Page 3 of Return of the Nine

He paused. “There are only four pods.”

“I know. I have a plan.” She kept her features calm. Her plan involved taking the entire ship into the Northern Ocean.

“I will not allow you to risk your life to save ours.”

Ziggy sighed and leaned up to kiss him. As her lips met his she heard a low rumble and hands on her waist. Using the direct contact to his mind via the kiss, she made him sleep. He staggered and she used all her strength to put him in the pod. With a sad smile she punched the release and launched the four to safety.

Moving as quickly as she could, she hid in a storage alcove as three troopers came stampeding to the pod station.

Ziggy sat quietly and waited for her chance. Her moment would come and she would do what she could.

Her planet was at stake after all.

Chapter Two

Five years later . . .

Ziggy stood in her mother’s flower shop and watched the news footage that they had been replaying for the last week.

“As you can see here, the first Tokkel ship destroyed by the Nine has been recovered. With the joint efforts of the Nine and Gaian ships, the first warship that was brought down has now been lifted from the depths of the Northern Ocean.

“The recovery efforts will bring the ship to the surface just in time for the five year anniversary of the triumph over the Tokkel. Survivors of the raids are being invited to the Nine mother ship for a gala event.”

Leara smiled and worked at an arrangement. “That’s nice. So many folks were affected by those raids.”

Ziggy remembered the terror of being hunted and getting caught in the grav beam with a dozen other men and women. Only five of them managed to survive the exams that the Tokkel engaged in.

When Ziggy had gotten the officers of the Nine away from the ship she had waited and then cut the lines to life support with cutters she found in the storage closet.

She knocked out two troopers from behind and stole their weapons, shooting everything that moved. She wounded one of the pilots and took his grasp of the workings of the ship.

Ziggy piloted the ship in a circle, spinning it in the centre of the flight of warships, firing wildly.

Her death spiral continued until the ship started breaking up in the upper atmosphere. There was a set of emergency podsnear the bridge and she programmed one to drop her near her home town before she locked in.

The ship had an auto eject for occupied pods when it was in danger. It popped her out a mile over the ocean and the pod jetted to her landing site.

The moment that she landed, she stumbled free of the pod and hid for hours, slowly making her way back home.

It had taken her two days to get back into shape to pretend that nothing had happened, and while the men and women she had released from the experiment station remembered her, the woman that they created via a sketch artist was far more attractive than Ziggy made any claim to be.

The clatter of a set of pots against the table as her mother moved things around brought Ziggy out of her memory.

“They were. They deserve a holiday in their honour. In one way, they brought the Nine back to the area. Back home.”

“You are right, Signy. I know that you were upset during the invasion, but isn’t it great that we survived it with minimal losses?”

Ziggy sighed. “Any lives lost were too many. Do you have the display ready for the Markaqay wedding?”

Leara nodded. “Yes. The delivery van will be here at six.”

Ziggy smiled. “Excellent. Well, I am off for the night. I am just going to have coffee with some friends.”

Ziggy put on her jacket but turned to see the clients who rang the bell as they entered the shop.

Two men in military uniforms walked in.

“Good evening, sirs, we were just about to close but how can we help you?”

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