“You see,” Grawn said, pointing. “They were on the far side of this set of display racks when it started and the old woman went down—”

“They could have—”

“There are muzzle flashes back there.” Grawn pointed again. Filgrim boosted the IR sensitivity and the flashes shone bright, well away from Mehar and Jim. “They’ve got chameleon gear on—look at those blurry places…”

Ky spotted four, altogether, four shimmery blurs. All emitted bursts of heat and light. Filgrim ran the scan backward and forward several times. Now it was clear that four customers entering just after Jim and Mehar had suddenly blurred, the blurs moving swiftly past those two, to set up across the far end of the store.

“So it wasn’t them at all,” Ky said.

“I suppose not,” Filgrim said. Clearly he wished it had been.

“They were waiting for your crewmembers, Captain Vatta,” Grawn said. “For anyone coming out of your ship. Whether to kill them or simply cause you trouble, I don’t know. But the sooner you get offstation, the better.”

“Not without my crew,” Ky said.

“I can release them, if you’re really going,” Filgrim said. “This may not be your fault, exactly, but your presence certainly has caused trouble.”

“We’re going,” Ky said. “Though I don’t like being blamed for something I didn’t start.”

“We have an escort to take Captain Vatta and her crew back to the ship safely,” Grawn said. “So we will not need to call on your forces.”

“I don’t have spare men anyway,” Filgrim said. “Fine, then. Go.” He waved his hand. “All you ever bring is trouble anyway, you traders.”

Ky opened her mouth to say something, but Grawn shook his head at her, and she nodded instead. “I hope you have no more trouble,” she said.

Chapter Fifteen

Nothing disturbed their passage to the dock; Ky arrived just as the defensive suite was being delivered by Mackensee personnel.

“Jim, go let the medbox check you out; Mehar, stand by for the moment.” Jim, walking a little unsteadily, wandered up the access and into the ship, following the squad with the cartons and lifter.

“Any other supplies to come aboard?” asked Lt. Commander Johannson.

Ky looked at the status board just inside the docking tube. “No—we could squeeze on another five days’ rations, but that’s about it. We’ll undock within the hour. Is that fast enough?”

“I hope so.” He tapped the bulge in front of his ear. “Our people report unusual external activity—repair bugs, that kind of thing. Not right here, but enough of them that Traffic Control is expressing annoyance. I’d like you a solid ten kilometers offstation.”

Ky tapped her handcom. “Quincy—how soon can we undock?”

“Without blowing seals? We’ve got a place in the queue in fifty-eight minutes, with the tug Missy Mae. Insystem’s ready to warm up. Station seemed glad to have us going…”

“There’s a concern,” Ky said. “Ask Station if anyone else is in our way if we’re a little quicker; I’m on my way to the bridge. Bring the insystem drive to standby.” She turned to Johannson. “I’ll see what I can do—our slot is fifty-seven minutes.”

“Right.” He signaled to the Mackensee NCO in charge of the loading group. “We’ll get out of your way, but watch the area.” The squad that had delivered the packages came out the hatch on the double.

Ky looked at Martin, who was standing nearby. “Let’s start buttoning up, then.”

“Yes, Captain.”

On her way to the bridge, Ky felt her skin tightening; she could imagine one or more of the little one-person repair scooters easing up to the hull, planting mines. Her ears registered the pressure fluctuation as the hatch sealed. She passed the medbox alcove; Jim sat hunched over the diagnostic module, holding something to his face that she hoped would take care of his black eyes. Stella, in the galley, turned; Ky shook her head and went on to the bridge. Lee was talking to the station.

“—We’re small. We’ve undocked without a tug before.”

The face in the display had a sour look. “And we’ve had ships undock without a tug that put us at risk with reaction—”

“You won’t feel a thing,” Lee said.

“That’s what they all say,” the duty officer said. “Just a little squirt, that’s all, and we end up having to expend fuel to counter the rotational effects…”

“Well, if the tug can hurry it up—”

“They can’t. There’s a traffic jam up on Ring Five; some idiot kids decided to hold some kind of rally in repair scooters. Tug would have to risk collisions to come now. I don’t see why you can’t wait.”

Icy tingles ran down Ky’s spine. Someone wanted them delayed, still onstation when something went wrong.

“Captain Vatta here,” she said, silencing Lee, who had his mouth open to reply. “We have received a credible threat, involving those same repair scooters. What’s current traffic status on this ring?”

“Uh… there are a couple of nonscheduled scooters, probably just those kids—coming around Dock Four-B.”

A sector away. What was the maximum acceleration on those scooters? The only external scans she had were focal scans of a few hull locations, not wide-area.

“Sorry,” she said. “We’re departing now; we believe that those scooters may intend to plant mines on our hull.”

“But they’re just kids—”

“Maybe,” Ky said. To Lee, she said, “Shut down all external access, Lee.” To the duty officer, “We’re shutting off externals; we’ll be pulling out as soon as the boards go green. Slowly, I promise.”

“You Vatta…,” the man said. “If it weren’t for you—”

“I didn’t start this,” Ky said.

“Air’s clear. Water’s clear. External com’s clear—”

“Close curtain,” Ky said. Unlike their emergency undock from Sabine Prime, she was not going to cause any more damage than she could help. The ship, external attachments retracted, lay in the docking bay with no more physical connection to the station.

“Confirm curtain sealed,” the duty officer said. “Formal clearance…”

“Take us out, Lee,” Ky said.

“Maneuvering,” he said. The deck didn’t so much as quiver, but the instruments showed their relative motion. Ky said nothing. Again unlike their earlier emergency undock, they weren’t using the insystem drive, but the less powerful attitude controls. Ky switched on nearscan as soon as the nodes had cleared the station’s blanketing structure…

“There they are,” she said. Two tiny dots, just showing around the curve of the station. Their projected course took them directly to what had been Gary Tobai’s docking bay… as she watched, they angled outward.

“We’re not clear yet, Captain,” Lee said. His fingers twitched on the controls. One meter per second… and the acceleration was only 0.001 meter per.

“Insystem,” Ky said.

“Insystem hot,” Quincy said.

“We’re too close—we could give ’em a wobble,” Lee said.

“We’ll give them worse than that if we blow up this close,” Ky said. “I want the drive up… we’ll engage as late as we can, but no later.”

The tiny dots crawled nearer… they couldn’t go far, but they were faster than the ship.

“Minimum coming up,” Lee said.

“Rotate the ship parallel to the entire station axis,” Ky said. “We’ll do less damage that way…”

That took precious seconds, and the two tiny craft were within what Ky considered throwing distance when she said “Engage, one-quarter power.”

Gary Tobai’s rotation and the shove of the insystem drive sent them off at a solid ten-meters-per-second acceleration; in the scan, the two dots crossed paths and curled around, trying to chase them, but they’d already opened a distance. Repair scooters, Ky knew, couldn’t top a ten-meters-per acceleration, and quickly used up fuel at that rate. One of them, though, closed distance. Not just your ordinary repair scooter, then.

“You’re being pursued,” the station duty officer said in a surprised tone.