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gees and made some evasive maneuvers that threw both of them all over
the lock.
That didn't matter; the pain of her leg didn't matter. Whether or not
they survived this escape was out of their hands and in Paladin's. Only one
thing did matter at the moment; a Kilrathi had stopped in making his
own escape to save her.
She caught Kirha's eye where he hung on grimly to handholds on the
bulkhead. "Why?" she mouthed.
He stared at her for a moment with round, unblinking eyes, then
hunched his head, as if he wasn't sure either. Then he shouted, over the
roar of the overstressed engines.
"Perhaps because you are a friend of my liege lord. Perhaps because
you are a comrade-in-arms, and an honorable warrior."
Then he twitched his lips in what she had come to recognize as a
gesture of feral amusement. "Or, just perhaps, because I wanted to save
you for my lunch."
Well, through the haze of pain that was coming between her and the
rest of the world, that seemed perfectly logical.
"Oh," she replied vaguely. "Of course."
And she ungracefully passed out, still clinging to the handholds.
Hunter slid into the co-pilot's seat next to Paladin, who was already
working fast to bring the freighter up to launch speed. He glanced around
curiously. "Where's Gwen? I didn't see her " He stopped in mid-sentence
at the look on Paladin's face. "Oh, no& "
"I shouldn't hae let her come on this misadventure," Paladin said,
quickly working the controls to lift the freighter off the deck. "I shouldna
done it. I could hae stopped this before it began, but I didn't& "
"Don't go into a funk on me now, mate," Hunter said. "We can still end
up dead, despite our luck so far. What's on the sensors?"
"Several fighters out there, no larger ships yet. We've got a chance of
getting out. Maybe. But there'll be more ships along shortly," Paladin said.
"We've had the luck of the angels with us so far, but I dinna know how
long that'll continue. The Heather is a fine ship, but she's only a freighter,
not very fast. And we have a long way to go to the jump point."
"What kind of guns does this ship have?" Hunter asked, looking around
the cockpit.
"Not much," Paladin admitted. "But there are two Rapiers in the hold,
fully fueled and armed."
"K'Kai can fly this ship, no problem," Hunter said. 'James, I think we'd
better get outside in those Rapiers."
"Agreed. K'Kai!" Paladin called.
The Firekkan woman limped into the cockpit, assisted and that looked
odd! by Kirha. "Yes?"
"You've got the helm, lady. Course is set for the jump point. Hunter and
I are going out there to fly interception. Warn us when you're nearly ready
to jump, we'll get back onboard. If we can't, jump without us."
K'Kai's alien eyes were emotionless as she listened intently.
"Understood."
Hunter and Paladin ran through the huddled groups of Firekkans in the
hallway, down to the cargo hold. Paladin tossed a flight suit and helmet to
Hunter, who quickly donned the suit. A few seconds later, Hunter was in
the cockpit of the Rapier.
He fired the Rapier's engines as the atmospheric gauge showed the air
levels decreasing in the Heather's hold. I've never launched from a cargo
hold before, he thought, glancing across the deck to where Paladin's
fighter was waiting, engines already ignited. But I've been doing a lot of
things lately that I've never done before& like falling for a lovely lady
who's dead before I even had a chance to tell her what I felt about her&
Paladin signaled him with a thumbs-up, and the cargo bay door slid
open silently a moment later. Hunter shoved the throttle and was out of
the hold a moment later, pulling back to spin up and over the bulk of the
freighter, turning back toward the station and the five Jalthi fighters that
were pursuing them. Far beyond the station, he could see three Kilrathi
Kamekh corvettes and a huge cruiser slowly starting in their direction.
We'd better be out of here before they're in range, Hunter thought.
"Five Jalthi coming in fast, Paladin," he called. "And in a tight
formation."
"We don't want to fight those Jalthi head-on," the Scotsman observed.
"I'll take the& Hunter! What are you doing?"
"Cover me, mate!" Hunter hit the afterburner, heading straight for the
Jalthi fighters. He switched to dumb-fire missiles, flying toward the wing
of Kilrathi on a collision course with full afterburners, too fast for their
missiles or guns to track. The Kilrathi broke formation in a panic at the
last moment just as Hunter fired the first of his two dumb-fires. He was
past them a split-second later, his Rapier rattling from the proximity of
the massive explosions. He punched the reverse brakes and brought the
fighter around, and was pleased to see that there were only three Jalthis
reconverging on the Heather. Debris was scattering from the remains of
two of the fighters.
"Now we only have three to fight," he said with a grin. "Keep them busy
for a moment, all right, mate?"
"You idiot!" Paladin shouted over the vid. "You could have been killed!"
"I'm going to make sure they can't launch any other fighters," Hunter
said, ignoring Paladin's outburst. "Hold them off me for a minute, okay?"
He only had one dumb-fire missile left, but it was enough. Skimming
the surface of the huge station, he fired it directly into the station's Flight
Deck aperture, turning away a moment before the brilliant explosion.
Hunter banked over the station and back into the dogfight, just in time
to see a full gun burst from Paladin's fighter blast into one of the jalthis,
sending it spinning out of control. The other two fighters were
maneuvering to get onto Paladin for the kill. Paladin's fighter was rocking
from the repeated bursts of cannon fire from the heavily armed Jalthis.
"Get them off your tail, James!" Hunter called, punching the
afterburners to close the distance between himself and the dogfight.
"I'm trying, lad!" Paladin's voice was strained. "Get over here and help
me!"
"Bring 'em closer to me, mate!" Hunter said, switching to Friend-or-Foe
missiles. The targeting computer began to beep in an increasing rhythm,
searching for a missile lock. "Come on, come on," he whispered, as Paladin
banked hard, the Jalthis struggling to stay on their target.
The targeting computer suddenly wailed with a solid missile lock tone.
"Got you, bastard!" Hunter shouted, and fired the missile. The lead Jalthi
exploded on the missile's impact, and the second Kilrathi fighter veered
sharply to avoid the debris. Hunter was on the Jalthi a moment later,
firing all cannons at point-blank range. The Jalthi disintegrated, and
Hunter pulled up hard. He brought his speed back down, circling around
to spot Paladin.
There was no sign of the other Rapier. Hunter scanned the area
desperately, carefully flying to avoid the scattering debris.
No! Not James, too&
Then he saw the other Rapier a short distance away, lifeless and adrift,
"James! Are you all right?"
The vid was silent for a long moment, then Paladin's wavering image
appeared. "I'm still here, lad, but this Rapier's in bad shape. I'm trying to
get the engines restarted." Hunter watched as the Rapier lurched, then
accelerated unevenly.
"Get back to the Heather as fast as you can, James," Hunter said.
"Those big ships are getting too damn close for comfort. I think it's time
we hit the road from here." He glanced at his sensor screen to confirm
that, and reacted instantly, punching full afterburners a split-second later.
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