Page 15 of Her Alien Cyborgs
The seconds stretched out as they waited for the next phase of the plan to kick off.
Fyr’enth tried to enjoy every moment. If things went badly, this might be his only taste of freedom.
“What’s taking so—” Kalan’s question was cut off as a cacophony of noise erupted around them. Alarms screamed, lights flashed, and the viewscreen lit up with dozens of red dots.
“And away we go!” Hezza whooped. “Ship, initiate Rapid Exit Protocol, and turn off thosefraxxingalarms!”
He had no idea exactly what that protocol entailed, but apparently it included shutting down the ship’s artificial gravity. Fyr’enth’s stomach lurched as the ship rolled down and away from its previous course. It also felt like it was pulling away fromhim, with only his safety harness keeping his ass in the chair.
He grabbed the straps across his chest and looked over at Hezza. She laughed as she put them into a spin.
She thought this was fun? Their rescuer was crazy and afraxxinggood pilot.
The fleet of nonexistent enemy ships flooded theGambit’ssensors, which was exactly what they’d hoped for. Barrios’s ships should have the same problem. The sheer number of potential targets made it possible for Hezza to slip away unnoticed.
It was the best plan they had, but it wasn’t without risk. Archer couldn’t be sure it would work on multiple ships at once.The device was a gift from someone Archer had claimed was a better hacker than the “pink-haired princess of chaos.”
He had no idea who that was or how something on board Archer’s ship could affect so many other vessels. They hadn’t had time for questions, and he suspected he wouldn’t have understood the answers anyway. He and Kalan had made the difficult choice to trust Hezza and her companions.
When he’d imagined a future where he was free to make his own decisions, trusting his life to a stranger hadn’t been on the list.
“Ship! More power to the inertial dampeners, or we’re going to need to scrape ourselves off the deck plating with a spatula,” Hezza said. Her smile didn’t waver, but her tone was deadly serious.
He looked at her again, this time seeing beyond her easy smile. Her hair was short and neat at the sides with bangs that swept across her forehead. He’d initially thought her hair was white, but now he saw there were still traces of red and copper in it.
Fine lines showed around her eyes and the corners of her mouth. How much they showed changed according to her expression. She was not as thin as some of the female techs he’d seen on the base, but the flight suit she wore made it impossible to judge much more than that. He thought she was above average height for a human female, but compared to him, she was small.
He watched as she piloted. The ship’s movements were surprisingly agile and easy given it was a freight hauler. At one point, they doubled back toward the station and then dove beneath it, flying so close to the station’s hull he felt like he could reach out and touch it.
The radio was almost as chaotic as the viewscreen with various voices demanding sit-reps and explanations while otherstried to provide information that was lost because they talked over each other.
“This is the vaunted might of the Interstellar Armed Forces?” Kalan sent via their link. “They can’t even manage basic comm discipline in a crisis.”
“I doubt they sent their best on this mission. Barrios might have the rank of commander, but he seems like the administrator type. I think some of the sims we watched called them desk riders?”
Kalan barked out a sharp laugh before answering. “Deskjockeys.”
“Right.My point stands, though. He can’t be a top-tier officer. Archer is. Or he was.”
“Agreed.”
The babble of voices finally stopped when Barrios spoke. He must have used some kind of override because everyone else went suddenly silent. “This is Commander Barrios. What is happening? Lieutenant Commander Heath, what is the status of theBright Arrow?”
A new voice entered the conversation. This one younger and female. “Sir, this is Heath. According to the Arrow’s sensors, there’s an enemy fleet in the area, but we’re not seeing anything on our viewscreens. They’re ghosts, sir. I can’t explain it.”
Hezza chuckled. “I would love to see how Barrios spins this in his next report. Do you think he’ll blame little green men?”
Fyr’enth frowned as he tried to make sense of her question? “I’m not aware of any alien species that fit that description.”
That made her laugh harder. “Sorry. Earth joke. Way back before humans left their original solar system, there were legends about alien visitors. Some of them were about little green men.”
Some of the vids and books he’d enjoyed involved the myths and stories of other cultures. Mostly human, but some had beenTorski and Pheran as well. He’d wondered why they never let them view anything about Vardarians. Now he realized it was to ensure they didn’t discover the gaps in their knowledge.
Another minute passed as they raced for open space, putting as much distance as possible between themselves and the other ships. Hezza used the ghost ships as partial cover, flying from one phantom image to another to avoid notice.
Even with the inertial dampeners at maximum, the ride was far from comfortable. Every change in direction or velocity exerted a noticeable amount of force. One second he’d be forced deep into his chair, and the next he was floating as the safety straps dug into his chest and shoulders. The chair itself was not designed to accommodate his wings, so both he and Kalan had draped their wings over the back of their too-small seats.
Once they passed beyond the range of Archer’s light show, Hezza stopped the acrobatics and poured on the speed. She wanted to put as much distance as possible between theGambitand any pursuers before engaging the FTL engines.
