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To my relief, the first shot hit home, tearing a hole through the side of the cruiser and making a tiny explosive burst appear on my screen. Herod let out a whoop of celebration before settling back down into his seat and hunching his shoulders over his controls.
My relief was short-lived. As soon as we moved away from the damaged cruiser, a pair of patrol ships reared up in front of us, ready for a face-off.
“Shit,” Herod and I said in unison.
“What’s the plan, Chief?”
“We go left. I’ll take out the one on the right.”
No sooner had the words left my mouth than I felt him wrench the ship’s controls hard to the left. I had to move fast to get my next torpedo lined up and on its way to the righthand cruiser. This time, though, there was no watching to see if it hit home. We were turning too fast and going into a steep dive to avoid another set of cruisers that were about to have us in shooting range.
“Full power. Let’s break away,” I yelled a bit too loudly.
“I’ll see what I can do. We don’t have a lot of headroom here.”
“Don’t give me excuses, Herod. Make it happen.”
I didn’t have to repeat myself. TheGreedy She-Devilreared and sputtered for a second, and then it felt like it found new life as it darted forward unexpectedly.
“Easy, old girl,” Herod muttered to the ship.
I sat back in my chair, arms crossed over my chest, and feeling very satisfied. It had been a good long while since they had caught us in a dogfight, and the rush of adrenaline was a sweet reminder that I was right where I belonged.
An ear-piercing shriek interrupted my thoughts, and I felt the ship jolt disconcertingly.
“What was that?”
“Not sure. I can’t see anything.”
Alarms started blaring all around us, and my heart started racing. It was a fire alarm. I scanned the data screen, trying to locate the source of the problem. Engine Bay 1. My heart fell into the pit of my stomach and I swallowed hard.
“Cut power to engine one!”
“We’re not far enough out to cut power. They’ll catch up to us.”
“Well, if you don’t cut power, they’ll still catch up to us. We’ll just be a little crispier when they do.”
Herod frowned and gave me a disgusted look. It was not the time for jokes, but damn it, the stress made me say it.
“Cut power to engine one,” I repeated, this time softer.
I watched as Herod’s hand hesitated before he pulled back the throttle and the damaged engine whirred and screeched its way to a halt. As long as our second engine was running, I refused to admit defeat. I just needed time to think of a plan.
“Wait, what’s that?” Herod asked, sitting up straighter in his seat.
“Hm?”
“Over there.”
“Is that a… planet?” I pondered aloud.
“Planet? Can’t be. We shouldn’t be anywhere near another planet.”
“Well, whatever it is, it’s in our way,” I retorted.
I pulled up the view panel and had a look for myself. He was right. There was something out there. At this distance it looked like a small orange-yellow orb, floating oddly in space. But as we drew closer, and I zoomed the cameras in, I discovered that it wasn’t a single orb. I counted nearly a dozen. They were all different sizes, but the one Herod spotted was largest.
“Changing course to go around… whatever that is,” Herod announced.
