The delay put Toemeka’s nerveseven more on edge. Hurry,hurry, hurry, shethought. As if sensing her nervousness, Erling turned and flashed hera thumbs-up sign.
He switched the new fuel blockwith one of their old ones. Toemeka looked at the fuel gauge. Theywould need a full plasma block to reach Borko and the one Erlingstole might not be full. The gauge started registering: a quarterfull, half-full, three-quarters full. Then it stopped.
She groaned. They wouldn’t haveenough to reach planet Borko.
Erling opened the door of thespaceship.
“It wasn’t a full fuel block.We’re still short,” Toemeka said.
“I’ll try different one.”He ran to a second ship before she could protest that there wasn’ttime.
An ear-piercing siren went offand soldiers started rushing across the field, firing at Erling.Energy blasts hit the tarmac near him. Toemeka started the twinengines. Erling ran to the ship and jumped in.
Toemeka put up the shields, thenlifted the spacecraft into the air and soared upward. On the airstripbelow, Talon ships began taking off.
“Outrun them, Toe, until we canmake a space jump,” Erling yelled. On the computer, he began typingin the coordinates of Borko to make the jump.
A squad of Talon ships flew afterthem and soon the sky was filled with flashing lights from energybolts fired by Talon ships. Their ship rocked with the force of adirect hit, then stabilized.
“The left wing’s on fire!”Erling shouted as he shot off a round of energy bolts at the nearestships. “Put it out!”
Toemeka glanced at the unfamiliarcontrol panel while flying evasively. Starting to panic, she asked,“How do you operate the fire extinguisher system?”
“I’ll get it.” Erling typedsomething into the computer and foam instantly shot out,extinguishing the fire.
Toemeka’s relief wasshort-lived. A fighter flew over them and laser fire bombarded theircanopy shield. Erling returned fire as the enemy ship soared out ofrange and another one took its place.
“Toe, incoming at four o’clock!Don’t let him get a lock on us.”
Toemeka spun their ship into adouble roll to lose the tail. Her stomach flip-flopped. “Two moreships closing in!” she exclaimed, glancing at the screen.
“How long until we make thespace jump?”
“A few minutes yet.” Feelingnauseated, she grabbed a piece of anti-motion sickness gum from herpocket and shoved it in her mouth.
“Too long; we’ll beincinerated by then. Engage incoming ships.”
“There’s too many and thecomputer can’t accurately figure a space jump when we’re in themiddle of a dog fight.”
“If we don’t fight them,we’ll be dead before we can make the jump.”
Toemeka swung the ship around,heading straight toward the ships following them. The G-force pushedher against the seat and pushed back her cheeks. She blasted throughthe middle of the fighters while Erling laced them with laser fire.
Toemeka looped around once more,came up on one of the ship’s tail and began closing in. Her visionblurred from the quick maneuver and she felt lightheaded. For amoment, she thought she would black out. Then her flight suit forcedblood back into her torso and head, and the weakness passed. Sheclosed the distance between their ship and one of the fighters whileErling locked a reading on it and fired.
The shield of the enemy aircraftheld and it soared out of range as several more moved in on them.Toemeka brought their ship up to Mach 3, Mach 6, heading straight upuntil they escaped the pull of gravity.
“We have to get out of here andmake the jump,” she said.
“They’re all over us.Engage.”
“We can’t fight them all.”
“We’re burning up fuel toofast at this speed!” Erling said.
Their ship began to vibrate, theneverything went black.
“Are we hit?” Toemeka asked.Then she heard a high-pitched hum and realized they had entered thefirst phase of a space jump. The ship stabilized, then stars andplanets rushed by in a stream of light.
“We did it!” Toemekaexclaimed. In a more subdued voice, she added, “I think our liveswere held on a pretty fine balance that time.”
“It was a little close.”Erling’s voice was calm. Then his cool exterior broke and heshouted, “Yahoo!” as he hit his fist against the canopy top.
Toemeka let out a sigh of reliefbut her reprieve faded when she read the fuel gauge. “We burnedthrough a lot of fuel dogfighting. How will we make it to Borko afterthe jump?”
Erling’s face clouded. “Fuel’salways been a problem with these small combat ships. We’ll have tocontact Jaipar’s air command when we come out of the jump and askthem to bring a new fuel block.”
“If we contact Jaipar, anyships that followed us into the jump will pick up the radiocommunication and, most likely, reach us faster than the Jaiparianship.”
“We’ll have to chance it.”
“I suppose we don’t have achoice. Would you mind flying the ship for awhile?”
He took over and she settledagainst the seat, trying to relax. She was nauseated and woozy. Whenshe closed her eyes, the world spun.
She opened them and glanced overat Erling. His facial bruises had begun turning yellow and green andone of his eyes was still almost completely swollen shut. He probablyneeded sleep more than she did. As she watched him, he popped aGo-pill into his mouth. “You’re crazy to take that stuff.”
“Thought you were sleeping.”
She held out her hand. “Give methe rest.”
“So you can throw them away? Idon’t think so. One of us has to stay awake to fly the ship. It’sbeen days since I’ve been able to snatch more than a few hours ofsleep and we haven’t eaten since we left home, except for thosejocollitos we picked.”
“Give them to me,” she saidin an unrelenting voice.
He pulled a small bottle ofGo-pills from his pocket and begrudgingly tossed them to her.“Satisfied?”
“No.” She stuffed the bottleinto her breast pocket. “But I’m too tired to give you a lecture.If I ever see you taking them again, I’m going to kick your buttacross the galaxy and back.”
He scowled. “You don’t haveanything to say about what I do and don’t do.”
She smiled smugly. “Then whydid you give them to me?”
“So you’d stop pestering me.”
“You know I’m right.”
“No, you know I’m right.Sometimes there just isn’t any other alternative.”
“You don’t want to
