In the memory, Sergeant Cisneros looked at each of the new recruits in turn.

  They were privates fresh out of training. While his uniform bore many badges and other insignia, theirs were pin.

  The one gnced at him, eyeing him meekly from under her patrol cap. The things that he would do to her if she let him.

  The range facility felt like every other range facility. A small clearing had been carved out of humid wilderness. Simple wooden and cinderblock buildings had been erected. Signage gave clear, obnoxious instructions. Foul graffiti full of jargon had been written with ballpoint pens.

  Military vehicles were parked in a perfect row. Spools of bright yellow cable had been hauled out of the trucks. Soldiers stood around, waiting, always waiting, so little time left, and still waiting.

  “I love det cord, it’s so versatile,” Sergeant Cisneros said to one of the other NCOs.

  The other man was fully immersed in the role, wearing the gruffness and love of the brutal life like a second skin, “You can certainly do some fun stuff with it.”

  Sergeant Cisneros spoke like he was enraptured, “With the right kind of imagination, you can do a lot of incredible things with exploding rope.”

  A pin concrete wall had been built for this purpose. Their task was to bst a hole into it, one which would be rge enough for troops to pass through.

  The newbies stuck the det cord to the wall, arranged the ropes into different shapes. One went with a pin square. Another chose to make a triangle, hoping that it would make the bst more effective. The one with the gsses got a good ugh out of everyone when he formed his into the outline of a person.

  After some thought the cute girl settled on a simple square with an X through the middle, like a box had been ticked.

  They set off each of the privates’ projects in turn. Slow motion footage of each bst was viewed by the troops and analyzed by the sergeants. They all watched in fascination as the explosion traveled up the length of the cord and at incredible speeds. The whole length of it went up, destroying whatever it came into contact with.

  ***

  The Erarat that was standing next to the pallet load of weapons suddenly sprang up, leaping away from the danger. It rocketed up the ceiling, nding on one of the rafters, where it held fast, staring down at them with its oval shaped eye clusters. Eli was unable to see if it was anywhere near Gami, and he didn’t dare to spend much time trying to spot her.

  The other Erarat stared at Eli and Tarl down the barrels of their guns. They knew that one wrong move and all of those weapons would be turned into sg.

  A series of short beeps on the com. This was one of Gami’s signals that she had gone over with Eli and Tarl. It meant that she was in close proximity to a hostile and was therefore incapable of movement or communication without compromising herself.

  “If you want to cut some kind of a deal, I’m listening!” Eli shouted.

  “Remove the explosives and leave,” Hexul, the head Erarat commanded.

  “Not without my money.”

  “If you remove the explosives and leave, we will give you a five-minute head start.”

  Eli let out a frustrated sigh.

  “This guy’s one tough negotiator,” Tarl quipped.

  “It’ll be fine,” Eli assured him, “We’ll wear him down,” then he called out to Hexul again, “Tell you what, for every ten grand that you give me, I’ll remove one of the strips of det cord.”

  “For every weapon that is damaged,” the Erarat countered, “I’ll remove a strip of your skin.”

  Eli considered his response. He had no doubt that the threat wasn’t an idle one. These things had demonstrated their willingness to act in an underhanded way. Their attitudes told him that, for whatever reason, they believed that they had both the right and the ability to do whatever they wanted.

  “We’ve got company!” Tarl excimed.

  “How far out?” Eli asked.

  “They decloaked right outside the psma screen!”

  Eli gnced backward, peering down the side of his ship and out of the psma window. Sure enough, green and dark grey had repced the brown and bck of the asteroid field and the void beyond.

  “Can we escape?” Eli asked the pilot.

  “Negative. We could fit through the space between the ship and the asteroid, but they’ve got a lot of firepower and several tractor beams. We wouldn’t get far.”

  “Damn. Any idea who they are?”

  “None. The ship cks any markings whatsoever. I do recognize the design, a fast attack cruiser used by several big militaries. They’re helmsmen must be amazing to have gotten them here in one piece.”

  “Who are your friends?” Eli shouted at Hexul.

  “They aren’t our friends. They are a pirate group that call themselves the Damatok Wraiths. They are here to demand protection money.”

  “And you’ve got the money, right?”

  “We do not,” it said curtly, “You are under the same storm cloud as us.”

  “How so?”

  “Because they will take your ship too.”

  “They can try,” Eli countered.

  “They certainly will. That is why I propose a temporary alliance.”

  Eli gave it a few seconds of thought, “Make it a non-aggression pact and you’ve got a deal.”

  “Agreed.”

  No sooner was this said, than Tarl reported that a craft had unched from the ship. It swooped into the hangar. The thing was all guns and engines, with wide doors on the sides and rear. The paint job was red, purple, and bck, and it bore no emblems or other identifying marks. It settled down in the only open space that remained, which was a bit off to the left of where cavalier was parked.

  ***

  Gami was fully immersed in her training. Muscle memory took over. Thousands of years of knowledge locked itself into pce. This was the kind of control that only the most determined, disciplined, and expertly guided individuals can obtain.

  She was hanging upside down from one of the rafters, her legs wrapped around the support. One of the Erarat had leapt from the floor, clear to the ceiling. It had taken everything she had been built up to be for her to stay in pce. Using her cybernetic link, she sent her comrades the signal that updated them on her situation.

  Gami slowly adjusted her position. Her movements were smooth, yet imperceptibly slow. The barrel of her sniper rifle rose gently, like the sunrise.

  The fleshy, many limbed thing continued to stay in pce. She knew that it saw in a panorama. This was beyond her mind’s ability to fully comprehend. But that didn’t matter, what mattered was the fact that its mind was able to handle those inputs, that it was able to see in 360 degrees. Was it fully aware of what every eye cluster was seeing at all times or was it more or less focused on Eli and Tarl? Going with the prudent assumption that it could still see perfectly out of the eye cluster that was pointed at her, she kept moving at a slow, even pace.

  Tarl gave his warning. The temptation to move her head to take a look was heavy. She resisted it. Even when the pirates boarded the facility, she only allowed herself the slowest movements. Craning her neck ever so much to see would have to do. The question burned in her mind, when to go loud?