"They would. They quietly check every now and then to see if you are dead yet." Aeyris sat up straight. "That's enough reminiscing, though," he announced. "Now it's time for you to convince me that saving you is going to save me."
Kirrik groaned. "Look at me. I'm hardly in a fit enough state to do anything for myself, let alone you."
"Too bad," Aeyris replied. "You'll have to pull through, and soon. It won't be long before your absence is discovered, and then its going to be very difficult to do anything."
"I can barely walk!"
"I've enough medical supplies to get you on your feet, if it's absolutely necessary."
"Whatever," Kirrik conceded. "I need a few answers, first."
"Such as?" Aeyris asked curiously.
"Who are we dealing with. What are they doing. What are their goals."
"Supposing I don't know?"
Marchero laughed at him. "They've already tried this one on me."
Aeyris looked suspiciously at her. "What do you mean?"
"When I was dragged into this. His lot," she nodded at Kirrik, "seemed convinced I knew everything, and weren't happy that I didn't. Kirrik was the worst of the lot on the way here."
"Hang on. Who are you? Not with the Navy?"
"I was forced into this by threats, just because I had a vague idea about where this base was. I used to work on a freighter that delivered here."
"Oh, wonderful. What's the use of you, then? I should have left you in the dungeon. Still, we need everyone we can get. Make yourself useful and I'll let you live."
Marchero shuffled uneasily on her seat. "I'll do whatever I need to to get back at them."
"What about my questions?" Kirrik asked pointedly. "Can we keep to the conversation, please?"
"Your pet here is right. I don't know much," Aeyris told him.
"Anything?"
"They call themselves The Gateway. What to, I don't know. They've got some shipbuilding project they seem obsessed with, although they seem to have just about finished with it now. I've access to some of the cameras in its construction hangar."
Kirrik eased himself forward until he was sitting upright. "Can I see them?" he asked eagerly.
Aeyris shrugged. "OK." He talked briefly to one of his guards, who then left the room.
When the man returned he was carrying a hand-held monitor. Aeyris played about with it for a few moments. "Here you are," he said as he passed it to Kirrik.
The monitor showed a large hangar, cranes and gantries hanging from the ceiling. One wall was covered with screens, although what they were showing was impossible to see. In the centre of the hangar stood a strange ship, about the size of a Cobra MkIII. Dull grey in the hangar's lighting, it was roughly rectangular, blunt-nosed and somehow menacing. Scaffolding covered some of it, but robots were in the process of dismantling the metal web.
"Bloody hell," muttered Marchero, who had moved round to stand behind Kirrik and view the monitor.
"That's it," said Kirrik.
"Your Constrictor?"
"Yes. This is not good. I was hoping they wouldn't have had time to map out the ship that completely before it was destroyed."
"If they managed to get the plans away before it was blown up why did they need the pieces?" she demanded.
"How should I know?" he replied, his tone angered.
"Can't you guess?" she replied with some exasperation.
"A complete guess would be that their information was incomplete, or at least needed confirmation. I was expecting them to fit the new parts to an existing design."
Aeyris had been listening curiously to this. "You know what they've got here, I take it. Would you mind telling me?"
Kirrik briefly covered the origins of the Constrictor, and a few of its unique features. He pointed at the monitor. "This thing here is probably a bad copy, though. Hopefully it won't be as capable as the original."
Aeyris sat thoughtfully for a few moments. "I would think your concern is more what they intend to do with it than what's in it. But that can wait until I don't need your help."
"Very well. How many people have you here?"
"Eighteen." Aeyris paused before adding tersely, "Out of fifty-two."
"We're going to need that ship then."
"You're crazy," Aeyris replied flatly.
"From what I saw on the way all the large ships that come here dock on that platform. You'll never manage to ferry that many people over there."
"How did you get here?"
"In a Viper. It's probably been discovered by now."
Marchero chuckled. "GalCop's not going to be happy when you loose their toy."
"Fine, then, something must have brought the Viper here," Aeyris insisted.
"Perhaps. But it's not coming all the way here. It would be far too dangerous," Kirrik declared. "Look, that pseudo-Constrictor is the only ship here big enough to take everyone. Even then it's going to be hard."
"You're assuming that it holds the same number of people as your stolen one," Aeyris pointed out.
Kirrik shrugged, a movement made awkward by his injuries. He grimaced at the effect of the gesture on his battered body before saying, "That had a crew of ten. The life support systems were designed to cope with twelve. You'll probably loose some people trying to take it, anyway."
Aeyris jumped to his feet and rushed over to Kirrik. His raised his right hand to hit the Disian, but controlled himself with obvious effort. "If I loose any more people," he snarled straight into Kirrik's face, "I'll hold you responsible. And avenge them on you as much as The Gateway."
Kirrik hadn't flinched during this threat. He waited until Aeyris backed off before saying, "You live a high-risk business. People get killed when doing dangerous things."
"How can you be certain that there's no other ships with the capacity? We've seen the odd Fer-de-Lance on the cameras. Crew of twelve, and usually room for several more. And there's one here right now." Aeyris returned to his chair.
"Whatever we leave in, they're going to try to blast it as soon as they see it. If they've built that ship right it's probably the only one here that stands a chance of escaping."
Aeyris didn't reply, but Marchero murmured to Kirrik, "Or are you just refusing to leave without it?" He ignored her.
Eventually Aeyris said, "We'll take the Constrictor. It's in the nearest bay to us, and the more of the base we'll have to go through the greater the chance of being stopped."
"It's also going to be the most heavily guarded!" exclaimed Marchero.
A harsh smile appeared on Kirrik's face. "When they interrogated me I think I left them with the impression that there area couple more of us here. Looking for our phantom companions is going to keep them out of mischief."
"Well?" she asked the pirate captain.
Aeyris held his hand out to Kirrik, who passed the monitor back to him. He looked thoughtful. "The place is swarming with soldiers, mostly in the area you were first seen. Which isn't all that close to here. There's a few standing around the hangar, but it'll be possible to take them out. Seems you've fooled them well enough, if they are only leaving enough people to mind against a couple of others." He stood up and ordered his own guards to bring together the rest of his people.
They arrived in no order, sixteen men, women, and unknown, not counting Aeyris and the two who had been notifying them. Two were non-human, one a strange insectoid being and the other a humanoid giant, eight feet tall, with huge muscles under sparse brown fur. All were dressed untidily and randomly. Amongst them was the medic that had attended to Kirrik earlier. Under Aeyris' instructions he returned to the Disian, using up several of their limited medical supplies on him.
After a few minutes of random chatter Aeyris called them to order. Some sat in empty chairs, others slouched around the room.
"These two," he began, waving at Kirrik and Marchero, "seem to think we can get out of here. They've stirred up a hornets' nest, anyway, and if we don't leave we'll doubtless be dug out soon. And we're going on that strange ship we've all been wondering about for so long." A babble of voices broke out, some surprised, some eager, and some clearly thinking that their leader had gone mad.