“Captain, we are recording that all our people are off the pirate vessel,” Commander Eboh said. “Their shuttles are heading back.”

“Good,” Brooks said, the great pain in his chest easing somewhat at the news.

It had been twenty minutes since they’d lost contact with Team One and the wait had been terrible. “Once they are safely out of range-“

“I’m sorry sir,” Eboh interrupted. “Ambassador Kell is . . . he’s on the line, Captain, and saying he must speak with you.”

Brooks froze, staring at the communications officer. “Ambassador Kell is on the shuttle? Or is he somewhere on the Craton we haven’t looked?”

“He’s . . . on the shuttle, Captain.”

Brooks went quiet again for a long moment. Then; “Put him on.”

Kell’s voice came into his ear.

“Captain, destroy this vessel as soon as we are clear,” Kell’s voice came through, deep and commanding.

“Kell how the fuck are you on that ship?” Brooks demanded.

“That is not important. Just destroy this ship. It is poison.”

Brooks took a long pause. “When you return, we will have a long talk, Ambassador.”

“So long as you do what I say.”

“I have no intention of leaving that ship – or anything on it – intact,” Brooks said.

“Good.” Kell clicked off the line.

Gasconey, the Response officer in charge, came on. “I’m sorry, Captain, I have no idea how the Ambassador got here, but when we found Team One he was the only one awake.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Our medical readings from the team seem dire, Commander,” Brooks said. “Give me some good news.”

“We’ve got Commander Urle stabilized. He lost a lot of blood but seems otherwise all right. Apollonia Nor is unconscious but seems in good health. Response Team One are somewhat out of it, but we’re not reading anything seriously wrong with them.”

Gasconey sighed. “We recovered one colonist, sir. He was on the bridge, but he’s not communicative. The rest . . . God, sir, you should have seen them. I’m sorry, I wouldn’t actually wish it on anyone. We’ve got scans, but none of them were alive. These fucking pirates strung them up like animals.”

Brooks had seen some of the images already; the bodies hanging, drained of blood. It was beyond horrifying.

“What about the pirates?” he asked, knowing he could not linger on that horror.

“All of them were catatonic. Just laying or sitting on the decks when we left – at most they had some basal brain activity, but even that was fading. We can’t account for it, sir, but we scanned them.”

“And their Captain?”

“He was dead, sir, on the bridge. Alone with the surviving colonist. Not sure what killed him, but he had zero brain activity.”

Brooks took a long breath. “You did good work. Get back here safely.”

“Aye, Captain.”

The shuttles had reached a safe distance from the pirate ship, and he turned to Jaya. “Prepare to fire on the pirate vessel. Use megaton-scale warheads – I want that ship gone.”

Jaya did not move to act. “Captain, we have orders to recover the relic technology.”

“There is no relic technology aboard that ship,” Brooks said. “Follow my orders.”

“Captain,” Jaya said, her face set in dead, serious calm. “There was something there. We need to recover it.”

“Don’t argue with me, Commander,” Brooks said shortly.

“Captain, all of this is for nothing if we do not recover whatever was on there!” Jaya burst out.

A silence fell over the command center.

“You have your orders,” Brooks told her, meeting her gaze. “I will not sacrifice my people for whatever it is those pirates found. It did not do them any favors.”

Her lips were pressed into a tight line, but she gave him a brief nod.

Brooks looked back to the image of the pirate vessel on the screen.

The missile streaked out; the coilguns took aim and fired. The three shots were aimed to break the ship’s back, to make it easy for the nuclear warheads to rip apart completely.

The missiles hit a few moments after the coilguns. Their brilliant flashes were dimmed to tolerable levels, but were still so bright as to completely wash out all detail. When the fireballs disappeared, so had the pirate vessel. Only small pieces of debris remained, and their lasers went to work destroying those.

He felt a measure of calm return.