Taking SPACE

NOW WHAT

Sighs of relief filled the room as Daniel took off his virtual helmet and leaned back into his remote pilot seat.

"It worked. Good job Cat, Michael, and Steven." Stephanie congratulated.

"What about me? I just flew Mission impossible!"

"Your ego is enough to congratulate yourself."

Daniel's eyebrows curved and his lips pouted as he gave her the wounded puppy stare. Catherine walked over and poked her finger against his forehead as if popping his bubble.

He smiled and rolled his eyes at her. She returned his loving smile and gently kissed him on the lips. "Good job."

"Ahm." Stephanie cleared her throat.

Catherine slightly blushed and Daniel gave his little sister a smirk.

She jokingly made a fist at him in return, then said, "Now what?"

Daniel furled his eyebrows. "What you mean now what?"

Stephanie waved towards the hologram. "Well, from the heat diagram, I'd say you have six pirates to deal with."

Everyone's attention returned to the dead pirate ship.

"Oh. I didn't even think about that." Michael admitted.

Daniel stood up and walked over to the hologram. "Shouldn't they just get into an escape pod and fly off somewhere to try and find help?"

Steven shook his head. "Normally yes but a core overlord of that magnitude likely fried every single electronic device in a point O three light second radius."

"So no escape pod then?"

Steven once again shook his head, "no".

"Can we drag the ship to somewhere where they can get help?"

This time it was Stephanie who shook her head. "No, it would take me hours to safely pull that thing out of the asteroid field. They would die long before I get it even halfway out. Besides, if we did that, they'd just have the ship fixed and we would be back at where we started."

Silence fell over them like a blanket as they pondered what to do with the pirates.

At long last, Daniel spoke up. "I hate to say it, but maybe we should just leave them there."

Catherine's eyes grew wide. "What? They will be dead in a few hours!"

"I know."

"How can you say that then?"

"Because Kitty, they are real PIRATES. Not those fantasy pirates that sails around on ships in some ocean. If we interact with them at all, there's a very real chance they could end up slaughtering Michael Steven and me, and take you and Stephanie as prisoners, where unspeakable things will happen to you."

"I know. But they are living people! We have to help them!"

Steven stepped between Daniel and Catherine. "I'm with Daniel on this one. A wise man sees a lion ahead and turned aside; a fool wonders on and is devoured. These people are definitely lions."

Catherine looked at Stephanie and she shrugged. "Don't ask me. I didn't think this whole idea was good to begin with."

Catherine's gaze switched to Michael and he shook his head. "I can't see any way to save them. The only option we have is to take the mining ships out and retrieve them, but that would mean letting them into our cockpit and that..."