Drifter's Run by William C. Dietz Read Free Book Online

toast.
    Cap scowled and looked up from his coffee. "Dead. A fusion plant aboard one of Sikma's OL-12 habitats blew. We were hired to round up the pieces. You wouldn't believe it, there was junk everywhere, like a cloud of metal it was. Big chunks of it, tumbling end over end, and colliding with anything that got in the way."
    Cap gestured with his coffee cup. "Some of it was quite valuable. A few tanks of zero-G biologicals had escaped the explosion and were floating free. We tried to grab them but they were too small. The tanks didn't have enough mass for the tractor beams to lock on to. Lia, she was our pilot, went out to round them up by hand. She zigged when she should have zagged. A free-floating I-beam took her head right off."
    Melissa made a sobbing sound and ran from the room. Cap looked back to Lando and shrugged. "Mel hired Lia, so even though it wasn't her fault, she feels responsible. I told her to let it go… but she won't. Reminds me of her mother. Just part of growing up I guess."
    Hot words boiled up to fill Lando's throat, words about fathers who force little girls to make adult decisions, words about alcoholics who turn their children into parents.
    But Lando knew the words could not be heard or understood so he choked them down. Ignoring Cap's curious stare, Lando dropped his fork and left the galley. Sorenson was right about one thing. It wasn't her fault. He'd find Melissa and tell her that.

4
    The One Who Falls Upward was tall and skinny as Finthians go, his multicolored plumage somewhat obscured by ceramic body armor and a heavy leather harness. The harness supported a variety of hand weapons. The One Who Falls Upward fingered a worn-looking blaster and watched the screen with large saucerlike eyes. The ship was a three-dimensional cylinder surrounded by three-dimensional spheroids. A few short minutes from now the ship would enter his carefully constructed ambush.
    And the Finthian knew lots about the ship, information he would've paid dearly for, but the cyborg offered for free. Well, not for free, since Willer wanted the ship's commanding officer, but almost for free.
    "Hold… hold… almost there…" The words came from the translator at the Finthian's neck and found their way into space a fraction of a second later.
    Outside, beyond the thick durasteel hull, thirty-one men and women waited to attack. Some clung to smaller asteroids. Others floated free, powered down to escape Junk 's scanners, doing their best to imitate pieces of free-floating rock.
    All were mounted on hand-built single-seat fighters. No two were alike. Some were souped-up space scooters, others were ex-maintenance sleds, and many were cobbled together from odds and ends.
    But all had one thing in common. They were armed to the teeth. Energy weapons, guided missiles, even a smart bomb or two. The incoming ship was as good as dead. The pirates grew impatient.

    The One Who Falls Upward understood this, and soothed them as a Dwik Master soothes his hell hounds. "Patience, my children, patience. The wind rewards those who wait."
    "The wind blows straight from your ass," a male voice said, but the Finthian ignored him, and the pirates continued to wait.
    The One Who Falls Upward glanced to the right and left. The glowing vid screens, the banks of brightly lit controls, and the well-disciplined crew were all part of his design. As was the ancient ore barge that served as his headquarters.
    Creaky though it was the barge had its own in-system drive. That, plus a thick layer of real rock, made the barge into a mobile asteroid. A perfect disguise for working the belt, and one that had proved itself many times before.
    And now, with the addition of the incoming tug, the Finthian would have a ship equipped with hyperdrive as well. After that, who knows? A destroyer? A cruiser? Anything was possible.
    The One Who Falls Upward grinned a predatory grin and returned his attention to the screen. Humans are unpredictable, and one