How was this possible?

Val couldn’t believe her eyes.

“Who are you, and what the hell are you doing on my ship?”

The man in the chair smiled. “Now, now, no need to get all worked up. But I suppose an introduction would be the polite thing to do. I am Juden.” He pointed toward his companion. “And this is Warthol. As for the ship, I beg to differ. It is not yours.”

Kaine pointed at the two men. “I recognize you! You were the ones chasing me on Evenodds.”

“Indeed. A most unfortunate incident. You gave us quite a run, too. But all is good since we now have what we wanted. Well, almost.”

Val frowned as he spoke.

“What do you mean, it’s not my ship? It most certainly is!”

“Really? Then I assume you have the certificate of ownership?” She clenched her fists and pursed her lips. “No? I thought as much. Now, where were we... Ah, yes. Your AI. I’d be most obliged if you had a little chat with—”

“No.”

“Excuse me?”

“Which part of ‘no’ did you not understand?”

“I won’t lie,” said Juden with a sigh, “that is upsetting. Still, I feel I should remind you of the obvious.” He lifted his phaser, making sure she could see it. “I am armed, you are not. You do not decide what—”

“Go ahead. Shoot me.”

“Excuse me?”

She crossed her arms. “I dare you.”

He stared at her for a moment, then looked at his companion. “You hear that, Warthol? She wants me to shoot her. Huh. That’s a new one.”

“I don’t want you to shoot me,” she corrected, “I just know you won’t.”

“Oh really? And how do you figure?”

“Because you want the ship. And you can’t have the ship if you can’t control the AI. And you can’t control the AI if you kill me.”

The man in the chair stared at her again, a slight smile creeping up his lips.

“We have a smart one. Nice. Very nice.” He nodded. “I’m afraid your reasoning is correct. However, you seem to have forgotten one little detail.” The phaser turned to aim at Kaine. “There are two of you. I only need one. So. Here’s the deal. Get your AI to cooperate or say goodbye to your buddy.”

Distractedly, her mind registered he’d said ‘two’. She threw a glance to the side but couldn’t see the girl. Where had she gone?

She shrugged. “Go ahead. Shoot him.”

Kaine gasped. “Hey! What?”

Val ignored him, her gaze going back to hold Juden’s. “I barely know him, so what do I care?”

She could feel her companion tensing next to her and hoped he would keep his cool.

Juden’s eyes narrowed. “Considering how you came to his rescue on Evenodds, you’ll pardon me if I call your bluff.” He lifted his weapon and aimed.

“Fine,” she said quickly. “You win.”

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Juden smiled amiably. “I usually do.”

She started toward the console. “Care to explain why you want to steal my ship?”

The man tsked. “It’s not stealing if it’s not yours.”

“It’s not yours either,” she remarked.

He shrugged. “Fine. Let’s say I’ve been tasked with bringing it back to its legitimate owner. Now, can we get on with it?”

She snorted as she sat at the console. “Right. As if a legitimate owner would send armed goons to get their ship back. Do you have the certificate of ownership?”

He smiled. “I don’t need one. I have a phaser, remember?” He waved it toward the controls.

Val grunted as she tapped a sequence on the console.

“Nim? Can you hear me?”

Silence.

She glared at the man. “I don’t know why you think I can do anything. He hasn’t been responding since we’ve come on board. The ship has obviously powered down. Your work, I take it?”

“Not at all. It was your AI that did it. I assume to protect the ship—and itself.”

Val blinked. She hadn’t expected that. Could Nim really have put himself at risk like this? After what had happened last time?

She glanced at Kaine, who gave a slight shrug, then looked back at the man with the weapon.

“Could you stop waving that thing at me? It’s making me nervous. We both know you won’t shoot me anyway.”

Juden pondered this for a moment, then nodded. He put the phaser away and glanced at his friend.

“Keep an eye on that fellow for me, would you?”

The brute grunted as he repositioned himself to stand right behind Kaine.

Val grimaced.

“Charming.”

Juden shrugged. “One can never be too careful. Now, how about you power this thing back up?”

“She can’t,” cut in Kaine.

“What?”

“It’s not the first time this happens. It’s an old ship, a—”

“A Corvair, I’m aware.”

“Right. Anyway, the entire thing barely holds together. Last time it powered down, we had to jump-start it.”

Juden frowned. “How did you do that?”

“In the engine room. Has to be done manually. I’ll go.”

He started turning toward the hall, but Warthol grabbed his shoulder to stop him.

“No,” said Juden. “I don’t think so.”

“It’s the only way,” said Val, playing along and hoping Kaine knew what he was doing.

The man looked between her and Kaine, frowning.

“Very well. Then we all go.”

He stood and grabbed Val’s arm to pull her up.

She pulled away.

“Hey!” she spat out. “Don’t touch me.”

Juden lifted his hands in the air. “Okay, okay. Touchy much? But let’s speed this up a bit, we don’t have all day.” He motioned for her to go first.

Val rolled her eyes but did as she was told. Kaine fell into step next to her, with the two intruders right behind.

They shared a glance, and she noticed Kaine gave her a wink. It instantly made her feel better. He did know what he was doing.

It took them five minutes to reach the engine room. It was separate from the thilium core. The latter was the source of energy that powered the entire structure—not only the engines—but the engines themselves were at the back.

“Okay,” said Kaine. “I need four hands for this. Val, come with me, we’ll have to do like last time—”

“Wait.”

Kaine paused, turning a puzzled gaze toward their captor.

“I don’t trust you two,” said Juden. He looked at Val. “You stay right here, where I can keep an eye on you. Warthol will lend his hands instead.”

Kaine shrugged. “Fine by me.”

They stepped to the wall, where Kaine unscrewed a panel. Underneath, they found a console with a dozen squares, each of a different color.

“Alright,” he started, “I’ll need you to do exactly what I say. If you mess up, the entire ship could blow up. You understand?”

Warthol’s eyes grew wide. “Uh, yeah. Okay.”

“Good.”

Kaine tapped on a couple of the squares, then looked back at the large man. “Now, when I tell you to—and only when I tell you to—you will press on the yellow square up here and the blue one down there.”

He pointed at each. They were far enough away that you couldn’t have used the same hand to press them at the same time.

“Wait a minute,” said Juden. “Why don’t you do that?”

Kaine threw him a startled look. “I said we needed four hands, didn’t I? I don’t have four hands.”

“What are you gonna do with yours?”

“Oh. Well, I need to press on these two here.” He pointed at a white square and a red one, just as far apart as those he’d assigned to Warthol.

“I don’t like this. Step away from that console.”

Val turned to face him, arms crossed.

“Do you want this ship to power up or not? Make up your mind already!”

Juden squinted at her. “This feels fishy as hell.”

“Well, it’s the only way.”

“If you want,” said Kaine, “you’re welcome to do it with your friend.”

“Hell no.” Juden drew his phaser and pointed it at Val.

“That again?” she hissed.

He ignored her, still watching Kaine. “You’re gonna do it. But keep in mind that if you try anything, your friend here will die. Got that?”

“I’m fully aware.”

“Good. So long as we’re clear. Now go ahead. Do what you must.”

Kaine turned to look at Warthol.

“Ready?”

The large man, who looked very confused by the exchange, nodded.

“Alright. Here goes nothing.”

Kaine positioned his fingers above his two buttons, as did the brute.

“Now,” he said softly.

Four fingers pressed down at the same time.