"You''ve got to take them down," the old white-bearded captain of the Swallow said, shaking his head as he adjusted his pipe. "We''re scuttled and need to be towed after."


    Boss Benbeck leaned back in his seat, sighing at the cursed dark blue ship. Two of his fairweather allies were already down, one impaled and the other recovering crew members. That left his ship, the glorious Gilded One, the only one still active and able to take on the Nighthawk for the bounties inside. However, that also left a problem. There were no longer shields left to take hits for him. There would be no towing afterward, however. The fight would end in a few moments, and then he would handle the only other ship that could move.


    "What should we do, Boss?" Jeff Armstrong asked from the helm in front of Benbeck, his arm muscles bludging as he held the helm stead.


    Armstrong was the definition of a strongman and the perfect man to hold the helm. No matter what happened in the next few moments of this encounter, Benbeck could count on Armstrong to see them through. Benbeck smiled, pulling out a comb and slicking back his blonde hair.


    "He''ll be on us in thirty seconds," Athena said from her console on the right side of the bridge, her hands working the joystick as she lined up the munitions with the approaching ship.


    Athena had been an excellent find, taken from the streets of his no-name island and trained to be the perfect navigator and gunner for his ship. The fact that she wore a perfect black jumpsuit and always had the perfect angle for Benbeck to see was only extra icing on top of his cake. If only she was as smart as he was. He shook his head. That was why he was the leader, right? He could see the things no one else could.


    Benbeck didn''t think the munitions would be enough, though. From what he heard from their sources, Ortega''s primary method of dealing with problems was his magnetism. Ordinary ordinance wouldn''t cut it for a person who could do that. Benbeck stood from his golden captain''s chair, brushing off his golden tailored suit and adjusting his collar. No, he would need to take things more personally. He turned to Athena.


    "Prepare a special munition," Benbeck said. "We''ll use Robismo to distract him while we escape to try again. He''ll run before he stays in the fight."


    "Are you sure?" Athena asked, raising an eyebrow.


    "That''s been their method in every encounter, according to our sources. They run first and don''t do too many risky things. Trust in my information-gathering ability, if nothing else."


    "Loading a Robismo shot." Athena shook her head, and Benbeck opened his gate. "Tell the rest of the crew to prepare for evasive maneuvers."


    A whirring sensation ran through his body as he focused on the window in front of him. Power rushed through his body in a circle, turning gear upon gear from his heart all the way to the tips of his fingers and toes. Benbeck smiled as he embraced the power and focused it in his mind. The moment he saw the munition launch, he would release his power and see how Ortega handled a problem magnetism couldn''t solve.


    "Launch!" Benbeck yelled before calling out the name of his technique. "Robismo Awaken!"


    ***


    Ring.


    Erin ran onto the bridge, her short, curly hair still frazzled from her sudden awakening. The alarm above her continued to blare, causing pulsing pain to run across her forehead. As she stepped around the corner and into the front of the bridge, she noticed she was the third one. Wen already sat at her console, dressed in a long light blue robe. Like Erin, she hadn''t had time to get dressed between the alarm and the run-over. Erin had time to throw on a larger-than-normal shirt over her underclothes before she had run in, and that was about it. She was still barefoot, which left the metal floor cold to the touch.


    Alex had the luxury of being on watch, so he was fully dressed in a simple white shirt and black pants as he leaned forward in his central chair, both hands on the orbs that controlled the ship''s piloting systems. His black hair was matted to his brown face with sweat as he stared into the distance. Erin hadn''t taken the chance to pilot the ship, but according to everyone else, it was a surreal experience where your senses merged with the ship, and you controlled it with that shared connection.


    "What''s going on?" Erin asked as she jumped into her seat, which had cushions to keep her legs off the metal.


    "Pirates," Wen said. "We''re about to tangle with the last one. "Where''s Sayed and Jean?"


    "Artur and Jean are trying to wake Sayed up," Erin said as she pulled up readouts on the ship. "Anything damaged yet?"


    "Nothing yet," Alex said through clenched teeth. "Just give me a second, and maybe you can all just go back to bed."


    Erin checked the screen in front of her and saw the final ship change course so that it was pointed directly at them. They would charge each other in the space between them, and Alex would probably use his ''Rail Gun'' to try and take down the ship. She clenched her hands around her armrests as she prepared for that turbulence. Beyond doing that, she wasn''t sure she could do much in this situation. Normally, she just helped Mari decide on the course and planned stops.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    "What''s that?" Wen asked, and Erin saw the blip on their forward sensors.


    The ship had launched something small at them. Erin squinted, but of course, that wasn''t going to help. Whatever it was, it was too small to get any real detail out of it.


    "Too small to worry about," Alex said.


    The moment he said it, the blip grew on the screen, going from a dot smaller than the launching ship to a massive object over three times the size of the ship. Erin looked over to the main screen and saw what it was. A massive humanoid figure that looked like it wore blocky golden armor had appeared in front of the golden ship, punching toward the Nighthawk with what looked like a massive drill on its hand. Erin''s eyes widened. It just wasn''t possible.


    "It''s too close," Alex said, pulling up on the orbs as they rushed toward the figure. "I can''t even sense it."


    Thud. Scrtch!


    While they had managed to pull away from the figure, the ship still shook. It was too late to avoid the hit. Erin''s screen flashed with red markers and lines running across the upper side of the ship. It had landed a good hit, whatever it was. However, the real question was why Alex couldn''t deflect it. The massive figure looked like it was made of metal. Surely, he should have been able to push the drill away or minimize the damage.


    "Rail Shot," Alex said, and a massive spike shot away from them, striking the golden ship instead of the figure. "We''re getting out of here."


    The ship ripped into a hard turn, and Erin was pressed hard into her seat. She gripped her hands on the armrests as Alex pulled the ship around and took a tangent off their previous course. The problem was that until they got a decent distance away, there would be no hiding from visual identification or sensors. She only hoped that Alex had managed to disable the golden ship so it couldn''t give chase.


    "We''re going to go hard for a while," Alex said. "Someone tell me how bad the damage is."


    "Minor hull breach," Mari''s voice chimed over the speakers. "No present danger."


    "That''s good to know, but I don''t want to go for a round two," Alex said as they shot off and away from the ships. "Erin, see if you can find us something to hide in to check for repairs."


    Erin had already started pulling up a map and searching through the options. While there weren''t infinite known islands across the nightsea, there were enough, even out in the Fringes. The problem was that they hadn''t been on their current route toward Grim Aegis. The other option was to find something like a debris field to hide in, but those weren''t plentiful.


    In reality, the nightsea was mostly empty.


    "I''m not seeing a lot of options that would be faster than heading straight for Grim Aegis," Erin said. "How long can we afford to go off course?"


    "The less, the better." Alex sighed, pulling away from the orbs. "Pick the best option you can, and Mari will start us that way."


    Erin looked through the list of options and started ticking them off one by one. She immediately removed any ones that went back toward the Fringes. While Dry Turtle had a repair yard, one of the few places they would be welcomed back, it was back the way they had come, toward the edges of the Erth.


    She focused on the map in a cone in front of the ship. That would keep their forward momentum and allow them to find a decent island for repairs. She started sorting through them, estimating which one would be the shortest path among the known islands.


    She had gotten down to three when the alarm went off again.


    Beep. Beep. Beep.


    "What is it now, Mari?" Alex asked.


    "Island directly ahead."


    Erin blanched, looking at the main screen as the words came over the speakers. That was impossible. There were no known islands in the area, and the ship''s information had been updated in Dry Turtle. There couldn''t be an island anywhere near the ship. It was impossible.


    Erin was just about to say as much when she saw the flickering bright light that took up the entire viewscreen.


    "Slow us down," Alex said as he walked above the bridge and picked up his cup. "Then take us a little away from it so we can get an idea of what we''re looking at."


    The Nighthawk slowed and pulled away from the still flickering island, and Erin opened her video feed from the external cameras. The island would flicker every few seconds, black lines running across its entire surface before it shone bright again. She had never seen anything like it.


    "Alright, breakfast club," Alex said. "Any ideas?"


    "Breakfast club?" Wen asked, raising an eyebrow.


    "You''re both dressed like you''re up for breakfast," Alex said. "I never actually watched the movie."


    "I don''t understand why you keep doing that." Erin shook her head, pulling her shirt further down her legs. "But I''ve never seen anything like this."


    "Me either," Wen said, adjusting her robe. "It''s like the island is a dimming light bulb."


    "It''s not a black spot, right?" Erin asked.


    "Nah," Alex said. "That would just start consuming it from the center out. I''ve never seen anything like this either."


    "What about you, Mari," Erin asked.


    "Insufficient data," Mari''s voice came over the speakers.


    "Well, there you have it," Alex said, taking a sip from his cup. "We don''t know what it is, or why it is here, but it is here, right in front of us, and we need a place to check over the ship."


    The island flickered again and a cold stone dropped in Erin''s stomach. There was no way they should go inside that island. Who knew what was happening inside? They could lose their lives just by entering.


    "Sounds like the start of a grand tale!" Sayed''s voice boomed as he stepped onto the bridge, scratching at his long black beard.


    He was dressed similarly to Erin and Wen, leaving Alex the odd man out when it came to night fashion. A simple shirt and shorts left his muscles bare as he walked barefoot onto the bridge. It almost made up for his comment from earlier. However, Sayed was not alone.


    "A fateful event." Jean entered the bridge, his dark face split with a white smile as he held his bony arms inside his blue robes.


    It was likely because Jean didn''t need to sleep because of his condition—he was a skeletal creature for everything below his neck—but he was just dressed in his normal clothes.


    "What about Artur?" Alex asked.


    "Sayed knocked him out cold." Jean chuckled. "I managed to dodge the punch.


    "You do not sneak up on Sayed in the night like a thief." Sayed frowned, crossing his arms around his broad chest. "I will apologize to him when he wakes."


    "Wen, Erin, what do you think?" Alex asked


    "It seems okay to check out, though we want to make sure we don''t park the ship in an easily visible place while we look at it," Wen said. "Maybe they''ll just pass us over."


    "I''m not sure the island is stable," Erin said, biting her lip. "But at the same time, we won''t know what''s going in there unless we go inside."


    "That''s settles it," Alex said. "Head in Mari."


    Hrrm.


    The engines hummed as the ship pulled back toward the light and entered the island''s dome.