It took two days to reach the edge of the solar system. They told him they didn’t dare engage their interplanetary engines while still within the system, especially at Matrodonosian, because it was so crowded and full of space trash. “Even hitting a speck of dust, at the speeds we’ll be going, could turn us into a plasma bomb.”

  So they traveled ‘slowly,’ though of course the term was quite relative, hiding behind a nearly invisible spindle of cold plasma which stretched a mile ahead of them like a needle and pushed any little bits of whatever out of the way.

  Jet split his time between the upper hold and the lounge. He was deeply curious about the young crew but he didn’t get much more out of them after their first tale. Mostly it was because Master Sal was always bored and intruding, inviting himself into any conversation.

  He never saw either the old man or the reclusive female Captain. On the morning of their second day of travel however he got lucky, and happened to be poking around in the kitchen when she arrived looking for her favorite coffee alternative — a Brusker drink called cham.

  “How do you get used to it?” Jet asked, feeling woozy after his first night onboard. He kept grabbing onto things, feeling as though he wasn’t quite stable… or something.

  “Used to what?” she asked, searching the cupboards until she found her drink and began to make some.

  “I mean…” he thought about it. “Sorry. I’m sure you don’t know what I mean. You’ve been in space since childhood. I was talking about the strange feeling. I feel, not dizzy, but as if I’m tilting. And just… not right.”

  “Make sure Seira checks you. She’s our medic.” She put something into a little grinder and ground it, then dumped it into a cup. “But you’re probably just experiencing spacesickness. It’s normal.” She poured hot water in and picked up the cup, standing to face him and stir it. “Back in the ancient times, on planets, they’d travel the seas in wooden ships and experience something similar called seasickness. Both usually go away after a few days once your body adjusts.”

  “What causes it? The different gravity?”

  “Actually our gravity is spot-on. For Earth Normal, anyway. We’ve never had trouble with that, since we have not only a human style but also a secondary gravity system. But even with ‘perfect’ gravity your body can feel that it’s fake… it can feel space too. And the movement. You can sense the hard radiation, the pressure, the call of Loorahai.”

  “What’s a Loorahai?”

  She laughed and sipped her drink. “Oh right. I forget that some people have never heard of him. He’s one of the Brusker… gods I suppose, although he’s not really a god. More of an… immortal. A powerful being we don’t understand, who watches my people and gets involved with us from time to time. We say that when you have dreams of space, or feel the call of going out there into the dark crevices between the stars, that you are feeling the call of Loorahai. He’s the ‘god’ of chaos, of wandering, and of luck.”

  She had several patches and symbols on her lifeskin suit and vest. One of these she touched with the habitual gesture of someone who believes it brought good luck. It looked like a crude symbol shaped something like a cornucopia viewed from the side, with a red vertical stripe down the middle.

  “You serve this god of chaos?” He nodded to the symbol.

  “I…” she hesitated. “Yes. I suppose so. I admit I’ve prayed to him more than once, and I have always received an answer. Not always the one I wanted either. But an answer.”

  “How do you know it was an answer?”

  She smiled. “One or two coincidences you can ignore. When you always get a coincidence which answers your request, and get it within a couple of weeks of asking? Every time? Is that still a coincidence?”

  “I don’t know,” he admitted. “We revere our Ancestors, who become spirits in the eternal world and watch over us. They are always watching, and always trying to help… and some try to hinder. Some are wicked. If you have spirits which help you, I am neither surprised nor in doubt.”

  She nodded. “Our two peoples come from similar backgrounds. Tribal. We still have strong ties to the ancient ways.”

  “By your people you mean Brusker?”

  “I mean Heranom.” She winked at him, to show that she could be jovial yet look stern. She was one of those people who didn’t show much.

  Suddenly her wrist-band chirruped a startling alarm, and all of the lights on the ship shifted to a fast pulsing blue.

  Captain Lidas nearly dropped her cham. In the next moment she moved faster than Jet had ever seen anyone go, like a bullet headed for the bridge.

  Jet sensed that they were in danger. He ran for the Lounge, four of the crew almost crashing into him, but they darted around the larger and slower-moving object to stand at the windows.

  The star-windows had undergone a transformation. As soon as the alarm had gone off a blast-shield had closed over them, but inside that a holographic version of the view spread out, overlaid with diagrams and real-time data. With data assistance, they could see far more than with the naked eye.

  A ship; it was magnified in the corner of the window, enhanced, and it looked mean. A black, curved vessel that somehow resembled a lean racing grayhound… bristling with big guns. On the top front of the ship was a big white symbol: a Brusker blaster inside a diamond.

  “What in Sangrood is HE doing here?!” Seira shouted when she saw the ship.

  “He’s not allowed… his Clan isn’t allowed here,” Rion said in astonishment.

  “What is it?” Jet asked, trying to decipher the quickly moving graphs.

  “Clan Rejadda,” said Squeeze who had just arrived. The tone of voice he used was fearful, almost reverent, as if Jet should be deeply impressed.

  “Um… what is that.”

  They all looked at him.

  “You’ve never heard of Draith Rejadda?” Seira asked in disbelief.

  “The most notorious space pirate in the Free Trade Zone,” supplied Keeri smoothly, stepping out from behind him and pacing slowly toward the holographic window as if analyzing it. “But Clan Rejadda has been banished from the Matrodonosian system for years. Very strange to see him here, strange indeed.”

  “Um… he’s a pirate,” Jet told them.

  The young crew rolled their eyes. “He’s THE pirate!” Squeeze exclaimed. “He’s the greatest pirate that ever lived!”

  “Hush, Squeeze,” chided Razi.

  “Why is he showing himself to us?” Seira asked no one.

  The door to the bridge had been left open. From where he stood, Jet could almost hear what Lidas was saying to Chade and to the old man.

  “Keeri,” he muttered under his breath, “can you amplify what the Captain is saying?”

  “Actually I think I can… hold on…”

  And to his hearing, their conversation became just clear enough, just loud enough, that he could catch it. He moved slightly toward the door to get closer just as Master Sal came running in.

  “What’s happening?!” demanded the Company man.

  “Sir, it’s best if you go to your quarters right now,” Seira told him sternly, taking on her most commanding ‘nurse’ persona. She quickly crossed the lounge to take his arm and lead him back toward his room.

  While she worked on getting the civilian out of the way, Jet eavesdropped on the bridge. Why they weren’t trying to kick him out too he didn’t know, but he was going to take advantage of it.

  “I hate him,” Lidas was saying in her most venomous tone. “I hate him, his family…“

  “We might be able to outrun him,” the old man said, calming her.

  “Where?” Chade countered. “There’s nowhere to go. We can’t get to the Rasmarsan belt—”

  The old man laughed, cutting him off. “Want to bet?”

  “Think you can do it?” Lidas demanded, hopeful.

  “I’d be willing to put down some ordra bead on it.”

  “If you lose that bet, there won’t be anyone left to collect,” Chade grumbled.

  “So I guess it means I have to win,” Jess cackled.

  “Shut up both of you; he’s contacting us.” Lidas paused a moment, then a new voice came from a comm set. Probably the Captain of the other ship. A man’s voice, calm and a little mocking.

  “Captain Talor. How lovely to meet you at last. I’ve heard so much about you! And to discover you like this, by god-ordained chance, no less. I was just thinking about you the other day.”

  “Captain Rejadda,” Lidas replied stiffly, her voice full of the hatred she felt for him.

  “Why so formal? Call me Draith.” Somehow Jet could almost see the man lounging back in his chair, one boot up, a smirk on his face. His voice sounded like oozing honey.

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  “Curious to meet you here, Captain Draith,” Lidas returned lightly. “I wasn’t aware that you Rejadda rats dared to show their face around Matrodonosian.”

  “Oh they don’t… at least not until today. I just happen to be the first to venture beyond the Rasmarsan Belt in decades.”

  “Bold of you. The Twin Circles are vigilant on patrolling their boarders. They’ll be around shortly I am sure.”

  “I’m not worried. You see, I was invited. I’m sure that will surprise you. Invited by Gent Lartha himself, actually.”

  “The Rejadda are banished—”

  “Well we were, yes. But Clans Rejadda and Lartha have recently begun to come around, one might say. To forgive and forget. Forgiveness is always a good thing, don’t you think?”

  There was a long pause during which Lidas muttered, so low that Jet’s magnified hearing could barely catch it, “oh damn.” Apparently she’d muted the channel so they could talk.

  “What in the hell is he talking about…” the old man whispered. “Lartha are smugglers, Rejadda are pirates! That’s like mixing oil and water! Saying they get along is like saying the Atasia and Rejadda can be friends!”

  “He’s here for Ekar,” Chade said.

  Then they unmuted it and Lidas replied to the pirate, “I am on business. I don’t have a cargo; I have passengers. And I have nothing to do with you. Or the Rejadda. Or the Lartha for that matter. I’m an independent.”

  “Oh,” laughed Draith Rejadda with dark humor. “You have something onboard I’m sure. Smugglers don’t ever fly with just passengers. And you owe me. Quite a lot, actually.”

  “Owe you? For what.” Lidas was trying to hide the fact that she was afraid. She almost did, but there was the faintest undertone.

  “You took my crystanar rig. I wanted that rig.”

  They muted it again while Lidas cursed under her breath.

  “Damn it I told you, he’s after Ekar!” Chade said.

  “Well the damn Circles have Ekar now, good luck to him prying him out of their claws,” Lidas growled. Then she called down the hall, “Jess, you ready?”

  From further away Jet heard a faint affirmative, but the old man was no longer on the bridge and he couldn’t hear him.

  Lidas quickly turned on the ship’s overhead comm and they heard her voice over the whole ship. “Everyone, Emergency Still, I repeat, Emergency Still! Secure positions!”

  Then she returned to the conversation with the pirate, unmuting his channel.

  “Captain Rejadda,” Lidas said stiffly, formally. “You can kiss my ass.”

  She closed the connection before the pirate could reply and shouted, “NOW! GO JESS!”

  A half a dozen things happened at once.

  Mutter, who was the closest to Jet, threw some kind of harness around him — it hit diagonally across his body and pulled him against one wall, smashing a wing behind him.

  While he was being accosted by the wall, Jet happened to have been looking at the window, and saw the big gunship move toward them aggressively.

  At the same time, the Sanctuary V went into some kind of wild maneuver. Or the universe moved. Or something. All Jet knew was that one moment the pirate ship was heading straight for them, then the next he saw the stars spin, slide sideways, he was slammed against the wall so hard he lost his breath, and then everything went dark.

  He didn’t pass out, it was the ship’s power going off. He was so startled by the violent tumbling of the ship that his brain blanked out for almost a full minute in stunned shock. He just stared at thin air seeing white spots in his utterly black vision until slowly his brain started to work again.

  The first thing he heard was groaning — Squeeze was nearest to him and had been thrown against one of the couches hard.

  “You alright?” Jet asked.

  “Great,” said Squeeze sarcastically. “How about you?”

  Jet looked at the holo-window. It was the only thing he could see in the room. The stars were all motionless again… space was quiet, there was no sign of the pirate.

  And then the holo-window sputtered and went black as well, and there was utter blackness so deep that Jet felt a terror down to his toe-claws.

  In the Deep… in Space… inside a tiny little bubble of air, with infinity breathing on the other side of a wall thinner than his hand. It was like he could feel space itself staring at him. Waiting for him with the patience of an eternal predator. It was like knowing that with every minute of his life, he came that much closer to death. And just watching it approach. Helpless.

  Suddenly he knew what Lidas had meant when she’d talked about the Call of Loorahai.

  “It’s okay,” he heard Mutter tell him. He sounded out of breath. “We’re playing dead. Even the emergency power is off. Everything’s off. We do this a lot. It’s one of our little tricks. Just relax… and stay in that strap. We might have to move again. Who knows where the pirate is and whether he’ll find us.”

  “What in the hell did they do?” Jet demanded. “What was that maneuver?”

  “Emergency Still.”

  “What in the hell is that?!”

  “You know what a Still is?”

  Jet had to think about that. He’d heard of a Still Drive… everyone had heard of it to some degree, but he didn’t really remember what it was. Just that Bruskers used them, and the Alliance would pay big money to get the schematics for one.

  “Brusker engine?” he guessed.

  Mutter snorted. “Brusker engine. Yah. You could say that. Out of curiosity, how long have you been off your planet, Jet?”

  “About a week and a half.”

  There were giggles around the room in the dark.

  “Yah,” said Mutter dryly, “we can tell.” He sighed. “A Still Drive is not just a Brusker engine. It’s our one advantage over human tech. They have the guns, the weapons, the missiles, the best of everything… but they can’t beat our Still Drive, never have and never will. It’s faster than anything the humans have, to this day, after five centuries. You’ve heard they’ll pay a million deion for full Still Drive schematics or a working engine?”

  “It’s that much?” Jet was fascinated.

  “Hey,” said another crewman that Jet didn’t know the name of yet. It sounded like a warning: don’t even think about trying to get our Drive.

  “Calm down Shay,” Mutter said, then went back to speaking to Jet. “Yah it’s that much. And any Brusker in Gano will kill you before you can get it to them. Keeping the Still Drive secret is how we survive, how we’ve stayed ahead of the human advance. We lose the Still Drive, we lose everything.”

  Jet didn’t comment. He felt suitably rebuked.

  “Anyway. What we just did was a very difficult maneuver using our Still Drive. Turning on the interplanetary drive just for a second while still within the System. Ridiculously dangerous. Most people don’t survive doing shit like that. But we have a Stilldrive Operator who… oh.” He stopped.

  “Dumb ass,” said Shay, “you weren’t supposed to tell him.”

  “Shit. Well damn it. Now he knows. Look, you know we have a Still Drive on this ship and you know we have to have an Operator. And you’re not going to tell anyone that, not even Sal. You got it?”

  “I got it,” Jet agreed quietly. “Why is having an Operator such a secret?”

  “Because they’re rare,” Squeeze told him. “Really rare. Hard to find them these days, and impossible to find one as good as ours.”

  “Shut up he doesn’t need to know any more,” Mutter ordered. “Sorry, Jet. It’s just we don’t know you yet.”

  “I know. I understand.”

  The silence was so profound that all of them could clearly hear Lidas, in the bridge down the hall, speaking quietly to Chade. “Let’s get a look. Passive scopes only.”

  The holo window came back on. Jet was so relieved to see the eternal stars that he felt it like a quivering through his whole body. The nightmare darkness was too much to bear. He stared at the stars hungrily… but saw a few of the stars wink out and back in.

  “Damn it he saw us…” Razi whispered suddenly in the dark.

  “How can you tell he’s there?” Jet asked.

  “You can see the stars being hidden and reappearing as objects pass in front. Some of them are asteroids, though. We just jumped to the asteroid sphere which surrounds the Matro system, to try to make it harder for him to find us…”

  She was interrupted by a great voice. It sounded like it came out of space itself. The walls shook with it.

  It was the pirate.

  “Nice trick. Now I know you have a Still Drive. So do I.”

  “He’s using the hull of the ship itself as an amplifier,” Squeeze whispered to Jet, aware that the planet-loaf had no idea how these things worked. “Old pirate trick… freaks people out.”

  “You can’t escape me, little smuggler. You might be good — and trust me, I’ve done my research, and the name Lidas Talor is spoken of in some respectable circles — but you are not dealing with your garden variety pirate. You have caught the attention of Draith Rejadda.”

  He said his own name like a threat.

  Lidas was suitably provoked by the pirate using her ship’s hull as a speaker. She flipped the comm and powered it up, then replied boldly with a touch of real heat. “And I am no ordinary prey, Rejadda. You’re not dealing with some soft Circles smuggler who will squeal and pay ransom at the least threat. You’re dealing with Lidas Talor!” And with that she turned everything off again, including the window, and shouted, “Jess, GO!”

  Distantly, they heard the old man laugh like a lunatic.

  And the universe spun sideways. Again.

  Jet couldn’t help it; he yelled in terror and held onto the thin single strap that was saving his life with both hands and everything he had. It was hard not to start flapping his wings wildly in instinct panic.

  The ship went into rolling, twisting maneuvers that he didn’t even know ships were capable of. He saw only what the natural eye could see through the window — which meant stars blinking in and out, and then suddenly a crescent-lit asteroid hurtling toward them, then veering away at the last split second.

  It was nightmare chaos and he couldn’t even make sense of what he was seeing, so he just squeezed his eyes shut and prayed to the Ancestors that he would not die smashed like a fly against the edges of Darkness.

  Lidas and half her crew were whooping and cheering like this was fun. Jess was laughing like a crazy man. And someone — probably Sal down the hall in his room — started puking.

  “He’s good!” Jess shouted from whatever dark mechanic’s hole he was strapped into. “But his Driver is a kid, I can tell… all that Academy training. I used to run against kids like this back in the old days. They always fall for the same tricks!”

  “Loorahai Himself trained you, you old bastard,” Lidas said cheerfully.

  “Actually, that is true.” And with that, the old man made the whole universe seem to twist into a knot and suck them down with it.

  Jess couldn’t help it. His stomach heaved. Squeeze heard him choking and, moving fast, grabbed a trash bag from somewhere and threw it at him.

  Just in time. The contents of his lunch went into the bag.

  And then, as suddenly as it had begun, the chase was over. The window went out again. Everyone remained still, hanging from their restraints, even the gravity was off.

  Jet hung in utter blackness so deep he felt he would never see again, weightless, gripping a trash bag full of his warm lunch in one hand. Every scale on his body was bristled and his heart was so loud in his ears he could barely hear over it. He smelled a faint musk, and realized he’d just barely scented… that is, male Bantans can mark their territory with a special gland… and it had twitched a little involuntarily.

  He felt deeply embarrassed and prayed nobody knew what that smell was. Or that humans were not able to smell it.

  Keeri appeared in his vision, a glowing ethereal beauty like a goddess coming to him in his hour of need. She looked a little concerned.

  ‘Are you functional, Jet?’

  He didn’t respond. First, he wasn’t sure he could just yet. Second, everyone was holding their breaths staying totally silent and he didn’t want to break that silence talking to his computer.

  ‘I will assume from your continued heart rate, though high, that you are still alive and conscious.’ She seemed relieved and glanced toward the bridge. ‘I am trying to get a connection to the ship’s computer, but he’s a bit… hmm. Second-hand, let’s just say. He thinks he knows something.’ The disapproval in her tone was clear.

  ‘Anyway. Apparently the ship is hiding from a rather notorious pirate, but I suspect you already know that.’

  He rolled his eyes. Hard. If he could speak he’d tell her how dumb she had just sounded.

  Jet could hear whispering in the bridge. Chade, to the Captain: “you realize you’ve just pissed off Draith Rejadda, right?” Very deadpan sarcasm.

  “Fuck him and his entire family line. Fuck his ancestors. Fuck the souls of every being into the infinite past which helped to create him. May they all be devoured by Sangrood.”

  “He won’t give up. You know what they say about Draith Rejadda. He’ll chase you to the end of the Deep. He’s the Hound of—”

  “Fuck off, Chade,” Lidas growled very calmly.

  The silence, lack of gravity, and darkness stretched on to what felt like forever. It was definitely hours. Now and then Keeri would reappear to check on Jet’s safety, and would inform him of something stupid and inane and obvious.

  They watched the pirate search for them. Now and again they could see a darkness against the stars, moving here and there, a small angry dot. But eventually he went off somewhere and got lost in the night, and the crew started to breathe again.

  At last the emergency lights came on. So did the gravity.

  The crew was frazzled and disheveled, everyone looked rather miserable. They cautiously unbuckled straps and cleaned up messes (and mercifully took the bag of lunch away and got rid of it), and suggested that Jet go to his room.

  He went without protest. Laying on the cot (which by the way was bolted to the floor, now he knew why) he used the harness which strapped him into the bed (he’d wondered what that was for when he first saw it, now he knew) and just lay there feeling sick for hours.

  He decided that if this was space travel, he did not like it. Not at all. Kor had been right. Space sucked.