Of course I had no intention of signing this contract. But playing for time would be a good idea. Instead I opened ship wide coms and laid out the situation to my crew. I also looped in Ishi as he was technically what stands between the pirate and us even though I didn’t plan for letting him take the bullet. Or lasers. Or missiles. Whatever, you get me.

“So people, there it is. Honestly, I need options. It isn’t like I super much care about Brelic. And yet, while he was with us he tried helping as much as he could. And I have come across people in his situation and… you know how it is. Not like they have much choice at that point.”

“Captain, forward me the contract, I’ll look that over for the moment.” Nirazera said.

Great idea. That was a good start to the whole buying time scheme. The problem was that I didn’t want to be trapped in a contract that didn’t leave me a way out. Especially as everything I had read in the bulletins and heard from my co-miners was that contracts are serious business. They were enforced with major penalties and people did their best never to be in breach of contract. And if there were loopholes, I am sure Nirazera was the best equipped to find them.

While our Grelic worked on that end the rest of us tried to find some kind of solution. Ishi had added some of his landing troops into the conversation. But honestly, we didn’t come up with much. The problem was always the same. The moment we would start any kind of hostilities, they would either kill Brelic or start firing on us. The former would either pop the Fell back on Belt Station, which left him basically in the same shitty situation as he was in currently or, he didn’t have a new CLON contract and would be done for good. Ralgau told us that it was actually unlikely for him to have a new contract. Pirates didn’t spend money on their property. If they opened fire on us then the mercenaries would be in hot water.

After 20 minutes of back and forth no new ideas came up and we were running out of time. I called a temporary halt to the meeting to take a ten minute breather. There must be some solution.

It was Asami who actually provided the push that was necessary to get our head out of our asses.

“How is it going down in engineering?” I asked him as I bumped into him in the galley. I had decided to get a drink and he was the only other person there.

“Very good captain,” he replied. “Although I still don’t have a good handle on what all the different systems are and what they do. And even less how they do it. But Nyx has been helping me out with course materials and answered questions when I had them. The thing that has me confused the most though is that there seems to be a second kind of drive system. I have never seen a ship with two different and decoupled drives. But Nyx hasn’t allowed me to poke around this yet.”

“Nyx?” I asked.

“The secondary drive system Engineer Soto is talking about is indeed a restricted access system.”

I looked back to Asami. “You heard the lady. Familiarize yourself with the rest and I’ll talk to her.”

10 minutes later I was sitting on the desk in my cabin with a cup of coffee replacement stuff in hand ready to have another serious conversation with Nyx.

“So, a second drive system. Nyx, I need to know what capabilities we have, otherwise I can’t do my job. Please give me the details.”

And as she was talking and telling me the details, a plan formed in my mind. Or rather the beginnings of one. Stop raining on my parade, it was better than the circular discussion we had before.

“Malcolm? Where are you at?” Irene’s voice disturbed me.

“Huh, my cabin, why?”

“Because we have been waiting here for you.”

“Crap, be right there!”

I hustled my ass back to the bridge and then reconvened the meeting we had before.

“Guys, I have an idea but it depends on what Nirazera found out about the contract.”

“It is a fairly standard one. Nothing that we can normally get out of. But we have leverage. The KKV data plus all the findings and the recordings of the previous conversation clearly show that you are forced or at least are signing under duress. With that much information, there is no court in this universe that will uphold this contract.”

“You are certain about that?”

“Absolutely!” the shortest member of our crew nodded confidently.

“Okay guys, here is what I am thinking…”

It took another 15 minutes to shape my thoughts into a plan but I managed to sign and transmit the contract to mister smarmy with two minutes to spare on the deadline. However, there was a lot of unhappiness about my idea.

“Very good mister Solo. I will be approaching. The rest of my fleet will hold position and have their missiles locked on you. So please, don’t make this harder than it has to be.”

“Understood. I will be docking with the mercenary shuttle shortly. It seems that some of my crew was only with me for the ship. They will be making their way to Belt Station with the mercenary fleet when the exchange is complete.” my voice was dejected.

“Sounds like some of them have realized a losing proposition when they see it.” he gloated.

“Hm.” I grumbled into the coms, not sure how to respond to this.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Prepare for boarding. All crew leaving the ship assemble in the middle deck cargo hold.” Nyx’s voice was back to computerized and my opponent could clearly hear it as he was chuckling.

Two minutes later there was a clunk as the shuttle docked with Nyx and shortly thereafter Irene, Nirazera and the brothers left our ship for the shuttle. Then the shuttle undocked and retreated to the protection of the mercenary cruiser.

Then it was a longer wait because it took the RD cruiser nearly an hour to actually make it to us and dock. Once we heard the clank of the docking tunnel, I gave Nyx the signal. She had taken over coordination with the rest of the group.

“What is the holdup mister Solo?”

I patched Ralgau into the communication. “Ralgau, what is going on back there?”

“Sorry Captain, some issues with the airlock. It is refusing to acknowledge my crew status.”

I sighed into my com. “Let Ygglog try.”

Another minute… that is all we needed.

“Yes captain!”

30 Seconds later smarmy dude was back in my ear. “Mister Solo, I don’t know what you are planning but it won’t work. Tell your protectors to stop coming closer or my men will open fire.”

“What do you mean coming closer?”

He switched to local space. “All ships stop maneuvering or we will open fire!”

10 seconds to go.

A clank on the hull. Then another.

“Connected captain! Three… Two… One…” Nyx counted us down.

When she hit zero I had the most disconcerting feeling in my life. Imagine the following: A water balloon about 90% filled with liquid, then press a straw to one side of it. And then you suck so hard that the balloon gets pulled into the straw. Since it is elastic it will conform to the straw until a part of it gets to the end of the straw and starts coming out of it. Then you keep up the suction, I know that is where the analogy falls apart, but imagine… you somehow kept sucking until the whole balloon made it to the other side of the straw. Now imagine what the balloon would feel in that scenario. You have no clue? Well, after this experience I did!

By the way, after this experience the balloon would vomit violently!

And it seems I was not the only one that felt that way because I could hear retching from the other seats of the bridge as well as on the coms that were still open. Then one voice cut through it all.

“Opening airlock now, captain. Let us show them strength!”

How the fuck was he still standing and not also on his knees retching his guts out? Instead I heard the telltale clanks of the motor and the hiss of the airlock opening. Then silence.

“Ygglog, what’s going on?” I groaned as I tried to get my legs to cooperate and move my body. Another bout of nausea proved stronger though.

“Entering the opposing vessel. Encountering opposing crew.”

“How are they?” I managed to squeeze out while dry-heaving.

“It appears that they are equally affected by nausea and vomiting. Beginning subdual.”

“Non-lethal if possible!”

“I am assisting. Entering the RD cruiser now!”

Ralgau seemed to have recovered relatively quickly from what Nyx called jump sickness as well. I looked around the bridge and the others seemed actually in a worse state than me. By now close to two minutes had passed and the other members of the bridge crew were still violently ill while the effects started to wear off for me.

“Nyx, status of the people on board?”

“Ygglog is fully functional and actively subduing anybody that is not part of our group. Ralgau has recovered enough and just entered the cruiser. You are actually the third most functional crew member although the mercenaries stationed in the cargohold are also starting to get back to normal. The bridge crew is still severely affected and Engineer Soto is passed out. I do not have contact with the other ships but it appears that both the shuttle as well as captain Ishi’s cruiser made the jump with us due to the tow cables shot at my hull. The ships appear to be intact and working. The same is true for the currently docked Red Dawn cruiser.”

During her speech I started feeling more and more normal. The sickness was horrible but did seem to wear off very quickly. I checked on the other members of my bridge crew and they seemed fine.

“Captain, I believe Engineer Soto needs help. He has not yet regained consciousness and needs to be transferred to medical.”

“I am on my way.”

Then I opened the coms to shipwide while walking past the captain’s chair. “Mercenary crew, as soon as you feel up to it, enter the enemy cruiser and assist Ygglog and Ralgau in subduing the crew. If possible non-lethally. Try taking control of engineering. Ygglog, Ralgau, are you on your way to the bridge?”

“Acknowledged!”

“Yes, we are. We should arrive within the next five minutes.”

I waited for some comment about strength but the Drak seemed to be more focused on the task at hand than his usual platitudes.

The voice of the mercenary group leader sounded still not 100% but he seemed to be getting over it as well. Good, I did not want to have only two of my guys in the other ship while the cruiser crew would get back on their feet.

I made my way down the ladder into the engineering section and found Asami sprawled out on the ground. I felt like I should check his vitals but since I had no clue about Grey physiology I refrained from wasting more time. Instead I just slung him over my shoulder, ran back to the ladder and climbed up to the upper deck. In the process I silently thanked Nyx for my race-change because it would have been completely impossible to climb ladders with the engineer over my shoulder as a Quirt. But now, not a problem.

When I arrived in the medical bay, I dropped him on the exam table, which displayed the scan icon and hologram.

“No damage detected. Engineer Soto will be fine after a course in the pod. It appears that the jump strained his system and to protect itself, it shut down function. Captain, would you please remove his vac suit and clothing items and place him in the pod?”

I nodded. Then I stripped him carefully. Man, these guys looked fragile. I wondered for a moment how they survived papercuts.

But not long after I had him naked. Or should I say her? Although that would not be correct either since I could not see any sexual organs on his body. How the hell did his species reproduce? Whatever…

I unceremoniously put him in the med pod and activated it. The pod closed and then started doing it’s thing.

“Malcolm, is everybody okay over there?” I heard Irene’s voice.

“More or less. Why?” I responded while climbing back down to the middle deck so I could assist in the boarding effort.

“First and Opisthos lost consciousness while everybody else seems to be recovering. Nirazera looks like she is in rough shape too though.”

I told her that I had just placed our chief engineer in the med pod after diagnosis from Nyx. Since the shuttle didn’t have any of those, I simply asked Nicole to monitor them and let me know if something unexpected happened.

“Can you dock on the other side and get them into medical by yourself?” I asked my friend.

“Yes, I should be able to. Go, take care of the pirates.”

“Check in with Ishi and see how they are doing please!”

“Will do. I’ll let you know.”

Finally I was in the back of the ship. I pulled the plasma pistol I had taken to carrying around, did a quick weapon check and then entered the docking tunnel.