Miguri laughed.
30
The following day, Varrin summoned Eris and Miguri to the cockpit. As Eris sat down in the copilot’s seat, Varrin called up an image of Kratis’s warship, which was currently orbiting Jupiter.
“I thought he had a huge fleet with him,” Eris said. “That’s only one ship.”
Varrin shrugged. “He may have split the fleet to cover more space. Or he couldn’t get the whole armada past the blockade. Or he was bluffing.”
He tapped his finger on the image of the Rakorsian cruiser and zoomed in on a spiky section near the rear of the ship. “As soon as we pass the asteroid belt, we’ll be in range of their scanners,” Varrin said. “While the rat distracts Kratis, we’re going to hop in the escape pod and set a course directly for this hatch.” His finger circled a door on the image, leaving behind a trail of glowing green pixels. “Here, right beside the engines.”
Eris raised her hand. “Wait a minute. We’re going to be in range of their scanners, Varrin. Can’t they detect an escape pod just as easily as a spaceship?”
“Normally, they can,” he agreed, gray eyes sparkling. “But my escape pod is unique. I’ve been on the run for a long time, and I’ve made a few adjustments to it over the years. As long as Kratis isn’t actively searching for the pod, he won’t even know it’s there.”
“I don’t care how stealthy your pod is, Varrin. They’re still going to notice us flying at their ship!”
“Hence using the rat as a decoy. See? No problem.”
“Um, hello! The only way they won’t notice us approaching that hatch is if …”
“Is if what?” Varrin prompted.
Eyes widening, Eris shook her head furiously. “No, no, no, no. Don’t even consider it.”
“The only way the mighty Admiral Kratis won’t notice little old us trying to board his ship is if we distract him by trying to blow up the exact same engine we’re trying to land on.”
Eris thunked her head down on the control panel. “Phenomenal.”
“The Rakorsian cruiser is coming into sensor range now,” Miguri announced over the intercom. “I’m locking weapons onto their starboard posterior engine bay. Please hurry.”
“We’re putting on our space suits now,” Eris responded. Then, looking down at her closely fitting black space suit, she asked Varrin, “Are you sure this suit is airtight? The fabric seems awfully thin.”
“You’ve found me out,” Varrin said. “I purposely gave you a defective suit, so you’ll suffocate to death the instant you step outside the ship. It’s part of my diabolical plot to personally make your life as difficult as possible.”
“You are not even in the shuttle pod yet?” Miguri squeaked. “They will detect us any minute! This plan will not succeed if we are blown to pieces before we even begin!”
“Just don’t forget about phase two,” Varrin retorted. “As soon as things heat up, get my ship out of the battle. Powering off the comm interrupter won’t do us much good if we’re trapped on Kratis’s ship because you decided to go and get yourself captured.”
“I know the plan, Rakorsian. I helped you create it. I will return for you and Eris when you contact me and not before then.”
Eris and Varrin grabbed their helmets and hurried over to the shuttle pod door, which slid open at Varrin’s command. Looking into the dimly lit, spherical pod, she said, “Are you sure we’ll both fit in there?”
“Kari, girl, just get in the pod.”
When Eris didn’t move, Varrin scooped her up in his arms and dumped her unceremoniously into the copilot seat. He climbed in after her, slid into the pilot’s seat, and then sealed the pod door.
“I should probably warn you,” he added, “once we detach from the Nonconformity, we’ll be in zero G.”
“I hate you,” Eris grumbled, strapping herself in.
“That’s fine. As long as you can do it while following the plan.”
Varrin flipped a few switches, and fluorescent waves of light flooded the interior of the pod. Eris looked around and thought, It’s like being trapped inside a gigantic hamster exercise ball. Then she realized there weren’t any windows. “Not even one window? Really?”
“Disappointed? Can’t go more than five minutes without checking your appearance?” Varrin’s fingers danced across the control panel. The engine hummed to life, and the shuttle pod bay’s exterior door slid open.
“Yeah, like that’s my biggest concern right now,” Eris retorted. She held on tightly to the seat arms as the pod detached from the ship. “Are Rakorsian women really that vain?”
Varrin grimaced. “Exceedingly so. Most Rakorsian women spend hours a day primping and polishing themselves. It’s insufferably dull. I don’t know how they stand it without losing their minds.”
“You’re kidding! Don’t you have any career women on Rakor?”
“What do you mean?”
Eris carefully adjusted her safety harness to compensate for the lack of gravity. Her hair floated around her like a brown and red halo as she shifted to face him. “On Earth, women have careers, go out into the world, make a difference. We want jobs that we can value as much as keeping our homes and raising our children.”
Varrin recoiled. “You have children?”
Eris couldn’t help but laugh at his reaction. “I meant we as in the general female we. Why? Does it matter?”
“I couldn’t care less what your marital status is,” Varrin sniffed.
“Who said Earth women have to be married to have children?”
He glowered at her. “Now you’re just trying to get a rise out of me.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Bloodlines are too important for Rakorsian women to go around popping out children as they please,” he explained.
“Ugh,” Eris huffed, crossing her arms. “I can’t believe you!”
“It’s not my fault,” Varrin retorted. “I can’t help how my people treat each other. And anyway, stop projecting your culture onto mine.”
“I am not projecting!”
Her response was so vehement that she accidentally spit. The small globule of liquid floated toward Varrin. The look on his face was priceless as he ducked out of the way before it could hit him.
“Oh, Lord, I’m sorry,” Eris gasped, trying but failing to hold back her giggles.
“Not projecting?” he snorted. “I dare to differ.”
“It’s beg,” she corrected. “Beg to differ. That’s the saying.”
“Rakorsians do not beg.”
Eris laughed. “Well, luckily for you we’re in zero G, so you had time to duck.”
“And unlucky for you that we’re on a tight schedule,” Varrin said, throwing her one of his most rakish smiles, “or I could show you some far more interesting things to do in zero G.”
Before Eris could die of embarrassment, Miguri’s voice sounded over the intercom. “What in Kari’s name are you two doing?” he demanded. “I am about to commence my assault, and you two are acting like school children!”
“Acknowledged,” Varrin said. “All forms of hilarity and lightheartedness have now been suppressed. Continue your assault preparations, Captain Rodent.”
“Stop taunting him,” Eris admonished
Looking at the view screen, Varrin turned serious. “We’re within range of the flagship’s weapons. Activate the plasma cannons, rat. And I suggest you aim carefully. If you hit us or dent my ship, I will make your life—for what little time there will be left of it—very unpleasant. Understood?”
“I may be a Claktill, but my aim is second to none,” Miguri trilled.
“That’s what I like to hear. Open fire, rat!”
Eris had found space flight, on the whole, to be a fairly pleasant experience. That is, until she found herself in a windowless escape pod rocketing blindly toward a Rakorsian battle cruiser, trusting her pilot to navigate them safely between the huge pulses of deadly energy aimed at the exact place toward which they were f
lying.
What was worse, Eris didn’t think Varrin was treating the job of navigating the ship nearly as seriously as he should have been. He seemed to enjoy it a bit too much—he laughed every time they narrowly dodged a plasma burst like a child playing a video game.
“If you don’t keep both hands on the controls, Varrin, I swear to your precious Kari that I will take that knife of yours and scratch rude words into every single square inch of your ship!”
“You wouldn’t dare,” Varrin said with complete confidence.
“Do I look like I’m bluffing?” she demanded, a steely glint in her eyes.
“You’re becoming far too defiant,” he muttered.
“And it’s entirely your fault, so live with it.”
“You should really have more faith in me, girl. If I can single-handedly incapacitate a Ssrisk war ship, then I can pilot a pod through a light firefight.”
“Fine,” she sighed. “Just please don’t get us killed.”
“Kratis is hailing me,” Miguri announced over the intercom. “Do you want to speak with him?”
“Patch me through,” Varrin said.
Kratis’s scarred face appeared on the monitor a second later. “Prince Varrin,” he snarled. “Your current actions are surprisingly reckless, even for you.”
“Really, Admiral, you aren’t one to talk.” Varrin smirked. “Didn’t you just disobey Tetrarchy command by flying into a restricted terrestrial system? My father might kill you for this. Or possibly promote you, depending on his mood.”
“If I bring the emperor his estranged son, I will not be punished—I will be honored above all others. It is you, my prince, who will be on the executioner’s block.”
“Hardly,” Varrin snorted. “First of all, that would mean leaving my little brother as heir to the throne, something I’m fairly certain my father would rather kill himself than do. It would also require that you capture me, and at the moment it is I who am blasting your ship to smithereens, not the other way around.”
“Your pathetic cannons cannot so much as dent this starship!” Kratis snapped his beefy fingers at his officers, setting off a flurry of activity. “For the past twelve millennia my family has served the royal house of Rakor. If it is death you desire, my prince, then it will be my honor to give it to you.”
“Go ahead and try,” Varrin said and then switched off the channel. “Things are going to get tricky from here,” he said, calling up a tactical display on the monitor screen. “Nothing I can’t handle, of course.”
“Since when did you have a brother?” Eris demanded, although she vaguely recalled having heard Varrin mention him before. “Do you not like him or something?”
“On the contrary. My little brother is a complete disgrace to my father,” Varrin said. “He is, therefore, my favorite being in the galaxy.”
“Fighters coming in on all vectors,” Miguri interrupted. “Do you want me to target them or keep blasting at the hull?”
“It’ll look a little suspicious if you ignore them,” Eris said.
“Divert your weaponry between the two,” Varrin commanded. “You’re no good to us if you’re captured. I don’t expect you to actually hit anything, but try to give them a good show.”
“I will certainly try,” Miguri promised.
“One more thing. We’re about to dock. Make sure you do not hit the pod.”
“I am not stupid, Rakorsian,” the Claktill said and then clicked off the comm.
“Will he be all right?” Eris asked. “I mean, isn’t Kratis going to try to destroy your ship?”
“The rat will be fine. Kratis talks big, but even he wouldn’t dare kill the emperor’s son, exiled or not. He’ll simply batter at my ship until the engines and weapons systems fail. Then he’ll board, arrest me, and drag me back to Rakor. Hypothetically, of course.”
“Except you aren’t on the ship,” Eris snapped. “Miguri is. They’ll kill him, Varrin!”
“He knew what he was getting into when he volunteered.”
Eris glared at him.
Varrin sighed. “Oh, for Kari’s sake, girl, stop moping. The rat’s going to run for it as soon as we’re on board Kratis’s ship. And even if they do catch him, they’ll interrogate him before they kill him, which leaves us plenty of time to rescue him.”
“You’d better be right.”
The pod finally reached the Rakorsian flagship, stopping a few yards from a hatch near the starboard engine. “Why haven’t they noticed us?” Eris wondered. “You’d think they’d have security cameras or something to watch for this kind of thing.”
Varrin nudged the controls, and the pod inched forward until it was level with the hatch. “They do have cameras,” he said. “But this pod has a device that feeds them a continual loop on their monitors and scrambles their proximity sensors. Cost me a fortune, but worth every tetra.”
THUD.
“The docking arm is attached to the cruiser’s hull,” Varrin said. “Time for weapons.”
He unbuckled from his seat and floated up to open the overhead storage compartment. Reaching inside, he pulled out a sheathed knife and began to offer it to Eris but then stopped. Looking her up and down, he shook his head.
“What?” she demanded.
“I don’t think you’re exactly built for fighting with blades in close quarters,” he said, tucking the knife into the back of his belt. He reached up again, pulled a striker from the compartment, and handed it to Eris. “You’re better off with this. But don’t use it unless absolutely necessary.” He extracted a belt with a holster and gave it to her as well.
Eris stared at the striker blankly. She’d never even held a weapon before, let alone fired one. Well, except for laser tag. I wonder if the skills are transferable? “What do I do with it?”
Varrin raised his eyebrows. “What do you think?”
Eris scowled. “Well, shoot people, obviously. I mean, how does it work?”
“Blue button turns it on, triangle releases the safety, and trigger shoots. Flip the switch for wound or stun. Aim for the torso, because your aim is probably too terrible to hit the head.”
“Any other useful instructions?” she said sarcastically.
“Yeah. Don’t shoot me.”
Eris rolled her eyes.
As Varrin donned his helmet, she unbuckled from her seat. Then she slipped her helmet over her head and locked it in place.
“I’m going out first,” Varrin radioed, gesturing with two fingers toward the pod hatch. “Follow when I tell you. Keep radio comm to a minimum outside.” When he released the safety latch and opened the hatch, the air in the pod was sucked out into the vacuum of space.
Varrin floated up through the opening and disappeared from view.
While she waited for Varrin’s signal, Eris shoved the striker into its holster and looped the belt around her waist. Should I go with the gunslinger look? she wondered, pushing the belt down to her hips. Eris Miller, rebel without a cause. No, she thought, cinching the belt tightly around her waist. With my luck it’ll slip right down to my toes. Varrin would never let me live that down.
“Now,” Varrin radioed.
Eris floated up to the hatch, grabbed one of the exterior handholds, and pulled herself through the opening. Clinging to the handhold, she hit the button that closed the pod door. She saw Varrin a few yards away holding on to a metallic strut on the side of the huge cruiser. He waved her toward him.
Eyeing the flimsy-looking docking arm that connected the pod to the Rakorsian ship, Eris thought, You’ve got to be kidding!
Mustering what was left of her courage, she slowly pulled herself along the pod’s handholds and then inched across the docking arm. This thing had better not break loose, she thought nervously. I don’t want to end up floating off through space for eternity.
When she was close enough to reach out and grab the strut beside Varrin, he nodded approvingly and gave her a thumbs-up.
Eris whacked his arm. If he ever makes me do somet
hing like this again, so help me …
Varrin shot her a hurt look and then grinned again. He pulled himself over to the engine hatch, where he extracted a small device from a pouch on his belt and attached it to the hatch. The small screen on the device displayed a series of flashing green symbols. Is that—is that a bomb?
Varrin returned to her side, positioning himself between her and the hatch. He reached around her and grabbed a strut. “Brace yourself,” he said.
Eris tightened her grip on the strut and closed her eyes. Seconds later, she felt it vibrate. When she tentatively cracked her eyes open, she saw the hatch had disappeared. All that remained was a ragged, black-rimmed hole. But I didn’t hear an explosion, she thought. Oh, right—there’s no sound in space.
Varrin pulled himself over to the opening. He gestured for her to follow and then disappeared inside the ship.
Eris followed carefully after him. As soon as she entered the airlock, her feet were gently pulled down to the floor. Thank God for artificial gravity, she thought.
Varrin pulled a tube from his belt, pointed it at the blown hatchway, and pressed the button on the bottom. Gooey, stringy material sprayed from the tube and formed a sheet across the hole.
Curious, Eris reached out and tentatively touched the weblike seal. It felt as solid as steel. Cool, she thought.
Varrin punched some buttons on the wall console near the inner door. Air hissed into the chamber.
“Impressed?” he asked, dropping his helmet on the floor and running a hand through his thick, black hair.
“Whatever,” she mumbled, trying to act nonchalant as she removed her own helmet. “Let’s just go get ourselves killed already.”
Varrin shot her a serious look. “Remember, the Rakorsians on this ship have no mercy for intruders. Don’t hesitate to kill anyone in your way.”
Kill or be killed, she thought, nodding. Check.
They exited the airlock and headed for the communications deck. No sooner had they stepped out of the elevator on one of the upper levels than three security guards armed with plasma rifles rounded the corner.
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