Pirates In Space

The warmth of the roasted potatoes was still settling comfortably in Leo's stomach, but the sudden stiffness in Jin-Ah's shoulders pulled the last of the relaxation right off the dais.

He sat back against the headrest with his forearms along the armrests and his dark eyes on the young woman at the top of the short stairs.

Her geometric bob hung in sharp clean lines against her jaw, and she held herself as taut as a drawn bow, clutching her slate against her ribs as if it were an unexploded shell.

"Put it up on the tactical well, Jin-Ah," he said, calm and patient. "Let's see what you found."

She stepped to the edge of the central hololith and swept her fingertip across the slate.

BEEP-CHIME!

The circular projector in the middle of the deck woke with a deep magnetic hum and threw a column of soft sapphire light into the air between the throne and the forward viewports.

The wireframes resolved into a sprawling three-dimensional star chart.