Samson, at the bottom of the cargo ramp. 'It looks like they're prying at something in a service hatch under the Samson's reactor bay.'
Jake burst into a run the moment he set foot on soil. 'I'll be right there. Stephanie, I need everyone you can trust from the Clever Dream to back me up.'
'Aye sir,' Stephanie replied with no shortage of urgency.
Ayan didn't bother to listen to her pass the orders on, but tried to keep up with Jake as he closed the distance between him and the rear loading ramp of the Samson, where people were continuing to gather. The rear hatch was under what the Samson called the maxjack. It was a carefully constructed collection of metal bars, gripper arms, clamps and cutters. At the centre was a heavy plasma torch set on a track that ran around a fortified, extendable airlock above the main cargo ramp. The whole system was wide open, which made the rear of the Samson look as if it had thirty, twisted and curved skeletal fingers, some of which punctured the ground. The growing crowd of over two hundred didn’t seem to notice or care about how damaged some of the system looked from where Ayan was standing.
A few unarmed crew members were starting to disembark from other vessels and the commotion at the rear of the older, battered ship was drawing a lot of attention. At the base of the ramp there was a bright flash. Ayan's head's up display marked it as small arms fire, a particle weapon. There were several more flashes in succession. 'What's going on?'
'Someone broke into my credit reserves, they were kept under the Samson's mass reactor,' Jake replied over proximity radio. 'It's all I have left. Maybe all the ready cash in the fleet.'
Ayan knew her slim Freeground account with less than forty thousand credits wouldn't be much help if they were on their own, if Triton was lost. “How much is in there?” Ayan asked.
“Last I checked the tokens I have in there was worth about seven fifty.”
“Thousand?”
“Thousand. Enough molecularly stamped bullion coin to cover serious repairs on the Samson in case we were stuck somewhere without a link to a major bank, and since those banks were all run by AI’s, along with the communication systems they depended on, I’m betting its worth a lot more now.”
Ayan had seen a bullion token before, but from a distance. If what Jake had was like what she’d seen during her Junior Academy days, a thin strip of molecularly stamped platinum with lines of tiny coloured industrial diamonds set into it under a protective coating, then she could see why even crew members who weren’t normally greedy would want a piece. That kind of currency was universally recognized and trusted because of the certification of the material’s purity and how difficult it was to counterfeit.
They arrived at the edge of the crowd and several people started to run away from the landing site. 'Stephanie, have a few of your people round up the runners. Make sure they take a second to show them a map. We're about eight hundred klicks from anywhere,' Jacob instructed.
'I'll catch them sir,' Alaka volunteered. 'It won't take long.'
Ayan's eyes went wide as she looked to the rear view display on her sealed hood's head's up display in time to watch a huge, dark shape dart out from under the Clever Dream and begin to close the distance between him and the runners to the west. She'd never seen a nafalli run at full speed before. Alaka's legs were powerful, long, certainly, but when he leaned forward and began to use his arms his agility and speed doubled. His armoured hands looked more like long black claws, and his movements were so graceful they were awe inspiring.
In seconds he was in front of the startled runners. He stood up to his full height and stretched his arms out to his sides. 'Stay near the ship, there's no where to go, trust me.'
They begrudgingly started making their way back.
Alaka took a running start right at the Samson and instead of passing under it he leapt up, ran over the mismatched plating of the hull and came down on the other side so he could pursue the rest of the runners.
'Everyone stop what you're doing!' Jake ordered.
'Why? We're just taking what you owe us!' replied a voice from the crowd. It took less than a second for Crewcast to make a match and present a picture of a former Samson crew member named Leland March. He had been recently reduced in rank to Crewman's Mate after faking qualifications and nearly single handedly destroying the Cold Reaver with a tactical blunder.
Many members of the crowd glared at Jake angrily.
'Get your ass out in front Leland!' Jake roared.
Stephanie and the rest of the security staff were catching up. Four squads, fifty six rifle bearing, fully armoured soldiers came running roughly shoulder to shoulder like a black wave to support their Captain. Other security members were closing in slowly, carefully guiding the people who hadn’t remained aboard their ships.
The crowd parted to reveal Leland March, standing over a secure ammunition crate. He had holstered his pulse pistol. Ayan didn’t bother guessing where he’d gotten it, probably from some storage locker on the Samson somewhere, but she did take note that Leland’s Crewcast profile stated that he wasn’t allowed to bear arms. The scorch marks on the ammunition container made it clear that he’d tried more than once to shoot it open.
'He's not alone, Captain,' called out another man angrily. His voice was identified as Edward Sherman, and Ayan noticed a red flag, posted by Oz about an incident that took place on the flight control deck. The crowd shuffled a little so he could join Leland and hand him a cutting torch. 'I think it's about time we get paid so we can get away from you and your disastrously reckless leadership.'
Jake's hand came to rest on the hilt of his handgun, whether by reflex or as a foreshadow of intent, Ayan didn't hazard to guess.
Edward took an exaggerated step back, throwing his hands up. 'What are you going to do now? Shoot me? I should have expected-'
'That's enough!' Jake barked. 'You're taking money that we'll need for food, to buy supplies, for repairs.'
'So you can what? Go after your stolen ship? Didn't anyone tell you? It's over! The Triton and whoever stayed behind are either dead or in shackles by now. I'm taking my money and signalling for a lift!' He reached down to one of the crates.
Jake twitched his sidearm out of its holster and shot Edward in the hip. Before most had realized what had happened, Jake was dropping his weapon back into its holster. 'Next one won't be a stun shot!' he called out.
Edward fell to the ground flailing. Ayan knew it was nothing more than theatrics, the energy carried no force and it couldn't penetrate the man's vacsuit.
'Security Chief! Control this crowd!' Jake ordered.
Under the efficient direction of Chief Stephanie Vega, her men and two squads who arrived from another ship rushed in, took possession of the cash laden crates and separated everyone into smaller groups. Ayan couldn’t help but smile a little as she saw Stephanie yank Leland’s pistol out of its holster and tuck it into her belt.
'This is criminal! You have no authority here! I'll report you as soon as I see civilization again!' shouted Edward as he was pressed away from the Samson's main cargo ramp with a small group.
Ayan listened in on Chief Vega's instructions and watched as they were carried out with impressive efficiency. Most of the people with her were deserter Aucharian soldiers who had remained aboard shortly after Jake had taken the Triton. Several others were former Pandem rebels.
Alaka finished rounding up the runners and spotted his family. Iloona was surrounded by their children, she quietly allowed herself to be sorted off into a group on the side. Alaka didn't bother asking to see them, and no one objected when he joined them for a reunion.
The thirteen of them looked strange with their fur pressed flat under thin vacsuits, but the love of the family was plain. His older children cuddled close to their parents, two of Alaka's sons climbed on top of him, eventually settling leisurely on his shoulders.
'All right, this is going to be simple,' Jake started over the general Crewcast channel. The two hundred nine people who had managed to squeeze onto the Samson were just settling, and several of them were just starting to protest their predicament.
The clouds had rolled in overhead and the first smatterings of rain were starting to fall. Ayan checked her environmental display and breathed a sigh of relief as she saw it was harmless water. It would even be clean enough to drink in a pinch. She heard the collection panels open on the Clever Dream behind her, and saw that the same was happening on several of the former raider ships.
'I can't afford to pay you full wages for your time aboard Triton,' Jake started sternly. Several protesting voices began to rise and he silenced all but his own. 'But I can give each of you a hundred grams in bullion coin if
