NOTE: If this not the proper place for this, just let me know... “Maybe if we just talked with them, maybe____” “Shut up! You really think talking to pirates is going to help? Do you think they will let us get away?” Logan shouted as he attempted to maneuver the Cat down. “I just think we should try.” Mark nearly crying as he said the words. By this time Logan had had enough of his traveling companion. He understood why his uncle had warned him that Mark would not be much of an asset if real fighting occurred. But here they were, the two of them, and their great lumbering beast trying to outwit pirates. “Mark, I need you to pull yourself together and give me a hand with the ship!” “I’m just too scared, I don’t want to die, we need to try to talk this out, surely they just want the cargo, let’s give them the cargo, that’s all they want is the cargo!” Mark kept rambling on infuriating Logan. Mark was 10 years senior to Logan. He was a respected pilot, but he had his limitations. Mark could not fly alone, he was deathly afraid of pirates, and somewhat of a coward. Logan, just out of technical school, loved flying but lacked experience. He had come to help his uncle out when the shipping company began losing ships and pilots to raiders on their routes. He agreed to fly with Mark on this run to help deliver food and supplies to a remote outpost. His uncle was counting on the shipment to get through if they were to stay in the black. They thought this run would be safe: but apparently not. “Mark, I need your help! Quit screwing around and give me a hand, I have a plan but I’m going to need help.” “No! I’m going to open the comms we are going to talk to these guys, I’m going to make a deal and were going to get out of here alive! I don’t care about anything else I just want to live I’m sick of this mess I’m scared, and I want to go home!!!!” Mark was babbling like a baby at this point. Logan had no other choice, he thought to himself. Just as Mark reached a communication panel, Logan had found the Haldon pen that his uncle had given him if there was a ‘problem.’ This clearly was a problem. Logan popped Mark in the neck with the pen which made Mark squeal like a piglet, and then fall to the floor. Now Logan truly was by himself. After strapping Mark into the pod bunk with duct tape, Logan got back to work. Precious time had been lost dealing with Mark and he was hoping that the Pirates had not caught up with them. His little maneuver earlier bought them some time but that was it. As he looked around with the scanner he didn’t see any lancers on the scope, but knew they were tracking him somehow. His guess was there was something tied into the com panel, and if he could shut down all the power maybe… He looked around for the item that he knew might help them. Sure enough, there was a massive communications relay nearby. He accelerated the cat as much as he could to get close to it, and then using maneuvers that would make a dock master faint, landed at the cat in between the vanes of the tower. He put the ship on the sunward side of the tower thinking that maybe the bright sunlight reflecting off the metal would disguise the ships silhouette. Also, all the radio static should hide the ships few remaining emissions. As soon as the ship settled into position, he shut down main power and turned off the transponder. He sat, and he waited. If this worked, in a couple hours they could go free. If not, they would be sitting ducks. “Where is that some bitch! We had him in our sites, what the hell happened?” Trent was less than happy, not only did they lose a ship, but they were seemingly outmaneuvered by a noob in a caterpillar. “She said he was a novice, and he would be traveling with that panty-waste, Mark. But this is smelling like a set up!” Lars was furious as well, and suspicious of the outcome of all this. This should’ve been a cakewalk not an uphill fight. A calm voice from the back of the ship said “Keep scanning…He could not have gotten far..” Both men feared and respected Craig. Craig was one of those pirate leaders who rarely raised his voice, but was known to execute men at an instant if they were out of line. He was known for never leaving anyone behind, even if that meant killing them. Craig’s mind was racing, this was odd. There is no way in hell that cat should’ve been able to get away from them. It was supposed to be crippled, barely able to move, but this thing was flying like a brand-new ship. This was not what they were counting on. Something was wrong… Something was very, very wrong. As they flew around the system, the only thing of note they saw was the communication relay, which was barely working, but it was a useful tool for them. They hacked into its systems years ago, and since then it had relayed traffic information to them, so they would know when the pounce. But right now it was of no use, it could not pinpoint where the hell the ship was. The more Craig thought about it the more Craig did not like it. “10 more minutes. Then we leave regardless.” “Not to be disrespectful sir, but we really don’t need to leave anything alive.” Trent said very humbly and very respectfully. “You think I don’t know that? So far, we have gotten every target that was relayed to us, except this one. Something’s not right, and I don’t know about you gentlemen, but I do not intend to serve any time in the stockades, let alone be executed.” ******************************************* “Damn…” As Mark looked out the tractor beam station window, he was looking directly at one of the Freelancers that had attacked them. Hell, if they looked his way they could probably see the Cat leaning up against the communication relay. He was frozen with fear, he didn’t know what to do. Not able to breath, all he could do is look straight and pray. It wasn’t even sure who he should be praying to. By now the ship had grown cold. He was in a thermal suit and still shivering. Oddly, there were no environmental suits on board like there was supposed to be. As he sat there staring at the lancer, a thought crosses his mind. He knew… He now knew who was passing information to these bastards. That’s the only way the Pirates would’ve known to be looking for the ship. He also knew who had monkeyed with the ship’s engines. If he had to fix the ship before they headed out it would’ve really been in a pickle. He knew… All he had to do now was survive…. “Time’s up. We need to leave.” Craig stated as he began plotting their course back to their base. Both Trent and Lars knew that Craig was furious, but at least he was not furious with them. They had done all they could do; the ship was just gone. As the men worked silently, Craig was thinking to himself what all could’ve happened. Could the ship had jumped to quantum and ran? Could it have some sort of stealth technology? In a Cat? All these questions were running through his mind as he looked around one last time. The thing just simply vanished. He’d never seen anything like it. “I’ll tell you gentlemen this, if we ever find out who that pilot was, we will do whatever we can to recruit him. Think about it; he evaded us for six hours… in a Cat….” Despite the situation, the two men had to chuckle at their boss’s observation. In a flash they were gone, they didn’t see him… He now could breath. Still, he was going to sit exactly where he was for at least an hour before he reenergized the systems and continued on his way. Yes, he was going to deliver the load, because he believed that if they were going to track him, they would track him back to his base, not to the mining camp. It was a gamble, but he was prepared to take it. Still, once he got back to his uncle’s business, he had a little personal business to take care of…