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approach various hostiles holding Telisa captive and
rescue her.
    Eventually
Cilreth showed up to get something to eat.
    “So,
is the network setup here good enough for you?”
    “Yes.
It’s adequate,” Cilreth said, smiling slightly.
    “I
think we should train a bit while we’re stuck in this tin can. I hope the
smugglers won’t turn out to be a problem, but maybe we should practice a bit
just in case...”
    “Yes.”
    “...and
I think the exercise—what?”
    “I
said yes, silly.”
    “Ah.
Good. I guess I expected you would say you’re busy looking for Telisa.”
    “I
am, but the computers do most of the work. Though I like to tweak things often.
But I have to take a break now and then, just like anyone.”
    “After
lunch then?”
    “Yes.
Sure.”
    “Spend
a lot of time in VR?”
    “Doesn’t
everyone?”
    “How
about action?”
    “Yes,
I play a lot of action stuff. And I exercise in real life, too.”
    “Wow.
You’re a gem among the hacker crowd.”
    “I’m
not a hacker. Don’t mistake an investigator for a hacker. I know how to look
for people. That’s my specialty.”
    Relachik
nodded. “Got it. Okay, I’ll set some stuff up. See you soon.”
    He
got up and went back to his quarters. He contacted Arlin to see if the
mercenary would join their little exercise. Arlin agreed eagerly.
    He
needs something to do as well.
    When
Arlin and Cilreth showed up a bit later, Relachik was ready. The first
environment he’d created looked just like the Vandivier . Arlin and
Cilreth appeared in the simulation. They appeared as perfect copies of their
current selves.
    “Okay,
what’s the drill?” Cilreth asked. She sounded genuinely curious and ready to
go.
    “We
should practice using the disabler remoras and boarding another ship.”
    “Pirates
now, are we?”
    “Of
course, he means to practice a boarding in case we find the smugglers on a ship
or a space station,” Arlin said.
    “Exactly,”
Relachik said. The ship is on our scanner now. Arlin will deploy the remoras.
Cilreth, you watch my interface. I’ll show you how to use these defensive
probes to mask our approach.”
    “They
can do that?”
    “Yes.
Their primary mission is, of course, to observe for us, but their EM
capabilities include the ability to create false images of the ship, and to
obscure the real one.”
    “Okay,
I’m watching.”
    They
worked for the next fifteen minutes to move in on the other ship. Cilreth
watched as Relachik launched two probes and tried to cover their approach.
    One
side of his display showed his best guess of what the other side saw. At one
point, a ghost of the Vandivier appeared on the other screen.
    “I
think I screwed that up,” Relachik said. “Okay, if this happens, move to plan
B. Make them think there’s more than one of us. But let them think we’re
farther out.”
    “You
could even say you’re Space Force. Pretend that you’re escorting them to the
nearest planet. So they won’t expect a boarding action.”
    “Yes.
Anything to keep them from being ready to defend the lock.”
    “The
remora is down. Arming it now,” Arlin said.
    The Vandivier had launched a remora earlier, a small disc-shaped device that
had attached itself to the other ship. When it discharged, it disrupted the
target’s control systems. The other ship would be temporarily disabled unless
it had military grade safeguards.
    “And
what should we do?” Cilreth asked.
    “We’ll
need some gas masks, small arms, and a couple of seeker grenades,” Relachik
said.
    “Okay,
I’m on it.” Cilreth went over to the virtual weapons locker. “Wow, we have some
interesting stuff in here. Do we have swords for real or are they only here?”
    “For
real, too,” Relachik said. “I’m told they’re amazingly, unbelievably,
super-dangerously sharp. Emergency only.”
    “Check,”
she said. “Okay, I have the grenades. One for each of us?”
    “Yes.
Three masks, right? One for Arlin, of