Excerpt

"Easy does it," Captain Hailey Suro instructed her son, more out of habit rather than need, as he piloted the Andvari into position alongside its target.

For the first time in weeks, Hailey felt a glimmer of hope. The twisted starship wreckage was easily the best salvage target they'd seen in months. We might actually be able to make our next lease payment.

Darin smiled, his blue eyes shining under a lock of his highlighted brown hair. "Just want to get us a nice close look." He'd grown up flying ships, and at nineteen now was as capable a pilot as any old-timer.

The Andvari's control board flickered with streams of data as Darin eased the freighter next to the once-mighty TSS warship, now reduced to little more than a lonely bit of scrap.

As the two vessels continued to edge closer together, additional details came into focus on the flight deck's front viewscreen. This wasn't just any warship; with its boxy munitions launchers—the kind designed to house and fire long-range torpedoes—and side thruster ports to compensate for the massive release of kinetic force, the remains of this warship had the potential to yield a massive score. From the looks of it, even the rear drive section appeared to be intact, which meant it might still have a functional power core. If so, they could be looking at a single payday to rival their earnings from the entire last year combined.

Oh stars, please be worth it!

Their salvage contract with Renfield was still months from being suspended, but their heroic efforts to locate lucrative wreckage had thus far yielded paltry payoffs. The last few scraps the Andvari located had been disappointments, and their small crew's resources were running dry. Renfield had already voiced some frustration about their 'mining in well-trod claims'. Even so, they were already skirting the very edges of the territory that their salvage permit allowed.

Worse, from all reports, this should be relatively virgin space. Sadly, it was rapidly becoming apparent that they were a few weeks behind another crew—at least one, and Hailey was beginning to think quite a few more. It seemed that their 'hot lead' on this part of space wasn't as significant a breakthrough as they had once thought.

Space was a big place; it was intensely aggravating to always be late to the party.

The door to the flight deck hissed open, and the waifish Dr. Mina Hurn ambled in. Her eyes were downcast on her tablet, the curls of her dark mahogany hair framing her face.

"Good morning, Captain," she greeted, glancing up and smiling amiably. "I've done a preliminary scan of this target."

Darin pivoted around in his seat to look at Hailey. "Do you need me for this?"

"You don't want to know what we've got?"

He shrugged. "If it's anything like the last few, I don't need to hear it again firsthand."

That stung. He didn't say it in a mean way, but the meaning behind the words cut deeply into Hailey. This salvage business was supposed to be my legacy to hand him, and instead we might lose everything.

A quick glance at Mina's expression indicated to Hailey that she wasn't about to get particularly good news. Darin was right; he didn't need to be here.

"Take a break," she told her son.

"Aye," he acknowledged and swapped over the flight controls to her captain's station. He left the flight deck, giving a friendly nod to Mina on his way out.

Hailey leaned forward in her seat and put her hands in the small of her back while pinching her shoulders together. That same spot spasmed if she sat for more than a few moments in her blasted chair. It was most certainly the chair's fault, not the years of abuse and injuries sustained while in the Tararian Guard; couldn't be that. "Well, what's the verdict?"

The petite doctor stared at her, a slight wrinkle of worry showing on her brow.

"Just tension from the flight, Doc, nothing to see here," she said casually.

An elegant eyebrow arched slowly in way of reply.

Summoning her command posture, Hailey rolled her shoulders back. "Well, are you going to give me the report, or are we going to play grab-ass all morning?"

Mina faked an overly dramatic sigh of exasperation but couldn't quite contain the mirth that danced across her features. The doctor was the newest member of the crew, though she had been with them for almost a year now, and she'd slipped into the ship's social dynamic beautifully.

Head down while she read from her tablet, Mina launched into her report on the target vessel's classification, service duty, reported loss date, haul records, and armament details. The TSS Valiant was one of the vessels that the Tararian Selective Service had commissioned for the war efforts three decades back. Dozens of destroyers like it had been rapidly churned out from the Prisaris shipyard, sparing no expense in their manufacturing materials. A great score, indeed.

Then, Mina brought up magnified images of the Valiant's exterior, showing tether holes dotting the side of the warship.

Someone else had beaten them to it. The target had already been picked clean.

Hailey's hope evaporated. "Well, that's foking great."

Mina scrunched her face up in irritation. "Stars, I'm sorry, Hailey. I know we're on the right track for wreckage from a number of big encounters. There have been no reports of other salvage contractors out this far. So, either these were caught very early on and have drifted this far post-salvage. Or someone is working off the books."

That was always a possibility. Especially if the scores were as impressive as this destroyer should have been.

Space may be large, but the simple fact remained that the number of ships lost in the war was undetermined. Last known trajectories and headings were all rough estimates. So far, the data that Mina had gathered was sound; they were certainly finding wrecks along their designated path. It wasn't the doctor's fault that someone else had gotten there first.

Hailey bit back her frustration. "Where do we go from here?"

Mina leaned in closer, the pepper and mandarin scent of her perfume assaulting Hailey as she peered out the viewport at the warship. "I'll double check my research and put in a call to Renfield. Maybe there's another crew just ahead of us. We can try to swing beyond them for the next target. Play a bit of leapfrog, maybe?"

No, we're out of time. We can't keep retreading the same ground with wishful thinking. Hailey tried to keep her worry from showing on her face.

The lease payment on the Andvari had already been deferred once, and they wouldn't be getting any more favors. Hiring Mina and leasing the Andvari had been an all-in attempt to build a sustainable business that Hailey could pass on to Darin. The high upfront expense had seemed like a worthwhile venture, but it had yet to pay off. If they came up emptyhanded again, that would be the end of the dream.

"We can't afford another dead end," she said, barely above a whisper. "We need a score—a good one."

They had been pressing hard these last few weeks, hunting for pockets of wartime debris and wreckage that hadn't already been picked over by other salvage crews. The more remote they got, the higher the likelihood they could score. On the flipside, venturing further from civilization also meant far fewer opportunities to sell off cheap scrap for a quick mid-run resupply. As it stood, they were already reduced to half rations to stretch out their reserves.

The truth was, there wouldn't be a proper resupply if they didn't get paid. Hailey was under consistent pressure to make the sacrificed health, happiness, and resources worth it. She needed this run to work out.

"There is another option, Captain," Mina began upon seeing Hailey's sour expression she hadn't quite been able to mask.

"At this point, I'm open to anything." She crossed her arms.

"We could head toward the Kyron Nebula."

The suggestion caught Hailey by surprise; she'd considered Mina to be by-the-book. "That's outside of the permitted salvage zone."

Given their dire situation, Hailey wasn't opposed to breaking the rules. If they didn't meet the terms of their contract, they'd be doomed anyway.

"I'm aware," Mina continued, "but there's a gravitational backwater there, and the models show it's a likely spot for wrecks to wind up."

Hailey was nodding now; those were exactly the types of places she'd been hoping Mina would find for them. She'd been resistant to unlawful activity up to this point, but if everyone else played that way, she needed to do what was necessary to stay in the game. "There are benefits to being out in restricted space. So long as we don't get caught."

"Risk and reward."

If they were caught, they'd lose the Andvari for sure. And yet, if they didn't go, they'd most likely lose the ship, too. At least the gamble provided the barest shred of opportunity.

"All right, get me the coordinates," Hailey agreed. Stars, I hope this is the right move!