Six days later, two privately owned luxury space liners dropped out of hyperspace near the Bharani wormhole. The larger one was 260 meters long and was the largest privately owned spaceship in the Junkstorm. It was painted in dazzle camouflage, a purely stylistic choice as nobody in space relied on visual targeting or identification. Its central hub was dome-shaped, extending both above and to the sides of the main body. Inside it sported the largest open park on any spaceship within human space.

Its owner, then business mogul Fyfe Sirling, had spared no expenses in ensuring the yacht was a unique, recognizable and very special vehicle. Its name, Serpent’s Kiss, was written in large letters on both sides near the bow. According to the press release the company that had built it had published, the letters were made out of a gold-iridium alloy.

The smaller ship was sleek and narrow, every aspect of its exterior design drawing the eye to its massive thrusters. At a smaller size, it would be considered a racing boat, but standing at just over 60 meters, the only reason it seemed small was that it was flying next to a much larger ship.

Immediately after leaving hyperspace, both ships fired their sub-light thrusters and accelerated towards the wormhole, still a few light-hours away.

Twenty-three minutes later, another ship dropped out of hyperspace nearby, immediately maneuvering to matching their speed. It had come out of hyperspace with a normal space velocity, and that marked it as much a military ship as the open weapon ports.

The call came on an open frequency at the same time. An order to immediately decelerate to zero speed relative to the wormhole. The four guidance lasers painting the sides of the Serpent’s Kiss at the same time replaced any verbal „or else“. The cruiser was within missile range, a precision maneuver. Dropping so close to another ship required microsecond accuracy.

All three ships were approaching the non-violence zone around the wormhole. There was no precise distance, but the universally accepted measure was that once the wormhole engineers had transmitted their welcome message and pointed out the rule about no hostilities, violence was out of the question. Getting blacklisted from wormhole transit was a very serious thing.

Apparently for this reason, the private yacht stalled for time while still accelerating. Its captain asked for clarification and authority. The cruiser answered by firing a single missile. It burned hot, constantly accelerating. It would cross the few hundred kilometers distance in less than two minutes.

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The captain of the cruiser let his counterpart know that he could recall the missile only within the next sixty seconds.

A few seconds later, the Serpent’s Kiss began to decelerate.

Its sister ship, however, increased its thrusters to maximum burn. The ship made a jump forward, quickly leaving the larger yacht behind. The trajectory calculations on the bridge of the cruiser showed that given the remaining distance, it would probably outrun the missile. It was a really fast ship.

The cruiser gave out a second call to the smaller ship. This time, the threat was made explicit: The cruiser would vaporize them if they did not stop. It had to. If it just destroyed its target, the wreckage would still drift towards the wormhole. A boarding operation was out of the question due to time constraints. Any moment now the no-violence zone would be entered.

The small ship sent out a contact call towards the wormhole, asking for the current price list. An obvious attempt to get an early welcome message. The fast cruiser fired its arsenal of beam weapons. The small ship started an avoidance maneuver, obviously triggered automatically, but the distance was too close. Fractions of a second later, it disappeared in a superheated ball of plasma as the weapons’ fire hit. A few seconds later, the glow slowly faded away from the expanding cloud of gas that had been a space ship.

The Serpent’s Kiss followed further orders and turned back, away from the wormhole. A safe distance away, the cruiser sent over a boarding commando. Everyone on the ship was arrested for treason and conspiracy. Fyfe Sirling was not among them. He had been on the small ship, according to consistent statements made by those arrested.

—

These events were also among the first news that Amara Vance was given three days later, when the doctors woke her up from the artificial coma they had had to put her into. Her entire left side was burnt, and casts and bandages bore witness to the numerous broken bones and gashing wounds she had suffered.

The flames had also destroyed one of her eyes.

Despite regaining consciousness, Amara was barely able to speak or hear. Reading - with her remaining eye - was slightly better. She found support in her husband who had not left the hospital ever since he came in.

She smiled a weak, hollow smile at the news. Dangorod and Erulas working together had beaten a group of traitors. Something, at least.

She officially resigned as president a week later. In her statement, she gave the long recovery the doctors had assured her was required as the one and only reason. Erulas needed a fully functioning president. The political commentators agreed that she was expected to return to politics, maybe in a year or two.