Page 15 of Nita’s Bounty

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SHUVO

“Get those shields fully charged!” Bran shouts from his spot in the captain’s seat. “Shuvo. Crank. You’re both on guns.”

I reluctantly back away from Nita, wanting nothing more than to sit with her while we get away from this station, but it’s all-hands if we’re going to get out of here in one piece. So, I drag myself onto the bridge and into one of the seats at the back of the cockpit, grabbing a headset that will act as the view screen for the gun I’ll be manning. Crank drops into the seat across from me, and we nod at each other before I focus on the screen that drops down from the headset. Then I settle my hands on the control panel in front of me and wait.

With Bran at the helm, our ship weaves slowly through the rows of docked cruisers toward the exit. Before we can make it any farther, an automated voice comes over the intercom, “ATTENTION: All travel has been halted until further notice. Please return to?—”

“Yeah, fuck that. Get ready, boys,” Bran grumbles as he lines us up with the exit. With a manic grin, he slams the throttle, and the ship jumps forward.

We barely clear the station when we run into dozens of small single-pilot fighters that are waiting for us.

“Vittu! There are more than I expected!” Crank grunts when the fighters open fire.

My mind narrows to a laser focus as I begin systematically taking out one fighter after another. My body rocks with each evasive roll of the ship without taking my eyes off my task.

“How are the shields?” Bran shouts.

“Shields are holding.”

“Good. Good.” Out of the corner of my eye, I watch him lean back in his chair and kick his feet against the controls, like we aren’t in a dogfight right now. “Gents, let’s wrap this up and get outta here.”

We’ve taken out almost half of the fighters when a bright light suddenly engulfs the ship from the station.

“Vittu!” Bran drops his feet and leans over the controls. “No one told me they had a tractor beam!”

Crank and I continue to take out the fighters while Bran’s fingers fly across the controls. The engines roar, and he pushes the ship, trying to break us free from the beam.

“Get the hyper warmed up,” Bran barks over the rising roar of the engines.

A crackle over the comm precedes the frantic, increasingly high-pitched voice of Madam Althea: “This is your last chance. Give up and return my human, or you’ll all be nothing but space dust! Do you hear me? I will?—”

Bran slams his fist on the control board, abruptly ending her tirade as another wave of fighters comes from around the backside of the station. “Where do these kurving fighters keep coming from? Clear a path! We need to be farther into space before we can jump.”

“Hyper is fully charged, Captain.”

My fingers are light on the trigger as I seek out and fire on fighter after fighter, doing what I can to make a hole for us to engage the hyper.

“Shields?” Bran shouts.

“Ninety percent. They might as well be firing pebbles at us for all the good it’s doing them.”

“As soon as we have a clear spot, we’re gone,” Bran grits.

A chorus of cheers rises up as Crank and I finish clearing a spot wide enough for us to get through. No sooner has the last fighter fallen away, Bran hits the hyper, and we’re all pinned to our seats for a moment before vanishing from the station’s airspace.

“Well done.” Bran laughs as he collapses into the back of his chair. It only lasts a few moments before he perks back up and leans over the control panel once more. “Now, set a course for…”

I’m barely listening as I unfasten my harness and toss the headset away.

“Shuvo. Wait.”

I glance up to see Bran has turned his chair around and is staring at me. “Madam Althea isn’t a good enemy to have,” his voice is low and serious.

I nod, well aware of this and trying to guess what he’s getting at.

“I hope you’re prepared to be on the run for a long time. The Madame isn’t known for giving up easily. Hell, I’ve heard she still has bounties out on the other two humans she lost revs ago. We’ve got your back—make no mistake about that—but I just want to make sure you understand the mess you just stepped in.”