Assuming they survived.
“Okay . . .” Aiden replied, voice taunting. “I know Deeks hate everything humanity ever created that got us to this point, so it's no surprise you're bad at math. I see the “Vindicator”, one ship, that has a hope of catching us. The other two might as well be finding innocent civilians to torture, the way your sort love to do, for all the use they are.”
“My Vindicator is all we need to take you down, Thorne. What is that abomination you've made of your ship? It looks like you spent five minutes gluing random bits of junk to your hull to make it look like a freighter.”
Barix snickered, and Aiden tried not to scowl. That hit a bit closer to home than he would've liked. “Let's be generous and say our ships were perfectly matched in every way. You know who comes out on top in a fight then?” He waited just long enough for the Deek to begin to answer before talking over him. “The better pilot.”
As he spoke he signaled to his crew, then suited his words by slamming the controls into a viciously sharp maneuver. Even as he was yanked back and sideways into his seat he watched the Vindicator's position on the display like a hawk, counting in his head.
One. Two. Three? Aiden burst out laughing as the enemy cruiser still remained on its previous trajectory. Finally it banked to pursue.
Yeah, no question who was the better pilot.
He'd transmitted his mocking laughter to the other ship, and the enemy captain responded irritably. “You seem awfully satisfied by that cute maneuver. Think I'm impressed?”
“I'm certainly not,” Aiden said, finally pulling the Last Stand back to a straight course and gunning the engines. “Human response time is anywhere from .25 to 1 second. I'm actually a bit quicker than that, even at my age. Meanwhile, at four seconds your pilot must be in a coma.”
“He's certainly disappointed me with his negligence,” the Deek agreed. “Luckily, his inattentiveness hasn't led to a disaster.” His voice became smug. “Also, you should look at your own math. Even Stag grunts like you are taught what one plus one equals, aren't they?”
“Another light cruiser with freelancer tags is breaking off its approach to the station to intercept,” Ali said sharply. “They're almost directly ahead.”
Aiden cursed and looked at the display, where the companion had changed the coloring of one of the numerous ships coming to and from the station to mark it as an enemy. Sure enough, it was moving to cut off their escape; looked as if the mercenary captain had been tempted by the prospect of an unfair fight and rich rewards.
And combined with the other three ships, it now had them neatly boxed in.
“It'll be a singular honor to be the downfall of the vile Aiden Thorne and his Last Stand,” Vindicator's captain taunted. “You may be nothing but miserable small time pirates, but you certainly cast a large reputation. One which will transfer to me as the man who defeated you.”
Aiden grit his teeth. “This man have a name?”
“Dalar. The one who'll make sure your crew suffers unspeakable torment for many years to come, cursing your name with every breath.” Dalar lowered his voice. “You really should've surrendered.”
Barix clapped mockingly into his mic. “That was almost poetic, Captain Dalar. I hope you didn't record it for posterity, or one of your own people might murder you for bringing stagnancy to humanity's peak society.”
There was no response; apparently the captain was satisfied with his last threat.
Chapter Eighteen
Last Ditch
The freelancer cruiser loomed ahead, armed with a hefty weapons loadout of two three-burst laser arrays. The frigate and farther Deek light cruiser were pushing hard to catch up to the Last Stand on straight vectors, meaning if Aiden had to make combat maneuvers they'd quickly close the distance.
And the Vindicator was redlining its engines to very gradually close the gap from behind, since even with the Last Stand's improved engines, thanks to its beefed up weapons and shields it barely lost the edge in speed to a standard light cruiser.
Aiden could usually compensate for that with superior piloting, but not in circumstances where they were outnumbered and hemmed in.
“I've got a course for us to make a rift jump out of here within a few minutes,” Barix said suddenly.
Aiden would've felt more relieved if he hadn't already been furiously trying to think of a solution to the problem of escaping long enough to make a jump, and realized there were no ideal ones. “I'm sensing a serious “but” here, Barix.”
“Now's not the time to be thinking about Lana,” the Ishivi quipped. At Aiden's glare he just grinned wider. “Okay fine. The downside is it'll involve us heading right for that new cruiser like we're spoiling for a head-to-head, then at the last second blowing past them at full acceleration and running until we have an opening to slow down and open a rift.”
He bit back a sigh. That would certainly give them an opening, since an enemy preparing to make evasive maneuvers for combat would be caught by surprise by that kind of gambit, forced to take extra time to begin pursuit. And given Aiden's reputation for never backing down from a fight, the mercenary captain almost certainly would assume he was spoiling for a fight.
Unfortunately, it would also mean they'd be eating a whole bunch of weapons fire while they were essentially sitting ducks, blasting past in a straight trajectory at full acceleration. They'd also be cutting it close with the Vindicator in hot pursuit, with barely enough time to make the jump before it caught up and started shooting
