Well...things have settled down a little. Sorta. The girl who hijacked my ship still hasn't told me her name, but at least she's being nicer now that I managed to knock her unconscious and steal her weapon. I dunno, it's weird...you'd think that, after that, she'd attack me and try to get her gun back and get back in control. But she hasn't done that. It's almost as if, by fighting back, I've earned her respect. She's starting to act more like a crewmember and less like a hijacker or hostage.
Yesterday, she showed me how to fix the slow air leak in the aft cargo bay without using any of my precious hull sealant. And then she helped me fix the squeaky #2 turret after we docked at the Freeport. AND she even came with me to the Freeport's cafe to get some Canarian coffee! Imagine that. If I didn't know better, I'd say she was even becoming friendly. But I do know better. She agreed to come with me, but the whole way to the cafe and back she had that "animal in a cage" look about her, as if she was having to constantly suppress the urge to flee.
While we were sitting at the cafe, trying (and failing) to make some small talk, I heard something very welcome over the news channel: the TAZ has been cleared of the charge of cooperating with the Phantoms! That's wonderful, because it means I'm no longer a wanted man. I may still face some penalties for fleeing, but maybe not, since I was kinda under duress at the time.
Anyway, I hear the LSF is offering a 2 million credit bounty for each Rogue or Hacker ship destroyed for the next few days, so we'll be headed back to Liberty pretty soon...far from any Samura bases. If you still haven't figured out why, ask. I'll be happy to explain.
But of course, they won't ask. That's not what they do. Instead, they'll hire a private investigator or something. And I'll get even more blunt in my messages when I catch wind of somebody tailing me. And they'll send another. And so on. He sighed as he hit the send button. Eventually, I'll probably have to tell them off in person. THAT will be fun...
"Ready to go?" the girl asked.
Mark shut his personal log, and nodded. "Yeah. You got the docking clearance?"
"Yep. Got us a mission against the Corsairs, too, on the way out."
"Good. Thanks - let's ditch this joint." The girl sealed the airlock and released the docking clamps while Mark fired the thrusters, edging the ship out of her berth. Once clear of the station, he engaged the cruise engines and leaned back. After a few minutes of awkward silence, the girl sat down in the copilot's chair, fiddling with the sensors as they approached the mission waypoint.
It went well for a few minutes; the first trio of Titans fell quickly to the gunship's turrets. But all too soon, the unnamed girl let out a cry of alarm. "Brotherhood gunboat, 7k and closing fast!"
"7k?! How the hell'd he get that close?"
"Came through the Kappa jump hole. Punch it!"
Mark stowed the turrets and engaged the cruise engines as the girl jammed her fingers down on the countermeasure trigger. Bolts of destructive energy flashed around the gunship, including the telltale green of Cerberus turrets. "Do we have any Corsairs in our hold?"
She checked. "Two."
"Drop 'em. Maybe he'll break off." The hope of that didn't keep him from jinking for all he was worth, though. There was a metallic clunk as the two escape pods were jettisoned...the enemy gunboat picked them up, and resumed pursuit. "Damn..."
"What now?"
"We make for the Minor jump hole, and pray there's no Order awake right now."
The comms were silent as the two ships played their dangerous game of cat and mouse; Mark reached the jump hole well ahead of the gunboat, but somehow exited not far ahead of it. "Go go go!" He didn't have to be told twice. About halfway through Minor, the Corsair finally gave up the chase...but Mark kept running, all the way into Alaska.
"So...what now?"
He removed his hands from the controls so the girl couldn't tell they were shaking. "We run far, far from the prison stations and pray the Navy doesn't catch us in here. Out of the fire and into the oven, or something."
