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The flash was followed by another flash, further down the ship, then another. The swarm on the window thinned.
Thinned further.
With the fifth flash, the last of the nanobots fell away and floated off into space.
"If they don't bump into any ships, they'll deactivate and become harmless," Slek said.
With any luck, that would be exactly what happened.
"We've taken a lot of damage," Brinley said. "Those nanobots were hungry."
I shivered.
J'avet nodded and pressed a button in front of him. After a crackle, a face appeared on the comm screen.
"Commander J'avet, you're alive." Did the Centaurian woman on the comms from one of the IF ships sound disappointed or did I imagine that?
"So it would seem," he said dryly. "You need to go after the other ship before they get too far for interception."
An Agusian man looked over the woman's shoulder. He bore the same rank insignia as J'avet. His antennas twitched toward the screen. "Thanks for the tip, commander. We're already in pursuit."
As he said that, two of the IF ships broke away from the other, which remained on a course straight toward us.
"Did someone chew on the pod?" the commander asked.
"Yes, Zarex. I got hungry waiting for you," J'avet said sarcastically.
Zarex grinned. His eyes were warm with humour.
"You always were impatient," Zarex said.
"You were always late," J'avet retorted.
"Not this time," Zarex said. "We got here just in time to see you blow nanobots off your pod with an old-fashioned laser hand cannon. I didn't think those things existed anymore, after they were, you know, banned." Zarex cocked his head and looked slightly accusing.
"It wasn't ours," Slek said helpfully. "We were just using it to save our asses."
"I'll brief you when I'm on board." J'avet looked like a man who had used up his last fuck. I didn't blame him. I was running short on them myself.
"Copy that." Zarex moved out of view.
The Centauri woman nodded at the screen. "The pod bay is ready, Commander J'avet. Please proceed."
"I hope this old girl has enough left in her to make it that far," Brinley said. She leaned over to press a few buttons and we slipped through space, toward the welcome sight of the open space door.
A moment before we slid inside, I caught a glimpse of an explosion in the distance. I couldn't be certain, but I assumed the IF ships had caught up to the rogues and blew them out of space. Freytauri or Iri, they were a threat to the IF either way, but the idea of all those deaths made me shudder.
I swallowed hard. "It looks like you get popcorn after all." I tried to speak lightly when all I wanted to do was drink a bottle of some kind of alcohol and eat a whole pizza while hiding in a blanket fort. I mean, we've all felt like that, right? I felt like that several times in the last twenty-four hours.
"I'm just happy we're safe," Danec replied.
I exhaled through my nose as the space doors closed behind us. "So am I," I said. "That's all that matters right now."
Slek stepped out of the cockpit and slipped into the seat beside me.
"If it wasn't for you, we'd be bare-chested and silver skinned by now," he said.
"If it wasn't for you, we'd be dead," Danec told him.
