“Keep me updated, if you can.”
“Sure thing. Talk to you later, Commodore.”
“You too, Asshole.” Ace called from the cockpit, “Ozzie must have found some speed, he just came out.”
I headed forward. Ozzie’s voice was coming out of the speaker. “Tell the Boss they had some of our mods, but they hadn’t hooked them up right, so they weren’t getting the speed they should have out of them. I rewired their mess, and the ship goes pretty well, now.”
I answered, “Good to hear, Ozzie. No trouble with your cargo?”
“Near as we can tell, they haven’t woken up.”
“We need to jump closer to the base, and then you fellas can come back across. I’ll have Ace tell you where he wants you to come out.” Ace explained his plan for the next jump, and Ozzie agreed. I spent the time strapping in. We went to FTL just as I closed the last buckle. Ace asked, “Don’t trust my driving, Boss?”
“I try to be ready, for when things don’t go the way we want them to. Nothing personal, Ace. You’re as good a pilot as pretty much anybody I know.”
“Pretty much?”
“Nikki has a few tricks I haven’t seen you match, and I’m not willing to say you’re as good as Ruth. Other than that, you’re as good as I’ve seen.”
“Dang, Boss. I was joking. Didn’t mean to make you think you hurt my feelings.”
“Just making sure you knew that I value your skills, Ace.”
“No doubt about that, Boss. You sit there, and never check the board, like you don’t have a care in the world. Never had a human trust me that much before.”
“I’m just a slow old organic. How could I catch something before you, even if I did look at the board?”
“It’s like Bone says, ‘It sure is different than the Navy.’”
“Whatever you say. How long till we come out again?”
“Little less than twenty minutes. You need to take care of something?”
“Nope. Just curious.” We sat and talked till time to come out of FTL. Ace eased us back into normal space, and shortly, Ozzie followed. He came over the speaker saying, “Are we close enough, Boss?”
I replied, “Yeah, we can get there from here without jumping again. Come on over.” Ace put the view of them on our screen. I saw something I wished I hadn’t. There was a man with a gun of some sort on Niner-Deuce, coming across with them. I knew Ozzie would be upset he hadn’t managed to pass me a message, but I assumed the fellow had gotten the drop on them before he had a chance. I got in position to return the favor when they came aboard. The lock cycled, and I stuck Nunya’s new pistol in his ear. I said, “That’s not a stunner, and the bots will have a heck of a time getting your brains off the inside of the ship. Why don’t you lay that thing down, while you can?” That distracted him enough for Niner-Deuce and Abe to attack. They must have been a bit miffed, that he was able to get the drop on them. Anyway, I don’t think he would have wound up with that many broken bones in his gun hand by accident. Ozzie said, “This turkey hid out inside a wall, that sensors wouldn’t penetrate. Some kind of smuggling compartment, I think. He didn’t come out till we were almost ready to emerge here. Sorry I didn’t warn you, but I was afraid he would hurt Niner-Deuce if I tried.”
“No sweat, I think he’s under control now. I guess we’ll have to land, after all.”
“Didn’t mean to make this take longer, Boss. I know you want to get back to Mrs. Wilson.”
“It won’t take that long. Is the other ship set up for remote operation, or does Shorty need to hack it?”
“I managed to sneak that in, Boss.”
“Good work. Let’s go get rid of this mess.” As we were flying in, I commed Bill. “Mr. Wilson. What can I do for you today?”
“Take this nasty mess off my hands, please.”
“The fellows we talked about before?”
“My crew found one more, hiding in what appeared to be a smuggling hold. I’m afraid they damaged him a bit, getting him under control.”
“We have plenty of autodocs, and we might even let him use one, depending on just how naughty he has been.”
“I’ll send you his info. We’ll need a bay with air to drop him off in, since he is aboard our ship.”
“No problem. Follow the flashing lights.”
“See you in a few.”
“See you then.” We brought the ships in, and I went back to escort the trash. He said, “You have unlocked bots. That’s as big a crime as anything they can get me on. You’re going down, big shot.”
I replied, “First, I’m not a Commonwealth citizen. Second, this isn’t a Commonwealth vessel. Third, none of those bots is going to set foot on Commonwealth territory. So, you got nothing.” I took him outside and handed him to the waiting troopers. Bill asked, “The rest are aboard the other ship?”
“They are. You may need a grinder to retrieve them. My boys welded them in the bunkroom, for safety’s sake.”
“Transfer the bounties to the usual account?”
“Please.”
“By the way, this one has more money on him than any of the rest. I hate to have to admit being related to him.”
It took me a second for that to sink in. “You mean, after the feud ended, he found he didn’t want to settle down and be a good citizen?”
“Right on the first guess.”
“I feel for you. That’s going to make it awkward at holiday dinners.”
“No more than it already was, Bob. Thanks for bringing him in.”
“You’re welcome. I better get back.”
“Later, Bob.”
“Later, Bill.” I
