Title
Fandom: Diablotin
Rating: G
Words: 2196
Author Notes: This also fills my Space AU square on my Trope Bingo card \o/! This prompt was perfect for what I was planning, and got me off my butt to get it done quickly! Thanks to curtana for looking it over for me :)

The Jewellery Heist

Tonight's patrol had been pretty quiet, for a dogwatch out in the Pearl belt – or the Pearl necklace, as the locals liked to call it. The asteroid belt defined the inner boundary of Empire controlled space, and while it wasn't as bad as the Shambles, the outer boundary, it was still a frontier of sorts and came with all the trouble that entailed. So far there hadn't been much to do other than stop in rockside to check out a tip they'd had that one of the Waypoints was running bootlegged liquor from out of sector. It had turned out to be true, in so much that someone's uncle had managed to bring home a case of Cozovodë wines without paying the full duty and the house was selling it off by the bottle. Technically illegal, but hardly a threat to Averyrone's economic security. They'd let the Waypoint's owner off with a small fine and a lengthy lecture from Belden. Boden, on the other hand, was still griping over the private channel that she hadn't even let him accept a bottle of non-contraband liquor.

"I wasn't going to drink it on duty or anything. I don't know why we can't take things if people want to give them. We didn't ask or anything..."

Kalman sighed. "I can buy you a bottle when we're off duty, if you're that put out."

"Nah, it just seems rude, you know?"

"It's complicated." Kalman didn't want to get into it, not again. Both sides in the 'should we accept gifts' debate had valid points, but it was all academic to him. He didn't need anything the people out on Pearl might have to give, and felt bad about taking what little they had no matter how honestly given. Belden felt the same way, apparently. The problem was she seemed to think that everyone should...

A well timed alert-tone cut off the discussion before they could really get into it. Loch's voice chimed in almost immediately.

"Distress call – sounds like someone was taking their pleasure craft into the wrong part of the belt and got waylaid by pirates."

"They'll probably be gone by the time we get there," Falk answered cynically, but he reset his ship's nav unit just as quick as everyone else. They might still be in time to do some good.

Nothing in the Pearl belt was ever that far away, and they arrived at the scene quickly. Boden and Loch were already taking readings – there might be fuel traces that the more sophisticated forensic sensors on their ships could trace. That meant the talking was going to be left to him and Belden, for the most part, while Falke made a quick perimeter check to see if he could catch them still in the area.

Kalman opened a channel, reading the basic information his own computers were providing about the vessel before him. "This is Kalman vak Andras of the Imperial Spaceguard hailing personal cruiser Viper. We received your distress call a few minutes ago – please respond and advise as to your current status."

"Oh, thank the Six!" A woman's voice responded almost immediately, and her picture flickered into focus on his screen a few seconds later. "This is the Viper, pilot Noira Langevin. They just took off a few minutes ago – I think they may have seen you coming. You might be able to catch them still."

"I am seeing traces here," Boden agreed over the private channel. "I'll take Falke and Pavo and see if we can't chase them down."

"I'm coming too," Loch put in, and the three peeled off, signalling to Falke as they did.

"Acknowledged, Viper," Kalman replied. "We're sending four units after them now."

"This is officer Belden, also with the Spaceguard. Can you tell us what exactly happened, please?"

Kalman split his viewscreen so that he could watch both Belden and Langevin. He definitely wanted to know more about the situation – what was she doing out here on her own, for one thing?

Langevin looked perturbed, and he wasn't convinced it was only at being attacked by pirates. "I was flying back home actually – I wouldn't usually come this way, but I had been visiting a friend, and they told me this was a short cut and that it was worth it to see the lights out this way... The pirates just came out of nowhere. They forced their way through the shields and boarded, but they ran off when they saw you coming, I guess."

One of the other reasons the Pearl belt was so named was that there was a fine haze of gas and dust particles that had gotten pulled into the gravity of the asteroids, and something about the composition meant that when the sun hit just right, it took on a pearly, opalescent, quality. It was one of the perks of their patrol route that they got to see it a fair amount, but it wouldn't be visible in this area for another few hours.

"Did they take anything?" Belden asked. She sounded sympathetic, but Kalman had worked with her long enough to tell that she wasn't taking this at face value either

"Some personal effects – some things I'd packed for my trip. Most of it wasn't very valuable..." she hesitated. Kalman pressed.

"Most of it?"

"I has some jewellery with me. Some of it was antique. I'm supposed to be going to a party..."

"With your friend?"

"It's at his estate, yes."

Kalman wondered what was going on here – had this friend set her up to get robbed? Or was it all just bad luck? He was about to ask her another question, when he heard the chime that he has another transmission coming over the squad's channel. "Excuse us a moment please, Ms. Langevin."

He cut the connection, glancing at his camera. Belden shook her head, and he guessed she must be wondering the same thing.

The other line was Pavo, looking somewhat disgruntled. "Boden caught up," he said plainly, as though it explained everything. It kind of did, to be fair – Boden could be pretty relentless, and he'd had Butox thrusters installed in his craft to increase his speed for short bursts. It was rare that any of the unregistered vehicles they encountered in Pearl could outrun him. "They jettisoned some cargo, and we're bringing it in now. He's still trying to catch them, but it looks like they've gone to ground."

"Well," Belden said, looking a little dismayed. "We haven't gotten a full inventory of what was taken in this case yet, but send us the list once you've got it all collected. If we get it all back, I'm not sure it will be worth chasing them further, not without good IDs on the ships."

"And we're not likely to get those, at this point," Pavo sighed. Most criminals were smart enough to doctor the broadcast IDs. There were more complex ways of proving the identification but, if the pirates had ditched the stolen goods, the guard probably wouldn't consider it worth the effort and expense. "Boden and Loch are still hunting, though, in case we didn't get it all."

"If they can find out where they're hiding out here, it might be worth looking into even if it doesn't help us with this case," Kalman added. The pirate knew all the secrets of the belt better than anyone – there were rumours that some of the asteroids had been hollowed out specifically to serve as hideouts and warehouses for stolen goods, but they'd yet to stumble across any.

"That's what Loch said. Anyway – we're just about done here, and will come rendezvous back at your location."

"Got it." Kalman nodded to Belden again, and they switched back to Langevin. She looked perturbed, but Kalman didn't have the sense that she was overly shaken by her encounter with the pirates.

"Looks like this is your lucky day," Belden told her with a cheerful smile. "Our squadmates managed to run down the pirates, and we may have recovered your effects."

Langevin blinked slowly in surprise. "They did?"

"Well, we hope so. If you could send us a list, we'll double check against what was recovered."

"Okay." She took a moment to compose herself – Kalman could practically see the wheels turning in her mind. "Everything they grabbed was in secure-locked cases, with codes, so it should be pretty clear if they got into anything. I'm sending you a list now – I think that was everything."

"Thank you," Belden said, "That's very helpful."

"What is going to happen to my things? Do you need to hold them as evidence or anything?"

Maybe that was the source of her concern? "Not in this case," Kalman answered. "It doesn’t seem likely that we'll catch them, so the easiest thing will be to just give them back to you. Our squad will meet back up here, and you can be on your way."

"Oh, good." She paused for a minute, frowning. "But with the pirates still out there?"

"We can give you an escort if you’re heading anywhere close," Belden offered. It wasn't like they had anything else pressing to do, but the truth was the area was rife with smugglers, pirates, and others who might try to take advantage of a lone shuttle that looked out of place. The Viper was definitely a little nicer than what most of the locals had, and may as well have had a target painted on it.

"That would be great, officers," she said, sounding relieved – and maybe a little satisfied. Something still didn't sit right with Kalman. Langevin continued. "I still need to make it to my friend's place – it's just over in the White Bear Cluster."

White Bear was in one of the older terraformed areas, back when there had been more of an official push to establish satellite settlements in the asteroid belt. That meant it had a little better infrastructure, but it was in just about the same shape as the rest of the area now. "That won’t be a problem," he told her.

Belden nodded in agreement. "I've just checked your list against what we recovered from the pirates, and it looks like we have everything, and the lock-codes haven't been tampered with. Send us your destination co-ordinates, and we can pick up the rest of the squad along the way."

Looking even more relieved, Langevin did as she was requested, and they were soon on the way. Pavo and Falke joined them quickly, followed soon by Boden and Loch. They hadn't found their quarry, but Loch had logged coordinates for some anomalies in the local energy readings that he wanted to go back and investigate later. The convoy reached White Bear shortly, and Langevin gave them coordinates for a waystation where they could deliver her items. She herself was going to meet her friend at the private entrance, but assured them that her effects would be delivered. Mission complete, thanks accepted, the squad resumed their patrol route.

"You know," Boden grumbled once they were on their way, "All that and she didn't even offer us a reward."

"Well, we wouldn't have accepted in in any case," Belden put in firmly.

"No," Loch agreed carefully, "But you have to admit that it is a little unusual."

"If you think that's unusual," Falke spoke up, his tone a little guarded, "I thought the address for that waystation sounded familiar, so I looked it up. It belongs to Nouel Izaguirre."

Izaguirre was rumoured to have his hands into almost all of the illegal activity taking place in the sector, if not beyond.

"You think we got played?" Boden asked.

"I don't know. It just seems like there was something a little more complicated going on than what it seemed on the surface."

Kalman found himself nodding along – that's what his instincts had been screaming the whole time. "She did seem caught off guard when you – well, Boden – caught up to the pirates. I don't think she was expecting that." And, though he wasn't going to get into it now, not just in the way that the people out here always seemed surprised when they ran into Spaceguard officers who took their jobs seriously.

"I did do a scan of the cases," Loch admitted, "but the contents seemed to jive with what she'd claimed: mostly clothes and personal effects, and one case that contained a lot of expensive jewellery. I thought it was more than she might need to dress for one party, but what do I know? Maybe she just liked having a choice."

"Or maybe it was stolen, or was supposed to be some kind of payoff," Falke mused.

"Can't we just go back and ask?"

"I don't think we have grounds for it, Boden," Belden said. "Not if we don’t have any reason to suspect there was a crime."

Kalman couldn't imagine that putting Boden off, but another alert on the distress beacon channel settled the issue.

"I guess we'll never know now," he said, sounding disappointed.

"Well," Kalman said as he input new coordinates into his nav unit, "Not if we're lucky."