Page 9 of Alien Prince's Fake Bride
- Mareliux-
“That’s a woman!”Bellatriz chirps from my scabbard. “A woman is piloting that ship!”
“I don’t believe it,” I growl. “Prove it.”
A bright, feminine voice sounds over the audio system, speaking some alien language.
“She’s telling us to power down and submit to a search,”Bellatriz says. “Using radio waves for comms.”
“How do you know?” I demand. “That’s not a language you’ve ever heard before.”
Bellatriz snorts. “But the airwaves are thick with it. All kinds of radio transmissions from that planet, thousands of sources in many languages. I have listened since we entered orbit, and now I can speak all of them fluently.”
“Looks like you got that month of leave, Caret’ax,” I concede. “They’re actually making a woman fly that thing.”
“I will try to contain my jubilation, sir,” Caret’ax says drily.
“She’s issuing us orders,” I muse. “From the tiniest, flimsiest spacecraft I’ve ever seen. Instead of turning tail. There’s a warrior spirit there, friends. I’m curious about seeing that woman. I think I’ll bring her aboard, just as she wants. Can her craft handle being pulled by a tractor beam, or will it disintegrate?”
“It will hold,” Bellatriz assures me. “If you use the tiniest little bit of power. Tug gently at the whole vessel at the same time, don’t single out one part of it. You could pull it apart at the seams.”
I activate the tractor beam, having to blow dust off the rarely-used controls. “I’ll just aim at her… there. Now engaging at low power— what the hell? Is sheshootingat us?!”
There’s a tiny spark of red light at the very front of the little craft, and the displays on my panels are showing that we’re being shot at by some kind of low-powered beam weapon.
“She is indeed,” Bellatriz says. “I’m starting to like this cavegirl.”
Me too, I think to myself.
“She’s either too brave for her own good or just crazy,” Caret’ax says. “Some would say that’s one and the same.”
“Use of a tractor beamisa hostile action,” I ponder. “We started this. She’s fully within her rights to use force. How smart it is would be a different question.”
The bright voice sounds all over the control room again. It’s an appealing voice, with a hint of a rasp to it, as well as a slight tremble. It touches something in me, despite being all business with a flat, military note to it. That pilot knows what she’s doing. She knows she’s taking a big risk.
Her rockets appear to be working at full power, spewing white gas straight towards us. She’s trying to reverse, to get out of the lock the tractor beam has on her.
“Your engines are no match for a Khavgren warship,” I mutter as I increase the strength of the tractor beam, pulling her little shuttle towards theGladiux. “Bellatriz, open the airlock into hangar four.”
“Done,”my sword chirps, being connected to the ship’s systems. “You can bring her right in there.”
I carefully bring the little shuttle up to my ship until it’s so close it goes out of sight from the main viewscreen, then use the various screens to place it close to the airlock. “I forgot to ask you, Caret’ax. Do these people breathe air?”
The little shuttle keeps firing its beam weapon at us, but it doesn’t worry me much. TheGladiuxhas a lot of scorch marks from before, and a few more will just add to its looks.
“Same as you and I, sir,” he replies. “They need water and the same nutrition we do.”
“Very good,” I say absentmindedly, careful about bringing that little shuttle into the hangar without causing it any damage. It’s still in space, and any little tear in its outer foil could place the pilot in danger.
She’s gone quiet, apart from clipped broadcasts I think must be reports to her station. No other ship is coming to her assistance.
“Remember that she still has that weapon,”Bellatriz reminds me.“The inside of the hangar is more sensitive than the ship’s armor.”
“Thatisa concern,” I agree as I switch the view to the inside. “But there are no ships in there now. Nothing that can be destroyed. Just old equipment. Oh, but we also don’t want to destroyher. Turn off the gravity in that hangar. I have a feeling her shuttle won’t react well to suddenly being slammed to the floor.”
“Done,”Bellatriz says. “Hold on… yes. I can fix the laser problem. The moment the alien shuttle passes into the hangar, I wll disable all its systems.”
“Except her life support,” I specify. “Keep it running. Let’s not make a big mistake here.”
