“That would make sense,” Blake agreed. “Although it makes me want to lose my mind to think of their grubby hands and feet in my ship.”
She put her hand on his shoulder. “I know, but we’re going to fix that.”
He just nodded.
‘I think I can get down there without them noticing,’ Kyra said. ‘I can take at least one, but not the one in the ship.’
Raven repeated what the cat said, then added, “The one in the ship is the one to be worried about. If there is one there, but let’s act like there is. If there is, though, we don’t want them to hear us coming. They may be able to do any number of things against us.”
They watched for a few minutes more to see that one guard remained stationed in front of the door, while the other one paced around the ship. Neither of them seemed particularly energetic in their jobs, and if there was one inside, they never saw them, but she still planned to act like there was.
Kyra slunk out of the trees and skirted a wide circle toward the ship. She tried to time it so she and the moving guard would reach the backside at the same time, out of sight of the guard at the door.
Raven watched her cat for as long as she could, until Kyra dipped and turned out of sight. There was an anxious pit in her stomach, worrying about what might have been on the other side of the ship that they hadn’t seen.
She waited as long as she could tolerate before, ‘Kyra?’
‘I’m fine,’ the cat replied impatiently, as if annoyed by Raven’s hovering, but she still answered her and didn’t just let her sit and worry. ‘This guard won’t be a problem anymore.’
“Kyra’s done,” was all Raven said, pulling her gun and starting down the same wide path that the cat had taken.
“Promise you’re still a crack-shot?” Raven asked quietly.
“Yes,” he said. “I may not have many skills, but that is still one.”
She rolled her eyes slightly. “The self-deprecation routine is getting old.”
“Sorry.”
“Just stop talking.”
She walked them to the edge of their weapons’ range, her eyes on the guard in front of the ship most of the time. The closer they got, the more she decided he really wasn’t guarding anything. In fact, he might have been sleeping standing up. She’d heard that some people could do that, but she still found it hard to believe.
They stopped and Blake brought up his gun. He straightened his stance and looked down the line of the shot, then pulled the trigger.
She watched the energy bolt fly across the long space in between, just as the guard seemed to shift slightly to one side. The bolt hit his shoulder, which yanked him immediately out of his stupor. His eyes went wide and he shouted with surprise, bringing his gun to bear although he clearly had no clue where the shot had come from.
Blake cursed aloud and fired another shot. This one took the guard down, but the damage was done.
By the time he pulled the trigger that second time, Raven was already sprinting a wide arc toward the ship—bringing her nearer to the vessel without putting herself in the line of fire. She was halfway to Nyx when the guard dropped, and she knew the path was clear for her now.
Raven leaped over the body of the guard and raced up to the sealed door. She yanked down the override pad and punched in the code, which she remembered from when she and Blake had been together.
The door opened but the ramp did not descend. It was one of the backup protections the ship offered, but right now, it was just a pain in the ass.
The edge of the door was roughly level with the top of her head. She gripped it and began to pull herself up, but as she did, an energy bolt sizzled through the air overhead and she released with a curse. Apparently, there was someone inside.
After a moment, she could hear his voice. The words ‘attack’ and ‘send help’ were pretty clear.
“Damn it all,” she hissed.
She again gripped the edge of the door and began pulling herself up, hoping that the distress call he was making was enough to keep him distracted. The tone of his voice was pretty panicked, so that worked in her favor…until the call ended and then he was likely to shoot her in the head rather than try to talk to her.
After a moment of struggling, she chastised herself for not working out more, but she managed to pull herself up.
She saw the third man and his gun, ready to fire, and rolled out of the way just barely in time. The energy weapon left a burn scar on poor Nyx’s deck plates.
Raven rolled back to her back and lashed out with one leg. The guard screamed as her boot connected with his knee and he fell to the floor. With the same foot, she kicked the gun away from his hand, but he managed to grab her ankle in the process. He started pulled her closer and she kicked at his face and hands with her other foot.
He let go when her heel caught him between the eyes, and he gripped his face with both hands while she scrambled back.
She got to her feet before he did and lunged forward, grabbing his hair and ramming her knee into his face. She then manhandled him across the small space and threw him out the door.
“Almost got me,” Blake said a moment later as his hands gripped the ledge and he tried to pull himself up.
His struggle was obvious, though, and she reached down to take his hand and help him up.
“Get your ship working,” she said. “That guy called for help, and I don’t know how long we have.”
17
“Oh, what did they do to you, girl?” Raven heard Blake wail from below deck where he was checking over the AI core. What followed after that, while Raven and Kyra either stood tensely or paced the small upper cabin, was a long string of colorful language that Raven was frankly shocked Blake even knew.
“You better hope I don’t tell your mother,” she called down.
She knew how upset he was, but she wanted to somehow break the tension and maybe make him laugh a little. The man couldn’t focus that well when he was so upset, and she knew that.
“You better not tell my mother!” he shouted back. “I think I’ve upset her enough lately. She’s threatened to rip my ear right off my head.”
Raven smirked at the image as she moved back to the open door, peering out over the low valley to the trees and hills beyond. There was only one road, which was little more than a wide dirt path, so if they were coming by land vehicle, that was their only way in. Of course, it did not escape her thoughts that there was another ship that had towed Nyx here so that might somehow appear…but one problem at a time.
So far, the coast was still clear.
“They were effective but unskilled,” Blake shouted through the ship’s floor and the narrow open corridor that led down to the core maintenance area. “Basically, they reached in and yanked out wires, or what passes for wires. That Stillwell bastard had a code to let them into it.”
That sounded...really bad. “Can you fix it?”
There was a pause long enough to make her sick with nerves. “Yeah,” he finally said. “But I don’t know if I can do it fast. This is a big mess.”
She gripped her hair and tugged with frustration. “We can’t stay here forever,” she said more hotly than she meant to. She glanced back out the door, which was when she saw two land vehicles coming down the road and into the valley.
They didn’t have long at all.
“Even less now!” she shouted, watching the vehicles roll slowly toward her. “What CAN you do? We’re about to have company!”
Again, an uncomfortably long pause. She was calculating when the cars would be in range and how effective her gun would be on vehicles like that.
“Call Silvanus!” Blake finally said.
“What?!”
“Call Silvanus! Get her shiny silver butt over here,” he shouted, speaking so fast that she almost had trouble understanding him. “The only thing I can do is put her back into the state she was in when she was flown here. Silvanus needs to hack into that tap and slave Nyx to her own systems, and fly h
er by remote out of here!”
‘Silvanus, did you hear that?’
‘I’m already on my way.’
“She’s on her way!”
There was the sound of clanking and then a small crash before Blake came bolting up the stairs. “We’re going to have to get onto Silvanus before we fly out of here. I can’t guarantee that Nyx will have life support while flying remote.”
“Of course not,” Raven muttered, looking at the approaching cars.
They were close enough now, so she lifted her gun and took aim. She dialed the shot up to high. It weakened the impact, but gave her more of a chance to hit something with the wide bolt dispersion. She fired at the front vehicle. It hit and slowed the car, though it didn’t stop, so she fired again.
The energy bolt hit one of the tires and it blew out, sending the vehicle half-spinning before grounding to a halt.
“There’s one,” she said, but even as she did, the men from inside were getting out and rushing toward them. “Where did they even get these guys?!”
“They were probably the search parties out looking for me,” Blake said, taking aim and taking one out.
‘I am connecting with Nyx now,’ Silvanus reported. ‘Be ready to jump.’
“Jump?” Raven wondered out loud.
“What?” Blake asked, looking at her briefly.
The ship around them began to shake and she realized that Silvanus was coming in for a landing almost on top of them. At least the mud hadn’t held on, she reflected. They had enough troubles as it was.
The other AI ship seemed so close, she could almost touch it as it lowered itself for a landing directly between them and the incoming hostiles. She effectively provided a big shiny shield between them, but already Raven could hear weapons hitting her outer hull and she knew that they didn’t have long.
Silvanus fired the thrusters in a sequence, Raven could hear them go on and off, and spun the ship just enough that the door roughly lined up with the door out of Nyx.
“Right,” Raven said. “Jump.”
Kyra didn’t waste any time with talking. She just backed up toward the wall and then took off at a run, vaulting over the gap with all the grace that a cat possessed, and that was considerable when it needed to be. Raven didn’t feel nearly as much confidence that she and Blake would look half as good.
“Go,” Raven all but ordered Blake, knowing him the more injured of the two and wanting him to have the first chance.
He looked like he wanted to argue, but he didn’t. Instead, he repeated what the cat had done—backing up to the wall and then starting to run. The cabin didn’t give them much room to work, but he got up just enough steam for a graceless crash landing on the other side. He rolled into the far wall, nearly wedging himself under the sofa.
Then it was Raven’s turn. The sound of weapons fire was getting closer and Silvanus was starting to sway under the assault and trying to hold perfectly steady in atmospheric flight, which she wasn’t ideal for.
Raven backed up to the wall, took a deep breath, ran, and jumped—
—and collided with the very edge of the open door. Her hands and part of her chest were inside, but since Silvanus had shifted at the last moment, the rest of her was outside and she shouted her dismay.
Kyra jumped forward and grabbed the back of Raven’s jacket. Her teeth nearly cut Raven’s skin, but the human didn’t complain as the big cat strained against gravity and a lack of traction to help pull her human up. Moments later, human hands joined in, and between the three of them, Raven collapsed onto the deck.
The door shut, and Silvanus took off into the atmosphere once again, heading for space with the sound of energy bolts hitting her from below.
18
“I think I bruised a rib,” Blake groaned as he pulled himself onto the sofa.
Raven held her own ribcage as she leaned back against the wall. “I think I dented my sternum,” she muttered, feeling exactly where she had impacted the ledge of the door. Kyra gently bumped her head against Raven’s and then laid down next to her. Raven didn’t pet the intelligent cat, because she had been sharply informed that that was insulting, but she did rest her arm over Kyra’s back.
Silvanus shuddered all around them, and it jostled Raven until she groaned again.
At least it didn’t take long for them to get out of range of the guys on the surface. And soon, although not soon enough for bruised ribs, the shaking stopped as they breached the final layer of the planet’s atmosphere and reached space.
“I continue to maintain control over Nyx and we are now in clear space. I do not presently see any other ships in range,” Silvanus reported.
“Let’s hope it stays that way,” Raven opined optimistically. She groaned again as she pushed herself to her feet and sat at the console. “We need to find a place to hide from any prying eyes so we can repair Nyx. Let’s take a look at what’s around us.”
“Analyzing,” the AI announced. “I have also disabled our transponder code.”
This brought Blake’s attention to them. “You can just disable it like that? Nyx had to fry ours.”
Raven smiled wryly at him. “That’s because you ditched while still under contract. When you get paid off and go solo, you get the ability.”
“Huh.”
That was the end of it, apparently.
Raven slumped back in her chair. At least some of the ache from her midsection was easing. She didn’t think she’d actually damaged anything, just had been sore from the collision and the adrenaline was receding.
A few moments later, she heard an animal’s groan and instantly knew that it wasn’t Kyra.
“Axel!” Blake exclaimed.
Raven turned to see the wolf lifting his shaggy head. After looking around, he lowered it to the floor again but with his eyes open and looking around.
“Hey, Axel,” Raven said.
Even though the space was exactly the same, having Axel awake suddenly made the small cabin seem even smaller.
“He says hi,” Blake said with a relieved smile, sitting on the floor next to his companion. If he was still in any pain, it didn’t show.
Kyra pulled herself to her feet and padded over, head-butting the wolf. He lifted his head and licked her lazily, which she accepted with surprising graciousness before laying down next to him.
“Silvanus, can you run the processor for something for Axel to eat?” Raven asked, letting the pile of creature just…be a pile.
“Some, yes,” the AI replied, “but I would keep the meal small. The drugs in his system may make him nauseated as it clears his system. I don’t imagine he wants to vomit, nor do you want to clean it up.”
Raven pursed her lips. “Good call.”
A few moments later, Raven pulled a small bowl of chicken and brown rice from the processor port. She carried it over and handed it to Blake, before the AI chirped for Raven’s attention.
“I have located somewhere I think suitable,” she announced. Raven sat at the console and watched a map of the space around them pop up. There was a colorful blob highlighted toward the top left. “This is the Navari Nebula. It will limit our thruster power, but little else aside from obscuring sensors trying to pierce into it.”
“Are we going to find any other ships in there?” Raven asked with a wry smirk. “It’ll be like when there’s one great hiding spot and every kid goes for it during hide-and-seek.” It was not surprising, in retrospect, that Raven had always been really good at being the seeker.
Now she had to play the other role.
“I wouldn’t know, Raven,” the AI replied. If she hadn’t been a computer, Raven would’ve said she deadpanned. “I can’t see inside.”
“I guess we’ll just have to go and find out, won’t we?”
“I guess so.”
19
Silvanus found a place within the nebula for both ships. If there was anyone else hiding here, they couldn’t see them.
“Alright, Silvanus. What’s the statu
s of Nyx’s systems now?” Raven asked, running her hands through her hair. She needed a shower, but wasn’t sure when the right time to do that would come back around. “Blake is gonna need to get over there to work on fixing her, but I am sure he would like to breathe while he’s doing it.”
“Yes, I would imagine so,” Silvanus agreed. “Her systems are limited, but I’ve managed to restore artificial gravity and essential life support. That’s roughly it until she is in better working order.”
“It’s enough,” Blake said. “I just need to get over.” He turned to Axel, idly scratching the wiry grey fur of his neck. “You need to stay here, my friend. You still have some recovering to do and don’t need to be dealing with a half-functioning ship.”
The wolf seemed accepting of the idea, settling back down on the floor.
Blake pushed himself to his feet with a short grunt, then dusted himself off. Of course, there wasn’t much dust on the ship thanks to its self-cleaning process, but it was habit when you often had animal hair clinging to you.
“Do you need help?” Raven offered, getting to her feet.
“No, I can handle it,” he said with a tired smile. “My ship, after all. I know her best.”
Raven nodded. “Of course,” she said. “Silvanus, our connector port wasn’t damaged on the planet, right?”
“No, Raven. It is functional. I’m in the process of connecting to Nyx now.”
“Silvanus, you’re beautiful,” Blake said.
Looking at him with surprise, Raven started laughing. He looked at his ex-wife with a confused half-smile until the AI explained, “Raven has a habit of saying that as well.”
He chuckled once he understood.
“Connection secured, but possibly transient. There is a current in this nebula that may move the ships, so be quick,” Silvanus informed him.
“Confidence-inspiring, thank you.”
Double Sharpe Page 6
