“Attagirl, Cloye!” rasped Yul. “Keep nailing those bastards!”
Hresh beamed at the result of his handiwork.
Luck was not on their side, however. The ship swooped up toward the stony ceiling in an attempt to evade enemy fire. At an especially wide turn opening into a larger cavern, enemy torpedoes locked on their hull. A Mentera attack ship came screaming out of a cross corridor. A bright flash exploded from behind. Nailed the rear vents, blowing out the mantis’s tail.
Yul cursed into the com. “Shit, that bastard came out of nowhere! Brace yourselves. We’re gonna hit!”
The ship yawed like one of those obsolete jets out of the past. More enemy ship fire came from the side. Their lightfighter went spinning out of control, and bounced and skimmed across the rough stone of the tunnel floor.
Emergency lights flickered on, buzzers sounded. Sparks flew from the console, green rays peppered the hull and sent them skidding sideways, missing the connecting tunnel by yards, smashing into the wall twenty feet away. They all went flying forward.
Yul stumbled up from his broken seat as bits of wreckage burned and the ship engine’s died. “Cloye!” He grabbed her waist. “You alright?”
She mumbled something incoherent, a sprawl of arms and legs beside him. Hresh looked in no better condition as he massaged his shoulder. Miko stirred somewhere behind him from under the rubble.
“Now we’re cooked,” croaked Cloye.
The nav panel smoked like a campfire.
Yul swept away the smoke from his faceplate. “I admit, we’re a little screwed here,” he rumbled. “Looks as if our only chance is a shootout. We hold the fort, hope they mess up.” He sucked in a heavy breath. “Bring down as many as we can.”
Miko shook his head, “It’s a suicide run.”
“What isn’t in this funny farm?” grumbled Cloye.
“They’re not blasting us, which means they want to take us prisoners,” Hresh hissed. “Orders from above maybe.”
“Stick us into their tanks.”
“Think, Hresh, think. You’re the brainiac here.”
“I’m thinking. Hard to think under pressure, Yul.”
“Hard to think when you’re dead,” sneered Cloye. “Snap it up.”
Yul groaned, catching a look out the port glass. “Now we’re done.”
The enemy ship had doubled back. Another mantis fighter came at its heels, its nose and forward cannons pointed with destructive force.
Tense moments passed. Everyone waited to get barbecued. Yet the enemy ships waited, as if in indecision. Maybe orders from above?
Yul blinked in the murky haze tinted amber by the emergency lights. A sharp hint of ozone came through the filtered air into his now malfunctioning suit. The bridge leaned on a thirty degree angle, exposing the port bow side. He dragged himself across the debris-littered bridge to the port hole, shaking out his stiffening knee. The glass was tilted, offering a view of the dust-speckled junction, rapidly filling as Mentera infantry drifted out of the two ships to surround their ship, lumo-blasters trained their way. One of the approaching captains flicked an upraised claw.
Yul hissed, “Showtime. Hope you guys’re ready for one hell of a fight.”
Cloye pulled extra blasters down from the crumpled weapons rack, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” She tossed an E1 to Yul who caught it in midair. Miko caught the next one aimed his way. Yul braced himself for the violent inevitability that could only go one way.
But a new development came. Booms issued from the area immediately outside the ship, then the staccato sounds of exploding metal racking the hull. Their muscles tensed in anticipation of doom. Yul craned his neck for a better look.
A ship came careening out of the dust cloud, slamming the junction area with killing force.
Yul stared, stunned. Another Mentera vessel. Could it be—?
He cried out in mad glee as the dozen or so Mentera ground troops fell, struck by blasts.
Fenli! The bastard had come to save the day.
The rogue ship limited its rain of destruction to the suited figures outside, leaving the other ships intact.
Fenli’s sardonic voice broke over the com. “Don’t say I never did anything for you, Yul. You okay over there? Cloye? Talk to me.”
“We’re here,” she rasped. “You got any more tricks to share?”
“Sure, a bag of them,” Fenli cried. “Shit!”
They winced as a bright green arc flashed past their ship to zone in on Fenli’s craft. The Mentera beam blazed off his shields.
“Love to chat but another bogie is sniffing me out. Gotta run—” Fenli cut the channel. He sent his own smoking ship buzzing off low through the connecting cross corridor. The new vessel chased after, leaving behind the parked ships and mangled Mentera bodies silent in the murky dimness.
Yul exhaled a wheezing breath. They all blinked at one other, stunned.
“That flyboy’s full of shit-for-brain surprises,” mumbled Cloye.
“Good that he is.”
Miko just gave a grey-faced nod.
“How the hell can Fenli fly and shoot bullets at the same time?” marveled Cloye.
“Mentera mantises are designed for dual operation,” Miko explained. “Better design than our lightfighters. Fenli and I were both trained on Mentera tech before we attacked their fleet.”
“You attacked them?”
“In the end, we got them to attack one another.”
“Whatever…the crafty bastard didn’t nail the other ships parked out there,” Yul rumbled. “Now’s our chance to ambush one. Quick. Out in the tunnel.”
He and Cloye gathered their guns and gear and threaded their way through the wreckage to the exit port. Hresh blundered after them, befuddlement writ in his eyes.
Miko trailed, with a frown on his face. He seemed plagued with doubt about the course of action, as if a heavy weight hung on his shoulders. Was the spaceman getting cold feet, losing his nerve? Yul grunted. Or was another of those invisibility bouts about to overtake the pilot?
Yul exited the hatch. He crouched, blaster on the ready. A cough frogged his throat as the air thinned
