Free Dark Beneath the Moon by Sherry D. Ramsey

covered about a quarter of the distance between us, so there was no doubt that whoever they were, they’d been monitoring us.
    “Want to chase them?” Rei asked, swinging around in her skimchair to face me. Her eyes were bright behind the mask of her pridattii, and I could tell she hoped the answer would be yes . “We could try out the new burst drive.”
    I hesitated. I was, in fact, burning to know who was following us and why. Was it that someone had noticed us pick up Cerevare and had reason to wonder why? Or was it PrimeCorp again?
    “I don’t want to get sidetracked,” I said finally, “but I want to know who that was. Run us close enough to scan the drive signature—use the burst drive if necessary. That might put a scare into them and they’ll leave us alone for a bit, which will give us time to get through the new wormhole.” I grinned. “They won’t be following us there, I’ll bet.”
    So Rei poured it on, with a little encouragement from Viss, and the new burst drive worked beautifully. We managed to close the distance between the two ships enough for Yuskeya to catch our quarry in a drive scan. Once she gave the word that she had enough data, we dropped back and let the other ship keep running, putting a nice margin between us again, then wheeled to head for the wormhole.
    “Okay, Rei, use the burst drive all the way to the spot where we engaged it before. Even if they come back, our normal signature should have dissipated before they can trace it to the wormhole.”
    “Who did you piss off this time, Mother?” Maja asked, then bit her lip. “Sorry. That came out wrong.”
    I shrugged. “I don’t really know. Could be PrimeCorp, could be someone following Cerevare. Could be something else entirely—pirates, trying to decide if we’re a worthwhile target.”
    “Hey, Captain, guess what?” Yuskeya looked up from the nav board where she had analyzed the scan data. “It’s our friend from the other day. That’s one pirate who gets around.”
    I frowned. “Now, that, I don’t like. He’s far too persistent.”
    “Yeah, and I’m guessing he’s got a lot more inside that hull than you’d think,” said Baden. “I sent a little tracer piggybacking on Yuskeya’s scan, and it picked up some tech readings you wouldn’t expect.”
    “Like what?” I crossed to study the data over Baden’s shoulder.
    “Better weapons than flash-pack torps, for one thing,” he said. “Wasp missiles and a particle beam, too. Long-range scanners that are probably as good as ours, enhanced comm capability. You name it, he seems to have it. You just wouldn’t think so from the outside, or from what he’s demonstrated so far.”
    “Put that ship on long-range alert status,” I ordered. “I want to know the instant he comes within range of us.”
    “You’ve got it, Captain,” Yuskeya said. “Now if we hightail it into that wormhole—”
    “It’ll be the last we see of him for a while,” I finished. “And amen to that.”
    Ah, wishful thinking.
     
    BACK AT THE coordinates Lanar had provided, we ran all the scans again, long- and short-range. At the all-clear, we turned our attention to the new wormhole. It looked much like any of the others studded around Nearspace, a darker area of space where no stars twinkled in the far distance. A moonlit shadow against an ebony background. You could pass it without noticing if your scans were off and you weren’t paying attention.
    “Viss, we’ve arrived,” I told him over the ship’s comm. “How’s the new skip drive doing?”
    “Running smooth as organic velvet,” he assured me. “The new upgrade should make it easier for Rei to stabilize the skips as we go through.”
    “Usual scans are running,” Yuskeya reported. “Everything seems to be within the normal range—wait a second, belay that observation. Hmmm . . . ” Her fingers darted over the display, keying in commands.
    “What is it?” I didn’t want any further complications. Lanar