“Did you see that?” Selene asked through coms.
“Yeah,” Rikkard confirmed. “We should keep an eye out for more of those.”
“It didn’t show up on my radar.” Selene glanced down at one of the screens illuminating her face.
“Too far. Speeder sensors are pretty short ranged.”
Damn. Well that wasn’t good. She’d like to have a decent warning if one of those things was about to take her out.
“Since it isn’t just the lasers, I think we should fall back,” Rikkard said. She could hear the worry in his voice. He thought she wouldn’t agree, and he was right to think that, because there’s no way she was going back until she did some damage.
“No way,” Selene said. “Our speeders are a lot faster than the Dominion issued ones. We could get in and out and take out some of the Darri’s guns.”
Rikkard sighed into his comset. “That’d put us directly in the line of fire between both the Darri and the Aldar.”
Selene hesitated. She hated when he had a point.
Obviously sensing he was getting through to her, Rikkard continued. “Let’s fall back to protect the civilian ships. More are arriving, and they haven’t seen what happens when they try to cross the line. I’m sure the others are trying to warn them, but who knows how well they’ll listen.”
Reasonable bastard.
“Fine.” Selene spun her ship around and shot back the way they’d come.
It only took a minute to return to the asteroid belt, which had a lot more civilian ships than when they’d first arrived. At least two dozen hovered around the rocky bit of protection, no longer lined up aside from the six that had gotten there first.
Once they were within a good forty feet of them, Selene turned back around to assess how the fight was going.
A shot of silver flickered toward them just as an alarm pierced her ears.
“Incoming!” Rikkard shouted.
Selene winced from all the loud noises. She drifted back slightly, her gaze darting around to find the Darri speeder. When a glint of silver flashed above, she spun to face it. Lasers flew from the tips of her guns—and completely missed.
“Damn that thing is fast!” Selene said.
Another set of lasers shot through the air, and a small explosion was sucked away in a flash of light.
Selene’s eyes widened, and she looked across to see Rikkard aimed right where it had exploded. “Nice shot,” she said.
Rikkard flashed a small smile. “Thanks.”
Again, an alarm pierced the silence of her speeder. Selene spun in time to see a red laser flying toward them. She dropped a good ten seconds before it burned overhead, and crashed into the asteroid belt, narrowly missing one of the cruisers in line. Pebbles hailed down upon the civilian ships, but none of them dared move.
Smart.
“That was close,” Rikkard said.
“Hardly.” Selene rolled her eyes. Who did he think she was?
Rikkard only sighed in response and led them a little further away from the civilians. More Dominion ships had joined the fray, and some even drifted closer to them, maybe in an attempt to protect the civilian ships, but she couldn’t be sure. Why protect the people now? They’d had no plan on doing so when they were going to sell fucking Earth.
Selene worked her jaw as they flew around the Dominion cruiser closest to them. It made no move to attack, and Selene had to assume it had seen them protecting the civilians and knew they were the good guys. Now whether the Dominion were on their side or not remained to be seen.
A silver spark flashed in her peripheral, and Selene spun in time to see the charge of lasers in its guns.
“Shit!” Selene yanked her controls up and aimed at the silver ship, but she hit the triggers too late, and the Darri ship had already blown out part of the Dominion cruiser.
Seconds after the Dominion ship began to fume, the silver ship crumpled with the heat of her lasers before floating lazily away.
More lasers began to shoot past and her sensors blared noisily in her ears. Selene slammed her fist down on a button to make them stop. “I get it!” she growled.
Pushing away from the Dominion cruisers, Selene flew away from the lasers shot by the giant Darri ship leading the charge. The red lights flared in her peripheral as she flew around them, darting in circles that nearly made her dizzy.
More of the tiny silver speeders she was beginning to call Silver Shots in her head flew in a tight platoon from the base of the Darri ship. They came in fast and hard, the red swell of lasers appearing in their cannons.
“Scatter!” Rikkard shouted through coms.
She couldn’t be sure if he was talking solely to her, or every ship in the immediate area, because all of a sudden both civilian and Dominion ships alike were darting in every direction, forcing the Silver Shot platoon to separate to follow.
Selene’s heart raced as she spun her controls, doing some crazy flying without the hindrance of gravity. She’d never realized how much gravity had stopped speeders from truly achieving air superiority. Now that she thought about it, even flying her fastest over the desert didn’t compare to this.
Racing between bits of debris and shooting around the side of a Dominion cruiser, Selene took aim at a Silver Shot, and fired. The ship exploded into a thousand pieces, shrapnel pelting her visor. Selene turned as a red glow distracted her, and had barely enough time to shoot out of the path of another.
Two Silver Shots chased her between moon rocks and cruisers until they must have decided she wasn’t worth it, and fell back to shoot at the Dominion ships. Bad idea on their part. As soon as they were distracted, Selene shot straight up and turned backward as if she were upside down, though she felt no effects of gravity (as there was none), and aimed at the first speeder to dive at the cruiser. It was wiped out of space before the second shot away towards the civilians.
That got her blood boiling. Selene forced her ship into overdrive, flying fast and hard until she was on its tail. The glow of its thrusters brushed the nose of her speeder as she closed in, then blew out its rear end with her guns.
The ship blew up around her, and she sailed right through its remains before spinning back to face the way she’d come.
Her breaths came in quick gasps, adrenaline racing through every inch of her, nearly making her shake. This might be life or death right now, but damn was it ever fun.
Selene flew back out into the fray, shooting down a few more Silver Shots, and helping out the Dominion far more than she meant to. The moment she caught sight of Rikkard he seemed to be fairing just as well, but as she turned back to face the main Darri ship, she saw another two platoons deployed. Damn, did they ever run out of ships?
She grinded her teeth as she glanced at Rikkard taking out the last of the Silver Shots in the immediate area.
“We’ve got more incoming,” Selene warned.
Rikkard drifted up beside her. “We should head back soon. My power is getting low.”
Selene blinked in surprise. She hadn’t even thought of that before now. She looked down at her control panel. Sure enough, at the top right corner of her screen the once green percentage of one hundred percent indicating her power reserves, had now dipped to yellow at thirty-six percent and falling. She should save at least ten percent for emergencies, and to get back to the cargo ship. That left her with twenty-six percent to play with.
“Soon,” Selene agreed. She ignored Rikkard’s glare as she drifted back a little. She wasn’t quite done with the Darri just yet.
“Shit!” Selene’s eyes widened and she jerked back on her controls as another Dominion cruiser blew into a million pieces. The Silver Shots were starting to overwhelm not only her and Rikkard, but the Dominion and the few civilian vessels that tried to help out too.
She gritted her teeth as she backed away from the carnage. Though the flames quickly disappeared, it did nothing to hide the dead bodies that floated out the massive holes in the side of the ship.
; Selene inhaled sharply. Every time they took out a Silver Shot there seemed to be two more to replace it, if not more. The Darri ship expelled wave after wave to attack both them and the giant Dominion ships drifting close to Earth’s atmosphere.
“It’s time,” Rikkard said in her ear.
She shook her head. “Just a few more.”
Selene turned from the damaged ship and went after the first flash of silver she saw. It twisted around the edge of a Dominion ship already distracted and shot straight for one of the two helpful civilian cruisers.
Her heart lurched into her throat as she threw her speeder into full speed. She rocketed around debris and slammed her thumbs down on the triggers of her laser guns. The Silver Shot blew into a thousand pieces, pelting down upon the civilian cruiser.
The woman with gray hair she’d waved at earlier gave her a thin-lipped smile and a salute from the front window. Selene nodded in return and twisted back to face the battle.
“Selene,” Rikkard said more forcefully this time. “It’s been nearly ten minutes since the Darri shot their last laser, and the Silver Shots are only increasing in numbers. Now is the time to get away while they’re still distracted.”
She shook her head, though Rikkard wasn’t close enough to look through her visor. “Not yet.” If they left now, they’d be putting the civilians in danger. She couldn’t let that happen.
Rikkard sighed. “At least come back with me to recharge.”
Selene glanced down at her power reserves. The percentage had turned red and flashed desperately at eight percent. She squeezed her eyes shut. Shit. How could she have let it get so low? She could have stranded herself out there.
“Okay,” Selene agreed. “Let’s go recharge.”
Rikkard’s speeder shot away from the broken bits of the Dominion ships, and back toward their cargo freighter, which continued to hover next to the asteroid belt, and the line of civilian ships. There were a few less than she remembered, and Selene absently wondered if they’d gotten away. Her heart squeezed with hope. If anything, at least they’d helped some flee. Now she only wished they could help the rest. They were possibly the last of the human race. She couldn’t let them down.
Selene followed Rikkard’s speeder around the back of the cargo ship, checking her scanners and over her shoulder to make sure no Silver Shots followed before she drifted inside the cargo bay and landed beside Rikkard’s.
“Close cargo bay doors and return oxygen to the hangar,” Rikkard commanded.
“You got it, Captain,” Rem buzzed.
The doors shut with a loud clang, and a few minutes later the oxygen readings on her scanners told her the air was breathable.
Selene popped open the top of her speeder and jumped out.
“All clear,” Rem said.
Rikkard’s hood popped open next, but Selene got to the charging station on the back wall first. She opened the circular hatch and extracted a long corded hose-like contraption with a twisted metal end. She dragged it from the wall to her ship, grunting at the feel of gravity holding her back. She yanked the cord hard and it unspooled enough that she could insert it into the charging port at the back of her speeder.
“There we go.” Selene stepped away and put her hands on her hips. “How long do you think it’ll take to recharge?”
Rikkard didn’t say anything for so long that Selene looked up to see what he was doing. He worked his jaw, his eyebrows furrowed. It was clear he wanted to say something by the way he kept opening and closing his mouth.
Dread twisted her gut. “What is it?” she asked.
Her boss shook his head and stepped over the charging cord to join her by the speeder. “We can’t go back out there,” he said.
Selene’s eyes widened and she went to snap a retort when he beat her to it.
“This isn’t one of our missions on Earth, Selene. This is space. This is a constant struggle against the universe trying to crush us, not just a fight against the Darri. One wrong move and we’re out of oxygen, or power, or food, or any of the million other things we need to survive.” Rikkard grabbed her shoulders and raised his eyebrows. He was trying to make her see reason.
Selene shook her head. “I get that, but what’s the point in being the last of the human race?” She sighed and closed her eyes. “I can’t not help them. Once they’re all free of the fighting, I’ll come back in and we can go.”
Rikkard’s fingers squeezed her shoulders so tightly she winced. “No.”
“What do you mean, no?” Selene tried to yank from his grip, but he held her in place.
“I don’t pull rank often, Selene, but I will if I have to,” Rikkard warned.
“Is that a threat?” Selene snapped.
“No. I just don’t want you to die out there.”
“I won’t.”
“You can’t promise that. There are too many variables out there that we never had on Earth.”
Selene finally yanked from his grip and took a step away. “You can’t stop me from going back out there, Rik!”
The door to the cargo bay whooshed open, and Flik waltzed inside. He froze for a moment, seeing both of them with fists balled and faces twisted with anger. That didn’t stop him though, because in the next moment he crossed the space and joined Rikkard in sizing her up.
“It’s time to go,” Flik said.
Selene’s nostrils flared. “Not you too!”
Flik narrowed his eyes. “We need to get out of here before the Darri repair their lasers, or those Silver Shots get to be too many.”
Selene’s lips twitched at the use of her made-up name for the Darri’s silver speeders. She’d been using it off and on over coms and it seemed like it was catching on. She quickly pushed away her smile when she realized he was on Rikkard’s side. What was everyone’s problem with wanting to save the human race? Though Flik might not be a part of it, the rest of them sure as hell were.
“Once the rest of the civilian ships are clear, we can go,” Selene bit out each word. She was trying to maintain her rational, to be reasonable, but it was hard when they were both so infuriating.
“If we wait until they’re all clear, that’s just more time we could have been using to get ourselves clear. You need to think about this crew too, Selene.” Flik raised the skin of his forehead meaningfully.
Selene shook her head. “I am thinking about the crew. But they—you’re all safe while I’m out there. Rikkard can stay inside. It’ll just be me.”
Rikkard scoffed. “Un-fucking-likely.”
She narrowed her eyes at him.
Flik grabbed her wrist. “We aren’t going to just leave you out there. We need to go. It’s already been decided.”
Selene’s eyebrows shot up. “Been decided? What the hell is that supposed to mean?” She pulled her wrist away and stepped back. She didn’t like where this was going.
“It means, you aren’t the captain of this ship,” Flik said. He motioned at Rikkard. “He is.”
Selene looked between them. “Are you seriously pulling rank right now?”
Rikkard’s jaw hardened. “If that’s what it takes.”
Selene rolled her eyes. “I don’t need to listen to this shit.” She turned to her speeder and yanked out the power cable. She had no idea how much that’d charge her speeder, but she’d find out soon enough. The cable wound back up into the wall the second she let it go. She made a move for the cockpit, and Flik stepped in her way. “Move!”
He shook his head. “I can’t do that.”
Frustration burned through her, catching her breath painfully in her throat. She stepped back, her fingers itched at her sides. If she couldn’t make them see reason, then what could she do? She had a duty to her own people to help them escape. There might be only a hundred humans left. A hundred. Out of the two billion that were on Earth. She hadn’t seen any more ships come from Earth’s surface, and she knew why that was. Earth was dead. There was nothing left but those already clear of it.
No, she
wasn’t letting these two stop her from saving Earth’s last remaining inhabitants.
Ripping her pistol from its holster, Selene leveled it at Flik’s forehead. The safety clicked off and the whine of her gun filled the silence.
“Get the hell out of my way, Flik.” Her heart drummed painfully in her ears. She didn’t want to threaten Flik, but she wasn’t going to let him stop her either.
Another whine of a laser pistol caught her off guard. Selene’s eyebrows furrowed as she turned to look down the barrel of Rikkard’s gun. “Rik?” Her voice was so tiny she barely even heard herself.
Rikkard’s face was twisted like he was in pain. His cold eyes swirled with sadness as he met her betrayed gaze. “I’m sorry, Selene, but this is for your own good.”
Selene’s jaw dropped. Never in a thousand years had she thought Rikkard would pull a gun on her. She was never going to shoot Flik—she couldn’t even bear the thought, and she knew that Rikkard wasn’t going to shoot her. Not in the head at least. If it forced her to stay on the other hand, he’d definitely shoot her in the leg, maybe both if she kept going. He’d do anything to keep her safe—she just never thought anything meant betraying her trust.
He was supposed to have her back in all things. This was not having her back.
Warm fingers wrapped around her hand and lowered her pistol, switching back on the safety before gently plucking her pistol from her grip.
Selene closed her mouth and lowered her hands to her sides. Her eyebrows furrowed and her chest ached as she held Rikkard’s gaze. She couldn’t believe this. Of all people, she never expected him to do this.
Rikkard lowered his pistol now that Flik had taken her gun. He holstered his weapon before pressing his fingers to his ear. “Rem?”
“I’m here,” Rem said tentatively. She had a feeling Rem had been watching on the live security feeds. The last time she’d heard him sound so unsure of himself, he’d thought it was his fault Lanny was dead.
The Darri Commission: A Sci-Fi Dystopian Adventure (Dominion Rising Book 3) Page 26