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“We need you on deck, sir,” Stryder said.
“Now?” I said.
Something struck the ship and my quarters shook from the blow. “Are we under attack?”
“Not in so many words,” Stryder said.
The deck was busy with activity when I arrived. The ship shuddered as it took another strike on the starboard bow. My crew manned their battle stations. On the screen, I saw the cause of the alarm.
“We ran into an asteroid field,” Stryder said.
Damn. I’d hoped to shave a few cycles off our journey time by cutting through a sliver of disputed space. Two customers were late in picking up their merchandise and it’d put us behind.
Asteroids assailed us on multiple fronts. Rattigan, my pilot, navigated as best he could through the natural minefield but it was impossible to avoid them all.
How had we managed to get ourselves buried so deep inside it? I wanted to berate someone and assign blame but that wouldn’t exactly help. I needed to solve the problem. Fast.
“Damage report,” I said.
“Minor damage to the hull,” Horn Tusk said with a snort. “Nothing serious.”
But even a single shard could spell disaster for a ship if it pierced the engine’s fuel cells. I’d seen it happen many times over the years.
“Shall we plot a course out of here, Captain?” Rattigan said.
“Negative,” I said. “Put a map of our location onscreen. I want to make sure we’re not treading on anybody’s toes.”
When you were a smuggler, you were never the fastest or the strongest. Our strength lay in our skill to avoid confrontation in the first place. We carted items of a… delicate nature across the galaxy. The only thing worse than being late for a delivery was getting caught.
We were already criminals, so we might as well break a few minor laws while we were at it… like passing through contested territory to save time, for example.
The map on the screen showed we were in a band of contested space between the Trongrox and Vestroil. They’d been at each other’s throats since before they even had a word for ‘war.’
“Take us out on the Vestroil side,” I said.
“But that’s further away, sir,” Rattigan said. “It’s much easier to traverse a course to the Trongrox side.”
“The Trongrox are far more aggressive,” I said. “If they find us, we’re as good as dead. At least the Vestroil will listen to us before they blow us up.”
“But—”
“Since when did this become a democracy?” I barked. “Do as I say. Now!”
Rattigan glanced at Stryder, who nodded, before turning to his terminal and plotting the course.
I didn’t like my authority being questioned. Once this was over, I was going to have to have a quiet word with Rattigan about whose orders he followed. I’d let him get us out of here first.
The image on the screen shifted back into the asteroid field. The ship took another blow and knocked us off course before Rattigan righted us again and weaved between the larger asteroids. A narrow gap opened up between two large asteroids.
“Go through it!” I ordered. “Now!”
A huge asteroid that might once have been a chunk of moon sailed forward to fill the gap.
Rattigan took us forward.
A third asteroid as large as a space dragon flew into view. Rattigan ducked the entire ship before pulling up and squeezing through the gap on the other side.
The crew whooped for joy, relieved we’d made it. They clapped the pilot on the back for a job well done.
