The tumbling rocks came at us fast, and I was pretty sure Rhodes’s talons had emerged from his fingertips to embed in the arms of the navigator’s seat.
I didn’t have time to verify it. I was flying mostly by instinct, with a healthy dose of my fledgling precog ability.
As well as something else. Being so close to Zyair as he’d flown had altered something substantial within me. My reflexes were sharper, my reactions faster. And I was doing things that I’d never done with a spaceship before.
All of which was fortunate, because, with weakened shields, theStardriftercouldn’t take a direct hit. But this time, we were flying to get in and out. Not using them for cover.
The two green dots followed as far as the atmosphere and then veered off.
“We had better come out of this at high speed and be ready to defend ourselves,” Rhodes said. “Because they are suspicious enough to have someone waiting to investigate.”
Xandros disengaged his talons from the floor. “I have got the starboard gun,” he said as he disappeared into the hall. With the way I was ducking and diving the ship, he had to brace himself against the walls, and I heard him curse in Drakonian after a particularly hard “thunk”.
As Rhodes released his own harness, the navcube lit up the space beyond the belt with green dots of various sizes, including one that was huge and moving away—the battleship.
I stared at it. Zyair was on it, and a part of me reached—searching for what had to be there. For just an instant, I thought I felt him… then, he was gone.
“It’s moving out of system,” I said.
Rhodes heard something in my voice. “We cannot get to him, little Draka. Not so long as he is on that ship.”
“Are you sure?”
“We will never get near him,” Rhodes affirmed. “We are better fighters than the Nirzks, but there are only two of us. We must devise another plan.” He eyed me.
“Go,” I said. “I’ve got this.” When he continued to stare, I added, “I’ll stay away from the battlecruiser.”
“That would be best,” he rumbled, before he rose and followed his brother, heading for the port-side gun with slightly better balance.
Until I swerved wildly around an oncoming hunk of rock.
“Sorry!” I yelled as he clutched the doorframe.
“Just keep flying,” he growled as he vanished.
I kept flying. The navcube showed me the outer edge of the belt, and I chose the best path through.
I spotted movement closer in to us. To my dismay, three more small green dots were headed our way.
“We’ve got three incoming,” I shouted into the comm.
Xandros was already in place. “Roger,” he acknowledged.
The guy was almost human.
“What was that?” Rhodes asked a second later.
I repeated it, and he cursed—I think—before saying, “I have the course entered for the nebula. Head for it. They cannot track us once we are in there.”
I swallowed, swerved past another looming asteroid, and punched the throttle to full as theStardriftershot out into unrocky space.
The three Nirzk fighters were spread out, clearly hoping to nail us with an EMF containment net. Inspired by Zyair, I stood on the foot pedals and flipped the ship before they could get a lock, spinning it over one of them, then driving hard away.
They came after us.
I accelerated and called up the course for the nebula—it was not far. If Rhodes and Xandros could not nail those Nirzks, we would have to rely on the nebula wiping out their trackers to escape.
“Have you got the shields ready to go?” I asked Yani over the comm.
