Episode 52.9

Prologue

H'yhy Hyh-hy woke with a start. Something was wrong. Leaping gracefully off his sleep-shelf, his suspicions were confirmed as soon as his feet hit the deck of the ship. It wasn't vibrating in that certain way that all experienced spacers knew meant the C-core was operating and the ship was sliding through hyperspace. The Zarpazi didn't even pause as he grabbed his flight jacket, and headed for the cockpit wearing only the jacket and a pair of boxer shorts.

Running into the cockpit, he nearly tripped over an empty Kar-fi cylinder. He would tear into his partner later for drinking his way through their cargo, and littering their working area with the evidence. But right now he had more important things to yell about.

His Partuuni partner Kagan's hands were flying over the control panel. The holocanopy was showing a grey haze, rather than a star-field.

"Where are we?" Hy snapped. A much more important issue than what was wrong, for now.

"Dragon-damned hyperdrive just cut out."

"WHERE are we?"

"You're not gonna like it."

Hy went to the navigation display. Kagan had already been there, and the screen showed the list of navigation buoys whose signals they were receiving and their approximate distances. A quick mental calculation allowed Hy to place the ship.

"Tuul's knife! We're in the fucking Wet Belt!"

Kagan shoved him aside as he went to work on the nearby panel. Hy continued cursing silently. He'd decided they could shave four days off their trip back to Zarpaz by cutting through the Wet Belt. The Belt was a dark nebula, home to several planetary systems dominated by ocean worlds, due to the nebula's high water content. The high water content also played havoc with most long-range sensors - hence the haze - making it extremely popular with pirates.

And now they were stuck at the far end of the Welt Belt from Zarpaz, with no hyperdrive.

"Looks like the graviton guides got flooded," said Kagan grimly, "Goddamn cheap Frondulan crap. I told you to buy from the Tonarzi."

"The Tonarzi are banned from the Empire. Can we fix them?"

"Yeah, but we'll have to go outside. We're looking at half a day, minimum."

"This had to happen in the Wet Belt..."

"Maybe no one will notice us."

An alarm went off in the cockpit - a proximity detector. Another ship had just come into sensor range.

Hy gave Kagan a withering look. "Next time you hope something, keep your mouth shut."

As the other ship drew nearer, less light and radiation from it was scattered by the nebular gases, and the sensors were able to get a clearer image. The result on the holocanopy looked like the other ship was appearing out of a thick fog.

Hy's horns twitched as he saw the other ship was a Zxanxi War-Crab, a pirate vessel easily a hundred times their size, armed and armored to the teeth.

"Kagan, get us out of here or we're dead."

"Defecate that. Arm the kasers, I'm going up to the turret --"

"KAGAN!"

As they watched, a second War-Crab appeared out the fog. Then a third. And a fourth. And a fifth...

"Forget it. I'm transmitting the manifest."

The trader's signal of unconditional surrender. Hy's stomach twisted into topologically impossible knots. "Good idea. Maybe they'll only torture us for a little while."

The Zxanxi ships hung in space before them. Slowly, the leader's nose dipped, and started moving away in a direction nadir to their current course. The others began to follow suit.

"What in the Dark?" Kagan muttered.

"They're not interested?"

"Got bigger shrews to catch, I guess."

The five ships faded off the holocanopy. But as the two traders watched, more ships came out of the haze, steered away, and then faded away again. They watched as at least twenty War-Crabs passed, each paying the Zarpazi trader only as much attention as if they were an entertainingly-shaped asteroid. The last ship fired a half-hearted kaser shot across their bow, not that they had any intention of interfering with the fleet in the first place.

Kagan scratched his groin absently. "Huh."

Hy breathed a sigh. "Blessed things. That was close."

"I've never seen so many Zxanxi together before. That was no ordinary pack of pirates. That was a war fleet."

Hy sank into the copilot's chair. "Who cares? They're not after us, that's what matters."

Kagan swung over to the tracking console. "Looks like they're headed back where we started from. The Terran sector."

"Whatever. Let's get suited up and fix the guides before anyone else shows up."

Kagan reached over and picked up a half-empty beverage canister. He swigged back its contents, and then regarded the can thoughtfully.

"Y'know, maybe we figure out something else to pay for that Urzcheese. I gotta feeling we won't be able to go back for more of this Kar-fi again."