Tie Niu reached into the heavy canvas sacks with a wide grin.
He pulled out seven bundles of bright, eye-searing neon-yellow fabric.
The cloth was treated with high-grade fluorescent phosphor extracted from waste nebulae. It glowed with enough blinding intensity to guide a blind freighter through a dense asteroid belt.
Printed across the back of each vest in thick, reflective black ink were eight bold characters:
[TAICHU GALACTIC VOLUNTEER DEBTOR — CURRENT GOODNESS: -98/100]
Beside Tie Niu, Captain Tie Kuang signaled his armored security squad.
Two dozen burly enforcers stepped forward, dragging the remaining six ancestors out of the rubble piles of Vault #1.
Jin Suanpan was clutching his bare, beard-less chin, his gold-plated abacus broken into kindling around his boots.
