I changed the override codes, wiped the existing crew, and set myself up as captain. I was conscious of each second that slipped past. I stripped off the rest of my borrowed armor and dropped it carelessly on the ground. I ran for the flight deck.
The ship had some technical name I couldn’t remember. “Computer, plot a course to NAD Seven.”
“Yes, Captain White,” the ship responded. I’d used my secondary identity, just in case.
On the flight deck, I didn’t bother to sit down. I leaned over the captain’s console and checked the flight plan. It was both better and worse than I feared. The bad news was, we’d have to jump twice. The good news was, the FTL was ready to jump now. Any recent von Hasenberg ship could make the trip in a single jump, but this ship was designed with a cheap FTL for hops between relatively close planets.
I told the ship to follow the suggested flight plan, but a warning flashed on-screen. Rockhurst was refusing takeoff permission. Of course they were. I moved to the manual controls and clipped in.
I hadn’t manually flown a ship in a dozen years. This would be fun.
I flipped the switches, overrode the warnings, and pulled back on the controls. The tiny ship shot into the air, far faster than I’d been planning. New warnings blared and I eased back on the controls. Once my stomach climbed out of my feet, I took a shaky breath.
I watched both the console and the forward vid screens, searching for other ships. They had to be out there, but I just needed to clear the atmosphere and then I’d be free to jump.
“Incoming communication,” the ship intoned.
“Who is it?” I asked.
“Commander Rockhurst of the Santa Celestia.”
I laughed without humor. Of course Richard Rockhurst would be here. Why wouldn’t he be? The universe fucking hated me today. The Santa Celestia was a Rockhurst battle cruiser capable of blowing me out of the sky without even breaking out the big guns.
Had Opportunity escaped before he’d arrived? They had a little less than an hour before they could jump. If they could get enough distance, they could go dark and make themselves a harder target to hit, but hiding from a battle cruiser was a losing proposition.
“Accept voice-only,” I said.
Richard’s face appeared on-screen. With the trademark Rockhurst blond hair and blue eyes, he was gorgeous—or he had been. We were both twenty-five, but he looked like he’d aged a decade in the few months since I’d last seen him. “Stand down at once and return to XAD Seven,” he demanded.
I adopted the rolling, lilting accent typical of the Silva family. “It is you who should stand down.”
In three minutes, I’d clear the atmosphere. I just had to keep him talking. I pulled back on the controls a little more, pushing the ship to the edge of safety.
“Who are you?” he demanded.
“I am no one. A promise fulfilled,” I said, “nothing more. But if you interfere, I will become an enormous problem.”
“You’re from the Syndicate?”
I said nothing. The silence stretched.
“What does the Syndicate want with one of our miners? We would’ve happily negotiated for his release.”
I laughed low. “I know how you negotiate, Commander. MineCorp took something from us. We retrieved it. I regret that so many of your troops failed to stay out of our way, but such is life.”
“Was the other ship the distraction or are you the distraction?” Richard asked.
“Perhaps we are both the distraction. Have your troops reached the mine depths yet, Commander?”
He gestured to someone off camera.
“What will the Syndicate give me for your safe return?”
“You should ask what they will do should I not return safely. That is the far more interesting question.”
“If I let you go, you must do something for me in return.”
“If you let both ships go, the Syndicate will honor one future request from you, free of charge.”
“No, not them. You, personally.”
I chuckled again. “I am no one. You are trading gold for dirt.”
“It is my choice.”
“What do you want?”
“I haven’t decided,” he said, “but can you put a price on two ships and multiple lives? My request will be worthy of that debt.”
Did he know? Could he have possibly guessed who I was? I should promise him whatever he wanted and then break that promise, but even now, I couldn’t quite bring myself to do it. Ian’s lifeblood leaked in the cargo bay every second I delayed and even if we