by S. E. Smith
“Remind me to whip your ass later for waiting until I couldn’t hold you to tell me this, dusha moya,” he replied in a gruff tone.
“I will,” she softly replied.
“We will make it through this, La’Rue. I haven’t come all this way only to lose the one woman who has accomplished a task I thought impossible,” Sergi said.
“What task is that?” she asked, feeling her stomach tighten as the cannons began to fire on the approaching fighters.
“You made me fall in love with you,” he responded, opening fire as one of the fighters made it past the auto-cannons firing range. “One.”
“One… Ah, you think to win this, do you?” La’Rue retorted, focusing as two more fighters broke through the cannon’s firing range as well.
She fired, hitting one and sending it spiraling downward before swiveling around and firing on the other. It exploded as one of the pulses caught the left wing. She released a long breath.
“Two,” she stated.
La’Rue knew this wasn’t a game, but Sergi had helped her regain her center – her focus. Her eyes widened when she saw the huge Battle Cruiser appear in the distance. Even if they were able to find a place to hide, the firepower of the Battle Cruiser would reduce all of the frozen floating islands to icy shards.
Her heart pounded as another Battle Cruiser appeared, then a third. Hundreds of fighters poured from the massive ships. The freighter had reached the first series of frozen islands.
Roan wove his way through the frozen towers of water rising up to hold the islands in place. Several of the fighters following them were not as agile and crashed into the icy columns. La’Rue watched as large sections of the ice broke away and fell, forcing the fighters to veer off.
Brilliant blue crystals suddenly surrounded them as they streaked through one of the ice tunnels. Sergi fired on two fighters that entered the tunnel behind them. Just as they emerged from the other side, La’Rue fired at their exit point, collapsing the tunnel so no other fighters could follow them.
Roan guided them above and below ice bridges and through tunnels. La’Rue and Sergi fired on the fighters that came too close but there were too many for their two weapons. She was jerked forward when one of the Battle Cruisers fired on them, striking one of the freighter’s rear engines.
The freighter began to rotate as it lost power. A cry ripped from La’Rue when her ship crashed through the side of a frozen cliff and began to plummet. Fear coursed through her when she saw the ocean filled with ice floes growing closer.
“H, I need you to override the safety and give full power to the auxiliary thrusters now!” La’Rue cried as she held onto the cannon’s grips.
La’Rue was forced back into her seat as Roan pulled back. The freighter swept under the lip of one floating island before Roan steered it higher. They were still losing power. In the background, La’Rue could hear the sounds of alarms going off and the power was flickering. The scraping of ice on metal screeched through the ship. She could see the billowing smoke coming from the damaged engine.
“Brace for impact,” Roan warned in the comlink.
“No!” La’Rue hissed.
She gripped the sides of the cannon’s controls, holding on as the freighter fell from the sky and skidded across the icy surface of one of the islands before the nose rose up to face the sky when the ship came to an embankment. The ship teetered at a precarious angle with the nose finally hanging over the edge of the island.
Dread filled La’Rue when she saw the fighters swing back around for another strike run. She braced herself when she saw three of them taking aim in their direction. The Star Runner was defenseless.
She started to turn her head, expecting to feel the intense heat of laser fire, when with no warning the three fighters suddenly exploded. Confusion swept through her when she saw small, agile fighters emerging from below them. They swept up from the ocean’s depths, locking onto the Legion forces with a deadly intensity and lethal skill.
Hope and adrenaline rose inside her at the realization that they weren’t fighting this battle alone. Her heart raced as she realized that they needed to do what they could to protect themselves. Releasing her harness, she swung out of the seat and slid down the ladder, using the hand railings instead of the ladder’s rungs. She turned and started running toward the engine room.
“H, I need you to do your magic, little guy. We need power diverted to the shields and the cannons. Shut off anything else that isn’t absolutely necessary,” La’Rue shouted as she ran.
She knew the little robot would already be working on shutting down any fires that had been caused when they were hit. Her hand shot out to grab the doorframe as she rounded the corner. A relieved hiss escaped her when she saw Sergi already working on the damaged power panel.
“You’re safe. The bottom turret…?” she gasped.
Sergi shook his head. “…Is buried in the ice and snow,” he replied.
“Someone is assisting us,” she informed him, kneeling beside him.
She pulled out the damaged circuit board, wincing when the heat of the board burned her fingers. She tossed it aside and pulled out two more. Rising to her feet, she pulled out several replacement boards from a supply cabinet. She handed them to Sergi. He had handed over the panel he was working on to H.
La’Rue stumbled when the Star Runner shuddered from a blast. She gripped the side of the circuit panel. A frown creased her brow when she saw her mother’s staff lying beside Sergi. It had been over a year since she had used the powerful weapon.
She swallowed and reached down to pick up the staff. Tears burned her eyes as she wrapped her fingers around the symbol of the Gallant Order. For the first time, she felt like she was meant to use the staff.
Straightening, she started to turn away. She stopped when she felt Sergi’s strong fingers wrap around her wrist. He looked up at her with an intense expression.
“What are you doing?” he demanded.
La’Rue gave him a shaky smile. “What I was meant to do…. You need time to repair the damage. Get the shields and cannons back online,” she instructed.
“La’Rue,” Sergi started to protest before his gaze moved to the door where Roan and Julia now stood.
“She is correct. Repair the shields and bring the cannons back online. La’Rue and I can help protect the freighter,” Roan said, gripping his father’s staff in his hand.
“With those?” Sergi demanded in a skeptical tone.
“Yes,” La’Rue and Roan both replied at the same time.
La’Rue bent and brushed a brief, hard kiss across Sergi’s lips before she turned and hurried out of the room. Deep in her heart, she knew that no matter what happened, Sergi and Julia needed to survive. With the help of their unexpected allies and the Ancient Knights of the Gallant Order, there was hope that they might just make it out of this alive.
“Do you know how to use the staff?” La’Rue asked as she and Roan emerged out onto the top of the freighter.
Roan held the staff out in front of himself and extended the rod. Twirling it, he aimed it at an approaching Legion fighter that was firing on their allies and released a powerful burst from the tip. The orb-shaped ball of energy cut through the center of the fighter from stem to stern and it then spiraled out of the sky and disappeared beneath them.
“Yes,” he replied, aiming at another Legion fighter.
La’Rue swallowed. Extending her staff as well, she focused on remembering what her mother had taught her before she was murdered. She and Roan moved with the fluid grace of dancers as they smoothly maneuvered in an effort to protect the freighter. All around them the sky was filled with fighters from the Legion and those of their allies.
“Who is helping us? I’ve never seen fighters like this before,” La’Rue shouted, watching in amazement as the smaller, more agile fighters streaked overhead.
“Plateauans,” Roan replied, striking another Legion fighter that was coming in low. “Many are unaware that the
Plateauans are fierce fighters and have an advanced military defense system.”
La’Rue wanted to ask him how he knew, but decided this was probably a discussion better suited for another time. She turned when she saw a movement out of her peripheral vision. Her eyes widened when she saw a Legion fighter rise above the edge of the cliff.
Her lips parted in disbelief when she saw General Coleridge Landais in the cockpit. The sight of the Legion general, still alive, shook her. The bastard was supposed to be dead! Lifting her chin, she stared back at him in defiance. If there was a next time she would aim for his head! Even better yet, she would aim between his eyes!
Below her, she felt the vibration of the Star Runner as the ship came back online. Near the front of the freighter, the pulse cannon turret rotated to face the Legion General’s fighter. The freighters shields were back online as well.
She watched as the fighter rose higher in the air. Her first thought was that the Legion general was giving up. It wasn’t until the silhouette of a large Battle Cruiser covered the sun that she realized that even with the shields, the Star Runner was still very vulnerable.
“Look out!” she yelled when she saw the Battle Cruiser’s cannons turning toward them.
Without thinking, La’Rue surged and wrapped her arm around Roan’s waist. The force of her tackle knocked both of them off balance and they slid down the curved top section of the freighter. A cry of horror escaped her when she saw Roan disappearing over the side.
She twisted and frantically reached out in an effort to slow her descent as she neared the edge of the freighter. Her fingers curled around one of the outer maintenance grips as her legs went over the side. She swung dizzily for a moment before she released her grip and fell just as Julia opened fire on the Battle Cruiser.
La’Rue mentally braced for her impact with the frozen ground. She was surprised when her fall was cushioned by a pair of strong arms. The force still sent them both sprawling on the slick surface.
She rolled to the side and looked over at Roan. He was already rising to his feet. Her head turned in the direction that he was staring. One of the Battle Cruisers was breaking apart and falling into the ocean below. Additional ships were converging on the Legion forces. Her eyes widened when she saw one of them was the Long Haul, which was one of Crock’s freighters.
She started to rise to her feet when several strong blasts made the ground under them violently tremble. The force of the blasts knocked Roan back off his feet. Watching in confusion, it took a moment for her to understand what was happening. The Battle Cruiser wasn’t firing on the Star Runner; it was firing on the section of frozen ground in front of the freighter. The Legion’s motive was clear – total destruction of the freighter and those aboard it. If they couldn’t get through the shields, they would destroy the ground beneath it and send it plummeting to the ocean below.
“No!” La’Rue screamed as the ground began to break away and tilt under them.
“Come on,” Roan yelled.
Roan grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. She fought to break free, but he refused to release her. In horror, she watched as the freighter tilted and began to slide. Julia continued to blast away at the Battle Cruiser but the pulses couldn’t penetrate the warship’s shields. La’Rue’s breath was knocked out of her when Roan pushed her beneath an icy overhang. Together, they watched as the ground finally broke away from under the freighter and caused it to slide over the side.
“No! Sergi!” La’Rue cried, reaching out a hand in denial.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Sergi, I think you should hurry,” Julia calmly stated in the comlink.
“Perfection takes time,” he responded, slipping the circuit boards into the panel.
“Imperfection has its place as well, especially when there is a very large enemy spaceship heading our way,” Julia retorted.
“System is rebooting,” he replied in a tone that belied the tension of the moment.
“It’s about damn time,” Julia muttered in his ear.
Sergi chuckled. He knew Julia was stressed when she started cursing. The woman was still as cool as a cucumber.
“H, bring the engines online,” Sergi ordered, before pressing his comlink. “La’Rue, I need you and Roan back on the freighter. The shields are online.”
He impatiently waited for a response as he left the engine room and headed for the bridge. Above him, he could hear Julia opening fire on the Battle Cruiser. He slid into the pilot’s seat and began checking the systems.
“La’Rue, I need Roan and you back inside,” he grimly ordered again.
“Sergi, Roan and La’Rue have gone over the side of the ship. I don’t see them,” Julia informed him, her voice filled with angst.
Sergi’s fingers flew over the scanner controls the moment they came back online. He pulled up a visual of their two heat signatures near the back of the freighter. There was no way to fire up the engines without killing them. He was about to rise from his seat when the ground under them violently shook.
Looking out of the front screen, he saw the Battle Cruiser was firing at the side of the island beneath them. If the ground gave way, the freighter would fall to the ocean below. Caught between the choice of killing La’Rue and Roan or saving himself and Julia, Sergi’s mind could only flash through all of his options.
“Are the engine’s online?” Julia asked.
“Yes, but I can’t engage them without killing La’Rue and Roan,” he replied.
He gritted his teeth as the freighter began to tilt. His eyes flashed to the two heat signatures. They were moving away. If he timed it just right and had enough momentum….
“The math says it is possible,” Julia murmured in his ear, coming to the same conclusion he had.
A wry smile of determination curved Sergi’s lips. “Hang on. This is going to be a bumpy ride,” he warned.
Julia’s soft snort echoed through the comlink. “You missed the Gliese 581 going through the gateway and breaking apart. This is going to be a piece of cake in comparison,” she informed him.
Sergi shook his head. If this was going to be a piece of cake, he was glad he had been unconscious for the first event. He ground his teeth together, sat back and fastened the harness on the captain’s seat, and waited. Another shattering blast shook the freighter before a loud snap resonated through the metal hull. He felt the freighter tilt before it began to slide on the slick surface of the ice-covered island.
His eyes narrowed on the ocean below as the ship fell. With swift, practiced moves, he fired the engines. The added kick pressed him back in his seat. He heard Julia’s low moan and knew she could feel the G’s pushing against herself as well. His eyes flew to the instrument panel. Counting down, he pulled back on the stick, leveling out the Star Runner. The bottom of the freighter skipped like a flat rock along the surface of the ocean before rising above it again.
“Woohoo!” Julia’s excited cry echoed throughout the ship, almost deafening him.
“Ash has nothing on me,” Sergi bragged as the freighter gained altitude.
Once he was high enough, he began the curve to the left to return to the frozen island that they had just left and where La’Rue and Roan were stranded and defenseless. His heart pounded when he saw the battle filling up the sky. What made his blood run cold was the sight of three Legion fighters approaching and two of them landing on their island.
“Collapse the shelf above them,” Coleridge ordered from his vantage above the island.
He watched as the two fighters accompanying him opened fire on the ice shelf beneath which his son and the woman were standing. Shards of ice and rock rained down around the two of them. He watched in satisfaction as the two disappeared under the debris.
“I want their two staffs,” he ordered once the firing had ceased.
He watched as the two fighters landed and the pilots disembarked their spacecraft. They ran over to the avalanche of debris. His mouth tightened when he saw a glow of re
d right before one of the pilots flew backwards, obviously dead. As much as he wanted the two staffs – and his son’s knowledge of how he knew to reprogram the one that had belonged to himself – the situation was fast becoming too dangerous for the General.
His hand moved, locking his fighter’s weapons controls onto the pile of debris. He paused when an alarm sounded. He cursed when he saw that another ship had locked onto his craft. Pulling back on the controls, he veered to the right as several powerful bursts from a pulse cannon struck where he had just been. He spun out of control for a moment as he fought to override the fighter’s automatic defense system. That was when he caught sight of the freighter that he thought had been destroyed.
“General Landais, additional rebel ships have appeared. We are the last surviving Battle Cruiser, sir. If we do not retreat now, we will all die,” Commander Manta informed him in his comlink.
Coleridge’s mouth tightened as a surge of hatred washed through him. “Give the order to retreat. Have a squadron of fighters escort the Battle Cruiser out of the planet’s orbit,” he ordered, turning his own fighter back toward the Battle Cruiser.
“Yes, General,” Manta calmly replied.
Sergi circled around the island. Below him, he could see two Legion fighters – and two dead Legion soldiers. His stomach clenched when he saw Roan clearing away a section of debris. There was no sign of La’Rue.
“Sergi, it looks like the Legion is retreating,” Julia said. “I see Roan, but I don’t see La’Rue,” she quietly added.
“I don’t see her either,” he replied, focusing on landing the freighter.
Sergi landed the Star Runner as close as he could near Roan. . In seconds, he was running down the corridor. He crossed the larger cargo bay and slammed his palm against the panel to open the platform. He jumped from the opening to the ground as soon as there was enough clearance. Running across the frozen ground, he didn’t slow until he reached Roan.
“Where is she?” he demanded.