The First Nova I See Tonight by Jason Kilgore (best ereader for pdf and epub TXT) 📗

Yiorgos set the coordinates for that ship. "So what now, genius? You just going to deliver us and the safebox directly to the pirates, or what?"

Dirken waved him off. "Hold on. I'm thinking." He looked back to the corvette, then remembered something he heard on the bridge of the Excellentia. He abruptly turned the shuttlecraft and accelerated toward the corvette. The safebox hit the ceiling and bounced toward the back.

Yiorgos looked at him like he was mad, his one human eye opening wide. "You're going directly at the ship that is bombarding the UW destroyer. That ship?"

"Yes. That ship! I recall that a shuttlecraft launched from it."

"Okay. So what are you going to do to them? Spit at 'em? Cuz that's about as much good as this little prow laser will do to that hull plating."

The comm crackled with the Proximan voice. "Thuttle 2, why hath you deviated from your courth?"

Dirken ignored the hail and answered Yiorgos instead. "I plan to board it and take it over."

Yiorgos rolled his eyes. "Oh, great plan. I'm sure we'll do hunky-dory against a horde of pirates."

"Not a horde. Thirty, maybe. Maybe less. You got a better plan?"

"You heard my plan. Go back to the hangar. I'll take my chances in those access tubes, thank you."

"Sure, until that 'horde' of pirates boards the Excellentia and comes looking to cut our throats. At least with the corvette we'll have a fast and deadly ship."

Yiorgos huffed. "You just want to get a ship at any cost."

A laser flashed in a bright line across the front of the shuttlecraft in a warning shot, causing both men to jump.

Then one of the fightercraft came up and flew sideways going the same direction, heavy prow gun aimed directly at Dirken through the side of the cockpit window. It was an expensive swept-wing design optimized for both space and atmospheric flight — very sleek compared to the boxy shuttlecraft, and painted bright yellow. It wasn't a military craft, but close to it. The sort that a mercenary force might use.

Dirken looked at the cockpit and saw a pilot with a large, red beret set fashionably askew on the unmistakable head of an Aquarian centaur. Even from that distance, he could make out the four eyes, broad nose, and cheek ridges that merged with the forward-sweeping earlobes. Dirken watched it speak — the same deep voice that they'd heard before. He wasn't certain if the pilot could see him as well.

"Shuttle Two. Explain yourself." His voice was smooth and hardly had an Aquarian accent. "Why have you turned to the Speartip?"

Dirken smiled at the centaur and pressed the comm button. "Just took a little damage back there. More than we thought. Need an emergency docking."

"Funny," came the reply, smooth and sarcastic. "I don't see any damage."

The second fighter now came into view, flying just behind the first.

"The jig is up," Yiorgos muttered. "They're going to blast us."

Dirken glanced to the corvette. They were now only about twenty meters from the starboard dock. He slowed slightly and turned the shuttlecraft to come alongside. Just a few more minutes, he thought. Just gotta buy a little more time.

Dirken pressed the comm button again. "Well, the damage was inside, actually." Dirken winced, realizing how lame it sounded. "We're leaking acid from the primary battery." He made himself cough several times. Yiorgos added his as well. "Gotta get out of here!"

The corvette, for its part, had stopped firing on the Excellentia, perhaps since the destroyer's bridge was now nothing more than a smoking, hollowed out collection of scrap.

"Go ahead," the centaur said. "Permission to board the Speartip." He smiled again. "I'll stay right behind you to make sure you… board smoothly."

The fighters pulled back and took up positions behind the shuttlecraft.

Dirken and Yiorgos exchanged looks.

"Now what?" Yiorgos said.

Dirken pulled the shuttlecraft alongside the docking hatch and brought it into position. "Don't worry," Dirken said. "They won't expect us." But he pulled his blaster and checked the charge. Yiorgos pulled a mini-blaster from a holster at the small of his back this time instead of transforming to make his plasma saber.

Dirken plucked the safebox from the air as it floated past him, then he stood in front of the hatch as the boarding cowl extended over the side of the shuttlecraft. They heard it wrap around the opening, making tight contact, and then the hiss of atmosphere beyond the door as a boarding ramp attached to the hatch.

"Get ready," Dirken said, aiming his blaster as the hatch unbolted.

"Yeah," Yiorgos answered. "Ready to be filled with holes. I've only got so many organic parts left."

The hatch slid open…

…and two rows of pirates stood in the entry with their pulse rifles aimed at them.

Dirken fired and hit a lanky Tau Cetian in his pale, bald head, then both men pulled themselves to either side of the hatch for cover. Plasma bolts shot through the doorway.

Yiorgos groaned. "They won't expect us, you said!"

The shots stopped. The pirates were arguing amongst each other, their words just low enough that Dirken couldn't make them out. Then one with a distinctly British accent shouted, "We saw the safe! Throw it out the hatch and we'll let ya go."

"You lie!" Dirken shouted. "Your fighters will blow us away."

"True, but we would let ya go!" A little wave of laughter rippled through the pirates. "Don't make us come in there or we'll make ya suffer!"

"You can't hurt us!" Dirken yelled. "We know the secret of the package!"

Yiorgos gave him an incredulous look. What secret? he mouthed.

Dirken waved his hand as if to say Let's go with it. Then, yelling out at the pirates, "It's useless unless you know how to use it!"

"Bullshite!" said the pirate.

"I don't think the Bloodhawk would like you killing the only people who know how to use it, now would he?"

More muttering amongst the pirates. Then, "Okay, but throw out your weapons."

"Like hell!" Yiorgos muttered.

"Go ahead," Dirken reassured. "We'll give ourselves up and escape later. Trust me."

"My trust in you