******
Reece ended up landing his craft first. The other pilots had waited for him to arrive at the rendezvous point before putting down on the Sea Wolf’s deck. Reece stood watching his squadron land. He counted the fourth, and last, Z-40; there would have normally been five others.
Tash was gone.
Not a single scrap of metal left in the wake of his destruction, all at the hands of the trigger-happy navy.
Tash’s fighter had posed no threat to them; they could have at least requested a surrender—but they didn’t. Instead, they flaunted their guns in front of each other: the United Earth Parliament and the Martian Confederacy, the old enemies who needed to show their firepower. As if destroying a single Z-40, which did not stand a chance against them, really showed anything but cowardice.
Mac, Eddie, Cronin, and Taffy walked over to where Reece stood, all of them with grim expressions. They stood in silence together for a long moment. The lights from the deck cast a dark, foreboding look on Reece’s face—his usual smirk, he knew, had been replaced by a dark demeanor. The faces of his pilots mirrored his own. His eyes stared off into the entryway of the landing deck, half-expecting Tash’s Z-40 to come in landing, but no other ships came in. What was left of the squadron stood together, somber.
Tash had cheated death many times before, as did the rest of them, Reece thought. But eventually luck ran out, and you bought the big farm in the Milky Way. How long before his own luck ran out? Whenever it did, he knew he would be in good company.
“You okay, Reece?” Mac said finally.
Reece nodded slowly. “I’m okay. It was his time. I just hope that it was worth it.”
“Refined silver, huh?” Taffy said.
“That’s the word,” Reece said. “Tash said… he said he wanted to make sure we spread his portion of the plunder around—for the rest of us.”
“Umm…” Cronin coughed uncomfortably. “You better check with the bosses on that. I recall something in the Sea Wolf Articles about disbursement of plunder going evenly to all crew upon death of a crew mate.”
“We’ll see about that,” Reece said.
At that moment, he saw Laina and Julius come onto the flight deck from the elevator. They walked past the pilots over to the cargo container that was now situated next to Reece’s fighter. Reece watched as they began speaking with the deck crew, then he walked in closer to hear the conversation, the other pilots following behind him.
“… so just unpack it, and then it can be moved into the elevator,” Julius said.
Reece cast an eye on the cargo container, which was cubical and roughly ten meters in each direction. The container itself was an off-white color and had an indentation on one side where a single control panel was situated; one of the deck crew was already operating this control.
Everyone on the landing deck stood and watched, waiting for it to open. After a long minute, the crewman stepped away. A repeating beep began to sound as the side of the container opened, with the side wall lowering itself flat on the ground.
Reece craned his neck. Inside the container was the object of curiosity: a crystalline-looking structure, two meters tall. It sat atop a metallic pedestal that had wiring extruding from it and running to the floor. The structure itself was oval, but its translucent appearance gave it the look of a large crystal.
“Is that some kind of… art sculpture?” Reece asked.
“Have it moved to my quarters,” Laina said to the deck crew.
“Your quarters?” Taffy said. “Why not the cargo holds like all the other plunder?”
“Well,” Laina began. “It’s not really something we can sell… ”
“It’s worthless?” Reece said, glaring at Laina. “Tash died getting this thing, and we almost did too!”
“Easy, Reece,” Julius said. “It’s not like it’s some art piece for Laina. In fact, she’s not even staying with us, so her quarters are just a safe place to put it until we know what it’s worth exactly.”
“Well, actually,” Laina said, “I’m not going anywhere. Uh, I’ve decided to stay.”
Julius looked at Laina, dumbfounded. Reece had seen and heard enough. He took a step toward Laina, but Julius moved to block him with unexpected speed. Reece felt Julius’ powerful hands grab his shoulders and push him back hard—it was like being pushed by a tow beam.
“You need to get over it!” Julius said. “Tash is gone. This cargo is very important, more so than any refined silver. And it is not artwork.”
“What is it then?” Reece growled.
“It’s… ” Julius looked at Laina. “It’s, uh… ”
“Oh my God,” Laina whispered. “It’s an A.I.”
“What?” Julius hissed.
Reece said nothing, not comprehending what in the hell was going on right now.
“Move it to my quarters like I asked,” Laina said, looking around. “And place armed guards in front of my door. Then you and I need to talk, Julius. You, too, Reece. Just the three of us. Now.”