Alerted by Negasi’s warning, Jeridan was already scanning the cargo hold by the time Negasi ran in, gripping his scanner and wearing only his underwear.

  “I came as fast as I could,” his gunner huffed.

  “I can see that. Do you think it’s appropriate to run past a little girl in your underwear?”

  “Nova can kill me later. We have to find that tracker and space it!”

  “You can say that again,” Jeridan said, scanning the crates.

  “We have to find that tracker and space it.”

  “You hang out with a kid for an hour and you’re already saying dad jokes?”

  “It’s the xenoanthropology training.”

  “Huh?”

  “Kids are aliens. Don’t you know anything?”

  Jeridan went down one aisle of crates while Negasi went down another. How could a transmitter have gotten on board? Negasi must have slipped up. He’d kick his ass at chessboxing this afternoon. Teach him a lesson.

  Then he found it. The transmission was coming from inside one of Nova’s crates.

  He hit the ship-wide comm link, a little metal disk he had put on his lapel.

  “Nova, one of your crates has a tracker in it.”

  The only response he got was a loud string of curses. Jeridan tut-tutted and continued to scan. Just because he had found one didn’t mean there wasn’t another.

  He was halfway done when Nova ran in, still cursing.

  “Where is it?”

  Jeridan walked over to the crate. “Here.”

  “Thanks. Go scan the rest of the cargo hold.”

  Jeridan and Nova stared at each other for a moment.

  She doesn’t want me to see what’s inside that crate. Well, fair enough. I don’t want her to see what’s inside our crates.

  How do I get myself into these messes?

  Oh right. Negasi. He’s always getting me in trouble. I’ll kick his ass later.

  Jeridan and Negasi went back to scanning. Jeridan worked his way to the end of the cargo and, as quietly as he could, clambered on top of some crates so he could peek over and see what Nova was doing. The top crate was slightly smaller than the rest, giving him a few centimeters to balance his feet on, his hands gripping the edge.

  His boss had opened up the crate and pulled out a mid-sized transmitter. It would have been easily visible on the hull, so someone had stashed it in the crate. Its larger size accommodated a stronger transmit power, strong enough to go through the hull and reach whoever was listening in.

  But what else was in that crate? What was she hiding? From this angle, Jeridan couldn’t quite see. Nova stood half turned away from him. She had pulled out a screwdriver and was busy opening up the transmitter to dismantle it. Jeridan straightened up a bit, exposing his head and shoulders and hoping Nova didn’t suddenly turn around.

  He still couldn’t see. Nova had gotten the transmitter open now and started detaching one of the circuit boards. That would take her a few seconds. Jeridan stood up to full height.

  His eyes bugged. Inside the crate were several glassteel tubes, and inside them …

  Aurora walked through the cargo hold door.

  Jeridan ducked back behind the top crate, but moved so fast his foot slipped from its narrow hold and he tumbled off the crates, landing on the floor with a loud bang.

  “Damn it, Negasi, look where you’re going!” Jeridan shouted.

  “My bad,” he said from somewhere else in the cargo hold. His partner was good at picking up cues.

  The sound of running feet. Jeridan got up just in time to see Negasi come around the corner. A moment later, so did Aurora.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “He bumped into me,” Jeridan said.

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  “I dropped the scanner on his foot,” Negasi said at the same time.

  They looked at each other.

  “So which is it?” the girl asked.

  They pointed at each other. “What he said.”

  Aurora rolled her eyes. “You guys are such dorks.”

  Jeridan puffed out his chest. “What are you talking about? I’m the best pilot in the spaceways, and Negasi is a reasonably competent gunner.”

  “What are you talking about?” Negasi said, punching him in the shoulder. “I’m the best gunner in the spaceways and you suck as a pilot.”

  “Who got us out of that firefight?”

  “I did!”

  “No, I did!”

  Aurora rolled her eyes again and walked away. Jeridan gave Negasi a wink.

  “What happened?” the gunner asked in a whisper.

  “That crate with the transmitter has biotubes,” Jeridan whispered back.

  Negasi’s eyes widened. “What’s in them?”

  “Not sure. They were embryos. And they looked bipedal.”

  Negasi’s eyes widened even more. “Sentient?”

  “Maybe. Most bipedal species are.”

  “Human?”

  Jeridan licked his lips, and whispered so softly he could barely hear himself. “Maybe.”

  Nova’s voice made them both jump.

  “You guys find any others?” she called.

  “No. We’re still looking.”

  Jeridan and Negasi scrambled to get back to work. After another five minutes of scanning the cargo hold, they found it secure.

  They rejoined Nova and Aurora, who had moved away from the crate with the biotubes and to a worktable. The transmitter sat on the table, two of its circuit boards removed. Aurora was tinkering around inside, obviously interested in figuring out how it worked.

  “Any idea how that ended up in your … cargo?” Jeridan asked.

  Nova shook her head, frowning. “Now it makes sense how the Mantids could follow us all this time. We’ve had this cargo for a while now. One of my old crew loaded it. He must have taken a bribe to put the transmitter inside, where he knew we wouldn’t look until delivery. By then, it would be too late. He was one of the ones captured by the Mantids. I had assumed they had killed him, but I guess that was just for show. He’s probably kicking back on some nice planet living off a fat bribe.”

  “More likely he got turned into dinner,” Jeridan said. “The Syndicate isn’t exactly famous for honest dealing.”

  “You think they ate him?” Aurora asked, looking up. “I hope so.”

  “We’ll, I’m not hoping to join him at the dinner table,” Jeridan said. “Nova, why don’t we put that tracker together again and send it in another direction on a probe?”

  Nova shook her head. “I need the probes, and they’ll detect the lapse in transmission. Besides, we might need it ourselves sometime.”

  “But they know where we are,” Negasi objected.

  “Not for long,” Nova said. “Assuming they got out of that firefight—”

  “They did,” Jeridan said.

  “—they wouldn’t be able to get to light speed before getting out of the solar system. They’re way behind us. By the time they get to this position, we’ll be long gone.”

  “Unless they have long-range sensors advanced enough to follow us,” Negasi said.

  “Only advanced planet militaries have that kind of tech,” Nova said.

  “Let’s hope so,” Jeridan grumbled. “Let’s get back to the cockpit. Nova, tell the S’ouzz where we should go and have him get us there as fast as possible.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Nova said.

  They hurried down the corridor. Negasi returned to the turret and Aurora went off somewhere as well, perhaps to check on that mysterious little brother he and Negasi still hadn’t talked to.

  Once back in the cockpit, Jeridan settled down and checked the sensors. Still no sign of pursuit. Fine by him. He watched as Nova punched in the coordinates and sent them to the astronavigator.

  To his surprise, the usually silent S’ouzz sent back a request for confirmation.

  Nova hit the confirm command. Curious, Jeridan looked up the coordinates.

  “Capella Epsilon? Isn’t that a savage world?”

  “Yes.”

  “If it’s got a preserved pre-Civil War space station, why is it still savage?”

  “The space station isn’t there. The coordinates are,” Nova replied.

  “Huh?”

  “Derren hid a memory chip on the planet with the coordinates. He didn’t want to keep it on the Antikythera’s systems or on any of our personal tablets. So he hid the coordinates on a savage planet where no one would think to look and went around gathering everything he needed for a major scavenge.”

  “But you’ve been to this station, right? Or at least found some records of it. That’s stored on the AI. An expert can circumvent even the most diligent memory wiping program. It’s been that way since the early Cyber Age.”

  “Not if you destroy the AI,” Nova said in a quiet voice.

  Jeridan gaped. Without him really realizing it, his hand strayed to his holster.

  “You killed an AI? A true AI?”

  Nova looked at him and frowned. “My late husband did, without my knowledge and without my permission. By the time I got back to the Antikythera, he had already replaced it. Are you one of those people who believe that AIs are sentient species?”

  Jeridan turned fully to her and glowered. “Yes.”

  Nova hung her head and whispered, “So do I.”

  Jeridan stared at the console, wondering what MIRI thought about all this.

  “So that’s why such a good ship had a substandard system. Not a real AI at all. Barely above missile level. It didn’t even have a personality interface.”

  “We’re glad to have MIRI aboard,” Nova said. “She’s top of the line.”

  Jeridan gave his new boss a sharp look. “Damn right she is, and if you get any ideas of wiping her, I swear by Earth that I’ll … ”

  Nova met his eye. “I’d never do that.”

  Jeridan studied her for a minute. He had met a lot of shady people in his time, and worked for plenty of them. Nova Bradford was obviously someone with a lot to hide, but she could have lied and said they had changed out the AI, or had gone to the station on another ship. Instead, she had told the truth. She was leveling with him.

  At least about this.

  And he believed she wouldn’t wipe an AI. Maybe. If given enough of a reason? Well …

  A warning tone told them they had passed through the Oort Cloud and were about to go to light speed. Jeridan strapped in while Nova checked in with Aurora.

  “I’m with him,” the girl’s voice came over the comm link. “We’re strapping in.”

  “Your son is pretty shy, huh?” Jeridan said.

  Nova checked on some controls and didn’t answer.

  “Is there anything I should know?” he pressed.

  “He’s fine. Leave him alone.”

  Jeridan shrugged. “Just asking. As captain, I’m responsible for the safety of the ship, its cargo, and its crew.”

  “You take care of the ship. I’ll take care of my family.”

  And those secret bioforms you got in the hold.

  The Antikythera jumped to light speed, and they headed off to one of the many worlds that had, after the Galactic Civil War, descended into savagery.

  And as Jeridan knew from bitter experience, those were the most dangerous planets in the known galaxy.