Diamond wanted to come up with some ingenious plan to save them all. If he fired the engines, they might make it back to orbit. Or the sudden change in direction and velocity might tear them apart.
If this was as bad as he imagined, they might be stuck here for a long time. This was not the most popular planet. Supplies? He didn't imagine there would be any left behind --
Ten seconds. Diamond had no ideas.
They put down on the pad in a near-perfect landing. Amazing what the brain could do without interference from the mind.
Everyone was quiet.
Make some decisions.
"Any comm?" he asked.
"Nothing. Picking up some internal signals at the outpost. It all looks good there. Maybe when the ship crashed... something happened, and they lost communications."
"Maybe," Diamond agreed. He stood. The others did as well. "Alyna should have the lasers out by now. I don't know what is going to happen, people. Be careful."
Dyna and Alyna had the weapons. They handed them out. Diamond wanted to say important things again -- but he just sighed.
"They're at the airlock," Retra warned. She had her pocketcomp in hand. "Waiting. Do we test their patience?"
"Let them in," Diamond decided. "Quince, Breta, Kyle -- find some cover."
No one argued. Diamond himself went to open the airlock. For a brief moment, he thought they were fine.
"I suppose you IWC types don't have much choice but charge in, do you?" a woman asked as she stepped forward. "Fools. Are you Captain Diamond?"
"Yes."
"Good." She brought up her own laser and shot him through the shoulder.
It was a deliberate shot and not meant to kill him, but the others were shouting and firing before he went down.
Distraction.
"Hold!" he shouted, and his own people obeyed, though they didn't stand there and wait to be shot.
By then, it was too late anyway. Two fully armored bots surged through the doorway and began taking down anyone who was not already fallen or dead. Smarl and Dyna didn't survive. Quince had a burn on his leg, and Diamond had a shot in the arm.
Their unwanted visitors had kept behind the bots and came through fine. The bots caught Alyn -- not Alyna, which surprised Diamond.
"Now that I have your attention," the woman said with a snarky smile that would have annoyed Diamond even if she'd been an ally. "Let's talk about getting off this ice ball. Who is your pilot?"
"That would be me," Diamond said and gasped at a movement of his arm.
"Oops."
He was not amused.
She had him treated in the medunit and then locked in Kyle's small cabin with the rest of his crew. They'd removed weapons, comms, and pocketcomps, of course. They hadn't treated Quince's leg, but Diamond shared his own supplies.
The loss of Smarl and Dyna became more real now. Alyn was here, not Alyna -- that took Diamond by surprise. Alyna was the take-charge personality of the two, and for her to step back while carefree Alyn took control --
Only they didn't look carefree at the moment.
"They want the ship. They don't have a pilot," Diamond said. "We have room to negotiate."
The others nodded. No one spoke much. They got comfortable as they could, and they waited. Every few hours, they traded off the bed.
"They're bringing in something down in the bay," Retra finally announced. Her words startled them all. She stood by the door and listened with nods sometimes. "Something big. From the time frame, I'd guess it came from their other ship. Probably difficult to transport it here in this weather."
"They didn't drag us out to help," Quince added. "I am trying to believe that means we'll survive."
"They need me as a pilot," Diamond reminded them. "And that makes the rest of you hostages to my good behavior. They're the crew from the other ship. They might not need more than me -- but I can make it plain that if anything happens to you, I'll pilot us into a black hole."
He meant it, too. He hoped they were listening.
Then they went quiet again. Diamond slept on the floor and snarled at them to leave him alone when they tried to give him the bed. Sleep was all he wanted.
And food, but he realized that wasn't going to happen. No one else mentioned it, either. He looked at the computer desk and considered tearing it out --it was how they monitored the group, and he could see them on the screen --
And then the screen blipped. No more than an eye blink, and Diamond started toward it. Only on the screen, he didn't move.
"Everyone mark where you are right now," Diamond ordered. "Someone just put our feed on a loup."
"That would be Mik and Min," Alyn said with a bright smile. He held up a pocketcomp.
"Where the hell did you get that?" Retra demanded.
"This is my room," Kyle reminded them. "And they didn't look very well. I get the feeling they're new at this pirating stuff. I was standing by the bed and slipped it from the table to under the pillow."
"And I keyed into Mik and Min's private frequency. They opened some lines for me, and I looped the video," Alyn added.
"Well done!" He gave a startled glance at the air vent when it popped open. Retra caught it before it fell.
Mik and Min leapt to the bed and rushed to Alyn. They dragged two large pouches with them, and Alyn began handing out the laser pistols -- and the cookies.
Well, that made things better.
Alyn -- or more likely Alyna, despite the clothes, synced the five pocketcomps. The first thing he saw was a map with dots.
"That's where everyone was about half an hour ago," Alyn said. "Looks like there are seven of them --"
"Plus the battle bots," Breta added.
"Mik and Min took care of them." *
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