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(Page 3 of 5) Stellar Dust 1 - Cargo Run by Isaac Orr
 (12 ratings)
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After recovery it'd taken another month of tuning before he'd stopped being thrown to the floor by his own legs at random intervals. Satisfied, he reached down and yanked the line from the diagnostic port and closed the flap in his trousers.
Sighing, he laid his head back, shutting his eyes and willing his body to relax. That didn't help his mind, which continued to race back and forth over his last meeting with Cargil, the contract, the cargo and what could possibly have led to him being set up. He hadn't been what you'd call friends with Cargil, but they had done business with each other several times over the years and it had always been on mutually satisfactory terms. Stryler let his mind drift, hoping that some solution or extra piece of information would pop up. He didn't tend to have the attention span to think through something like this analytically, but often found that his brain would serve up what he needed when it was good and ready.
The harsh chiming of an alert pulled him out of his reverie and he opened his eyes to glace at the timer in his display. Still 30 minutes short of rendezvous with his ship, the Duster. Eyes scanning the display for the source of the alert he picked out the signatures of two spacecraft ahead, right next to the Duster. No wonder there wasn't any pursuit. They were already waiting for him. Bof.
He stabbed his finger through the display to terminate the hopper's flight path and it came to a dead stop, gravgens balancing it to hang in space. How in the galaxy had they found the Duster? It was dead, and free floating in the second of the system's asteroid belts. To most scanners it would have looked just like any other rock unless the operator knew exactly what to look for, and where. Someone obviously had.
Stryler didn't have a chance to begin formulating a plan before the chime rang out again. Two more craft were approaching from the planet he'd just departed and closing on him rapidly. They had his position, and knew where he was, which meant the two craft ahead would be coming for him too any moment now. Options were getting slim. What now?
"Telecontrol." At his word, the probe again contacted his skull and his universe became the hopper. He could "feel" the positions of the craft coming up from behind, the ones waiting ahead and beside them the form of the Duster. The ships were small, and the ones behind were coming up fast. They looked like newer, more advanced enforcement fighters. It was unusual for that sort of equipment to be stationed out here, but that went along with the rest of his day.
The hopper came to life again as Stryler tried to control it and at the same time plan an escape. Hopefully the two craft guarding the Duster would also pursue him, leaving it alone. In that case perhaps he could draw them off and sneak back. It was a gamble, and one hopper against four fully armed fighters weren't the sort of odds he usually liked to play, but it was the only plan he had other than making planetfall elsewhere in the system and trying to wait the heat out.
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