DarkStar Running (Living on the Run Book 2) by Patterson Ben

Author:Patterson, Ben [Patterson, Ben]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2014-10-23T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

Stan turned from the door to DarkStar. “Should I go to her now?”

“No, sir. You should go to the bridge.” The avatar’s image faded into the dark.

Setting his cup in the sink, Stan turned away to the bridge, and found it illuminated only by the soft glow of the consoles. The air was cool and except for the faint dutiful hum of a few instruments, the room was quiet.

He slipped into the pilot’s seat half checking the scanner before noticing the faint blip. “Well, what do we have here?” he mumbled to himself. “What’s this dead ahead?”

Stan zeroed the scanner, narrowing in on the object. What’s a shuttle doing way out here? he thought. Suddenly two more blips entered the screen heading at high speed toward the smaller.

“Full speed, DarkStar. Give me all you’ve got.” Once within range, the scanner started tagging the blips with I.D. numbers, identifying two corsairs pursuing the shuttle.

Stan cursed and hit the com. “Lilia, Carl, to the bridge. Pirates!”

It looked as though two pirates had caught a short-range shuttle off guard, blocking its way home, and were now chasing it out and away from the safety of police and patrols.

In stepped Carl followed an instant later by Lilia. Stan spun his seat to face them.

“Pirates have blocked a shuttle’s escape. They’ll reach it before we do. Suggestions?”

“Looks like we’ve got a fight on our hands,” Lilia said. “I say we give ’em a showing they won’t soon forget.”

“Agreed, Swift,” Carl said.

“Stan, we’ll man the guns. Get Reliant between that shuttle and those pirates as soon as you can. Looks like you’ll have your hands full, but your piloting is our best chance to beat them.”

Stan nodded and turned back to the screen. “Hang on to your seats. We’re going in.”

Carl took aim and pulled the trigger, but at this distance the plasma charged two-pounders did little more than distract the pirates, yet it was enough to give the shuttle occupants hope and to see that help was on the way.

The pirates reached their prey and, to knock out its defenses, started hitting it with ion shield-busters.

Defiantly, the unarmed shuttle turned and dodged between the corsairs in an effort to turn their own guns against them.

“Cheeky move,” mumbled Stan. By the shuttle’s old-school maneuvers and by the way it turned and dodged well beyond the craft’s design limits, Stan guessed its Captain was once a Wasp pilot, a military man. Even if the pirates never connected, if its pilot kept this up, the shuttle would soon tear itself apart.

“Hang tight, bud. We’re almost there.”

Suddenly one corsair’s shot clipped the shuttle and sent it spinning, careening out of control. When a second shot tagged it, the shuttle began to spew smoke into space.

Carl fired and kept firing as Lilia released several rockets. The pirates started taking blows and turned to address Reliant to see what she could give them.

The shuttle, dead and adrift, was spitting fuel and flames.

Stan cut between the corsairs and headed for the shuttle as Carl and Lilia heated the guns.

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