Lorn was having a really bad day. It had started out normally enough - jump in, run radio and spectrographic scans on the highest- probability planet, the usual procedures for a scout checking out a new system. The scans had come back with a good 02/N2 mix, decent hydrographics, and only the usual background noise in RF. There were tags showing chlorophyll based plants - generally a good sign that the ecology was going to be broadly human-compatible. She was checking those results when the targeting alarm went off. Somewhere another ship had lit her up with radar, and the only reason for that would be - there - heat plumes, accelerating fast. Missiles. And more of them than her little scout ship could hope to deal with. She was too close to the planet to jump, and not fast enough to outrun them. She had one chance. Using pure brute force, her little ship killed as much of the orbital velocity as it could, and Lorn set the autopilot on a fast r...
