Page 32 of Alien Knight Teddy Bear Troubles

The ship was as big as a small moon. Perhaps a tenth the size of Mora Five itself. In a word, it was massive.

How the hell had Taeger managed to get on that ship and find Ion? Find her? Fight his way off and take so many survivors with him?

She realized, watching the ship flicker like a nearly burned out lightbulb, had Taeger allowed her to go back to that ship to find her lost activation crystal that she never would have made it off that ship alive. And she never would have found the crystal.

One more way he’d saved her. One more thing she’d never be able to thank him for.

She flipped on the comms so she could hear the battle preparations behind her. At least that’s what she told herself. It was a complete coincidence that her pulse raced when she heard his voice over the comm.

“Incoming, sectors three, four and five. Greig, give me an update.”

“I’ve got three fighters in each section. I can give you five minutes at most. But we can’t see them, Taeger. Their like ghosts.”

Ghosts?Cassie looked at her view screen, her eyes felt hot and burning from crying, but she could see them massive ship bearing down on them. And the swarms of fighters moving toward the planet like an angry swarm of wasps.

“Acknowledged.” Taeger’s voice came through clear as a bell, and she knew him well enough to know that he wasn’t surprised by Marcano’s report. “We can’t see them either. It changes nothing. What’s the status of the package?”

Cassie leaned in, even though it wouldn’t help her hear any better. She had audio only, but she knew the package Taeger referred to was her little friend, Ion. The royal prince of Lumeria. A future king. And that the little boy was the last survivor of an ancient bloodline that every single knight on Mora Five would die to protect. Marcano’s response had her gripping her chair with white knuckles.

“We cleared the nearest star, but they had a scout ship waiting. We fought them off, but we sustained heavy damage. We won’t make it to Earth in this condition.”

“How far can you go?” Taeger asked.

“Not far. We’re on our way back.”

“No!” Taeger barked the order. “I’ll send a ship to rendezvous. Send me your coordinates.”

“You need every fighter you’ve got, Taeger.”

“None of this will matter if they capture him now.”

Marcano’s silence was deafening and Cassie had her ship turned around before she realized the decision had been made. They all thought they were going to die. Every god damned one of them. She knew that tone of voice. The resignation. The sound ofgood-bye.

No. No. No. She wasnotgoing to run away, back to Earth, like a scared little rabbit while they fought to the death. Ion was her friend. She loved the little boy. And she loved Taeger. If she made it out of this alive, she’d figure out what to do about getting back to Earth. And if she didn’t? Well, shit happened in the field. She was still a soldier of Earth, still loyal to humanity and her people. However, leaving these brave knights to die alone was wrong, no matter what orders she had. She couldn’t do it. She had to try.

She’d rather be dead than live with knowing she’d left Taeger behind when he needed her.

Pushing the ship full throttle, she squinted as two strange ships flickered in and out of view, their hulls there one moment, gone the next.

“What the hell?”

Then they were firing at her. Alarms sounded in the cockpit and she banked her ship into a sharp rolling dive, thankful that whatever they’d fired at her had been some kind of light or laser weapon that kept going right past her, rather than a missile with a tracking system.

The two ships followed her, as she’d known they would.

She executed a NAME OF MANEUVER and came up underneath them, one of them clearly in her sights.

She fired her weapon, using a blast weapon she didn’t understand. She didn’t need to. She hollered in satisfaction as the smaller ship burst into pieces and scattered around her as she pushed her ship through the debris.

Once clear of the debris field, she banked hard to her right, trying to get physical eyes on her remaining enemy.

She turned.

And stared down the front end of a missile heading straight for her cockpit.

Time slowed to a crawl as she fired at the missile and the enemy ship, scattering her weapons as far afield as possible, trying to destroy both the ship and the missile before they could kill her.

The missile came at her, unaffected.

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