“The station says ‘Happy hunting,’” Drake said.

The ship lurched as the conveyor belt carried it to one of the station’s many ship-sized airlocks, the inner door sealing behind them and the outer door opening. The station’s manipulator arms picked up the Raven as gently as a mother cat carrying its kittens and deposited it outside, and the reaction wheels whirled to point them in the right direction. They floated weightless against their straps, and Callie shared a smile with Elena.

“Comms are secure,” Janice said. “They aren’t listening to us on the station anymore.”

“OK,” Callie said. “We have to be plausible about this. The official story is we’re taking Elena to Jovian space, dropping her off to start a new life, and then going on to wipe out the pirates on Glauketas.”

“Wait, what?” Elena said. “Pirates?”

“I had to tell the station security chief something so we could get the good guns,” Callie said. “I’m not going on a rescue mission to an alien space station armed with our standard hardware.”

“I approve of us becoming more heavily armed,” Stephen said. “But won’t we be expected to actually capture the pirates at some point?”

“We’ll be expected to try. And if we survive this rescue trip, we will.”

“Hurray,” Stephen said. “If we manage to cheat death, we’ll give death another sporting chance.”

“Let’s take off like we’re heading to Jupiter, Drake. You’ve got the coordinates to pick up the canoe, and it’s on the way. Once we have the generator on board and plugged in, we’ll find a nice quiet bit of space, and… well. We’ll see if this supposed bridge generator actually generates any bridges.”

“Off we go,” Drake said. The ship accelerated, pressing them back into their jump seats hard, but the body-molding gel made it an issue of pressure rather than discomfort. They moved at high speed for a while, then decelerated. “Matching velocity with the canoe,” Drake said. A few moments later: “Picking up the canoe.” There were distant clunks as the smaller vessel was grabbed and tucked into the Raven’s belly. “Resuming acceleration.”

After a while they settled into a steady pace of acceleration, and the ship said, “Ding. Feel free to move about the cabin.”

Callie unstrapped, and Elena followed suit. There was light thrust gravity, enough to keep their feet on the ground without weighing them down. “I’ve got some bad news, Elena,” Callie said. “Someone decided to play target practice with the Anjou. It’s gone.”

Elena frowned. “Is that sort of thing common here? Like people going to the junkyard and shooting at old cars on Earth back in my day?”