-KAJA-

  The scary man in black turned out to be quite useful. He told Kaja and Ramis that his name was Hanzo, and that he was the priestess’ bodyguard. Kaja wondered why the priestess needed Ben and Blaze if she had a capable bodyguard, but she didn’t voice the question.

  Hanzo led them through the ship quickly. He took them around groups of armed crewmen, avoiding unnecessary battle. Their final destination was the Freighter’s control room.

  When they arrived, Hanzo swiftly took control of the situation. He ruthlessly cut down two guards who were stationed in the room, then he held everyone else at bay with just his sword.

  After that, he handed over control to Kaja. Kaja wished he hadn't done that.

  "Right," she said, fidgeting. "Can you go over it again?"

  Kara was speaking to the ship's first mate, the eerie ghostlike creature that had met them when they first arrived: Naxisteranda.

  The ship's Captain was on the floor in what Kaja could only describe as a catatonic state. When they had first entered the control room, the Captain had been the one to order his guards to attack them.

  After Hanzo killed the guards, the Captain himself attacked. Kaja had never seen anything like it. He had raged and split into three separate bodies with different colour tones: one pink, one brown and one blue. Each body grabbed a pistol and aimed at Hanzo.

  They never got to fire.

  Hanzo moved with the grace that Kaja was beginning to identify him by. He slipped forward and unceremoniously decapitated the pink body. That made the other two bodies drop their pistols in shock, but Hanzo didn't stop. He moved again and stabbed the brown body in the heart, then he slowly pulled his sword out.

  That was when the blue body crumpled and began to cry. All sense of hope drained from his eyes. He curled on the ground, tears flowing, and began to shiver and speak incoherently.

  Hanzo left him alone.

  The ninja man leveled his bloody blade at the rest of the crew and ushered them to one side of the room. Then he pointed at Kaja and said, "She's in control now."

  That was where they were.

  "Naxisteranda," Kaja said. "Hey Naxisteranda." Kaja snapped her fingers to get the first mate’s attention. The ghostly creature was staring in shock at the shivering blue body of the Captain. Kaja had been trying to get information out of the first mate but had failed so far due to the distraction.

  "Naxisteranda!" Kaja screamed.

  The first mate turned to look at her, and Kaja tried to make herself look as friendly as possible. She smiled and collapsed her hands together.

  "I know a lot has happened," Kaja said to Naxisteranda. "But believe me when I say we are here to help. Now if you could please tell me what is wrong with the ship."

  Naxisteranda took a while to answer, and when she did, the answer was not reassuring. "We don't know," the ship’s first mate said.

  "Right," Kaja said. She pondered for a moment then asked, "Can you describe what happened?"

  Naxisteranda glanced at the captain before slowly responding. "About 30 minutes ago, we started to systematically lose all control. It's like there's some invisible force wrenching out controls from us."

  "Virus," Kaja whispered. It was either that, or there was a hacker somewhere on the ship. But a virus was more likely. Most defense systems nowadays were designed to counter-infect anyone who tried to access their system. Ten minutes was the typical limit. If it was indeed a hacker, then it was someone who Kaja did not want to trifle with.

  "That's impossible," Naxisteranda responded. "We paid for some of the best defense systems in the galaxy. No one can infect us."

  That made Kaja laugh.

  "There's always someone," she said. Kaja herself spent a lot of her free time designing viruses to break into systems people had labelled as impenetrable. There was always someone, and there was always a way.

  She walked over to the main control panel. It was located on an elevated central dais that overlooked the rest of the control room. The main control panel was where the Captain was supposed to stand or sit to command the ship.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Kaja tapped the controls and initiated a diagnostic. She quickly recognised the problem. Even with the Captain's administrative clearance, she found herself locked out on many systems. This was not something she could handle with just the captain’s clearance.

  She looked over to the crew who were cowering in fear of Hanzo's blade.

  "Who's the tech genius here?" she asked. "The guy everyone calls to solve their problems. A big ship like this is bound to have one."

  Nobody moved, but Kaja was certain they had heard her. They all stayed quiet, their eyes glued on Hanzo.

  Fine, Kaja thought. She could use that fear to her advantage. "Bring out the Tech guy now," Kaja said. "Or Hanzo's going to start cutting."

  Hanzo played his part brilliantly. He brandished the blade menacingly and scowled. The crew began to jostle each other until one tiny individual was pushed to the front. He belonged to a species even Kaja knew. He was Lulan.

  Lulans were diminutive humans with sharp teeth, large eyes and dainty fingers. They were known for having a knack for technology, and a knack for thievery. Kaja had met a few on her home planet. Her father had employed them to run some of the systems in his company. Unfortunately, he had to fire some because of larceny. He compared Lulans to jackdaws, some sort of bird on Earth prime which loved to take shiny things.

  "Except," her father said, "a Lulan’s shiny thing is any new piece of technology."

  Kaja waved at the Lulan who had been pushed forward. "Are you the tech genius?"

  The Lulan glanced back at the crowd, his expression a mixture of fear and betrayal. "Y…ye…yes." He stammered.

  Kaja beamed.

  "Fantastic. Do you have a Master Cube?"

  The Lulan nodded and Kaja couldn't help but do a little jig. She heard Ramis snicker, and she frowned at him but the Kinuan man turned around to hide his face from her.

  A thought came to Kaja’s mind. If the Lulan had a Master Cube, why hadn't he tried to solve the problem himself. She spread out her arms and asked him.

  "So what have you been waiting for then?"

  The Lulan looked down at the floor and murmured something. Kaja leaned closer and cupped a hand to her ear. "What was that?"

  "I said I was locked out even with the Master Cube."

  "That’s weird," Kaja said. Even a basic Master Cube should have been able to deal with a virus. She shook her head and placed her hands on her hips. "That's probably because you didn't use it well. Hand it over."

  The Lulan reached into his satchel and pulled out a small metallic cube. The surface of the cube seemed to be made of shifting silver metallic plates. The plates glittered under the room lights, reflecting a kaleidoscope of hues onto the walls.

  Kaja held her hand out and greedily motioned for the Lulan to bring her the cube. Once she had it in hand, she squealed and did another jig. She twirled to face Ramis, whose mouth was agape.

  "It's a Finessa 500!" Kaja exclaimed, pointing at the cube with her free hand. "They only made like 100 of these. They are super rare, and super powerful."

  She looked back at the Lulan. "You stole this didn't you? There is no way you could afford it." Kaja’s family was rich and even she hadn’t been able to afford a Finessa 500. They were owned by governments and powerful private institutions. One Finessa 500 could run a planet’s economy.

  There was only one way a Lulan on a frankly unremarkable Freighter had come by one. The Lulan looked away, his face and posture drenched with guilt.

  "Well I'm stealing it too," Kaja declared triumphantly. She looked at the Lulan, daring him to object. She made sure he saw her glance at Hanzo.

  The Lulan's shoulders fell, and Kaja thought to herself, Okay, maybe I can be a little manipulative. But this was a Finessa 500 we were talking about. It was worth it. With a Finessa 500, she could do virtually anything. Maybe even take down the Dreha collective. Kaja’s thoughts wandered for a moment, and she had to shake her head to clear it. She shooed the Lulan away and turned back to the control panel.

  "Maybe community service is not that bad," Kaja said to herself. She had owned many Master Cubes in her life. Her current one was fairly advanced: The Finessa A1. It was what she had used to help her track down her father’s killers. Unfortunately, the Finessa A1 had been confiscated when she was arrested, and it had not been part of the things handed back to her.

  Kaja was told her family had taken some of her personal items. She had assumed they had her cube.

  Kaja placed the Finessa 500 on the control panel. It hummed, instantly recognizing the technology and interfacing with it. The metallic plates on the top-most part of the cube shifted and projected a holographic image of a keypad and a monitor.

  Kaja got to work. She quickly realized she had been right. There was a virus in the system. The signs were subtle, but Kaja was experienced. She circumvented the virus' defense mechanisms, of which there were many.

  Step by step she got closer to the core. She found a signature. Whoever had done this was quite proud of their work.

  "Enko," she said, reading out the signature. She looked at Hanzo. "Does that name mean anything to you?"

  "No," Hanzo said.

  Kaja looked at Naxisteranda, and the first mate shook her head.

  "Mm," Kaja said. "Well that's who planted this virus. And it seemed to have come from inside this ship. From the VIP section apparently. Room 121."

  Naxisteranda gasped.

  "Is someone there?" Kaja asked. "Capturing them and forcing them to talk would make this so much easier."

  "Someone was there," Naxisteranda said.

  "Was?"

  "Ben Wilson killed him."

  "Oh," That was all Kaja could say.

  "Oh indeed," Hanzo echoed. "Will you be able to fix the problem Ms. Khan?"

  "Yes," Kaja Khan responded. "But there's going to be some damage."

  "Explain."

  "The virus has damaged multiple systems irreparably. And right now, it's trying to get into the Freighter’s JumpDrive. Once it does that, it will try to spit us out of Jumpspace."

  "That’s not so bad," Ramis said. "So we would just get shot out to some random place in space? We could just re-enter Jumpspace"

  Kaja chuckled darkly. "Uhm not really. The virus is really high level. It is honestly some very impressive stuff. It is designed to make sure we get spat out at a specific set of coordinates."

  Hanzo asked. "And where's that?"

  Kaja swallowed before responding. "If the ship nav is right, we'll be spat into the surface of a sun."