Athena's Arrow and the Calculation of Pi

Something felt wrong. Captain Miranda couldn't say exactly what felt wrong, but something definitely was. She scanned through the latest reports trying to figure out just what was off, but she saw nothing. It couldn't be all in her mind, could it? Perhaps it could be. This was, after all, the most important voyage of her life: her first voyage as captain of her own ship: Athena's Arrow.

Athena's Arrow was a brand new ship, a new kind of ship, the first of her kind in the Solar System. Athena's Arrow used the latest in Solar Sail technology, making it a faster and smoother ride than any luxury liner that had come before it. It also had higher levels of automation, requiring a smaller crew than might normally be expected on a ship her size, allowing more resources to be dedicated to the passengers. With this automation, the bridge was manned only by the captain.

Miranda scanned through data from all systems and registers on the ship. Something was wrong, she was certain. Sails and propulsion systems were functioning properly, power levels were normal, There was a spike in oxygen consumption, which she could not explain, but that wasn't a sign of anything wrong per se. Hull integrity was within acceptable levels, but there had been a brief warning a few minutes prior. Miranda pulled up the monitor for that area and rolled back the video to the time of the warning and watched as a tear was opened in the hull and men with guns came through. Pirates! Of course! That was why there had been a spike in oxygen consumption. The pirates had used their ship to create a hard seal against the hull and cut their way inside.

Miranda did what she was trained to do. She enacted the hostile boarding protocols.

Pi Javez was in the bar at the Red Star Casino, smoking a cigar. The Red Star was the finest gambling house on Mars, but Pi hadn't come for that. She'd come for the cigars, and for the quiet of the bar. Red Star's bar was the most peaceful in New Van. One of the few where she could indulge in the two vices she cared to: cigars and reading. Pi's personal datapad was open in front of her, scrolling through Dickens' David Copperfield. She had read the book so many times, she didn't really need to look at the page. Books were an Old Earth luxury that she enjoyed, while the more common entertainments, like serial vids just seemed boring to her. They had no originality, no spirit. And old books like this one were written when we knew how to write when words mattered and authors took time telling their stories. She put the cigar in the ashtray and lifted her eyes to watch how the smoke curled towards the ceiling. As she looked up, she saw the face of a man who had been eyeing her. She had felt his gaze while she was reading, but had ignored it. It was best to ignore men when they looked at her like that. Acknowledging the gaze merely made them talk to her. She watched his face as he noticed the cigar and thought better of trying whatever cheesy pick-up line he had been practicing in his head. He turned back to the bar and hunched over his drink. She enjoyed how men reacted to her when she smoked cigars, and so she smoked them as often as possible.

Smoking was a luxury forbidden on Earth, and so on Mars, she indulged as often as she could, and while cigarettes were plentiful in New Vancouver, she preferred cigars. As the first colony, Mars had plenty of diversions, while Earth had few. In its early colonization, Mars had been a nearly lawless place, where indulgences of all kinds could be had. Gambling, prostitution, smoking and booze; all four had outlawed on Earth, but the martian colonists were determined to forge a new world, without the constraints of Earth. Of all the modern colonies, Mars was still the most permissive. It was respectable enough now, but that respectability was hard-fought, and very expensive.

Pi didn't dress for attraction. She was more comfortable in her flight suit and boots, though the suit was a little more form-fitting than standard issue, and she did like to keep the zipper low enough to expose some cleavage. A little cleavage could help distract a man long enough to make an escape, or at least get in the first punch. She never wore makeup, letting her striking green eyes stand on their own merits, and her brown hair was cut short, what some called a "boy cut" but she simply called "sensible, when you didn't know what gravity you would find yourself in from day to day".

Pi wasn't on Mars for the indulgences she was waiting for work. Her last job had finished here and it seemed to make more sense to simply wait in New Vancouver for the next job, rather than to take the long trek back to Earth. She was a Freelancer, her skills available to whoever could pay her very high fee. The Mars job had seen her carrying a vial of a substance given to her by a man in a very fine suit in New York, and passed through a doorway in the darker side of New Van, in exchange for her credits. She never knew what was in the vial or who was paying her. She didn't need to know, nor did she want to.

It was easy for Pi to avoid putting down roots in any place. She'd never had any roots to put down. She had been a ward of the state for as long as she could remember, moving around from foster home to foster home on Titan. She'd never known her parents and never cared to. She'd known other children in similar situations as her, and all they ever talked about was what they would do when they found their parents and how wonderful life would be. But Pi had no interest in finding her birth mother or father. If her parents hadn't wanted her then she didn't want them. After graduation, she had done some time with Pantheon Security. Pantheon Security was the largest provider of security and military personal and equipment in the solar system. They had long since outpaced any of their competitors, who now were relegated to small contracts on backwater moons. Pan Sec was the big leagues, with contracts to supply all of the colonial governments with manpower and arms. It didn't take too long to realize that she and Pan Sec weren't going to work out. She wasn't good at taking orders, and as a military force, Pan Sec required the following of orders. Finding herself in this conflict between the needs of Pan Sec and her own, she left. The training she received served her well as a Freelancer, though.

Her Personal Data Tablet chirped. Her PDT hadn't made a sound since the Mars job finished, and she didn't know anyone on Mars. That meant work, for which she was extremely grateful. She needed the money. Pi wasn't in any danger of poverty, but she had started to be able to see the end of her savings, which made her nervous.

It was late on Mars, but Pi was in the middle of her day. She hadn't seen the point of falling into step with the day/night cycle of Mars, since she knew she would be leaving eventually. She slept when she was tired, and woke when she was ready. Had anyone raised an eyebrow at her sleeping schedule, she was prepared to tell them that she was still on Earth Standard Time, but no one asked, because no one noticed. She had been determined to make no connections on Mars: no friends, no lovers. Connections made things like leaving or taking a new job more complicated. Pi hated complications.

She touched the PDT's screen, which recognized her biometric signature and displayed the message: an address, paired with ASAP. She knew the address immediately. Everyone on Mars did. If the message had been from anyone else, she'd have taken her time in answering; Pi made it a point never to seem too eager. But the address in the message was that of the Pantheon Building, and you didn't keep Pantheon Galactic waiting. She stabbed out the cigar in the ashtray and left the artificial night of the Casino for the artificial night of the corridors of New Van.

The first settlers had planned, on arrival to use the latest terraforming technologies to transform the forbidding red planet into a garden that rivalled Earth of old. They tried for decades, using every terraforming technique known to man, and inventing some of their own, but the stubborn planet resisted every attempt at changing its environment. After years of trying, the martian colonists gave up and constructed their cities underground. The colonization of the other planets gave up the idea of terraforming entirely and simply followed the martian example, building their cities underground.

Pi hailed an upright cab, swiped her ID card in the slot, and spoke the address aloud, and with a jerk, the cab sped through the underground streets, towards her destination. Developed by Pantheon Galactic, the upright cab was a Martian invention; some mode of transportation needed to be created to get from place to place and the wide seated cars that had been appropriate on Earth made no sense in the enclosed environment of a Martian city. The passenger inside an upright cab stood, rather than sat, and the upright design of the cab meant that the narrow corridors of the city would not be overly clogged with traffic.

Pi had never worked with Pantheon Galactic before. She would never have thought that she would be on their radar. As the biggest and most influential corporation in the solar system, with its fingers in every industry, Pi would have thought Pantheon would have no need for a Freelancer. Pantheon had its corporate hands in manufacturing, communications, agriculture, medicine and security, and lead the market in each industry. Pantheon, like its founder Jameson Corley, loomed large in the lives of every colonist. Corley's name was in the gossip pages of every news organization, and the decisions made in Pantheon's board room affected the fortunes of every colony.

The Pantheon Building was a Landmark on Mars and a point of pride for every citizen of New Van. The Building was separated from the city, erected in the martian crater around which New Vancouver had been built, it stretched up past the edges of the crater, its gleaming silver exterior visible from space. Around the crater, on the city side, windows or Pantheon's patented transparent plexi-steel - the only windows in New Van - had been constructed to allow the citizens of New Van to marvel at Pantheon Galactic's great headquarters.

Pi arrived at the gateway to the Pantheon Building'smain entrance. Access to the building was through plexi-steel tunnels, that stretched from the city to the entrances, one on four sides of the building. Pi flashed her ID card at the reader and the gate slid open. The entrance seemed a long way away down the transparent tunnel, and she wished that it would have been possible to take the upright cab all the way to the door, but vehicles were not permitted in the tunnels. She craned her neck to look at the silver spire of the Pantheon Building, gleaming in the Martian night. This must be why everyone has to walk this tunnel, she thought, so that the sight of this massive building would remind you of how small you were compared to Pantheon. Looking up, Pi did feel small. She remembered reading that Jameson Corley had once joked that he wanted the Pantheon Building to be a beacon to all of Mars, including Martians who would marvel at its scale and know that men were not to be trifled with. The media had thought this a grand joke, thinking that Corley had been referring to the "little green men" of myth, but Pi suspected that Corley had meant the colonists, a veiled warning to all that men like him were not to be trifled with.

The main door slid open for Pi, and she entered the atrium of Pantheon, all marble and gold, with statues of Greek gods on plinths against the wall, each looking down on her balefully. During the day the atrium would be teeming with employees, but now it was deserted. At her feet, a blue path was illuminated in the gleaming floor, indicating where she was to go. There would be no wandering; She would not see the famous Fountain, or the cases displaying the recently excavated mars rovers Curiosity and Spirit, obtained at great cost in a recent archeological dig. Nor would she see the famous martian tree, grown from seeds brought by the hopeful first settlers, intended to be planted once the terraforming of Mars was complete. It was said that Pantheon had brought botanists from all corners of the solar system in order to get the tree to grow and grow it had (or so Pi had heard). The path illuminated for Pi would not take her past any of these icons, she could see by signs that beckoned visitors and tour groups to these marvels, but she dared not stray from the path. Had she been welcome to explore, the path would have indicated it, and besides, she had no desire to risk a run-in with Pantheon Security. Pi had no desire to end up in handcuffs over her curiosity.

Pi dutifully followed the path illuminated for her through the atrium, down one of the public ornate marble hallways with arches every few meters and god heads at staring down from the top of each arch, around a corner to a more utilitarian hallway which looked more like those found in any other building in New Van, metal grey and without ornamentation. This is where the public never goes, she thought to herself, the public hallways were for show, but this was where the real Pantheon Galactic was. In hallways like this, nondescript and dull.

A door. The illuminated path brought her to a door. There was nothing special about the door, no name on the wall indicating who might be inside. It was just a normal door. She was almost disappointed. The door opened, inviting her inside. Pi took a breath and walked through the door.

Historians have said the war between the colonies was a waste, a frivolous war. Those who live on the outer colonies would say that those historians only say that because they live on the inner colonies. Tension had been growing for years over trade between the inner and outer colonies.

The inner colonies on Mars, Earth, and the moons: Luna, Phobos, and Deimos, were better off than the smaller outer colonies on the moons around Saturn and Jupiter. Life on those "lesser colonies" as they were known on Earth and Mars, was hard. While the Martian Colony had been built in the spirit of exploration, and the Luna and Phobos colonies had been founded as vacation spots for the rich on Earth and Mars, the colonies on the Saturn and Jupiter colonies had bee built for mining, and those who settled there had been coerced from the poorest of the poor on Earth and Mars, and promised a better life. When they arrived, they found that they had been duped, the contracts they had signed to get them to their "better lives" guaranteeing their service until the cost of their transportation, plus the cost of room and board had been repaid.

Discontent seethed under the surface, churning in hungry bellies fed little more than slop, and burned in the hearts of those who toiled in the mining facilities, who witnessed the preventable deaths of their friends and neighbours, and who watched as their children were denied education and looked to follow in their parents’ footsteps.

The war, they say, started on Titan. A transport bringing supplies for the mining facility was stormed by a group of miners, angry that the last three transports to arrive had brought equipment for the mine, but no food for the miners. The mob had formed after one of the miners claimed that she overheard one of the foremen say that it didn't matter if they all starved since there would always be people desperate enough to come to Titan. The whispers had started immediately, and then turned to shouts of rage: they were all expendable. The mining companies didn't care if they lived or died, and might even prefer that they died.

The mob stormed the transport and in their rage slaughtered the crew. In retaliation, Earth sent soldiers to Titan, and as a preventative measure, to the mining colony on Saturn's moon, Io. When soldiers arrived on Europa, the Titan uprising became an all-out war.

The war pitted technology against willpower: Earth and Mars had superior weapons, but the miners had their bodies, and whatever technology they could steal, loading captured ships with explosives and sending them back to their fleets, or even attacking civilian targets.

Hate grew on each side until a ceasefire was declared, and then finally, an armistice was declared. Peace came after months of animosity and bloody fighting, and Io and Titan were given self-governance, and the Colonial Parliament was formed. After the peace, both Titan and Europa founded colonies on other moons: Ganymede and Callisto orbiting Jupiter, and Pandora and Hyperion orbiting Saturn. The colonists of the new colonies shared the independent streak of their parent colonies, their rebellious nature, and their distrust of authority. And on Titan and Europa, there were still those who remembered and waited for the day that they would need to rise up once more.

The war had ended, but its end had not brought trust, only resentment.

"Thank you for coming so promptly, Miss Javez," said Jameson Corley. Through the door, Pi had found herself in an impressive office, styled like one that might have been found on Old Earth, with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves on each wall. Opposite the door was a large oak desk, the kind that no colonist on Mars would ever be able to have; no oak trees had ever successfully been grown on Mars and importing that much wood from earth was far too expensive for anyone on a meagre Martian salary. Only Pantheon Galactic's Jameson Corley could afford a desk like this.

But Corley wasn't there. On the desk was a screen on which was projected the image of Jameson Corley, sitting behind a desk the twin of the one in this room. Behind him, was a window through which Pi could see the unmistakable skyline of Paris. This projection had been recorded hours earlier and broadcast to Mars for this meeting. For anyone else, Pi would have been annoyed at coming all this way for a projection. The founder of Pan Galactic couldn't be expected to drop everything to meet with her, and hours for a recording was faster than the days it would have taken for him to reach Mars from Earth. Besides, he knew her name! The fact that the richest man in the solar system knew Pi Javez's name was worth having a meeting with a recorded message.

Corley was as handsome she had known he would be; his steel-blue eyes a legend, mentioned in every gossip column written about him, and dreamed about by every young girl who dreamt of being swept away by a rich man who would take her away from her life of hardship and take her to a life of leisure. He was dressed in a finely tailored suit, black, as was his preferred style, with the high collared shirt he had made fashionable. A splash of colour provided by his tie, and electric blue that complimented his eyes.

"What I am about to tell you," Corley said, continuing, "is highly sensitive and should be considered classified. Do you accept the standard NDA agreement, now visible on this screen? Please say yes or no."

The Non-Disclosure Agreement flashed on the screen and scrolled by. "Yes," she said. What else could she say? Working with Pantheon Galactic and for Jameson Corley could be a career-maker for her. She couldn't afford to pass that up.

"Thank you," said Corley, "a copy of the agreement has been sent to your PDT for your records." Corley picked up a teacup from the desk, one of those fine china ones with the intricate designs that aren't made anymore, and sipped his tea unhurriedly before continuing. "Five days ago, the newest luxury liner in our Cruises Interplanetary line launched on its maiden voyage. Aboard were dignitaries from every colony, invited specifically for this happy occasion, including representatives from the Interplanetary Parliament. Twelve hours ago, pirates seized the vessel. We have had no communication from either the ship's crew or the pirates since that occurred."

I don't do hostages, thought Pi. Hostage situations were far too messy, too much could go wrong, and wrong usually meant civilian casualties, and civilian casualties meant questions that neither she nor her employer of the day would want to answer.

"These dignitaries are not your concern," Corley continued. "Pantheon Security will be taking care of them. Your concern, Miss Javez, is something else entirely."

He's going to ask me to obtain some secret documents damaging to him or the company, or something else; diamonds, perhaps, thought Pi. People like him were all the same, always most concerned with their secrets or their wealth. Which wasn't so bad for her, it kept her employed.

"Your target is Miranda, the ship's captain." That was unexpected. In situations like this, no one had ever engaged Pi's services to assist a member of the crew. "Miranda," Corley said, "Is a most unique captain and represents a significant expenditure of resources. Pantheon Galactic wants her back safely." Corley sipped his tea and then continued "Miss Javez, you have a reputation as a woman who gets things done. Your past clients speak highly of your services, and that is why we have come to you with this sensitive matter. Should you accept this mission, you will be well compensated. The amount now on the screen should be more than reasonable." Pi gasped when she saw the number. More than reasonable indeed. "Do you accept this mission? Please say yes or no, now."

Pi said yes.

Miranda was safe, for now. Power was off, except for essential systems, computer access had been locked out to all but the captain, and all airlocks had been sealed, as had been the passenger section, keeping the pirates from accessing any essential systems. There was now no way off Athena's Arrow until she disabled the hostile boarding protocols, and only she as ship’s captain could disable them. The hostile boarding protocols also contained specific instructions for Miranda. As captain, she was the most valuable member of the ship's crew; her instructions were to seal the emergency bulkheads around the bridge, fuse the electronics on the bridge, and use specific access paths to get to a safe room on Deck 36.

The bulkhead around the bridge was a ruse, a diversion. The pirates would concentrate on getting to the bridge, sure that the captain was there, and would expend time and energy to get through the bulkhead, which was designed to withstand exactly that kind of attempted breach. Even if the pirates were somehow able to breach the bulkheads, they would find the electronics on the bridge unusable, and the captain nowhere to be found.

Miranda had followed the protocols to the letter and was now locked in the safe room, where she was simply to wait. Miranda had never been particularly good at waiting. Fortunately, she still had her monitors, which were included for power in the protocols, so she was able to keep track of the movements of the pirates. They were in the process of rounding up the passengers. She hoped that the pirates wouldn't hurt any of the passengers, but logic suggested that was a false hope. There would be injuries, and once Pantheon Security arrived - that was part of the protocols as well - there would probably be casualties. As soon as Miranda enacted the hostile boarding protocols, that information had automatically been sent to Pantheon Security and a rescue would be launched.

Hold on, thought Miranda, as she watched the pirates gather the passengers in the dining hall, there were two fewer pirates than she had seen boarding. She followed the biometric data she read in the ship's data, following the path they took, until she found them, heading down the corridor to the bridge. They were falling right into the expected trap and would waste their time burning through the emergency bulkhead and never know that their target was not inside.

Miranda's satisfaction faded, as the pirates ignored the bridge and continued down the corridor.

Pi was on a Pantheon Security shuttle, on her way to rendezvous with Athena's Arrow. It was a medium-sized shuttle, with a crew of four. The shuttle was not built for combat or troop transport. A shuttle like this was tactical and would skirt the edges of an engagement, providing tactical information to troop and ship commanders. This shuttle was equipped with several single transport torpedoes, used to insert a covert operative into an assignment. Pi would be using one of those to get aboard Athena's Arrow.

Pi had been grabbing some shut-eye in the crew barracks. They didn't need her underfoot, so she had simply taken a bunk and slept. She'd learned long ago to sleep when the opportunity presented itself because you never knew when you'd get another chance.

She was awakened by Captain Hicks, her liaison with Pan Sec. Hicks was rugged, in that way that the soldiers of Patheon Security always were, with a pockmarked face. The way he gritted his teeth when he thought she wasn't paying attention made Pi certain he'd seen her file and knew how she'd washed out of Pan Sec. One thing that Pan Sec had little patience for, was former Pan Sec.

"Miss Javez, it's time for your briefing," said Hicks, to wake her.

Pi sat up in the bunk. "How far out are we?"

"We're already here," Hicks said. "Come with me please."

Pi climbed off the bunk, and followed her liaison, through the narrow corridors to the tactical centre just behind the flight deck. The tactical centre had equipment, satchels and supplies along the walls, and at the centre, a vidscreen, which displayed a luxury space ship's schematic.

Hicks didn't waste time getting started. "Athena's Arrow is Cruises International's newest vessel and represents a significant investment by Pantheon Galactic's R&D team. She is not only using the latest solar sail technology, but with greater automation, she requires a smaller crew than any other liner.

"Following the standard hostile boarding protocols, Captain Miranda will have disabled all internal and external communications, as well as locking down all shuttle and airlock points. An emergency bulkhead will have sealed the bridge, keeping the captain safe and able to continue monitoring the ship's functions. However, the captain's protocol also requires that after enabling the bulkhead, that she use an accessway, to remove herself from the bridge and lock herself in a safe room on Deck 36. In this way, the pirates will waste time and energy attempting to gain access to the bridge, where they believe the captain will be, as they will need her to disable the protocol and allow their escape."

Hicks touched a control pad, and the passenger section of the liner appeared on the screen. "The passengers will be in this section, most likely here," he indicated the dining hall " which is the only place the pirates would be able to keep an eye on all their hostages. The hostages are not your concern, and we advise you to avoid the passenger sections, as Pan Sec will launch its assault as soon as you are aboard. Our assault will keep the pirates distracted, allowing you to get Miranda to safety on a lifeboat. She will be able to override the protocols for you to launch the lifeboat." He held out a sling satchel. "This contains a PDT with the schematic, and a Pan Sec access disk keyed to override of all doors on the Arrow. These are a restricted technology, so you will need to return it once the mission is completed. There are other tools in the bag, you may find useful. The rest is up to you. Is there anything you need before you go?"

Pi shook her head. The next part would be the most unpleasant, so she might as well get it over with.

The single transport torpedo was not built for comfort. No space for much other than the passenger. It was padded, to ensure the safety of its passenger since launch and landing could bumpy.

Once sealed in the torpedo, Pi could not see anything. There were no windows or monitors. The technician who sealed Pi in told her that her best bet was simply to close her eyes and wait for the chime that would sound when she arrived. Pi was wearing a light space suit and a helmet over her flight suit. The oxygen bottle was small. The transport torpedo didn't have enough room for anything more.

The technician closed the lid of the torpedo, and Pi found her heart racing. She had never suffered from claustrophobia before, but she'd never been in anything this small and close. She consciously slowed her breathing, counting to ten between each breath, and slowly her heart rate slowed.

The torpedo launched. The thrusters fired, and since the torpedo was within the shuttle's gravity, the launch was particularly rough, and her insides shook, and she thought she might vomit. With her helmet on, vomitting would be disastrous, and so she struggled to keep the bile down. She clenched her fists and held her breath until the shaking stopped, and the torpedo was on its way.

The shuttle had brought her as near to Athena's Arrow as it could, but since it would be acting as tactical for the Pan Sec assault, it could not afford to get too close. The pirates wouldn't be able to access the liner's sensors, but if one of them looked out a window and saw the shuttle, the surprise assualt would be over before it began. At the distance the shuttle had stopped, it would take an hour for the personal transport torpedo to get her to the ship. Pi closed her eyes and tried to sleep.

The chime sounded, and Pi opened her eyes. She had arrived at Athena's Arrow. She checked the oxygen level in the bottle. The estimates she had been given as to how long it would last were obviously generous. Perhaps her initial panic after being sealed in had used more than had been anticipated. The why didn't matter, she had to move now, or she would suffocate. She thumbed the release button and the lid of the torpedo separated. As soon as the lid was released and floating beside her, she could see the Arrow nearby. She would be able to push off from her half of the torpedo and coast to the airlock. She grabbed the satchel and her belt, palmed the access disk from its outer pocket, and pushed off towards the hull of the Arrow.

She grabbed the handle to the side of the exterior door and placed the access disk against the door, and gripped the door's lever. I really hope this works, she thought as she sqeezed. The door began to slide open, but very slowly. She looked at the gauge on the oxygen bottle. This was no time for slowness. The door's movement was agonizingly slow. Pi watched as the oxygen meter dipped closer to empty, and fought to control her breathing; she couldn't afford to let panic set in. She had a finite number of breaths left in the bottle. What an interesting thought; to consider the number of breaths that one has left in their life, and realize exactly how few they are.

There was enough space now that Pi could just squeeze through. She pulled herself to the side of the door with the space and pulled herself through, giving the lever on the other side a kick once she was through. The door reversed its movement and began to close, as slowly as it had the other way. Pi watched the door impatiently, willing it to close faster, knowing that it wouldn't.

That's when her oxygen ran out. She heard the flow of oxygen stop, and then she didn't hear anything. She held her breath, and checked the gage, in case somehow there was some extra juice in the bottle. But there was nothing left. She watched the airlock door as it snailed its way to closed. She could hold her breath for a while, but it wouldn't be enough. She would involuntarily inhale and there would be nothing for her to breathe in. And then she would start to die.

She felt the reflex to inhale deep in her lungs and tried to fight it. But breathing is an involutary physical requirement and can be fought only for so long. Pi could feel the inhalation coming, before it happened, and knew she wouldn't be able to fight it. The reflex exploded out of her, her mouth opened and her lungs attempted to draw air in, but there was none. Pi felt the pain in her lungs as they drew in the nothing that remained in the bottle, and felt darkness at the edges of her vision, creeping into the centre.

Pi had never considered dying before; never thought of it as something that might happen to her. She'd been in dangerous situations before, but she'd never thought about what might happen if a situation went bad or if she had been shot. She had always figured that either she'd be injured but recover, or die suddely so that she'd never know it was coming. This was something else. Death was coming and she could feel it happening.

The door closed, and Pi struggled against the impending darkness that closed in on her and focused on the indicator light, which burned red. When it turned green, the airlock was pressurized and she would be able to take off her helmet. Green meant she would live if it happened soon enough.

Now that she had tried to take that first involuntary breath, the floodgates were open and she could not help but keep trying to breathe in. She continued drawing nothing into her lungs, feeling more and more light-headed with every attempt, as darkness closed in around her she could barely see the indicator light.

It turned green. Did it? She wasn't sure. She couldn't see enough to be sure. But she did see green. Perhaps it was some illusion created by her desperate mind. It didn't matter. She was going to die either way.

She unfastened her helmet and threw it on the ground. She gasped and drew sweet air into her lungs.

The lights on Athena's Arrow were out, save for the emergency lights, which shined down every few feet. The purpose of the protocols was to make the Pirates' lives as difficult as possible, denying them access to the ship's systems, as well as preventing them from escaping, but the protocols weren't going to make Pi's job any easier, either.

Pi had carefully crept out of the airlock, using the access disk to give open its door, and checked the corridor. It was empty, as she expected, but it was unwise to let her guard down. She'd learned that the hard way. It was on the Ganymede job, and she'd been hired to make transport a digital access key Tony Chan, a mob boss whose family was the number two on Ganymede. The information on the key would give Chan access to information, not only on the number one family, lead by Jimmy Mao, but all the other lesser families as well, all of the information on the access key would help Tony make his Tong the largest criminal organization on the Jupiter colonies.

Pi had been about to make the hand-off, in an alley behind the Dragon of the Black Pool, a Cantonese restaurant in New Shenzhen, and a front for Tony Chan's Tong. Pi had gone walked in through the front door and straight to the back. She hadn't noticed that the restaurant was empty, or that no one was in the kitchen. She didn't notice until some goons sent by Jimmy Mao almost took her head off. There's nothing like nearly dying to teach you caution.

Pi crouched in an alcove, going through her supplies. Her gun was holstered on her hip, but she'd have to be careful if she got into a firefight. A ship like this could withstand the firing of a gun, but she had no extra clips with her, so once she ran out of ammunition, she was finished. She'd have to make every shot count. The satchel held the PDT with the ship's schematic, a tool kit, a medkit, a stun gun, and a plastic cube with a standard computer connector. She frowned. What would was the cube supposed to be for? She guessed that Pan Sec was simply trying to cover as many possible bases as they could.

She checked the schematic. She was on deck 10 and had to get to Deck 36. She mapped out a route for herself on the schematic. If the elevators had been working it would be much simpler, but then, if the hostile boarding protocols were not in place, the Pirates would already have made their escape. To reach Desk 36, Pi would need to find a maintenance door aft of where she was, and the access stairs to find her way down.

She poked her head around the corner, checking the corridor. It was still empty, but she couldn't afford to assume it would be. She slung the satchel over her shoulder and made her way towards the aft maintenance door. It was locked, but the access disk opened the door as if she had the key. She went through the door.

It was like a different world through the maintenance door. The corridors of the ship, the parts that the regular crew and the passengers might see were soundproofed, and clean. Here, the structure of the ship was visible, the corridors like tubes running from one end of the ship to the other, and Pi was on the outside. The lights were dimmer here, but there were lights at every level, and at important junctions.

This part of the ship was louder, more industrial, than the corridor she had been in. She could hear the sounds of the engines, that low hum that meant they were on, if not currently providing thrust. The engines were keeping the ship in stationary without drifting. Again, part of the protocols.

Pi heard a booming sound, that came from the higher decks and forward: the passenger levels. That must be Pan Sec launching their assault. The pirates would all be engaged in attempting to repel the assault. Pi picked up the pace on the stairs. It was a long way to Deck 36.

It took Pi longer than she had anticipated getting to Deck 36. The access stairs did not go directly from level to level. There were catwalks and ladders and gates. It was very complicated. But finally, she was at the access door for Deck 36. She pressed the access disk against the door and heard it unlock. She slid the door open and peeked out into the corridor. According to the schematic, the safe room should be just to her right.

"Did you hear that?" said a voice down the hall.

She retreated back through the door. There were two men at the door to the safe room. They weren't dressed in any Pan Sec uniform, and they carried mean-looking rifles. They were pirates, and they had heard the door open. She put her hand to her holster and quietly drew her pistol. They weren't supposed to be here. They should have been in the passenger levels, shouldn't they? Or if they somehow managed to get a couple of their number out of the passenger levels, shouldn't they be at the bridge attempting futilely to break through the emergency bulkhead into an empty room?

"I heard it," said a second voice. "Go check it out."

Pi pushed herself as close to the wall as she could get, drawing her gun and holding it ready. She heard the pirate's boot steps as he approached. Don't look on either side of the door, she thought, willing the pirate to obey. His boot steps stopped at the entrance.

"Hey Cal," he called out to the other pirate, "someone opened this door."

Pi cursed to herself. She was caught for certain. If she shot this one as he came through the door, if she did not hesitate and kept moving, she could shoot the other one before he could draw a bead on her. But she'd have to be quick. Any hesitation and the other pirate would shoot her before she could even get through the door.

"You sure?" The other pirate, Cal as the pirate closest to her had called him. He sounded skeptical. "I don't remember closing it."

"Didn't I close it?" Asked the first pirate. And then to himself, "I thought I closed it."

"I don't think you did," Cal told him.

There was a silence, a long silence. Pi's finger tightened the trigger. Outside the door, the pirate was muttering to himself, "Pretty sure I did, but-" and then trailed off. He paced back and forth and then, walked away. She heard his bootsteps as they returned the way he'd come. Pi poked her head through the doorway again, and the two of them had returned to the safe room door.

The danger passed, Pi holstered her pistol and pulled the stun gun out of the satchel. These stunners packed quite a punch, but they would neither kill their targets nor would they go off with a bang. The stunner was perfect for a situation that required stealth. Like this one. And now that the pirates were close enough, she could take both of them out with one blast. The only problem was that a stunner had a limited range.

Carefully, she stepped through the doorway and crept towards the two pirates, who were examining the door. What were they looking for? One of them, dressed less casually than the other, she guessed was Cal, shook his head. Cal didn't really look like a pirate, he was too put together, his clothing too neat. "There's a dampening field," he said to his companion as if that was all he needed to say.

"Is that supposed to be there?" The companion looked more like a pirate than Cal did.

Cal shook his head. "I don't know. They didn't brief us on it."

"Try the disk again."

Cal held up an access disk and pressed it against the door. Pi clenched her jaw. The disk Cal was holding was was the twin to the one that Pi had. Which shouldn't have been possible. This was supposed to be restricted to Pan Sec personnel.

Cal shook his head. "Nope. Dampening field." He reached into his jacket and pulled out a pair of microfibre gloves. "Put these on," he said handing them to his companion. If there was a dampening field on the door, it would disrupt any tech that came into contact with it, including the access disk. Those microfibre gloves would disrupt the field, allowing the disk to work. The gloves were not standard equipment and not something that pirates on a job like this would normally bring. These pirates were both extraordinarily prepared and supplied. Pi had crept close enough to make her shot and fired the stun gun, catching both men in its field. Their limbs collapsed under them, and they hit the floor hard.

Pi put the stun gun back in the satchel and started checking the pockets of the unconscious pirates. They carried no ID, but their guns were top of the line; not really the kind of thing she'd expect pirates to have. She picked up the access disk and compared it with hers. They were exactly the same. Something fishy was going on here, she could feel it. Pi picked up the microfibre gloves and examined the door. She put on the gloves and ran her hands over the edges of the door. She felt a tingle as she did so, which must have been the dampening field. She put her access disk against the door and heard it release. She slid the door open and entered the room.

The safe room was dimly lit, with a computer access panel on the far side. Aside from the computer panel, the room was empty. Pi, stood in the middle of the room trying to figure out what went wrong. She double-checked her location on the schematic. This was certainly the room that had been indicated on the schematic, but the room was empty. Perhaps there was some hiding spot that she wasn't aware of. "Miranda," she called out, "It’s safe to come out."

There was no response. Of course, that's what the pirates would probably say. Miranda would have no reason to trust her. "My name is Pi Javez, Jameson Corley hired me to rescue you."

"Where was Jameson Corley when you spoke to him?" Pi could not pinpoint where the voice was coming from, but Captain Miranda was wise to keep herself hidden until she was certain about Pi.

"I didn't speak to Mister Corley directly. The message was recorded since he was in Paris and I was in New Vancouver."

There was a whir, and an access port opened on the computer. "Correct," said the voice of Miranda, "I accept your rescue."

Pi stared uncomprehendingly at the access port. Her mind raced. She recalled Hicks telling her that Athena's Arrow had a higher level of automation than any ship before it. He couldn't possibly have meant this, couldn't possibly have meant that the ship's captain was a virtual intelligence. Pi blurted out, "They put the control of a spaceship in the hands of virtual intelligence?"

"No," said Miranda's voice, "Artificial Intelligence."

Pi was making her way back down the corridor. She had downloaded Miranda onto the cube, which turned out to be a portable data transporter, with thousands of terabytes of memory. Miranda had instructed her to put in an earpiece, so that they could communicate, and had directed her not to go back to the maintenance stairs but down the main corridor.

"Why are we going this way," Pi asked. It didn't make a lot of sense to her to be moving so directly. "My job is to get out you off the ship and back to Pantheon. I don't see how going this way will effectively do that."

Miranda spoke to Pi through the earpiece. "The maintenance ways are neither the most efficient method of escape nor will they safely take us where we need to go. You did not land a ship, therefore you will need one. You will have to take a yacht from the recreation level."

PI shook her head, "My instructions were to avoid the passenger sections, and take you to a lifeboat."

"You could do that," Miranda said, "but you would then be unable to fulfill your mission. Do not worry, there is no one else in the corridor. You will not be found. The yachts are not connected to the rest of the ship and therefore are not covered by the protocols. Only the doors entering the dock."

"What about the lifeboats?" Ships had been equipped with lifeboats since they sailed the seas rather than the stars.

"With the hostile boarding protocols enabled, they are inoperable. This keeps the invading boarding party unable to escape while waiting for Pantheon Security to mount their rescue," Miranda answered matter of factly.

"Can't you override them?" Hicks had told her to avoid the passenger levels of the ship, and Miranda was leading her directly to them. "I was told to get you to a lifeboat, and that you could override the protocols."

"I cannot without ending the hostile boarding protocols entirely, and I cannot do that until Pan Sec gives the all-clear." Hicks hadn't said anything about that. Something wasn't right.

Miranda's voice was incessantly calm and calming and possessed none of the emotionless inflection often heard in a Virtual Intelligence. Miranda's voice simply sounded like a very calm human, which made Pi uneasy, though she could not say why. Something about a computer that could be indistinguishable from a human just felt wrong.

Pi continued through the ship's eerie empty corridors, following Miranda's directions. It made sense that both crew and passengers were nowhere to be seen, having been herded together by the pirates, but she thought back to the two pirates outside Miranda's safe room. Shouldn't they have been stranded in the passenger section, unable to get into any other section of the ship? How could they have an access disk like the one she had? Pi asked Miranda about it.

"It is simple," Miranda said, "They aren't pirates."

Pi had entered the Passenger section, using her access disk to open the door and shut it behind her. Miranda had refused to say anything more about the invaders being something other than pirates, no matter how Pi pressed her. Pi could tell just by looking around her that she was in the passenger section. The halls were ornate, much like the public halls at Pantheon Galactic's headquarters in New Van had been. Under normal circumstances, they would have been teeming with guests, but now they were deserted. Guest rooms sat empty as well, their doors open.

Pi was surprised by how quiet it was. The Pan Sec assault should have been in full swing, and yet no sound of gunfire could be heard, no soldiers checking the guest rooms shouting "clear" when they found no one inside. No sound at all. It felt wrong.

"We must go down two levels," Miranda told her through the earpiece. "There are stairs 10 meters ahead and to your right."

Pi arrived at the staircase and grimaced. The staircase was very exposed. Should someone come by as she was on them, there was no way she would not be seen. She did not like this one bit, but Miranda told her that this was the only way, and she had to trust her. Otherwise, how could she get off the boat? Pi crept down the stairs to the next level, without incident. She was about to take the next set down when she heard a gunshot. She froze.

"That came from the dining hall," Miranda said. This is none of my business, Pi told herself, not my job. Just get Miranda off the ship. But she couldn't help herself. Nothing in the passenger section made any sense. There should have been the results of an assault, with captured or dead pirates, and thankful freed passengers. No, she told herself again, more forcefully. Its not your business. Its not part of your mission. Just do your job. Under no circumstances are you to go near the dining hall. And that's an order.

Outside the dining hall, Pi swore at herself for disobeying her direct command. She hadn't wanted to come this way. The dock and the yahts that she could use to escape and fulfill her mission were so close, and yet here she was. Curiosity; she hoped it wouldn't kill this cat.

The dining hall was the centrepiece of the passenger section; the place where all passengers would come three times a day, and it was built to be impressive. The lights were designed to emulate different times of day on Earth: at breakfast, a rose-coloured spring sunrise; at lunch, a noontime summer's day; and at dinner, a fall evening under the stars. The lights shifted throughout the day, culminating in a full winter's moon at night for no meal in particular. It didn't matter that more than half of the passengers had never lived on earth, the Terran celestial positions were still considered the most romantic. A colonist from Ganymede would see no beauty in the unfamiliar Martian sunrise but eons of literature had taught all colonists of the perfection of Earth.

The tables in the dining hall were the most ornate, and the seats lush. The trademark statues of Greek gods placed throughout the hall were of the finest marble. Windows lined the hall so that all could see the transformation of the room from sunrise to moonrise. It was the most beautiful thing on a ship filled with beauty.

At least it should have been. Now, it was anything but. As Pi peered carefully over the ledge of the window into the hall, it was stark. The shifting lights had been turned off by the hostile boarding protocols, and only the bright emergency lights provided illumination. In the centre of the room, she saw about a dozen figures on their knees, their hands behind their heads. On the floor, a body lying face down, a dark pool spreading around the head. This was an execution line. At the edges of the room, the rest of the passengers stood, some crying in fear, others with their hands over their mouths. She performed a quick calculation; all of the passengers were accounted for. The pirates were in the hall shouting at the passengers. She could not hear what they were saying, but from the gestures they were making they wanted the passengers to look at the men in the centre of the hall.

Pi looked at the figures kneeling in the centre. Some of them looked very familiar. Where had she seen them before? Her gaze wandered the room, taking note of as much as she could. There were a lot of men in the room with guns. About twice the number she might have expected. And half of them were wearing Pan Sec uniforms. Of course! That's why Cal had an access key. That's what Miranda wouldn't say: they weren't pirates: they were Patheon security.

Now it all dawned on Pi. She remembered who was on the passenger list. She remembered where she knew the faces of the figures kneeling on the floor. She'd seen them all on the news. They were members of the Planetary Parliament, and the woman next in line beside the body on the floor was Prime Minister Orellia Choi. She gasped.

That was when Hicks stepped forward. Oh, thank goodness, Pi thought. The cavalry has arrived. Hicks pulled out his gun and placed it against Choi's head. Pi wanted to shout, wanted to do something. But she couldn't. She didn't dare. Hicks pulled the trigger, and Choi's body fell to the ground, face first, her blood slowly mingling with the blood of the first body.

Pi crouched down behind the ledge and tried to slow her breathing. What was this? What was going on? Why hire her to get Miranda off the Arrow if Pan Sec had intended this outcome? What was her purpose? If she had ignored Miranda's urging and had tried to take a lifeboat if she's returned Miranda to Pan Sec, what would have happened? Would the blame for this whole incident have been put on her shoulders? Was that what she was? A patsty?

Pi didn't wait to find out. She had to get off the boat. She ran for the dock level and the waiting yacht.

Pi lay on the lone bed in the cabin of the yacht Parthenia, in orbit around Eris, the dwarf planet at the very edges of the Solar System, half-listening to a statement from Jameson Corley.

"...with great sadness, we mourn the terrible accident aboard the luxury liner, Athena's Arrow and the loss of all souls aboard, including Prime Minister Orellia Choi and a majority of the representatives of the Planetary Parliament. With the loss of so many members of our governing body, we face a void, one that threatens to tear us apart. Therefore, I take this burden upon myself, declare each colony a subsidiary of Pantheon Galactic. -"

"Turn if off, please," Pi said, and Miranda, now wired into the yacht’s systems silenced the audio. Pi sat in silence, her arms behind her pillow, staring at the ceiling. Miranda had taken some getting used to a computer with independent thought and feeling; a computer that could lie. Miranda had admitted it almost as soon as they had escaped Athena's Arrow: She had lied about not being able to override a lifeboat, but she had done so for a good reason. Had she allowed Pi to take a lifeboat, Pi would be in Pan Sec custody, and so would Miranda. Anyway, Miranda had needed Pi to see the truth, because someone needed to be a witness, someone who could tell others what they had seen.

As escape vehicles went, Pi had certainly spent time in far worse. It had all the luxuries that the wealthiest spacefaring colonist might want, and supplies for two weeks. After two weeks, they'd have to figure out how to resupply without garnering too much attention, but Miranda had already proven that she was capable of a little wonderful larceny, having changed the identification transponder on the yacht, renaming it Nyctimene, and would transfer the ownership to whatever identity she was currently forging. They could fly alongside a Pan Sec frigate without triggering an alarm. Miranda was creating a few bank accounts for Pi in the name of her new identity. If she wanted, Pi could disappear and live comfortably for the rest of her life.

But disappearing was the last thing that either of them intended to do. Pantheon Galactic - No, Jameson Corley, had engineered a violent coup, far from where anyone might notice, and had taken over the government. Why would he want to do such a thing? He was one of, if not the most powerful people in the Solar System, even more than the Prime Minister. Why would he want to do this?

And what part did Miranda play in his plans? He had wanted her, needed her removed from Athena's Arrow. To what end? And could Pi trust Miranda? She needed answers, and the only way to get them was to continue on this path.

There was only one place where Pi's information might be put to good use. It was risky, but there was one place in the Solar System where there were people who might believe her: she would go back home.

"Miranda," Pi said sitting up in the bed.

"Yes Pi," Miranda answered.

"Let's go where the troublemakers go."

"Setting a course for the Titan colony," Miranda said, powering up the engines. "Let's cause some trouble."