They were pirates, but they'd never taken lives. Sure they held individuals for ransom, but they would kill ANYONE that targeted or harm kids. The dread ship turned its sites on a very wealthy-looking vessel, only to realize everyone, even the idiot who owned it, were deathly ill, and towed them to help. -- Anon Guest
The name in fancy script along its side was Diligente. It was made to look expensive and fast, but also contain every possible diversion known to intelligent life. Gold, silver, and gemstones were obvious parts of its general aesthetic. The rarest and prettiest things were obviously inside.
As well as the most valuable hostages.
Since it was "dead in the water," the crew of the pirate vessel Snetchengrab first assumed it must be a trap. They made sure there were no traps of any kind nearby.
When they went inside, full livesuits equipped, they found out why a luxury cruise yacht was just drifting stellar distances away from normal shipping lanes.
It was almost a ghost ship.
Almost.
The wealthy ruling class of Greater Deregulation Median South-Southwest had fled a pandemic on their original planet. The idea was to cruise their way through the hazard time and avoid the nastiness happening to the proles. It was, ideally, one enormous party until the mess was over and done with.
Like most wealthy ruling sorts, they forgot that "the help" were also proles and disease doesn't care about most kinds of border.
In this case, it was one suitcase. Packed by a maid, planetside, who had the virus and left it on some important self-care tools.
The maid was left planetside.
The luggage, and its insidious pathogenic passenger, went straight to the CEO's Wife's Wardrobe. From there, it got into the air system.
The Diligente never had a chance.
They were fortunate that these pirates had morals. They were unfortunate that the CRC had already heard of what was happening and issued arrest warrants for the very people in that luxury cruising yacht.
Everyone would prefer that these people survived to stand trial.
The ordinary modus operandi of the Snetchengrab was to take expensive hostages and hold them ransom. In the light of the bounty from the CRC, it made more sense to take them in for the reward.
That, and it tickled their schadenfreude.
[Image by Ralph (Ravi) Kayden on Unsplash]
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