Page 105 (1/2)

Prologue: Julie

The Scopuli had been taken eight days ago, and Julie Mao was finally ready to be shot

It had taken all eight days trapped in a storage locker for her to get to that point For the first two she’d remained motionless, sure that the armored men who’d put her there had been serious For the first hours, the ship she’d been taken aboard wasn’t under thrust, so she floated in the locker, using gentle touches to keep herself fro into the walls or the atan to ht, she’d stood silently until her legs cramped, then sat down slowly into a fetal position She’d peed in her ju about the warht slip and fall in the wet spot it left on the floor She couldn’t make noise They’d shoot her

On the third day, thirst had forced her into action The noise of the ship was all around her The faint subsonic rumble of the reactor and drive The constant hiss and thud of hydraulics and steel bolts as the pressure doors between decks opened and closed The clu She waited until all the noise she could hear sounded distant, then pulled the environ for any approaching sound, she slowly disassembled the suit and took out the water supply It was old and stale; the suit obviously hadn’t been used or serviced in ages But she hadn’t had a sip in two days, and the war she had ever tasted She had to work hard not to gulp it down and make herself vomit

When the urge to urinate returned, she pulled the catheter bag out of the suit and relieved herself into it She sat on the floor, now cushioned by the padded suit and almost comfortable, and wondered who her captors were—Coalition Navy, pirates, so worse Sometimes she slept

On day four, isolation, hunger, boredo number of places to store her piss finally pushed her to make contact with them She’d heard muffled cries of pain So beaten or tortured If she got the attention of the kidnappers, maybe they would just take her to the others That was okay Beatings, she could handle It seeain

The locker sat beside the inner airlock door During flight, that usually wasn’t a high-traffic area, though she didn’t know anything about the layout of this particular ship She thought about what to say, how to present herself When she finally heard so toward her, she just tried to yell that she wanted out The dry rasp that ca her tongue to try to create soain Another faint rattle in the throat

The people were right outside her locker door A voice was talking quietly Julie had pulled back a fist to bang on the door when she heard what it was saying

No Please no Please don’t

Dave Her ship’s mechanic Dave, who collected clips fro in a small broken voice

No, please no, please don’t, he said

Hydraulics and locking bolts clicked as the inner airlock door opened Awas thrown inside Another click as the airlock closed A hiss of evacuating air

When the airlock cycle had finished, the people outside her door walked away She didn’t bang to get their attention

They’d scrubbed the ship Detainment by the inner planets navies was a bad scenario, but they’d all trained on how to deal with it Sensitive OPA data was scrubbed and overwritten with innocuous-looking logs with false ti too sensitive to trust to a computer, the captain destroyed When the attackers came aboard, they could play innocent