'Let's get off this stupid planet,' said Tila.

Jayce drove. Ellie knelt on the seat next to him facing backward. In the back seat, Malachi gave her a smile and a thumbs up. Beside Malachi sat Tila. She banged her fist against the door of the cruiser like a drum roll.

'That's the best idea you've had today,' said Malachi. 'Ow,' he added as Jayce took a corner a little too fast.

'Sorry.'

'Are you okay?' Ellie's brow furrowed in fear and concern for Malachi. Malachi had seen this expression before and thought it was amusing. Jayce thought it was adorable.

Malachi nodded. 'I'll be fine, Ellie. It's just bruises.'

'Do you have anything to help, Jayce?' said Ellie.

Jayce thumbed behind him without looking. 'There's a first aid kit in a door panel back there.'

Malachi winced as he twisted in his seat to look. Tila tore open the compartment door on her side, grateful for something to inflict her anger on.

'Got it.' She slammed the door shut again. Now it was Jayce's turn to wince.

'Easy on the car, Tila.'

'Oh, I'm sorry, Jayce! Am I damaging your special cruiser? Is there a tiny scratch on it now? Was your friend just attacked? Were people shooting at you? Did—'

'Tila!' snapped Ellie. 'They were shooting at him too. Everyone was in danger.'

Tila glared at her but Ellie was right. Tila wanted her anger to have one thing to rail against, one sharp focus, but Ellie was diluting it with the truth, dulling the point.

'Everyone else wasn't in danger like this.' Tila jabbed a finger at Malachi and accidentally poked him in the ribs.

'Ow!'

'Give me that.' Ellie snatched the first aid kit from Tila and rummaged through it, looking for something to ease Malachi's pain. She found some pills which Malachi gratefully and quickly accepted and dry swallowed.

Tila gnawed on a knuckle and watched the dark city fall away behind them. Through the clear roof of the cruiser she watched the black sky to her right gradually lighten until it became a pale line of gold and blue to her left. To the east.

'Jayce, where are we going? We landed north of the city.'

'Oh. Umm, about that...'

'What about that?'

'Well, I've kinda got some good news and some bad news.'

'Now is really not the time for bad news, Jayce.'

'What's the good news?' said Malachi.

'I think I can lend you some new ships.'

'You think? What's the bad news?' said Tila.

'Wait, why do we need new ships!?' interrupted Malachi.

'Your, uh, ship was kinda impounded.'

Malachi almost leapt out of his seat. 'What!? Ow!'

'It's not my fault! I found out when we were on our way to rescue you. It's been taken to the spaceport. I guess no one thought to look for people on foot. The authorities were checking for vehicles, not pedestrians. Your low-tech solution partly worked.'

'Who has it?' said Tila.

'None of the major corporations, if that's what you're thinking. This is only routine work.'

'Routine?'

'Think about it, an unregistered ship lands outside the city limits with no ID? You know they're going to investigate.'

'Was someone tracking us, Jayce?'

'Well, yeah. Wait, did you think you could land here and no one would notice? Like, you could fly your ship down to this planet and land anywhere you liked? Wow. And you think I'm an idiot?'

Tila stared at the back of his head. 'Uh huh.' Then after a pause, 'So what's the good news again?'

'I have some new ships for you. Well, sorta new.'

Tila thought Jayce sounded overly cheerful and a little too pleased with himself. 'Ships? As in more than one?'

'One each. You'll like them, trust me. As soon as I found out about your shuttle I had these moved from storage to our private hangar.'

'We're getting our own ships?' said Ellie.

'Jayce! I need my ship back!' said Malachi.

'What if we can't fly them?' said Tila.

'You must be able to fly a ship,' said Jayce. 'You live on a city in space, how do you get around?'

'I walk. And obviously I can fly, but not like Ellie.'

'What about the Rhino? My dad is going to kill me,' said Malachi. He closed his eyes and tried not to imagine the worst.

'I'm sorry, Malachi, but you need to get out of here. Better you go back home without a ship than you don't go back at all, right?'

'Maybe we can sell the new ships?' Tila suggested.

'Or, you know, you can bring them back as soon as it's safe here. No one needs to know they are gone, okay.'

'Are you telling me they are not your ships?'

'Not my, you know, personal ships. Not exactly.'

Tila gave up and threw her hands in the air. 'So not only are we fugitives, now we're fugitives in stolen ships? That's just great.'

'They're not stolen if I don't report them, so no one's going to miss them. Besides, do you really think you're going to get in worse trouble than you are now?'

Tila and Malachi looked at each other. It was a way out but not the one they would have chosen.

Ellie thought for a moment as the road flashed by. Eventually, she found the question she needed to ask.

'Are they fast?' she said.

Jayce only grinned.