Chapter 6

"I wish that damn girl would wake up. It would make this so much easier," grumbled Stith, as she crawled through the open hole of the battered ship. "At least then we wouldn't have to examine every inch of this piece of shit." Her shirt caught on a jutting piece of titanium, and she paused a moment to tear back the charred metal. "Tell me again why I'm doing this and not Preed? He is after all the science officer here."

"Because Preed's already taken an instant dislike to her, and would complain most of the time," Korso's voice echoed through the blasted remains.

"As if I'm any better," she grumbled under her breath. "And why won't you just ask the boy?"

"I tried it already, but he didn't say much. I wasn't willing to push it."

"You should have asked him later when he wasn't trying to fight off sleep." Preed started examining some of the dead circuits. "He seemed pretty talkative to me."

"Yah? What did he say?"

"Oh, just stuff, like what colony they were from, how old he was, likes and dislikes, small talk mostly." She paused for a moment. "To think of it, he actually didn't say much about why they were all the way out here, he tried to avoid it."

Korso was examining a circuit when it suddenly shorted out, and he let out a low hiss, dropping his scanner.

His hiss was cut short by booted footsteps walking into the reverberating room.

"Hey Cap'n, we have guests," Stith announced in a more cheerful voice.

Korso clambered out to meet Stith already greeting someone. It took him a moment to recognize that it was the woman they had rescued. It was hard to believe she was blind, she apparently knew exactly where he was. What was more unusual was that she stuck out her hand in his general direction.

"Captain," she said with a slight nod.

Puzzled, Korso asked, "Either you know me very well, or you superb hearing."

"Actually, I've met everyone on the ship but you. I only made a guess."

"Call me Korso," he said, grasping her hand.

"Kenji." She released her surprisingly strong grip. "I believe you've already met Lanzer," she added, gesturing to her right.

Korso nodded, but remembered she couldn't see his consent. "Yes."

She nodded. "Tell me, is the entire console destroyed?"

"The entire?" Korso started before he realized what she was talking about. "Oh, the ship, most of it, except for a section near the pilot's chair, or what's left of it."

"Show me," she commanded.

It was tricky, leading a blind person around the wreckage, but Korso somehow managed to pilot her through it. At the remains of the console, he stopped. Kenji felt gingerly along it with her hands until she found her way underneath it. Korso watched in consternation as she searched beneath it. He noted that her arms had stopped drifting from one side to another, and instead, it appeared that she was trying to pry something off. Just as he bent over to help her, a resounding crack filled the shuttle, and Kenji stood up with a small black box in her hand.

"Got it," she simply said.

She turned to leave, so Korso followed, guiding her back out. Once out in the light, Korso saw there was only a few buttons on the box, and it wasn't completely black. It was more translucent, and network cables and other electronics could be seen. On the right side there was an emblem that he hadn't seen in years. It was a circle that faded out towards the edges with a slanted hexagon in the centre. Within the hexagon, there were three human letters.

"What are you doing with UIA equipment?" he asked suspiciously. He noticed that Lanzer's jawed clenched, and a muscle near Kenji's temple jumped.

Lanzer stepped closer to Kenji, putting his hand on her forearm. She passed the box to him and rested her empty hands on her hips. "We're stealing it."

"Look, we don't need the UIA on our tails. We've enough to run away from as it is," Stith said warningly. "What is it?"

Kenji threw out her arm, waving it around. She caught hold of Lanzer's dark teal hoody, and drew him closer. Korso, Stith, and Akima watched, straining their ears to at least catch some of the conversation between Kenji and Lanzer. It ended with a low hiss from Kenji's teeth, like they had decided, but she wasn't happy with the outcome. She turned back to where they were standing, her eyes moving around them like she could see them.

"It's an information drive. One of untold billions in the UIA's possession." She was cut short by the remainder of the crew walking through the mechanical door.

"The Universal Intelligence Agency guards their data well. It would take a lot to go and take it," Preed commented as he came to a stop beside Korso.

Gune held back, hiding behind Stith's frog-like legs, sensing the tension crackling through the air. Kenji looked down at the floor.

"It was worth it," Lanz spat, taking his hand from the pocket of his dark navy cargo pants.

Akima looked puzzled. "Worth it?"

Kenji raised her head slowly from the floor, saying, "The UIA can't arrest a hacker and an assassin who don't exist."

The silence that fell upon the room threatened to explode in Stith's head. She glanced around carefully, seeing if the others were as shocked as she was. She felt slight satisfaction when she noticed that Preed's mouth was ajar in an undignified way. But still, a hacker, and a real live assassin? Stith told herself to breath. It didn't appear that anyone was going to talk, and chow time was closing in, so she drew a deep breath. "So which one of you is the hacker?" she asked cautiously, but trying to make the mood light.

Lanzer smiled. "I am. You got any food around here?"