"Our drop-drones have put out the last of the fires on the colony, Captain," Rachel Zhu relayed. "I am pleased to say that despite the pirate drones trying to knock it out, we were able to protect most the colony's power grid."

A cheer went up, and Brooks felt some measure of relief.

"Casualties?"

"We do not have a complete picture yet, but we are finding that the colony's safety bunkers are mostly intact. One appears to be partially buried by debris, the drones are working to clear it, but scans suggest it's intact. However, one seems to have been emptied," Cenz said.

"We do have another problem, Captain," Urle said. "And that's the debris. When the pirates blew up their shuttles, they really musked it up. It's going to be a bit hazardous for us to get close, and the orbits of most of them are unstable. We're going to need to clear it if we don't want it potentially falling on the colonists' heads."

Brooks grunted in frustration. "Put us into as close an orbit as we can safely get and begin clearing operations. I want the colony safe in record time."

"Aye," Rachel Zhu called.

"While we're at it," Cenz said. "We should analyze the debris - we may be able to learn just what was lost."

"Do it," Brooks ordered. "If there are any bodies, see if they can be recovered."

And hope they didn't find any. That the Greggans might have blown up a ship full of hostages was a bitter pill to consider.

"If you want me to go down," Urle said, "I can still see some indirect approaches that seem safe enough. It'll just be a bit slower to get down and back up."

"Not yet. Let's see if we can contact the colony from here. Hopefully their short-range communications are still intact."

"Messaging," Eboh called. "We are getting a system reply, but no answer yet."

"Keep trying," Brooks said. "Once they leave the bunkers they'll pick up."

The command center door opened, and Apollonia came in, rubbing her eyes.

Brooks glanced at her. "If you need to sleep, Ms. Nor, you have permission to use the command bunks."

"I was trying," she said blearily. "Just got a headache, can't stay asleep."

"Ask Y for something, he can give you something for that," Urle said.

"He did," she replied. "Didn't help."

Brooks frowned, watching her as she sat down in the chair next to his, sliding and slumping down into it like she was melting. Her eyes closed, but her brow was still furrowed.

"Captain," Shomari Eboh called. "We are getting a response from the surface."

"Put it through," Brooks told him.

"Captain Brooks!" a loud, boisterous voice called. "We are pleased to see that the Union is swift to come when called!"

An image came through, but it was more of a slideshow than a video.

"Greetings," Brooks called. "Who is it that I am speaking to?"

"I am the head of security for Rising Star, Commander Brene Gresset. Forgive this video - it is not our network but this bloody camera, it's always had issues and some of the thumps I had to give it to even turn on didn't help! But I can see and hear you quite clearly."

"I'm glad to hear that. How are your people, Commander Gresset?"

"Disappointed! We had already prepared to give our last breath fighting gloriously for Rising Star, you see." The man laughed boisterously, and Brooks found himself both amused and slightly concerned.

"But more seriously, Captain - we are grateful for your timely intervention. Those bloody pirates had only made off with one round of shuttles before you caught them. I'm sure you gave the cowards quite the scare!"

"You say one round of shuttles - do you mean the ones that were destroyed?"

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"No, no - thankfully not. Those shuttles were on their second trip back up. In the first one they took some of our people. I can't say why, but they clearly viewed that as a priority. If only they had tried to come into my bunker, we would have given them a real fight! As it is, though, I'm afraid I'm the most ranking officer I've seen yet. So it seems we're headless."

Again, the pirates had taken hostages, and again it was the colony's leadership. It was not likely an accident, Brooks thought.

"You seem well-informed on the pirates actions," Jaya said. "Do you know what else they took?"

"Aye, we are. You see, they attempted to knock out our computer system, but were only partially successful. Their signal shut down the defensive laser grid, but our surface cameras were still functioning."

Brooks leaned forward. "Their signal?"

The image of the man changed to serious.

"Yes, that's right. As they approached, the pirates sent a tightbeam signal that entered our system through a backdoor and shut down the lasers. If not for the fact that I changed some passcodes just yesterday, they'd have shut us all down and fried a good chunk of it, I feel."

Brooks looked to Jaya.

"How do you believe they had the codes to your system at all?" Brooks asked.

"I cannot say, Captain, but I know I run a tight ship. However . . . even a tight ship can have leaks."

The man's face looked much uglier, furious at the idea he was having to suggest, and Brooks could understand that.

"Besides hostages, did they successfully get away with anything else?" Brooks asked.

"Yes, we had a loading area filled with uranium and processing equipment that they were quick to make off with. To be honest, that was a large reason we did not attempt a counter-attack," the man said, his boisterous attitude returning. "I was concerned that we'd all start glowing should that shuttle get damaged, as you can well guess."

Brooks knew that they would have been cut down before they'd gotten out of their bunkers; even the crude drones the pirates possessed would have no difficulty killing hundreds of soldiers without their own guardian drones.

It was hard to tell if the man was only acting full of bravado, or if he actually believed he could have launched a counter-attack. Brooks sincerely hoped it was the former, because he was likely going to be the leader of the colony for the foreseeable future.

But the theft of more uranium was even more alarming.

"Thank you for your information, Commander. I will prepare some drop pods with supplies to help repair what's been damaged. I will speak with you again shortly."

"You need not linger long, Captain! Go after those pirates and bring them justice in a missile."

"Hopefully soon," Brooks replied.

"Good hunting, then!"

The call ended and Brooks looked to Urle and Jaya. "We're not seeing any delayed weaponry left by the pirates, are we?"

"I've been scanning since they left," Jaya said. "But I do not see anything."

"A dirty bomb, if properly shielded, would be hard to see," Urle noted. "Though a proper nuke - we'd have found it by now if it existed. I think that's more likely, since a dirty bomb in orbit would scatter too much to cause immediate catastrophic harm to the colony."

Brooks considered, then opened his channel to all command officers. "The pirates were taking fissile material for a reason. They surely did not need it as fuel, so what else might it be for?"

"I do not imagine it was for medical reasons or for making pleasant shades of ceramic glazes," Y said. "I believe that it must be for weapons."

"Which we have not seen - yet," Jaya said. "Perhaps they are a last resort against a colony if their pretense at relic technology fails?"

"A nuclear missile is rather expensive and difficult to make as far as disposable weapons go, though," Urle said. "If they can't take down a colony's defenses without an insider code, there's no way they'd be able to make a nuke sophisticated enough to make it through."

"The threat alone might be enough," Brooks noted. "Aside from Commander Gresset, I do not believe most colonies are willing to risk destruction."

He paused, thinking. "Beyond the issue of the uranium, the fact that they had to use a code to disable the defenses suggests that their claims of possessing relic technology are just a lie."

"Possibly, Captain," Cenz said. "But we still cannot account for their rapid second jump into zerospace. The timeline from the colony's sensors confirms that they jumped in with the same ship that took them out. A ship that size should need at least twenty-six hours before it can jump again. They did it in only a fraction of that time."

"As strange as it may sound, perhaps there is a connection to the fissile material?" Urle suggested. "I can run some numbers, but maybe they just have had a novel idea that's panned out?"

"There's another thing that is bothering me," Jaya said. "The pirates have gone to extreme lengths to hide their identities thus far - but then their Captain messages us his face? He could not know that we learned he was a Greggan already, and knowing his species helps us learn far more about him. So why the sudden change?"

"Adding to that," Urle said, "I ran that name he called himself, Tarsota, as well as the name of his band, through our libraries, but I didn't find anything that seems relevant. The name itself could be rooted in the Greggan language, though I think it's an attempt at a human-like name."

"His accent was interesting as well," Cenz noted. "It was different from those of most Greggans in this region of space, as well as known Greggan languages and dialects in the Sapient Union."

"Look into it all," Brooks ordered. "We have a lot of mysteries here, and I want some theories."

"With your permission, Captain," Jaya asked, "I'd like to contact the colony again and see if we can learn who may have leaked their security codes to the pirates. Perhaps that may be a lead."

"Do it," Brooks said. "We'll be here at least twelve hours clearing this debris. Do your research, get a rest if you need to, and have reports ready in ten."