„You did what?“, Red railed on Twitch. She was sitting in the small mess room of the Grimalkin, which was also the only social space aside from the bridge. The food she had just started on was now sitting on the table, being ignored.

„You agreed to get ready.“, he answered.

„Getting the ship ready.“, Red barked, „Not requesting take-off permission from the tower.“

„How is that not part of getting ready? The slots need to be requested at least two hours in advance, and the orbital calculations and exit trajectory depend on the time we lift off.“, the pilot explained.

Red was unfazed: „We haven’t even decided that we depart.“

Grubs came into the room from the sleeping quarters. He had heard the commotion, but said nothing, simply standing near the doorway and listening.

„I’ll pay the cancellation fee“, Twitch shot back, „if we decide to stay.“

Red lowered her head into her right palm, covering half her face before slowing raising her head again, face wiping over her palm as if she was trying to clean it. Then she looked at the ceiling and spoke to no-one in particular: „Well, at least now we know that there’s a lockdown on the spaceport, for what’s clearly a pretend reason. Guess what us requesting a departure slot so soon after arriving does?“

„Captain“, Grubs spoke up, addressing Red formally. He normally didn’t do that. „Both Twitch’s girlfriend and a good friend of mine are in critical condition. Enough to be evacuated to the trauma center of that Erulas battleship. Other friends of us are also wounded or in need.“

Twitch nodded emphatically. Red turned to Grubs as if to respond, but he wasn’t finished yet: „Why don’t we simply hand over this damn loot to the Erulas authorities and make a deal. Say free treatment for our friends and our immediate departure?“

Red looked a Grubs. Then she shot a quick glance over to Twitch, before returning her gaze to the mechanic. She let his words sink in before she spoke: „I have thought of that as well. Here’s the thing: We don’t trust these government people for good reasons. Right now we have friends in need as you say, and you’re right. And we have our ship and all our belongings still on Bloom. Yezz is dead. The core is the only bargaining chip we have.“

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She thought she saw a glimmer of understanding even in Twitch’s face, and his resolute demeanor crumbling. She continued: „As soon as we make our offer, they know we have it and we have it here. Why would they make a deal with us, criminals in their minds, if they can simply seize the ship and take it for free?“

Silence fell over the mess room. Neither of the two men had something to answer. At the same time, there was too much at stake to simply give up.

„How about… no, forget it.“, Twitch tried.

„Can we hide the core somewhere and then try to cut a deal?“, Grubs asked.

They thought about it for a moment. Then Twitch shook his head: „The spaceport is full of cameras. They would easily find out which truck unloaded something from our ship and from there it’s ordinary police work to figure out where it went.“

„Damn“, Grubs simply said.

After another moment of thought, Red spoke: „Our domain is out there in space. There we can run, we can hide, we can act. Twitch, can we fly off without permission?“

The pilot pondered very briefly: „There won’t be the usual automated systems, but manual takeoff, sure, possible in theory. Can’t say if it’ll work though. No idea what they have in place to ground ships. And there’s the risk that they’ll simply shoot us down, you know?“

„I’d bet there’s a few military vessels in orbit at all times.“, Grubs added.

Red’s face lit up for the first time in hours: „No. I bet they have specific orders to not shoot us down. Because they want our loot. They’ll try to disable our engines once we’re in a stable orbit so they can board us.“

Twitch cheered up as well: „I’ll see if the Grimalkin can make a direct ascend from this planet. It’ll take more power than a usual flight path, but I think we can get the delta-V we need.“

„Smart“, Grubs agreed, „We’ll never be in a stable orbit, so they will have to wait until we’re well outside the planet’s gravity.“

„And we can probably make an improvised jump earlier than that.“, Twitch rejoiced. He turned around and quickly went over to the bridge, a slight spring in his steps.

„Can we make it to Bloom?“, Red asked, turning around to Grubs, „We used up a lot of fuel and power coming here.“

„I’ll check.“, he answered, „But even if, given the news I don’t think we can count on the refueling systems there being operational.“

Red nodded, grim determination returning to her face. „Thought so. I’ll get us refueled here. It’ll take another hour or two, even if the schedule emptied up because of the departure block. Let’s hope it doesn’t raise suspicion and they’ll give us the time.“