Free Poor Man's Fight by Elliott Kay

navigator may not survive due to severe injuries.
    “We know that Aphrodite didn’t put up a fight,” she continued, calling up a three-dimensional image of the ship in front of her. “We believe she had armament and armor enough to have made that a genuine option, but the captain didn’t take it.”
    “You think it was an inside job?” Aguirre frowned suspiciously.
    “I wouldn’t go that far, sir,” Yeoh replied. “The decision to resist or surrender was entirely the captain’s call. Civilian captains have to quickly weigh the prospects of resistance to pirate attacks. Failed resistance generally leads to much greater violence toward a captured crew and passengers than they face if they surrender quickly. From the sound of things, the captain didn’t think he could fight off the pirates.”
    “But you said that his ship was well-armed?”
    “As you know, we suspect NorthStar skirts Union arms limits with many of their ships. It’s in your intelligence briefings. We believe Aphrodite is one that could be converted to military use with relative ease, but we don’t have proof. As it stands, her weapons are more of a deterrent than anything else. The ship might hold up in a serious fight, but the crew would’ve been another matter. I suspect that was on the captain’s mind when he decided to surrender.”
    “I see. Why would they go to that effort to spare the crew?” Aguirre asked.
    “I’m merely speculating,” mused Kiribati, “but as the admiral said, these pirates made a recruiting pitch. It’s been done before. A lot of pirate organizations pride themselves on an ideology of personal freedom. You’re not exactly making a free choice if the recruiting pitch is ‘join or die,’ so… they may have simply wanted to avoid being seen as hypocrites.”
    Aguirre snorted derisively. “That’s a lovely thought. I’m sorry, Admiral. Please go on.”
    “ Aphrodite had a passenger listing of 2,744 passengers. As of our last count from Resolute , we have found 896 bodies floating in space. That leaves us looking for 1,938 more.”
    “Jesus Christ,” Aguirre blinked. “We’ve got everyone we can spare out there looking right now, don’t we?”
    “Yes sir, we’re already doing that,” Yeoh nodded. “There’s more, sir.” Aguirre grunted, but waved for her to continue. “A significant number of the passengers are highly-placed medical professionals, most if not all under contract with NorthStar,” she said. “They were on their way to a vacation/conference on Michael. We believe they were kept as hostages.”
    “NorthStar will pay the ransom,” Kiribati scowled. “I’ll be able to confirm that in a day or two through some sources, but they’re probably negotiating it right now.”
    “Already? We’re still sorting out what the hell happened out there, and NorthStar is already talking to these bastards?”
    “So much for not negotiating with hostage-takers,” Victor put in.
    Kiribati just shrugged. “NorthStar has a whole insurance wing for this. It’s cost effective.”
    “I imagine they’ll find a way to pass the costs onto us,” Victor mused.
    “Probably,” put in Abdul Shadid, Aguirre’s finance minister. “They’ll likely scale back their exposure on this end of space, nudge up interest rates and fees on everything here to make up for the losses, and claim that risk like this justifies it.”
    “And then they’ll leave those price hikes in place even after the expenses are covered,” Aguirre fumed.
    “No real surprises there, sir,” Shadid shrugged. “If they do it quickly enough, we can use it to our advantage to obfuscate a little bit more of our own budget shifts,” he added, glancing meaningfully at Andrea, “but that’s a short-term disguise. In the long term it will obviously be a squeeze.”
    “The clock’s about to run out on that game soon,” Aguirre grumbled ominously. He looked up at Yeoh again. “How did they nab the liner, anyway?”
    “Most of