5.

Like some obscene, overgrown monkey, Toll Seven rode the zero-G worksuit, braking with particles of hydrogen spray as he brought both captives to his ultra stealth pod. The vessel was as black as night and spherical, and only a little larger than an old-style garbage Dumpster of the Twentieth Century. The ceramic hull gave the lowest sensor signature of any vessel in human space, and it was crammed with the latest Onoshi Electronic Counter-Measure equipment and decoys.

He floated them into the cargo bay. The Suspend would keep them in the suits, so he simply latched them to a rack and then went back for the others in the ship.

An hour later, he closed the cargo bay. Except for the slain security officer and the technician he’d let vacuum explode, all of IH-49’s crew lay like wood in his ship. He entered his command module and set course for home. He timed his burst with the first long burn of IH-49’s famed ion engines. The ice hauler would make the trip to the Oort Cloud, but without any crew.

Toll Seven shut off his engine. He would coast for a week. He shut down contemplation mode and instantly entered deep sleep.