"Woo-hoo! We shook them off!"
Kolev shouted excitedly, turning his head to look at the empty Star Domain behind them, his face brimming with pride.
Those dozen or so drones started to circle and dance like headless flies.
Yang Ming also breathed a sigh of relief.
The sense of crisis that came with space travel could not be overcome by mere physical strength; just now, those dozen drones had activated their targeting systems and fired a volley of laser cannons at them.
Their maintenance ship didn't have any energy shields, so dodging that barrage was all down to Yang Ming's somewhat erratic piloting.
Microgravity, playing around, imagination is the limit in the boundless sky.
Kolev took over the square steering handle, and the ship sped towards the predetermined coordinates.
"Relax, Hanton, First Officer! We've made it through the rough patch. In a few more minutes, you'll see my beautiful, adorable daughter! Oh, but don't you get any ideas about her—this old man won't go easy on you."
The more Kolev spoke, the less confident he sounded.
The image of this guy here getting a wet kiss and then knocking the girl unconscious kept replaying in Kolev's mind.
Kolev turned his head and looked at Yang Ming warily: "You won't seduce her, will you? I need a straight answer."
"Of course not," Yang Ming spread his hands wide, "I'm a respectable man, I swear on the honor of the Empire."
Kolev nodded, then felt something was not quite right.
Yang Ming wasn't really interested in romantic affairs at the moment.
Survival was the primary need.
Kolev gave Yang Ming a few more suspicious glances: "I'll take your word for it, my dear First Officer. With your physique and those shifty eyes, you're bound to be a hit with the ladies, but believe me, being a pirate isn't synonymous with promiscuity. I'm rather conservative when it comes to my daughter's upbringing."
Yang Ming shrugged: "I promise not to look at her too much, First Officer Kolev. We're partners, she's like my niece, and I'd have to be less than human to lay a hand on my own niece."
"Oh, forgive me," Kolev laughed, "It's just a father's concern. Although I know she'll need to find a partner someday, I just can't bear to let her go. She has the disposition to rely on the strong."
"Kolev, how long have you been at Cole Port Prison?"
"Four years, about," Kolev shook his head, "Although I was sort of detained on purpose. It's complicated. There was chaos at the time, and the Peace Guard showed up suddenly while we were purchasing some equipment..."
Kolev stopped talking, a thoughtful look in his eyes.
Yang Ming didn't push any further.
A faint light appeared in the space ahead.
They were like sailing on a sea that lacked substance, and that dim light was the beacon guiding their way.
"Look at that!"
Kolev laughed: "The youngsters have noticed us. Let's wait and see if they can get in touch. It's also a test, you know. When we're going to rob a merchant ship, the first thing we do is hack into their systems."
Yang Ming could see the unconcealed pride and satisfaction on the old man's face.
So, they waited two minutes as the small maintenance ship moved closer to the blinking lights.
"Oh," Kolev's face darkened, "What's so hard about it? I've modified every ship myself—just have to press a few buttons, in order, press a few buttons! Damn! They're dragging their feet!"
Szzzz—
A faint electromagnetic interference noise came from the ship's control panel.
"Um, ahem," a sweet female voice suddenly came through, "This is a New Federation investigation ship. We will conduct a security inspection of your vessel."
"Give me a break!" Kolev cursed, "You're mighty efficient with your actions!"
"Dad?"
The sweet voice was filled with surprise: "Dad! Is that really you? Put down the Main Cannon, stop it! Don't target my dad! Dad, you actually really escaped!"
Noise from the other side included a mix of male and female voices, all rather mixed and seemingly not very young.
"Oh! It's Captain Kolev!"
"I knew it! He would come back! No peaceful prison could hold him!"
"Hahaha! I can finally have a drink in peace tonight!"
Yang Ming muttered: "Kolev, can I ask you something?"
"Of course."
"How old is your daughter now?"
"She's twenty, or twenty-one by the universal Galactic age system."
"So, that means when you were caught, er, willingly went to prison, your daughter was sixteen or seventeen?" Yang Ming looked somewhat shocked.
"Yes," Kolev laughed, "I know what you're worried about, but rest assured, my daughter is a true pirate. No one is more professional than her, no one!"
The radio brought his daughter's somewhat hesitant voice:
"Dad, I may not be as outstanding as you think, I... Who was just speaking?"
Kolev: "My First Officer."
Yang Ming: "His captain."
Kolev chuckled, "This is my new partner, we haven't decided yet who will lead the other. But rest assured, my daughter. Since I've already given you the Black Dragon Pirate Group, I won't undermine your authority. I will become your most reliable consultant and will recruit new crew members in an unfamiliar Star Domain."
"Dad, let's talk when you're back," his daughter's voice sounded somewhat guilty, "I need to report some things to you, continue forward, I'll open the tail hatch for you."
Kolev exchanged a glance with Yang Ming, both men smiling at the same time.
Kolev's daughter indeed had a sweet voice.
But he wasn't a simpleton like Hanton, how could Yang Ming let something as trivial as carnal matters affect his relationship with Kolev?
Yang Ming tapped the small microphone on the screen in front of him to make it adhere to a red circle, so that Kolev's daughter couldn't hear their conversation temporarily.
"Uh, Kolev, could you get the genetic stabilization drug?" Yang Ming asked.
Kolev laughed with a tsk, "Of course, in a pirate group there are always one or two warriors who use genetic modification to enhance themselves, or fit themselves with mechanical prosthetics to increase their combat effectiveness.
"One of my old friends turned himself into a mechanical octopus, with eight mechanical arms extending from his back, directly connected to his central nervous system. He can easily overpower strong corporate guards, such warriors are usually the aces of a pirate group... You're my ace too, First Mate Hanton, so don't worry about these little things."
"Kolev, my career plan is to be your captain."
Yang Ming corrected him, then added:
"I need to change the gene stabilization drug sooner, this bottle has a tracking device."
"Don't worry too much about that," Kolev said, "Nano-level tracking devices are of two types, active signal emission and passive reception, both have range limitations, the universe is boundless, after we make the jump, no one will find you."
"You're very learned, Kolev."
"Just the basic literacy of a pirate."
"What did you do before becoming a pirate?" Yang Ming leaned back in his chair to rest with his eyes closed, casually asking.
Kolev sighed, "A high-class locksmith."
"Then why did you become a pirate?"
"One should pay attention to the atmosphere when inquiring about someone's story, Hanton," Kolev gazed ahead at the starry sea, his murky old eyes filled with memories, "If given the choice, who would want to be a wanted criminal..."
Yang Ming watched the approaching pirate ship.
It looked somewhat old and was covered in scars, like a wind-sailing ship from the last century suddenly seen during the era of steel battleships.
The hundred-meter-long hull, the rudely stacked weaponry, all indicating its mediocre fighting capability.
In about one or two minutes, they would complete docking.
Kolev controlled the maintenance boat to continue decelerating, slowly narrating:
"When I was young, I too had the grandiose ideal of contributing a glimmer to my civilization, but ideals are just ideals. Greed, addiction, promiscuity, people around me were pursuing lowly pleasures, stripping away the pretenses of civilization to reveal their beastly nature, my first wife betrayed me like that..."
"Kolev!"
Yang Ming's expression suddenly tensed up, his gaze fixed on the starboard side.
Kolev: "That day when I returned home, I came back early specifically to celebrate our first wedding anniversary, and I heard noises from the kitchen, those bestial grunts that I can never forget. Oh, I gave her everything I could, my wages, my credit, my circle of friends..."
"Kolev, you have to come here and see!"
Yang Ming's voice was even more urgent.
But Kolev was trapped in his painful memories, unable to extricate himself.
"Do you know what I saw? Oh, those two women, my first wife and my neighbor, clinging together like wild dogs. My wife betrayed me like that. I never thought that my first encounter with someone high on drugs would be with my unclothed wife and neighbor. At that moment, my naïve world collapsed, do you understand Hanton, at that time I... Oh, what's this?"
Yang Ming raised his hand to his forehead.
Outside the right hull window, faint ripples appeared in space as if the void was brewing a visible tsunami.
This was not a normal physical phenomenon.
"Jump traces! Those are short-range directional jump ripples!" Kolev shouted out.
No sooner had he spoken than the layers of ripples suddenly vanished, and a two-hundred-meter long silver-white battleship appeared silently in space. The subspace film wrapped around its sleek hull rapidly dissipated, and an exaggeratedly large high-energy ray Main Cannon aimed straight at the nearby pirate ship.
"It's a military ship! That's a Firepower Ship of the Guel Alliance!"
Kolev's face turned instantly pale.
"Damn it, how can there be a military ship here? We can't outrun its Main Cannon range, oh! Heaven! You guys get away from there!"
"Dad! Hurry up with your movements!" His daughter's voice came in panic, "To think there's a military ambush here!"
"Calm down, Kolev, there's a high chance I'm the one who brought this upon you."
Yang Ming pulled the square rudder over, his hands gripping tightly.
"But Kolev, since I've made it out, I refuse to fall into their hands. I don't want to be locked in those transparent containers, immersed in unidentified nutrient fluids, spending the rest of my life with my own excrement.
"We must escape! And we will escape!"
"This is insane Hanton," Kolev said in a low voice, "We can't confront a regular army's ship, even if it's just a two-hundred-meter class guard ship, that's not..."
The old man's words stopped, he adjusted his breathing several times, turned his head to look at the cannon which seemed as though it had reached their necks, and the pirate ship that was locked in the military ship's Main Cannon.
"I'm old," Kolev said, "but I haven't lost the courage to challenge the strong. From now on, I'll follow your lead, Temporary Captain Hanton."
"Alright, Temporary First Mate Kolev! Accelerate!"