Then her seat—one of the two that had been designed for the big Xeno troops—began to move. It scraped along the deck, narrowed, and brought her closer to the controls. As she approached, she reached out with her hands and began touching different parts of a mostly featureless hemispherical protrusion from the wall. It was covered in hundreds of armored plates. Some were larger than others, and I wasn’t completely surprised when they pistoned slightly inward when she touched them.
“Most of this is done with thoughts,” she said in a dreamy voice. “But some things have to be done with touch.”
“Can you get us out of here?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said. “But I can’t command the plate armor to open and let us out. Only the Queen could do that. This ship has weapons, though. I can shoot our way out, but I don’t know where to shoot… whoa, uh-oh!
We lurched into the air, then back down again almost hard enough to bounce us back up to the overhead..
“Sorry,” Nyna said. “There was a big container headed straight for us. Had to get out of the way. I’ll see if I can keep everyone from bouncing around so that nobody gets hurt. I’ll strap you all in.”
A second later, three flat, leathery tentacles reached out from our chairs. One ran across each shoulder down to a spot near our hips. The last ran across our waists. They were snug but didn’t hurt.
“Shoot the breach behind us,” I said. “Widen it enough that we can escape into space before this whole place comes apart. Sooner would be better than later.”
I wasn’t trying to be an asshole, but, well, it was urgent. Nyna tapped a few little plates, held another down for a second, and leaned back in her seat.
“Everyone, hold on,” she warned. “I’m still new at this, and the only weapons this thing has are in the front. I’ll have to spin us around and shoot a whole bunch before we get to the opening.”
“Skrew is no scary,” the vrak whispered. “Nyna makes the ships fly. Nyna is no to crash. Skrew is no such scary.”
I wasn’t sure if Nyna had heard his comments or not, but I hoped she had. The vrak couldn't have paid her a better compliment.
A moment later, I felt my body pressed to the floor again. I couldn't see outside; the Xeno had no need to install view ports. I had to use my perception and dead reckoning to guess what the ship might be doing. It was nerve-wracking, but Nyna was in control of the vessel. She could see everything, and it was likely that she could feel everything too. She’d interfaced with the vessel and had become one with it.
We rotated for a moment, and the smooth ride suddenly became rough and bumpy. The wind was blowing at our backs, a direction the ship had not been designed to withstand for long. I imagined the tentacle-like legs being separated and whipped about as Nyna struggled to keep them together in an attempt to keep our wind profile low.
Loud buzzing sounds announced that the weapons were firing, and I felt the ship slowly begin to accelerate. Nyna was facing away from me, so I couldn't see her face, but her head was bowed in concentration. She made little grunting noises as if the effort of keeping the ship straight was a physical strain on her, rather than only a mental one. Maybe it was. A moment later, there was a crash, and a crack formed near my feet.
We pitched up, relative to gravity, then spun counter-clockwise. I braced myself against the bulkhead and overhead for support.
“Skrew is not having the fun!” the vrak whined.
The chaos continued for several seconds before the spinning, banking, braking, and accelerating ceased. The ship began a slow roll and seemed to straighten out.
“We made it!” Nyna said. “Though it was a tight fit. Looks like we took a little damage. Don’t worry, though. I’ve got this.”
She sat quietly for a few seconds, then announced, “Repair bugs on the way.
“Damn, the hive is ugly. It looks like a handful of fried woodworms. Oh, shit, we got out just in time. I need to get us away from it so that we don’t get smashed. There are some big pieces coming off, and they blast away real fast, you know. And, I think I just saw the Queen go by. Did she have a really big ass? Like, ginormous?”
“She did,” I said. “Ginormous and blubbery.”
“Yup, then that was her. Ugly bitch. She looks kind of like a woodworm herself. Big nasty head and all.”
A second later, little hatch-like armor plates on the overhead hinged open with a soft grinding sound. Then, a dozen of the little red bugs crawled out, formed a line, and traveled across the overhead, the bulkhead, then the deck and began repairing the crack.
“See?” Nyna said with a deep yawn. “No problem. Damn, I’m tired.”
“See?” Skrew said, crossing two pairs of arms as he beamed at Nyna. “Skrew knows. Skrew says Nyna can make the ship to do the fly and we don’t die. Is good, yes?”
“It’s good, Skrew,” I said with a smile.
Then, Beatrix moaned.
“Here,” Nyna said as she removed her bag and held it out. “The healing rod is in here.”
Reaper took the bag, fished the rod out of it, and got to work on Beatrix. She’d remained quiet since we’d brought her aboard the ship. Doing so had allowed us to focus on staying alive rather than focusing on trying to prevent her from feeling more pain than necessary. She’d done her part, and we owed her for being tough, even though her wound was horrible and would take a while to heal.
“Nyna, can this ship land on Druma?”
