Free The Ripple in Space-Time: Free City Book 1 (The Free City Series) by S F Chapman

yanked open the door, “ but the lugheads that hijacked
it couldn ’ t figure out how to board a robotic ship. ” He rolled his eyes contemptuously, “ Shipjacks, my
ass! ”
    Jana ’ s senses were
slowly returning, “ Why are we and the Lightning out here in the middle
of nowhere, Boz? ”
    He stared unnervingly at her for
several seconds, “ You talk too much. ”
    Jana forced a smile; if she was
ever going to manipulate the pirates they would have to view her as benign and
friendly. “ Sorry, I ’ m just really happy to chat with
someone. ”
    “ We ’ re gonna get you back together
with your friends later today, ” Boz pulled her gruffly into the
control room, “ you can talk all you want with them. ”
    “ Ah, Doctor Fesai,” Captain Gristle said, “it’s good to see
you again.”
    Bosco secured her binding straps
to the side of a stout control panel before propelling himself out of the
pilothouse.
    As Jana watched the Captain tend
to the controls, she resolved to trick him into revealing more information to
her. “ When are we docking with the Lightning ? ”
    He looked up at her with some
annoyance.
    She smiled innocently at the man.
    “ In about an hour if everything goes right, ” the Captain studied a small display, “ then we ’ ll move you and the others on to the Xenon Lightning and put you
to work. ”
    Jana suppressed the tightening
sense of dread that threatened to overwhelm her. “ What do you want
us to do, Mr. Gristle? ” she asked cheerily.
    “ Our employer would like you fabricate some devices using
those matter/antimatter pairings that we brought along from the Moon lab. ”
    “ OH, ” she nodded, “I’m sure we could
do that for you guys. ”
    Jana ’ s heart was
racing; the pirates would almost certainly want her to produce some sort of
small and very destructive weapons with the dangerous and finicky materials. If
she could win their confidence to the point that they became lax about
overseeing her, she might be able to thwart their efforts.
    Far down the passageway, Jana
could hear Boz jostling about with one of the bulkhead doors.
    • • •
    Bosco shoved the two young
deckhands out of the way as he blustered into the large compartment, “ I told you morons to stay away from this friggin ’ thing! ” He studied the robust basketball-sized sphere clamped into
the launching fixture of the deployment bay.
    “ It ’ s worth more than both of you
lowlifes put together. ”
    His hands slid over the warm
smooth surface of the object, it had an odd magnetic-like quality that clamped
his palms firmly to it. Boz couldn ’ t fathom why the contents of the
orb behaved in this way, but he savored the strange sensation nevertheless.
    The deckhands watched with some
amusement as the burly second in command struggled to jerk his hands away from
the device.
    Boz floated to the storage rack
and studied the profusion of messenger tugs that were kept there. An unforeseen
benefit of hijacking a ship that was outfitted as a delivery vessel was the
large supply of the tiny expendable vehicles onboard that were used to nudge
packages from the passing ship to customers waiting below on the surface of a
planet or moon.
    He selected the smallest
long-distance/dense atmosphere tug on the rack. Boz pried open the hatch of the
grapefruit-sized robot and entered the destination coordinates. He sealed the
device and pressed it against the larger object sitting in the launch fixture.
The two machines clung together.
    Bosco smiled briefly at the
interlocked spheres before gesturing towards the door.
    The crewman followed him
obediently out of the deployment bay.
    • • •
    Jana pressed the ‘ send ’ button in panic.
    She stared at the open hatchway as
Olin Gristle propelled himself back into the control room. He had been gone for
perhaps a minute, but she had managed to squirm awkwardly around and hastily
tap out a message on the communication console. Hopefully it was on its way to
the