Drake had the Dagger heading back to the area they’d lost the Crimson Dragon’s forces, a place where huge numbers of asteroids clustered after a recent, in stellar times, collision between planets. He had no idea whether they’d have to go the whole way back to that location to encounter the pirate forces again.
As they emerged from a jump point still seven short of the asteroid area he got the answer to his question. They found four fast scout ships waiting near the jump point. In fact, by the time anyone had recovered well enough to spot them the scout ships were already hightailing it away from the Dagger.
Two of the pirates kept running until they were out of sensor range, while the other two made certain they were more than safe from the Dagger’s weaponry then held position.
“You
