“More pirate ships have arrived in the area,” he said slowly, eyes closed. “I am keeping four of them with full crews from chasing after us while convincing two of them to fire upon each other while trying to get yet another one to come attack those automated ships.”
“Is that all? I expect more from you, Thor.” Jelena hit the comm button. “Austin, if nothing’s on the verge of exploding down in engineering, go fire the star cannon.”
“I get to fire at things?” came the excited reply.
Spoken like someone who had no idea he should be scared for his life right now. Maybe she should have ordered Masika up there.
“Yes. Hurry up.”
Erick fired the blazers again, clipping one of their pursuers on the belly. “They’ve got a lot of shielding.”
“I imagine they pick fights with people for a living.”
Jelena zigzagged back and forth over the brownish-white surface of the asteroid, doing her best to make the Snapper a difficult target. She couldn’t decide if she could see what Zhou had seen down there—contours that hinted this had once been the surface of a planet. The cameras did show that canyon Kiyoko had mentioned, and maybe those lumps over there could have been a mountain range once. For the most part, the surface was full of craters, and the terrain features had eroded under the bombardments from space.
As Jelena took them up and over the lumpy mountain range, debating if she could somehow lose her pursuers by flying close to the ground, the star cannon fired for the first time. An excited whoop sounded over the internal comm, echoing throughout the ship. The blast sailed between the two automated ships.
“You only get to whoop if you hit something, Austin,” Jelena said.
“Sorry, Captain. It’s got a real kick. My seat is still vibrating.”
“That’s why Thor likes it up there. Now shoot one of the ships, please.” Jelena tilted the Snapper to give him a better angle while keeping them on course. “Three minutes to the canyon.”
Erick kept pouring blazer bolts into their pursuers, but he hadn’t been exaggerating about their shielding. The ships did not slow down, even when they took direct hits.
Austin fired again, and the bright, fiery blast from the star cannon hit one of those ships on the nose. A shield absorbed the blow, but the craft jerked to the side, wobbling. Jelena hoped that meant Austin’s hit had seriously depleted its defenses.
Erick focused on that one, firing again and again.
Brody made a disgusted noise. “I can’t affect those two—they’re automated.”
“We know,” Jelena said. “We’re dealing with it. You’re just here to tell us about how to get into the asteroid. Where in the canyon is this tunnel entrance?”
“The north end.”
North? Did asteroids have poles and cardinal directions?
Before she could ask for clarification, two pirate ships streaked in from the side, coming out from behind another asteroid.
She cursed. “Are those two of the many ships you’ve been watching, Thor?”
“No, they’re new ones.”
“Oh, joy. Nothing like encountering pirates with fleets larger than that of the entire Alliance military.”
Jelena dipped down the back side of the mountain range, and the two new ships disappeared from sight for a few seconds. When they appeared on the cameras again, she expected them to shoot at her. Instead, the two new ships opened fire on the automated ones chasing the Snapper.
“Aren’t those all part of the same fleet?” Kiyoko wondered.
“I am controlling them.” Thor dashed sweat out of his eyes. Even though he was barely moving, he looked like he’d just run miles.
The new ships fired relentlessly on the automated ones. The one Austin had damaged exploded. Another one lost its shields and careened into the asteroid, crashing at the base of the mountain range.
“This is so interesting,” Zhou murmured.
“Watching Starseers do battle?” Jelena asked.
“This asteroid. I’m gathering data. There will be spreadsheets, I promise.”
“If it’s so interesting, why hasn’t anyone been mining it?” Jelena asked, relieved when Brody’s canyon came onto the view screen ahead of them.
But maybe her relief was premature. What was to keep the pirates and eventually the Starseers from following them into it and into the asteroid? Her notion of bluffing to destroy the artifact to keep them away seemed foolish now. As did the notion that the Snapper would be allowed to leave the asteroid again, even if they were given time to explore the interior.
“Oh, there don’t seem to be any ore deposits or much in the way of minerals,” Zhou said. “I’m just fascinated by this proof that Trajea was indeed a planet and also by…”
Jelena glanced back in time to see Zhou giving Brody a speculative look. Brody returned the look, his own one of cool warning.
“Well, I’d just be speculating,” Zhou said. “I’ll wait until I’ve gathered more data before sharing my thoughts.”
Jelena would have glared at Brody—she had a feeling he had telepathically warned Zhou to keep his mouth shut—but they were almost on top of the canyon. She had to concentrate on flying.
As she soared over the rim, she glimpsed the two manned pirate ships—she assumed they were manned if Thor had been able to manipulate the pilots—turning on each other. They circled clumsily, blazer beams lancing out. They looked like they were fighting against Thor’s influence, but it was amazing that he was managing even this. Jelena had always learned that it was impossible to manipulate people into doing things that truly went against their desires—especially if they had been warned to expect such attempts.
The Snapper descended into the wide, deep canyon, and all the other ships disappeared from the cameras. Nothing but a black, starry sky remained in view above them, with a few distant asteroids tumbling through space.
Jelena took them all the way to the bottom of the canyon, looking for caves along the jagged sides, then leveled them out to follow the ground. Here and there, crevices and holes dotted the steep walls, but she hadn’t seen anything large enough to fly the ship into yet.
“You can see water locked up in the canyon walls,” Zhou breathed, seemingly fascinated by the sensor display. He had pulled up the forward camera display too. “I wonder if there were any seas under the frozen surface of Trajea. We know so little about the former planet. Do you think research ships have ever come out to study these asteroids?”
The canyon was narrowing, and Jelena was too busy piloting the Snapper around the bends to respond. Not that she would have had anything intelligent to say. She did briefly wonder if some desire to research had originally prompted the Starseers to send a ship out here. Though the Zyrgioth, the Sky Protector, didn’t sound like the name of a science vessel.
“The end of the canyon and the tunnel should be a couple miles ahead,” Brody said, ignoring Zhou’s hypothesizing.
“I see it,” Jelena said, checking the sensors. The stone walls of the deep canyon had made it hard to detect the terrain inside earlier, but the instruments now displayed a cave entrance and tunnels extending into the asteroid. “It’s going to be a tight fit for us.”
A soft sigh came from Thor, and he slumped forward, gripping the back of the co-pilot’s seat. “That’s all I can do for now. The pirates damaged each other, severely in some cases, and they’re in disarray, but I can’t control them any further. I need to rest.” He blinked a few times, looking like he might pass out.
With the tunnel dead ahead, Jelena couldn’t take her hands from the controls for long, but she leaned over to briefly grip his forearm in thanks for the help.
“At least you bought us some time before they regroup and come after us,” Jelena said.
“We can camp out inside the cave and open fire and destroy the other ships as they come in,” Brody said. “They’ll be vulnerable and easy to target at that moment. But you’ll have to be swift.”
“Thanks for t
he battle tips, Admiral,” Jelena said, lining them up to sail into the dark, gaping hole.
The proximity alarm flashed a warning before she could fly them in.
Two of the Starseer X-craft streaked out of the interior, firing without warning. Blazer bolts rained onto the Snapper’s shields, and the fighters raced straight toward them.
Jelena pulled up, her heart lurching. Were those kamikaze ships that had been ordered to sacrifice themselves to take her out?
The blazer bolts pinged off the Snapper’s lower shields as she showed her belly, looping backward in the canyon. It was all she could do in the tight confines, with cliffs rising to either side. Alarms flashed, but the shields held against the blazer fire. Then one of the ships fired something else from scant meters away. The alarm warned of something slapping against their shields and starting to bounce away. But it blew up before going far, and a flash of light flooded NavCom.
“Shield power drained,” the ship warned as a massive jolt wrenched the ship.
Jelena gripped the console to keep from being hurled from her seat. Those standing behind her had nothing to grab onto, and they tumbled against each other and to the deck.
“The shields are down,” the computer announced. “The shields are down.”
“Get them up,” Jelena yelled, slapping at the controls. “Auxiliary power.”
What in the hells had hit them? A nuclear bomb?
Another jolt ran through the ship, along with an audible crunch. They’d struck the side of the canyon.
The lights went out.
A thwump reverberated through the ship, the star canon firing.
“I got one!” Austin blurted. His voice echoed through the ship.
“Good,” Jelena yelled. “Get the other one.”
Metal screeched as the Snapper, having lost all momentum along with the shields, scraped and bumped its way down the canyon wall. They landed with an ominous crunch.
An ear-splitting scream of agony came from behind her, and Jelena whirled in her seat to see Abelardus crumple to the deck, grabbing his ears. She started to ask what was wrong as her hands flew over the controls and she tried to get the sluggish system to respond to her, but then pain erupted in her own mind, a thousand daggers stabbing into her brain. She cried out, tears springing to her eyes.
Erick groaned, grabbing his head.
Thor, who hadn’t fallen when the others had, still gripped the back of the co-pilot’s seat. His face contorted in fierce determination.
“I’ll kill them,” Brody snarled, supporting himself against the jambs of the hatchway. “All of those arrogant bastards.”
Jelena was aware of alarms flashing from all sides and that they were helpless on the floor of the canyon, but the pain in her mind had tears blurring her vision and running down her cheeks. She could barely see the console. Nothing responded when she touched it.
The cameras were still active, and the remaining Starseer X-craft came into view on the forward one, heading straight for them, weapons hot. She pounded at the control for the shields, as if hammering at it fifty times would be more effective than hitting it once.
Orange flared on the camera, an explosion driving back the shadows in the canyon. Dozens of pings struck the hull of the Snapper. Shrapnel. From the Starseer X-craft? Yes, pieces of it were hammering them. The flames died away, revealing nothing on the camera, not even the wrecked remains of a hull.
The pain vanished in Jelena’s head so abruptly she almost passed out. Thor and Brody exchanged long looks, nodding once to each other.
“Takka-eating bastards, who was that?” Abelardus asked, using the bulkhead to pull himself to his feet. “He was stronger than Tymoteusz.”
“Someone who very much didn’t want us to get inside the asteroid,” Thor said quietly.
Someone else that they had killed, Jelena thought grimly. Not a pirate, but a Starseer. Another person working for the Starseer government.
She closed her eyes, a lump filling her throat. She again asked herself how this had gone so wrong so quickly.
She might have stayed slumped in her seat, defeated and forlorn, but another alarm echoed through the Snapper.
“Hull breech in the aft cargo hold,” the ship’s computer announced. “Prepare for containment procedures.”
“Erick,” Jelena started, but he was already jumping out of his seat.
“I’m on it,” he said, then yelled, “Austin, engineering!”
He shoved past Brody and Abelardus and disappeared down the corridor.
“Take us into the cavern,” Brody told Jelena.
“I don’t think that’s an option right now.” She waved at all the alarms flashing on the console.
“We’re legless toads sitting here. Get us inside, and we can hide behind something, then shoot at anyone who comes in after us, just like I said.”
“I don’t even know if I can lift us off the ground.” Jelena, calmer and less frantic now, started a systems diagnostic to see what maneuverability, if any, they had.
“Make that a priority then.”
Jelena would have glared at Brody, but she was busy, and Thor was already giving him a better glare than she could. Their brief moment of understanding—had they worked together to destroy that ship?—appeared to be in the past.
“Erick?” Jelena asked on the comm, grimacing at what the diagnostics display showed. “Can you get me enough power to limp into the cavern? We’re exposed here for anyone who flies over the canyon.”
As soon as the pirates and the Starseers figured out what had happened, they would surely come to finish off the Snapper. They could attack with impunity now.
“Working on it,” came his terse response. “The hull breech is something of a priority.”
“It’s a good thing I’ve got two engineers then. That means you can work on four problems at once.”
“Four?”
“One in each hand.”
Erick grumbled something that managed to be unflattering even though it was unintelligible.
“I’ll go help,” Thor said, bumping Brody’s shoulder as he walked out of NavCom.
Kiyoko, perhaps worrying she was in the way, had left at some point too. That left Jelena in NavCom with Brody, Abelardus, and Zhou. She was groping for a way to get rid of two out of three of those people when she noticed blood trickling from Abelardus’s left eye and one of his nostrils. He was leaning against the bulkhead, his brown skin pale.
“Are you all right?” she asked him.
He straightened under her scrutiny but didn’t manage to look much haler.
“I think I was the main target of that attack.” His words came out with a slight slur.
“Why don’t you head to sickbay? Kiyoko has been complaining that she doesn’t have enough to do. Maybe you can keep her hands full.”
“I have no doubt of that, but I’m a married man.”
“Your eye is bleeding—is this the time for crude innuendoes?”
“He always thinks it’s the time,” Brody grumbled.
Zhou was still focused on the sensors—they seemed to be one of the few things on the ship that worked—but he nodded in silent agreement with the comment.
“I can’t help it that I’m a pretty man, and women always throw themselves at me.” Abelardus smiled crookedly. Or maybe that was his gait that was crooked. Jokes aside, he did not look well as he stumbled around the intersection, using the bulkhead for support as he headed for sickbay.
“His wife is such a lucky woman,” Brody said.
Jelena almost asked him if he had a wife—she would undoubtedly also be a “lucky” woman—but she didn’t truly care. She also didn’t want to engage in a conversation with him.
Fortunately, one of the alarms on the console winked out, giving her a reason to pay attention to that instead.
“We have auxiliary thruster power,” Erick said over the comm. “But don’t go far. We’re going to need a quiet spot to do repairs.”
“I�
�ll see what I can find.” Jelena tapped at the navigation controls.
“The pirates are coming,” Brody said, his voice distant.
“Do they know where we are?”
Scrapes and groans reverberated through the ship as Jelena lifted it into the air, pulling them away from the rock wall.
“They know we’re on the asteroid somewhere. The canyon may be shielding us from their sensors somewhat, but if they get close, they’ll spot us.”
Jelena turned the nose toward the entrance. “Zhou, there’s not anyone else waiting inside for us, is there?”
She was irritated that the sensors hadn’t picked up on that before.
“I don’t think so, but I didn’t think so before, either.”
“The Starseers may have fooled you into believing that,” Brody said.
“Comforting.”
Jelena glanced at the sensor display for herself, but didn’t see anything ahead of them. Admittedly, there was a limit to how far through the stone the Snapper’s instruments could read. But with few other choices, they would have to risk going in.
She didn’t bother to accelerate, instead limping toward the entrance. The sensors showed a cavern inside, but not a huge one. Numerous tunnels opened up from various points around it.
The stars disappeared overhead, and the ship’s running lights played over variegated stone as it flew through the entrance. Stalactites leered down from a tall ceiling, and Jelena tilted the ship sharply to avoid hitting one right inside. The Snapper’s battered hull groaned at the movement.
“Those rock formations are amazing,” Zhou said. “And completely unexpected. There must have been water running through here at one time. Maybe there was an ocean under the frozen surface of the planet, and rivers too. If the core of the planet was molten, it could have kept water thawed, and it could have also caused seismic activity that formed the mountains and fissures on the surface.”
Jelena thought the rock formations annoying rather than amazing. The cameras and running lights revealed dozens of stalactites, stalagmites, and columns, so she slowed them down even further. This made the obstacle course she’d flown through on her flight exams seem like a stroll through a grassy meadow in comparison.
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