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

so slightly until he was on his toes, then the gravity came back on and he thumped back down.

"Status?" the First Mate Prasad demanded.

"That was Auxiliary Propulsion Tank 2," replied an engineer. "But the explosion damaged the leads for Thruster 18 and took out the primary grav plating generator. Running on the back-up generator, now."

"Concentrate fire on the shuttlecraft," said the Captain to weapons control.

"Which one? There's a second launched from Brigantine Two."

"Both, then. Time until the shuttles reach us?"

"About ten minutes at current velocity," replied the navigator.

"Weapons array 2 is offline," shouted a weapons specialist. "Ma'am, the fleas are now concentrating on the hangar."

Dirken had heard enough. The pirates knew their stuff. They were targeting weapons and engines and would soon try to get the boarding parties from the shuttlecraft to the hangar. He started to turn, then heard a phrase that left his blood cold.

"Sir! Bogeys inbound! Light torpedoes. Ten… No, twelve."

"Evasive action! Release countermeasures!"

Dirken stepped back into the storage room and said to Yiorgos. "Torpedoes inbound!"

Yiorgos's eyes widened and he jumped up, the servos in his mechanical knees whining.

"Wait…" Dirken said. Something didn't add up. Why would they bother with boarding parties if they just want to destroy us?

Then he realized. He turned and ran back to the bridge, Yiorgos yelling, "Where are you going?" behind him.

"…ten seconds," shouted the sensor specialist, in the bridge.

"Captain! Commander!" Dirken yelled. She and the First Mate turned. "I don't think those are torpedoes."

"Go back to guarding your cargo, Mr. Nova," First Mate Prasad said.

"Inbound, five seconds!" cried the specialist.

"They're not trying to destroy us," Dirken said, "or they wouldn't bother with the fleas and boarding party. Those aren't torpedoes. They're barrage bots!"

And then they hit. The hull resounded with an echoing boom. Air hissed through vents as some chamber of the ship was depressurized, then abruptly stopped as the ventilation system closed off. Warning lights went off on numerous consoles across the bridge.

"Four made it through," shouted an engineer, the holo of the ship now considerably more red. "Decks 2, 3, and 4 punctured on starboard side!"

Dirken explained. "They launch like a torpedo and, once puncturing the hull, they turn into hunter droids."

"On the main monitor!" First Mate Prasad said. The front wall showed an image of one of the punctured hull points. Two crew members went flying past, pulled into the vacuum of space. But in the center of the field, just inside the ripped hull, something else moved. Something metallic. First one limb, then another, and then the human-sized, spider-like robot stood, turned its half-dozen red eyes toward the camera, and skittered off-screen.

"Sir! Security has engaged the droids," said an officer.

Multiple screens showed the action. One droid, partially damaged, whipped around the security officers, slicing off a leg, cutting a throat, chopping a pulse rifle in half. It moved so fast that the guards hardly had time to react before they were cut down and left to die and the bots went to the next area.

"Secure and lock all bulkhead doors!" Captain Chen said.

Another principal officer put his hand on the Captain's shoulder. "The crew will be trapped in there with them!"

Captain Chen glanced downward and bit her lip, but then looked up again without a word to him. She touched a panel. "All crew," she said over the com, "we have been boarded. Arm and shelter in place! Repeat, we have been boarded. Arm and shelter in place!"

Dirken had had enough. He went back to the storage room. The yeoman had produced a miniblaster and looked at Dirken with wild, frightened eyes. Dirken stormed past him into the room.

"These morons will get us killed!" Dirken said to Yiorgos. He threw his pack over his shoulder, then he grabbed the safebox by the handle and grunted as he hefted it. "Damn, this is heavy." Then he added. "Hunter droids are loose on the ship. Come on!"

"And just where do you think we're going?" Yiorgos asked. He extended his prosthetic right hand and transform his forearm into a plasma saber. The long, curving blade hummed, then the edge glowed with a molten blue plasma field.

"The hangar." He looked around the corner then bolted past the yeoman toward the bridge exit.

"Sir! You can't go that way!" the yeoman warned. "Go back to the room. I'll… I'll protect you!"

"Beat it, kid," Dirken said, and pushed the yeoman aside. "That pop gun of yours won't do shit against a hunter droid."

The yeoman followed them anyhow.

"The hangar?" Yiorgos said. "But that may take us right into the boarding party!"

"Right," Dirken said. "The last place they'd look for us." He touched a panel and leapt through the door. "Don't worry, I've got a plan."

"Oh, shit. Here we go. That's what you said before we crashed on Rorgos. Cost me another two limbs, in case you forgot!"

"Oh, I can't forget, as often as you remind me!"

The ship rocked again as something else exploded. Crewmen ran past them, eyes rolling in terror.

In moments, Dirken and Yiorgos reached a secured bulkhead. Two security guards were by the door, blasters in hand.

"We need to get through," Dirken said.

The guard on the right, a lanky fellow with a face that had taken a punch or two, grimaced and said, "Go back to your station."

From behind the door came a distant, muted scream. The guards tensed.

"No, really. We have to get through!"

"Look, pal," said the one on the left, a short fellow with a barrel chest. "No one's going in or out. Go back!" A light on the side of his blaster flashed red, the most powerful setting.

More screams from behind the door. Something metallic crashed against the bulkhead.

"I think we'd better listen to them," Yiorgos muttered to Dirken.

Dirken huffed in exasperation. "Fine. Come on."

The yeoman tried to follow, but the lanky guard pulled him back. "You!" he said, "You're with us."

"What?" the young man said, but he was pulled roughly back by the guard. The yeoman looked at Dirken and Yiorgos, his face a mask of desperation, then dropped