Dirken raised an arm and deflected a blow, blocking her at the wrist. She swung around again. Her legs wrapped around his neck, threw him to the ground, his neck squeezed between her furry thighs. He let go of the duffel bag and tried to pry her off of him. Struggled to breathe.
Eow smiled, her pointy teeth glistening in a maddened grin as she raised an arm to slash at his face.
But she paused, her smile faltering.
The albino swung her lyrophone and slammed it into the back of Eow's head, the instrument squawking with a metallic twang. Eow emitted a pained yelp and fell off of Dirken. He coughed and turned over to look at Yiorgos.
His partner was against the wall, his saber arm mangled and blackened, blasted apart. Pained, Yiorgos raised his mini blaster toward Dimitri.
Dimitri was bleeding from a blaster wound to his right ribs, but he raised his pulse rifle again.
The dented lyrophone flew over Dirken's head and hit Dimitri in the chest. The Martian's shot went wide, hitting the ceiling. Then Yiorgos fired. The blast hit Dimitri in the head, exploding his cranium in a rain of blood and brain matter from his right temple.
The dais had now lowered enough for Dirken to see half a dozen Saffron Guards bending down to look through the gap. They aimed, but didn't fire, with Eow in the way.
Dirken looked up at the albino, whose attention had turned to the Heart.
"Thanks," he said.
But she had hardly turned to look at him when they heard a crazed wail.
Eow leaped up and grabbed the albino, slamming her against the doors. "You bitch!" Eow yelled.
The albino was surprisingly lithe. She escaped Eow's grasp, swung herself around the Ananak's body, and hugged her from behind, her arm around Eow's throat to choke her.
Eow stiffened. The albino screamed as Eow's body spikes plunged into her.
Dirken pulled the albino off.
Eow spun and hit him in the face with a closed fist, then lunged for the Heart. But she was cut off by Yiorgos. He fired, but she leaped away, turning a somersault.
For a brief moment she landed, surveying the situation, the albino's blood dripping from her back and her own blood from her head. Her eyes darted from Dirken and Yiorgos to the body of Dimitri. She retracted her spines, then she fled, running with amazing speed past the dais toward the front tunnel.
Yiorgos touched the control panel and the reinforced doors slid open again. Another distant explosion, and the room shook again, large clods of ice crashing down around them.
The Saffron Guards fired through the dais gap, narrowly missing them as the room shook, but Dirken leaned down to the albino woman. Her chest was a mess of gaping holes and pulsing, bloody wounds. He was surprised she was still alive.
She gasped, spitting up blood, but her eyes focused on him. She pointed through the doors. "Second… left. Yellow… airlock." She sputtered. "Must… go." She grabbed Dirken's collar and muttered, "May AVA bring peace… at last." This last was stated with a long sigh, then her eyes fixed and her hand released his collar and fell to the floor.
The comet shook with another massive explosion — the largest yet. All around them, the walls of the hall splintered and cracked. Large sections fell from the ceiling.
"Come on, Dirk!" Yiorgos yelled.
The Saffron Guards continued firing, but the shaking continued, clearly affecting their aim. The dais had also stopped lowering and appeared stuck, but the guards now squeezed through the gap and dropped to the floor.
Dirken grabbed the Heart duffel bag and ran through the doorway, retrieving his blaster as he went.
One Saffron guardsman jumped down and spread his arms wide. Little ports opened all over his body, then a dozen miniature missiles shot out.
Yiorgos touched the control panel on the other side, closing the doors again, just as the rockets slammed into the other side. The hallway shook.
Dirken's eyes had gone wide. If the door had stayed open another millisecond they would have been pulp. He reached into his secret pocket and pulled out his lucky runestone, gave it quick kiss, and tucked it back inside.
Yiorgos blasted the control panel. "It won't hold them for long," he shouted, and they ran down the corridor.
They passed a tunnel to their left that sloped downward, then came to another on their left that stopped at a yellow airlock.
"Here," Dirken said. "The albino said to escape through here."
Behind them they heard a metallic screech as the reinforced door was being forced open.
Yiorgos tapped on an interface with his good hand, but the readout flashed red. "Someone's overriding it from the other side."
"What?" Dirken said. "Can you stop them?"
From behind the airlock came an echo of small explosions. Dirken felt the vibrations through the floor.
Yiorgos cocked his head. "Maybe this way…." He reached to his mangled right arm and pulled a cable from it. It seemed caught on something internally, but it was just long enough. He raised his arm to the panel and connected the wire to a port on the interface.
From behind them came another metallic screech and the sound of gears winding back.
Dirken looked back around the corner and saw the reinforced doors slide back. "Hurry! They're through!" He leaned out and fired several shots, then pulled back just as several blasts hit the wall.
"Ah!" Yiorgos exclaimed, and the airlock swung open.
The little Gogonoian fluttered his wings in surprise on the other side. He shrieked, eyes wide, and flapped past them into the hallway…
…where he was immediately shot, a pulse rifle bolt from the Saffron Guard blasting through his right wing and into his torso. He flopped to the ground in a smoking heap.
Dirken and Yiorgos ran through the airlock and pulled it shut behind them as they heard the echo of boots growing louder.
What they met on the other side was a corridor filled with fumes. The air was alive with the sounds of a explosions, the smells of burning synthalloys, the screams of the injured. But the corridor sloped downward before leveling out, so they couldn't see what lay beyond the slope.
Yiorgos hacked into the airlock interface. "That should lock it for good," he said. Then they crept down the slope.
What they saw down the corridor made Dirken's eyes widen. "Oh shit!" was all he could say.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
ANOTHER FREAKIN' HANGAR BATTLE
Less than five meters ahead of them was a checkpoint manned by half a dozen heavily armed guards, an Oranchian in mirrored armor, and two mini pulse cannons mounted on the wall. They were hiding behind barriers and firing into the hangar, which opened up in front of them, their backs to Dirken and Yiorgos.
Beyond them, the hangar presented a scene of chaos. Lasers of different colors flashed back and forth. Parked spacecraft exploded. Guards ran for cover.
And through the yawning opening that led to space, the nose of the Bloodhawk's brigantine, the Dragonfire, pushed forward. Half in the hangar and half out, the starship crowding the opening with its massive body, its prow decorated with a gigantic figurehead shaped like a four-winged hawk with outstretched talons. Most of the rest of the front had been blasted to hell, probably by those massive cannons. The ship was so large that there was no way it could fully enter the hangar. It blocked the exit against any mid-sized vessels trying to escape, including the zeppelin-like ship that Eow had said was Grimmag's.
But smaller craft can easily get through the edges, Dirken thought, including the fighter. He craned his neck, but he couldn't see the fighter from where he was.
"Holy shit," Yiorgos whispered. "It's another freakin' hangar battle. That's three in less than two Earth days! We sure as hell don't want to go out there." He turned to look at Dirken. "So what's the plan?"
Behind them they heard pounding on the airlock and attempts to wrench it open. Then came the energetic whine of a plasma beam as the Saffron Guard started cutting through the airlock.
"Well, no going back that way, either
!" Dirken stopped to consider their odds, then came to a conclusion, looking toward the hangar. "Okay, I have a plan."
"Oh shit. Here we go.…" Yiorgos muttered.
"Our choices aren't good, but we have one advantage. Those guards down there are all looking the other way and focused on the pirates. They don't know we're here."
Behind them the metallic whining intensified. Ahead of them, a laser flashed across the hangar and hit the Oranchian dead on, but the mirrored armor reflected it and it burned a line across the comet wall next to him. The hulking beast just laughed with a "Ho ho!" and returned fire at the brigantine.
Dirken pressed the button on each of the bracelets and watched as they folded out into mirrored vambraces — his own bit of laser-proof armor. He then readied his blaster. "You aim at the cannon on the left. I'll take the right. Fire at its energy pack when I do." Dirken took careful aim as Yiorgos did the same. "Ready? Three, two, one…."
They fired at the same instant and hit the mini-cannons dead on. Dirken's cannon exploded, knocking several guards off their feet and sending shrapnel into the rest. Yiorgos's was damaged, but his mini-blaster wasn't strong enough to do serious damage.
Dirken hefted the duffel bag and the Heart. Dirken yelled "Come on!" to Yiorgos. They rushed forward, firing their blasters at the guards. Yiorgos followed behind Dirken as fast as his gimpy leg could allow. He fired his mini-blaster and hit the Oranchian in the head. The mirrored helmet shattered, but the beast still stood.
Dirken shot a couple other guards and dropped them instantly, then kicked the Oranchian in the gut, distracting him long enough for Yiorgos to run through the barricade and past the guards.
"Make for the fighter!" Dirken yelled, pointing to the far side of the hangar and sprinting behind his partner.
He turned and fired over his shoulder at the other mounted cannon. The blast hit, but the cannon recovered and turned toward him.
The other guards raised their rifles at them. But just as they aimed, a massive explosion rocked the hangar. Missiles fired from Grimmag's ship hit the nose of the brigantine and exploded in a fireball. The four-winged hawk figurehead was blown off, tumbling end over end upward and then in a trajectory right for Dirken and Yiorgos.
"Watch out!" Dirken yelled, dodging for cover.
The figurehead slammed into the deck in a hail of debris, narrowly missing the pair, and crashed into the guard post. The Oranchian was smashed against the wall in a rain of pink blood and shattered mirror armor. Then the ice-and-rock ceiling over the guard post collapsed onto the remaining guards.
Dirken paused to check on Yiorgos, relieved to see the cyborg still alive.
"I'm okay!" Yiorgos yelled. "But look!" He pointed with his wrecked right arm up toward the Bloodhawk's ship. The front was a fiery wreck, but further down the craft several ports opened and red-clothed pirates in hoversuits jumped out, firing rifles as they lowered toward the deck.
"The fighter!" Dirken yelled and pointed across the hangar. The yellow fightercraft sat serenely untouched in the midst of flaming spacecraft and falling debris. It seemed impossibly far away, but they made for it. It was their only choice.
They dodged left as a laser cut across the deck and hit a Pleiadean hauler, slicing off her port thruster panel. Then they ducked as a Terran yacht lifted up from behind them, barely above head height. The craft had hardly gone twelve meters when cannon blasts from the brigantine hit the cockpit. The craft veered right, tilted at a sharp angle with an ear-splitting thruster roar, then collided with a spherical scout pod and exploded against the hangar wall.
"There!" Dirken heard someone shout. The deep voice was instantly recognizable. He looked up toward the brigantine and saw the Bloodhawk, a hoversuit strapped to his four-legged torso, flying near the burning nose of his ship. His uncovered chest was bright green and inflamed from the explosion he'd suffered in their last encounter, and one eye was swollen shut. Half a dozen of his pirates hovered near him. They immediately swooped into action, making a bee line toward Dirken.
"Crap! That's all we need!" Dirken shouted.
Several shots barely missed them, until Dirken heard the Bloodhawk yell at his pirates, "Don't fire toward the Heart, you curs!"
The hangar was absolute chaos. They passed by a Tau Cetian screaming in polyphonic agony, her legs both cleanly severed at the knees by a laser. A moment later, a block of ice as big as a shuttle slammed into the deck with a resounding crash that sent chunks as large as Dirken's head in every direction. A clipper exploded back the way they'd came. The air was saturated with fuel, spilled chemicals, and smoke. It was hard for him to focus.
They managed to get halfway across the hangar when Dirken spotted Eow running across the hangar as well, somersaulting over a disabled shuttlecraft. She sprinted up the ramp to the cockpit of their fightercraft.
"Eow!" Dirken yelled, but she apparently didn't hear him over the explosions and weapons fire. Dirken sped up, but he'd hardly gone ten paces before Eow lifted off in the fighter, turned, and flew through the narrow gap between the brig and the wall of the hangar entry. The fightercraft had plenty of room in the gap, but any larger ship would likely not squeeze through.
"Our fighter!" Dirken yelled. "That treacherous bitch stole our fighter!"
"What do we do now?" Yiorgos responded. "Can we take one of these others?"
Dirken looked around, but most of the remaining ships were damaged. The Bloodhawk's pirates were closing fast.
"Over here!" A metallic voice called. "Friend Dirken!"
Dirken wheeled about. "'TakTrak!" he shouted, relief washing over him. The Corthian stood in the gangway of his Jen'torian clipper, a bright blue eagle emblazoned on the front over the cockpit and gangway, a long row of scarred and blasted silver cargo cube compartments stretching back from the forecastle of the ship. One of the cargo cubes seemed shiny and unscuffed, as if brand new.
"We must hurry!" 'TakTrak shouted, his voice translated from its clacking, whirring speech into Terran by his translator necklace. He waved with a wing for Dirken to come aboard.
Dirken and Yiorgos gave each other a quick glance, shrugged as one, and ran for 'TakTrak's ship.
The Bloodhawk saw where they were headed and opened fire on the clipper. Several shots perforated one of the stabilizers and blew off an atmospheric aileron on the port side.
A cannon raised up out of the top of 'TakTrak's ship and returned fire, its four barrels pulsing with orange-red blasts every bit as strong as the one firing at it from the brigantine. The brig's remaining cannon exploded from well-placed shots.
Dirken arrived at the gangway as 'TakTrak was firing a plasma flechette rifle up at the pirates, knocking two out of the air with the energized darts the weapon hurtled at high velocity. "Thanks," Dirken said. "You get me out of here and I'll let you off the hook for the rest you owe me. Deal?"
"Friend Dirken, it is a deal but I would save you no matter what the circumstance." He fired his flechette rifle again. "But get in now! We must leave!"
Yiorgos hobbled up the gangway and they entered the ship together. Dirken felt the ship lift off before the gangway had even closed all the way.
He holstered his blaster and pressed the buttons of his mirrored vambraces, folding them back into bracelets. 'TakTrak finished securing the airlock and gangway, then squeezed past them as Dirken then hefted the duffel with the Heart. The Corthian eyed the duffel for a moment but didn't ask what was in it. Instead he turned and led them toward the bridge.
Yiorgos met Dirken's eyes, and the concern was clear without the need to say it. Neither of them trusted 'TakTrak. Was there any other choice?
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
ESCAPE FROM THE WITCH'S TITS
Dirken slipped sideways against a bulkhead as the ship lurched one way, then the other. Other than the gravplating, the Raptores wasn't like larger capital ships with their fancy three-dimensional gravity modulators to dampen inertial changes.
The hull vibrated with the hum of a laser
slicing away at some part of it. 'TakTrak quickened his pace to the bridge entry.
Dirken steadied himself and stepped after 'TakTrak. "I don't know if your ship can fit through the gap."
"I have faith in Feleesha's piloting," the Corthian replied.
The ship accelerated with a surprising amount of power for its size. Dirken was caught off-guard and had to catch himself before he fell backward.
They stepped through a couple of narrow passages and emerged into a tight bridge that sloped downward with a broad, transparent aluminum canopy. At the top sat the captain's chair. To either side were consoles for weapons and communications, both manned by humans. The weapons specialist had his eyes glued to a holo display, targeting a weapons array on the brig.
Below the captain's chair was the navigation console, manned by Feleesha, her back to them. Holo displays shone in front of her as she leaned right and then back, her hands deftly manipulating a control stick.
'TakTrak threw himself into the captain's chair and buckled the chair's restraint netting across his chest.
The ship turned and smacked directly into two Pleiadean pirates in hoversuits. The pirates slammed against the canopy in a spray of crimson blood like bugs on a hovcar windshield, their furry brown faces a look of horror before their bodies slipped off, leaving streaks of crimson blood. Dirken wished one had been the Bloodhawk. He held his breath and clutched a console as the ship rolled to starboard under the hull of the brigantine and squeezed through the gap.
Below them in the cockpit, Feleesha pulled on a control stick and turned it sharply to starboard to dodge the brigantine's engine cowling. 'TakTrak's ship responded with an equally sharp roll that left Dirken dizzy. A loud rip and scrape of metal rang through the ship as the ventral side slid along the brig's hull. Alarms sounded through the room. Dirken and Yiorgos were thrown to the floor as the ship bucked.
The First Nova I See Tonight Page 15