Where Weavers Daire

Chapter Two

RUNAWAY

"She's getting away!" Jainey's voice said in Thomas' ear.

"Not for long," he said and twisted Toy's control sticks. "I need you to suit up."

The snub-nosed salvage hauler came about without slowing. Thomas fired the maneuvering thrusters and lined up the silver gleam of the shuttle in the middle of Toy's targeting HUD. The crosshairs locked on and the distance to target clicked away at a good pace.

He eased off the thrusters and inched the in-system drive throttles ahead to one quarter. The rumble of the engines actually soothed, all things considered.

The distance to target on the HUD stopped advancing.

"You need me to what?" Jainey's voice barely said over the rattling of the deck plates.

The shuttle jerked away, but Thomas eased Toy to starboard. He nudged the throttles to three quarters ahead.

The distance to target clicked down by one kilometer then another.

"Suit up," Thomas said. He reached out and twisted dials, so the communication array was refocused on the dim smudge behind the target. "Mindy, if you can hear me, I need you to let go. We're right behind you."

"What is she hanging on to?" Jainey's voice said.

"I don't know, but whoever is flying that ship doesn't have a clue," Thomas said and twisted the control sticks.

The engine dials were still in the green and nowhere near in the red. "Thank you, Geri, for sinking enough money into Toy to outrun almost anything pedestrian," Thomas said. "Computer, best guess on where they're going?"

One of the dash monitors refreshed with a dotted line right towards free space.

"Zoom out, what else is out here with civilization?" Thomas said.

The monitor refreshed with a sole circle blinked in the middle of the screen: STUK'S HOLLOW, 75% CHANCE OF DESTINATION.

"Count me down to the Stukari Border," Thomas said and reached back to the dials for the defense suite. "I'm spooling up the defense suite. There's gonna be a bump."

Jainey's head popped into view. "You want me to what?"

Thomas eased his hands away from the defense suite toggles. "I said, suit up. We've got enough power to overtake them. I need you suited up to grab Mindy and slice whatever she's got herself wrapped up in," he said.

"She can let go," Jainey said.

Thomas chanced a look at her. "Oh, you didn't get re-certified, did you?"

"My certifications are perfectly fine," Jainey huffed.

"Mindy gave your group a certification drill and you didn't get to the suits in time, didn't you? She has to stop ending the class with an emergency decompression." Thomas sighed and eased back to half ahead. "What is he doing?"

Jainey squinted through the port hole. "Re-establish communications with her."

"I can't. It's either on her end or ours." Thomas stabbed a few buttons on the overhead control panel to boost his signal. "Mindy, if you can hear me, wave your arms. I can't hear you."

Ten seconds later, the smudge waved about.

"Ten-second delay. Her satellite communications must've taken a hit when she bounced off the ceiling," Jainey said. "You go, I'll fly."