The Corsair Uprising #1: The Azure Key

by Trevor Schmidt

  5

  A voice rang out over the loudspeaker, “This is Captain Truong speaking. All hands, man the mining lasers. We’re under attack. I repeat, we’re under attack.”

  Liam looked around the mess hall, where miners sat in shock. There had never been a battle in space before. Whoever or whatever was out there couldn’t have been from Earth. The miners scrambled out the door, making their way to the mining lasers. They weren’t a fraction as powerful as what was coming at them, but maybe they would do something.

  “Come on,” Liam said. “We need to go.”

  He grabbed Saturn’s arm and led her down the corridor, stepping over metal grates and dodging hanging ductwork disrupted during the explosions. Ju-Long Ma followed close behind, still putting pressure on his wound and yelling obscenities over the alarms.

  “We’re going to die,” Ju-Long cried.

  “No we’re not,” Liam replied. “We’re getting out of here.”

  “Captain said to man the lasers.”

  An explosion rang out overhead before being muffled by the vacuum of space. They didn’t have long before life support gave out and Liam wasn’t about to die there. Not without a fight and definitely not in space.

  “If you want to stay no one’s stopping you,” Saturn said, turning to Ju-Long with the hint of a smile.

  They made a right and descended a metal ladder to Cargo Bay One. The mining craft had several small ships suited to scouting asteroids, none much larger than the shuttle with which he used to freelance. It might have measured twenty-five meters wide by fifty meters long and was a piece of crap, hardly capable of two hundred thousand KPH on a good day. It had a sleek shape with wings that curved down almost to the landing gear, fitted with hooks along with the nose to attach to an asteroid on three points.

  Liam pressed his thumb on a panel attached to the landing gear and a ramp descended, unfolding like a drawbridge. They climbed up the platform into the small craft’s hold. The ship was not meant for carrying cargo per se, more like small samples, not leaving much room to move around. Ahead was a passage that led to the cockpit while the engine room was situated toward the back of the craft.

  “Ju-Long, do you mind?”

  He shook his head. His face looked a little pale but he said with a serious voice, “No, I’m on it.”

  Ju-Long jogged toward the rear of the ship to the engine room, for once not making a crude remark or losing his cool.

  “You remember how to fly one of these?” Saturn asked.

  “We’re about to find out.”

  There was a rumble overhead as yellow crates of ore toppled off their pallets outside, landing near the ship. Liam cursed and made his way to the cockpit. He knew that if they took another blast like that they weren’t going anywhere. The ship’s main corridor was short and thin, with barely enough room for Liam to walk upright. The interior of the ship was utilitarian, with plain metal walls that were smooth to the touch. Everything inside was made compact for short missions.

  When Liam and Saturn reached the cockpit, he sat down in the pilot’s seat and strapped himself in. He held his hand over the control panel, prompting it to wake up from hibernation. Saturn took the seat to his left, buckling in for the ride.

  Liam touched a button on the panel and opened a link to the engine room. Over the din he asked, “Ju-Long, how are my engines?”

  He could hear several words he knew to be Chinese curses come over the audio link.

  “Almost,” Ju-Long finally said. “There. Good to go.”

  Liam could hear the sound of the ion engines jumping to life, a dull hum in the cockpit but a deafening roar in the engine room. Liam cut the audio link and took hold of the joystick, pulling back and feeling the landing gear leaving the cargo bay floor. He pointed the ship toward the bay doors and sent a signal for them to open. Nothing. Through the side window Saturn pointed at Captain Truong, a squat Asian man with a stark white uniform. He spoke into a handset and his voice came through their consoles, “That’s far enough, Kidd.”

  “Shit, how’d he know?” Saturn asked.

  Liam shrugged, pressing a couple buttons on the control panel and opening a channel. Two lasers dropped from the bow of the craft, pointed at the bay door.

  “Stand aside, Captain. Unless you want to take a spacewalk.”

  “Vesta Corporation will not rest until we find you,” the Captain said viciously. “You’ll work the mines for the rest of your life.”

  “I’ll take my chances,” Liam said before cutting the audio link.

  Liam charged the lasers, prompting Captain Truong to scramble past the airlock to safety. That was the smartest thing Liam had ever seen him do.

  “Ready?” Liam asked Saturn.

  “Ready.”

  Liam fired, shards of metal blasting out into space as all of the air was sucked out of the cargo bay. Crates went flying, bouncing off the hull of their ship, until a berth wide enough for them to traverse opened. Liam kept the small craft level as the objects passed them, using the reverse thrusters to keep from being pulled out of the ship. The last thing he wanted was to catch a wing on one of the side walls. Liam moved the joystick with his right hand and slid his fingers forward on the control panel with his left, accelerating as they crossed the threshold into space.