Chapter 1Never Open the Crate

The knocking started six hours out of Callisto Yard.

Teo Vance turned up the music. In eleven years of hauling freight she had shipped livestock, reactor cores and, once, a senator. None of it had ever knocked.

"PERCH," she said to the ship. "Tell me that's the coolant pump."

"I would love to tell you that," said the ship.