The other ship stays steady on an intercept course progressively picking up speed. Chakrum has only seen a handful of ships capable of moving like this. It isn’t broadcasting a transmitter which plays into her suspicion it’s off the books Feds. She had a run in with them while still serving on her parent’s rig. They were not kind to anyone onboard.


    Aro helped Xiang boost the bots and probes by twenty percent. Endo and Carrera move product into the bays. Everyone goes as fast as possible. Maggie and Chakrum are pushing crates into place. Both sweat hard, Maggie swipes her hands across her forehead and leans against the crate with a whimper.


    Chakrum reminds herself to over-enunciate and talk slowly. She’s only understood about a third of what Maggie’s said, and she’s positive Maggie got even less of her words. “Take breather ain’t bin outta hole long. Getchya uppa galley for a drink.”


    “Cap, ‘em chargin’ weapons and increasin’ speed, again,” Sanders hollers over the comms.


    “Fok. Time?” Chakrum asks.


    Sanders huffs and growls through the static. “Was lookin’ an hour but under t’irty ‘em keep pace.”


    Chakrum shakes her head and runs her hands through her hair. “Lock it down! We own a rock. Don’t wanna be idle if ‘em hostile.”


    “I''m workin’ on exterior defenses, got tactical shieldin’ and can modify drill laser for defense,” Ono says over the comm.


    Chakrum runs a hand through her hair. “Like t’ be ready ever all. Carrera, how much?”


    “Fifty-six percent, slow dig. Collected all scrap, packed a site up, reload drones.” She’s disappointed with herself and her machines. Carrera rarely has trouble coaxing minerals from a rock.


    Chakrum shakes her head and sighs. She wanted more, but she’ll take it. “Xiang, go o’er engine. Ever all onna up.”


    “Captain, ‘em hail us,” Sanders quickly says.


    “Patch t’rough!” Chakrum runs her hands through her hair. “Am Cap’n Chakrum Graver of a Miner Whiskey Rivers.”


    Chakrum keeps walking as she’s talking, hurrying towards the bridge. Maggie jogs to keep up. For every step the captain takes, Maggie needs three, her body hurts down to her bones.


    “You are operating without a permit,” a sharp voice with the telltale patterning and cadence of a Terran states.


    Chakrum silences the line from the other ship and hits her comm. “Reeves, a Terran prick.”


    Maggie stumbles at the sound of his voice and loses all color. All the horrific things he did. The way he laughed and smiled at her pain. Maggie registers Chakrum’s massive callused hand under her elbow, keeping her from crumpling to the ground. Didn’t ask for her to be loud, to beg. She lets silent tears rush down her cheeks, knowing it’s safe to allow that much.


    “Onna way,” Reeves states.


    Damn Feds. Chakrum takes a deep breath, pushes it out, and speaks as slow as she can. “Legal claim. Bounce ya papers. Up on why we here, whatchya doin’ gonna out?”


    “I didn’t understand a single word you uttered,” the person on the other side of the comms spits at Chakrum.


    Reeves catches up to Chakrum. She notices the state that Maggie is in and takes her hand, squeezing it gently with a warm smile. “You’ll be ok, Maggie, promise.” she turns her attention to translating. “Well, you’re a buffoon then, aren’t you? What she said was we have a legal claim to this rock and space. We can send you our papers. We know why we’re here. What are you doing this far from Earth, I mean Terra?”


    “Classified,” the voice bristles. “We will need to do a full scan of your ship. To ensure you aren’t slavers or scavengers.”


    Maggie’s fingers grip Reeves tighter. She whimpers, tears falling faster, body shaking with silent sobs. There’s no such thing as safe. She was stupid to think she could escape the pain. All she’s done is put others in danger.


    “Cap, ‘em wanna scan ship. Slavers nor scavengers.”


    Chakrum and Reeves move onto the bridge with Maggie. They carefully set her down in a chair. Reeves hands her a bottle of water. “Take a drink, love.”


    Chakrum glances from the tiny Terran towards the speaker and folds her arms. “Show yers, am show mine. Wrappin’ up, gettin’ ready our next site.”


    Maggie shakes her head, shying away from the canteen. “No, not again, no more,” she whispers, panicking and scrambling away.


    “Learn to speak properly, or invest in a working translator, Captain. I can’t understand a word of this rubbish,” the bastard on the other side of the comm says.


    Maggie puts her head to the floor crying harder, wrapping around herself, protecting her head.


    Reeves smiles at Maggie, pushing her own bubbling emotions a little deeper. “Remember, you’re safe here with us. We won’t let a thing happen, yeah?”


    Reeves shifts her focus from Maggie to translating. “You need to show yours before we’ll show you ours. We’re wrapping up our initial processing of this rock and getting ready to survey our next site.”


    Reeves tries to bring Maggie back. “Maggie, love, you’re on Whiskey Rivers, you’re with Sanders, Chakrum, and I.”


    “You must stay locked down until we can do a full inspection,” the voice responds flatly.


    The sounds of agony and stench of decaying flesh surround 045. Pain radiates through her in familiar waves.


    “Let’s do a full inspection,” he says, laughing. Rough hands wrap around her broken wrists and drag her towards the blood-soaked wall.


    Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    “Please stop!” she begs through her shattered jaw. The brutality she just suffered pales in comparison to what they do next.


    Maggie screams, sobbing. Sanders takes the wand from Reeves'' administering care so Reeves can focus on translating for Chakrum.


    “We don’t, we’re members of the Independent colonies and mining corps. Neither the Feds nor the Authority has any say on what we do, where we go, or what we transport,” Reeves translates.


    Sanders doesn’t know what to do as Maggie’s panicked screams turn to inhuman squeals. It’s the sound his favorite pig made when it got caught in some barbed wire. Human beings shouldn’t be capable of making those noises. Reeves takes a pen from her utility belt and injects tranqs into Maggie. She makes eye contact with Sanders. “Alternate red and blue buttons as fast as you can, for as long as you can. That should help bring her out.”


    “We have control of the leagues. You will submit or we will treat you as hostiles,” the voice quickly states.


    Reeves laughs. “Him say league down t’ Fed control. Roll o’er or him shoot.”


    Chakrum laughs, hands on her knees. She slaps Reeves on the back, unintentionally causing Reeves to fall forward before catching her balance. “Rules am go where, when, ‘less a member a Tribunal calls on me.”


    Reeves wipes at the tears springing up from laughing. It’s a good reset from the horrific things they dealt with earlier, and her concern for Maggie. “You can’t believe we’ll buy your bullshit, dear. We go where we want, when we want, unless we’re called to Tribunal.”


    Sanders doesn’t want to, but he moves from Maggie to the controls when they start to flash. He presses a couple of buttons and cocks his head. “We gettin’ a data packet sent by Mian Xao, aut’enticatin’... hm. Can’t tell it’s legitimate? Code’s old, but aut’entic, play on speakers.”


    Maggie isn’t in the torture room anymore, she’s with Reeves, Sanders, and Chakrum on their mining ship. Reeves is holding her hand, massaging her wrists, eyes wide with concern. “I’m not there?” Maggie asks, dry heaving.


    Reeves shakes her head. “You’re safe, love. I gave you something to help calm and keep you out of the past. We’ll go to the medbay after this to see if I can do more.”


    Gunfire fills the background. “Do you surrender, or are you a terrorist?”?


    “This is Mian Xao. Dissolved a league, we submit t’ Feds’n’Aut’ority. Is no more.”


    “Authenticate the data?” the voice asks.


    Chakrum looks over at Sanders, who shrugs. “We member a leagues. Need speak a Tribunal.”


    “You have until we arrive to decide if you’re being difficult or smart,” the voice snarls.


    Chakrum’s skin crawls, she doesn’t need to understand the words to wish it was possible to punch someone through the comms channel.


    “Cap, ‘em ear hostile, t’reats us,” Reeves says to Chakrum, wanting to go find a hot shower to wash off the conversation. The man on the other end sounds familiar and Maggie’s reaction is enough for her to know he’s not a good person.


    Chakrum ends the call and opens up the ship wide comms quickly rattling off the situation and what everyone needs to do.


    “Sanders contact the leagues. Endo and Carrera lock it down and set the booby traps. Ono everyone needs a weapon. Xiang lock the cores and set the kill switch,” Reeves says, translating for the Captain whether it’s needed or not. She knows Ono will not have understood half of what the cap said.


    Maggie shakes with silent sobs, curled around herself again. “He said I was being difficult, asked if I wanted to be smart instead.” Maggie can feel the memories fighting to surface, but whatever Reeves gave her keeps them from overwhelming her. “Don’t let them have me, please kill me first.”


    Chakrum assumes whoever was talking has a voice Maggie recognizes. By her reaction, it was someone who hurt her. She puts a gentle hand over Maggie’s. “Him take ya off a skip o’er cold dead bodies. Is a promise.”


    “Ono gave me two of his babies, it’ll be their dead bodies if they try anything. I can shoot the cap off a bottle at twelve hundred meters,” Aro states over the comms. Zhe’s looking forward to having something to shoot at again. Especially if it’s the fuckers that did zer and Maggie wrong.


    “Am want ever all ready. Sanders, time?” Chakrum asks.


    Sanders’ hands skip over the controls, turning knobs to get a better visual on the screens. He’s never seen a ship that can move like the one coming for them.


    “Fok, increased speed again, five minutes. Scans show no way t’ outrun ‘em, faster and pack serious firepower. Like t’ lock us with a jump prepped. Can have us to our next site in twelve minutes, Balkans in a area, said there been troubles, but corps hasn’t surrendered,” Sanders responds.


    Chakrum nods, having backup would help her breathe easier, especially if they have Feds barreling down on them. “Be ready t’go. Am need anyt’in’ ya get onna ship, Xiang. Sanders letta Balkan on what dealin’.”


    “They sent a message down a pipe t’ Tribunal. Dispatched their gunner. Be here in ten,” Sanders responds.


    Chakrum opens the ship wide comms again. “Ono ‘tect Aro’n’Maggie.”


    “Aye, ma’am!” he responds quickly.


    Chakrum nods. “Carrera, Endo—”


    “—tect a load,” they both respond.


    “Xiang—” Chakrum starts.


    Xiang responds before Chakrum can even ask. “Done.”


    Chakrum chuckles, its a nice reprieve given the situation they are about to be in. “Sanders—”


    “On it.”


    Chakrum takes a deep breath and slowly pushes it out. They’re going to be okay. “Hail ‘em.”


    Haughty laughter and a condescending voice puncture the hiss of static. “Your engines are hot, Captain. Looks like you’re being stupid.”


    Chakrum clenches and unclenches her fists, shaking her hands out. She just has to speak clear enough Reeves can translate for her.


    Reeves helps Maggie take a sip of water before she translates. “There hasn’t been an official surrender. We’re still independent and neutral. As a sign of good faith, we’re sending our weights and loads.”


    Chakrum nods at Sanders, and he hits a button. The comms link stays active with nothing but an oppressing silence and the hiss and pop of the static.


    “You list scrap?” the voice states.


    Chakrum folds her arms. “Debris, might be small shuttle?”


    “Hm. We’ll need a scan of the scrap. We lost classified property in this sector.”


    “Sendin’ a scan.”


    The hiss of the open air has Chakrum fidgeting with the snap on her sleeve.


    “We’ll need a sample,”


    “Am leave a’n’getta dig,” Chakrum responds.


    Reeves is tending to Maggie, trying to keep her from falling to pieces and present. She doesn’t translate.


    “What?” the asshole on the other end asks.


    “She said, we’ll leave a piece for you. We can’t wait, we have to survey our next site,” Reeves states.


    Contempt drips from Feds voice, “Not enough. We need to ensure no Fed tech ended up with you.”


    “Speak ‘em need eye on for Fed tech.”


    Chakrum hits the headrest of a seat with her good hand and gestures at the comm. “Fok on. Just scrap’n’a body, inna hold. Wanna leave it, too.”


    “We don’t have your bloody tech. Just scrap and a body, we can leave it, too.”


    “Crew manifest?” the voice snaps.


    Chakrum growls and puffs her cheeks out. “Sent.”


    “Standby — We’re reading more bio signs than you have on your roster. We must do a welfare check to ensure you are not harboring any slaves or illegals. Power down and prepare for us to board.”


    “It doesn’t apply!” Reeves shouts, losing her patience.


    A snicker punctures the static. “Sending our authorization codes.”


    Sanders receives the codes and looks at them. “Fok, never seen clearance this high ‘fore. Gotta let ‘em do a welfare check, part of the Europa pact.”


    Chakrum lets out a breath and chews the inside of her cheek. She hits the nearest bulkhead, opening her other hand. Chertov debil. “Aft airlock. Meetchya t’ere our extra guests.”


    “Thank you for your cooperation, Captain.”


    As soon as Sanders ends the call with the other ship Chakrum opens a ship wide comm channel nursing her hurt hand. Reeves takes the healer off her utility belt and waves it over Chakrum’s hand. It stops bleeding.


    “Is boardin’ a welfare check. Aro’n’Maggie if ‘em hurtchya give a word’n’arrest ‘em. Take ‘em in.”


    “We need to let them board to do a welfare check. Aro and Maggie, if they’re the ones that hurt you just tell us and we’ll take them to the nearest center for processing.”


    Maggie is curled around herself, crying silently. “They didn’t ask for me to be loud, can’t be loud...”


    Chakrum carefully moves over to Maggie and puts a gentle hand on her shoulder. “We tect ya.”


    Maggie knows there isn’t anyone or anything that can protect her from what’s coming.