Zero waited, trying to be quiet, trying to hear what the new arrivals were doing or saying. He couldn’t hear anything.
I just have to wait for Sancho, he thought. Sancho can solve—
But then he froze. He knew Sancho couldn’t do anything. He was only a navigational computer. He could probably listen in on the intruders, but he couldn’t tell who they were or do anything to stop them.
Zero would have to do this himself.
He crept toward the center column, but stopped. Even with the struts, he’d be easy to see in that wide center space, and he still didn’t know if he wanted these people to see him. Who were they? Why were they here? Had they really hacked into Sancho, trying to hide their ship from his sensors? Why would they do that unless they were up to something bad?
He couldn’t risk the central column until he knew what they wanted. He crept back down the hallway to the aisle of stasis pods, and floated over to the narrow tube along the edge. These tubes connected the Rings, but they were much smaller and hard to see through. It was a much safer way for him to travel. He moved through them cautiously but quickly, trying to get close enough to hear the intruders.
He got to Ring 240 just as they opened the inner door of the airlock. He heard a hiss of air, and the soft swish of a motor as the metal slid open.
“Yessssss,” said a woman’s voice. “I told you I’d make it work.”
“I still say I could have broken it open twice as fast,” said a man.
“That’s why I didn’t let you open it,” said a different woman. She sounded older than the first, and far more gruff. “What are we supposed to do with a spaceship with a broken door, huh? Genius.” Zero heard a slap.
“Sorry, Mama,” said the man. He sounded sad, but that turned back into angry excitement again almost immediately. “Now let’s get in there and see what we got!”
“We don’t got anything yet, Kratt,” said Mama. “We need to get to the control room first.”
“You should have let me bring a gun. What if there’s guards?” said the man.
“There are no guards on a colony ship,” said the younger woman. “Everyone’s asleep, Kratt. Use your head.”
“See?” said Mama. “Spider knows what’s what. And I bet she also knows that bullets in a spaceship are the dumbest idea you’ve had yet, you idiot. They’ve got to go somewhere, don’t they? What if they go through the hull and let the air out? Genius.” Zero heard another slap. “No guns!”
“Sorry, Mama.” Kratt sounded sad again.
“That’s okay,” said Mama. “You’re not here for your brains anyway. That’s why we have Spider. You ready, girl?”
“Let me at it,” said the younger woman. Spider, apparently. “I can crack that computer system in ten seconds flat.”
“I don’t want you to do it fast,” said Mama, “I want you to do it right. Now where’s your father?”
“Here,” said another male voice, and Zero had to clamp his hands over his mouth to stop from gasping. He knew that voice!
Their father was Jim, the missing pilot!
“Take Spider up to the control room, Jimbo,” said Mama. “Show her the mainframe and get her started.”
Suddenly Sancho’s voice appeared in the conversation: “Get started with what?”
Zero heard a chorus of yelps, and a loud clang.
“Where is he!” shouted Kratt, and Zero heard another clang. “I’ll punch his face in!”
Zero crouched lower in his hiding place.
“I am everywhere,” said Sancho.
“See?” said Kratt. “This is why I need my gun!”
“That’s the AI,” said Spider. “What are you going to punch, the whole ship?”
“Yes,” said Kratt, and Zero heard another clang.
“Hey there, Sancho,” said Jim. “How’ve you been?”
“Jim, you have violated several mission parameters,” said Sancho. “You left the ship, which is forbidden for a United Fleet pilot, and now you have brought back non-mission personnel, which is also against the rules. I have also found signs that my programming has been tampered with, which I assume is your work.”
“Not a chance,” said Spider. “That was all me, baby.”
“My scan of the thermal regulation system suggests that there are five of you,” said Sancho. “You are not supposed to be here.”
Zero counted in his head. He had only heard four voices—and four names to go with them. Mama, Spider, Kratt, Jim, and … who was the fifth?
“Please return to your ship and leave immediately,” said Sancho.
“Is he gonna be like this the whole time?” asked Mama.
“Right until I turn him off, yeah,” said Spider.
Zero almost shouted, but stopped himself just in time. They were trying to turn off Sancho? But why? And why did they talk as if the Pathfinder were theirs now?
Were they trying to steal the entire ship?
“I strongly urge you not to turn me off,” said Sancho. “I am the navigational computer: without me, the Pathfinder cannot complete its mission and travel to the Murasaki System.”
Mama laughed. “Don’t you worry about that, sweetie; we’re not going to the Murasaki System. Jimbo, Spider: let’s get this done.”
“Follow me,” said Jim, and Zero ducked back between two stasis pods as a small group of people moved up the hall, right past the end of the aisle where he was hiding. Jim led the pack, followed by a snarling man with a crowbar, and a woman with a cloud of jet-black hair that swirled around her head like tentacles. They headed for the fore of the ship, and Zero couldn’t decide what to do—they were pirates! They were going to turn off Sancho and steal the ship! He had to stop them, but … how?
The one called Mama hadn’t left the airlock yet, and she shouted now at the mysterious fifth person on the pirate ship: “Nyx! Are you coming or not?”
Zero was surprised at the voice that responded: it was a girl. “I’m coming, Big Mama. I had to grab something.”
“A gun, girl? You heard what I told Kratt.”
“It’s a stun gun,” said Nyx. “I’m not an idiot.”
“That’s you and me both,” said Mama. “Sometimes I think we’re the only ones, though.”
“You’re sure there’s no guards?” asked Nyx.
“Jimbo was on this ship just three days ago,” said Mama. “All twenty thousand of them are asleep. Want to come and look at the cargo bays? See what we’ve got?”
“Sure,” said the girl eagerly. Zero ducked back again as Mama and Nyx passed by the edge of the aisle. Mama was heavyset and solid, though obviously in space that didn’t mean anything. Nyx, the girl, had bright pink hair and a black jacket, and looked about Zero’s age—maybe eleven or twelve?
But it didn’t matter how old they were. He had to stop them. They were trying to steal his ship—his family and twenty thousand others—and they outnumbered him five to one. But they didn’t know he was awake. They thought the ship was empty, ripe for the taking.
They were wrong.