The First Nova I See Tonight by Jason Kilgore (the false prince .txt) 📕

"Over here!" A metallic voice called. "Friend Dirken!"

Dirken wheeled about. "'TakTrak!" he shouted, relief washing over him. The Corthian stood in the gangway of his Jen'torian clipper, a bright blue eagle emblazoned on the front over the cockpit and gangway, a long row of scarred and blasted silver cargo cube compartments stretching back from the forecastle of the ship. One of the cargo cubes seemed shiny and unscuffed, as if brand new.

"We must hurry!" 'TakTrak shouted, his voice translated from its clacking, whirring speech into Terran by his translator necklace. He waved with a wing for Dirken to come aboard.

Dirken and Yiorgos gave each other a quick glance, shrugged as one, and ran for 'TakTrak's ship.

The Bloodhawk saw where they were headed and opened fire on the clipper. Several shots perforated one of the stabilizers and blew off an atmospheric aileron on the port side.

A cannon raised up out of the top of 'TakTrak's ship and returned fire, its four barrels pulsing with orange-red blasts every bit as strong as the one firing at it from the brigantine. The brig's remaining cannon exploded from well-placed shots.

Dirken arrived at the gangway as 'TakTrak was firing a plasma flechette rifle up at the pirates, knocking two out of the air with the energized darts the weapon hurtled at high velocity. "Thanks," Dirken said. "You get me out of here and I'll let you off the hook for the rest you owe me. Deal?"

"Friend Dirken, it is a deal but I would save you no matter what the circumstance." He fired his flechette rifle again. "But get in now! We must leave!"

Yiorgos hobbled up the gangway and they entered the ship together. Dirken felt the ship lift off before the gangway had even closed all the way.

He holstered his blaster and pressed the buttons of his mirrored vambraces, folding them back into bracelets. 'TakTrak finished securing the airlock and gangway, then squeezed past them as Dirken then hefted the duffel with the Heart. The Corthian eyed the duffel for a moment but didn't ask what was in it. Instead he turned and led them toward the bridge.

Yiorgos met Dirken's eyes, and the concern was clear without the need to say it. Neither of them trusted 'TakTrak. Was there any other choice?

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

ESCAPE FROM THE WITCH'S TITS

Dirken slipped sideways against a bulkhead as the ship lurched one way, then the other. Other than the gravplating, the Raptores wasn't like larger capital ships with their fancy three-dimensional gravity modulators to dampen inertial changes.

The hull vibrated with the hum of a laser slicing away at some part of it. 'TakTrak quickened his pace to the bridge entry.

Dirken steadied himself and stepped after 'TakTrak. "I don't know if your ship can fit through the gap."

"I have faith in Feleesha's piloting," the Corthian replied.

The ship accelerated with a surprising amount of power for its size. Dirken was caught off-guard and had to catch himself before he fell backward.

They stepped through a couple of narrow passages and emerged into a tight bridge that sloped downward with a broad, transparent aluminum canopy. At the top sat the captain's chair. To either side were consoles for weapons and communications, both manned by humans. The weapons specialist had his eyes glued to a holo display, targeting a weapons array on the brig.

Below the captain's chair was the navigation console, manned by Feleesha, her back to them. Holo displays shone in front of her as she leaned right and then back, her hands deftly manipulating a control stick.

'TakTrak threw himself into the captain's chair and buckled the chair's restraint netting across his chest.

The ship turned and smacked directly into two Pleiadean pirates in hoversuits. The pirates slammed against the canopy in a spray of crimson blood like bugs on a hovcar windshield, their furry brown faces a look of horror before their bodies slipped off, leaving streaks of crimson blood. Dirken wished one had been the Bloodhawk. He held his breath and clutched a console as the ship rolled to starboard under the hull of the brigantine and squeezed through the gap.

Below them in the cockpit, Feleesha pulled on a control stick and turned it sharply to starboard to dodge the brigantine's engine cowling. 'TakTrak's ship responded with an equally sharp roll that left Dirken dizzy. A loud rip and scrape of metal rang through the ship as the ventral side slid along the brig's hull. Alarms sounded through the room. Dirken and Yiorgos were thrown to the floor as the ship bucked.

"That fucking brigantine has a fat ass!" Feleesha cursed.

Then they were past the brig and free, exiting through the outer lip of the harbor tunnel.

Dirken and Yiorgos stood again. From his vantage point, Dirken saw one of the massive outer cannons on the comet wall had been destroyed, an outgassing crater left in the comet where it had been. And outside the opening, the Bloodhawk's corvette, the Speartip, was turning, disengaging from a hot fight with three fightercraft to pursue 'TakTrak's ship.

Dirken didn't see Eow's stolen fighter — his fighter — among these craft.

"Nav comps were hastily entered, Captain," Feleesha said in her gruff voice, "so it's iffy."

"Punch it, Feleesha," 'TakTrak replied.

"Aye, Captain." She reached over to a holopanel next to her, waved her hand across the hologram readout in the air over it, and pressed forward with the palm of her hand. The hologram shimmered and turned green. Dirken heard the Jacobian gravwell generator reverberate through the ship. Off to port, the corvette fired a couple missiles. But before they reached 'TakTrak's ship, space pinched in and exploded outward again through the canopy, and they had folded safely away.

More alarms sounded, and the ship shifted. Dirken knew from the odd sideways yank that this was a gravitational anomaly. They had come out of the jump a bit near some gravitational source, like a planet or star. He and Yiorgos held on to the conduit along the