Chapter 39 #2
Without the preflight checks, the shuttle jolted from my unexpected commands.
Nose up, I set us off as fast as the shuttle could manage.
There was scuffling in the cargo bay before I put on autopilot to continue our rapid straight-up ascent.
The shuttle didn’t have strong enough G’s to knock them out, but it gave me a chance to swing out of the pilot chair.
I knelt on the wall behind the chair, threw open the door, and fired into the cabin.
The attacker I shot was nowhere to be seen. The other, however, clung to the seatbelts with one hand, suspended in the cabin, and had wiring attached to their commlink and our system in the other. They wore a blacked-out helmet and suit to match, with no markings to signify who they were.
They released the seatbelt to drop away from my next shot.
The wire detached from their commlink, dangling from the wall.
They fell to the back of the cabin where they scrambled onto their back to fire.
I swerved out of the doorway, reached for the wheel and yanked to the right, the left, the right again. The shuttle groaned defiantly.
They wouldn’t have to blow our engines if I ended up doing so.
I kept a firm hold on the wheel and the seat to keep myself upright. I flipped a switch on the dash so the holo screen revealed the back cabin. The attacker scrambled to find their footing.
“Shit,” I breathed before their suit propelled them forward into the cockpit.
I rolled off the chair to avoid their first shot.
The second hit my knee. The nerves went numb well past my waist. They latched onto the wheel, sending us to the left, then leveling us out.
We fell to the floor. The attacker hurried onto their feet while I shot under the chair.
They screamed as their foot detached from their ankle.
They fell to a knee where I aimed for their abdomen and fired until I could see the burn marks on the dashboard through their torso.
“I fucking hate being stunned,” I groaned, lugging myself around the chair to sit on it, bloody and all. Shoving the very deceased jerk aside, I resumed control of the shuttle.
“Roys? Arana? Someone come in.”
Either the attacker’s equipment remained on the shuttle, blocking comms, or they were still in the shit.
Only two attacked me, expecting it would be easy to take out a single pilot.
The rest of the team would take far more manpower, although the biggest question became, why would they attack all of us? Cocky? Blood thirsty?
Regardless, there had to be a shuttle nearby. They wouldn’t have trekked far through an unknown and hostile environment. They were in this for the money, so they’d take the easiest route. Their shuttle would be better than ours, certainly more weaponized.
I kept the shuttle high, out of their potential scanner range, though that meant I couldn’t use mine either.
I kept it on anyway, in case it pinged anything or anyone, and primed the only phasers we had.
They were more for show than anything, certainly wouldn’t be able to crack a shield, if the ship had one, but a weapon was better than none.
I surveyed the landscape. It wasn’t until I got closer to our original landing site that a shuttle burst out of the greenery a click to the east—where the team went.
I fired, striking a back engine. Their ship maneuvered and my second shot grazed them.
The ship didn’t have a shield. I prepared another shot, annoyed that the damn shuttle needed time to charge.
“Don’t shoot! Lucky, do you read? Do not shoot!” Lilea’s labored breath rang over the comms. “The captain, Arana, and Ryker are on board. Shit, please tell me—”
“I heard you.” And it took all my willpower not to scream, to swallow the lump in my throat and steady my voice. “They were taken alive?”
“Yes, injured but alive. Zavir, Iylene, and Tobs need the med bay. They’re, oh stars,” she started speaking in Erkwan, a series of groaning and clicking sounds, followed by a panicked, “They aren’t good. Not good!”
Lilea’s voice cut out. I couldn’t determine if it was her panic or our bad comms. Her affirmation that they were taken alive didn’t settle me because they wouldn’t be that way for long.
Arana may get them more money alive. Roys and Ryker, however, were more likely hostages to get alive off planet.
They would discard those hostages the moment they could.
“What about the others?” I bit back the urge to mention Maddy. Blood seeped from a wound on my cheek where my teeth gnashed.
“We’re alive,” Maddy replied. Her voice made me shudder. “I’m guessing your comms and tracker cut out too.”
“Yes, but I see you now.” Half a click from where they were meant to be. “And be aware that I have a dead, unwelcome guest on board, plus blood in the cabin.”
“Are you injured?” she growled, and I smiled, feeling like a kid again when Maddy snarled at anyone who looked at me funny.
“My leg is stunned. Nothing an adrenaline shot won’t fix. I’m close to you.” Although all I wanted was to chase that shuttle, to rip through any bastard who got in the way, and drag Roys, Arana, and Ryker out of there.
Landing the shuttle proved challenging. There weren’t many openings between the flora, so I settled for as near as we could get.
After landing, I shot myself full of adrenaline from one of the med packs and dragged the corpse out of the cockpit.
I removed their helmet and inspected their comms. If we could hack into them, I wouldn’t be the one to know or ask, but at least we had one.
“Lucky!”
Lilea and Elado broke the tree line with a half-dead Zavir dangling between them.
All their exoskins had been damaged and Zavir had clearly put up a fight, his body beaten bloody, knuckles broken and white bone peeking out of ruined seared flesh.
Behind them, Maddy became Tobs’ walking stick.
The assistant was delirious, blood seeping out of a head wound they had haphazardly tied up.
Last were the remaining ragged scientists, with Galya using her abilities to push the supply cart carrying an unconscious Iylene, a blaster wound through their left abdomen to their hip and a bad graze on their right shoulder.
I went to Lilea to help bring Zavir on board.
We buckled him in while the others grabbed the med spray from our kits.
They couldn’t heal the damage but would hopefully help them last until we reached the habitat.
I left the corpse in the corner; in case we could use any of the materials from their suit.
None of us spoke about the shuttle that got away and the ones they took.
I knew this was procedure, that my job was to get everyone to safety, but I could hardly stop myself from going after them.
I told Roys I would help, that he didn’t have to worry, I had his back, and if he were here… he’d get everyone to the habitat first.
I didn’t understand how he could make this decision when it felt like ripping out my heart to turn the shuttle toward the habitat.
“Care to explain why a group of pirates attacked us?” Maddy fell into the co-pilot seat. Her visor had been discarded, revealing her flushed features and messy hair. She wasn’t injured, much to my relief.
“Arana joined the militia because she owes an angry mob boss a lot of money and she missed a few payments,” I replied.
“Of course, that’s it.” She glanced at the blood drying across the console. “Are you alright?”
“I told you, my leg was stunned. That’s all.”
“That’s not what I’m asking.” Her gaze was like a hangnail — painful, irritating. “The captain is alive,” she said, like that would change the cold sweat rolling down my back. “So is Arana and Ryker.”
At the time, she probably would have said if she weren’t attempting a shitty pep talk.
“Once at the habitat, we’ll help the others in, then we’ll look for them,” she said.
“We? Do you mean me and the rest of our security team? You can’t join.” My hands flexed on the wheel. “That’s against protocol.”
“You don’t care about that.” She leaned back, arms crossed and words final. “You aren’t leaving me behind, Lucky.”
She wasn’t talking about our past. I understood that, like she understood from the moment they were taken, that I would get them back alive. No matter the cost.