A Brother's Debt by Karl Jones Page B

blood the man’s body had once contained. It explained why his screams had cut off so quickly. He doubted it would have taken long for the blood to drain from his body given his injuries.
    “I didn’t think of the safety controls,” Jay said once Step straightened up following his vain search for a pulse. “Sorry, I should have realised something like this was a possibility. I should have disabled the safety protocols and made sure this didn’t happen, though saying that I’m not entirely certain how to right now.”
    Step shook his head, his eyes still on the body at his feet. “I didn’t think of it either. Why would it occur to either of us, we’re both new to this ship, I’ve only been flying it for a bit over a week, we’ve no idea what features it has, or even what works and what doesn’t.
    “Dammit!” He swore. “Now Dollier’s going to have even more reason to come after me.”
    “What do we do now?” Jay wanted to know, like his friend he couldn’t take his eyes off the body in the tunnel. He had seen plenty of gruesome injuries resulting from engineering accidents during his time in the navy, but it was another thing entirely to see one that was the result of something he had done.
    “We finish what we started.” Step tore his eyes from the body and carefully stepped out of the tunnel. “We don’t have any other choice.” From beneath the stairs leading up to the main deck he retrieved his spacesuit, the one that had previously belonged to his brother. It wasn’t a perfect fit, since they hadn’t been identical, but it was close enough that he could use it without too many problems, at least until he was able to get one that fitted him properly.
    Step pulled the spacesuit on as quickly as he could, not sure how long they had before the pilot decided to check in with his companions. “I’ll be back shortly to help you with these guys.” Securing the helmet he bent to pick up one of the dropped laser pistols, with it in hand he returned to the tunnel and, once he was sure Jay was out of the way, closed the door.
    Making his way through the short tunnel he was relieved to discover the door on the smaller ship wasn’t secured. It opened at the touch of a button and he entered the airlock. Once the airlock had cycled and he was inside the ship Step made his way forward to the bridge. There wasn’t much to the ship so he didn’t have to worry about getting lost, the companionway led straight to where he wanted to go.
    “That was quick, after what happened this afternoon I expected it to take longer for you to convince him to give up the package.” The man in the pilot’s chair spoke before he turned, and when he did he found himself looking into the muzzle of the laser pistol in Step’s hand.
    “I guess you’re right, because I haven’t given it up yet,” Step said before striking the man on the side of the head with the butt of the pistol. The pilot slumped and slid off the chair, hitting his head on the console next to him as he fell to the floor.
    Step had just begun the struggle to get the gloves of his suit off so he could check the man was still alive when he saw his chest rise and fall. Relieved, he left the gloves on and made his way back to Gambler’s Luck, where he assisted Jay in bringing over the two unconscious thugs and their dead companion.
    Once that job was complete Jay crossed back to Step’s ship, leaving Step alone on Dollier’s, where he returned to the bridge. It took a bit of searching among the unfamiliar controls for Step to find the right one, and when he did he disconnected the docking tunnel that locked the two ships together. After that he entered a course for the far side of the solar system into the nav computer and activated the autopilot.
    The engines started after a moment and he left the bridge, reaching the airlock as the autopilot turned the ship to start off on its programmed course.
    Once the airlock had cycled, and the outer door had