She gave it some thought. “Could work, sure. But you'd still need people to operate them, and from what I've seen, yours are already stretched way too thin.”
“What about the slaves? Could they be persuaded to fight alongside us?”
“That's a much trickier prospect. In theory, yes. In exchange for their freedom and a chance to wallop the bastards who've been beating and starving them for years, they might go along with it. But they'd be hard to manage and control. Some of them might be troublemakers. Others might still be loyal to the Pax for one reason or another. I was, after all. Even putting that aside, they're miners, not warriors. You'd have to get them organized, train them in military tactics and strategy. It could take weeks. Do you have that kind of time?”
“That's exactly what I have, as a matter of fact,” I answered. “The fleet won't be dedicating sufficient reinforcements to our efforts here for quite a while – and even when they do, they'll have to beat the Pax blockade that's waiting for them between Thirren and here.”
“Then it sounds like our best chance to take and hold the planet,” she agreed. “I'll do what I can to get the slaves on our side. Mind you, that might be easier said than done, since I was their overseer and not a hugely popular one, at that.”
“I'm sure you'll do your best. If they give you any trouble, I suppose you can always cut them down like you did that Pax outside. That was some mighty fancy shooting, especially for a slave.”
“Ex-slave,” she corrected me with a laugh.
“Where did you learn to handle a blaster with such precision? My entire crew attended the raiding academies on Thirren. Half of them have been fighting for over a decade, and I doubt any of them could have made that shot – other than Ranel, perhaps.”
“That's because the stakes are different. You're used to firefights. If you miss, odds are you'll have another chance to squeeze the trigger and hit your enemy the second or third time around. Down here in the mines, we had to target-shoot seams in the rock walls to open up new shafts with extreme precision. One micron to the left or right and we could hit gas pockets or ignite the ore, blowing us all straight to hell. I was known for being especially good at making those shots. It's what earned me the attention of the supreme overseer, not to mention this collar.”
“You're forgetting one thing,” I pointed out with a grin. “Walls don't shoot back.”
“Hey, the proof is in the results. Unless you're saying you think you could have made that shot out there earlier.”
I folded my arms over my chest, tilting my head. “Maybe I could have.”
“Well, it seems to me like the only way to settle this debate is with a shooting contest. Are you up for that?”
A few cleks later, I was standing outside the weapons locker, waiting for Natalie to select a blaster. Several of my crew members slowed down as they passed by, peering in and reacting with surprise as they saw that I was allowing her access to the weapons. They still refused to understand that to me, she was now a valued member of the crew – not a prisoner, or even some exotic captured concubine, but a fellow warrior.
She emerged, hefting a laser pistol and admiring its weight. “I'll admit, it'll be nice to use a proper gun to target shoot for a change, instead of a rusty old shaft-cannon.”
“I'm glad you approve. So, where should we do this?”
“There's a valley a little way off from the camp, due south and away from prying eyes,” she said. “Once we've made sure there aren't any Pax lurking around out there, that should be secluded enough for this demonstration. After all, we don't want to embarrass you in front of your crew, do we?”
“Your confidence will be your downfall, human,” I chuckled.
“One way to find out, dragon boy.”
We trekked out to the valley, and I searched it carefully – there weren't any Pax, just dimpled hills of ivory sand as far as the eye could see. I opened a metal carrying case, removing a rounded silver mineshaft probe and switching on its glowing blue repulsors. It hovered in front of us, then floated off until it was almost out of sight, a gleaming egg-shaped drone hanging over the dunes.
“That seems about as far away as the Pax was,” I said.
“It's much farther, and you know it.”
I shrugged. “Well, if you don't think you can do it after all...”
She laughed. “Just to show that you can't bait me or get under my skin with comments like that one, I'll let you have the first shot. What will you be aiming for?”
I was confused by the question. “The probe, of course. That's the target, so that's what I'm aiming for.”
Natalie raised an eyebrow. “Fair enough. Go for it.”
Still shaking my head, I switched on the holo-tracking sight on my sidearm, allowing it to sync with and center the probe in its crosshairs. From that far off, I knew it would be difficult to hit it, even with the sight. Difficult, but not impossible.
I squeezed the trigger and my blaster purred, releasing a bolt that zinged neatly off the shiny surface of the probe's top. It dipped, then re-assumed its original position – the armored
