The bridge passage camera picked up a human in tactical gear moving past. I said, “How many aboard?”
Human One said, “We only saw two, but there has to be more. They opened the hatch once after we were locked on to look at us.”
Human Two said, “They said they wanted us alive for the bounty.”
Then Human Three added, “They got a SecUnit.”
“They do?” Did they? I hadn’t caught any pings and there’s no way a SecUnit wouldn’t have noticed when I took control of the ship’s SecSystem. I’d had the theory that PortAuth system had been hacked by a SecUnit or CombatUnit, but that didn’t fit with our current working theory that there was a local actor who had legitimate PortAuth access. “Did you see it?”
“Behind the others, in the armor,” Three said. Two and Four nodded.
One made a noise under her breath and I said, “You don’t think it’s a SecUnit.” I should have been more careful there, but I was trying to get into the ship’s memory archives without waking the bot pilot, and with my drones hidden, I was mostly looking at the hatch or the bag. I wanted schematics, controls for the jury-rigged lock. No, they could still use the manual release, I couldn’t jam that from here. Another hostile in tactical gear left the bridge. Yeah, I think they’ve alerted on me, somehow.
Human One said, “They use SecUnits up in the processing centers, not in the backrocks where we were most of the time.”
When the sixth human tumbled into the bag, it signaled that it was at capacity and ready to leave. I let the module’s hatch close. Then I wished I’d left a drone in the bag so I could monitor it directly. Whatever, I was just going to have to trust the damn bag.
At least I had its channel as an input and could tell it had sealed itself and scooted off to take the most direct route back to its “home” airlock. “How long will it take?” Human Three asked.
“Not long, just a few minutes,” I said. If we were lucky, there would be time for a second trip and I wouldn’t have to do this the hard way.
A vibration traveled through the hull and the humans flinched. “What was that?” Human Two demanded.
“They’re trying to dump us!” Human Four’s voice was shrill. He was right, someone in the bridge had tried （and failed, because I had control of SecSystem and it was preventing the command from going through） to release the clamps on the module. Something had spooked the hostiles and they were trying to dump the incriminating module and leave. Well, crap. Time to shift to Plan B. I connected to the station’s feed and used it to send the “proceed” code to the responder. Since there was no point in hiding anymore, I also sent a feed message to Aylen and told her refugees were incoming to the colony ship.
Human One took a sharp breath. “Thanks for trying, Station Security.”
Above us the ship’s camera picked up a hostile in an armored suit, the one that the refugees had mistaken for a SecUnit, stepping into view of the hold camera near the jury-rigged lock above us. Oh, I get it. The hostile wasn’t strong enough to activate the manual release without the armor. But I’d finally found the code they used for the jury-rigged hatch.
In one of my shows, this would have been a great time to say something brave and encouraging. I suck at that, so I said, “Get to the back of the module, on the floor, and cover your heads.”
I checked my input for the life-tender; it had reached the colony ship’s hull and was blorping along toward the airlock. In my peripheral vision, Human One jerked her head at the others and they scrambled toward the far end of the module. I said, “When I yell clear, I need you to follow me up into the ship.”
Skeptically, Human One said, “How are you gonna—”
I pulled my explosive projectile weapon off its strap, then climbed the folded cargo rack nearest the module lock, braced my feet against the bulkhead, and held on with my free arm. As the armored hostile leaned down to reach the release, I triggered the ship’s system to open the jury-rigged hatch.
It rotated open with a hiss of released air, and the module immediately smelled better.
I didn’t move. The camera showed the armored hostile jerking back in surprise. A panicky yell from a hostile on the bridge came over the comm; they must have realized the bot pilot was unresponsive. But the armored hostile couldn’t pull the release now, while the lock was open, without depressurizing the ship. （I’d also frozen open all the interior hatches, which, from the additional yelling over the comm, was something the bridge crew had just discovered.）