Page 17 of Collision!
Suvan stiffened.“On my way.”He was already turning again.“What’s wrong?”
“I need full power plus.We are being chased.”
Chapter 6
Of all the larf-licking luck.The one time he was away, and the captain caught him?
With a last glance at Mariah, brown eyes wide, he raced for his engines.
It wasn’t until he slammed through the module portal and Lub shrieked an intruder alarm that he realized Mariah was right behind him.
“What are you doing?”he snarled.“Go to your quarters.”
She rocked back on her heels.“Are you talking to me or Lub this time?”
“You.”
“I promised to help you if you ever needed it,” she reminded him.“Also, you have all my yarn.”
He hadn’t asked for her help, but… The bagwasstill over his shoulder.He slung it down in one corner.“Stay there,” he ordered.“And now I’m talking to both of you.”
Not lingering to make sure they listened, he strode to his main console.
Essential controls were routed through his portables, of course, but seeing all his systems here, in one place, and feeling the hum through his bones mattered.
“Max power plus,” he barked into the bridge comms.“On demand.”
“Acknowledged,” came the Tritonesse pilot’s cool reply.“Requesting additional gains to external sensors.”Her voice sharpened to a born hunter’s edge.“Let’s find out who’s following us.”
Suvan swept a hand over the controls, precisely balancing the load.“Routed.”
Waiting impatiently for their assessment, he pulled up a larger virtual monitor of the command module.The captain was in the center chair, of course, with Delphine at the helm, both of them also monitoring external sensors and comms.
The itinerary for this alien speed-dating cruise had originally been one night only, in a popular, settled system, just a sedate loop around three moons then back to port.They were not equipped or staffed for an emergency—or a fight.
“What’s happening?”Mariah had not obeyed his order, but her whisper was soft enough he might’ve ignored her.
Which he should do because she shouldn’t be here anyway, and he didn’t want to frighten her.But…
Maybe for once he didn’t have to wait alone while commands came from above.
He muted the comm link to the bridge.“They’re trying to get an ident on another ship.”
“Couldn’t it be rescuers?Or someone else who might help?”
“Not likely in the Zarnax Zone.We’re too far off course for rescuers to ever think we’d be here, and regular patrols avoid this sector for good reason.Or I should say, for brutal, never-find-the-bones reasons.We can’t risk contact.”
“So you’re getting us ready to run away?”
“At the fastest speed possible,” he confirmed.
While not the most powerful or responsive, the Love Boat I was a decent ship.And after the resonark had hijacked them, forcing them at critical speed into the Zarnax Zone, he’d made some notes about possible improvements.
None of which had been tested yet, much less implemented.At least he wasn’t still siphoning power to the capacitorus.
“Chief,” Nehivar said in a low voice.“I want something in reserve for defenses.”
“Acknowledged.”He didn’t have to tell the captain that their defenses were minimal at best.
