Ambush

 Camille unstrapped and climbed the short gangway to peer over Callie's shoulders. Better prepared this time, Callie reduced forward momentum as she dodged and swooped around the larger pieces of wreckage, maneuvering the ungainly little ship like a graceful butterfly in a field of flowers.  Smaller bits bounced harmlessly off the hull of Sweetness, sounding as though they were passing through a sporadic rain shower.  The tough little freighter didn't even shrug at the ticks and tings.  Camille offered a silent prayerful thought for Natanya and her crew mates as the debris field thinned.  They made out the strobe from Camille's former escape pod blinking in the blackness among the field of stars.

   Without warning, the ship's proximity alarm went off just as a comm broadcast awakened the audio    system of the cockpit.

    "Attention unknown freighter bearing 220, 47, 186, 33.  Begin IMMEDIATE power down of engines or be fired upon!"

   "What the...." Callie shouted turning up scanners and craning her neck around to see anything out of the canopy.  She keyed her comm system to reply. "Who the HELL are you and what's the meaning of ordering me around!?"

   "This is your final warning," the comm system answered.  "Begin power-down of main engines NOW or you WILL be fired upon!"  

   "Callie, that's not a Security team.  That's...," Camille paled.  "Do it!  Do it now!"  

Callie powered down the main engines, maintaining enough retro-thrust to keep stable in relative space.  The scanners finally picked up a signal aft and below Sweetness at an angle where no visual identification could be made.  

   "You're going to tell me that's your pirate friends out there, aren't you?" Callie shot a look back at Camille that would wither steel plate.  The scanner still showed only one ship in proximity.