Captain Rugar had no idea how they'd done it. Sure, the ship had top-of-the-line weapons and shields, but they weren't significantly superior to anything their own group had fielded. But somehow, this lone ship had managed to pick apart their entire fleet one by one. Still, it wasn't like they'd done so unscathed. Their shields were holding on by a hair, and they'd likely expended most of their missiles. Not to mention the damage they'd taken in that brief window their shields had been offline. They were on their last legs, and he was determined to finish the fight, if only because he'd get the cut that would have gone to all the fallen ships if he came out on top.

The guy managing the comms turned. "Uh, Captain? Looks like the Sybil wants to talk?"

If they were smart, they'd be calling to surrender, but somehow Rugar didn't think that was the case. If anything, they were probably trying to stall for time to pull some other trick. "Put them up on the screen, but don't stop firing unless I say so!"

The viewscreen lit up, and on it appeared a man who looked like he'd be more at home running a cargo hold than a ship who'd just gone toe to toe with an entire armada. He offered a sloppy salute. It was not that Rugar cared all that much for the formalities, like one of those pirate captains pretending they were suddenly in some formal navy, but somehow, it felt like this man was belittling him, a feeling that didn't go away when he started speaking. "Captain Carter, of the Sybil, at your service. I wanted to call and congratulate you all on an ambush that was well executed. You only had us surrounded, outnumbered, and outgunned, yet you nearly won! Quite the feat! But if I were you, now that we've broken the back of your little armada, I'd think about running. Sticking around much longer would be bad for your health."

Captain Rugar scoffed. "You must think I'm blind! Your ship is barely holding on, and I'm guessing you're all out of tricks."

Carter smiled and shrugged. "Maybe. But are you willing to bet your life on that? You can't get paid if you're nothing but a cold corpse floating through the empty void, and I can promise you, even if you somehow manage to take us down, we're taking you with us. None of you will get out of here alive unless you do the smart thing and run."

Rugar laughed and shook his head. "I appreciate the concern, but if you'll excuse me, I think I'll have to disagree with your take on the situation. I'm calling your bluff, and we're gonna finish this!"

Carter simply shrugged. "Your funeral." Then, cut the feed.

Rugar sat back and smiled. This was gonna be one hell of a payday!

-

After closing the feed, Carter cursed to himself. John, the pirate, just laughed. "Well, it was a nice attempt, laddie, but I'm not sure if poker is yer game!"

Carter rolled his eyes. "Don't sound too cheerful about it. Even you can die if this ship takes enough damage!"

The pirate shrugged. "No one lives forever, but I sure got closer than most! If this is my time, then so be it!"

The vixen folded her arms and glared at the two of them. "Don't be too quick to throw away all our lives. I, for one, haven't given up just yet."

John laughed. "Nor I! After all that trickery and fancy maneuvering, I'm rather looking forward to a good old-fashioned slugging match!"

Carter looked over at the girl. "Can't you just shoot down their cannon shots like before?"

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The girl adjusted her glasses. "To a certain extent, yes, but that becomes less effective the closer we get. On the other hand, we don't exactly want to try a long-range slugging match with a battleship either, especially with that cruiser coming to flank us."

Carter frowned. "And I take it running isn't an option either?"

The girl shook her head. "We took too much damage when our shields were briefly down. We're working on repairs, but it won't be ready to go for about ten minutes."

Carter sighed. "And one way or another, the fight will probably be over by then..."

The girl nodded. "Yes, I believe you've got a handle on the situation."

Carter shook his head. "Well then, I suppose we'd better not lose."

The pirate laughed again. A sound Carter usually found comforting but now found himself trying hard not to be annoyed as the pirate exclaimed, "Now yer getting it!"

-

After surrendering to the giant lizard cat thing and then being cordially introduced to a weaver as if such things happened every day, the most surprising thing to Elias was when Erik introduced the captive pirate to his "boss," who turned out to be a kid who couldn't be much more than eighteen or nineteen. The giant viking alien shoved him into the room. "Got your man, boss! What now?"

The human kid walked over and gave him a brief once-over. Elias would have laughed in his face if it weren't for the large, intimidating aliens behind him. Looking over, he also saw Cole, who was currently doing his best to hide behind one of his many screens.

Elias couldn't help but throw an accusation toward the guy who'd recently been his righthand man on the station. "You're the reason I was locked out of the system!"

Surprisingly, Cole didn't flinch and try to hide. Instead, he turned his attention to Elias. "Well, it's not like you put up much of a fight either. I'm good with computers, not guns."

Before Elias could answer, the kid cut him off. "Hey now, Cole's not the one you're talking to. I am, and I want answers. You're the guy in charge, right? As in, you're in command of the ships out there?"

Elias started to think up the answer that would keep him alive but help these people the least, but then the kid held up a hand. "Oh, and before you answer, if you lie to me, I'm gonna let Erik here rip off one of your fingers. Simply killing a half dozen pirates probably wasn't enough to satisfy him."

The large alien laughed. "Not even! I only killed five! Vanessa here gunned down the other two before I could finish them!"

The weaver didn't show any expression but had a surprisingly refined voice. "I apologize, mistress, but they were about to gun you down from behind, and we were in a bit of a time crunch."

Before Elias could wonder about the use of the term mistress, the kid was snapping his fingers in Elias's face, making the pirate want to bite them off. "Hey now! No distractions. Just answer the question. Are you the guy in charge?"

Not sure how much the kid knew, Elias decided to opt for the truth rather than risk getting a finger torn off. "Yeah, more or less, but I'm not the one runnin' the show. I'm what you might call middle management."

The kid nodded. "Fair enough. Do you have any sort of way to compel the captains out there to listen to you or force them to retreat?"

Elias laughed. So that was the kid's play? "Yeah, no. Like I said, I'm in the middle. These guys only listened to me insomuch as I was doing what the real boss wanted done. My authority begins and ends there."

The kid sat back, defeated, and sighed. This was too easy. Soon, the ship they came in on would be neutralized or destroyed, meaning they'd be stuck here until more of the boss's men showed up. Elias would just play along, pretending to be someone they could use to negotiate their freedom, then stab them in the back as soon as they let down their guard.

At least, that's what he thought until the kid turned to the lizard cat alien and shrugged. "Guess he's of no use to us. Feel free to rip off his arm and beat him to death with it."

He was bluffing! "You're bluffing!"

The kid turned back to Elias, holding up a hand to the large alien, who'd taken a step forward with a menacing grin. The kid's eyes were surprisingly cold. "Well, the way I see it, we're probably all going to die out here, and I'm sure as hell not gonna deny Erik one last bit of fun, so no, I'm not 'bluffing.' If you can't help us out, you die. Plain and simple." The kid wasn't bluffing. Elias was sure of that. So he either had to pony up some helpful information or die, and he suspected dangling a trade in front of him wouldn't cut it.

Elias wasn't happy about it, but he was out of options. "Well, there is one thing I was given in case any of the ships went rogue on me..."

The kid leaned forward. "Go on..."