Chapter 15
“Those are slaver ships, I’m sure of it,” I said as I brought my fist down angrily on the arm of my chair. “How the hell did they know we were gonna be here?”
“You think they were waiting for us?” Rayne asked.
“I have no doubt,” I said. “Look at them. They knew we were coming.”
“Maybe they intercepted the other Kytrans that were on the space station?” Rayne suggested. “Maybe they knew that the Kytrans would be coming eventually?”
“Whatever the case, this is not a good situation,” I said.
The huge slave ship was right in front of us, a short distance away. There was no way that it was as fast or as agile as mine was, but the issue was that the supply ships that the Kytrans were using were slow and cumbersome. They wouldn’t be able to get away from the slave ships. Not easily anyway.
“We’ve led them out of the frying pan and straight into the fire,” I muttered as I tried to figure out how to get out of this one. “Francine, tell them to turn around.”
“I will hail their ships now,” the AI replied.
“The nebula could provide them with some cover,” I said. “Maybe they can hide there.”
I watched as the ships started to retreat, but they moved slower than my grandma after her hip replacement, God rest her soul. There was no way they’d find cover before the smaller slave ships reached them, and it would be impossible to protect all four ships once the smaller ships split up and attacked.
Just to prove my point, the four smaller slave ships suddenly burst into action. They shot off in different directions to form a tight square around our fleet. The slave ships were scuffed up and had been adapted to their new careers with battering rams, new paneling, and the best weaponry. No doubt their shields were top of the line as well, and the pilots looked to be well trained as well.
“We have to do something,” Rayne said.
“We are,” I replied as I opened fire on the closest slave ship.
The blast hit the ship like a brick wall and threw the spacecraft out of formation. One of the sections that jutted out from the side of the ship broke away, and I saw the airlock close just in time before they were all sucked out into the vacuum. Still, one of the slavers hadn’t made it in time, and its body floated out of the snapped-off section and froze over.
However, I’d now brought all of the attention onto us. The slaver ship I had just attacked turned and fired a few shots of its own. I darted out of the way of their lasers and had to barrel roll to avoid the last few stray shots they let off.
I saw Rayne grab hold of her chair to steady herself, and I noticed that I had been holding my breath the entire time.
I fired again at the slaver ship, and it only took me a couple of blasts to get through its shields. The ship exploded into a giant fireball that lit up the rest of the ships in the vicinity with a bright orange glow. That left three more of the smaller ships and the larger one, of course.
“Why don’t we just fire at the big one?” Rayne asked.
“Because there could be innocent people in there,” I replied as I bore down on another of the small ships.
One of the other ships decided to come to its partner’s aid, though, and the two ships squared up on me with their weapons at the ready. They began to fire at us at the same time, so I had to pull away. Since I didn’t want the Kytran ships to get caught in the crossfire, that meant I was heading away from our fleet, which wasn’t great, but at least the two ships stayed on my tail.
The Kytran supply ships were still headed toward the dust cloud, and while the last of the small ships still hung with the Kytrans, the large slave ship was moving too slowly to catch up. The Kytrans were safe enough for now, so I led the other two slavers along the edge of the cloud until we were a safe distance from the Kytran fleet.
And then I decelerated so hard that Rayne and I were thrown forward in our seats. Then I spun the ship around in a gravity-defying move and fired as I did so. The laser shots powered out of the rotation canons on the top and bottom of my ship and showered the gap between us and the slave ships with deadly light beams.
The two slave ships dove out of the way of my attack, and one of them managed to spin off quite a distance in its desperation to get away. That gave me time to really aim my plasma weapons, and I let off a single shot at each of the slave ships.
One blast of plasma hit its target, and while it didn’t destroy the ship, I could see that it had significantly damaged the shields. So, I fired up the tractor beam and caught the ship before it could dart away. Then, I hit it with another blast. My ship was thrown backward from the force of the slave ship exploding, but it wasn’t so out of control that I wasn’t able to watch the second slave ship explode.
Suddenly, my ship was knocked sideways, and I heard the shields start to fizz. I looked down at the scanners and saw the third ship coming at me from the side.
“Bastard,” I grunted.
I dove out of the way, and I could see on the scanner that the slave ship had followed my path. I started to twist and weave as I flew, which made it harder for the slave ship to land any shots, but I could still hear the shields fizz every so often. And then there was the fact that they were right up my ass, and I had never been a fan of obnoxious drivers.
A quick check of the scanners showed the Kytrans were nearing the dust, so I spun the laser cannons around and opened fire. The slaver ship’s shields held, but at least my tailgater was forced to veer away.
“Let’s give them hell, Francine,” I said with a grin.
I pulled my ship into a loop-de-loop, but the other pilot had veered away before I’d finished my maneuver. I was able to get behind them, though, and I opened fire with the plasma gun before the other pilot could come back around.
The other ship skidded forward from the force of the blast, and their shields shimmered and then faded like they were losing power. But the ship hadn’t sustained any structural damage, and the other pilot spun around to face me. For a moment, we were playing a game of chicken.
“Will?” Rayne said as she glanced worriedly at me.
“Hang on,” I replied.
I managed to do a silent count to four as a painful stillness surrounded us.
And then, we both fired.
My plasma blast and theirs met perfectly in between our ships and exploded. I held onto the joysticks tightly and resisted the force of the blast as best I could.
But the slave ship wasn’t so lucky, and it was thrown off course from the explosion. It looked like the pilot had lost control as the ship flipped end over end.
Before the other ship could right itself, I fired two more quick plasma blasts. It wasn’t easy to target the ship as it somersaulted across space, but the second shot smashed through the shields and slammed into the hull. Plasma spread across the surface for a moment and then burrowed into the ship.
I pulled away just before the explosion, but tiny chunks of metal and other things sizzled against our shields. But I was already focused on the last two slave ships. I could see the large slaver, but the last of the small ships wasn’t visible.
And worse still, I could only see two of the Kytran supply ships.
“Fuck!” I shouted as I checked the scanners for any sign of the missing ships or at least some debris.
“There!” Rayne yelled and pointed toward the dust cloud.
I couldn’t make anything out at first, but then I saw the small slave ship emerge from the nebula with one of the Kytran ships in tow. The Kytran ship had some damage like it had put up a fight, but once the slave ship had locked its tractor beam on the supply ship, the Kytrans had no chance.
“Oh, no you don’t,” I muttered as I fired at the slave ship.
“Be careful,” Rayne said as she squirmed in her seat.
I did my best, but the slave ship was careful to keep the Kytran ship between us. When one of my shots skimmed the edge of the Kytran ship, I finally eased off the trigger.
“We have to stop this,” I growled.
“But not by shooting at the ships,” Rayne replied. “We’ll probably blow up the Kytrans before we blow up the slavers.”
“Right,” I said and studied the control panel for inspiration. “Say, do you have tug of war on your planet?”
“Um… I don’t think so,” Rayne said as she frowned at me.
“Well, you’re about to learn how to play,” I said as I moved into position behind the supply ship.
I fired up my own tractor beam again and latched onto the back of the supply ship. The slave ship ground to a halt, and I could imagine the slaver’s surprise when they realized that two could play their game.
They started to pull again, and this time it was a show of strength. They pulled so hard that I started to edge toward the mothership, too.
“Francine, boost the power to the tractor beam,” I said as I pushed my ship back in the other direction.
“Will,” the AI said. “We can not maintain this indefinitely. Even if we don’t burn out the engines, the Kytran ship may be torn in two by the competing forces.”
“I know, I know,” I grunted. “But all we have to do is hold on long enough to fry the slave ship’s tractor beam.”
“Which may not occur before we destroy our own,” Francine said.
“I’m open to suggestions if anyone has a better plan,” I said.
The cockpit was soon filled with the sound of the engines straining against the other ship. Red lights started to appear on the control panel, but Francine remained quiet.
And then, someone on the supply ship fired a plasma blast.
Bysern had mentioned that they’d tried to upgrade the supply ships, and that appeared to include whatever weapons had survived the Karaak attack. And thanks to the tractor beam, the blast was drawn even faster toward the slaver ship. The beam sliced through the underbelly of the other ship, and the slaver rocked back and forth for a moment.
And then we suddenly jerked forward as the slaver dropped its tractor beam and retreated.
“It worked,” Rayne laughed as I switched off our tractor beam.
“Thanks to the Kytrans,” I said. “I’ll say this, they have balls. They’re lucky they didn’t blow up their own ship as well.”
“Will,” Rayne whispered. “Where are the other ships?”
I finally looked around, but the only Kytran ship I could see was the one we’d just saved. It was possible that the other three had made it inside the dust cloud and were hidden from my scanners, but I had a bad feeling that wasn’t true. I knew those small ships could move quickly, and it was likely that at least one of the Kytran ships was already inside the mothership.
I turned my ship to look at the mothership and saw an opening at the side of it, and the fourth and final mini slave ship was hauling ass toward it.
“Shit,” I growled. “We can’t let them get away.”
I took off after the smaller slave ship. The speed of my ship was practically unmatched, so I gained on them quickly. Still, even though it was only a short distance away from me, there was a chance that the doors could close before we could get inside.
“Will, I thought now might be a good time to inform you that one of the supply ships that was taken is the one that Bysern is on board,” Francine said.
“Well,” I said determinedly. “That gives us all the more reason to go and get them then, doesn’t it?”
We had almost reached the slaver mothership, but then I noticed with a sinking feeling in my stomach that the doors had begun to close. The smaller slave ship would only just make it at a push, but there was no way that we would if we didn’t pick up the pace.
The small slave ship was pushing its engines to the limit, but the mothership must have seen us coming because it started to turn away. We now had even further to go, and the hangar doors were still closing. Clearly, the mothership didn’t care if the smaller ship made it safely onboard as long as the mothership made its escape.
“Will,” Francine started to say.
“Not now,” I said as I pushed the engines even harder.
We caught up to the smaller ship, and for a moment, we were flying right next to each other. But there was only room for one of us to squeeze through, and that had to be us.
I knew our shields were in better shape after the tug of war, so I got close enough to graze the other ship’s shields and then waggled my wings like the guys in a foosball table. There was a flash of light, and then the other ship tumbled away.
I shot through the door just before it slammed shut and then brought the ship to a dead stop. I heard an explosion just outside the mothership which I assumed was the other slaver ship as it slammed into the side of the mothership. A second later, the doors slid shut and locked us inside.
We were in.