Carter walked onto the bridge, ready to get into trouble again, only to hesitate when he saw the kid they'd picked up on the bridge as well, admittedly strapped into one of the auxiliary seats and out of the way, but still. He kept his face neutral. "What's the kid doing here?"

The girl smiled as if to say, *be nice*. "I thought he might be interested in seeing what a real space battle is like."

Carter shook his head. "But is it wise for him to be up here? Is it safe?"

John laughed. "If the bridge is compromised, nowhere on the ship will be safe!"

With a tilt of his head to acknowledge the pirate's point, Carter decided to leave it at that. "Fair enough, I suppose. Still, it's not like it will be all that exciting. Not from out here anyway."

The kid looked up, a question evident on his face before he even spoke. "Out here? Is it more exciting somewhere else?"

Carter smiled, knowing the kid had no idea where that line of questioning could lead him. "Yeah. It's considerably more intense from within the Sybil's systems."

The expression on the kid's face clearly stated that Carter's answers hadn't offered any clarification, but Carter was okay with that. Sitting in the Captain's chair, he could feel the lock on his port engage, limiting his movement. Then there was the gut-dropping sensation of his awareness passing from his limited biological senses into the expanse of the Sybil's systems. As usual, the girl was there awaiting him. "You're getting used to that. It used to take a solid minute or two to orient yourself upon getting in here."

Carter smiled and shook his head. "Yeah, I suppose I am. Although I'm not sure if that should comfort or worry me..."

The vixen, who was not far off, shook her head. "Probably both. Even though this system was designed to interact with the human mind, it has evolved considerably since then, and most people find it difficult to interact in any meaningful way. It's probably a sign that there's something wrong with your brain. Although I'm pretty sure that's evident to anyone who's observed you for more than five minutes."

Carter smiled and nodded in her direction. "Yeah, glad to see you too. You feeling up to this fight? I know you've taken it a bit easy since..."

The vixen cut him off. "I'm as lethal as I've ever been and ready to punish anyone who dares underestimate me!"

The double meaning in her words was apparent, but Carter decided to leave it be. "Fair enough! In that case, let's go ahead and get moving." Turning to the girl, he asked, "What's our ETA?"

Carter could feel the generators pushing power to the engines as the ship surged forward, and the FTL drives spun up while the girl answered. "From this distance, arriving will take approximately twelve minutes."

Carter nodded, trying to keep his perception of himself stable in the face of the ship's overwhelming presence. "Alright. Then let's go pull our friend's rear ends out of the fire, shall we?"

-

Rodrick was manning the scanners. The entire crew knew this job was the make-or-break proving point for their place in the Boss's fleet. It was supposed to be a simple raid on a small station. Three destroyers would have been more than enough to handle anything the station had to throw at them, but of course, there'd been a complication. For some unforeseen reason, another destroyer had just undocked from the station but hadn't yet jumped to FTL. They could have easily handled the situation if they had arrived minutes later and the ship had been gone or a bit earlier while the ship had still been moored in place. Their timing couldn't have been worse, and what was worse was that the ship refused to fully engage, leaving them to choose between several unappealing options, forcing them to put in a call for backup.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Still, at least it looked like it was finally running. They probably realized that with the change in the balance of power, the payday was no longer worthwhile. They jumped, disappeared out of the detection area, and out of the fight.

Rodrick sighed in relief, then turned to the Captain. "They're gone, sir!"

The Captain nodded. "Good. Then, focus our attacks on the station. Let's do the job and get paid."

The crew started to cheer, but then the proximity alarm went off. Rodrick turned to his scanner and couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Hot jump incoming! Right on top of us, sir!"

The Captain's expression reflected Rodrick's thoughts. What in the world were they thinking? Then he started shouting out orders. "All engines stop, full power to shields! Once they appear, take advantage of the moment their shields are down and pummel them! Make them regret coming back here!"

Before anyone could so much as respond, "Aye, Captain," the ship appeared, maybe a hundred meters away. One gunner who was on top of things got off a few shots, but then the enemy had their shields up and running, and as they flew closer the shields intersected with their own, shorting each other out, and creating gaps in their defenses. Just as Rodrick realized what was happening, the enemy ship opened fire with everything it had.

-

As they turned the side of the enemy destroyer into a flaming ruin, Alen breathed a sigh of relief. That had been a considerable gamble, even more so than the risks taken with a standard shield burn, though he'd hardly call that tactic standard, to begin with. If the enemy had gotten off more shots in their initial arrival or had responded to the shield burn as quickly as they had, this could have been the end of the Laughing Comet.

The shield burn was just as effective as when the Sybil used it back when it first rescued them. Alen wasn't sure if getting inspiration by studying that ship and its insane AI was a smart move or a suicidal one, but it seemed to have paid off today.

The comms officer looked up. "Message from the station, sir."

Alen nodded. "Put them on."

A somewhat disheveled man appeared on the screen. "We thought you'd run, Laughing Comet, not that we would have blamed you, but I'm glad we were wrong. If you can pull off any other miracles like that, there'll be a bonus in it for you!"

Alen laughed. "Well, I don't know about miracles, but we might still survive this... If we do, we'll take you up on that bonus!"

The call ended. Alen looked at the screen and saw the location of the other two enemy destroyers. He issued his command over the cheers of the crew. "Take us around to fend off the other two, but keep us close to the station's shields so we can retreat within as soon as the enemy's reinforcements arrive. They may have reinforcements coming, but so do we! We just have to survive until then!"

-

Over the thrum of the FTL drives, Erik found Vanessa performing a preflight check of their little assault craft. She was always so thorough with the details. "Think we'll have an opportunity to use this thing?"

Vanessa tilted her head in a way that held a similar meaning to a human shrug. "Perhaps. Perhaps not. Either way, it's better to be prepared and not need it than to need it and not be prepared."

Erik laughed. "Yeah, we can always hope! I might get rusty if I go too long without a little action!"

The spider lady looked back at Erik. "If you like, we can always spar a little like back in the old days, my lady."

Erik grinned and shook his head. "You just want to torture me more! You're far too frightening when you really get going!"

Vanessa returned to what she was doing but kept speaking over her shoulder. "As you wish. However, if you don't mind me saying so, you could benefit from fighting an opponent more competent than most of these recent pirates. You're liable to get too soft fighting people who rely solely on their armor to get the job done."

Erik swung one of his axes around, enjoying the feel of it in his hands. "Maybe you're right... But now's not the time. I'll have to take a rain check on that practice match!"

Vanessa moved from the landing gear to the rear engines. "As you say, my lady."