The crew of the Tori had assembled in the common room for a group breakfast.

"How are the newcomers?" Bjorn asked between pancake bites. "And who are our newcomers?"

"They're in bad shape. At least another five days in the trauma pods." Ada sighed. "I hope they make it; towards the end they were running on drugs and grit."

"As for who they are." Marga pushed some documents onto the ship's feed. "The missing ship report came with a roster. We saved captain Thea Leblanc and deckhand Surya Lee."

"What do we do when they wake up?" Isa asked. "I guess we can't just keep them in the pods?"

Rip gave her a disapproving look. "You had your chance for an easy out before we risked our lives for them." He handed her a fresh pancake. "Now, you explain to them that they are stuck on a top-secret, month-long, deep space expedition that has just burned tons of fuel to rescue them and food stocks calibrated for a crew of six."

Isa's face went white.

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"Everyone's secure." Rip's voice sounded through the comms. "We should leave."

Isa was strapped to her chair in the command room and watched the feed for the infirmary, where Ada and Rip had sealed the two new arrivals in trauma pods, then taken seat in the emergency flight chairs.

Bjorn came flying through the doorway, elegantly pivoted towards his seat and clipped in, all in one fluid motion. "Go."

The captain nodded, and with a few commands, the Tori came alive again.

Isa braced herself, and after a dizzying turn, she was once again pressed into her seat with great force, taking her breath away. When the pressure subsided again, she checked the infirmary feed, where Ada was already tending to the pods.

"Anything behind us?" The captain asked.

"Doesn't look like," Marga answered. "But a drone can't cut a hole in a freighter and take two people. They'll know we were there; let's hope it takes 'em long enough for our fumes to disperse."

"So now we might have vengeful pirates and vengeful corpos on our tail." Bjorn sighed, then looked at Isa. "You make good enemies."

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"Good night, sweet princess." Marga whispered. The drone banked and fired up its main thrusters, pulling around the asteroid in a spiral away from the Tori. The view of the chimera ship became blurry as the drone tried to keep it in frame while also turning at a high rate. For a second, nothing happened, then the ship turned and spit out two bright stars towards the camera.

"Shit." Marga hissed. The image got even worse as the drone launched chaff and dove towards the asteroid, then pulled up at the last second. A flash of light overpowered the sensor for a second before the jagged surface of the asteroid appeared again, rushing by precariously close.

Isa felt nauseous and closed the feed.

"Connection lost." Marga said with a sad look on her face. "Can't risk turning up our transmitter, or they'll know we're here. She's on her own now."

"I'm nearly through." Ada's voice came over the comms.

"Good, Marga bought us some time." The captain answered. "But there's no telling how much."

Isa was chewing her lip again while watching Ada's feed. A burnt circle, just big enough for a person to squeeze through, was nearly complete on the freighter's hull. Ada guided the cutter over the surface at a slow and steady pace.

"Come oooon." Isa mumbled to herself. "Cut. Faster."

It took another couple of minutes for Ada to finish the excision and help the captives through the makeshift exit, but to Isa it felt like a small eternity, her attention jumping between Ada and Bjorn, who kept a close eye on the Tori's sensor feeds.

"We're coming." Ada's voice was tense. "Bring stretchers and prepare trauma kits."

The captain nodded at Rip and Bjorn, who got up and left at once.

Isa felt helpless. Useless.

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It was dead silent in the control room of the Tori. Isa's attention was torn between Ada's feed, who had made good progress cutting a hole into the wrecked freighter, and the feed of Marga's freshly highjacked spy drone, showing the enemy ship slowly making its way around the asteroid.

"They must know they're being watched." Rip grumbled while studying the incoming data. "It looks like a kit-bash, but the parts they've picked are high-tech and reliable, and the assembly doesn't look pretty but seems sound."

"Oh I'm flooding their bands with garbage and the occasional exploit, so they definitely know somethings up." Marga said, her face tense with concentration. "I bounce it off the rocks to disguise the direction. Dronita's got powerful transmitters."

"Don't give her a name." Bjorn sighed. "It'll just make it harder to say goodbye."

"How long?" The captain asked Ada over the comms.

"Another ten minutes, give or take, or until the explosion, whatever comes first." Ada answered; her breath labored. "After that, it depends on their condition."

"We don't have fifteen minutes." Marga sighed. "I'll give it another two, then I'll run interference."

"Good." The captain nodded, then looked at Rip. "If they don't take the bait, destroy them."

Rip nodded solemnly.

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"We've got company." Marga announced.

Isa startled, pulling away from Ada's sim feed, which she had been following with anxious fascination, and pulled in the Tori's sensor feed, finding nothing.

"What? Where?" She asked, confused.

"They're approaching in the asteroids' shadow." Marga pushed high-resolution footage of a bulky spaceship onto the main screen. A chimaera of parts from different ships, distinguishable by the various textures and colors on its surface. "Now we know where those engines went."

"How?" Isa marveled. "We have drones?"

"Drone." Marga grinned. "Meet our new friend, a YashemCon deep space surveillance drone with the deluxe sensor package, courtesy of whoever had us tailed from the gate. I used our turn-and-burn to pinpoint and hack it. It was all too eager to lap up any data I would send it."

Red markers sprung up over the feed of the interloper, highlighting spots on the hull where covering panels shifted to reveal recesses in the fuselage. Enhanced snapshots of various parts of the vessel flooded into the tactical feed.

Rip looked at the captain. "They seem to have state-of-the-art offensive and defensive systems. We should avoid a fight."

The captain nodded. "Launchers ready, just in case."

"Aye." Rip tapped their terminal, which made a small tremor run through the Tori. "Ready."

Captain Konrad turned to Marga. "Chicken for the fox?"

"Noooooo." Marga moaned. "I juuust got her." She sighed and closed her eyes. "Whenever you're ready."

"Wait as long as possible, but don't let them see us." The captain looked at Bjorn. "Go as low as possible; keep the barrels pointed at them."

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The Tori had come to a stop hovering over the wreck of the freighter, which Ada was slowly approaching in the shuttle.

Isa felt dizzy and afraid, her heart pounding in her chest, but all she could do was watch the sim feed from the shuttle.

"See anything weird?" Ada asked through the comms.

"Nothing." Marga pushed a virtual view of the freighter to the screen, overlaid with its original state. "They took the engines and parts of the cockpit."

"Careful." Rip growled anxiously. "Anything fishy, you leave."

Ada was now hovering mere meters from the wreck.

"Tell them to hug the fore wall." Ada's voice was tense. "I'll scan the aft panels; they look mostly untouched."

On the shuttle feed, Isa could see a hatch open, and Ada exited wearing a large, angular backpack. A secondary feed appeared, showing Ada's view. She slowly approached a large panel on the freighter, stopping just an arm's length away and extending a flat device, pushing it onto the metal.

"What's that?" Isa whispered.

"Geo scanner." Bjorn whispered back. "To see under the surface of asteroids. You should never use them on ships or with people in the way; lots of radiation, but if it's this or death..."

Ada slowly pulled the scanner over the panel. "Anything?"

"Metal strings; not in the specs." Marga sounded alarmed. "Might be shoddy repairs or tripwires. Try the one below."

They repeated the process two more times, until Ada was crawling under the broken fuselage.

"This looks spec." Marga said. "Cut here."

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