Maggie approaches it, checks it over carefully, and nods as if to herself before seating herself, perched slightly uncomfortably, as this ship is not made for bipeds. She activates the console and looks back at me.
“It’s like a giant comm.” She grins. “Can I also send messages to my friends?”
“Once we’re away from Xracak City, you can comm anyone you want,” I respond.
I leave Maggie calling up the spaceport control as I check over the fuel and weapons. All appear to be in order.
“Driok.” Maggie calls my name, making my stomach flip as always.
“Are we good to go?” I ask.
“There’s a problem,” she says, her mouth set in a hard line. “Apparently we can’t leave.”
“We can’t leave?”
“No.”
“And what do you think?” I grin at her.
“I think we’re leaving.” She grins back.
“I agree.” I punch the code into the console. “Good thing I asked for extra shielding.”
“Let’s hope it actually works,” Maggie says, gripping onto the console as the ship breaks its moorings and accelerates out of the hangar.
A barrage of pulsar bolts and missiles rain from every direction.
“Hold on, little mate,” I growl. “This is going to be rough.”
MAGGIE
The ray guns sear at the hull of the ship, and there are bursts like fireworks all around us, rocking the hulk from side to side. When Driok said hold on, he really meant it. I grip at the console in front of me for grim death, not prepared to find myself flung across the bridge.
I didn’t trust the baron, and neither did Driok, not that our lack of trust made any difference in the end. We’re still being shot at as we try to escape.
“If this is what the baron does to those who give him something he wants, I would hate to be his enemy,” I shout over the sound of engines, alarms, and yet more battering from the weapons down below us.
“He might not have got what he wanted,” Driok says, leaping from console to console.
“You double-crossed him?”
“He was never going to let us go in any event.” Driok lets rip with a set of ray guns which temporarily seem to stop the stream coming from the city. “This way I got what I wanted and to keep my jewel.”
“And here was me, thinking Sarkarnii were just given a bad rap…being called pirates anddangerous.” I laugh.
“Oh, we are all of that and more.” Driok lashes his tail at me. “As you well know, little mate.” He chuckles. “Right, here we go,” he calls out.
There’s an audible clunk which seems to shake the entire ship and then, in a sudden burst of light, everything goes gray for a moment. There’s no light at all from the outside. I swallow hard, as if my throat is being constricted, and then everything bursts back into color.
“Nev,” Driok says, running his hand through his hair. “That’s done it.”
“What?”
“Good news is we got away from Xracak City,” he says.
“And the bad news?”
“We’ve blown our long-range burst engines,” he says with a wince.
