Deidra cried, “Monitor frequency K-alpha-2. I put snoopers in place so I could track Sharki’s movements. I didn’t trust him farther than I could spit.”
I adjusted the dial to the requisite frequency. Sharki’s decoded voice crackled over the com in poor quality audio. “Get that ship back. Bring them back alive or dead, I don’t care, just preserve that shipment. Out.”
“Roger, Big S. Spiders 2 and 3 are going in.”
She flung out a hand. “Quick. Use the cloud mines! Sharki had them installed on all our carrier ships. We were losing too many of them to Skug raiders.”
“Show me.”
She leaned in. “Left controls—at two o’clock.” Marty took over for her while she tapped fingers to initiate the launch sequence and targeted a particularly irritating mark, V-Zon #2. I remembered the sequence, then grinned as a cloud of green flame engulfed her front section and she dropped back blind.
“What’re cloud mines?”
“Flash bombs release an ionizing flare which interferes with com and network access. Plays havoc with weapons consoles too. Lasts for up to 15 minutes.”
“Good. Enough time for us to get away, leave them in a brain fog.”
“Look, they’re trying to plug a mine on us now.” She steered Goliath wide and sent us lumbering out of its direct path. The tail end caught our stern and disrupted one of our rear vanes.
Marty manned the conventional umbrella bombs. His last missile knocked one of the V-Zons off its trajectory and the dazed craft went corkscrewing off to oblivion.
“Nailed that bastard,” he bawled, his face brimming with pride.
“Bravo, what you want, a silver star? Get the next one,” I cried.
Deidra scowled. “There’s more of them coming in from Thetis Station. Fire everything you have at them! I can’t keep flying this thing forever out of their line of fire.”
I released one of the mines and knocked the first ship out of commission. Marty launched multiple torpedoes and tagged the hostile’s wing companion. But one slipped through our net as more fire came angling our way, hitting us bowside. Goliath lurched. I was jarred out of my seat.
T minus 10. We were almost at warp distance.
Almost is never enough though.
That last enemy hurt us bad, a clean strike whistling off our port, battering our shields down to zero. Ruptured something inside. Smoke swirled from our bridge’s component towers. I groaned, pulled myself up, slapped hands on the console in frustration. I coughed, waved away the smoke as Marty rubbed his eyes.
How the day was turning sour.
“Varwol sapped out. No chance of warping out,” Marty croaked, wiping the sweat and smoke out of his eyes.
I saw the gauges plummet. We’d be lucky to limp to some nearby station or have enough cabin air to make it to the nearest moon.
On reserve power, I sent out the last of the cloud mines. Just as our triumphant V-Zon was about to send in a probe, its hull shone green and the bastard hung disabled in space.
My hopes for success died. I saw a long slog to oblivion, and then lights out.
“What now?” Marty’s voice sounded thick in his throat.
“Back to Thetis. No place else nearby. If we can land, we’ll have a chance at repairs and think of some way of slipping out from underneath Sharki’s net.”
“Oh, that easy, is it?” said Deidra.
“You got a better plan?”
Marty and she scowled, looked away.
We turned about back to the hated, grey-green disc that was coming in fast. Thetis. Somehow I’d known that planet would be my bane. My mind was going in too many directions at once. If we came across more V-Zons…
No, don’t think like that, Rusco. I thrust my attention back to the woman.
“About this Sharki thing. What’s he got on you?”
I could see it was no small thing this hold of terror the kingpin had over her.
She spoke in a bleak monotone. “Told me if I ever betrayed him, sure as rain he’ll brothel me up, pimp me out on Thetis, Mekeroid, anywhere, till I’m a stinking, used-up piece of flesh.”
“Scumbag. Well, if we can get this shipment to Valdair, pawn it off to the highest bidder, we’ll have enough funds to keep you out of his grasp. Not a fan of Sharki’s modus operandi. Man’s a slimeball.”
She didn’t seem too reassured by that plan. “It’s a nice dream, Rusco, but with a broken ship, no means, and right from under the nose of the alligator? He’ll kill us outright. I’ve told you many times.”
“He’ll give up when he can’t find us.”
“Yeah, right.” She shook her head. “Sharki’s like a pit bull that sinks his teeth into a shin bone. He’ll never let go.”
“Makes no sense. Why mess with small time peddlers like us? Got enough beryl on Thetis to burn. Doesn’t the sod have better things to do than chase us? He’s wasted three plus ships already.”
She exhaled an impatient breath. “You still don’t get it. He’s under the thumb of some megalomaniac warlord. Sharki can’t afford to lose one shipment to some rinky-dink raiders, like you, or Skugs for that matter. This same warlord, some Star Lord he calls himself, will have him by the balls if he reneges on his shipments, even by one crystal. You think Sharki’s a cruel bastard. This guy makes Sharki look like a newborn lamb.
“This warlord have a name?”
She shrugged. “Don’t know.”
Marty just laughed. “Yeah, sure, everyone’s got a pressure cooker looming over his head. Warlords, star lords. Some have—”
“Zip it, Marty. Concentrate on landing this crate and dodging lightfighters.”
He
