“Aye, aye, ma’am,” Wright replied somberly.
Tehrani felt despair rear its head. Think, Banu. Work the problem. What else can we do? She stared at the monitor, searching for a solution.
Justin supposed it was too much of a stretch to think the Eagle missiles he’d launched would find and disable the enemy, but almost any outcome would’ve been better than the one he got: both were actively tracking his fighter. He deployed several rounds of flares and maneuvered wildly.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Trying to flush me out, Terran?” The enemy pilot sounded amused.
“More like blow you up,” Justin replied as he whipped the Ghost around and narrowly missed one of the warheads. It exploded a hundred meters behind him, sending his craft into a wild spin.
“That’s a real religious sentiment right there. I’m surprised you weren’t thinking about burning me at the stake instead.”
Justin regained control of his fighter and studied the HUD’s integrated scanner. He saw no sign of the pirate. “Again, you’re the one trying to kill me.” If I can keep him talking, maybe I can triangulate his position once more.
“I wonder if the League is any better than the Terran Coalition. I’ve seen the videos in which they promise universal income and a life geared toward the betterment of your mind.”
“You could always present yourself to a League cruiser and ask for asylum to find out,” Justin replied snarkily. “I figure it's all hogwash.” He recalled what Nishimura had said about what the League transport officer had told him. “And even if it’s not, it comes with an all-controlling government that dictates everything you do.”
The other man laughed. “If I didn’t know better, Terran, I’d wonder if I was fighting a politician out here. That was pretty good for a simple pilot.”
“Terran Coalition, you know—always the overachievers,” Justin replied.
Two possible contacts had materialized on his HUD. He wasn’t sure which one, if either, was the enemy. The closest dot was a few hundred kilometers in front of him. With all the twisting and turning to avoid his own missiles, Justin had no idea which way the pirate had gone. I suppose it comes down to a guess. Supposedly our sensors work better in the forward-facing arc. I hope I read that right.
A few minutes passed with no further communication between them. Justin kept glancing to his right, left, and above. It seemed that nothing quite beat the mark one human eyeball in the depths of the nebula.
“Still out there, Terran?”
“Oh, I love flying through plasma fields, getting shot at, and trying to kill the guy doing it before he kills me. But aside from that, just peachy, you know?”
Laughter echoed out of the commlink. “Under the right circumstances, Terran, I’d buy you a drink. But I’m afraid today isn’t the right circumstance.”
“I’m not sure I could say the same.”
“Why? Because I’m a nasty, murderous pirate, out killing innocent spacers?”
Justin scanned his HUD. “For starters, yeah.”
“Would it surprise you to know I was once a dashing officer in the CDF?” The man’s voice turned bitter. “I even believed in the fairy-tale man who supposedly controlled the universe, ensuring justice and right.”
“Then how’d you end up doing this?” Justin kept a careful watch on his HUD.
A long pause came over the commlink. “I made a mistake. And like the holier-than-thou hypocrites the rest of you are, instead of forgiving me, they tossed me out on my ass like a used piece of trash.” He laughed. “One thing led to another, and I needed to put food on the table. My marketable skills? Flying spacecraft, so here I am.”
“Even if I believed that, it's no excuse to kill innocent civilians.” Almost there to see you off. Justin squeezed his lips together as he closed within a few kilometers of the contact. The cloud ahead cleared momentarily, and there was nothing there. The specter of panic gripped Justin’s heart. Work the problem. He took a deep breath and scanned his HUD once more. If the bandit isn’t in front, he’s gotta be behind.
“Overconfidence, Terran. That’s your downfall.”
Justin killed the inertial dampers in his Ghost and reversed heading to fly forward while the nose of his craft pointed backward. The familiar shape of the pirate heavy fighter erupted from a gas cloud at nearly point-blank range. Justin held down the trigger for his neutron cannons.
Dozens of blue bolts stabbed into the void. Many connected with the enemy craft. Though it tried to maneuver away, the range was so close that Justin could easily track and maintain continuous fire. A few moments later, one of the fighter’s wings blew off and tumbled away.
“Well played, Terran. Not a trick I’ve seen bef—” A harsh screech of static followed.
As the fighter exploded brightly, Justin stared at the glow. Within a few seconds, no trace was left.
Surprised to be alive, Justin pondered the other pilot’s last words. Why didn’t he use the last breath he had to curse me? Something about it made him consider the hate he’d felt rising for the League over the previous year. Justin laid his head back and did a quick check. Moderate damage to his control surfaces, with at least one hit causing stealth reduction. All in all, not bad for nearly getting destroyed.
Time to go back to the Greengold, have my bird repaired, and get some grub. Justin keyed in a course away from the gas cloud and changed his commlink channel to the ship-command frequency. “Spencer to Zvika Greengold. Come in.”
A few seconds passed before Lieutenant Singh’s voice echoed in his ears. “Captain Spencer, we’re under attack by massed enemy forces.” A string of coordinates appeared in his navigation computer.
“Say again, Lieutenant?”
“The pirates sent everything they have at us. If you can return to assist, that would be most welcome.”
They knew I was here the entire time. The guy I just popped was
