ELEVEN

Jakob took the time to escort the group back to the Odin, a courteous gesture considering the hell storm of black ops mercs that was about to arrive.

"I'll be fine," he said, waving off Arissa's concerns. "I do feel a little bad about the Thompson family, though."

"The owners?" Arissa asked. Jakob nodded.

"They're in for some interrogating, but fortunately they'll have plenty of alibis from their vacation. I also broke the lock on my way out. Evidence of a break in should help them out."

"You're a considerate man," Arissa said. "No matter what you think." She gave him a hug. "Are you sure you won't come with us?"

"Oh, no, I'm fine. Why go out for a stimulating life of star hopping when I can live in a disgusting dust bucket?" He smiled. "Now, get going. We really kicked the hornet's nest by pulling this thing out of her." He handed off the tracker. Arissa eyed it.

"Is it dangerous?"

"No more than a stone. Good luck, kid."

The team piled into the Odin, Jack in the lead with Eden on his back, then Kane with Talia in his system, then Arissa with Jakob in her heart. She watched from a window as the Odin kicked up dust on takeoff, obscuring her longtime and very helpful friend. Once Jack brought the ship out of Titan airspace, he had Talia set a course for "As far from this place as possible."

Then came another group meeting. The mood was bitter-sweet, a major improvement over previous bitter-bitter gatherings. They had pulled off a minor victory by removing the tracker, but were now right back at square one.

"He couldn't figure out who was tracking it?" Kane asked, already sounding pessimistic.

"To be honest," Talia said. "I'm impressed that he got the device out Eden without causing major brain damage. Anything more would have been a miracle."

Eden reached behind her head, prodding the remains of her sudden and swift surgery. This caused Arissa to snap out a moment of maternal instinct.

"Don't play with it," she said. "It has to heal."

Eden obeyed. "So what's the next step?" She asked. "We're harder to find but we're still fugitives."

"Then we un-fugitive ourselves," Jack said. "Someone ask me 'how?'" No one bit, so Jack continued, unsolicited. "Anyone ever hear of E-M fingerprinting?"

Through headshakes and blank stares, the entire room answered in the negative, Jack stepped over to his holographic console.

"Neither had I, until I met my old buddy Jaeek. I had never heard of it because it's not any kind of technology, it's a property of his species, the Aekoi. They can read data like we can read brail, and by that I mean it takes practice. My guy Jaeek is a pro."

"Even deleted data?" Arissa asked.

"If we get it to him fast enough."

"How fast?"

Jack only shrugged. Kane nodded.

"Sounds like we're going on another field trip, boys and girls."

"More like a safari." Jack pressed a few buttons on his console, pulling up the holographic model and schematics of a massive ship. It's designer was clearly lacking in imagination, as it essentially looked like a brick with engines, antennae, and guns.

"Meet the F.S.A. Gunder. Server cl—"

"Server class," Kane said, finishing Jack's words. "A prison ship." A look in the mercenary's eye said that he was well acquainted with this style of craft.

"He travel's in style," Jack said. "Involuntarily."

"Cool ship," Arissa said. "So let's go find an Aekoi that doesn't live behind bars."

"I wouldn't count on finding one. E-M fingerprinting is illegal." Jack jerked his thumb at the Gunder. "How do you think he got the sweet digs?"

"You know," Kane said, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms over his chest. "Just once, I hope we can set course for someplace nice. Tropical planet, pretty nebula, something like that." He looked around the room. "That was a joke. Do I look like the kind of guy that likes beaches?"

"Only when you smile," Arissa said. "So I don't like to jump to conclusions, but I'm guessing we need to spring our friend from that ship."

"That's a fair assessment," Jack said.

"How about a plan?"

Jack backed off, hands high. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't expect me to do everything. I'm just the 'doer.'"

"Then who's going to be our planner?"

"Ooh!" Talia raised her hand, studiously. "Me," she said. "Pick me! Pick me!"

 "I was hoping you would say that." Jack pointed at her with a grin, as if her enthusiasm had been his idea. "How long do you need?"

"To come up with a plan? Five minutes to extract my compressed data on Server Class vessel subsystems and hardware management. To destroy your plan? T-minus forty seconds."

"We didn't have a plan."

"Yes you did. You said you wanted to break him out of an F.A. prison ship."

"We have to," Jack said. "E-M isn't exactly a job you can do remotely."

"I wasn't suggesting that."

"Alright. He can't do it with sign language out the window, either."

"Keep going," Talia said. "I'm enjoying this."

"Oh, I will. I'm determined to hold you past your forty second projection."

"You're welcome to try."

"You should also know that the ship is inbound to the Afterlife Race. You know what that is, right?"

"A deadly, highly popular race that is televised throughout the Southern Nebula. It employs high-powered ion engines dangerously close to structures that offer deadly impacts, and live weapon systems on the vessels, which are activated as a reward for racers that survive the longest as they pass each checkpoint. This is a common entertainment technique that gradually increases the intensity and watchable nature of any given program. Twenty-five seconds."

Jack was looking like he was about half a foot into the grave of verbal defeat. "And you're aware that the race organization is so heavily funded that once the Gunder transfers Jaeek into their hands, he'll be impossible to get."

"Yes. Very good, Jack. Twelve seconds remaining."

The bounty hunter threw his hands high, then turned away.

"Alright, let's hear it."

Talia started up with calculated, fast-talking, quick enough to reach her estimation but slow enough to show her confidence. "Although extracting a prisoner from a Server Class vessel is humanly possible, the odds of success are negligible, considering everything about the vessel and her crew is designed to keep people in." As she spoke, she hijacked the Odin's holographic projector, systematically highlighting the countless compartments that the Gunder would close in case of a lockdown. "Triggering a power failure is possible for any ship if you have a stunningly talented A.I. on your side." She cleared her throat. "But the F.A. knows this, and employs back up generators, inmate trackers, and hardwired doors that, once disrupted, will lock and can only be re-opened from the outside, and thus concludes my annihilation of your fledging plan."

Eden, who had been on the sidelines of the whole discussion, suddenly gave the standard nod that all people do when completing a countdown. "Thirty-eight seconds."

"Thank you, dear."

"No problem."

"So, the only thing that the F.A. has yet to account for, because why would they, is people breaking in to the ship." Talia smiled. "As I said, the compartments seal from the outside."

Jack closed his eyes, rubbing his temples. "I wish I didn't say I was the doer."

"Most doers do. Ideally you will be able to sneak into Jaeek's cell without officially being arrested for… let's call it trespassing."

"And what's after that? We just wait for a chance to make a run for it?"

"In a way, yes. You will be making a run for it."

Jack went slack-jawed. "You mean we run the race with him, keep him alive."

"Of course. You'll be prisoners of the F.A. I'm not sure if you've done your research, but the race is so heavily funded that once the Gunder transfers you and Jaeek, breaking out will be impossible."

Kane let out an amused grunt, finally making his presence known, then looked to Jack. "You've been saying, "we," a lot. I'm guessing I'm going in with you."

Jack shrugged. "It's a once in a lifetime opportunity. The Afterlife Race is for convicts only. Who else gets to run the gauntlet without being guilty?" Off of Kane's bland expression, Jack realized that Kane was probably guilty of many things. He added, "recently guilty," Although, they were technically fugitives at the moment. He added again, "recently guilty and apprehended." Still no dice. One last try, from the top. "Who else gets to run the race as a guilty fugitive that was arrested by his own free will?"

"I guess that makes me lucky," Kane said.

"Not exactly," Talia interjected. "You will be lucky if you survive the race."

"I appreciate the accuracy," Jack said. "Can I ask how we're getting close enough to the Gunder to board it? Please tell me we're not posing as prisoners."

"Three minutes and thirty seconds till data extraction. I'll have a plan for you then." She paused, seeming to compute for a second. "Though I'm not ruling out the fake prisoner routine."