From a bit of investigation, it seemed clear that no medical records, nor any other ship records Light could access, had been manually updated since the disaster that crippled the ship. Automated logs were still being made, but with the number of damaged systems and sensors, those were scarce too. It was possible that he might be able to glean more information from them, but not from a cursory glance. He could make a copy of the ship logs, at least.

The personnel files did give Light more context for what he could see in the crew quarters. Now that he knew what their rank insignias meant, he could tell that the man who had been stabbed in the back had been the captain. Nothing in the medical records of the crew showed anything particularly unusual that would be related to the disaster. The only preexisting condition listed was a shellfish allergy for the engineer, and there was no report of disease or other contamination on the ship. What happened to them seemed to have come exclusively from after the disaster.

---

Jess motioned for Light to come to her as soon as he opened up the door into the cargo hold. She and Senjen were near the back of the hold, opposite from the loading ramp and near to the door Light had entered through. As he approached, she typed a code into the crate’s keypad. Its lights flashed green for a moment, and it unsealed. “Yeah, take a look at this.”

“Where’d you get the code?” Senjen asked.

“Looks like the captain appended it at the bottom of the manifest. They’re definitely not supposed to do that, but I’m gettin’ the feeling they might have been a bit careless.” She shrugged. “Whatever. Saves me needing to bypass it.”

Jess pushed the crate’s top partially aside so she could retrieve one of the tightly-packed rectangular cases from inside. “At least they’re properly packed. A solid crate, with individual protective cases for each device. All of that should have shielded them from the radiation and impact both.” Opening up the case, it contained a simple, unmarked polymer disk that could fit in a Human’s palm. “And here they are. This crate here, and the one next to it, have what we’re looking for. They’re more valuable than all the rest of ‘em in the hold combined.”

Turning her head, Jess looked out in the direction of the cargo ramp. Between here and there, they had the whole, disorganized mess of crates that had been knocked around the hold in the crash. “We just need to clear the way to get our prize out of here.”

“Ooh, nice!” Light yoinked one of the protective cases out with a tentacle and examined it closely. That included popping it inside his gel suit like one might with a candied date, and then popping it back out again. “Its a lot of money for something so plain. They should add some colour…” He slid it back into the crate and surveyed the cargo hall.

“What a mess!” Light sidled over to the closest part of the blockade and tried to lift one of the crates by himself. He could just about manage it, but the suit whined in protest. He placed it back down a few inches from where it had laid before.

“Gravity is not our friend today - what say you help me here, Senjen?”

“They could, but I’m pretty sure subtlety is the point.” Jess remarked. Once the crate was back closed, she put in the code to seal it up again. “They’re meant to be hidden. They can blend with other electronics, or just get tucked somewhere out of the way where no one can see ‘em.”

Senjen was nearby, between their crates and the exit, looking for a good way to clear their path. In this gravity, it would be a massive hassle to try and move their prize over the other crates blocking their path. “I still don’t really get why these things are even here. I mean, they’re obviously for smuggling, but this freighter belongs to an actual, big company, right? Was it an employee that sneaked them on, or did the actual company send them?”

“Almost certainly the company.” Jess answered. “These are top-of-the-line. Expensive, and effective. If they’re sending them out to the frontier, that means they’re bringing back something they’d rather keep quiet.”

Senjen still appeared somewhat confused. “I wouldn’t have thought big, proper companies like this would get involved in smuggling.”

This time, Jess laughed. “Oh please, after centuries of optimizing efficiency, they’ll take any scrap of profit they can get their hands on. If they find something restricted, they’ll sell it where its legal. Sometimes, what they’re smuggling is legal, but they don’t want their competitors to catch wind of what they found or where it came from. Out at the edge of settled space, it can be hard to enforce property claims. Almost all the companies push beyond the bounds of the territory in their charters when they’re prospecting, so they take secrecy as a first choice.”

“Well, as long as they never learn we took them. “Senjen shrugged. Once he had scoped out a path he was satisfied with, he turned back to Light. “I think what we do is push aside the crates over here and make space. It’s a bit longer of a path, but there’s less in the way.”

“Alright, let's get this over with!” Light replied.

What he’d seen in the upper deck didn’t leave Light as they got to work. If anything the unsolved mystery expanded to fill his head. Before long he was scanning the doors back the way he’d come, as if the corpses would stumble through at any minute.

He worked his suit hard. Senjen still moved more boxes but Light wasn’t far behind. Together they forged a path through the cargo bay towards the loading doors in a significant but respectable amount of time.

“And now to load it onto our ship…” Light pondered. “It makes sense to bring the ship closer rather than try to lug this over uneven terrain.” He accessed his neural lace and reached out to his craft from across the couple of hundred metres of void. His aim was to run a new scan of the area and then lift off remotely to bring it gently to a stop right outside the cargo ramp.

As it turned out, performing another scan of the area was a wise decision. With an expanded scan, the ship’s sensors picked up on an anomaly. There were traces of propellant byproducts the sensors could detect, indicative of a ship that had been boosting quickly. It had not come from their own ship, nor was it left over from the crashed freighter. The only remaining option was that another ship had been nearby, and a more focused scan in that direction would reveal it. It blended well into the terrain, but there was another ship, comparable in size to Light’s, hiding out in a crater a fair distance away. Based on the byproducts the scans detected, it had come in after Light had landed, so the fact that his ship’s passive scans had not detected it meant that it had been trying to approach stealthily. Likely, it had gone wide around the planet and approached from very low altitude to hide itself on sensors. It was out of sight, but close enough that its crew could feasibly reach them over ground, especially if they had vehicles.

The reddish swirls on the surface of Light suit jangled erratically as he understood the implication of the recent scan results. His ship hovered thirty metres off the ground as he rescanned to be sure. Yep, there it was. He swivelled towards Senjen, spinning the BangStick back into a ready position by his flank.

“We’ve got an unidentified craft just parked nearby. Did you check the bay for anti-boarding measures? We might need them. Jess!” Light motioned to the gaping cargo ramp before him. “What do you think? Can we scare them off with something on this ship? I need about five hundred second to bring the ship in to land down there.”

“I...wait, hold on! Need to think about this.” Jess shouted, rather unnecessarily loudly through their radio channel. “A ship? And you said it’s parked nearby…” She looked out towards the cargo ramp, then around the hold. It was hard to tell at a glance what might be in the hold with the mess of crates that had been flung around everywhere in the crash, but that did not seem to be what Jess was focusing on. She had already seen the manifest, and she knew there was nothing there that could help them.

“Damn it, could be scavengers, maybe even pirates. Might not be too much of a difference, really. If they’re parked out of sight, that means they’re trying to sneak up on us, and I doubt it’s for anything good. If that’s how they’re doing it, then they’re probably coming over land, trying to get the jump on us. If you call over the ship, then they’ll know they’re out of time, and that will pretty much force them to bring over theirs too. Might be able to get out in time, but it’ll be up to you and your ship to get away with them chasing us.”

Senjen’s hand was hovering over his holster, despite the fact that there was still no signs of life anywhere near them. “You could have she ship set back down, pretend it didn’t detect anything. They’ll probably think they’re still hidden. If we can push the crates out to the ship before they get here, then we could just take off and get out of here without giving them any time to react. We’d definitely be in the clear then.”

Jess shook her head and crossed her arms. “If we can load up the crates in time. That’s one hell of an ‘if’. Because if they manage to get to us first, then we could get caught in a bad position. If we know where their ship is parked, though, then we can make a pretty good guess as to what route they’ll take to get to us. We could find a good ambush point to give us the advantage when it comes down to a gunfight.”

Light gazed into the blackness beyond the cargo ramp. He couldn’t see anything yet. But that didn’t mean they weren’t out there, watching, waiting for them to leave the relative safety of the freighter. It was generally easier to obfuscate a small signature than a large one.

“I like our chances in my ship more than out there in the open with this heavy cargo - I’m bringing it in. Stand by.” He then addressed Senjen directly. “Get out your weapon and take a defensive position. They might be closer than we think.”

Light then plopped down behind one of the crates they were carrying and accessed his neural lace again. His ship soon began to move toward them at a ponderous pace; the remote connection was taxing to maintain.

Senjen opened the compartment on his upper thigh and drew one of his pistols. It was the energy weapon he had been using for a few years now. Walking over to the loading ramp, he peered outside and tried to get a good look out over the area. Higher gravity meant flatter terrain overall, but this was a planet with neither geological activity nor an atmosphere. Craters from asteroid impacts remained pretty much permanently, and they created plenty of uneven terrain through which one could hide their approach.

Jess stayed back in the cargo hold, well-away from the entrance. Her breaths were starting to get quicker, which could be heard through the radio. “I hope you know what you’re doing. Your ship isn’t armed, but theirs very well may be.”

Being that Light’s ship was close, it only took a few moments for it to set down just outside. It would make for a much easier and quicker time moving the crates, though as expected, Light soon received an alert that his ship’s sensor array was picking up the other ship taking off as well. They would just have a few minutes to load up the crates.

“We’ll be fine; we’re going to need your help loading up though.” Light murmured through his trance.

Once the ship landed he set a new proximity alarm with a tighter radius. Then together they embarked on the fraught task of lugging their new cargo between ships. Light kept an anxious eye on their surroundings at all time and tried to martial every nerve in his body that screamed at him to run.

Just as the last crate was being fastened did the alarm sound. “Close the doors!” He ordered, before careening into the cockpit to take direct control. The scan showed the enemy ship was closer; it’d landed briefly in a field between them before taking back off again thirty seconds later. It was now steaming directly at them - there was no way they’d be able to make a clean break here.

“They dropped boarders, get ready to defend that bay! I’m going to get us in the air!” Light stretched in every direction imaginable to complete pre-flight actions in record time. Then he gunned the engines and took them up off the rocky wasteland.

Senjen tucked himself in a corner of the cargo bay with his pistol at the ready, but no one approached their ship. Not before Light managed to get it off the ground. The incoming ship had been trying to stay out of sight and was just about to come into view over the ridge at the edge of a crater. Since Light’s ship had it tagged for a while now on approach, there had been no hiding for it. Though, the other ship’s crew would have no way of knowing that.

Scans from Light’s ship would have been able to reveal a bit more about it by now. He still did not have enough detail to identify a model, nor whether it was armed, but he could tell the ship was smaller, and almost certainly not of Tindrel make. By its size and shape, it was probably more agile, but would not have as robust of a hull.

Light was coming up on the ridge quickly, and the other ship would not be far beyond.

As soon as Light got an indication on size and mass he knew what he was going to do. Instead of heading away and attempting vainly to escape, he aimed his ship’s hefty bulk right at the other ship.

When they cleared the ridge, their adversary panicked and tried to change course to avoid being rammed. For a moment it looked as if they might narrowly avoid the assault. Then Light redirected all power to the lateral thrusters and they lurched violently together.

There was a terrifying crunch along the length of the hull. Light was thrown off the control pads he held and a hundred objects came loose to float around the cockpit. “Contact!” He warbled.

Then they were free again and careening off towards the endless void of space. Light ran a damage assessment. Nothing serious had broken.

Despite the impact, the other ship was still flying, though it was worse for wear than Light’s. A few pieces of their ship were torn from the hull and dropped to the planet below, but it still managed a relatively quick turn to follow Light’s path. His sensors showed them lining up behind his ship...then simply lingering. For about ten seconds they followed, with neither a hail nor a shot fired, during which time they likely ran their own damage assessment. During the impact, Light had struck their ship’s primary, and only, weapon.

“Looks like they’re breaking off.” Jess’ voice chimed in through their comm channel. She had not gone up to the cockpit, but instead had instead strapped herself in to the first seat she had been able to reach before they launched. The acceleration, and the impact, had rattled her, but she had been secured. She was patched in to the ship’s computer and was following along through its sensor readouts. “I don’t know if you’re that good, or just that lucky Light, but let’s get out of here before that luck gets tested again. Here’s the coordinates for the system we need to head to. It’s on the way back to Korit, about a day away from here. We’re heading to an asteroid orbiting the star, between the second and third planet in the system.”

The star system Jess had marked for them was uninhabited, and of little interest to any major power. It had no habitable planets, no strategic position, and no remarkable quantities or types of resources. Such places were perfect for outlaws, or any others who needed a secret outpost or base, as finding them by chance was like finding a needle in the largest haystack imaginable.

The ships had scarcely disentangled before Light was weighing up options.Another ramming action was unlikely to succeed, but was there a nearby asteroid belt that could do the job for them. Maybe they could lose their pursuer in the mess of mobile objects?

He began frantic evasive action before abruptly stopping when Jess told him they were pulling away. “What? Oh! Haha! Success!” He wiggled his appendages in defiance of the fleeing pirates, cooing happily.

“I’m very happy to oblige. Let's get out of this system.” Light signed off comms and plulled them out from the planet’s orbit. Then he plotted a course using the co-ords Jess sent and jumped them into FTL travel with another jolt.

Once he was satisfied, Light pushed through the mess of loose objects that’d come free of their mountings and went amidships. When he found the two of them in the cargo bay he approached boisterously with mock boxing jabs about two centimetres from Senjen’s face that he’d seen Humans apply among friends.

“I knew this old hulk could do it! We have the mass; nothing can stand in the way of that.” He eyed their prize greedily. “We’re close now; I can practically smell those credits. Maybe I will upgrade my suit after all!”

Senjen did not understand what Light was trying to do. He was clearly in a good mood, which was nice, but Senjen just ended up standing like a statue, staring back at Light’s tentacles. Did he want him to swing back? Was he supposed to dodge, or...something else? Ultimately, he settled on trying to give a light, friendly punch to Light’s side, which ended up even more slow and awkward due to the gel.

“Ah...yeah. I mean...yeah! We’re home free now, right? Not like there’s any way to track in FTL, so it’ll be clear to the drop-off.” Senjen finally responded.

Jess unstrapped herself from her seat, then was finally able to unseal and remove the helmet from her suit. “Could you be more overconfident? All it would take is a few decent-sized guns to leave this freighter dead in the water. Yeah it worked, but, ah...shit.” She let out a sigh and relaxed her shoulders. “No, I don’t think even I can be mad about this one right now. You really did good, Light, and that’s no lie. You tracked down that ship in a fraction of the time I thought it was going to take, and that might have honestly saved our asses. Those pirates got sloppy tracking us; probably because they were having to rush just to keep up.”

“True enough - If they can follow us through the soup, I will eat a fishcake.” Light remarked, missing the point of the phrase - he loved fishcakes.

“Well…thank you, Jess! We aim to please, don’t we Senjen? Be sure to spread the word of our services, just not too far. We wouldn’t want to tip off the company we stole from, now, would we?”

His suit went inert as Light considered what to do while they waited to reach their destination. There were a dozen little jobs that piled up the moment he looked away. He also wanted to survey any possible damage to his hull, but that wasn’t advisable right now.

“How does your new suit feel on the job? Have you looked through all the services on offer?” He asked Senjen eventually.

“Ah, well…” Senjen hesitated. It was a relief that they had gotten away without issue, and it was actually safe to relax. Jess had already stepped away to get out of her environment suit, so it seemed like they were actually in the clear. There was not yet any known damage to the ship, and even if there was, he probably would not be the one who ended up fixing it. For now, the only thing left was to wait. “...I guess it pushed crates well? I didn’t really get to put the new frame to use on this job. A good thing, I guess, since that would mean something was shooting at us. Still, it would be nice to put it through some real tests sometime. Just...hopefully not on this job. The only thing left is to hand off the cargo, and I’d really rather there not be any shooting there...unless one of them wanted to go target shooting for fun, maybe?” He took a few, quick moments in thought, then shook his head. “Ah, you know what I mean.”

---

The group needed only occupy themselves for roughly a day before they reached their destination. Unlike the pulsar they had just visited, this was a normal, main sequence star that was unremarkable in just about any way, so it was much easier to approach. It was safe to simply exit FTL near to the asteroid itself

Being near enough to the asteroid, detecting the outpost buried inside was easy enough. It was quite a large asteroid, though not enough to hold a spherical shape. Most of the structure was underground, with only a hangar door, currently closed, on the surface to allow ships to land. Fortunately, the hangar looked to be generously large, so their ship would not have trouble fitting inside.

Jess floated up behind Light, holding herself in place in the doorway to the cockpit. “Okay, I’ll send ahead a message to let ‘em know it’s us. Once they open up the hanger, just land and wait for it to re-pressurize, then get the crates out there. They’ll want to inspect them, which is fine. You don’t need to talk to them much, and in fact, I’d really prefer you not. I’ll do the talking, you can just bring them out there and...stand around.”

“Ah, Its ok friend.” Light said, picking up on Senjen’s disappointment via his armour lightpads. He patted his robot head. “You’ll get your chance soon, I promise. How about you put it to use helping me with ship tasks, hmm?”

Light spent the day in transit busying himself with minor repairs. While Jess was more capable, he didn’t ask her out of her respect for her status on this job as the employer, or at least the broker. When they were approaching their destination, he finished off by feeding the organic doormat and small collection of pot plants Senjen had collected over the last couple of years. They were protected from the periodic vacuum & lack of oxygen by old blobs of Light’s suit that he’d donated.

When it was time to exit light speed, Light returned to the cockpit. Someone had tidied up all of the clutter which had been floating free since their escape.

“Understood, preparing to be utterly silent and non-communicative. Easy peasy. Okey-dokie.” Light affirmed as the hangar doors slid silently open. He maneuvered them inside and made to park in a workmanlike, non-threatening manner. “Ok Senjen, you’re up.” He sent to his partner in the cargo bay, releasing the ramp from the cockpit while he conducted post-flight checks.

Light could hear Jess let out a sigh. “Well...speak if spoken to, obviously. Don’t be rude or hostile to them. I just mean...try to let me take the lead, is all.”

With the almost negligible gravity of the asteroid beneath them, Light had to bring the ship down onto the pad and keep it in place with downthrust until the clamps could secure the ship. From there, they had to wait for a short time for the portion of the hangar they set down in to pressurize. It was separated from the loading area by an inner hangar door, which opened once the area was pressurized and the outer door sealed.

Despite the talk before of them being home free, Senjen still could not help but to feel a bit nervous. He had never sold illicit cargo before. Well...except for the one time on his first job with Light, and that had not exactly gone well. Technically, they had not violated any laws of Korit, nor done anything that would violate interstellar treaties on salvage rights, but that did not mean the company they had salvaged from would not be willing to take it back by force.

In any case, Senjen tried to at least act like he was keeping a cool head. He and Light headed to the cargo hold to wrangle the pair of crates they were selling. They were easy enough to move around in near zero-G, but it was easier to have Light’s help to get them both out at once without losing control of them.

Outside the ship, they could see what looked like three guards, all Human. They wore simple, black, full-body armor with closed helmets. All of them were the exact same model of armor, but with absolutely no markings. They were armed, but their weapons were holstered, and they were keeping their distance, with electromagnetic boots allowing them to stand comfortably on the hangar floor. There was another pair of Humans in suits that Jess went for immediately to speak to, leaving Light and Senjen to handle the cargo.

Next to the landing pad, there was a cargo platform on a rail for unloading ships, so the pair took a few minutes while Jess was handling the deal to get the crates on the platform, strapped down, and secured. It kept the pair distracted for a few minutes, so they did not see the person who approached them until she started inspecting one of the crates next to Light. It appeared to be...Jess. Her face certainly looked like Jess, she was wearing a formal business suit, which was most certainly not what she had been wearing just a few minutes ago.

Light’s suit flagged Jess’ in his periphery and he began speaking without looking. “Ok Jess, these are ready to go. Are we all done here-” He turned quickly and fell silent when a closer inspection revealed an uncanny likeness looking back at him. Light floated closer, until his unfocused eyes were as close as he thought was possible without sucking the woman into his suit. He resisted the temptation to try and examine the inside of this person’s mouth for clues.

“Erm…Jess? How did you change so fast?” He looked around behind her for some kind of explanation.