Shane's vessel drifted in a clustered asteroid field. In the vastness of the space, distance was relative. In this case, “clustered” meant the nearest rock was nearly twelve kilometers away. The mining barges he was watching over weren't even in visual range save the small specs of light that could almost be confused for stars. At this distance the sensors on the mining barges might confuse him for a strong vein of unusually pure metal. A military vessel scanning the area might not be able to distinguish him from the surrounding rocks. And the pirates? Well, why would the pirates pay any attention to a tiny little anomaly, while nine mining barges worked to collect their valuable payloads.

Four days of doing this. Four days of pretending to be a rock floating among a billion others. The P.T. Lilith wasn't a big gun boat. She didn't have thick armor or a lot of point defence cannons. She was too small for shields and lacked any heavy artillery. It just wasn't how she was designed. No, the Lilith punched above her weight class because she was an ambush predator; a trapdoor spider waiting for it's prey.

A chirping noise from the sensor suite denoted that the prey was now in range. The pirates came in from north of the ecliptic plane, likely having been in a ballistic freefall for the better part of a day. Lightspeed lag meant that he was only seeing the pirates as they were roughly thirty seconds ago. He took his time painting targets and updating his game plan. He recorded a message and began counting down. Information moved at almost the speed of C. Torpedos did not. He waited patiently as the pirates began firing on the mining barges who, in turn, returned fire as they withdrew their crews and moved towards each other. The vacuum equivalent of circling the wagons. Shane sent his message just before the flashes from the explosions reached him.

"Fin, Harick, and Juan Hu just exploded." Said Zarah, the feathers on his head rising in agitation.

"What do you mean, 'They exploded'?" asked Nate, in a tone that suggested that he knew what they meant, but didn't want to believe it.

"Like, hit a mine, exploded. We are getting a message."

"Of course we're getting messages! Tanya, scan ahead of us and make damn sure we're not going to hit something..."

"On it." Replied Tanya in the affirmative.

"You need to listen to this..."

"We're a little busy right now, Zarah!" Nate was still painting the mining barges, but was currently holding his fire. Zarah ignored Nate's command and played the message anyway. A tired sounding, heavily accented voice came over the speakers.

"This is Shane O'connor of the P.T. Lilith. I am imploring ya to stand down, shut down yer weapon systems, and proceed to the location sent in this packet for processing, where ye’ll likely be tried for yer crimes of piracy. All of ya who attempt to run or fight, ye’ll be obliterated. Please keep in mind, I'm not military, so there's no requirement I show ya quarter. This is the only opportunity I'm going to give ya for surrender, I strongly suggest ya take it. There's no requirement I take ya in alive, and quite honestly, the bounty's worth the cost of the ordinance.

The cockpit was quiet for several seconds.

"The man said P.T., doesn't that mean torpedo boat?" Asked Zarah.

"Oh shit!" Exclaimed Nate. "Tanya, get us off this course. Zarah, do a full sweep. Find where that damn ship is at!"

At their current velocity, turning around was a slow process. Tanya chose to change their trajectory downard in relation to the ship. Nate was hit with the disorientating feeling of two downs. Inertia said down was above him, the powerful field of the Grav-drive said down was below. Mathematically speaking, down was below him. Unfortunately, his internal organs didn't seem to care about math. The fluids in his inner ear were confused, they seemed to start spinning, though he was aware it was only in his head.

Zarah let out a hiss of agitation. A marker popped up on the forward windshield. "Tanya, get us pointed towards that thing." As the vessel rotated, and the marker moved itself in front of the guns, data started populating the forward window, doubling as a screen. The vessel was accelerating towards them at a stupid amount of Gs.

"A torch drive!" Zarah hissed.

"Damn it, he's heading right at us. Tanya, full reverse. Keep that fucker in front of us so I can shoot at him when he gets close enough."

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"Aw sure, flying backwards through an asteroid field, while being chased by a torpedo boat. Can you believe they didn't let me into the navy?"

"Pretty sure that was not due to lack of talent." Zarah replied to Tanya’s rhetorical question.

"Oh sure, you pull a gun on one drill instructor and that's the end of your naval career."

"Cut the chatter, he's heading straight for us!" Nate demanded.

"Ah, got a good read." Zarah said, pulling up a holographic image of the vessel chasing them in the center console.

Nate tore his eyes away from the distance tracker. The guy was still too far out to start firing. A Torin Industry, Light Torpedo Boat, model 476. The model on the holoprojector was just a stock image, not the actual ship that was chasing them, so any modifications beyond that were still unknown. The thing really wasn't much, it was a single piloted craft, with a tiny crew quarters, and no cargo space beyond that for torpedoes. It had extraordinary light armor, with somewhat of an exception in the front where beams extended out, holding an array of fragile looking plates that function both as ablative armor and heatsinks. It was basically a single-person stealth ship.

Nate opened up with the forward cannons. The chances of hitting the merc at this range were astronomically low, but he was close enough, and the computer had enough data to calculate the perceived trajectory. Maybe he'd get lucky. Even at full acceleration, the damn vessel tracking them was gaining ground quickly.

"His torch drive has cut out." Said Zarah.

The computer recalculated the drop in acceleration and adjusted the trajectories and expected positions that Nate needed to aim at in order to have a chance at hitting the guy. Keeping in mind that due to the vast distances in space, all the data coming in was seconds old. Nate still couldn't even see the vessel out the window.

"Well, that's the good thing about Torch drive, no?" Tanya asked. "Limited fuel supply."

Another few intense seconds passed, Nate watched as the damned merc adjusted his course several times to avoid the path of Nate's fired projectiles.

"Hey, he broke off!" Zarah said, almost excitedly.

The mercenary had broken off, curving back towards the group of Nate's other members. Nate paused in his fire, giving a moment to think it over. Should he pursue the asshole? Losing more of his people was unacceptable. Then again, he himself would have been the better prize.

"Shit, Zarah? Directed sweep at where he was!"

"Okay. One moment. Oh!" Zarah swore in his native tongue. Popping up two contacts on the screen. Tiny tooltips popped up next to the icons, denoting their trajectory and likely model. "Two torpedoes inbound!"

Nate swore and concentrated as much fire into the path of the oncoming torpedos.

"I think you got it." said Zarah, as one of the torpedoes suddenly stopped accelerating. Then, the other torpedo stopped. They both seemed to explode into six equal chunks.

"Son of a bitch!" Nate swore as the two torpedoes became twelve smaller missiles. "Tanya, move us off the line of the torpedo hulls!" Just because the torpedoes were no longer under thrust, and likely no longer guided, didn't mean that they weren't both large and ballistic.

Nate managed to take out a missile, then another. "Three down. Four." It wasn't going to be enough. "Zarah, depressurize the rest of the ship. Tanya, prepare to flip us around and present our aft." Five missiles down. That meant there were seven more, silently screaming through the void towards them.

Six left. "Now, Tanya!" The ship lurched, flipping backwards in a stomach churning maneuver. Just before they were fully flipped, the whole ship rattled and jerked violently. The sound of the impacts and explosions echoing throughout the metal hull were deafening. Nate heard, or felt more likely, a loud pop in his neck. A second later, they were floating through space, drifting lifelessly, but he was still alive. He would happily trade a little whiplash for surviving six missile impacts any day.

"Tanya, thank you for convincing me to add that extra armor plating."

"Yeah. No shit." Tanya almost chuckled.

"We are on auxiliary power." Zarah groaned. Several of the screens came back on and the cabin filled with a dull red light that denoted emergency power.

"Do we have EMF drive function?" Nate asked.

"Electromagnetic Field drive operational, though very low power output." Tanya replied after a moment of dead silence.

"Alright Tanya, give a one minute burst. I want us off our line of trajectory. We'll drift for an hour, then do it again. Let's make sure this bastard can't find us. When we feel safe, we'll head back to base"

***

"P.T. Lilith to Kolani Station. Requesting permission to dock."

"Copy that, Lilith. Same bay, here's your flight instructions." Came the informal and almost bored response. Shane loaded the instructions into the autopilot and sat back. He was almost done for the day. In another hour, he could have a hot shower and a meal made of real food. A notification popped up on one of his screens and he absentmindedly opened it while his ship leveled itself off with his berth. A small single container hauler appeared on the screen. Its transponder code called it The Asterisk. A small bounty on it being the reason it had popped up. The data that came with the image claimed it was an automated vessel that ferried passengers that were often criminals. Essentially, the ship was a no-questions-asked tram. Not really worth much in itself.

"However, if ye're here to pick up someone important, that'd be just up my alley." The ship's itinerary said that it had no passengers, which likely meant it was picking someone up.

"P.T. Lilith to Kolani Station. I'd like to speak to whoever's on duty for security."

"Copy that Lilith, one moment..."

"Kolani Station security. What is it, P.T. Lilith."

"My name is Shane O'connor. I'm transferring my I.D. and credentials to ya now. Ya have a ship docked at the station called The Asterisk. I want any logs, manifests, or pictures of anyone that boards or disembarks from that vessel, as well as anyone who lingers near it for too long."

There was a long pause before the security officer on duty came back. "I've passed your request up to my supervisor. Security out."

Shane was just about to disembark when The Lilith received a packet. Groaning to himself, he fell back into his chair, his muscles protesting the abuse. The Asterisk claimed to have been carrying no passengers, yet the station had a video of one person disembarking. Shane opened the video file, eager to see what kind of criminal had booked passage all the way out to the frontier.

He hadn't been sure what to expect, but a young girl certainly wasn't something he was considering. "Well then, what dirty little secrets would yoù be hiding, lass?"