Red was sitting on the couch, a tablet in hand. The quarters on the Grimalkin were pretty small. The ship was meant for short trips, a week or so, two at most. So even the captain’s cabin was about three by four meters. It had a bed, a small sitting area and a small working table. A built-in wardrobe for clothes and some drawers and shelves for other personal items. It was in the sleek minimalistic style that had been in fashion three decades ago when it had been built. A few curving lines of metallic colors decorated the walls, breaking up the symmetry and simplicity.

And on the couch, Red was sitting, motionless. A video message that the interplanetary mail system had just delivered to her. The face, frozen in time as she had hit the pause button not even one second in, was that of her friend, now dead. It was troubling Red to see her on the screen, alive. A dissonance between the reality she knew and what her eyes showed her. It had taken her a few moments to process.

She collected herself, then unpaused the message. The face on the screen began moving again, even though Red’s face was still frozen in shocked surprise.

„Hi there Red.“, Yezz said from the screen, „If you get this message, I’m probably dead. Hope you don’t hear it from me first. Anyway. There’s a few things I need to tell you and a favor I need to ask. Let me start by explaining why all the skullduggery. Very soon after we talked in my office, I found out that several people knew what loot you had brought. People who to my knowledge had no way of knowing. And I know our place and who knows whom quite well. Maybe word just got around or there is more than one, but at least one person on the station knows way more than they should and has the will and capability to act. The other day someone tried to break into my warehouse and from the marks I found had proper tools. Probably just bad luck, maybe got disturbed or something. I’m rambling, sorry.“

There was a short pause as she apparently had to sort her thoughts before continuing.

„The point is: It’s not safe here. I sent you away not just to get the package looked at, but also to get you off the station. To put us all into a situation where someone can’t just come in and take it. I’m recording this message in case I’m wrong.

If you return to the station, talk to Nico before. He’s one of the few people I’d trust with my life. Talk to him and let him know that there’s a mole or something among his population. I think this is a serious leak, not just some shenanigans between outlaws. If I figure out more I’ll let him know myself but just in case tell him that.

But between us, if you get this message it means you’re not safe here. Don’t return before you’ve figured the situation out.

Now for the favor I need to ask. In the appendix you’ll find bank account details and address and contact data, all on my old home, Chroma. These are my pension fund and my family. Withdraw it and give it to them - they can’t get a bank transaction that could somehow be traced back to me or the government will confiscate the money. That’s the only favor I’m asking for. Make sure my folks get their share of what I leave as an inheritance.

And you, old friend, take care.“

Red didn’t move as the message ended. She sat in silence for a long time. She didn’t even have any coherent thoughts. It wasn’t the tranquility of Mauna, or inner peace. It was more that her inner dialog had been silenced by the impossibility of finding words. She didn’t know what to say, what to think or what to feel. So she simply sat there.

Stolen novel; please report.

For minutes there was perfect silence and stillness.

Then Red took a deep breath as if waking from a dream. She slowly put down the tablet, resting it on the couch next to herself. She pushed herself up to her feet and slowly walked towards the door. She paused briefly before exiting, pulling herself straight. She was still the captain of this crew.

Moments later, she reached the mess room. It was essentially down the hallway. The Grimalkin was a small ship. She had heard Twitch and Grubs talk from the moment she had left her cabin. As she entered, they interrupted their talk and looked at her.

„Hey“, Grubs said, and then immediately came to the point in his sometimes blunt way, „It’s been almost two hours. Do we have a plan?“

Red nodded and walked over, sitting down at the table. There was space for five, maybe six around it, so for the three of them it was a comfortable size. „Yes“, she finally said, „I think we do. But first, any news from our people?“

Twitch was nodding emphatically: „Yes, yes. We heard back from Bloom twenty minutes ago, about. Maybe half an hour. Updates as expected. They have sent the most serious cases off to that Erulas battleship. It’s stranded for now, but mostly operational and has a good medbay. The one on Bloom is bust, they said.“

„And … “, Red began, but Grubs interrupted her: „Our people are among those serious cases. We can’t do much for them, but we can’t just sit here.“

Red was perplexed. She couldn’t remember when Grubs had ever interrupted her. She pushed the thought aside for later and continued: „We should get off this rock. It was a mistake to come here.“, she admitted, „Now it’s time to fix that mistake. The Grimalkin is a fast ship. We can get there in about two days I reckon.“

Twitch nodded, „Two days and a bit. I ran a preliminary calculation that came to about 50 circadian hours.“

„Problem is“, Red took a deep breath and leaned forward slightly, „if we run from Erulas like the common criminals we are, I don’t think they’ll just welcome us as honored guests on a battleship belonging to the space fleet of, well, Erulas.“

Twitch opened his mouth and closed it again. Grubs mumbled something that could have been „you’re right“ or something similar, but was impossible to understand.

„So here’s the plan.“, Red continued, „I’ve used the time to call in some favors. We will launch in an hour, just after sunset. Not much difference to the sensors, but visual confirmation will be more difficult. It’s not yet entirely dark and the engine firing up won’t be as immediately visible. If anyone hails us, we’ll cite medical emergency and tell them to go to hell.“

The other two were intently listening.

„The situation around Bloom is still developing, so we’ll make detailed plans while in transit. Our destination is Binary Bloom. We’ll switch ships and get to their battleship in the Rusty Bolt. The Grimalkin isn’t registered on us and the crew manifest we gave the port authority is a fabrication. They won’t know that we’re the same people who dusted off their planet two days prior.“

„Good idea.“, Twitch added, „And if they need to evacuate anyone to a planetary hospital, we can help. Rusty is faster than their transports.“

Red tilted her head in a jerking motion. „That’s actually a brilliant idea, Twitch.“, she said, „We can offer our services for a small fee and help out our people at the same time.“

Grubs stood up: „We have a plan. I’ll go and make complete our pre-launch sequence.“