Wrathtown was small so the Wanderer was able to leave jump space close enough to open communications. The first thing Jess noticed were the defences. He’d expected the weapon platforms, the Wanderer had detected them from jump space, but he hadn’t anticipated how many turrets would be in place across the station itself. So many that he wondered how they could possibly all be fired without shaking the station apart.
“Nasty,” said Clay. “I wouldn’t want to be approaching in anything other than the Wanderer, or maybe a full on battleship!”
“We’re being contacted and asked for a validation code,” replied Jess.
“Validation code? When have pirates ever used something like that. That’s almost… can you send me the message?”
“Sure. Here you go. I haven’t replied yet. They’ve sent a sec
