Robert’s knuckles whitened as he gripped the controls, his jaw clenching. The familiar swirl of foldspace streamed past the canopy, but it offered little comfort. Not with that ominous amber blip still dogging their trajectory.

  “Talk to me, Ace,” his eyes were flicking between the sensor readouts. “What are we up against here?”

  The AI’s voice remained even, almost unnaturally calm. “Based on the sensor profiles, the configuration suggests a modified Kythiran long-hauler, though the weapons and propulsion signatures have been upgraded.”

  Robert’s brow furrowed. “So a freighter with some aftermarket muscle. That’s great.” His gaze hardened. “But it can’t outrun us in open space, can it?”

  “Theoretically?” Ace’s synthesized tones took on a contemplative quality. “No. We’ve modified the ship to be as fast as possible. The Acus’Rube should be able to outrun anything but a dedicated military interceptor.” A telltale flicker of hesitation. “But this is no ordinary freighter, Robert. These propulsion modifications are sophisticated - we’d go so far as to say cutting-edge. Whoever’s behind this has some very deep pockets.”

  Robert’s jaw tightened as the implications sank in. “So much for an easy escape,” he said under his breath. A terse nod. “All right, get ready to get fancy with those evasive maneuvers, buddy. I’ll keep them steady, you feed me the vectors.”

  Ace’s confirmation was a low, droning chord that echoed through the deck plates underfoot. “You got it. Stand by for our mark.”

  For a few endless heartbeats, the only sound was the subliminal hum of the hybrid drive core and the faint whisper of the ship’s atmospheric recyclers.

  “Mark!”

  The first jolt came without warning, a dizzying snap-roll coupled with a bone-crunching sideways lurch that slammed Robert against the inertial restraints. He grunted against the sudden strain, struggling to keep the Acus’Rube’s nose level as they corkscrewed through the hyperspatial eddies.

  “A little warning next time?” he managed through clenched teeth.

  If Ace registered the joke, he gave no sign. “Acquiring new vector. Stand by to reverse acceleration on our mark... mark!”

  With a shudder, the hybrid system came to a halt. After a disorienting moment, they found themselves suspended in the chromatic lull between velocity states.

  With a teeth-gnashing jerk, the drive spun up again. Robert blinked away a haze of static as his vision adjusted.

  “Status?” he dragged himself back to full situational awareness.

  “They’re falling behind,” Ace said with what sounded almost like satisfaction. “But not by much. We are rerouting auxiliary power to boost the thermal dispersion matrix. We’re going to need everything she can give us.”

  The hybrid drive kicked up another notch with a resonant whine, the deck plating shuddering under Robert’s boots. The curving space-time vortices outside took on a stomach-churning blur, like watching a whirlpool spin faster and faster.

  He gritted his teeth against the rising tide of acceleration, forcing himself to stay lucid. “Whatever it takes,” he said with a snarl. “Just keep us ahead of these crazy bastards.”

  Chased and pursued, they plunged deeper into the maelstrom of the exodisk, leaving a wake of fractalized turbulence to mark their passage.

  The kaleidoscopic vortices of foldspace twisted and warped around the Acus’Rube’s sleek hull as Robert wrestled with the controls. Every nerve was on fire, his muscles tensing against the brutal G-forces of Ace’s evasive maneuvers.

  “He’s still on us!” Robert said between clenched teeth, sweat beading on his brow. On the sensor displays, the ominous amber blip was still following their trajectory - closer now, its arc tightening with each failed attempt to shake their pursuer.

  “Brace for full reversion,” Ace’s level tones warned.

  Robert’s knuckles whitened at the controls. In the same instant, the hybrid drive shut down with a sharp jolt, the ship’s momentum bleeding away in a dizzying spiral of gravitic eddies. His body floated, untethered, for the briefest of moments.

  With a bone-crunching jolt, the drive spooled back up, this time burning at full thermal output, hurling them back along the inverse of their original vector. Static bursts exploded across Robert’s vision as g-forces spiked, the vortex tunnel around them blurring into a chromatic smear.

  Somehow, through sheer force of will, he rode out the maneuver. When his vision cleared, the amber speck had receded further, but not far enough.

  “He’s still with us,” Robert said with a growl, willing himself back to full alertness. “What else you got, Ace?”

  “We are rerouting all non-critical systems to boost thermal buffers,” the AI said, his synthetic baritone humming with intensity. “Prepare for a maximum-stress translation burn on our mark.”

  Robert braced himself and took a steady breath. Around them, the vortex tunnel lengthened as the Acus’Rube’s hybrid drive kicked back into gear with a rising whine.

  “Mark!”

  Accompanied by a deep tremor that shook Robert to his core, the drive surged to full thermal power, then beyond, the thermal buffers struggling to dissipate the excess energy as it raced through space like a projectile from a mass driver cannon.

  Everything went white as the ship translated back into normal space-time. Then reality reasserted itself in a dizzying rush of stellar backdrops and crystalline planetary bodies whizzing past the canopy.

  On the sensor boards, Robert watched the amber blip fall farther and farther behind, unable to match their speed through that final, punishing burn. A ragged cheer escaped his lips as the blip shrank to a mere speck against the star fields.

  “That’s it!” he crowed, slapping the console in a burst of wild elation. “We lost him, Ace! We actually lost that crazy son of a…”

  “Hold that thought.” The AI’s tones remained even, relentless. “We’re not sure yet. Prepare to initiate folding sequence for the return jump.”

  Ace was right, Robert realized with a sobering jolt. They’d shaken their pursuer, but they were still deep in uncharted space, light years from anything resembling civilized territory. If that modified freighter got a bead on their exit vector…

  The vortex tunnel reasserted itself around the ship’s edges, the star fields swirling in dizzying new geometries as the hybrid drive spun up for translation into foldspace. Robert gripped the controls with renewed determination, his bravado fading as quickly as it had appeared.

  This was the real test. If Wido or his masters had somehow extrapolated their jump coordinates…

  The drive surged again with a resonant shudder, throwing them back into the chromatic void between spatial dimensions. Robert held his breath, watching the sensor panels with an intensity that bordered on desperation.

  At first there was nothing, then came the endless swirl of kaleidoscopic vortices and the barely audible hum of the atmospheric recyclers. Then a single amber blip appeared on the outermost scans, wavered at the edge of sensor range.

  Ace’s synthetic tones rang out. “Fold translation complete. Bogey is still tracking, but at extreme range. We’re well ahead of them for the return leg.”

  The tension drained from Robert’s frame in a rush, leaving him dizzy with profound relief. He slumped back on the crash couch, drawing a ragged breath.

  “I told you I’d get us out of here,” he managed with a faint grin.

  If the AI registered the bravado, he gave no sign. “We’re not out of the woods yet. That pursuit ship is still on our tail, and whoever’s behind it has resources to spare. Once we’re back in civilized space, our first priority must be to determine how they tracked us across interstellar distances.”

  Robert nodded, feeling every one of the brutal g-forces from their desperate series of evasive maneuvers. “You’re right,” he admitted. “As always.”

  But for now, with the vortex tunnel swirling around them and the reassuring throb of the hybrid drive pushing them ever closer to home, he allowed himself a moment to just be, to let the lingering adrenaline drain away and to catch his breath.

  They’d bought themselves a reprieve, however temporary. And sometimes, in the life they lived, that was victory enough.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  * * *

  Wido’s entire being rumbled with suppressed rage as the picobots released their grip. This human outlaw had blindsided him, outmaneuvered him in a way that left him humiliated. To be frozen in mid-chase was an indignity the seasoned assassin had never experienced.

  As rage surged through his veins, Wido fought back the uncharacteristic emotion. Losing control served no purpose. He was Thepolian - cold rationality defined his existence. But this human had provoked an unacceptable reaction. Wido analyzed the situation with clinical distance.

  Fennec’s words replayed in his mind, the casual dismissal of being “GreenNet” - some underground conspiracy theorist Felda wanted eliminated. It made little sense. During their brief interaction, Fennec had exuded conviction, belief in whatever crusade was driving his actions. Those were not hollow ramblings of a deluded malcontent.

  The transponder theft muddied the waters even further. Such items had no value on any black market, only practical use for interstellar travel. Wido’s instincts, honed by decades of covert operations, nagged that something about this human’s motivations didn’t add up.

  His quarry’s abilities were also troubling. The access and use of the limited picobots showed ingenuity and quick thinking. That Fennec escaped instead of killing Wido when the human had the chance cast doubt on the Minister’s contract. Felda’s contract briefing painted him as a threat to be neutralized. A player. Someone who had agreed to some unwritten rules that made him a valid target.

  Wido refused to dwell on the remaining uncertainties. He operated on facts, not gut feelings. A core tenet of the SSS was to fulfill contracts without questioning ethics. The Guild’s guidelines were sacrosanct - failure to abide by them had fatal consequences.

  Still, one fact gave him pause - Felda was obfuscating crucial details about Fennec’s alleged crimes. Such obfuscation bordered on breach of treaty protocols. The minister’s desperation smacked more of a personal vendetta than surgical precision.

  Felda’s potential breach was worrisome.

  With the mental clutter pushed aside, Wido focused on his next aim - intercepting the human before he escaped the system. Upon returning to his ship, he initiated scans to track the ion trail of Fennec’s vessel.

  Wido’s footsteps resounded with calculated weight upon entering the cockpit of his personal starship. The sleek black hull of the ship blended with the shadows of the cavernous hangar, reflecting his own innate stealth.

  He settled into the pilot’s chair, long fingers dancing over the controls with practiced ease. The engines came alive while the status monitors ran diagnostics. Wido paused for a moment, his violet eyes narrowing in concentration.

  His formidable mind parsed every scrap of data collected on Robert Fannec, the human who had eluded his grasp. What had begun as a routine assignment was now festering with far too many unknowns for Wido’s liking. He prided himself on being able to operate with absolute certainty.

  He accessed long-range scanners; he isolated the unmistakable ion trail of an unknown ship amidst the debris field. Its signature did not match any registered civilian or military vessel - customized, no doubt, to aid in Fennec’s illicit activities.

  A grin played across Wido’s thin lips as he entered the coordinates. The hunt was on.

  With a subtle lurch, Wido’s starship banked hard, its powerful engines propelling them in pursuit of the outlaw human. Sensor displays gave him a real-time vector, allowing him to catch up despite the prey’s considerable lead.

  He cursed the human’s ingenuity. This modified ship was far superior to his own in speed and maneuverability. At this rate, it was unlikely he could overtake them before they could launch a spacefold.

  His ship angled through the chaotic asteroid belt that separated them from the supply point, Wido’s focus sharpened to a single goal - to disable the human’s ship and interrogate him.

  With deft control, he weaved between tumbling chunks of rock, closing the distance between them and the source of the vapor trail. A fleeting sense of pride sparked within him as proximity sensors registered his prey’s signature dead ahead.

  So the human thought to use this debris field to escape, did he? Foolish. This was his element - the place most sentients feared to tread.

  A distant speck in the chaos dissolved into the sleek form of Fennec’s mysterious ship. Its powerful engines roared, pushing it through a dense cluster of asteroids.

  Wido’s ship surged forward in a burst of acceleration, pushing every thruster to its limit as he shadowed his prey’s evasive maneuvers. Proximity beacons blared, but he ignored them - allowing for the smallest of safety margins. It was the only way to prevent the human from jumping into the fold.

  Weapon capacitors cycled as his targeting systems locked on to Robert’s engines. He wanted to inflict enough damage to cripple them without triggering a catastrophic overload, which was well within his capabilities. Hands poised over the firing bolt, Wido prepared to -

  His thoughts scattered as a tremendous impact knocked his ship sideways, throwing him from his seat. External cameras flashed with the explosive decompression of a hull breach somewhere aft. Warning lights screamed of critical system failures as emergency bulkheads slammed shut.

  After recovering from the disorienting blow, Wido cross-referenced his position with the tactical displays. The debris analysis painted a clear picture - his own single-minded pursuit had left him vulnerable to an unseen gravitational shear, one powerful enough to hurl a rogue asteroid into his ship.

  He spat a vicious Thepolian curse as the full extent of the damage became clear. The maneuvering thrusters were offline, as were weapons and navigation. Only stubborn life support and short-range propulsion kept them from drifting dead in space.

  Wido struggled to regain what little control he had over his listing ship. Through the forward viewport of the cockpit, he watched Fennec’s ship disappear into a space fold.

  Wido allowed himself a rare moment of respite, his body loosening from its rigid posture as the adrenaline drained away. The human had escaped, that much was certain. But it was a temporary setback - one that could be rectified with the abundance of clues now at his disposal.

  He replayed the frantic chase through the asteroid field, analyzing every decision with cold objectivity. In his haste to prevent Robert from space-folding, he’d sacrificed caution for reckless aggression. An amateur mistake, driven by the disturbing way this human provoked an emotional response.

  No, such sloppiness was unacceptable for someone of his skill and experience. Allowing himself to be rattled by Fannec’s antics did nothing more than give the human a head start. A tactical mistake he would not repeat.

  Wido’s eyes narrowed as he considered his next move.

  A bitter taste filled Wido’s mouth as he realized that his overconfidence had given Fennec an escape route. But now the playing field was reset to his advantage - the assassin’s natural stalking grounds of deep space, far from prying eyes or interference.

  There, he had every advantage of skill, resources, and the fact that humans were ill-suited to the void. Fennec’s ingenuity would be for naught when Wido cornered his prey in the middle of this abandoned mining operation.

  With his long fingers twisted, Wido leaned back in his pilot’s chair, considering his next move. The human Robert Fannec had eluded him for now, but the assassin knew where his target lived, and there was no hurry. Wido needed to visit the source of this entire operation - Minister Felda Shleak.

  The possible breach of contract nagged at Wido’s pragmatic mind. Such violations had serious consequences within the Guild of System Security Specialists, consequences he could ill afford. Shleak’s desperation reeked of a personal agenda, a line no professional assassin dared cross.

  After accessing his encrypted comms array, Wido began a secure uplink to the SSS’s netherworld of handlers and facilitators. By navigating their labyrinthine protocols, he triggered an emergency alert, citing suspected code violations by a high-level client.

  In a matter of seconds, the holoprojector on his console displayed the distorted image of an unidentified moderator. The masked figure’s synthetic voice crackled with the white noise of heavy encryption.

  “State your grievance, operative.”

  Wido wasted no words. “Minister Felda Shleak of the Aligned Core District has violated several treaty guidelines regarding the targeted neutralization of one Robert Fannec.”

  “Clarify the nature of those violations.” The synthetic voice remained steady.

  “During the initial briefing, the Minister omitted crucial details regarding Fannec’s alleged crimes and threat level. My investigation has since uncovered evidence that contradicts his portrayal as a threat requiring immediate termination.”

  The cloaked form of the moderator offered no reaction. “You claim Shleak’s motives indicate a personal vendetta rather than a sanctioned contract?”

  “Affirmative,” Wido said with a curt nod. “Fannec’s actions demonstrate an ulterior agenda beyond the Minister’s claims of destabilizing conspiracies. His methods and stated intentions are at odds with Shleak’s mission.”

  “Have you made any effort to ascertain the truth from Fannec himself?” The question carried a subtle undercurrent of reproach.

  Wido refused to be baited by such tactics. “I attempted an interrogation, but the human managed to escape before providing any substantial information. However, my preliminary findings indicate that Shleak’s grievances are most likely because of unknown personal motives rather than legitimate political targeting.”

  The moderator’s disguise remained impassive. “You are aware of the seriousness of filing an unfounded complaint against one of our esteemed clients?”

  “I am well versed in the protocols of the Guild. Therefore, I would not risk making such an accusation without substantial evidence of its validity. Shleak’s potential breach has far more dire consequences than a single failed contract.”

  There was an ominous silence before the synthetic voice responded. “Your report will be filed and reviewed by the appropriate councils. Further instructions will follow, pending their assessment of the alleged violations. We urge your full cooperation should any further inquiries arise.”

  With that final proclamation, the encrypted channel ended, leaving Wido alone with the flashing diagnostics of his damaged ship’s controls. He allowed himself a measured exhalation, releasing the tension coiled in his lean musculature.

  Wido glanced out through the reinforced viewports. He studied the glittering expanse of stars, spinning in arcs against the infinite blackness. Out there, the human fugitive Robert Fannec continued his flight - but Wido no longer felt the same urgency to pursue.

  Shleak’s potential breach trumped even the most sensitive contract, for it struck at the integrity of the SSS itself. No operative worth his wetwork certification would dare ignore such a violation, regardless of its source or rationale. The Guild’s codes were inviolable, its reputation for professionalism sacrosanct.

  By invoking the formal grievance process, Wido set the wheels of the SSS’s own draconian disciplinary procedures in motion. The minister would face intense scrutiny from the guild’s overseers, with any impropriety or infraction meriting harsh repercussions. Felda was not having a good time.

  The sting of humiliation he’d felt at Fennec’s cunning escape faded into insignificance. Fannec was a momentary distraction from Wido’s core purpose - maintaining order and enforcing the guild’s strict ethics through the calculated use of force.

  Shleak’s transgressions would not go unanswered. The guild’s councils would seek the truth with their trademark ruthless efficiency. Whether Robert proved to be a misguided victim or an orchestrator of conspiracies mattered little to Wido.

  He knew once the facts were known, harsh retribution would follow for those who dared to defy the SSS codes.