“Scrambled is fine, but what are you doing on this ship?”
“Making breakfast, isn’t it obvious?”
“Rhonda, you know what I was asking.”
“All the humans were leaving for other ships, except for Janet and Milly. They’re nice, but I really don’t know them all that well. Besides, I came out here to have adventures. Isn’t that what you’re doing?”
“The idea is to have a nice, safe rescue, with no adventure at all. It’s only when things don’t go well that we have adventures.”
“Mom taught me a lot of medical stuff, and I took some training in it on the ship. You can’t tell me that Julie taking some instruction at the last minute is really good enough for a mission where you don’t have a clue what you’re going to find.”
“You have a point, but once again, you should ask before you do things like this.”
“You were in a hurry. You would have let me come, in the end, but the discussion would have slowed down our departure.”
“So, now you ignoring procedure is for the good of the ship? And they say I’m full of it.”
“Look on the bright side. You get a hot breakfast, instead of a ration bar.”
“That would have been a lot more convincing before we got the new ration bars.”
“What, you want a pemmican omelet, instead of scrambled?”
“You’ve already got it going, don’t change what you’re doing, but that does sound good.”
“Sometimes, I just don’t know what to think about you, Boss.”
“Likewise, I’m sure. How long till we come out of FTL?”
“About half an hour. Long enough for you to eat.” I ate and went up to check in with Ace. “Morning, Boss. Sleep well?”
“Better than I expected to. Did you have something to do with that?”
“Scotti set it up, I just turned it on. Something about soothing sounds that aren’t really loud enough to hear, but convince you that you are safe.”
“Whatever it is, it worked well. Anything to report?”
“Your pilot is well pleased with this ship, other than that, I can’t think of anything.”
“Running good, is she?”
“Yes, Boss.”
“How good a location do we have from what the Patrol sent?”
“The ship that reported it got two bearings from a good distance apart. We should be able to find them pretty quick.”
“Do you know that trick Ruth does, where she has an emergency jump set up as soon as we come out of FTL?”
“Yes, Boss. She showed me how to do it before she would agree to me flying this mission.”
“I want you to presume we are jumping into hostile territory, until we see evidence to the contrary. Even then, keep your eyes open.”
“Understood, Boss.” We sat and waited till time to emerge from FTL. I still wasn’t sure why this rescue had me so wound up, but I didn’t want to ignore it, as far as we were from any help. Suddenly, Ace spoke up. “Boss, I’ve got a beacon trying to pull us out of FTL.”
“Can you resist?”
“Easy, Boss.”
“Can they tell they missed us?”
“Doubt it, but I don’t know for sure.”
“How far are we from where that signal was reported?”
“About two minutes.”
“Drop us out in thirty seconds, quiet as you can.” I got on the intercom. “Shorty, to the cockpit. Shorty, to the cockpit, please.” He poked his head in. “Yes, Boss?”
“I need you on sensors. Something hinky is going on, and I want to know what, before we get caught up in it.” He pulled out a patch cable and plugged into the wall. Ace brought us out of FTL, and Shorty went into a trance.
He came out of it, and said, “There’s a ship, back the way we came, set up for an ambush. There’s a ship ahead of us, that appears to be in trouble, and left as bait. That’s all I see, and these new sensors Scotti copied from the Squirrels are good enough I should be able to see anything in range to help with an ambush.”
“Are the stunner and the drive killer all the weapons we have?”
“Yes, Boss.”
“Ace, how close could you put us to that ship?”
“With that beacon running? 100 feet, give or take.”
“What’s the range on the stunner?”
Shorty said, “Half a mile.”
“Drop us in, 500 feet from them. Shorty, do you have a particular part of the ship you want to be looking at, when we come out?”
“Yes, Boss. I’ll show Ace.”
I got on the intercom. “Abe, Niner Deuce, we’re about to jump in on a hostile. Be ready to board.” I heard “Yes, Boss.” drift up from the back of the ship. Shorty and Ace conferred for a few seconds, and Ace jumped us in. Shorty said, “They all went down, Boss, but there’s one I’m not sure about.” Abe came over the comm. “Boss, there was one of them who thought he was pretty sneaky. He’s having a nap, now.”
“Good work. Nighty-nights all around, and cable ties, too, while you’re at it.”
“On it, Boss.”
“Shorty, how does the bait ship look now?”
“Actually, Boss, if anything they look worse. We need to get over there, if we are going to do them any good.”
I opened the connection to Abe. “How long to get those goons secured?”
“To do it right, Boss? About twenty minutes.”
“Do you have it under control?”
“We do.”
“We’ll be back.”
Suddenly, the screen was full
