Outside the Sovereign Aurora, the thirty disarmed poacher cruisers spun slowly like tops on their magnetic tether cables, their severed engine mounts dark and silent.
Down in Cargo Deck Three, Tie Niu tossed the captured poacher surgeon, Dr. Vivisect, onto an iron inspection bench in neon-yellow debtor cuffs, while Young Master Huan’s muffled, panicked screaming echoed faintly over the muted brig intercom from the powerless Blood-Gourmet moored outside.
Lin Mo didn’t even glance at the intercom. He reached out with his left thumb and switched Huan’s channel to mute.
“Noisy,” Lin Mo said, slipping his hand back into his pocket. “Tie Niu, keep Huan’s ship locked on the outer tether where it’s nice and chilly. Right now, the patients outside come first.”
Lin Mo turned toward Dr. Gu Qinghe. Through the reinforced observation glass, the silver calf let out another muffled, whistling cry. The three barbed harpoons stuck in its left flank wept dark, oily poison into the green nebula dust. Beside the calf, the mother whale drifted sideways, her massive dorsal fin shuddering under the weight of forty deep harpoon wounds.
“Dr. Gu, what is the surgical plan?” Lin Mo asked.
Dr. Gu adjusted his silver-rimmed spectacles, his fingers flying across his medical tablet.
