by test
Dylan hadn’t been kidding when he said the man resembled King Kong, for standing in front of her was the biggest man she’d ever laid her eyes upon. His face brightened when he saw them, and Samantha winced in reaction to his bellow of joy.
“Betsy! ” he cried, bounding across the distance. He engulfed the stupefied Veronica in one very suffocating embrace. Samantha watched with indrawn breath. He scooped Veronica up and swung her around. “You brought my wife back to me!”
“Sweetie, please put me down!” Love flooded Veronica’s voice. She patted his cheek.
“Oh, now I’ve seen everything! ” Samantha remarked, staring in amazement at the RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 49
unlikely couple. “Hey Veronica, watching this is more entertaining than watching a space soap opera. I never thought I would live to see the day to hear you call anyone, sweetie. I am in heaven right now,” she chuckled, watching with delight as Veronica’s face mottled red.
“I didn’t know that you were married, Veronica,” Johanna ventured, rooted to the spot, though Samantha knew that Johanna desperately wanted to go to the bridge and see her husband.
They still weren’t out of harm’s way, and Johanna just might be called upon to do some fancy flying. Even though Dylan was a fairly skilled pilot, Johanna’s skills far surpassed his. Hell, they surpassed hers. The only one that could rival Johanna was Tyler. He did fairly well in a tight spot.
“I’d love to stick around and chat about the benefits of wedded bliss, but I believe my husband may need me,” Johanna mumbled, hurrying out of the docking bay.
Samantha turned her head at the dreadful sound of Tyler gasping in pain.
“Lean on me, Tyler. I’ll have you to the med bay in no time at all,” she said, letting her anger and resentment toward him go for the moment. “Why look at us, we are just one big happy family!” she grunted with the extra burden of Tyler. She’d forgotten how much bigger he was than her.
“Yeah, one really BIG happy family,” Tyler said, wincing with pain. “I don’t want to go to the med bay. I want to go where the action is.” Yep, Tyler seemed to be his old self. In fact, she’d bet that he hadn’t changed one bit. Which meant, that he might still be open to reconciling.
“I know that you have been hurt, Tyler,” Samantha pointed out. They moved past Lucy’s hologram, and walked into the lift that would take them to the bridge. “So please, give up the macho routine. That thing could be oozing with infection. Did you happen to put some fast acting healing gauze on it?”
“I’ve been on the run, and then I spent some time in a stinky jail. I really didn’t have access to any quality medical supplies.”
“My point exactly,” Samantha huffed.
“I put up with it this long. I can put up with it for a few more minutes. Please, Samantha I need to know that everyone is safe, before you give me any medication that might knock me out.” The doors to the lift opened, and they strode out onto the bridge.
“Don’t worry about the medication, I might be tempted to knock you out the old fashioned way,” Samantha threatened, all trace of humor leaving her voice. She really wanted to know who had given him that injury. “Who gave you that gash on your leg anyway?”
She looked up at him, and met his gaze. He blinked. “You’re beautiful.”
“Don’t try that old game with me.”
“What game?” His gorgeous green eyes widened innocently.
“The old charmer routine. Your sweet talk might have softened me in the past, and probably still could in the future, but not while I am fixated on getting your injury fixed up. I can see that you’re trying to distract me, you know.”
“Can you?” He reached up to caress her face. She leaned into his hand. Something glittering caught her eye. She looked down to his left hand, and wondered where his gloves had gotten too. Her heart jumped. He still wore his wedding band. Suddenly, dry mouthed, she sighed. With a jerk, the lift stopped and they stepped out onto the bridge.
“Oh, Samantha, I think that our problems just got much worse. If that could be possible,”
Johanna announced, staring at the view screen.
Their moment was lost.
RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 50
Samantha dragged her gaze away from Tyler, and looked over at her sister. She really didn’t want to hear about any more trouble. Tyler and she had some things to discuss, and this interruption was very untimely.
“What do you mean?” Samantha demanded, dreading the answer.
“Well,
New Monaco, is sort of under siege at the moment, and they’re sending all combat ships out to deal with the problem,” Dylan explained. He had his eyes focused on the incoming reports.
“Clarify,” Samantha said.
Exhaustion was settling into her bones. She was so tired that she could feel her eyelids drooping. She needed coffee. She so wanted hot, strong coffee.
“New Monaco is at the moment being raided by space pirates,” Johanna supplied, as they raced through the upper atmosphere.
“Alright.
Someone
please put me out of my misery,” Samantha remarked, flopping down into the nearest chair. She could feel Tyler standing beside her. She smiled when he rested his hand gently on her shoulder. “Tyler, there’s a med kit over in the weapons locker. Sit down, and apply a healing gauze pad to your leg. That should take care of it, until Johanna can take a proper look see at it.”
“What do you think that we should do?” Johanna asked, swiveling her chair to look at Samantha.
Samantha stared at the crowded sky, and knew that once they reached space their problems would intensify two-fold.
“What can we do? We can’t go back, because Lord Devlin still wants to hang Tyler.
And we’d be crazy to try breaking through an armada of pirate ships. But hell, no one ever said that I was smart or sane. So we fight, just like we’ve always done,” Samantha whispered.
Everyone stared at her with deadpan expressions.
Fear coiled in Samantha’s belly. She briefly doubted her decision. She looked to Johanna for confirmation, and something that resembled pride flickered in Johanna’s eyes.
“Let’s give them one hell of a good fight!” Johanna decided, smiling at Samantha.
“I agree, let’s make sure that they all remember the Cassidy’s,” Dylan endorsed, turning back to optimizing the weapons.
“What can I do?” Tyler asked.
Samantha turned to scowl at him. “You may sit your sorry ass down in that chair and keep your mouth shut, and get that healing gauze on your leg. You’re injured, and you’ve already gotten us into more than enough trouble,” Samantha remarked sternly.
They all nodded their agreement. “Let the battle begin!” she declared.
They streaked out into the blackness of space. She leaned forward.
This was it.
RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 51
Chapter Six
“Oh, bloody hell!” Samantha cursed.
Johanna swerved to miss another New Monaco Star Cruiser.
Weapon fire exploded around them, and The Excalibur’s shields strained against the many impacts.
“I can’t take much more of this!” Lucy complained, crackling into existence. The AI looked frazzled.
“Lucy, shut the hell up!” Samantha barked.
Johanna swerved magnificently and managed to guide The Excalibur through the debris.
“Fine, but don’t blame me when we get blown out of space. I’m only an AI. You’re the ones that should be concerned. You are after all made out of flesh and bone.”
“Thanks so much for reminding me,” Samantha muttered. “However, if we get blown to kingdom come you won’t exist anymore. Without the Excalibur you will simply fizzle out of existence.”
Dylan made an inaudible noise that made Samantha dart a glance at him. His eyes widened, “Holy shit. I have to get down to engineering or what you just said, Samantha might come true.
” With that, he bolted for engineering.
His voice carried to them through the communication system. “We’ve got problems. Big problems. I’m going to give everything that we can spare to the shields!”
Samantha hastily worked the firing patterns, and stared over anxiously at her sister.
“So who the hell’s side are we on anyway?” Johanna asked, staring over at Samantha with bloodshot eyes.
“We are on our own side. We fight our way through them, and then we jump to hyper space,” Samantha explained, grunting as another missile hit their port bow.
“You know, Lucy’s probably right. I seriously doubt The Excalibur can take much more,” Tyler commented from his seat behind them.
“Do you have any other bright suggestions, Mister Cassidy? ” Samantha asked, turning her head to glare at him. “I’m so glad that we’ve got you to cheer us on. Brings a glow to my cheeks. I had thought I’d married a man that believed in the power of positive thinking!”
“You did. But I’m only pointing out our odds, and since you’ve asked, no, I don’t have any suggestions.”
“Well, then let us do our job.”
“I could still help,” he offered.
“Well, when I need to hear our odds again, I’ll ask for your input. Damn it! I’ve lost control of the weapons. Dylan! ” Samantha called out through the intercom, pushing her sweaty wisps of hair out of her eyes.
“Yeah, ” he yelled back, swearing as something big clattered onto the ground.
“I’ve lost bridge control of the weapons,” Samantha screamed, and widened her eyes. A massive pirate ship gunned straight for them. This so wasn’t good.
“You don’t say....” Dylan called back. “Son of a bitch!” he cursed. Samantha nearly jumped when Johanna cried out in frustration.
RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 52
“Dylan, what just happened? We’re dead in the water!” Johanna demanded, her face reddened. She turned to her sister.
“We’re sitting ducks,” Samantha shook her head. “Dylan, kindly get your ass in gear and get Johanna some power to the engines. Pretty please? I can work around our problem with the weapons. I’ll simply have to go down and operate the phase cannon manually. But we’ll be blown into smithereens if you don’t get Johanna what she needs,” Samantha shouted, above the whine of the red alert klaxons that Lucy had enabled. “Oh, goody. Look who decided to join the party,” Samantha quipped, panting, she ran over to the weapons cabinet and threw hand pistols at Tyler and Johanna. “Just in case the shields go down, and we risk being boarded!” Samantha watched to make sure that Johanna put the second gun in the holster beneath her arm. Samantha reached for a phase rifle comfortably placing it beneath her arm.
“What the hell is going on here?” Veronica growled. Ross hadn’t uttered one word, though he did have a thoughtful expression on his face.
“Oh, man! Oh no! Oh, shit!!!” they heard Dylan cry out.
Seconds later a long and loud explosion ripped through engineering. Tremors rocked The Excalibur. Caught off balance Samantha swayed to the side, and slammed against Tyler. She didn’t know when he’d come up behind her, but come to think of it, she didn’t care.
“DYLAN!!! ” Johanna screamed. Right at that moment piloting control returned.
Johanna went into a long dive as she tried to shake the large Pirate Ship that had taken such a liking to them. Right now, Samantha really hated Pirates. Tyler smiled at her, and then pushed her wayward wisp of hair behind her ear. He winked at her, and then turned to run toward engineering. Ross blew a kiss at Veronica and lumbered after Tyler. She didn’t know why Ross had gone down to engineering. She just hoped there would be enough room for all of them once Ross arrived.
“Dylan? ” Johanna questioned. Her face had lost most of its color. Samantha wanted to comfort her, but at the moment she didn’t have the time. If she didn’t get the weapons up and going they’d be goners for sure. Besides, Dylan had been in explosions before. He could really move that butt of his when push came to shove. He’d be okay. She didn’t have any bad feelings about him. But if she didn’t do something, they wouldn’t have to worry about Dylan, cause they’d all be dead.
She raced down to the belly of the ship and leapt into the gun cannon chair. Strapping herself in, she reached for the phase cannon, and moved it into targeting position. Breathing deeply, she tried to focus some of her abilities on keeping them alive. A purple glow circled her hands. She could do this!
“I’m fine!” Dylan’s hoarse voice streamed out through the ship’s intercom. He fell silent and then went into a long jag of coughing. Obviously, he was trying to clear the burning smoke from his lungs. “We got a shit load of problems though.”
Samantha pursed her lips and finally managed to hit one of the pirate ships, though for the life of her she couldn’t manage to shake the bogey on her tail. Why couldn’t her powers work for her when she wanted them to? They always seemed to go haywire when she didn’t want to have anything to do with them. Why couldn’t she be more like Charlotte? Grunting, she focused her concentration and blew up another ship gunning for them.
“Do they ever give up?” She was thrown forward in her chair, as the ship was rocked by another blast. If she hadn’t been belted in, she would have been on the floor. She turned her head as Veronica came running toward her and settled into the seat behind hers.
“Samantha,” Veronica grunted, as she worked the cannon. “I would like to know why the RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 53
handle of your cannon looks like its covered in amethyst light but I’ll wait to ask you once we blow up all of these bastards!”
She sighed. She didn’t need Veronica knowing about her well-kept secret. She hated anyone realizing what she had the potential to become.
“Samantha, get out of there. You could be fried! You’re sitting in the most vulnerable spot of The Excalibur! ” Johanna cried, fighting to control her breathing.
“Well, Big V is right here with me, we can get fried together.”
Veronica hooted triumphantly. She had managed to shoot down one of the smaller pirate ships that had been closing in on them.
“I don’t want to alarm anyone, but someone’s hacking into my systems!” Lucy cried out.
For being an AI she sure did sound frightened.
Lucy’s bright purple hair flew out around her and her face was scrunched up in intense concentration. She seemed to be going through some unseen battle and she was waving her arms madly, as if to fight off an invisible opponent.
“Get out, you stupid asshole!” Lucy yelled. She began to fade. She looked almost crazy with her frustration.
“That’s one of our many problems!” Dylan shouted. Lucy let out one last horrifying scream and disappeared from sight. “What happened? Lucy, are you there?”
In Lucy’s place a strange AI’s figure emerged. He was a thickly built man with black hair and he wore a black patch over one eye.
Samantha let her concentration wander. She stared angrily at the AI that had just invaded her ship.
“Oh, freaking hell! Dylan, Lucy is gone. And the guy that’s come to dinner, wasn’t an invited guest,” she screamed. She was jostled forward yet again as The Excalibur was rocked by a particularly strong blast.
The pirate ship that had been following them so closely, now attempted to latch onto them so they would be able to board them.
“My day just can’t get any worse,” Samantha concluded. And then it did.
* * * *
“Prepare to be boarded!” the male Artificial Intelligence said. His holographic projection gradually became clearer. Now, he almost seemed life like.
“Here’s an idea. Why don’t you go straight to hell,” Samantha growled. She jumped out of her chair and quickly clambered up the ladder that led onto the bridge. “I’m going down to give our friends a welcome they will never forget!”
Johanna leapt out of her chair and followed her. Samantha stopped and gaped at her.
“What’s
your
problem? ” Johanna demanded.
Samantha stared at her as if she had grown another appendage, waiting for an explanation.
“I can’t do anything either. Lucy is gone. Remember? And that lame brain has taken over our controls. I can’t be of any use anyway. And, besides you’re going to need me to watch your back.”
Veronica fell into step beside them and then abruptly turned away from them.
“Well, where the hell does Veronica think she’s going? I wonder,” Johanna remarked.
They ran down to where the boarding party would soon be streaming through. They were fully armed and prepared for battle. If she’d had more time she would have set up a booby trap for the pirates. But sadly enough, beggars couldn’t be choosers.