The screen faded.

Bert grabbed Fade’s arm.

“What’s goin’ on, Fade,” he said, “The situation ain’t that bad. Are ya losin’ your nerve cause of Kitten? One thing’s for sure, I’d rather go down and take a few more with me. Don’t go soft on me!”

Fade turned on Bert with gusto, grabbing him by the collar and lifting him off his chair. With Bert in his face, Fade winked his left eye and nodded toward the camera gently.

“Shut up!” he growled, “We have to surrender!”

“Tom, we are preparing to surrender,” Karen reported, “They were only pirates, and this is a mercenary cruiser of the independent battle fleet! An imperial cruiser would have fought to the last man; once again, the inept cowardice of the Independent Fleets is exposed.”

Fade looked back at the camera, staring angrily as he growled.

“Could you stop being a stupid - for five seconds?”

Karen glared at him.

Rust stains broke through the paint of the pirate boarding vessel. Puke green sludge ran from hairline cracks in its hull. There were three round windows on its surface, but nothing of the inside could be seen. Many battle scars on its surface were filled with silver colored sealant, or plugged with white plastic corks which were filed flush with the surface. Long abrasive marks indicated the identification casts had been sanded away. The Imminent Destruction exposed its loading bay to the collection ship, which moved slowly because it was constantly veering off course.

Fade isolated his computer systems, and downgraded Horace’s operations to safe mode. The internal communications were free of interference, so he paged Destiny’s palm computer. She appeared on one of Bert’s small screens, her uniform sweaty.

“What do you want!?” she asked irritably, breathing heavily. “Can’t I even get cleaned up!”

“Can you hack Horace’s radar,” Fade asked, speaking softly enough not to be heard on camera, “I know this is sudden, but we’re surrounded by the enemy and they have a mole program in the navigation system. I want you to create a false signature beacon above the ship. It has to simulate the enemy radar signature as exactly as possible. Do you think you can do it?”

Carlos and Adritah both pulled nine-millimeter laser pistols and aimed them at Fade and Bert, “We won’t let you pull this off Captain. Surrender peacefully and nobody dies.”

Fade ignored them, knowing they needed him alive, at least for now.

“I’m here trying to figure out how to work the showers,” Destiny said, referring to the stalls behind her.

“You can connect with Horace in the locker room,” Fade said.

“I can do it.”

“If you don’t hurry, we all die,” Fade cut off the communication before turning around with his hands in the air, “Can the shit, you’re no bounty hunters. You’re spies for the guild. They’re the only one’s around able to pull off something like this.”

“What the hell are you talking about!” Adritah yelled nervously.

“I can’t believe this, Tom,” Karen reported, “My own camera men part of conspiracy to destroy the empire. If I had a gun, I’d shoot these people myself.”

Carlos grabbed Karen’s neck, pushed her to the back of the seat behind her, and held his gun to her head.

“Karen, no!” Tom yelled with hard emotion, “Don’t provoke them.”

“Stuck up -,” Carlos said, “It’s going to feel so good finishing you off in front of the known universe.”

Adritah saw the decoy form on the radar screen and picked up Karen’s microphone, “Worm to Black Hawk,” he said, “The northern unit is a ploy, his movement hasn’t been reduced by your fire.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

A thick slug from Fade’s seventeen-millimeter revolver hit the microphone and fractured the camera’s lens. The next bullet shattered the inner workings of the camera. A buzz of electricity followed fizzling sparks flying from the box.

Damaged recording discs fell to the floor, bouncing like coins wherever they landed. Karen kicked Carlos against the camera only to cower on her empty seat covering her ears. Fade fired the revolver with one hand and steered the cruiser with the other.

The third bullet went into the forehead of Carlos, who fell with a dull thud. Adritah, ears ringing, pulled away clumsily, managing to laser Fade’s underarm. The revolver fell as smoke and blood came forth simultaneously from the burn. Bert rammed Adritah from the side, shaking loose his pistol. A punch to the chest pushed Bert into the control panels. Adritah opened the hatch and slid outside the control room.

The pirate fleet closed in. Fade worked the control panel. After locking the hatch to avoid a counter attack, Bert returned to his seat and assisted. The false radar signature formed a purple sphere on the three dimensional radar.

“I’m going to do a one-eighty and move upwards at full maneuvering speed,” Fade said. “Fire all the cannons downward as we ascend. They’re on to us, so it’s now or never. Disconnect that camera from the floor circuits and run a virus check on our computer.”

“I’m free of all interference, Sergeant Payson is on her way to the control room,” interrupted Horace.

“Then help us get locks on these visuals,” Fade said.

The thrusters roared, propelling the Imminent Destruction on its path of escape from the enemy sphere formation, right through the opening left by the phantom pirate vessel’s radar signature. The three remaining cannons fired, and this time Fade had plotted positions and possible movements manually. The lead pirate vessel that confronted them shattered into an explosion with red, black, and orange plumes bulging from its center. The detritus flew so far that the other ships were hit, pieces clanged against the Imminent Destruction. Two more pirate ships suffered jagged holes of fiery metal over their bridges from indirect hits.

Horace's voice flowed monotonous and calm, “Engaging anti-stealth field and electro-magnetic pulse. Aiming assistance enabled.”

An electronic blast originated from the Imminent Destruction, blue waves of electricity moved in every direction, dissipating two-thousand and fifty kilometers into space. On the bridge the radar beeped and blipped as the little red dots finally showed up across the screens and inside the holographic sphere. Nine pirate destroyers had their weapons disabled by the electromagnetic pulse and retreated as their engines proved resistant.

“They’re on the run, Yee-haw!” Bert screamed.

“Once enemy clears two thousand kilometers, fire the implosion torpedo,” Fade’s blood dripped over the control panel, his voice faint yet fierce, “They’re going to pay for getting the jump on me.”

The pirate fleet dispersed with their tight formations, yet maintained a loose group as they fled. When the nine remaining destroyers retreated two thousand kilometers distance, the infusion warhead joined their ranks, separating from its twenty-meter-long propulsion system. Within seconds, a silver sphere with chimney like electrodes broke from the missile. At five thousand kilometers the gravitational intensification system activated. The remaining destroyers twisted, their metal tore like paper as they tried to escape the sudden gravity vortex. The destroyers heated to thousands of degrees before imploding, melting together into a spherical asteroid.

A stream of blood ran down Fade’s right side, soaking his uniform. Putting his fist against his armpit didn’t stop the flow. Bert tore off his shirt, the antithesis of clean and sterile, and quickly tied it restrictively around the wound. Fade put the ship on auto-pilot and reclaimed his revolver. He flicked open the revolving mechanism and replaced the three used shells with fresh ones from his coat so quickly that his arms appeared to blur.

“We gotta get that spy before he hurts someone,” Bert said, “I got his pistol, but that don’t mean nothin’ if he’s guild material.”

“I can’t believe it!?” yelled Karen, crawling from her seat. “They were spies.”

Fade aimed his pistol at a dent in the control room hatch with his left hand. His view was fuzzy, so he saw two dents circling each other.

“Get Lieutenant Soel on the intercom,” Fade said. “Tell him we have an enemy agent on board, and we need a squad to help us find him. Give him Adritah’s description and a warning that he may be armed.”

Karen knelt over the empty seat and sobbed.

“I didn’t know-- I didn’t-- they were spies,” Karen cried. “I didn’t-- I’m not a spy. I didn’t-- I’m an Imperial citizen. I didn’t-- I-- I-- please don’t--”

“I talked to Soel,” Bert said, throwing his headphones off, “Spy huntin’ isn’t his sponsor-ability, sides, all his men are drugged for nap time. And Miss Howards, don’t worry bout it, okay? It’ll be alright. We know you ain’t a spy.”

Bert knelt beside Karen, putting a hand on her shoulder. It quickly slid down her back and felt her rear. She jumped, and her elbow smashed into Bert’s left eye.

“I’m sorry,” she cried, “that was an automatic reaction. Are you okay?”

“Knock it off Bert. So he put everyone to sleep at once?”

“Parently so,” Bert said, returning to his seat with a hand over his eye. “Why don’t ya ask him yourself?”

“No thanks. I’ll worry about course corrections later,” Fade said, “Protect Karen and keep an eye on things. I’ll handle this on my own.”

“I don’t get to do any fun stuff, don’t I?” Bert said, “Don’t worry Miss Horror, I’ll protect ya, you can always count on good ol, one eyed Slemgut.”

“Keep your hands to yourself,” she said, “and it won’t happen again.”

The hatch opened.

Both men simultaneously took aim.