AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"The pod is equipped with a laser," E'rel said from his corner.
"And using it in sight of Infinity will make us a target," J'avet said.
"Putting the pedal to the metal," Brinley said.
J'avet gave her a funny look, but said nothing.
"Would you actually fire on them?" I asked. "Those on board are there against their wills. They're innocent." More or less.
"If it's them or us, I will," J'avet replied. "Until then, let's try to outrun them. There's a comet field not far from our current position."
Brinley groaned. "Comet field? Do you know how hard it is to fly through those?"
"Harder than dying?" J'avet asked dryly.
She snapped her fingers. "Good point. Okay, comet field it is. The other pod is on our tail. If we can evade them for a day or two, they'll run out of fuel. That is, if they don't start firing first."
"They must want the pod in one piece, or they would have done that by now," J'avet said thoughtfully.
"Or they want us alive," I said. "I mean, it is us."
J'avet snorted. "I can't dismiss that possibility."
"Infinity is firing on Gamma," Brinley said, her voice higher than usual. She brought the visuals up on the screen for us all to watch in silent horror.
Gammashot back with what looked like a long laser. Infinity shook with the impact.
"Laser and sonic canon," Brinley said. "You can't see the cannon until it hits. When it does, it packs a punch." She sounded awed, but a little scared at the same time.
I frowned. "I thought Gamma didn't have lasers?" I glanced toward J'avet.
"She didn't. Now she does," he said. Yep, that pretty much summed it up.
Infinityfired back, just a regular old torpedo, but it looked as big as our pod.
Gammadestroyed the torpedo before it even got close and Infinity rocked with another blast from the sonic cannon.
"Gamma's small, but she takes no shit from anyone," Brinley said.
"Like us," I said with a satisfied smile.
Gammamoved away from Infinity, but the bigger ship made no move to follow.
"She's dead in the water," Brinley said. "I would guess she wasn't ready to leave Dendra, but they took her anyway."
"Now we just have to worry about the pod chasing us," I said. I realised without Infinity, those on board might become more desperate.
I finished that thought when a loud bang sounded right above my head, and our pod shook. Instinctively, I ducked down, even though the reflex wouldn't save me from anything.
"We're hit," Brinley said.
We began to slow. Where the pod previously vibrated with movement and power, it shuddered and fell still. A moment later, it was filled with smoke.
That didn't seem like a good sign to me.
"They hit a fuel tank," Brinley said. "We can't fly under our own power."
J'avet looked back. "There is a chance the pod may explode. If it does that—"
"We're totally boned," I finished for him. Frankly, I was getting tired of feeling like I should kiss my ass goodbye.
"Yes," he said softly. "We need to get off this pod."
I cocked my head at him. "That much is obvious. The question is how?" Escape pods didn't generally come with lifeboats.
"When the other pod catches up and clamps on, we'll have to let them board," J'avet said. "That's the only chance we have."
"Well shit," I said under my breath. Looks like we skipped plans A and B and went straight to F. F for fucked up.
