But their quarry had a significant head start, and Rigel VI’s orbital space was an obstacle course of moons, moonlets, and space stations. “Don’t worry, Captain,” Veurk told Reed. “I have three scout ships en route. We’ll be able to corner them.”
“That’s what concerns me,” Reed told her, loud enough for the bridge crew to hear. “These people are going to great lengths to keep us from searching that ship. Its pilot may well be under orders to blow up the ship if it comes to that. If we make them feel cornered, we may lose them.”
Still, the Rigelian scouts proved useful, herding the Grennex away from several potential evasion routes and limiting its options. Pioneer caught up to it as it neared a medium-sized moonlet riddled with mine pits. “Target their engines,” Reed said. “Maybe we can disrupt them enough to prevent self-destruct.”
“Or, ah, trigger the engines to explode ourselves,” Dax added.
“That’s a chance we’ll have to take.”
Veurk shook her curly-haired head. “The G-Seven’s engines are well-shielded.”
“Just get me close enough,” Williams said.
A minute later, Tallarico got Pioneer into firing range and Williams took her shots. The pilot’s evasions and, indeed, the solid cowling around the inboard nacelles kept her from striking a decisive blow. She kept trying, but then a navigational alarm sounded on Tallarico’s console. “Incoming ore transport! Collision course!”
“Veer off!” Reed ordered. Tallarico angled the ship away. Williams managed to get off one more shot, grazing the side of the Grennex before it pulled out of range.
As soon as they were clear of the moonlet, Tallarico did her best to catch up, pouring on the impulse power—tricky to do in orbital space, since thrusting forward faster would take the ship outward into a wider, paradoxically slower orbit. Normally, to catch up with an orbiting craft, one would decelerate to sink into a tighter orbit, overtake it, and thrust outward again. But there was no time to wait for that, so the only option was to blast forward and inward to cancel out the centrifugal effect. It was hardly efficient, but Pioneer was powerful enough to make it work.
And so were the Rigelian scouts. Soon, all four pursuers were closing on the Grennex in a pincer movement. Veurk signaled the small ship and ordered its pilot to surrender and submit to inspection.
Moments later, Dax reported, “Oh, no. Energy building up in the engine core. I think they’re going to blow it.”
“Have your ships pull back,” Reed said to Veurk.
“Hold on, please, sir,” Williams said. “That may not be necessary.”
Indeed, after a few moments, Dax reported, “The sequence is reversing. The engines are shutting down.”
A moment after that, the pilot hailed. “Don’t fire! I surrender.”
Reed turned to Williams. “Lieutenant?”
She replied with a rakish tilt to her head. “I have a trick or two of my own. Just before they got away last time? I fused their escape-pod hatch.” She shrugged. “These are crooks, not fanatics. I figured the pilot wouldn’t be willing to die with the ship.”
The captain was impressed, but also a bit annoyed. “You could’ve told me that was what you were doing.”
Her expression grew more sheepish. “I . . . wasn’t sure it would work.”
U.S.S. Pioneer, orbiting Rigel Colony One
“Our people were never aboard that ship,” Valeria Williams told Captain Reed as they stood before the windows of Pioneer’s conference lounge. Outside, the view was dominated by the cratered globe of Rigel Colony One, lit on one side by the diminished but vivid light from Raij and on the other by the soft blue glow from Rigel VI. Both colors and qualities of light glinted off the domes that covered many of the moon’s craters, encasing lush, terraformed biomes centered on large, ornate cities. One of those cities held a detention center that in turn held the captive pilot along with Mr. Kuldip. “It was one of the decoys, ordered to wait in orbit, get a quantity of rock beamed up to them by the relay, and then follow a preset course. This one was sent to Ryneh because it already had a number of identical G-Sevens, and because Kuldip was on the take.”
“I see,” Reed said, studying the exotic moonscape beyond. As much as security work still felt natural to him, Reed regretted that he had to visit this intriguing locale as an inquisitor rather than an explorer. “Did either of them know anything useful?”
“Afraid not, sir,” Williams said. “We questioned them for hours. Veurk offered them some pretty generous incentives for cooperation—Rigelians have a knack for making deals. They would’ve been happy to play along, but they didn’t have anything much to offer in exchange. Kuldip was just a tourist who got deep in debt to a Family-run casino on Two and had to start doing jobs for them if he wanted to keep all his body parts. Strictly menial stuff—the shipyard’s the closest thing to authority he’s ever had.”