"This is Commander Jonton of Peacekeeper Seven. I require that you return to the landing pad immediately. Otherwise, I will be forced to fire plasma bursts into your exhaust ports to disable your engines. The ensuing crash will likely cause even more damage to your ship. You have ten seconds to comply."
I took manual control of the ship which caused both Cinnamon and Honeysuckle to gasp in shock somehow. They just weren't used to their ship's pilot doing much real flying. I turned our ship around to face our new enemy. That solved problem number one. They could no longer shoot into our exhaust ports. The commander was an idiot to announce his plans, in my opinion. Then I started flying right for the peacekeeper ship.
"What are you doing with my ship?" Honeysuckle demanded to know. She was simply taking pride as a mechanic, and not wanting to see it all torn up again. "We don't have ramming capability!"
I continued toward the police craft slowly as the commander's voice became more panicked. When I doubled my speed, he ordered evasive maneuvers. After that I increased altitude and speed as fast as I could, heading for the sky. Then another voice joined in the mayhem. Air traffic control was demanding that I drop down and hold a position until they provided a clear exit path.
"Should I respond?" Cinnamon asked.
"Don't bother," I told her. "We can't afford to stick around. It doesn’t make sense to reveal anything to them."
"We have no navigator," Honey said urgently. "How are you going to fly us out of here?"
"Kash, there are ships in our path they say," Cinnamon informed me urgently.
"Then they should move out of the way," I responded in total calmness. This was starting to become my element. I settled into it like a safecracker with a stethoscope.
Immediately after that I heard Vanilla's voice in the hallway. "Strawberry! Come back here! Just because you stopped bleeding doesn't mean that you are healed!"
"I'm here," my freckled first officer announced as she stumbled weakly through the control room. Her bubbled butt caught on the vacant captain's chair and almost spun her around. Three female voices were screaming for her to go back to medical. She ignored them all and eventually found her seat before she could rupture open the doctor’s handiwork.
"Three minutes maximum to get me nav-points out of here," I told her. "Then back to bed."
"Yes, captain," she responded as she fumbled with the controls.
I had mad respect for anyone that stared death in the face just to do their job in a crisis. I had no idea if she was dying but being shot in the belly had to be right up there with professional athletes continuing to play with broken bones. This was her hero moment, or should I say heroine. I wasn't going to take that away from her. Not now that she had committed her allegiance to me. If her life was in real danger, I fully expected Vanilla to overrule me. But she didn't.
We managed to clear the atmosphere without being shot at, or at least hit by the threatened plasma bolts. I narrowly missed two other craft that sent my crew into pants pissing panic. I was practically aiming for the tail ends of those ships to avoid getting in front of them. Then Nav-Berry got me a spot behind a large asteroid in a small cluster just three minutes away. I sent her back to medical and let the computer take us there.
No one chased after us and the frantic traffic control messages eventually ceased as well. I toyed with the idea of powering down, maybe even landing on the huge chunk of space rock. But it seemed an unnecessary risk. I put us in a holding position just three hundred meters from the asteroid and took a deep breath of relief.
I did it again. The adrenaline rush culminating with an impressive successful escape had me feeling high.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX:
Vanilla worked her medical magic on Strawberry's gut wound, like usual. The injured woman would be released from care the next morning, and ready for control room duty by the end of the day. It was the second time since I joined the crew of the ship that she laid injured on that lounger. Both times were for impressive bravery. I was digging the whole fuck-buddy scenario. But this girl had some strong qualities to her character. It made me want to keep her as close to me as anyone. The decision to make her my first officer, as if I had a choice, was a good one.
Both dragons needed treatment for bullet wounds too, but they played their injuries off as nothing. They were ridiculously proud beasts. When I suggested that maybe they could do without Vanilla's feel-good injection, they quickly and quietly changed their minds.
I thanked Teddy for his heroics, then apologized for his rec time getting interrupted. He said that it was fine, but I could see the sadness in his eyes at leaving the planet behind so quickly. I needed to come up with some ideas to get these guys more freedom. I felt like my command depended on it. They each helped me rise to this position and deserved to be rewarded with the things that made them the happiest.
I checked in with Cinnamon and Honeysuckle. I was certainly lucky to have them. Sharing my bed gave them a privileged position in their minds I could tell. But it also meant that I didn't need to maintain their morale constantly during the day. I couldn't completely ignore them, but an occasional soft kiss and a gentle caress of their bodies took me a long way.
Mixi thanked me for not selling her off. I assured her that I hadn't even considered
