Ficlet: Decisions

[vilakins]

This week's b7friday challenge is 'Prior Knowledge'. This time I wrote something a bit longer: 400 words.


Decisions

Tarrant strode into the landing bay, "Just putting her through her paces," he said to the guards, who stepped aside respectfully. Once in the cockpit, he allowed a grin of pure pleasure to cross his face as he powered her up--the new Mark 10, the fastest and most powerful pursuit ship in the fleet.

He circled the space station, waggling his wings insouciantly at Flight Control, then put her into time-distort and headed for the coordinates he had been given. Bit of luck, meeting that chap in that bar. A spot of piracy in a ship with legs as long as this seemed rather more lucrative than staying on in Space Fleet--and almost certainly a lot more fun.

***
And so it proved to be. His employer could be regarded as a trifle unstable, but he had a strong sense of adventure untempered by caution that appealed to Tarrant. This was the life.

He was approaching the latest victim, plasma cannon primed. He would surgically to take out their drive, then blast enough holes in their hull to ensure that most of the ship was evacuated--literally--when they boarded it.

"Your target should be coming up on your screen now."

Tarrant stared at the forward display. "You must be joking. That's a passenger liner."

"That's right. It also carries gold. I have a deal with a fat fool called Ke--"

"I don't give a damn who you have a deal with. I'm not killing innocent people."

"Don't be more stupid than you seem to be."

"Oh, I won't In fact, I've decided to keep this ship and I don't think there's much you can do about it." Tarrant bared his teeth in a savage grin. "And I wouldn't try either. I'm on the fastest and most powerful ship in Federated space." Well, there was the Liberator, but he doubted he'd ever come across that.

***
Kerril and Sherm moved smartly aside as a plate and a half-eaten steak hit the wall between them.

"That jumped-up Space Fleet nancy-boy!" Bayban shouted. "I'll get him for this. I'll cheat him out of something valuable one day if it's the last thing I do!"

Kerril looked down at the smashed plate, then up at Bayban, then turned and left. Banks and the idle rich were legitimate targets, but this was going too far. The first chance she got, she was gone

---

Based on:

Harvest of Kairos

TARRANT:	The new Mark Tens.
VILA:	You know about them?
TARRANT:	Oh, yes.

City at the Edge of the World

TARRANT:	Bayban's as bad as you can find.
AVON:	I've heard of him.
TARRANT:	I've met him. He's the type that gives crime a bad name.