This is the one anomaly in the collection and however many stories I write, it will always be at the end.
  I had first written the story outline back during my teacher training year. I had enjoyed success with The Princess and the Sword, and decided to try my hand at science fiction, but at the time the tale wasn't ready to be written. It wasn't a Treasure story then, but when I went back to it three years later, it had grown and developed, like ideas do when you leave them alone. The basic plot has not changed at all, but the details are embedded well within the Treasures' domain.
  In the story, a space pirate takes refuge within a gas planet during an ambush. There, they find a derelict and an occupied stasis capsule. We join them just as enemy ships have been spotted on the scanners.


  Without a single order being given, every crewmember went to his allotted post. Engineering, weapons, or in Eric's case, returning to the cockpit with Bram. The thick swirling atmosphere meant that their visual range was virtually non-existent, and the sensors were not much better.
  "How close?" Eric asked.
  "Too close. Six, heading straight for us."
  Eric flicked the switches to start up the engines.
  "Prepare to disconnect from the derelict." He stopped abruptly, flicked the engine switches off and on again, then when the indicator lights did not come on, shouted into the intercom.
  "We're in trouble!"
  Bram started to count down the distance from the approaching ships.
  "Five hundred."
  "Heat up those guns!" Eric blasted out orders. "Targeting systems are probably useless. Stick to manual."
  "Four hundred."
  "Trav. Speak to me."
  Silence.
  "Three hundred."
  "Trav!"
  "Captain," Trav's voice was fearfully quiet. "The stasis capsule's empty."
  "What?"
  "Two hundred."
  Eric turned to leave the cockpit, as with the engines non-operational, he would be better employed dealing with Trav. The others didn't need him to tell them what to do. He was only halfway out of his seat when he froze in surprise, confusion and shock.
  Leaning against the doorway to the cockpit was a woman. One hand gripped tightly to the bulkhead as if her thin body did not have the strength to support her. Her pale, gaunt features, framed by short blonde hair, made her look like a ghost. Eric thought she was a ghost, as the last time he had looked on that face, it was within the confines of the stasis capsule.
  What convinced him that she was alive were her eyes. A vivid green, they seemed to stare through the walls of the ship to the gas storms outside.
  "One hundred."
  Things were happening too fast for Eric's mind to make sense of them. Unable to process a cohesive thought, he looked out of the cockpit and waited for the attack ships of the company to appear.
  "Fifty."
  The entire ship held its breath. The fingers of Da and Lin tightened on their triggers; eyes searching the atmospheric swirls for the inevitable darkening shadows. The seconds stretched out in a tense silence, which Eric marked with the beating of his heart.
  They waited.

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