The Random Encounter spiraled through the void, weaving around and between streams of plasma. Yvian thrilled a little at her deft maneuvering. She forced herself to take a deep breath, relaxing her shoulders and tried to push down the thudding of her heartbeat in her ears.

"Are you sure you've got this?" Lissa asked. Her sister was understandably nervous. The two of them were no strangers to ship to ship combat, or violence in general, but this was the first time they'd engaged in a dogfight with Yvian in the pilot's seat.

Actually, Yvian remembered, there had been one other time. She'd piloted a fighter by remote during that big dustup at Milvari. She'd done pretty good, too, right up until... Yvian shook her head and tried to stop thinking unhelpful thoughts. She'd trained a lot since then.

"I've got this," Yvian assured her. So what if they were outnumbered three to one? Against more experienced pilots? With no backup and their lives on the line? Oh Crunch. Lissa knew perfectly well that Yvian was terrified. She accepted her answer anyway, Bright Lady bless her.

Yvian focused in on the enemy pirates. Three ships. Shrapnel class fighters. Shrapnels were a Brilend design. Fast, maneuverable. They only had six gun ports a piece, but they made up for it with stronger shields and the ability to fire continuously. The pirates were accelerating in reverse, keeping a distance of three kilometers while they launched an endless volley of plasma bolts. They were in a loose triangle, each ship half a kilometer or so from the others.

Yvian activated AIMASSIST, and centered her sights on one of the pirates. Fourteen High Energy Plasma Cannons thundered. Well. In her head they thundered. Sound doesn't carry in the void, and the only indication the Random Encounter gave as it fired its guns was a mild vibration. Yvian had spent her entire life in the void. In the months since she met the Captain she'd seen more of it than most of her species ever imagined, but she still felt a twinge of disappointment when cannons didn't make noise like they did on Holovision.

The enemy ship maneuvered, avoiding the bolts of plasma by a slim margin. Yvian fired again, but swiftly changed the angle of attack. She made a guess which direction the pirate would dodge. Even with AIMASSIST, it was difficult to stay on target while dodging enemy fire herself, but months of training paid off, and she was able to keep it steady. The pirate didn't move quite how she'd predicted, but the shift was close enough that some of her plasma struck against its shields.

"Kelgan, get your ass out here," a voice commanded, startling Yvian. It was one of the pirates. Lissa was monitoring their comms. "We need you on this one."

Yvian guessed the pirate was addressing the pilot of the fourth Shrapnel, which was still attached at the airlock to a medium sized freighter. The Niroco. The freighter's shields had been destroyed, along with its engines. The desperate calls for help that had drawn Yvian here were now silent, but the distress beacon itself was still active.

"What the Crunch for?" answered another voice. Male. A pixen? "The three of you can't handle one motherless ship?"

"This ain't just any ship, dumbass," the first voice, probably the leader, told him. "It's the Random Encounter. We're up against the Madlad himself. Mark thrice cursed Mims!"

The pirates were not, in fact, up against Madlad Mims. Captain Mims had left the Random Encounter several minutes ago. Yvian had been pretty confident in the plan at the time. Now she was having second thoughts.

"Oh." The pirate paused. Mims had developed something of a reputation. The mere mention of his name caused most pirates to rethink their life choices. Yvian managed to get another salvo in, bringing her target's shields down to seventy eight percent. "What about the prisoners?"

"Who cares? This prick's worth thirty million credits." One of the pirates correctly guessed which way Yvian was about to move. Plasma smashed into the Encounter's shields, dropping them six percent. "Just shoot 'em and get out here."

"You got, it boss. On my way." Yvian hoped the Captain made it in time. For her sake as well as the prisoners'. Three fighters was bad enough. A fourth opponent would mean her death.

Yvian and the pirates kept shooting at each other. She'd closed the distance down to 2.7 kilometers. At this range, dodging was still possible, but only barely. The pirates were well coordinated. One aimed at her current vector, while the other two fired at the spaces she was likely to dodge. Still, Yvian's ship was faster, her shields were better, and she had more guns. The advantage was hers. On paper, at least.

"What are you doing?" Lissa demanded. The pirates' guns struck the Encounter again. The ship shuddered as the shields ticked down. "I thought you said you've got this!"

"I do!" Yvian snapped back. Her hands danced over the controls, swerving the ship away from the enemy fire. Shields at seventy four percent. "This isn't as easy as I'm making it look."

"You're not making it look easy!"

She'd taken more hits than she'd given, but she'd still knocked her target down to thirty six percent shields. If she could take it out then she'd only have two sets of guns to worry about. This could still work. At least, she hoped it would. Her only other option was to charge in. She was pretty sure she could kill her target quickly at close range, but she'd lose most of her shields before she got far enough away to start dodging again.

"Kelgan, what's taking so long?" The pirate leader demanded. "Get your ass out here!"

Kelgan did not respond.

"Kelgan? Kelgan!" The leader shouted into the comms, clearly irate. "Damn you to Han-Sen, Kelgan! Answer me!"

Kelgan did not respond. Yvian grinned. The Captain had made it after all.

"Uh, boss?" A new voice. Female. "We got a problem."

"What is it?"

"Mims isn't on the ship."

"What?"

"I scanned the Encounter," the female explained. "Only two life signs. Pixens. Female. The human's not on board."

"You mean we're flying against his call girls?" A fourth voice chimed in. "I think I'm insulted."

"That ain't the point, Jilko," the leader snapped. "If the Madlad's not on his ship..." He cursed. "The freighter."

"You think he got Kelgan?" asked the female.

"Well he ain't answering comms," the pirate told her. "Argva's balls. I liked Kelgan." A pause. "Oh well. If he's headed to Han-Sen, we can at least make sure he ain't going alone." The leader's ship launched a missile at the damaged freighter.

"Shit!" Yvian swerved and maxed her acceleration. Missiles are fast. Faster than a ship could move. She had to get it before it accelerated too much for her guns to reach the thing.

The Random Encounter shuddered. Her desperate dive for the missile put her on a straight trajectory. Child's play for the pirates to hit. Yvian didn't have time to care. She swung her sights to bear down on the projectile, trying to angle the ship so she could shoot it without hitting the Niroco.

"I got it, I got it!" Lissa yelled at her. "Dodge, dodge!" The Encounter's anti-missile turret activated as Yvian strafed the ship sideways. A beam lanced out, striking the projectile at a third of the speed of light. The beam turret ate a lot of power, and it was too weak to do much damage to another ship. It was, however, perfect for detonating hostile ordinance.

Instead of being disappointed at his foiled attack, the lead pirate laughed. "Oh, looks like the call girl's feeling protective. New plan, boys! Light up the freighter!"

"Boys my ass," the female pilot muttered into the comms.

A surge of adrenaline shot up through Yvian's legs as the pirates switched targets. Lances of light scythed towards the helpless Niroco. The Random Encounter surged forward to block plasma with its shields. Too late. Several dozen bolts sped past as Yvian moved the ship to block the fire.

"Use the MAC!" she shouted at Lissa. The ship shuddered under the combined barrage of eighteen guns. Green plasma hammered down, rapidly depleting her shields.

Lissa didn't ask questions. She typed rapidly into her weapons console. "Priming." The MACdriver was their final trump card. Human tech. Limited ammo. "Calculating trajectory." They didn't have permission to use it, but the Captain's disapproval was better then being killed. "Firing."

A rapid thrum pulsed through the shuddering ship. Three slugs of depleted uranium lanced out at speeds over twenty kilometers a second. Each slug had a device inside that emitted a short ranged but powerful disruptive energy, allowing the rounds to pass through shields. By the time Lissa finished speaking the word, two of the pirates fell silent. Their ships kept moving, interita being what it was, but the pilots were too dead to keep their guns blazing.

The third MAC round missed. The pirate Yvian had been shooting at had made an unexpected vector change, and Lissa's round struck their wing instead of the bridge. The Shrapnel kept firing. Yvian's shields were down to twenty three percent.

Yvian didn't dare maneuver. The freighter behind her couldn't take any more damage. That left one option. The Random Encounter shot forward, charging the pirate directly. Yvian let out a scream as she bore down on them, all fourteen guns firing in one long, continuous burst.

The pirate dodged, at first. Its six guns hammered into her as it strafed around her fire. Yvian closed the distance rapidly. In just a few seconds, she was too close for the enemy ship to maneuver. Her cannons smashed into it, stripping the shields. Yvian kept firing. Bolt after bolt of superheated plasma bored through the Shrapnel. The ship shredded under the onslaught. Yvian kept firing. She hit the reactor. The ship exploded. Yvian kept firing. Her blood pounded in her ears.

"Yvian! Stop!" Her sister's voice cut through Yvian's rage and fear. She released the trigger, the echo of her scream still ringing in her ears. She decelerated the Random Encounter, strafing sideways to avoid crashing into the debris of the ship she'd destroyed.

"And stop screaming," Lissa chided. "Crunch. It's not like they can hear you."

Yvian checked the ship's status. Shields were at eight percent. No damage to the hull. She sagged in her chair. "We did it." Relief swept through her body, unclenching the tension in her shoulders and back. "Bright Lady, we did it. We're alive."

"Of course we are," said Lissa. "You did good, Sis." She paused. "Mostly." Yvian couldn't see her sister's face through the helmet, but she heard the grimace in her voice. "We were supposed to capture the ships, not turn them into debris. And Mark's going to be pissed we had to use the MACdriver."

"The other two are intact," Yvian pointed out. "And the Captain...Oh Crunch!" The Captain. He was on the freighter. The freighter that had just been riddled with holes. Yvian activated the comms. "Mims? It's Yvian. Are you alright?"

Captain Mark Mims answered. "I'm fine. Status report?"

"The pirates are dead."

"Understood. Come dock with the Niroco." He was as calm as always, but there was a subtle tension in his voice. " And hurry. The ship's decompressed, and we've got wounded."

"On our way." Yvian swung the Encounter around. The fight was over, but the work wasn't done. She still had people to save. "We'll be there in..." she engaged the autopilot and ran a quick calculation. "Eight minutes."

"Understood. I want Yvian to meet me at the airlock to help with the wounded. Lissa, you're in charge of repairs. Start getting the drones set up."

The sisters shared a look. "We uh..." Lissa decided to tell him. "We had to use the MACdriver," Lissa informed him.

The human was silent for a few pregnant seconds. "We'll talk about it later," he decided. "Right now you've got jobs. Go do them. Mims out."

Eight minutes later found Yvian standing inside of an airlock. Clunking sounded as a voidbridge extended, connecting the two ships. Lights flashed and an alarm sounded as the air hissed out of the airlock. It took about fifteen seconds. Yvian pressed a button and the airlock opened, revealing the voidbridge.

A metal walkway stretched between the ships. Surrounding the walkway was a cylindrical corridor of clear plastic. A lattice of collapsable metal tubes held it in place. Lights were strung along the lattice. Twenty meters past the airlock the corridor ended at a circular door. The door opened, revealing the captain.

He was tall and lean and dangerous. Black voidarmor. Black helmet. Mirrored visor. With a predator's grace, the human kicked off, floating down the corridor. Each hand was clamped around a body. One of the bodies was very small. A child?

The bodies shimmered, wrapped in clear plastic. Voidseals. Voidseals were designed as an emergency measure for damaged suits, but savvy spacefarers knew they could be used to replace a voidsuit in a pinch. For a little while, anyway.

Yvian activated her gravboots and stepped onto the walkway. She felt the sudden shift as she stepped out of the gravity field generated by the Random Encounter. The sudden change used to make her stumble, but she was used to it by now.

The Captain voiced a command to activate his boots. His feet locked down onto the walkway a meter from Yvian. He handed the smaller body to her. His voice commed into her helmet. "We need to get these two into medpods. Fast. Use your enhancements."

Yvian nodded. She stepped back into the airlock. The Captain cradled the larger body in his arms and stepped in next to her. Yvian activated STRENGTHBOOST, SPEEDBOOST, and ENERGIZER. They sealed the hatch and waited for air to cycle back in.

The second the outer airlock opened, they ran. Yvian led the way, the child in her arms no impediment to her armor-enhanced sprint. She'd opened the medbay doors on her way down to meet the Captain, so there was nothing in the way of her race to the medpod. She set the child down as gently as she could while still being quick about it. She found the box that was the source of the voidseal and entered the sequence that would retract the plastic. The plastic unraveled itself and snapped into the box, taking a fair amount of the kid's skin with it. Voidseals might do in a pinch, but they weren't designed to be used on people directly.

The child had the gray, pebbly skin of a flerg. She looked to be four or five years old. Eyes closed. Not breathing. Yvian hastily brought the top of the pod down. It sealed over the table portion of the pod with a hiss. A display came up on the screen next to it. Ruptured lungs. No heartbeat. Yvian's breath caught, but she started breathing again when the display showed nanocorrectors keeping the victim's brain oxygenated. The Captain must have injected her before he applied the voidseal. He probably injected all the passengers.

"The kid?" The Captain's voice startled her out of her reverie. She looked over to see him checking the status of the other victim.

"She's alive," she told him.

"This one, too." Captain Mims took a breath. "Come on. We got two more floating in the vacuum right now."

They jogged back. Cycled the airlock. Floated down the voidbridge. The other two victims were floating just inside the freighter, wrapped in plastic. They brought them to the Encounter. As soon as they cycled out of the airlock, Mims had them set down the victims and remove the voidseals. The plastic scraped the face and arms of the adolescent male as it retracted. Yvian looked over at the other body. It had taken a lot more damage. Mostly because the woman was naked, for reasons Yvian didn't want to think about.

The Captain checked their vitals, then breathed a sigh of relief. "Still stable. No serious injuries." He hefted the woman. "We'll keep them sedated for now. Cycle them through the medpod once it's finished fixing the kid."

"What about the other one?" Yvian asked.

Mims shook his head. "Exposed to vacuum after multiple gunshot wounds. He's going to be in there for a while." He started carrying the woman to the medbay. Yvian picked up the teenager and followed. "Maybe we should get more medpods," he mused. "Two's plenty for just us, but if we're going to be rescuing entire families..."

Yvian stared down at the teenager in her arms. He was lucky to be alive. If the Captain hadn't acted quickly... She let out a breath. "I'm sorry."

The human gave a questioning grunt. "Come again?"

"I screwed up," she told him. "I let them hit the freighter. I'm sorry."

"Yeah," The Captain supported the woman with one arm so he could scratch the back of his helmet. "This one's not on you. I made the call."

"If I'd taken them out..." she started.

"You did take them out," he cut her off. "And you protected these people while you did it." They reached the medbay. There were no more pods, so he set the woman down on chair in a reclining position. "It didn't occur to me they might fire on the freighter. It should have. The whole point of doing it this way was to keep those bastards from killing these folk." He took off his helmet, revealing pale skin and short, dark hair. He frowned. "It's my mistake. Your performance was adequate."

Yvian took off her helmet so she could raise an eyebrow at him. "Adequate?"

"Adequate," he repeated. A ghost of a smile crossed his features. "Barely." She snorted.

Mims waited until she'd placed her charge in another recliner, then clapped her on the shoulder. "So. Your first real dogfight. How did it feel?"

She thought a moment before answering. "Terrifying. Exhilarating. Maybe depressing, a little?" Her brow furrowed. "I think they were better than me."

"They were," the human agreed. Yvian's heart fell. Mims noticed and quickly continued. "Most pirates are veteran pilots. Highly skilled. Very experienced. You've been flying for just over a year. Holding your own against three at once is a testament to your training." He smirked. "You're welcome, by the way."

"They almost killed us," Yvian said.

"Risk we had to take." Mims shrugged. "Training isn't enough. You need real combat experience if you're going to pilot a fighter, and this was the closest thing to a fair fight we're gonna get."

"Three to one is fair?"

"It is with this ship," said Mims. He lovingly patted the nearest bulkhead. "The Encounter's twice as fast as a Shrapnel, with twice the firepower and five times the shielding. Hold on a sec." He tapped his wrist console and activated his comm. "Lissa, it's Mims. The Niroco's clear. You can start repairs."

"I'm on it," she replied. "Bright Lady, but this ship's got a lot of holes in it. This could take a while."

The Captain shrugged even though he knew she couldn't see it. "We've got time." He glanced down at his wrist console. "Oh, but take the distress beacon offline before anything else. I don't want to attract any more attention."

"You think more pirates might come?"

"Worse," he told her. "More privateers."