Both the lieutenant-technician and the captain faced the observation shield when Lily and doctor Puu entered the navigation chamber. The proximity alarm trumpeted again. Lily moaned and staggered and the Verakian siblings turned.

"What's the matter with you?" Vortrand asked.

Doctor Puu spoke on Lily's behalf. "Captain, if I may—"

"Only if you promise to use a great many large words when one smaller word would do."

Curling his lip, doctor Puu said, "The proximity alarm is affecting Lily as it would the manta and its fledglings. I believe her neural link to the juvenile ship also ties her to its parentship."

"That's what I thought too," Reesa said. "How else would she be able to dilate port fissures in the manta?"

"Can you shut that thing off?" Lily hollered while the alarm ramped up again.

Vortrand swiped a few icons on the HOptic tiles floating over the central control dash. The klaxon spluttered out. Cramps convulsing Lily's guts released. She eased off doctor Puu.

"Why would an alarm do that to me?" Lily rubbed her tummy.

"The manta's proximity alarm is a vocalization and an emitted neural pulse to its offspring. Your neural bond causes the same reaction to the pulse a fledgling would have," Reesa said.

"That's just awesome. Who's in our proximity?"

Reesa gestured at the observation shield. Three scrapers hovered before the manta's nose.

Lily frowned. "But that other scraper I talked with didn't set off any alarms."

"That scraper's fade cannons weren't primed and targeting us. Those are," Vortrand said.

"Shit," Lily said when the manta's hail channel came on.

"Manta Cal-zero-zero-twenty-five, this is scraper Cilviri-four-eight-two-twenty, lieutenant Cilviri Relmin piloting, sixth scout regiment. You have a Utori prisoner on board. We would speak with him now."

Relmin. This was the same scraper from before. How did he know they had Vlex in the belly? Lily hadn't told him. Vortrand rubbed a thumb over his chin and stared out at the enemy ships.

"You have twenty peccards to comply. Should you refuse we will open fire, disable, and board your ship under the Unauthorized Detainment Terms of the Tasaki Treaty. You will remand yourselves to our custody until a formal trial is arranged by the Tasaki Council on Interstation." The hail terminated.

Lily gnawed her thumbnail until it bled. Eyes flicked to everyone around her. No one else seemed concerned. Finally, Vortrand gave orders.

"Reesa, stay here with the Pashmi. Get our ie and oe-ampoules to full power. Patch our public hail feed to my private channel."

Reesa nodded and went to work.

About facing, Vortrand headed for the exit. On his way he hooked a hand under Lily's armpit and dragged her along.

"Can't I stay here with them?" She clawed for freedom.

"Nope." Vortrand didn't drop her until they reached the belly.

Vlex loitered at the center of his cell, chin canted up and head tilted to the side, listening. At their approach, a toothy smile widened the commander's mouth.

"A bit sloppy with the perimeters, aren't we?" He asked.

Vortrand smiled back. "Your beacon, is it tech or blood based?"

Vlex's smooth forehead shifted as though he raised his eyebrows. "We must be within Utori claimedspace. Interesting. Relmin is asking for me then?"

"Blood bound are you? We scanned you before tossing you in there and nothing suspicious came up." The smile stretching Vortrand's lips soured. Bringing the talk-round to his mouth, he said, "Is that patch complete?"

"Let me know when you're ready to transmit," Reesa said.

"Ready." Unclasping the talk-round from his wrist, Vortrand handed it to Lily and nudged her forwards. "Hold that up to his cell. Hold down my channel button so he can speak. Release it so Relmin can respond." He unholstered his L-Striker, popped the static cartridge from its chamber and fitted a red, corrosive cartridge in its place.

Lily crept closer to the Utori's pen. Her pace must have annoyed the captain because he said, "He won't touch you." The active Striker aimed at the commander. "Not unless he wants a face full of corrosive rounds."

"There won't be any need for that." Vlex stepped up to the slats of his cell when Lily did. On her tip toes, she held up the talk-round and pressed Vortrand's channel button. Vlex bowed and spoke.

"Lieutenant?" The commander motioned for Lily to release the channel button. The other Utori's voice came through the patched feed.

"Is it you, commander?"

"It is."

"Have you been harmed?"

"Not significantly."

"We are prepared to disable their ship and board unless they release you. Do you have orders?"

Vlex cleared his throat. "You will not disable and board. If Gemmerian agent Kurban Vortrand does not release me, remand Lily Abadie to my custody, and grant us safe passage off his ship in my scraper in the next ten peccards, you are to destroy this manta."

Lily's jaw dropped. Her finger slipped off the channel button.

"But, sire," Relmin said and Vlex pressed the channel button as Lily remained a statue.

"The Arcalis data is within Verakian control. Take no chances with boarding. That data is worth my life. Ten peccards beginning at transmission silence." Vlex released the channel button. Lily dropped her arm and gaped at the commander who looked genuinely contrite. "My sincerest apologies, Lily. Had you accepted my initial offer it might not have come to this."

Vortrand cursed. He yanked Lily away from the cell and jammed his Striker into its holster. The captain pushed her from the belly. Vlex called after them.

"You can still help me, Lily. We can get out of this together. Gemmerian agents are beholden to Command. They own him. An agent's mission is the beat of his heart and the pulse of his blood. If Command orders you handed over to them, your captain will do it."

"Move it, Abadie," Vortrand barked and shoved her ahead of him. "I've got ten peccards to figure this out and your pokey pace isn't helping."

Lily broke into a jog, but that wasn't good enough apparently. The captain picked her up and slung her over his shoulder. She oofed. Hair whipped about her face as he sprinted to the navigation chamber where he set her down and made a beeline for his sister. Doctor Puu sat at the projection table.

"Did you get all that?" Vortrand asked Reesa.

"Yes." The lieutenant-technician pointed at the count down tattooed on the observation shield's HOptic display then she glanced back at Lily. "What are we doing?"

Vortrand monitored the dedicated screens embedded in the central control dash. "How's our ampoule strength?"

"Sixty percent on the oe and forty-five on the ie."

"We need one hundred percent on both kinetic shells."

Laughter burst from Reesa. "You're not getting it."

Drumming his fingers on the dash, Vortrand said, "We can get close if we disable functionality on the first and second tiers for the duration of the sortee."

"We'd need a dual rerouting on the override CPU and in engineering simultaneously."

"I can handle engineering. Page me when you crack the CPU." Vortrand strode for the exit when Reesa shouted at him.

"What exactly are we doing?"

"Getting ready to run," Vortrand said without slowing.

The lieutenant-technician whirled. "There's no way."

Halting, the captain rounded on her. "We have no choice. We cannot turn her over." He jerked his head at Lily. "And since we aren't complying we have seven peccards before they open fire. They'll get a few hits in before we punch into zospace, but they can't take us down before we do and those scrapers can't follow us into particulate chaos."

"They can track our immediate vector if they have phozone meters installed."

"All we have to do is reach Verakian claimedspace and they'll be hamstrung. Pashmi," Vortrand pointed at the doctor who rose from the projection table. "Can you plot a vector?"

"I can."

"Then do it. Get us to the closest station in Verakian claimedspace. Reesa, crack that CPU." Then Vortrand was gone and everyone had a job except Lily. All she could do was bite her lip and dance in place. A cool breeze touched her mind.

"Worry is a waste of imagination and energy. You may need both in the coming ards," doctor Puu said with his back to her.

That tarucheé laced tea the doctor gave her wore off during their synch. Lily didn't feel at all relaxed. She paced behind the doctor, brain alive with backup plans.

"Can't we fire at them?" She asked.

Reesa popped open the panels below the central control dash. On her knees, she stuck her upper half in and began pulling and cutting on wires and flagettes. Lymph dripped from the ship's innards and pooled onto the floor.

"We don't have any zoguns." The space under the control dash turned Reesa's voice into a hollow echo. "Fledglings have an organic version of the weaponry, but the only fully functional fledgling is neurally bonded to you. Kurban won't risk you in a firefight even if the distraction might buy us some time."

"Then we all die?" Lily asked the Verakian woman's backside.

"It's a strong possibility."

Lily quieted. She watched doctor Puu plot their vector. She memorized each point and his sprint schedule then she turned and wandered from the navigation chamber in a daze.

"Lily," doctor Puu called. "Where are you going?"