The First Starfighter by Grace Goodwin (lightweight ebook reader txt) 📕

“Yes. I was so—”

“I’m sorry.” This wasn’t the time or the place, but I had to say it. I couldn’t wait a second longer to make things right.

She set her hand on my forearm. “I get it. You didn’t have a choice. And I had to believe it or the queen would’ve seen right through me. But damn it, Alex!” She leaned her forehead into my chest. “Don’t ever do that to me again. Ever.”

“Agreed.” Not because I wouldn’t do this a thousand times to protect her, but because after this, a ruse of this nature would not work again. My undercover days were over.

“I’m still mad.”

“Noted.” I tilted her chin up with a gentle touch and pressed my lips to hers for the briefest of moments. “You can scream at me later.”

“Don’t think I won’t.”

“I’d rather make you scream for a more pleasurable reason.”

“Let’s go, you two.” Trax tossed me the full-size laser rifle I’d taken from the dead guard. I caught it in midair. I looked down to the smaller one I had given to Jamie.

“You good with that?” I asked.

She shrugged but didn’t seem afraid of the gun. “Looks pretty standard. I’ll figure it out.”

I kissed her again. I had to.

“Get your asses out here!” Nave yelled at the three of us from outside the cell area where he’d stayed behind to stand guard. Trax ran for the entrance and slid to one knee as he approached the opening, aiming and firing so quickly I didn’t bother trying to keep up.

“Stay behind me,” I ordered Jamie as I joined my men in the fight. “We have to get to the docking station and the Valor. It’s our only way out of here.”

The shootout was over in seconds, and I held out my free hand for Jamie to come to me. I squeezed her palm as she came to stand at my side. “Stay close.” I looked at Trax. “Let’s go.”

We’d trained together for months. In the air. We weren’t ground fighters. But Jamie and I were a team.

Trax took off at a dead run, crossing the small open area before disappearing down a second corridor. At the end of that long stretch of space was a lift that would take us to the docking area.

I nodded at Jamie, and we ran together across the open area, Trax and Nave covering us from cross positions. When Jamie and I made it safely to the corridor, we covered for Nave as he ran to join us. He slid to a stop just inside the corridor, and I grabbed his shoulder. “You did turn off the GravEx beam, right?”

He nodded, his breathing ragged. “Blew every fuse in the panel. Even if they find it, it’ll take a repair tech at least an hour to get it up and running.”

“Excellent.” I turned to Jamie. “How are you feeling?”

She licked her lips and glanced at all three of us in turn before locking her gaze to mine. “I’m fine. Is the GravEx that tractor beam thing that pulled us into the warship?”

Tractor? I had no idea what that word meant, but I understood her meaning. “Yes, a gravity-exchange energy beam. That beam hits a ship and there’s no taking back control.”

“But it’s off now?”

“Yes,” Nave confirmed. “It’s crispy.”

“Good. Get me to my ship and I’ll get us the fuck out of here. You saved me, so it’s time to save your sorry asses right back.”

“Dodging laser cannons and Scythe fighters?” Trax asked, a grin twisting the corner of his mouth up.

She smiled and I fell deeper in love with her. “Child’s play.”

Trax took her at her word and sprinted off. We followed. We made it to the lift without incident and stepped inside. The doors slid closed, and Nave pushed the button that would take us up.

“It’s six levels up from here.” He stepped back and pointed his weapon at the closed doors. “I have no control over how many times we stop. Or who will be on the other side of these doors every time they slide open.”

Taking the cue, we lined up, weapons pointed at the door.

Two floors.

Three.

The lift slowed on the fourth floor. The door alert dinged. The door slid wide open to reveal three engineers waiting to step in. We fired in unison.

They dropped dead.

People shouted. Ran.

The lift door closed, and we were in motion again.

An alarm ricocheted inside the small room, and Jamie lifted her hands to cover her ears.

“Jesus, that’s loud,” she shouted.

I didn’t care about the noise. What I did care about was the slowing movement of the lift itself. We came to a complete stop between floors five and six.

“Fuck!” Nave shouted.

“Shut your mouth and lend a hand,” I said. I lined up on one side of the doors, Trax and Nave on the other. “Push,” I ordered.

Jamie stood with her back to the far wall, laser pistol aimed at the ceiling of the lift, which I thought foolish until a panel moved to the side and one of the queen’s fighters leaned into the open space, weapon first.

Jamie took him out with one shot, and he fell, lifeless, to the floor at her feet. She glanced from the dead man to me, then lifted her gaze and her weapon to the ceiling once more. I guess she had, indeed, figured it out.

“You guys better hurry.”

Trax grunted as we all worked at the doors to force them open. “If Nave didn’t drink so much Velerion ale, we’d have this door open by now.”

“You drink me under the table every time, old man,” Nave countered with a grin.

I took a deep breath as Jamie fired another shot toward the ceiling. “Shut the fuck up and PUSH!”

The door cracked open, but that was all we needed to force it the rest of the way. The metal beams supporting the upper floor appeared before us, just enough space between the crisscrossing beams to crawl through.

Trax climbed out to lead the way,