Junebug had been on Vac-Commando operations before. The academy had offered classes in it that included several zero G operations but it wasn't something you got used to without constant practice. After debating the pros and cons of subterfuge they had opted on stealth. Neil had ghosted them expertly into a small crater on the asteroid surface close enough to the lip, it was hoped, that the shadow it cast would provide the ship at least some cover from optical scanning.

The asteroid had some microgravity from its mass and from its slight spin, but it was a greasy mix of microgravity and zero-g that made it a particular challenge to navigate. Expericened vacum operaters always prefere to work in 'the hard' rather than in microgravity. It could be difficult to know exactly how much force one needed to accomplish a particular task and over reactions could be deadly. The surface of XL4-D556 was covered in a finely distributed rock powder that slipped underfoot as the struggled up the rock face of the crator. Reaching the top Junebug turned to Neil.

"Ready?" she asked. She was using the radio link in his airsuit and her own helmets intergral unit, but powered down as low as it would go. The transmission would only carry a few hundred meters and while there was a theoretical risk of detection the giant grey red swirled ball of the primary, the dominant feture in the star field, threw of enough rads to baffle the transmission beyond a couple of meters.

"Yeah, yeah why not," Neil replied. There was an under tone of excitement to his voice. This was real danger no mistake but if either of them expected to die in bed, they should have picked a different line of work. Junebug checked her air pack reflexively, Neil had assured her it was in working order and she was inclined to trust the pilot. Looking up she saw the sattelite above her in its geosyncronus orbit, nearly five kilometers out it was visible as a pale metallic dot.

"Jump!" she said and ignited her air pack. With a rush that wasn't audible but could be felt as vibration the airpack discharged, breaking the grip of the microgravity and hurling her into space. It was a peculiar feeling, falling across the void. She didn't dare turn to see if Neil had also succesfully lifted, the air pack would allow her to course correct to a degree but she didn't want to push her luck.

"Still with me Neil?" she asked over the radio.

"Right behind you," he responded. Junebug looked at the jump clock on her HUD. Impact in nine minutes and seven seconds.

"I hope we can find a way in when we land on this thing," she obsevered.

"A little late to be worrying about that isn't it?" Neil replied. Falling through space with nothing to direct her save dead reckoning and a pack of compressed air, Junebug laughed. Way too late.

___________________________

They were definately following her. Not just the man in the gray smoch but four or five other inconspicuous looking people. Thinking back to her anti kidnapping training, a real issue on the crowded city streets of Fornax, she ducked through chokepoints and blind turns. Sure enough they always followed her. Beginning to feel panic she tried to radio Junebug but was rewarded with an empty carrier wave. The system boat must already be beyond radio range, although that wasn’t much of a trick at intra system distances for a biologically powered transmitter unit.

Trying to calm her breathing she stepped around another bottleneck, an access tunnel between two of the major hallways and broke into a flat out sprint. Surprised pedestrians gasp and cursed as she bolted past them shoving her way through wherever possible. She didn’t look back for pursuit, just ran as fast as her legs would carry her. Within a minute she reached the hangar where the Highlander sat. Her heart sank as she realised that none of the engineering staff who should have been working on the sleek freighter were anywhere to be seen. A woman in a long black coat stepped out from behind one of the doors. Taya whipped the flechette pistol from her pocket and fired three rounds above the woman's head. Sparks and ricochets filled the air with a weird moaning as the flechette shells burst spraying tiny dartlets everywhere.  The woman let out a curse and ducked back into cover by reflex. Taya having intended the shots only as a distraction raced through the doorway and passed the surprised figure. She fired again in the woman’s general direction but missed by a half dozen feet but it didn’t really matter. With a desperate bound she leaped onto the access ramp and scrambled about.

“Lonney lock down the ship!” Taya yelled in a desperate shill. The AI, sensing or computing her panic slammed the emergency airlocks closed. A moment later the deck began to hum as Lonney began retracting the boarding ramps.

“Don’t let anyone aboard Lonney,” she said, leaning back against a bulkhead and gasping for air. With trembling fingers she reached down and clicked her pistol back onto safe as Junebug had shown her.

“Highlander…. Whatever to …. Uh Captain?” she called, unable to remember the proper communication protocol but certain that Lonney would route the call for her.

“I canae estoblish ah kinectiction,” Lonney replied. Stars above the accent was getting worse by the day.

“What why?!” Taya asked pressing herself to her feet and trotting unsteadily towards the bridge.

“Sim sortah jammin, and the hardlins have been cut,” the AI explained. Taya frowned in concern, the hardwired lines connecting the ship to the station had been cut? Reaching her console she pulled up a communication board and saw that it was true. All electro-optical communication was being jammed and there was no way to get a message out. Worse when she pulled up a visual of the hangar she saw that it was no longer empty. A dozen men and women, all armed, had entered the hangar and were surrounding the ship. At their head strode a balding man with a bionic eye.

“Oh shit…”


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