This was the time of maximum danger. While floating down the chute they were prisoners to their own inertia. No magnetic floor to react against. No gravity to push them one way or the other. Sitting ducks.

TCN tactics also evolved. The order for his execution was waived. Shallom wasn’t useful if he was dead. Dead he was a martyr. Alive he was an example.

He pulled back on the controls and they jarred free from the surface. The world tilted around as Jack pushed them nearly vertical and blasted up through the sky. Eve pulled up the rear view and watched the engine plume run bright but quickly lost in the red atmosphere.

Intercepted Terran communications regarding Shallom's activities.

The ships came. Two escort ships, the new 'Patrol Craft Killer' from Pleiades Engineering and Drive. Then a Corporate Star Yards Zephyr class freighter. No, two, then four. They were coming in pairs.

A risk. Small, but a risk nonetheless and there was nowhere to hide in the freakishly empty stellar system. He squinted at the star again. There, a small black disk before the burning whiteness, the only object in orbit. ‘The Gift’, according to the Imperial Systems almanac.