“Come on, kid—fill the bag and let’s go.”

Leo quickly packed up the satchel—handling each core gentler than he knew he needed to—and then closed the storage unit. “Got ’em.”

“Then let’s make like shepherds and get the flock out of here.” Activating the communicator on his belt, the captain hailed Kat. “Spock, this is Kirk. We’ve got the juice. You good?”

“All finished here. Meet you back at the air lock. And stop calling me Spock. You know I have no idea who that is.”

Leo looked at the unconscious Darkashi lying in the doorway, pale green lids closed over his bulging eyes. Leo could tell he was alive by the ripple of tiny slits lining the underside of his pointed chin. “What do we do with him? Just leave him here?”

“You want to take him with us?” Baz countered. “Contrary to popular opinion I actually prefer not to take on stragglers from every ship I board.”

Leo had to jog to keep up with Baz, the now heavy satchel banging against his side, glancing behind him with every step, waiting for an ambush of some kind. His limited experience with Baz suggested that this was about the time when something terrible should happen. Security bots swarming out from the side halls with guns ablaze or a former significant other pointing a rifle at your head. If Leo had learned anything about being a pirate it was not to let your guard down.

So he was a little surprised—though not at all disappointed—to find no platoon of armed Darkashi waiting for them by the hatch. Just Boo and Kat, the latter’s bag looking not nearly as full as the one on Leo’s shoulder, the former picking something out of his chest hair. “Dried gyurt,” Boo said, giving it a sniff. “Or maybe snot. Can’t really tell.”

Doesn’t say much for the gyurt, Leo thought.

“Mission accomplished?” Baz asked, nodding toward the bag slung across Kat’s mechanical arm.

“More or less,” she said with a shrug. “You?”

The captain glanced at Leo. The look felt loaded. “More or less,” he repeated. “I told you we’d find something out here.”

“Oh, I knew we’d find something,” Kat replied. “I’m just glad it was what we were looking for, for a change.”

Back on the Icarus, the boarding hatch sealed and ready for separation, Leo was still bewildered at how easy it had been. Not a single shot fired. No screaming sirens. No prolonged standoffs like the one he’d witnessed between Baz and Captain Saito of the Beagle. In and out, just like Black had promised.

Leo wondered if it was just easier for the Darkashi to give the pirates what they wanted rather than try and fight them for it. Maybe that’s just how the whole universe operated: the ones with the guns took what they wanted while the ones without hid behind locked doors and waited for them to go away and leave them in peace. At least until the next guys with even bigger guns came along.