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spread? “My father was chief financial officer,” Ky said. “Until his death.”
    â€œWe can’t verify that with the ansibles down…”
    â€œYou should have some records on Vatta Transport,” Ky said. “Are any of our ships there now?”
    â€œNo. A Vatta ship departed some ten days before the ansibles went down. If you’re really Vatta, you should know what ships worked this route.”
    â€œA moment,” Ky said. She queried her implant, and her father’s data came up. Garth-Lindheimer lay on a lucrative trading circuit; Vatta had two ships constantly on the route. “
Connie R.,
captained by Casamir Vatta, and
Tregallat,
captained by Benton Gallat.” She paused again. “Unless something messed up their schedule, the ship that departed before the ansibles went down should have been
Connie R.
Sometimes they do overtake each other.”
    â€œThat is correct. There is another Vatta ship in this group,
Gary Tobai
? It is on our list, with a K. Vatta as captain.”
    â€œYes. That was my ship. My cousin Stella’s the captain now. She took over for me when I…obtained this one.”
    â€œThat is an issue, Captain Vatta. Precisely how did you obtain the ship you are commanding now?”
    â€œOsman Vatta tried to trap me,” Ky said. She had been thinking how best to tell it. “He hated my father, because my father and uncle were the ones who banished him from the family. Because the ship had a Vatta Transport beacon, I trusted him initially—”
    â€œBut surely you had been warned about him. Do you not use implants, you Vattas?”
    â€œHe was banished long ago,” Ky said. “I suppose my father thought he was dead, or far away, and that I’d be unlikely to meet him. At any rate, I had no suspicion at first. We were traveling in convoy with a military escort—the Mackensee Military Assistance ships—and they advised me it might be a trap. I didn’t agree, and stayed behind when they went on with the convoy. It was a trap, and Osman attempted to board and kill us; he had allies, two pirate ships. We improvised a defense…I was able to send a call for help, and after some hours—after Osman was dead—Mackensee was able to come back and take out the other ships before they closed with us.”
    â€œSo they did not witness what happened? You have no corroboration for your story?”
    â€œThey can corroborate that they found his being there suspicious, yes. That I left the convoy to check on him, yes. That I called for help, yes. That there were two ships that when challenged tried to fight, yes. Exactly what happened when he tried to board, no.” The usual delay, during which Ky wondered if any of the security recordings aboard
Gary Tobai
would help. With Gordon Martin, Rafe, and herself on this ship, would Stella be able to locate and duplicate them?
    â€œIt seems likelier that you yourself were the bait in a trap set by your convoy,” Edvarrin said. “A small, apparently unarmed ship like
Gary Tobai,
but with military backup, captures a ship like the one you have now? Mackensee isn’t known for that kind of thing, but mercs have gone rogue before. Traders just don’t have the skills or equipment to deal with a pirate, let alone a group of them.” A brief pause, then, “Mackensee informs us that you have a letter of marque from Slotter Key. And that you also have aboard an expert in ISC technology, who has been repairing inoperable beacons. Frankly, Captain, we have no reason to believe that you are in fact a legitimate trader or commercial carrier.”
    Ky could not think what to say. She had anticipated having to make some argument to gain title of the ship, but she hadn’t guessed that anyone might think she herself was a pirate.
    â€œI do have a letter of marque,” she said. “But the fact is that Osman Vatta—whom you yourself