AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I have to try,” came the muffled reply from the tunnel.
All Cora could do was watch with bated breath as Levi inched his way through the mouth of the duct. He was slow and methodical, and for several moments, she truly believed she would have to run for help. But eventually, he made it.
If there had been room in the service tunnel, she would have thrown herself into his arms in relief. But even in the wider vent system, there was no space for bonding.
Progress after that was fast and safe. They had no problem finding their way with the holo-map guiding them, and before long they were at the escape pods. The area beyond was clear of all crew members. Not even a skeleton crew was there. So they slipped unseen through a service hatch.
“This way,” said Cora, taking point.
She led them to the bay where the pods were stored and scanned the security pad with her comm set. It only took her moments to bypass the security system, and they were through into the airlock room that contained the small escape pod.
Levi climbed in and surveyed the controls. “Looks pretty standard,” he said. “Can you do something to seal off this area after we eject?”
“Already working on it,” she replied from the seat next to him while punching commands into the onboard computer system. “I can’t find a cloaking system on this, which is a shame. We’ll just have to take evasive action if they follow. I’ve tried to hide the launch from the mainframe, but I don’t know if it will work.”
“As long as we get a bit of a head start, we should be able to make it. I’ve just got to get this baby up to warp speed before they mobilize.” Levi sounded more confident than Cora felt. She had disabled the warp drive on the mothership, so they shouldn’t have problems with that. But she felt sure they would have emergency launch protocols for the other pods.
Levi turned to her. “Ready?
“Ready,” she replied.
The doors opened onto dead space between solar systems, and the myriad stars looked distant and cold. The engines of the pod fired into life, and the pod ejected from the mothership.
“Unauthorized launch detected. Pod 364K12, respond,” came a Jorvlen voice over the radio.
“That was quick,” said Cora. “My launch masking obviously didn’t work.” She punched in more commands to the onboard. “Ah, there’s the problem,” she said, biting her lip in concentration. “They’ve got a tracker on board. Should have thought about that, I guess.”
She swiftly disabled the tracking system, but it was too late. Several pods could be seen dropping away from the mothership.
Chapter 34
“It’s no good. They’ve got a lock on us,” said Cora from beside him. We’re going to have to do something to shake them off.”
“Not at warp speed,” replied Levi. “And we’re still in dead space. There’s nothing here to hide behind. Any chance you can disable the speed max? It could give us an edge if I can fly this baby to its limits.”
Cora gave him an incredulous look and then shook her head. “You’d better know what you’re doing,” she commented as she hacked into the pod’s computer system. “There’s a fine line between safety protocols and strawberry jam!”
A missile came shooting past them way too close. “Fuck,” said Levi, applying the reverse thrusters. They lurched in their seats, threatening to lose consciousness as the little vessel slowed down too rapidly for their comfort. The entire craft groaned alarmingly. It was not designed for that kind of stress.
“It won’t shake them for long,” said Levi.
“I’ve got the charts up of this area, and this patch of dead space is absolutely massive. The only thing between us and the Hatha Quadrant is an asteroid. We won’t stand a chance if it comes to a dog fight with them. Will we?”
“You never know. But is it likely? Not exactly.”
“Could we use the stone on them?” asked Cora.
“I doubt it. It would likely take us out, too, unless we have a rocket to shoot it out, and even then, it’s risky. If it doesn’t deploy, we might just be handing it to them all over again.”
The dots that represented the other escape pods from the Imperial Surfer were turning and heading back toward them.
“Where’s that asteroid again, Cora?” asked Levi.
“There. Why?” Cora quickly got a lock on it and set it as a destination point on their star chart. “Perfect,” said Levi. “You’d better hold onto your lunch. This could get bumpy!” With that, he accelerated at full throttle in the direction of the asteroid.
The tiny craft shook with the forced velocity. He was keeping it just under the point where the tolerance of the little pod could fail.
The giant asteroid came into view, millions of tons of rock and ice hurtling through space and leaving a long tail streaming out behind it.
