"Katherine!" Charlie screamed. His right hand was numb, possibly from the low-level buzz running through the bloodied vibro-shiv he held, and he reached his left out towards his sister as one of masked intruders that had breached the multiple shields around their ship grabbed her by the arm and began to drag her towards the airlock attached to the transparisteel outerlayer of their ship, the Banner.

"Charlie, no!" Katherine cried, holding out her hand to wave him back.

Hands grabbed Charlie by the arms and pulled him backwards. He heard a muttered phrase in another language and one of the pirates lunging at them stopped and clutched at his head, screaming in agony as he fell to the deck.

"Get him out of here!" Spot—apparently the one dragging Charlie away from the action—shoved him towards Davey, the mage who had cast the spell that had the pirate rolling on the deck in agony, still clutching his head. Davey wrapped an arm around Charlie's waist, pulling him towards the cabin at the back of the ship, hidden safely behind a heavy set of blast doors.

"No!" Charlie cried, fighting against Davey's arm, but the mage was stronger than he looked and had a good grip on him. The last thing he saw as the blast doors closed in front of them was Katherine being dragged through the airlock…

.*.*.*.*.*.

Spot picked his way through the bodies strewn across the deck. Outside of the transparisteel dome and protective shield, stars swirled past in brilliant streaks of light, dimmed by the tinting of the dome. Davey was crouched over one of the bodies, a member of the crew; he rested a hand over the figure's eyes, weighting them shut, before standing. "Captain," he greeted Spot. "Do we have a heading to follow the men that took Katherine?"

"Yeah," Spot said, "although I don't know if that's such a great idea. We lost a fight to them once; nothing has changed to indicate that we won't lose again. We could lose more people this time around." He took a step closer to Davey, getting right up in the mage's face. "If this thing even looks like it might go bad, I'm turning around and getting these people out of here. We're not risking our lives for the princess."

Davey drew himself up to his full height—an easy six inches over Spot—and looked down at the captain. "I understand, Captain. You have your duty—but I have mine: to protect Katherine and Charlie."

Before Spot could respond, the ship lurched to a halt and the two of them went flying, landing in a jumbled pile of appendages on the deck. Above them, they heard a shout from Specs as he was thrown from the crow's nest, but he managed to catch himself and extend his wings to glide down onto the deck. Spot extricated himself from Davey and leapt to his feet.

"JoJo! What was that!"

JoJo, just visible behind the control console of the ship, straightened up, reaching up to brush her fingers over a bleeding gash on her forehead. "Not sure, sir," she called back. "I'd guess some sort of tractor beam or hyperspace disruptor." She pointed towards the bow of the ship, where the twinkling canopy of distant space was visible through the transparisteel bubble over the deck. "Nothing's visible, so it must be a cloaked ship or device."

"Go babysit your prince," Spot grabbed Davey by the collar, hauled him to his feet, and shoved him towards the aft cabin.

"No time for that!" Specs called. He flapped his wings and took off, speeding aft along the deck, swooping up and over JoJo and her console and swinging himself around to slam feet-first into the pirate looming up behind her.

Davey grabbed Spot and cast another spell. Spot found himself floating up and off the deck, and Davey flung him towards the brawl breaking out by the control panel. Spot cartwheeled through the air, fumbling for his blaster, and very abruptly found himself falling down onto several of the invaders as Davey ended the spell. He went into the fight kicking and biting. "JoJo, close the shield over their dock!"

"I'm trying!" JoJo yelled, feathers bristling. "Keep them off me so I can work, if you don't mind!"

Spot grabbed the pirate heading towards JoJo and fired his blaster point-blank into the man's head, shoving the body into another marauder heading towards them and knocking him to the ground. "JoJo!"

"I'm trying!"

The fight only lasted a few minutes, but it felt like hours. Suddenly, the Banner lurched forward, sending them all down onto the deck again.

"JoJo?"

"Back on course, sir!"

Spot pistol-whipped the pirate beside him, trying to clamber to her feet, and she dropped back down to the deck, effectively lifeless.

"Captain!"

Spot was on his feet in an instant. Something about the urgency in Davey's voice made him react instantaneously. He took the steps down to the lower deck in threes, his blood running cold at the sight there. Charlie lay on the deck, eyes closed and paper-white, blood pouring out through a massive wound running most of the length of his right leg. A burned crisp of a corpse lay a few feet away, on top of a scorch mark on the deck.

"Finch, Specs, med kit—now!" Spot barked over his shoulder, dropping to his knees next to Charlie. "What happened?"

"He had a stinger," Davey snapped. "Ran it up the kid's leg before I even saw him."

Spot glanced at the body. "Well, he won't be ripping anyone else up ever again."

Specs landed next to Davey, med kit in his hands. Finch and Romeo were only seconds behind him. "What do we even do for that?" Romeo gaped at the wound on Charlie's leg.

"Stop the bleeding and get him to a hospital on a decent-sized planet," Spot muttered. "JoJo! Head for the nearest population center! Get us into the Mid Rim at least! Romeo, you and Skittery get up in the rigging. Keep a constant eye on the solar sails; make sure they're at full furl and watch for any tears. We can't afford to be slowed down. Not if we want the little prince to make it."