The ship twisted and turned as Thomas tried to right himself.

“We’re moving too fast!” He yelled to no one in particular.

A voice from behind him spoke up. “Watch your ass, that fucking rock’s bigger than we are.”

“Like I don’t see that shit!” Thomas growled, his hands flying furiously over the controls. Behind him he could hear Van desperately trying to send an emergency beacon. A metal door slid open in the back of the cabin and the Captain walked in.

“What the fuck, Thomas?” He said agitated.

“You’re brilliant fucking online computer decided it would be a good idea to dodge a rogue comet by flinging the ship into an asteroid field.” He paused then added, “Sir.”

“Don’t give me shit Thomas just solve the problem.” The captain said, leaning over Thomas’ shoulder and examining the screen. All around the outline of the ship he could see huge looming rocks, barreling from every direction, not aiming directly at them, but ignoring them nonetheless.

Van spoke up over the discussion. “There’s no one answering my distress calls!”

“Is the beacon working?” The captain asked, never taking his eyes off Thomas or the representation of his tiny little cargo ship on the screen.

Van’s hands moved with the speed and agility of a butcher cutting meat. “Yeah, it’s still broadcasting.”

“Then someone’s watching us, we’ll get help asap.”

“That ain’t gonna be fast enough.” Thomas whispered. He dodged under a giant rock shaped like a diamond and swooped to his left just in time to avoid a smaller rock that would have torn the ship in half.

“Where’d the fucking comet come from?” A female voice caused Van and the Captain to look back at the still open doorway.

“No need to trouble yourself ma’am, we’ve got it under control.”

“Well it certainly doesn’t sound like it.” She said walking further into the already cramped bridge.

“What the fuck.” Thomas said to himself. He was looking at something on the screen. “That shit ain’t right. Open the hatch!”

“You think you can fly better by actually looking at the rocks?” Van asked incredulously, “Keep your eyes on the computer!”

But despite Van’s argument the screen slid open. They’d been flying blind, it was easier to deal with the computer display then to try to fly through a dangerous area of space by looking out the front viewport. But now light from a few million distant stars flooded into the bridge and they looked out at…nothing.

No asteroids. No giant floating rocks. Nothing at all but empty space.

“I’ll be damned.” Thomas whispered.

Captain Branch glanced at the video monitor. Still covered with asteroids. One heading right for them, it would hit in a matter of seconds.

“Shut it off.” He said quietly.

“What?” Thomas protested.

“Shut it off now! Everything! Immediate shutdown!”

Thomas tapped at the computer terminal and just as the rock was about to hit the video version of their tiny little ship all the lights in the cockpit blinked and died. The monitor hissed as the ship and the rocks disappeared and a dark patch with a blinding white dot in the center took it’s place.

“What the hell’s going on?” the girl, Katrina, asked.

They stood in silence a moment longer. “Find it.” Branch said aloud.

Van leapt from his seat and disappeared into the back of the ship. He passed a large blocky man on his way into the cabin from the back who glanced at him curiously and then proceeded onto the bridge.

“Are you all right?” He asked the girl, his voice deep and concerned.

“I think so.”

“Damn.” Thomas said leaning his considerable frame back in his swivel chair. “Someone really does want you dead.”

“What are you talking about?” Katrina asked.

“It’s an old black ops trick.” Branch murmured, offering no further explanation. “Beacon off?”

“Yeah.” Thomas answered. “Everything’s off.”

“Good.”

They waited. Finally Perge, Katrina’s personal bodyguard, the large blocky gentleman, spoke up. “What’s happening?”

“Well, we’re getting lucky I’d say.” Branch answered evasively. Perge started to ask another question but was interrupted by the sound of shouting coming from the back of the ship.

“Found it!” Van yelled as he careened into the bridge. He stopped short, leaning against the frame of the open door and panted breathless words.

“Fuel. They dumped it into the empty bay. And they left this.” He tossed something small with two black wires sticking out of it and Branch snatched it out of the air.

“Spark. Fuck, they meant to blow us up but good. Tanks ruptured?”

“Yeah, but patchable. And we can pump the fuel back into ‘em. That bay’s watertight.”

“Right, get on it. Thomas?”

“Yeah?”

“When he’s done we’re going to turn the ship back on. But not the beacon.”

“The beacon controls the ship in light speed.” Thomas said coolly.

“I am aware of what the beacon does Mr. Gants, but I want it off. And then I want you to fly us to the nearest uninhabited planet with breathable air and we’re going to land.”

Perge and Thomas both started to protest at once, but Branch waived them off.
“Someone tried to destroy my ship. They want you dead.” He pointed at Katrina, “And they didn’t mind sacrificing the rest of us to get the job done. This does not make me happy. Thomas you can do this, right?”

“Fly blind, with no beacon, at light speed? What am I a fucking daredevil?”

“You used to be a damn good pilot. Best I ever known.”

“You through sucking my dick? I ain’t twenty anymore.”

“You can do it.”

“Maybe ten years ago…”

“Excuse me, but has anyone ever in the history of space flight, ever docked a class II vessel on a moving space station with no thrusters and a broken nav system?”

“Yeah,” Thomas sighed, “One guy.”

“And that would be…”

“And that would be me.” Thomas answered. “All right. Find me a planet and I’ll take us there.”

“Good man. It don’t have to be pretty Thomas. I just need it to be invisible.”

Van walked back into the cabin, reeking. “Half an hour. The pump’s running on its battery until we turn the power back on. And you know how powerful that thing is.”

“We’ll live. How much air in the re-breathers?”

“Sixteen hours.” Van answered confidently.

“Nine.” Thomas corrected him.

“Sixteen.” Van protested.

“For three people. We got five.”

Van started to say something then stared at Thomas for a second. Then he looked back up at Branch and smiled. “Nine.”

“Plenty.”

“What do you intend to do?” Perge asked.

“Son of a bitch must pay, Mr. Perge.”

Van worked quickly and skillfully with the liqui-pump draining the fuel from the airtight cargo bay back into the fuel cells. While he worked he chatted with Katrina, who had managed to escape her normally unavoidable shadow, Perge.

“So the beacon guides the ship?”
“Sort of. Only when you’re in light speed though. See normally the pilot just works everything from the computer, but when you’re going that fast you need the beacon to help. It sort of acts as a guide post, firing out from the front and back of the ship and making sure you’re not flying into an asteroid field or a comet. The beam from the back keeps you in constant view of whatever port planet you’ve taken off from. It’s illegal to fly without it. Government says it’s too dangerous, but mostly it’s so they can keep track of everyone in space.” He said it without passion. Resigned to his fate Katrina thought, and then couldn’t figure out why she’d thought that.

“Can Thomas fly without it?”

“If anybody can it’s him. I mean I’ve known some good pilots in my time, but man, the way he works a ship.” He sighed and raised his eyebrows, “Un-fucking-believable. Oops sorry.”

“For what?”

“We’re supposed to watch our mouths around you. Captains orders.”

“I see. Why doesn’t Thomas fly for the government anymore? I’m sure it pays more than you’re getting here.”
Van made a cursory glance down the hallway behind her and then put his hands on his stomach. “Likes to eat. Government only wants fit, healthy, muscle-bound jerks.”

“What about you?”

“You kidding? You could probably wrap your hands around me if you tried. I mean seriously muscle-bound. Fucking government. Sorry.”

Katrina laughed and made Van smile. “You’re going to have to give up on that.”

“Sorry. It’s just that, you know, normally it’s just us guys. We don’t usually haul people around.”

“So I’m just cargo, eh?”

“Well, no, not really.” He smiled at her and they shared a moment. Then he went back to the liqui-pump. “So what’s the deal with Perge?”

“My father’s idea.” She scrunched up her face and spoke in a low deep voice that Van suspected sounded only vaguely like her father’s. “A Princess should not be without protection. A Princess should perform her duty. A Princess blah blah blah. A Princess yak yak yak.” She resumed her normal voice to say, “I don’t mind really, and Perge is great, he let’s me sneak off when I need to. And it is very comforting to have him around sometimes. It’s just the idea, you know? Like I can’t take care of myself.”

“Well, that should just about do her.” Van said looking around the cargo bay. The floor was almost dry, but the smell of fuel still hung in the air. Van had always thought it smelled like burned chicken. Fortunately it wasn’t toxic to breathe the fumes, or he would have been down here alone with one of the suits on, and without a beautiful young princess to talk to.

“Now what?” Katrina asked.

“Now, we see what’s going on upstairs.” Van was nervous and almost didn’t say anything, but as she turned to walk back up the steps to the hallway leading to the bridge he steeled up his nerves and coughed.

“Yes?” She said, very politely, turning back towards him.

“Well, it’s just that…” He pretended to smack himself in the forehead with his fist. “I don’t know.” He said, and sounded tired.

“Don’t be shy.” She smiled and he lit up like a solar flare.

“I just wanted to say that it was nice of you to sit down here with me and talk. You know? And that I appreciate it. And some other stuff, but that was the really important bit.”

Katrina walked slowly over to him and put her hands on his shoulders. Van’s heart leapt up into his throat and his stomach made a strange noise that he hoped only he could hear. He could feel his head pounding and sweat pouring down his forehead. She leaned in and kissed him, softly, on the lips. They stayed that way for almost ten seconds before she gently lifted her head and stared into his eyes.

“Thank you.” She said.

He fumbled with words for a minute before finally saying, “I’m welcome.”

Perge sat in Van’s swiveling leather chair and sipped from the can of juice that Thomas had been kind enough to give him. Branch sat in his captain’s chair, elevated just above Thomas and Van’s chairs, but still close enough to kick them in the back of the head in the cramped bridge of the small cargo ship.

“You said it was a black ops thing?” Perge asked Branch.

“I used to do some work for the government. Mostly things the regular navy couldn’t do. Things like this sometimes, but not often. They call it wetwork on Earth.”

“Assassination.” Perge clarified for himself.

“Right. Someone tampers with the computer. While it’s autopiloting with the beacon through lightspeed it pretends it’s avoiding a rogue comet. Then it heads into a fake asteroid field. The beacon gives our assassin’s a real time update of what we’re doing. They were probably sitting around laughing their asses off watching us dodge non-existent asteroids.”

“Then what?”

Thomas spoke up. “Then when one of the fake asteroids hits the ship, as far as the computer’s concerned anyway, it sets the spark in the fuel cells to go off. Blows the ship into a million pieces. Our beacon report says an asteroid hit us. Either way we’re dust particles. Looks like a legitimate accident, and whoever you want dead is dead, with no questions.”

“Seems complicated.” Perge said, his eyes narrowing. “Why not just use a bomb?”

“Beacon logs.” Branch answered. “If a ship goes ka-boom for no reason then they have to look into it. They sift through the wreckage of our ship, look for traces of foul play. Start going over records, asking questions, finding out who would want the people aboard a particular star cruiser dead, etc, etc, ad nauseam.”

“What do we do now?” Perge said, fascinated by the way things worked in space. He’d spent most of his life planet side, guarding for the royal family. Space was not a place he was familiar with. Yet.

“Well, since we shut everything down, and I do mean everything, it will look as though that last asteroid knocked out our beacon signal and blew up our ship. Which is why I don’t want it turned back on when we take off from here. Whoever planted that spark thinks we’re dead. I want them to keep thinking that.”