Captain Amos sunk in his chair. “Notify Orbital Command…one hostile on perigee track for planetary escape.”

“Shuttle markings suggest a non-USNE vehicle, sir.”

“Seems so, scan through pirate databa-”

He was interrupted by a feed from the PONY UseWeb. The full kidnap video played for the whole room, eyes widened and breath held.

“Holy shit!” Amos stood up. The video lead all to believe a hyper-military breakaway of the Synod called The Archons had perpetrated the crime. They described their mission to hold Shwartz until The Corporation unlocks their secret weapons program known only as The Reckoning and makes files available to them via secure channel download. Compliance within 48 hours or Shwartz would die.

The end of the crude video showed a still of Shwartz himself immobilized and looking drugged. A countdown timer started in stark white digits and faded to black.

“They have seen the ransom video, sir. Now what?”

Shwartz ordered, “Head for FTL Jumpgate B-4, I doubt anyone will stop you.”