Always on Time

Part 3

After several hours, the shuttle dropped out of warp speed.

"We'll be coming up to your new home soon."

Zedka reached her still shackled hands over to undo her seatbelt and twisted her body so that she could kneel up and look out of the window.

From behind, Ropo could see a change in Zedka. Tension was leaving her body, her shoulders fell, she raised her head up straight.

Ropo walked over to see what she was looking at. A ship was approaching them. It seemed to be heading directly towards their pod but then it veered off towards the front of the shuttle. Ropo craned her neck in an attempt to get it back in her view line, but it was no use. However, shortly the ship came back around. It was closer now, not close enough for her to see who was piloting it, not even with her implants, but she could see that it was a runner, like hers but smaller.

For the meantime, the ship maintained its distance. Out of the corner of her eye, Ropo noticed the comms panel. Something didn't look right, but she couldn't tell what. Ship's fuel was OK. Sensors had detected the other ship, but no ship-to-ship capable weapons were present. Then she saw it. Life support systems were failing in pod seven. Which would initiate the emergency stop procedures. The shuttle ground to a halt. Ropo moved back towards the window. The runner was coming towards them.

Even though they still had a fair distance to cover, she could see three figures through the window of the runner, she could even see their faces. There were two women and one man, her eyes scanned their faces, three criminal records were returned: Kutch Pin, wanted for robbery and murder, Fictu Wanga, wanted for robbery and fraud and lastly, Lizzi Lookona, wanted for eight counts of murder..

"It looks like your friends have come to pla.,"

Zedka turned to Ropo, a smile stretching across her face.

"Don't get your hopes up."

"We're way past hope now," Zedka said confidently. "Maybe you don't have a price, but there's no need for you to get yourself killed. You can head back to your husband and your kids. No one needs to get h,,,"

Suddenly a sound came through the speaker on the comms panel.

"Zedka!"

Ropo pulled out her gun and pointed it at Zedka, who was now reclining on the seats. Apart from her hands being bound she looked positively serene.

"Zedka!" The call came through the speaker again.

"Shall I respond?"

"Tell them that it will be best for everyone if they just turn around and head back where they came from."

Zedka laughed as Ropo flicked the switch on the Comms Panel to transmit.

"Hey friends," she said. "The marshal here is not too happy to see you. Give us a second."

"So, Marshal, what's it going to be?"

"What do you think?"

"OK, so the way I see it, you have two options: you let me walk out of here unharmed or my buddies out there will come in and deprive your little ones of their mother."

Ropo stared back at Zedka, unflinching.

"There's only one logical decision for you Marshal," Sadka said. "Don't throw your life away..."

Ropo now felt an overwhelming sense of unease. Her intuition was confirmed when she began to hear noises from their air lock. They were trying to get in.

"On the platform," Ropo instructed.

"What?" Zedka was confused.

"Lay down on the platform"

Zedka had a perplexed smile but she complied. Ropo made quick movements, using the cargo restraints to secure Zedka. She walked over to the air lock. She could here muffled banging and the sizzle of a laser cutting metal.

Ropo pushed the air lock emergency release lever. Both sets of doors slid open and Ropo and the three space suit clad figures who were trying to enter were sucked out. The airlock closed automatically behind Ropo. At the same time, her exoskeleton began to expand until her whole body was encased. She looked through the visor of the helmet that was now covering her face. Next her thrusters kicked in and she was able to move purposefully rather than drift. The three bandits had similarly oriented themselves and were reaching for their guns. After thinking better of it they left their guns alone and propelled themselves towards her. Small guns were at best pointless and at worst dangerous to their owner in a vacuum. They would have been better off if they had got to her in the pod. She would have been better off if she had been in her runner, with missiles available to her. As it was, they would have to fight it out the old fashioned way.

Ropo powered towards the bandit closest to her. She grabbed the front of his suit with a tight grip. She punched his visor hard. It cracked and a look of horror was etched deep into the creases of his face. She tossed him towards the runner. One of the other bandits followed his body as it zoomed towards the ship. Now there was only one. She looked at her remaining opponent. The bandit had somehow pulled out a knife. She was inching towards Ropo, cautious but determined. Ropo kept an eye on her but kept a distance between them. Numbers were flashing across her eyes. Calculations that she didn't understand, but that would help her to achieve her goal. When they were completed, she pinged a message to the bandit's runner. It responded immediately and sped towards the last remaining bandit, crashing into her from behind and catapulting her off into the distance.

She dialled into the shuttle's comms and patched herself to Larren's station.

"How long until we get back on track?"

"I was wondering when I'd hear from you," Larren said nervously. "There was an incident, we are re-initializing the engines now. We'll be running again in three minutes."

Ropo watched a mechanical arm emerged from the runner and pull in the bandit it had just injured. More lines of code across her eyes and the runner set a new course and headed away.