The Wreckers

Early Monday morning, an explosion rocked the NKA407 mining station. The joint Alssyria/Niiz K project was operating in the asteroid field between their respective solar systems, and prior to this day had been acclaimed as having the safest working environment of any mining crew in the known galaxy. Incredible time, effort, and expense had gone into ensuring everything on the NKA407 asteroid was top notch, as this was the richest asteroid they had yet found. No accidents, no incidents, nothing, had ever been reported before.

By Monday afternoon Alssyria's top emergency personnel were on the scene providing medical care and relief to the survivors. The mining suits provided to all the workers had spared many, but for those at the source of the explosion even the best of the suits could offer no protection.

By Tuesday morning the investigation began. While local law enforcement had been deployed immediately, Niiz K had taken a tremendous financial toll with this explosion, and thus were sparing no expense in getting the best they could to settle this issue.

###

Vanessa Cuarón was shaken awake by one of the crew of the transport vessel. It had been a long flight from Tsukonia to the asteroid field, made only longer due to the NKA407 not being accessible from the interstellar highway. She stretched slightly, grabbed her travel bag, and slung it over her shoulder as she departed the vessel.

The asteroid looked like trash. The explosion had clearly shaken up everything, so even where the blast hadn't reached, the shock wave had. Small fires continued to burn at random spots. The first responders had strictly ordered that no one attempt to clean things up so that the investigation team could see exactly what had transpired.

“You there,” she barked at the first person she saw, “put those fires out.”

The medical examiner looked confused. “We were told don't touch anything except the patients until the investigation team arrived.”

“I am the team. Put out the fire. You want to use up all the oxygen in the air bubble?”

“Sure,” he responded. “I am quite busy though. I'll get some orderlies to do it.” He in turn barked out orders to a group of young men, repeating Vanessa's instructions almost verbatim.

“I like you,” she said. “You don't mess around. Vanessa Cuarón, here to handle the investigation. And you are?”

“Bernard Roe. I was with the first responders over from Alssyrian space.”

“What's your initial assessment?”

“Shouldn't you ask the officers over there? They're the ones who've been handling all that so far.”

“They have Niiz K uniforms. I've dealt with NK cops and they're the same bureaucratic rubbish as the rest of the nation. Tell me your impressions.”

“There's a crew of about 300 stationed on NKA407. Sixty were killed in the explosion with another 185 injured to varying degrees.”

“Any idea what caused it?”

“I'm just the doc.”

“Ever seen injuries like these before?”

“Combination of burns and concussion from blast? Sure. Lots.”

“Anything seem strange about them to you?”

“Other than the fact that this mining operation doesn't use explosives? No.”

“Interesting. So we're dealing with either an insane equipment malfunction or espionage.”

“I definitely did not say that.”

“Ugh. Now you're sounding like the Niiz K cops.”

She sat her bag down on the ground and pulled out what looked like a dead bird. Bernard was at first worried but didn't ask. Vanessa then got a remote control out of her bag, hit a button, and the bird came to life. She threw it into the air and began maneuvering it with the device.

“Mateo, you seeing this?” she asked as she flew the bird around the landscape. She nodded as someone apparently responded through her earpiece. “Good,” she replied, “I'm turning remote control over to you. Have fun. I'm off to do the leg work.”

“Ah, so you're merely the visible part of the investigation team,” added Bernard.

“Yep. Why bother dragging another person here when a mobile camera suffices?” She put her remote control back into her bag, saying to Bernard “Thanks a bunch, Docky.”

Vanessa threw the bag over her shoulder again and walked off towards the local Niiz K police. Bernard watched bemusedly as she got visibly more and more frustrated with the cops and their apparent indirectness on every question she asked. Finally she stormed off away from them towards what appeared to be the epicenter of the explosion.

###

Two hours later, Bernard was turning a large pile of information over to a team of new doctors and nurses who had just arrived. He tried rushing through so he could finish as soon as possible and go to sleep. He had been awake at this point for 26 hours and was beginning to feel it. No sooner was he done catching the new staff up to speed with what happened, he turned aside and laid down on one of the few available cots.

“Docky!” he heard shouted into the room as a door swung open with a bang. “Where are you?”

Heads around the room turned and looked at the intruder quizzically.

“You mean me?” Bernard sighed as he raised his hand.

“Yes! Excellent!” Vanessa exclaimed as she grabbed his hand and lifted him out of the cot. “Follow me! I have questions!”

Somewhat delirious, Bernard allowed himself to be dragged out of the room and into the outside air. He didn't like it. It still smelled of ash.

“And how can I help you Cuarón?”

“There's security cameras. Like, everywhere. You know where the feed gets processed?”

He shrugged. “Why not ask the guards over there for...”

“Bureaucratic officious fools. They keep going on about 'permission' and 'a warrant' and 'you're going beyond the realm of your authority Miss Cuarón, we're really going to have to ask you to blah blah blah' and all that. So look here. You're an observant guy and I have lockpicking tools. Where do you think the security cam footage is?”

“Pretty sure that would be illegal.”

She groaned and turned her head up towards the sky. “Who has chief jurisdiction here?”

“Niiz K I believe.”

“Who is in charge of Niiz K?”

“The President, Vice President, and CEO.”

“Do you know who hired me?”

“I assume you're going to say one of those p...”

“The Vice President. I have a history with Niiz K and they like me for some reason. Now, who has more authority? The Vice President or those knuckle draggers over there?”

Bernard sighed. “The Vice President.”

“Good. So if there's something that will help me do the job that the VP asked me to do, but those local guys are trying to stop me, who should you as a diligent law abiding citizen do your best to assist?”

He sucked on his teeth. “You.”

“I knew you'd come around Docky,” she smiled, smacking him on the left shoulder. “So. Security cams. Where?”

“I think over there. There's a large building with a padlock on front that as far as I can tell serves no logical purpose.”

“Thanks so much,” she responded and made a beeline for it, still dragging Bernard along by the hand.

“Why couldn't you have asked your bird thing to scout it out for you?”

“Too busy flapping around the dark caves and tunnels below where the explosion started.” She rolled her eyes. “Even remotely, Mateo is the most antisocial person...”

They reached the door and Vanessa had Bernard stand guard as she brought out her clearly well worn lockpicking kit. In a few seconds flat she was done and dragging him inside. He had hoped it would take longer. Getting to rest his back up against the door felt extremely comfortable.

Vanessa was overjoyed to see his prediction was correct. Screens everywhere watching almost every corner of the asteroid, all sixty miles of it, even the large stretches that weren't inhabited or protected by the air bubble.

“Fantastic,” she muttered. “I love how predictable Niiz K paranoia is. And if this system is anything like their standard surveillance pack, they'll have the last three days of footage stored locally. After that it gets wiped and the only copy is stored with Central Intelligence.”

“That's nice,” muttered Bernard as he sank into his very, very well cushioned chair.

Even though fifteen minutes went by as Vanessa examined the footage, it seemed to him like only an instant passed before she grabbed his thigh and yelled “Docky! Look at this!”

He jolted awake and looked at where she was pointing in the surveillance footage. It was asteroids floating past.

“Amazing, thank you for sharing,” he said as he sank back into the seat.

“No, but *look*. This is from three days ago. The footage is getting wiped automatically in thirty minutes. I need a second set of eyes to confirm what I'm seeing. Look closely.”

Bernard sat up and instinctively reached for his reading glasses before remembering he didn't need them anymore. Old habits die hard. He sat up straight and watched the footage. After two minutes Vanessa rewound it and made him watch it again. And a third time. On the fourth time round he caught it. The footage was from a small camera in orbit around the mine. Smaller asteroids kept floating past like they always did. One passed behind the main asteroid and was never seen again.

“Suspicious,” he acknowledged.

“That's what I thought. But now watch footage from the explosion itself.”

She fast forwarded. In the explosion from Monday morning, debris flew out in every direction. But among the small debris was the same asteroid from before, rapidly flying out along with the blast.

“This has to be man made,” she whispered.

Bernard had no response. This was way outside of his pay grade.

“Mateo?” Vanessa asked aloud. “Can you copy this footage?” She paused for a reply silently given through her earpiece. “Thanks. Now, for my next question, is there a way to see if anything is missing from the mine?” She nodded along to the response in her ear. “OK. I'll get right on that.” She turned to Bernard. “Is there a foreman here?”

“If I remember correctly the foreman was among the casualties. There was however a seemingly well informed man who was on the scene when I got here yesterday.”

“Good. Take me to him.”

###

The temporary foreman led the two of them into the recesses of the tunnel where the explosion originated. He was visibly uncomfortable passing by the bodies of his former coworkers, but he didn't express his unease out loud. Bernard admired his professionalism. As they descended further the walls and ceilings became more unsteady, with small collapses happening everywhere around them.

“Are you sure this is safe?” Bernard asked.

“I honestly don't know,” replied the foreman.

“The bird scouted it out,” Vanessa added. “This is at the very least the safest path available. Or rather, the safest path at a cursory glance.”

At last they arrived at the ruined refinery. “One of our biggest improvements,” the foreman explained with a mix of pride and sorrow in his voice. “We found an efficient way to not only mine but refine the ores and metals in the tunnel itself. That way the completed product is removed once, and can be immediately shipped off for use.”

“Experimental technology?” Vanessa asked. “Any chance it could have malfunctioned?”

“I'm no expert but I don't see how. Everything involved in the operation of it is non-flammable materials and fuels.”

“Sounds more and more like sabotage which each passing moment,” she said as she climbed inside the smoking wreckage of the machine.

Bernard knelt down next to the body closest to the machine. He felt bad about how little attention he'd given them. When he first arrived it was him and two other medics, one of whom was in training. They were faced with nearly 200 wounded workers, most in desperate need of help. All anyone had time to do was examine a body for a few seconds to determine if it was alive or not, and if it was, render help. If it wasn't, they got ignored.

His eyebrow raised as he now took the time to check this person more thoroughly. The mining suit had provided massive amounts of protection from the fire, so the man was in fairly good condition considering what had happened. But Bernard couldn't help noticing a burn that was different from the rest. It had not only burned but also twisted the fabric, along with damaging an extensive amount on the layer beneath. The manner of burning showed a greater focus and intensity than the rest of the marks on the clothes and body did.

He moved from that person to a next one. It too had the mark. Same for third and fourth and so on. Some in the front, back, sides, anywhere. This was electricity.

“Vanessa,” he said, standing slowly.

“Yah?” she called back, her voice echoing from inside the machine.

“These people were murdered.”

There was a long pause. “Say what now?”

“Before the explosion. All these people were dead before the blast.”

She poked her head back out. “How?”

“Electric burns. Some kind of powerful electrical shock was given to each of these people individually. After they were all dead, the explosion happened and covered the rest of their bodies in burns.”

“Disguising the shocks,” she replied.

“Could be.”

“How long were they like that before the blast?”

“Hard to tell. Could be hours.”

“Foreman! When you're working down here, do people tend to come and go much?”

“Not really,” he responded. “We work in eight hour shifts around the clock. One team goes in, eight hours later they leave and a new team goes in.”

“How long until the end of these people's shift before the explosion happened?”

“It was pretty close. I'd actually, um...” He swallowed hard and stammered as he tried to continue. “I was actually getting prepped for my shift when it happened.”

“So not to jump to any conclusions,” she said, bracing herself against the machine, “but it's theoretically possible these people were killed, the murderers then stayed down here doing something for hours, then … set off an explosion to cover their tracks and escape? But why?” She thought a while before remembering why she had come down here in the first place. “Foreman. You said they refine everything down here and ship it up. Does each shift remove the stuff they worked on?”

“No, just at the end of the Sunday shift.”

“The Sunday shift would be these guys?”

“Yeah. They finish Monday morning and unload the week's supply.”

“Where would they store it until they bring it up?”

“Right over … um … right about …” he stammered again. “It's all gone.”

“Ah ha,” added Bernard.

“And what would be the value of an average one week load?” Vanessa asked.

“About two million quin.”

“Well. Looks like we found our motive.”

###

They exited the tunnel as soon as possible, and upon reaching the surface Vanessa ordered the Niiz K police to organize the stabilization of the tunnels so it would be safe to enter in future. She then radioed the Law Enforcement Division of the Niiz K Corporation and passed her suspicions on to Alonso Wells, one of their top detectives, requesting he come with a team and confirm her findings from the mine.

“And what exactly will you be doing while we're busy with all this?” he asked her.

“If my theory is correct then the murderers needed an escape plan. The only missing piece for this theory to make sense is that weird asteroid that basically landed here and snuck out during the explosion.”

“You're thinking someone disguised a spaceship as an asteroid?”

“Weirder things have happened. Did I ever tell you about the time I was on a planet that was actually a giant space he...”

“Yes, a thousand times, thank you very much. The earwax debacle is the reason I still won't hug you.”

“One of these days you'll let down your guard and I'll sneak up from behind.”

“You wish.”

She hung up and returned to the security footage. Alonso washed his hands and for good measure the receiver she talked to him on. His whole body shuddered. Earwax. Horrific.

As Vanessa examined the security footage of the fleeing asteroid, she was puzzled. She expected it would leave outward, away from the heavy traffic of the highway and center of civilized society. Instead, that's exactly where the asteroid went, right to the center. Wouldn't fugitives prefer to be out of people's view?

But maybe that was the goal. Hide in plain sight. Bernard was an observant guy and he had to intently watch the footage four times before he noticed anything unusual about an asteroid. Maybe these people were confident in their camouflage.

She called Niiz K Law Enforcement again. “I need a galaxy wide BOLO put out. Send this out to any nation that's willing to talk to you.”

“No problem. What's the description on this BOLO?”

“We're looking for an asteroid.”

The line went silent for a moment. “I'm sorry,” the man on the other end continued. “I must have misheard you. What are we looking for?”

“An asteroid.”

“OK, so I definitely heard you correctly after all. Um, I'm not going to pretend I understand it though.”

“Just send this out. An errant asteroid, about 1 mile in diameter. Just floating through space. Points of suspicion to watch for are having a direct flight path, moving at unusual speed, things like that.”

“So, what, an asteroid that doesn't behave like an asteroid?”

“Actually yes, that's a superb way of putting it. Thank you.”

###

Within 24 hours the story had been picked up by the news media. After Alonso Wells and his team had arrived, Vanessa's suspicions of sabotage and Bernard's suspicions of murder had been confirmed. While the report of the suspected getaway vehicle had not been shared with anyone outside the immediate investigation, the news was amusing themselves by fabricating more and more outlandish tales of how the perpetrators had gotten away. Experimental teleportation was becoming a popular theory, followed shortly behind by the idea that the murderers were still hiding out on the asteroid.

Alonso was quickly delegated the media contact, and soon official Niiz K forces were in full control of the investigation. Vanessa was paid for her services and a shuttle was on its way to take her back to Tsukonia.

“I guess I'm confused about all this,” Bernard said to her as they sat at the lounge's bar, waiting for her shuttle. “If Niiz K was just going to come in and handle everything with their own law enforcement, why send you first?”

“So many reasons,” she giggled as she downed her third Neltith Negroni. “Niiz K is all about the public image. Look at what they knew. A huge disaster at their biggest mining site, one they've bragged about for its safety, how advanced it is, and yadda yadda. That's it. It could be a PR disaster. They gotta send someone in to work out what happened as quickly as possible, but they can't use their own people because then if red tape is cut through, they could be legally accountable. But if they recruit an independent contractor and then, gasp, that person of their own volition breaks the law, they publicly denounce the person while still reaping the results. On top of that, there was no way to know if this site was safe or not. They can't risk their own staff in a place like this. Someone expendable has gotta come in and make sure it's safe first. No more explosions waiting in the wings or anything.”

“I'm astonished at how casually you're taking that treatment.”

“It's a living.” She finished off her drink with a long pull and then looked at him. “So how about you? Where are you off to from here?”

“Just home. Alssyria again. They've got a proper medical team set up here now, plus something of a popup hospital going. I can head back to the regular job.”

“You need a drop?”

“Isn't that out of your way?”

“We're closer to the Alssyrian entrance to the highway than Niiz K's. To take you home will be a few minutes out of our flight plan. I'll survive.”

###

The interstellar highway built between all the star systems was a revolutionary new way of getting around without all that mucking about in regular space. To simply travel from the NKA407 station to the Alssyrian system took the same amount of time as taking the highway from Alssyria to Tsukonia, which was on the far end of known space. Eleven hours to each stop. Along the way to his destination, Bernard regaled Vanessa with stories of his life, and they discovered they had many mutual friends due to the events on Asturia and Azriel V. Monkey Quiroga, Ty-Ren, and Alan Knox, among others. Bernard was much more lively after having gotten a proper night of sleep, and he was looking forward to getting back to his own home. Empty though it would be.

Vanessa was dreading the ride from Alssyria to Tsukonia. She was strongly considering getting off the ship at Rumania and just goofing off for a few good weeks and not letting anyone aside from Mateo know where she was.

Five hours into the flight, the ship was fired upon. Vanessa and Bernard were hurled to the floor as they heard the pilot and copilot in front shouting in bewilderment and trying to understand what was happening. Almost as soon as anyone could get to their feet, more volleys of shots shook the ship and threw them to the floor again. A final volley came and blew the cockpit off the front and the pilots were pulled out into space by the vacuum. Vanessa and Bernard held onto their seats as tightly as they could as the ship came to a standstill. The vacuum continued pulling at them, but now that the ship wasn't being tossed about it was easier to hold on. Before they could acclimate, the sound of footsteps hit the hull. Men in magnetic boots climbed from the outside to the inside of the ship and fired what seemed like bolts of electricity at the two of them, and instantly they both passed out.

###

Bernard Roe awoke slowly. His eyes gradually adjusted to what was around him.

“Why does this keep happening to me?” he wondered. He noted with some annoyance his wrists had been chained to a wall. He noted with greater annoyance his favorite shirt had been burned from the shock and partially ripped open.

“How old are you?” Vanessa asked.

He looked over and saw her chained to the wall next to him. “Something like 52 I think,” he replied with some confusion. “Why?”

“You look good for your age. Surprisingly in shape.”

“I sorta had some work done recently,” he muttered, and began scanning the room. Prison cell. Not like the nice kind he had worked in before either. More like medieval dungeon but made of old and rusty steel. “How long have you been up?”

“A few minutes. Ten maybe.”

“Did you happen to notice anything that might help us escape?”

“No,” she replied. “I was more thinking about your shirt. Did you intentionally get one that was slightly too small? Like, are you trying to draw attention to the fact that you're still in shape in your fifties?”

“What? No. There's more important things here to focus on.”

“I dunno. I mean, either we don't get out of this and therefore nothing matters, or we get out of this and that means we definitely have to go shopping so you can get some shirts that fit you properly. So either nothing is important or your choice of dress shirts is important.”

He sighed and simply stopped talking to her. He examined every corner of the room seeking weaknesses. Nothing apparent. This cell was old but sturdy. There were bars on the far end. Maybe he could pry them out or something. That would require getting out of the chains.

“Any idea how to undo these?” he asked Vanessa.

“Break your wrists,” she immediately replied.

“That would make it very difficult to continue with the escape plan, I believe.”

“Be more specific next time then.”

###

Elsewhere the men who had shocked them unconscious were rifling through all the additional things they had taken from the shuttle. One of the men was overjoyed to discover that Bernard owned a crossbow. The rest of his crew had to stop him from waving it about before he accidentally shot something.

One of them got to Vanessa's bag. “Why does she have a dead bird in here?” he asked in disgust. Before the others could respond, its eyes opened and it flew out of the room.

###

“Is it wrinkle resistant?” Vanessa asked.

“Why do you care so much?!”

“It's just that you've been wearing that thing for at least eight hours and it still looks fresh.”

“If we could please focus...”

Before Bernard could finish his sentence, a bird flew into the cell.

“I was hoping we'd be seeing you soon!” exclaimed Vanessa.

“Is this your team?” Bernard asked in bewilderment.

“Yep. Those thugs took out my earpiece so I haven't been able to communicate with Mateo, but thank heavens they left my shoes on.”

“Not even going to ask,” he muttered in reply.

The bird perched atop Vanessa's hand and stared in silence at the lock on the chain for an awkward amount of time. Then it flew off back into the hallway and vanished. A minute later guards went running by shouting. One stopped and looked into the cell.

“Have you seen a bird flying by?”

“A what now?” Vanessa asked, staring at the man like he was insane.

“Never mind,” and out he ran.

A while later the bird flew back in with several keys in its mouth and dropped them into Vanessa's hand. She went through trying them in the lock, and the third one was a success. She shook free and stood before Bernard.

“Tell me we'll go shirt shopping after this.”

“What?!”

“Your shirts are too tight. You look like you're trying to prove something. So tell me we can go shirt shopping after this and I'll let you loose.”

“Are you seriously going to leave me here if I don't agree to this?”

“Probably not, I'm not that heartless. But then again I also assume you're not the type to risk it, so therefore I don't need to worry about the outcome.” She smiled the most insufferable smile he had ever seen.

“Fine. We'll go shirt shopping once we're out of here and alive.”

“Awesome!” she replied and unlocked his chains.

Bernard rubbed his wrists and ran up to the bars. The bird hadn't brought keys for the main set of bars, but he suspected that they wouldn't be well maintained. Those chains on the wall were pretty solid, and he hoped that would instill overconfidence in the guards. He was right. With some exertion from them both, one of the bars pulled out of place. That opened up enough space they could each squeeze through.

“Alright Mateo,” she said to the bird, “you've seen this place. We'll follow where you guide us.”

The bird flew back opposite from where the guards had run. As they followed, they noted the walls were all rock. This was no building. Hallways split off in random and confusing directions. If they didn't have Mateo guiding them by means of the remote control bird, they would've been lost in an instant.

“Who is Mateo?” Bernard asked her as they ran.

“My nephew. He's the one who got me into this mess. He stays where it's safe and serves as my eyes with this robot bird. He's never misled me yet, so I trust him with my life.”

“I'm glad you said that.”

“Why so?”

“Because that room we just passed was full of small ships. It was unprotected and probably would've offered an easy escape.”

“That probably means he has something more important to show us. *Man* I wish I had my earpiece so he could just tell us what he's trying to show us.”

At frequent points they would have to duck behind a wall or into a dark crevice to avoid the guards. They were all dressed in rags held together by patches, but had identical metal masks covering their faces. They one and all carried some form of weapon, but always different ones.

“Those two were carrying RNP style rifles,” Vanessa whispered as the guards passed. “Last two had GRE and Deqhri ones. And I'm pretty sure one guy had an ancient Los Lobos ulfbehrt. Who are these guys?”

Before Bernard could offer a hypothesis the bird was moving again. They ran ahead until they saw the bird physically beating itself against a door. They shrugged and opened it up, then both gasped.

The double doors opened up into a cavernous room filled with ships of every type imaginable. Every class of small ship from every nation was present. Piles of miscellaneous spare parts were scattered about, and at the far end was a massive pile of ore and metals.

“Is that the stuff from NKA407?” Bernard asked.

“Good eye Docky. I think it is.”

They were standing on a platform about three stories above the main floor. Beneath them hundreds of people moved about doing their work, dismantling and reassembling the ships in new and bizarre ways. Nobody was looking up at them, but they opted to try taking cover nonetheless.

“It looks like a junkyard,” Bernard mused aloud. “An enormous junkyard hidden in … well something rock. Is this that asteroid of yours?”

“I was wondering about that, but this is larger than 1 mile in diameter. Plus, some of this rock is porous. This looks more like the underground of a planet to me. Like we're in caves.”

The gangplank they were on stretched out for what looked like the entire circumference of the cavern. It was so large they couldn't clearly see the other end, and it seemed to branch out into other directions as well. The bird turned left and flew onward, so they followed as discreetly as possible. After a few minutes Vanessa grabbed Bernard's shoulder and whispered “Look! See?”

His gaze followed where she was pointing and he saw the large asteroid sitting there. The back part of it had been taken off revealing an engine inside, and some people were crawling around inside it apparently doing repairs.

“I gotta hand it to you Cuarón,” Bernard said, “I genuinely don't think anyone else would've noticed an asteroid flying around. That is some top tier camouflage.”

“So we were right. These people snuck in, killed the miners, stole their cargo, and blew up the evidence while escaping. But who are they? They're not going to be able to sell the cargo.”

“I don't think money is their objective. Look at this stuff. Everything is getting used. Everybody is wearing secondhand, patched together clothes. Their weapons are repurposed gear from other nations. All the ships are old and frankensteined together out of parts from other ships. The cargo they stole was metals and ores. What if they just needed raw materials to make up for what they were lacking?”

She gazed out at the scene before them. Eventually she shrugged. “Could be.”

The bird landed on Bernard's shoulder.

“I think that means Mateo agrees with you,” Vanessa explained.

The bird flew off and left the way they had come. They followed. Mateo led them back to the room Bernard had spied earlier. It was full of ships and unprotected. As they entered, alarms began to blare throughout the vicinity.

“Looks like someone noticed we were gone,” said Bernard. “Know how to fly any of these?”

“Nope, I'm more used to getting chauffeured. You?”

“Barely, but kinda. That one over there,” he said, pointing, “is an Alssyrian B class scout vessel. I learned the fundamentals in basic training.”

“Best chance we got for now,” she said as she pushed him towards it. They climbed inside as guards run up and down the hallway outside the door. Finally one saw them through the glass of the window and raised the alarm, and soon guards were pouring in and opening fire.

“Anytime now!” she cried as Bernard tried to turn it on. Shots ricocheted off the outer hull, and then the engine roared to life. The scout vessel rose in the air and he turned it towards the bay doors.

“How do we open the doors?” he asked.

“No idea! Try hitting buttons!”

He hit everything he could think of until a missile shot from under the wing to the door blowing it open. He gunned the engine and they blitzed out. As they exited, Vanessa looked behind and gaped.

“It's a planet. A dwarf planet. Where the grizz are we?”

“Boy do I wish I remembered how to bring up the interstellar map,” Bernard muttered angrily. “Why didn't I pay attention?”

“No but seriously, there's no sun around here. No other planets. Not even a moon! These guys have got themselves a rogue planet.”

“That would explain the refurbished junk. Resources have got to be scarce on a planet like this. They must scavenge a bunch of their stuff.”

“Or straight up murder for it,” she added. “Oh, also, not to add any pressure, but they seem to be in pursuit.”

“What??”

“Yeah, at least seven fighters are coming up behind us. So maybe, um, put the pedal to the metal?”

Bernard searched his memory to recall how to push the engines into overdrive. They had explained this to him. Why couldn't he remember? Because he didn't pay attention, he reminded himself, that's why.

“Mateo,” Vanessa said to the bird, “you're still tracking me through the device in my shoe right? Map where we are and send help! Unless you already have in which case thank you and I love you, thank you very much.”

Shots flew past them, some hitting their mark.

“Does this thing have rear guns?” she asked Bernard.

“Yes but I learned how to use them thirty years ago.”

More shots hit. The onboard system began warning them that hull integrity was at 43%.

“So just for reference,” Vanessa asked, “at what age does the memory stop functioning and become utterly useless? You know, in the unlikely circumstance I make it to that age?”

Bernard ignored her, trying to take evasive maneuvers. He managed to dodge the third volley, but getting too caught up in his own back patting, the fourth volley hit again. The computer cautioned hull integrity hit 16%.

“Mateo,” Vanessa said to the bird, “if this is the end, I leave you all my stuff. But don't go in my room! Just burn it if you have to. Nobody gets in there. You understand me? Nobody!”

Ahead of them, ships appeared.

“Cuarón!” Bernard shouted. “Look!”

It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. RNP ships, an entire fleet, approaching rapidly. The onboard screen lit up.

“We received a distress call. Please state the nature of your emergency.”

“My name is Bernard Roe of the Alssyrian Medical Corps! I and my partner Vanessa Cuarón are being attacked by these unknown ships behind!”

The RNP ships descended on the small fleet of fighters and within moments their pursuers had dispersed and seemingly vanished.

“Muchas gracias niña,” Vanessa said to the bird. “What? No! No you can't have my stuff! What? Because I'm not dying now! Oy!”

###

“No sign of this planet of yours anywhere,” said Alonso Wells. Three days after their escapade, they had given an extensive deposition to Niiz K's Law Enforcement Division, and now were getting updated on the progress of the case.

“We swear it was there,” protested Bernard.

“We're not doubting you. Miss Cuarón has provided satisfactory evidence that it was in fact there. But two subsequent expeditions there have revealed nothing. Either they are masters at disguise or they've found a way to move a small planet.”

“Either of those options are terrible news,” opined Vanessa.

“Agreed. But at least we know of their existence now. To tell you the truth, this rogue planet of scavengers could in fact settle numerous cold cases we have on file. We've contact the law enforcement agencies of several other nations with our findings and they too are joining in the search for these people. The Wreckers, as some are calling them.”

“Not the media I hope,” Bernard replied.

“No. Facts from this investigation are ongoing and are therefore being withheld from all news agencies throughout the galaxy.” Alonso sighed and sat back in his chair. “I'm sorry to say that's all we have so far. Just a lot of question marks after this. But hopefully soon the joint task force will turn up something.” He rubbed his temples with his fingers intently. “First the missing Shandüchan expedition, now this. The world is getting turned upside down. I fear things aren't going to get better anytime soon.”

“Well, thanks for the lovely pep talk,” Vanessa said rising from her seat, “but I'm afraid I have another appointment.”

“Yes, yes, you're free to go. Both of you.”

They exited the police building and stood on the street. Vanessa's head turned left to right as though she were looking for something.

“Appointment huh?” Bernard asked. “Anything interesting?”

“Absolutely. And you're coming with me.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Shirt shopping. We're getting rid of that stupid tight shirt and getting you some that fit properly.”

END