemon would have a few death throes in him.

A psionic wave went out from Kemon, and everyone who wasn’t Sid or I winced. Except a couple of the bridge officers did more than that, buckling over in pain.

“Sonofa…” I started to lunge for Kemon on reflex, but aborted the attack when I saw a gun in his hand.

Dansi had been affected for just enough for Kemon to get the gun.

He pulled the trigger, but I grabbed Sid and flung both of us out of Kemon’s ready room. If it had been just me, I would have stood my ground. But Jordan had kept everyone alive on a Vorak military base. Damned if I was going to let Kemon drag anyone down with him.

Another pair of gunshots barked inside the ready room and Dansi darted out, her jumpsuit stained orange.

I darted forward only for an alarm to bark, and heavy metal shutters to slam down from the door. That wasn’t the only alarm either…

Lights above the two exits to the Fafin’s bridge also flashed.

“Clear the bridge!” one of the bridge officers shouted.

I wanted to object. Kemon was right there! Just behind one door!

But I knew my own skills too. As far as I’d come with Adeptry, I still doubted whether I could get through that kind of reinforced metal. My force of emergence was so low, I’d have to resort to chemical attacks.

So when Sid didn’t hesitate to follow, I matched him. Even Dansi, with two bullets in her belly, mustered the strength to flee the bridge.

The door slammed shut behind us, sealing itself with metal shutters just like the ready room had.

For a second, everyone stood in the corridor like idiots. But then I realized I was the person in charge. I’d just mutinied the ship, after all.

“Medical,” I said, looking at Dansi’s bleeding stomach.

·····

Whatever Kemon had done, it locked all the hatches onboard. Luckily, only critical areas were sealed and reinforced. So we wouldn’t be getting into the armory or bridge any time soon. But access corridors were still vulnerable to manual override if you had the right tool—or Adeptry.

I, Sid, Dansi, and almost ten other Casti I didn’t know the names of piled into the medical ward while I did my best to help patch Dansi’s wound. It didn’t look fatal—Casti were tough after all—but it would be a long and painful recuperation.

“So we can all agree your boss is begging for a bullet, right?” I asked the gathered crew.

“He triggered a ship-wide lockdown,” the…helmsman, judging by the label on his jumpsuit, said.

“Is the bridge not the place to undo a lockdown?” I asked. “Why’d we leave?”

“There’s a security feature to prevent intruders from seizing control of the bridge,” Dansi wheezed. “It lets essential personnel retreat to the captain’s ready room, which seals.”

“So Captain Kemon has total control of the ship from in there?” a different Casti asked. ‘Quartermaster’ was their uniform label.

“No,” I said. “We did our homework. We enabled the redundant controls in engineering for this—welcome to my mutiny, by the way.”

“Except triggering the lockdown will seal those controls too,” Dansi said.

”…So no one has control of the ship?” I asked.

“We can still move through the interior,” the Quartermaster realized. “Kemon is stuck in the ready room.”

“Does he have a device like this one in there?” I asked, materializing a hollow version of the laptop ENVY had shared with Asu Tolar.

“…I’ve seen something similar,” the helmsman grunted.

“Then we’re still in trouble,” I said. “That device connects to…someone capable of hijacking the A-ships remotely. Good news is; they’re a total asshole. They probably won’t help Kemon just because he asks. But if he regains control of the situation, they might…I don’t know…’reward’ him.”

“Is now really the time for being cryptic?” the…gunnery commander asked.

“I was going to raise that point myself,” the Quartermaster said, turning to Dansi. “You’re a Coalition spy?”

“Don’t swallow Kemon’s bait,” I warned.

“Nope. He’s right. I’m a spy,” Dansi winced. “Kemon’s been a headache for the Coalition for months. It was my job to gather information so we could trade him to our enemies as a concession.”

“We’ve been hunting pirates marauding Coalition ships,” the Casti frowned. “We’re allied with the Coalition. Dira, we’re trying to join!”

“This ship and any of its crew are formally wanted for piracy in every system adjacent to this one,” Dansi croaked. “If this system wasn’t contested, we’d have bounties in Askior too.”

“We aren’t pirates…” someone said.

“You guys might hunt pirates,” I said, “but that doesn’t mean you’re not pirates too. You think every piece of cargo you’ve confiscated was heading for Vorak space? Or going to the Majesty fleet? I’m just an alien abductee, and even I already know the world isn’t that simple.

“But luckily for you, I’ve thrown this mutiny,” I smiled. “I’m trying to take over this ship and steal it for my own people! Incidentally, I’m hiring skilled aliens to operate this here ship I’m mutinying. I hear you all have relevant experience.”

“We’re not just letting you take our ship…” the gunnery commander said.

“Mutiny, remember?” I said. “Besides. Kemon’s shown his hand. He’s buying time for Win to get back. But, sucks for him, I’ve got help on the way too. Actual Coalition help. You haven’t heard, but there’s a message from a certain Captain Serral going around the crew.”

“We can rescind the lockdown with enough time,” Dansi said, trying to sit up from the medical couch. “We just need to—”

Despite being a spy, no fewer than five of her crewmates reached to gently push her back into a lying position.

“I’ll let you guys worry about the lockdown,” I said. “I don’t exactly trust you guys given who you worked for, but I don’t expect you to trust me instantly either. I’ll handle Win, and then we can sort out the rest when there’s no one left trying to shoot anyone. Agreed?”

No one argued.

“Cool.”

·····

“…We’re locked down,” I told Drew. “We can manually open most of the interior hatches, but the exterior ones, I’ve been told, are still in Kemon’s control.”

“If the hatches are sealed, we can’t actually evacuate anyone to the A-ships,” Drew said.

“Yeah. If Win doesn’t come peacefully—and let’s be honest, what are the odds?—then you’re hunkering down with Ike and Sid,” I said.

“An Adept fight on a spaceship…it’s suicide…” she murmured.

“Well, if you have to scrap in space, you’d want to be on a big ship like this one,” I remarked. “I’ll keep damage to a minimum. Win will too, probably. This is their gamble to regain control of everyone. Kinda pointless if they kill everyone in the process.”

“Yeah, but don’t Kemon and Win strike you as the kind of assholes who’re vindictive enough to just kill everyone if it looks like they might lose?” Drew asked

“Very true,” I mused. “So you’re taking this —” I held out my hand and formed an invisible weapon to match her unique condition, “—and, well, sorry in advance.”

“Umm…is this…?” she asked, holding it carefully.

“Yes, a last resort,” I said. “You should be able to see it the same way you can still see your own body—I think I got that trait right. But if not, just make sure you keep it cascaded. Or reproduce it yourself. I might lose track of its upkeep.”

“Just in case?”

“Just in case,” I nodded.

·····

For the next several hours, we received a dozen messages from Win, at first just checking in, then inquiring about the lack of reply.

Luckily for us, Kemon was as sealed out of ship communications as we were.

Which suited our strategy. We were keeping silent. All of us.

If all six A-ships and the Fafin didn’t respond…then, intuitively he’d investigate the Fafin first. I had to count on that. If Win tried breaking into one of the A-ships first…

This whole thing would turn into a disastrous hostage situation.

Hopefully he wasn’t circumspect. Timing it all out…I had plenty of time to harangue the crew into sealing as many internal bulkheads as possible. If Win wanted to fight, keeping it contained would be essential.

In the last hour, his shuttle was close enough such that light delay wasn’t a factor, and I flicked open a psionic channel, relaying everything I said and heard to anyone in range. I wanted people to know what was about to happen.

I said.

No response.

So I waited, counting down the minutes until…there was a thunk outside the upper cargo hold.

Showtime.

I pulled the pin on one of my three remaining candled radars. A few hydraulic hisses later, the inner hatch shifted an inch only to pause.

“Ted, if I open this hatch, are you going to shoot me on sight?”

“Good question,” I said. “You going to come peacefully?”

“Haven’t really decided yet,” he said.

“Unconditional surrender,” I said. “Not much to decide.”

“Doesn’t sound like there’s much chance you can be dissuaded, is there?”

“Not so much,” I said.

“Well, can’t blame me for trying.”

“I absolutely can—"

The hatch flew open the rest of the way, and in the same moment, green-ish rectangular paneling jutted into existence a few feet in front of the hatch, blocking my line of fire.

I didn’t have to cascade to know Win darted out from the airlock using that cover.

But I’d anticipated the move. I sent a psionic pulse into the cylinder I’d created and prepared beforehand.

It should have exploded a few inches away from Win’s head in the same milliseconds he darted through the door. Instead, the blast was confined by the same kind of barrier as before, deflecting the shower of sparks across the wall and cargo bay floor.

He’d seen that coming, probably noticed it with his cascade when he paused before opening the hatch.

I didn’t stay in the same spot though, his cover wasn’t that big, and in that corner of the cargo bay, his options to move were limited. But it was a fifty-fifty which direction he’d go from behind his barrier, and I picked wrong.

I went right, but he rushed out to my left.

Aiming right-handed, I didn’t have a great shot, reaching across my own body. Even with psionic aim-assist, my shots were a split-second too slow.

I dropped my gun as soon as I saw one in his hand too, materializing my shield the way I’d practiced a thousand times.

Win’s shooting was more accurate than mine, but Nai had drilled defense into me too well.

His eyes widened as he registered the almost transparent slab I’d shielded myself with. Only by its rough edges and cracks from where it caught the bullets was it visible at all.

I didn’t miss the fact that he was keeping his other hand open and ready to shield himself too.

We squared off like in a spaghetti western, ready to reach for offense or defense. Both simultaneously, if need be.

I took a steady breath, keeping calm. Nai was too many hours away to help me. I didn’t trust Vez, or Dansi if I was honest. Kemon’s crew would only get in my way, and the whole point of this was to keep any other abductees from harm’s way.

No one else aboard the Fafin could help me win this fight.

But it didn’t matter.

Because whatever mistakes I’d made getting to this point didn’t matter. This was danger. And I was prepared to handle danger.

I was ready to win this all on my own.