Best of Beyond the Stars by Patrice Fitzgerald

Author:Patrice Fitzgerald [Fitzgerald, Patrice]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: eFitzgerald Publishing, LLC
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

So. Back to my story.

As I was saying, Xiomara and I were blasting around the galaxy, slobbering all over each other and having a grand old time.

Then the Cinque showed up.

They caught up to us on Synius Prime, out on the edge of nowhere. We had landed the Raptor on a plateau with an astonishing view of Broneah Falls‌—‌you’d have to see it to believe it‌—‌and had been holed up there for about a week, enjoying the scenery and each other, when these boys showed up in their ships.

The first thing we did was try taking the easy way out. I powered up the Raptor’s reactor in emergency mode‌—‌not the safest move in the world, but then, neither is being shot at by a quintet of the galaxy’s best bounty hunters. We were out of the atmosphere in seconds, and past Synius Prime’s orbit soon after. They were fast, but I own a modified Imperial recon vessel (I’ll explain that some other time‌—‌I don’t want to slow down the momentum), so we were going to be outrunning them right quick.

But one of their better shots‌—‌probably Four, from what I’ve seen‌—‌hit us with a blast from his ion cannon. We felt the ship jolt violently as the beam tore into our starboard engine. We weren’t going to be going anywhere for long.

I performed my fanciest flying maneuvers through that system, but I couldn’t shake them without the extra juice. And I’m a fairly decent pilot. May have even won some pretty big piloting competitions (oops, there I go tooting again). I whipped around asteroids, flew through the rings of a gas giant, and reversed course a few times to try to lose them.

But, again: Five to one. And so it goes.

I pulled up the nav charts, desperate to figure something out.

Then I realized where I was. Coincidence? Probably. Or maybe I’m just so good that my subconscious figures these things out without me noticing. Toot, toot.

As the Cinque closed in on us, I kicked in the afterburners and blasted out toward the furthest planets in the system, including Finnegan’s Centaur.

We almost didn’t make it to the barren rock that had been my first home and my first prison. Almost.

When we were getting close to the former settlement, I slowed down just enough to make them think they’d be able to hit me. Then I flipped around and flew between Four and Six. Four got off a shot, since that was his area of expertise, but I dropped down right when I knew he’d shoot, and the beam sliced through Six’s ship. I didn’t watch for long, but I did see it fall toward the planetoid in two pieces.

I finally began firing back instead of just running, now that the odds were slightly more even. I almost hit a couple of them, even with my damaged ship. That was enough to scatter the four scumbags who were left long enough for me to get down to the settlement.

I managed to

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