<em>Priate Vessel?</em>Katie was only half paying attention, half gazing out at the stars, and it took her a few seconds to figure out what Sue meant.<em>Priate.  Oh fuck!  Pirates!</em><br/><br/>She didn't pipe up, just watched Sue and the Captain very carefully from the engineering chair, and tried to remember if Rolsing had mentioned anything about the Jonquil having weapons.  Pirates were an ever present hazard to a spacer, but this was the first time any had ever taken an interest in her, and she wasn't sure how big a deal it was to have one of them sniffing around at fifty thousand klicks.