AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ll kill you all before I allow you to harm her,” he snarled.
The shuttle that had to be Marisol’s suddenly moved, turned in his direction, and began flying right toward him. His Marisol knew he’d keep her safe. It warmed his soul thinking that she was depending on him to save her.
“I will,” he vehemently swore.
Chapter Six
Marisol focused on the shuttle she approached. It was in clear view now, and she identified it as a personal cruiser class shuttle. It was a popular model for people who lived amongst the stars instead of on planets.
The other two shuttles that she felt certain were pirates were gaining on her. That terrified her. The communications beeped.
“Answer it,” MC-2 demanded.
She didn’t even spare him or the female clone on his lap a glance as she opened the channel.
“Cease running and shut down your engines, or we’ll fire on you,” a man demanded. “Comply or die.”
The signal was coming from one of the two pirate shuttles. Marisol bit her lip, debating on whether she should say anything back. Alarms blared on her console, warning her that someone had a weapons lock on them. Terror coursed through her.
“Let them board us,” MC-2 whispered. “We’ll defend ourselves. They can only dock one shuttle to ours. We’re five against however many they have. I’m sure we’ll overpower them, and then we can take control of their ship.”
“Another shuttle isn’t going to do us any good since I’m the only one who knows how to fly. I’d also not like them to get that close to us. Did you ever consider that they might have illegal weapons? You have no idea how quickly those can kill us.” Marisol didn’t want to frighten them, but they’d been shielded from reality by living on Clone World with their heavy security protocols.
MC-4 whimpered.
Another alarm blasted through the cockpit, and Marisol watched in shock as the shuttle they approached, the one she felt Free might be on, was the one to launch a weapon. A missile flew past them.
“Brace for sharp maneuvers,” she yelled out. Then Marisol pushed the engines for all they had, trying to put more distance between her and the pirates. She didn’t see the missile hit, but it showed on her sensors.
One of the hostile shuttles veered off from pursuit, parts of it breaking apart. The other hostile shuttle fired on them.
Warning alarms blared again, and Marisol responded by changing course. The missile coming at them missed, but it was close. It exploded, though, scattering large chunks of debris. They couldn’t avoid some of it.
Damage reports started scrolling across her screen, red lights flashed inside the cockpit, and engine one died. It sent the shuttle into a spin, causing her to lose control. They were rolling, and the view out of the cockpit window showed other shuttles, but then there was utter blackness.
Marisol quickly compensated by cutting the second engine and using thrusters. The gravity stabilizers went off-line. The sudden weightlessness made her feel queasy. She got the spin under control, so their view wasn’t constantly changing.
“Engine one refuses to restart,” Marisol updated the clones. “It’s too damaged. I’ve got enough thruster control that we’ve straightened out.” Her fingers flew over the console. “The gravity stabilizers are refusing to reboot.”
“Life support is online but flashing a warning,” MC-2 shared, reading the system alerts from the other console where he sat.
“I don’t have time to worry about that,” Marisol admitted. Her gaze went to the two shuttles that had engaged in firing at each other. Her sensors read that the damaged pirate shuttle was floating away, seeming to have lost all power. The important thing was it wasn’t anywhere near them.
“Reboot all the systems,” MC-2 ordered.
“No. I’m using the thrusters to keep us away from the battle. Rebooting would knock out all systems for at least a full minute. We can’t afford to take any more damage.”
Her gaze went to the long-range sensors. The farthest away shuttle, the one Free had to be on, appeared to be undamaged. He had the other pirate ship on the run. The one incoming shuttle that she felt Figures might be on split into two separate vessels as she watched. They flew close together, but one of them broke away to fly faster.
Marisol was stunned since that fifth one hadn’t been on sensors before. “Where the hell did that come from, and who is it?”
“We’re going to die,” MC-4 sniffed.
Marisol glanced toward the couple strapped in the other seat. The female clone was crying. Her male was doing something to the console on that side. It alarmed her. “Do not reboot the systems.”
“Life support went down,” he grimly shared.
“We have enough oxygen to breathe for a bit.” Marisol had to make things clear so he wouldn’t interfere. “Right now, we need to worry about not taking more damage, or we’re dead. That means I need working thrusters in case we need to move.”
