Chapter 34

Kat had thrown caution to the wind and had opened the throttles on the little sled, building up speed as quickly as possible. Since there was no atmosphere to slow her down, she figured that if she could get going fast, she could ride that speed for a long time, even after the fuel supply was exhausted. She would rather die in space than be recaptured by the ExTrans.

It hadn't taken long, with the throttle wide open, to burn through the available fuel. Kat waited until the ship she had escaped was just a speck in her visor before activating her radio. She selected the chin toggle marked Emergency and started talking.

"This is an escaped prisoner, aboard an EVA sled moving towards the only visible planetary body, a small moon. I am out of fuel for the sled and have six hours of air left in my suit." She felt a little foolish, not knowing the name of the ship or of the moon she was approaching but she couldn't think of anything else to identify where she was headed.

She began repeating the message every couple of minutes and, in between transmissions, she prayed to whatever gods were out there, that someone would hear her.

She had floated for more than four hours before she saw movement. It seemed to be almost an optical illusion, at first, as though a star over her right shoulder was twinkling just a little brighter. It was hard to tell if it was getting brighter or if it was just her imagination. Having nothing better to do, she closed her eyes and counted to sixty, then looked again. She repeated this process three times before she was sure, it was definitely brighter. It took almost a half an hour before the bright speck was close enough for her to see that it was a shuttle, painted in Union Navy colors.

Her head felt light and her chest was burning. Her eyes blurred as they filled with tears and she heard herself sobbing into the radio. "Please, I am right in front of you! I am right in front of you and I need help."

It seemed to take forever for the shuttle to get close enough and to match velocity with her still rapidly moving sled. It moved ahead of the sled and opened the rear hatch. There were a pair of suited men standing in the open hatch, each with one arm outstretched. The sled appeared to start inching forward, and it took a second for Kat to realize the shuttle was slowing down, allowing the sled to overtake her. She inched closer and closer, until the sled was almost touching the rear of the shuttle.

The men in the open hatch reached out and each one latched on to one of Kat's arms. Immediately, the sled started falling behind as the shuttle increased speed and veered off to one side. The men pulled Kat into the rear of the shuttle and closed the rear hatch before having her take a seat on the floor. The exoskeleton suit she was wearing was much too bulky for the acceleration couches mounted to the walls, and until the atmosphere was replaced in the passenger bay, there was nowhere else for her to go.

Kat just sat there, tears running down her face, exhausted. She had been so tense, for so long, that she just wanted to cry herself to sleep. She felt like she couldn't stand right now if the shuttle caught fire. Her mind was reeling, thoughts and feeling warring for a place in the front of her thoughts. She had never been so frightened in her life and if she never had to go out into space again, it would be too soon.

The shuttle was settling into the docking bay before the men who had pulled her off her sled motioned for her to open the seal on her suit. she would have to climb out of the suit before she could exit the shuttle and they would bring a lift to recover the suit later.

She was still wearing her civilian pressure suit under the exoskeleton and the two men both exchanged glances and smiles. They told her to leave the light pressure suit on unless she wanted traipse through the ship in her undergarments.

Outside the shuttle was a squad of Union Marines, all armed and armored, waiting for her. At the bottom of the stairs was a Naval officer with the shoulder boards of a Commander. He introduced himself as Commander Dean and said he would be her counsel.

"My counsel? As in lawyer?" Kat asked, confused.

The Cdr. Dean smiled at her. "From what the shuttle crew had told me, I think it is just a formality, but until we are sure you were not a crewmember on that ship, you are officially a prisoner of the Union Navy, being held on suspicion of piracy."

Kat stared at the officer, astounded that anyone would think that she was a pirate. Then, without warning, a laugh started bubbling up and she could not hold back. She laughed until tears were streaming down her face and her sides hurt. Gasping for breath, she came to a close approximation of the position of attention, saluted the Commander and, trying to keep from more hysterical laughter, sputtered "Red Beard, scourge of the spaceways, requesting permission to come aboard, sir!"

The Commander, who had looked concerned, then amused, now was trying not to break out in a belly laugh at the ludicrous sight.

She was taken to the medical bay for the doctors to check out. They gave her a quick once-over, prescribed a hot meal and a long shower, and turned her back over to her guard detail.

Kat was really dragging by the time they got to the cabin where she would be detained until her hearing. They provided a change of clothes and, after a long shower she elected to skip a meal and just collapsed on the bunk, asleep before her head hit the pillow.

The chrono on the deskcomp told her that she had slept for almost eighteen hours. When she finally woke, she jumped right back into the fresher and turned the water as cold as she could stand it. If she was going to be facing a Naval Admiral, she wanted to be awake and alert.