Rookie Privateer by Jamie McFarlane Page A

I'd been shot. Panic coursed through me. I hoped I hadn't doomed us. "What were we thinking?" I refused to give in to doubt. Millie and others were dead, Dad was being shot at.
    It turns out the shot to my thigh was a simple graze. The tear to the vac-suit was minor and it was able to repair itself almost immediately. The wound hurt like a bitch but I would live.
    I ducked my head back around the container and saw the two pirates were halfway to my position. They were on a hard burn with their arc-jets, so I ducked behind the containers, not wanting to provide them another easy target. My training kicked in and then I started jetting between the containers. For a while both of them were completely stymied, trying to follow me through the maze. Then they got smart and jetted up above the surface for a clean look down.
    " Birds are up!" Tabby called from her hidden position.
    It was the signal I was waiting for. I dove between two closely placed containers, and slid down, careful to not touch the sides. I looked up to see the pirates glide over the top, five meters up.
    "Give up, dumb ass," one of the pirates broadcast on a close-range channel. He was pointing his gun directly at me.
    " Just shoot him. Who cares?"
    The first pirate nodded his head and there was neither hate nor joy in his eyes as he took aim. I was looking into the eyes of a cold-blooded killer. Instinct compelled me to raise my hands.
    Without warning, the two containers on either side of me shot straight up at high velocity. The pirates had just enough time to start turning away when the container they were directly over, rammed into them. Even as amazing as suits were, they couldn't absorb anywhere near that much kinetic energy.
    Since there was no gravity on the station, the pirates and containers tumbled away on their new trajectories. I hoped they wouldn't hit anyone or any structure. Growing up in a mining colony constantly reinforced that launching something at a high velocity was dangerous and should be avoided. Today it had proved unavoidable.
    "Man, I didn't think the gas bags would launch those containers so hard." Nick was breathing heavily from the excitement. Tubular gas bags were lined up neatly in two rows where the containers had been sitting just moments ago. When mining, we drill holes three meters deep, spaced a half meter apart. Then we drop gas bags into the holes and simultaneously blow the bags. The rapid expansion has roughly the same force as if we dropped in a couple of sticks of dynamite. We had unclamped the containers from the station, placed flattened bags under the containers and connected them to a gas supply. Nick hid, waiting for the pirates to get above the containers before he triggered the bags. I was the rabbit who drew them in and nearly paid the ultimate price.
    " Take cover." Tabby's voice was as panicked as I had ever heard it. I tracked her movement and dove behind the containers. The attack ship's turret was tearing up the surface around us. The message was loud and clear. The three of us snuck back toward the station to gather equipment for the next phase of my plan.
    Fifteen minutes later, the turret was still pointing at the yard, but no longer firing. I wondered how much damage the James' equipment had taken but didn't have time to dwell on it. People were dying and equipment could be replaced. It was a lesson my dad drilled into me. People were more important than equipment, period. No questions. It was a poor miner who forgot this lesson.
    Tabby and I would be exposed for ten seconds on this next round. There was no defense if that gunner picked up on us, the turret would rip us to shreds. On the plus side, we were nearly invisible with our dark suits and much smaller than anything an attack ship would be configured to track. It occurred to me too late that a pirate ship might be configured differently.
    " Go," I whispered, for no reason other than stress.
    Tabby and I jetted from opposite sides of a new stack