4. Aszher
Aszher
Daxer threw himself into the co-pilot chair while Donna expertly handled the levers and controls, muttering under her breath as she assessed the damage.
“How bad is it?” I asked. We’d already taken a hit once, several days back, while trying to outrun Olan. If he’d got us in the same place … not good.
“Bad enough,” Donna replied, her voice thick with anger, and yet her deep brown eyes shone with excitement. She loved this; loved flying, loved fighting. “Can you and Blitz man the guns while we handle the flying?”
I nodded, taking a seat at one of the tertiary screens at right angles to the front controls. “I’m not an expert, but I know how they work.”
“Meanwhile, I’m amazing at controlling these babies,” Blitz said with a grin, sitting opposite at his own gun station.
“Can you shoot the missiles out of space before they hit?” Donna asked, her fingers flying frantically across the screens.
“You bet I can, little thief.”
She laughed, and at the same moment she took the reins, so to speak, of the Comet, twisting us abruptly out of the path of a missile.
The cannon blazed through the blackness of space like a bright blue star.
Good thing we were all strapped in. “What are you waiting for?” she teased, bringing us around to face Olan’s ship.
Except it wasn’t Olan’s ship; this one was a squat, bulky trawler, nothing like the battleship.
“Uh,” Donna murmured, shooting us a look. “I don’t know who these guys are, but since they fired at us…”
I nodded. “Fire back.”
I followed my own command, lining up the ship in the sight on the screen and sending a burst of blue explosives through space towards the enemy ship.
It hit where I’d planned, but nothing more than scraps of armour broke off.
I gritted my teeth and lined up the shot again, my chest tight at the sight of their big guns glowing, almost ready to fire. Were those plasma weapons? Fuck.
“The second you fire, I’m spinning us away,” Donna said tensely, spotting the same thing I had. “Daxer, I need you to take over monitoring the shields while I pilot us. Divert power to them if you have to.”
Daxer dipped his head, a strained smile in his voice when he replied, “Yes, ma’am.”
Donna laughed, but our guns reached full power again, and I fired without hesitation, managing to blow off a sizable chunk this time. Blitz took out one of their guns and ripped open a big window, sending the enemy ship listing to the side. But their biggest gun was still glowing electric blue.
“Donna, now,” I bit out.
“I know, I know,” she replied irately. “The Comet won’t move. They must have hit something, the system’s locked. Daxer? Any ideas?”
“I’m barely a passable pilot, treasure,” he replied tightly. “You know more than I do.”
“Alright,” she breathed. “Okay. I can think of something.”
“Quickly, darling,” I bit out, my eyes darting between the power bar on my gun’s screen and the glowing blue cannon across from us. Which would power up first? Us or them? With a weapon like that, we’d be obliterated. My breath went short, a knot forming in my chest.
“Shit,” Donna growled. “Okay, I see the problem, but I don’t know what the hell I’m meant to do about it.”
“Where?” Daxer demanded.
“There. There’s a breach in the engine room, and we’re basically locked until we seal it.”
“Override the system,” Blitz suggested. “And do it quickly, little thief, or we’re toast.”
“Thanks for that helpful evaluation,” Donna bit out, but then she shouted, “Yes! It worked. Blitz, you’re a genius.”
Seventy-nine percent loaded. I clenched my hands into fists around the gun controls, and knew it wasn’t going to power up fast enough.
The end of the other ship’s cannon was electric blue, deadly hot, and my breath caught as I watched pure white light form in its maw.
But Donna swore and spun us out of its path before the plasma fire could raze us to dust.
I exhaled a shaky laugh, dragging a hand down my face. I’d always been aware of death, expecting it at my father’s hand, but that … that had been too close.
“Nicely done,” Daxer praised.
“Thanks. How are the shields?”
“Holding up. Patchy near the engines, but they’ll cope with another hit.”
“Let’s hope we don’t need them to,” Blitz said, exhaling hard. “Asz, you and I need to take out that main cannon.”
“Ninety three percent loaded,” I replied. Thank fuck our guns recharged quickly. “As soon as this hits a hundred, the cannon’s gone.”
Donna drew in a tight breath, ready to spin us around to face the hulking menace again.
“Now,” I growled, holding on as we twisted and spun, so fast my stomach shot into my throat. I aimed true, Blitz’s own blaze of gunfire hitting the cannon, and I exhaled in relief as it blasted into pieces.
“Well done,” Donna breathed and I felt my chest swell with pride. “With that thing gone, we should—ah, shixsun.”
“What?” Daxer demanded, leaning forward.
I craned my neck to see their screens.
“Here comes Olan.”
“What?” Blitz said in disbelief. “We’re meant to fight a battle on two fronts? Did the bastard call in backup?” He met my eyes. “Is it Father?”
My breathing went suddenly thin, my stomach a twist of sickness. My magic felt suddenly fragile, easily stolen. Please be anyone else. Anyone but him.
“No,” Daxer replied sharply. “The ship’s not new or flash enough to be his.”
He was right. I exhaled slowly, my hands shaky on the controls. It wasn’t him. I didn’t care if it was an army of heart eaters as long as it wasn’t that man.
“Incoming message,” Donna bit out. “Should we play it?”
Daxer nodded, his face stern. “Do it.”
Donna sucked in a breath, and I turned to watch the screen in front of her fill with the face of a hooded man with swirling tattoos and coals for eyes.
“Ah,” Donna said, wincing. “This one’s my fault, guys, sorry.”
I didn’t care; it wasn’t our father, and nothing could taint my relief at that. No one was going to hurt me or take my power. I was safe.
“Return the sacred skull of Erynthian,” the monk said in a coarse, ominous tone, “or we’ll turn your ship to cinders.”
I looked at Donna sharply, though all I could see was the back of her head. “The skull of Erynthian,” I said in disbelief. “You stole the skull of their god?”
She shrugged, defensive. “I needed the money, alright? And come on, how can a god have a skull? By default, they’re bodiless and omniscient. This is probably some poor monk’s skull. I don’t know why there’s such a big fuss.”
Blitz snorted, laughing behind his hand. “You’re such a bad girl, little thief.”
Donna gave him a sharp look. “Don’t turn me on, or I swear to Godhiva, I’ll crash this ship.”
He just grinned, his turquoise eyes alight.
“Do we give the skull back?” Daxer asked, chewing his bottom lip. “Or fight them?”
Donna shrugged, and then froze, a light flashing in her eyes. “Better idea. We’ve got two enemy ships after us, right?”
“Yeah…”
“Why don’t we turn them on each other? I’m sure I could do it, it’ll take some nifty flying, but if we piss them both off enough…”
“I like it,” Blitz agreed.
“It’s reckless,” I huffed. “We could get shot out of the stars.”
Donna shrugged. “That could happen anyway. We might as well try to make a stand.”
“Or we could give the monks what they want,” I pointed out, a disapproving tone slipping into my voice. If I’d known what she’d carried when I first met her, I might not have brought her on board. Their god’s skull … I’d heard of impressive thefts, but this was something else.
“I’ve already got a buyer,” Donna replied, shaking her head. “And besides, they’d probably shoot us anyway. They’re not as honest as they seem, these New Earthian monks.”
I looked to Daxer. He met my eyes, looked at Blitz and then Donna, and sighed. “You think you can pull this off?” he asked her.
“I know I can,” she replied fiercely. She shot me a look. “You might want to hold on, buttercup. If you thought my flying earlier was rough, it’s got nothing on what I’m about to do.”
My stomach cramped just at the thought of it.