Gaylen maintained a straight line away from the derelict for a while, until satisfied that pursuit wasn’t coming. He then leaned back in his chair and let out a long, soothing exhale.

“We could help ourselves to his rak-coils,” Herdis suggested with some hesitation. “Go through the other hangar, ready for trouble this time, and just take them by force.”

“We could,” he admitted. “But let’s not. Salvagers tend to attach some pretty big guns to their ships. And even if we reach it before he does, who knows what other surprises he might have?”

He glanced at the Incoming light. It stayed dead. Maybe Pol Jon had perished in his own blaze; those suits were sturdy, but they’d damaged his. But maybe he hadn’t.

“When you’re on the lanes as a career it’s best to take the fewest chances you can. And we have a working plan to get those coils. I’ll just stick to it.”

“That makes sense,” she said. “I just felt I should bring it up.”

“Sure.”

He stood.

“Keep an eye on the instruments for me for a bit. Call me if anything at all happens.”

He strode back into the living room. The first thing that caught his attention was that the intricate, red symbols had returned above the doors into the sleeping quarters. As he glanced up he realised he’d missed the one above the cockpit door while rushing to the controls.

“Bers! Man, I told you to stop it with the scribbling!”

If the fringer could hear him he didn’t respond. Gaylen glanced around for the rag he’d used last time, but didn’t spot it immediately. And Ayna stood in the centre of it, seemingly waiting for him.

“So we’re in the clear?” she asked.

“We are. I’m just going to take a breather, then continue on.”

“Good. Look... what was all that?”

“Ah...”

He shrugged.

“Who knows? Maybe he’s been alone on that derelict a lot longer than he told us and just snapped. Maybe it was a really extreme case of the Korokis Effect. What did you find?”

“I went down that hatch,” she said. “And I just followed the work they’d been doing; the cables and the mats and the repairs. I think the crew might have been focused on reaching the core of the ship; I passed a lot of entrances that they’d just left closed.”

She had her glasses off, and while those huge irises made judging her mood a touch more difficult than normal, he could tell she was trying to make sense of what she’d seen.

“It was strange down there...” Ayna said with some amount of wonder. “All... elaborate and fancy, in the style of those pillars and arches and the ceiling.”

Gaylen almost told her that he hadn’t been able to make out the ceiling in that large room, but let her go on.

“It all looked really important. I had to wonder if it was originally even meant to be a part of a ship. But anyway, I think I found that breakthrough he was talking about; a deep part of the ship that seemed to have been sealed off ages ago. There were more signs of old fighting. More old blood. And then I started seeing new blood. Well, somewhat new. There were drag marks from several directions, all leading to the same room. The bodies had been arranged in a neat line.”

Ayna fell silent for a few moments, clearly reliving what she’d seen.

“He wasn’t a neat killer, let’s just put it that way.”

“Let’s,” Gaylen said.

There were plenty of awful things in the universe. There was no point in dwelling on any of them. He started walking again, but stopped. He was in a leadership position now, and morale wasn’t to be neglected.

“How are you doing?” he asked. “I know you don’t make a habit of violence.”

“I’m from Dwyyk,” she reminded him. “Danger is just a part of life. However much we try and however much we modernise, the predators still get people now and then. Don’t worry about me.”

She really did seem okay, and he took her at her word.

“Good. Look, you did well. But things might have gone more smoothly if you’d delivered the news with some subtlety.”

He could tell she was displeased, though whether it was with his criticism or herself he did not know.

“Yeah, probably,” the Dwyyk admitted. “But I couldn’t reach your comm, and I didn’t know if he’d already attacked you guys. So... I moved fast. And he saw me come up.”

“Right. We all made it out, and that’s what matters. I just wanted to make the point, for the future.”

“Alright.”

He strolled into the men’s quarters, and onwards to the balcony overlooking the cargo bay. As expected, he found Kiris there, dangling her legs out between the guardrail bars and staring off into nothing.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey.”

She kept on staring ahead.

“Is everything alright?”

“I’ve been in danger before,” she said in her typical dull tone. “And I didn’t assume your first trip would be a smooth one.”

She kept on staring ahead but Gaylen saw the profile of a sardonic smirk.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“You have a weird relationship with luck,” she went on. “I can’t tell if it loves you or hates you.”

“Yes, well...”

He sat down next to her.

“I just know you dislike playing the whole sweet-and-sexy thing.”

“Well, I AM sexy. By design. It’s just the sweetness that’s an act.”

The smirk had vanished already, as expected.

“And it was needed, wasn’t it?” Kiris asked. “That’s my strength...”

“I’m just trying to say that I appreciate you stepping up, and that I’m sorry,” he said, testy at her negative tone. “As you can very well tell, with that gift of yours.”

Kiris sighed, put her face in her hands and stroked it, before looking up again.

“I know,” she said in a slightly improved tone, and sighed again. “I don’t mean to be such a vinegar bottle all the time. I just... don’t want to play the game.”

“Yes,” he replied. They’d had a similar conversation once. “But isn’t that what people do, though? Put on their nice face when they want something? Play minor politics with each other? You’re just particularly good at it.”

“I suppose.”

He left it at that. Maybe Kiris would overcome her issues with time, but that was ultimately up to her.

“You know I see you with these sharp eyes as well, right?”

“And what do they tell you?” Gaylen said, although he didn’t really like to.

“You’re tired,” she said. “Eager for this new thing to work out. But you’re also scared. Just who did you cut a deal with?”

“Maybe I’ll tell you,” he said. “Once I’ve done the job and it doesn’t matter any more.”

“How ominous,” she replied. “But alright.”

# # #

It was two days later, hovering a safe distance above the null-world Andan, that Gaylen activated the table’s display feature again.

“Right. There are eleven sizeable wrecks that remain both relatively intact and above the water.”

He waved his hand over the images they’d captured of the surface. Much of the planet was covered with ocean, but it was mostly fairly shallow.

“Jaquan’s gone over them, and has settled on this one.”

He indicated a large battle cruiser, of a make old-fashioned even back during the brief war.

“Its engine room ought to be fairly intact, water-free, and it has coils of the type we can make use of.”

“You sure?” Bers asked.

“Yes,” Jaquan said. “I worked on tearing apart two ships like it. The coils won’t be a perfect fit, but I can snip and adjust them.”

Gaylen looked his crew over. Herdis was visibly nervous, though visibly trying to hide it. The rest looked about as tense as he felt the situation called for.

Good.

“Okay... here’s the wrinkle: You’ve seen Jaquan going over our electronics. We can definitely make two descents and back, as long as we don’t linger. But given that we’re on our own out here I want him on board to be absolutely safe.”

“So who is going to get those coils?” Herdis asked.

“That would be Kiris.”

Everyone looked at the Chanei.

“You’re good with electronics,” Gaylen said. “After Jaquan, that makes you the most qualified.”

She shrugged, neither elated nor upset.

“Makes sense.”

“But I’m not going to send you alone. Night time is falling down at the crash site. And the planet is known to have some people on it, as well as large predators. According to high-altitude cameras, anyway. So I want Ayna down there as well, to help keep an eye out.”

“That also makes sense,” Kiris said, now at Ayna.

“It does,” the Dwyyk admitted.

“And Bers, you too,” Gaylen added. “It might take muscle to clear obstacles in there.”

“Mm!”

“Come on, man,” Ayna said to Gaylen through a grin. “Give us something we can object to.”

“Well, no.”

“And me?” Herdis asked.

“I want you helping Jaquan with the engine.”

“I’m not qualified,” the woman pointed out.

“No, but I’ll be piloting and you’re the only one left. Just press or don’t press whatever buttons Jaquan tells you to.”

“But... what do we do down there?” Kiris asked. “We can’t bring anything powered.”

Gaylen turned to Jaquan, continuing his efforts to get the man to engage more with people.

“We will drop you off right on top of the hull,” the man said after a moment of silence. “And you’ll use that cutter.”

He pointed at the tank-fed device he’d propped up on one of the counters.

“Plain gas,” the engineer explained. “It ignites on contact with air. No electronics involved. Bers, you’d better be the one to carry it. Just cut open a hole and get inside. You’ll... you’ll get chemical lights to see your way.”

“And the breaching charges?” Herdis asked. “The ones the pirates had. Aren’t they just chemical as well?”

“They are,” Gaylen admitted reluctantly. “And I suppose you should bring some along, just in case. But try to rely on the cutter, and don’t use those charges anywhere near the engine.”

“But what about those predators?” Ayna asked. “Being able to see them coming is all well and good, but I prefer being able to actually do something about them.”

“Bers will be bringing his axe, I assume,” Gaylen said, and the Outer Fringer grinned happily. “We also have this.”

Up on the table he placed a plain old scattergun.

“Just powder and metal,” he said. “Nothing modern, or complex. It’ll fire just fine on a null-world.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of these outside of period films,” Herdis mused.

“Why do you even have that?” Ayna asked.

“Like I said: Me and Jaquan have touched down on null-worlds before. As for the gun itself, weapons like this are still in use on some backwards worlds, and by game hunters who like to challenge themselves. And they can pass by some weapon scanners, but that’s another matter.”

“I also rigged this up,” Jaquan said, and revealed his latest creation.

Next to the gun he placed a simple crossbow, made up of various parts from the storeroom.

“I also made five bolts.”

He picked the weapon up again and displayed the basic mechanics of it.

“I’m no armourer, and certainly no ancient armourer.”

He looked a little embarrassed.

“I mean, this thing will hold together and shoot, but whatever you’re going to shoot at had better be close.”

“Once you have the coils, just make your way up onto the hull and activate that,” Gaylen said and pointed at the cake-sized object next to the cutter.

“Is that one of those super-flares?” Ayna asked.

“Yes. And again, it’s just plain chemistry. It will burn very hot and flicker with a regularity that our ship cameras will easily detect. Then we’ll swoop down and pick you up.”

Gaylen fell silent and let everyone take this all in.

“It all sounds very logical,” Kiris said.

“Of course it does. I’m a clever guy.”

“Ah, just to address the heppatik in the room...” Ayna said with some awkwardness. “Who gets... which weapon?”

She alternated her index finger between the two.

“Girls keep guns,” Bers said, and gripped one of his biceps with a grin.

“Well, the crossbow is the inferior weapon,” Kiris said. “No offence Jaquan, but you said so yourself. And it’s getting dark down there. So for maximum efficiency I feel it should be with the one who can see in the dark.”

Ayna stared at the crude, hurriedly made crossbow. She clearly didn’t relish it, but also clearly saw no way out.

“That’s... also all very logical,” she admitted.

Kiris smiled a little.

“Good,” Gaylen said. “Now, we’ll go over every piece of equipment you’ll bring along, then start this thing. Are there any questions?”