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can you jam it out? Try just enough noise to cancel it so it still transmits but at a reduced range, in case it does have an anti-jam detonator on board. We’ll have to wait to touch down to get a better look at it. And keep scanning to see if we have any company.”
    “Strawberry or grape? I’m on it.” The mic clicked off as Duv hung up.
    Chang watched Reilly’s face from the corner of his eye. He had been a master guns when she was a new lieutenant earning her bars in some of the ISU’s bloodiest battlefields. The captain had been fearless in defense of her soldiers, earning their respect daily by fighting with them shoulder to shoulder. She took bullets for them, charged hills, bandaged wounds, negotiated their freedom with cunning, lasers, and tantalum rounds, was there for the victories and to steady the dying and bury the dead. Chang knew if she was worried it didn’t bode well for any of them. Her intuition and instinct had saved a lot of lives in battle, including his. Besides, the signs didn’t lie. Something bad was coming. If only he knew what. Chang finished up the last stitch and tied it off, covering up the wound with a clean bandage.
    “So? Now you believe me about the bad luck, huh? I can sense this stuff. Got it from my grandmother.” Chang smiled as Reilly rolled her eyes. He wadded up the bloody fabric and tossed it into the chute for the ship’s incinerator, then wandered over and used sterigel from a wall dispenser to clean off his hands. He wiped them on a small brown cloth and began chopping vegetables again.
    “I believe in cause and effect. And yes, we are having some bad luck. But I also believe that at the bottom of that bad luck is a sniveling backbiter who set us up for his own benefit.” Reilly looked down to admire his handiwork. “Thanks,” she said looking over at him. “Stay frosty, Gunny. This job stinks and I don’t like it. When we get back to Arias, Welch better have some answers for me.” She stood up to leave.
    Chang waved his knife at her as she went out the door. “Sometimes the only thing more dangerous than a question is an answer.” He began to whistle a cheerful marching tune as Reilly shook her head and kept walking. Once she was out of sight, Chang threw three knives into a wooden block above the door frame, rapidly one after the other, and then continued merrily dicing up the potatoes. He was always frosty, that’s why he was still alive. He shot one more covert worried glance at the captain’s retreating back before turning back to his cooking.
    —————
    Reilly made her way forward to the bridge. Duv was at the flight controls working a jamming solution when she stepped through the hatch. He pretty much ran everything on the bridge when she was on world or working an operation. They still had several crew slots open, but Reilly was particular about who came to work on her ship. Duv had been hinting hard at getting some more help, so she’d finally made him a deal that they’d look for new crew members once this mission paid out. If it pays out and doesn’t cost us more than we bargained for, Reilly thought to herself.
    She punched up a holoscreen at the back of the deck. “I want all records on Welch, Errat Kelvin, and his brother Welch, Razam Rian.”
    The Holographic Automated Intelligence Linked Ethernet or HAILE, pronounced Hail-lee, whirred to life. The system had been designed to speak in a soft, feminine voice that was supposed to be soothing in stressful situations. During her time in the ISUs, Reilly had seen many of these units upgraded with more authoritative masculine, computerized voices. In combat, the pilots tended to tune out the female voice, much like they would tune out a spouse or girlfriend at home or a mosquito buzzing in their ear. Either event could result in disastrous outcomes, but even more so when the information turned out to be critical to flight operations. This particular unit had been modified so that it