The odds?
The first three times had been easy. Much easier than the SpaceJump even.
Really rich guys had asked for entertainment, so the Sunchaser had gone and given them that.
And while they had been staring at the amazing show of the acrobats, all their ships, which they had been fools enough to bring and leave too close to the wonderful circus-heart, had been visited. No harm done, no injuries, only a few friendly guests jumping through the gap of space between ships...to leave a little bit later with a few lovely souvenirs.
But all of them knew this wouldn't be the case with the new one.
The Sancthyemon wasn't just a rich nobody's luxurious ship to do tasteless show off.
It was closer to a moving space base. With really good weaponry.
They had to pay a horrendous amount of credits only for the knowledge that the ship had weaponry. And they were really lucky their Orion hacker had found out in time that the blueprints -absolutely illogically expensive too- were fake. All of them.
They had almost nothing to do this action safely.
Yet, they all knew: they would do it.
Jim hadn't been part of the team when it all had happened. But he had been long enough among them to hear the story. The original owner of the Sunchaser. Who's idea was now their very existence. The brilliant and brave man who had wanted to do something good in the world, without letting pitiful rules stop him.
Jim knew he must had been dangerous with not just dreaming about such a life, but making it real.
But he saw how the Sunchaser kept on going after it's soul had been ripped out...and it was still about the original plan. Not ruined. Not corrupted.
He could only bow his head and follow.
So the Sunchaser's most hated enemy was the next target. The one who had killed the original captain.
They wouldn't stop.
Time arrived for payback.