Imminent Danger: And How to Fly Straight Into It (30 page)

Eris didn’t need to look at the screen to know exactly which Ssrisk ship he meant.

“Well, that’s just great,” Eris groaned. “With our luck, Hroshk will team up with your buddy Kratis and help him obliterate us.”

“Quite possibly,” Varrin agreed. “Not the obliterate part, of course, but the rest. The Ssrisk have incredible shields, but they’re hopeless at stealth. Kratis no doubt detected them, contacted them, and suggested they team up to take me out.”

“I don’t know,” Eris said. “Kratis and Hroshk don’t strike me as team players. Why would they work together?”

“Because, girl, they have one thing in common.”

“And what would that be?”

Varrin flashed her a roguish grin. “They’re both utterly obsessed with me.”

Eyeing the shaggy-haired, smoky-eyed, entirely appealing Rakorsian, Eris couldn’t help saying softly, “I know the feeling.”

“What was that?”

“Nothing!”

Feeling a blush spreading across her cheeks, Eris leaped from her seat and fled the cockpit.

Miguri cast the pilot a disbelieving look. “You heard exactly what she said, Rakorsian. Do not deny it.”

Varrin smirked. “What can I say? I’m irresistible.”

“And yet you do not see me drooling over you.”

“It’s simply a matter of time. You’ll come around.”

Miguri clasped his tiny hands behind his head and waited for the Rakorsian to realize the implications of what he had just said.

After a moment, Varrin grimaced and shot the Claktill a warning glare. “You’ll keep your hands to yourself if you know what’s good for you,” he scowled. “If I wake up and find you sneaking around my bedroom, so help me, rat, I will end you.”

Miguri laughed.

30

T
he following day, Varrin summoned Eris and Miguri to the cockpit. As Eris sat down in the copilot’s seat, Varrin called up an image of Kratis’s warship, which was currently orbiting Jupiter.

“I thought he had a huge fleet with him,” Eris said. “That’s only one ship.”

Varrin shrugged. “He may have split the fleet to cover more space. Or he couldn’t get the whole armada past the blockade. Or he was bluffing.”

He tapped his finger on the image of the Rakorsian cruiser and zoomed in on a spiky section near the rear of the ship. “As soon as we pass the asteroid belt, we’ll be in range of their scanners,” Varrin said. “While the rat distracts Kratis, we’re going to hop in the escape pod and set a course directly for this hatch.” His finger circled a door on the image, leaving behind a trail of glowing green pixels. “Here, right beside the engines.”

Eris raised her hand. “Wait a minute. We’re going to be in range of their scanners, Varrin. Can’t they detect an escape pod just as easily as a spaceship?”

“Normally, they can,” he agreed, gray eyes sparkling. “But my escape pod is unique. I’ve been on the run for a long time, and I’ve made a few adjustments to it over the years. As long as Kratis isn’t actively searching for the pod, he won’t even know it’s there.”

“I don’t care how stealthy your pod is, Varrin. They’re still going to notice us flying at their ship!”

“Hence using the rat as a decoy. See? No problem.”

“Um, hello! The only way they won’t notice us approaching that hatch is if …”

“Is if what?” Varrin prompted.

Eyes widening, Eris shook her head furiously. “No, no, no, no. Don’t even consider it.”

“The only way the mighty Admiral Kratis won’t notice little old us trying to board his ship is if we distract him by trying to blow up the exact same engine we’re trying to land on.”

Eris thunked her head down on the control panel. “Phenomenal.”

“The Rakorsian cruiser is coming into sensor range now,” Miguri announced over the intercom. “I’m locking weapons onto their starboard posterior engine bay. Please hurry.”

“We’re putting on our space suits now,” Eris responded. Then, looking down at her closely fitting black space suit, she asked Varrin, “Are you sure this suit is airtight? The fabric seems awfully thin.”

“You’ve found me out,” Varrin said. “I purposely gave you a defective suit, so you’ll suffocate to death the instant you step outside the ship. It’s part of my diabolical plot to personally make your life as difficult as possible.”

“You are not even in the shuttle pod yet?” Miguri squeaked. “They will detect us any minute! This plan will not succeed if we are blown to pieces before we even begin!”

“Just don’t forget about phase two,” Varrin retorted. “As soon as things heat up, get my ship out of the battle. Powering off the comm interrupter won’t do us much good if we’re trapped on Kratis’s ship because you decided to go and get yourself captured.”

“I know the plan, Rakorsian. I helped you create it. I will return for you and Eris when you contact me and not before then.”

Eris and Varrin grabbed their helmets and hurried over to the shuttle pod door, which slid open at Varrin’s command. Looking into the dimly lit, spherical pod, she said, “Are you sure we’ll both fit in there?”

“Kari, girl, just get in the pod.”

When Eris didn’t move, Varrin scooped her up in his arms and dumped her unceremoniously into the copilot seat. He climbed in after her, slid into the pilot’s seat, and then sealed the pod door.

“I should probably warn you,” he added, “once we detach from the
Nonconformity
, we’ll be in zero G.”

“I hate you,” Eris grumbled, strapping herself in.

“That’s fine. As long as you can do it while following the plan.”

Varrin flipped a few switches, and fluorescent waves of light flooded the interior of the pod. Eris looked around and thought,
It’s like being trapped inside a gigantic hamster exercise ball.
Then she realized there weren’t any windows. “Not even one window? Really?”

“Disappointed? Can’t go more than five minutes without checking your appearance?” Varrin’s fingers danced across the control panel. The engine hummed to life, and the shuttle pod bay’s exterior door slid open.

“Yeah, like that’s my biggest concern right now,” Eris retorted. She held on tightly to the seat arms as the pod detached from the ship. “Are Rakorsian women really that vain?”

Varrin grimaced. “Exceedingly so. Most Rakorsian women spend hours a day primping and polishing themselves. It’s insufferably dull. I don’t know how they stand it without losing their minds.”

“You’re kidding! Don’t you have any career women on Rakor?”

“What do you mean?”

Eris carefully adjusted her safety harness to compensate for the lack of gravity. Her hair floated around her like a brown and red halo as she shifted to face him. “On Earth, women have careers, go out into the world, make a difference. We want jobs that we can value as much as keeping our homes and raising our children.”

Varrin recoiled. “You have children?”

Eris couldn’t help but laugh at his reaction. “I meant
we
as in the general female
we
. Why? Does it matter?”

“I couldn’t care less what your marital status is,” Varrin sniffed.

“Who said Earth women have to be married to have children?”

He glowered at her. “Now you’re just trying to get a rise out of me.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Bloodlines are too important for Rakorsian women to go around popping out children as they please,” he explained.

“Ugh,” Eris huffed, crossing her arms. “I can’t believe you!”

“It’s not my fault,” Varrin retorted. “I can’t help how my people treat each other. And anyway, stop projecting your culture onto mine.”

“I am not projecting!”

Her response was so vehement that she accidentally spit. The small globule of liquid floated toward Varrin. The look on his face was priceless as he ducked out of the way before it could hit him.

“Oh, Lord, I’m sorry,” Eris gasped, trying but failing to hold back her giggles.

“Not projecting?” he snorted. “I dare to differ.”

“It’s
beg,”
she corrected. “Beg to differ. That’s the saying.”

“Rakorsians do not beg.”

Eris laughed. “Well, luckily for you we’re in zero G, so you had time to duck.”

“And unlucky for you that we’re on a tight schedule,” Varrin said, throwing her one of his most rakish smiles, “or I could show you some far more interesting things to do in zero G.”

Before Eris could die of embarrassment, Miguri’s voice sounded over the intercom. “What in Kari’s name are you two doing?” he demanded. “I am about to commence my assault, and you two are acting like school children!”

“Acknowledged,” Varrin said. “All forms of hilarity and lightheartedness have now been suppressed. Continue your assault preparations, Captain Rodent.”

“Stop taunting him,” Eris admonished

Looking at the view screen, Varrin turned serious. “We’re within range of the flagship’s weapons. Activate the plasma cannons, rat. And I suggest you aim carefully. If you hit us or dent my ship, I will make your life—for what little time there will be left of it—very unpleasant. Understood?”

“I may be a Claktill, but my aim is second to none,” Miguri trilled.

“That’s what I like to hear. Open fire, rat!”

Eris had found space flight, on the whole, to be a fairly pleasant experience. That is, until she found herself in a windowless escape pod rocketing blindly toward a Rakorsian battle cruiser, trusting her pilot to navigate them safely between the huge pulses of deadly energy aimed at the exact place toward which they were flying.

What was worse, Eris didn’t think Varrin was treating the job of navigating the ship nearly as seriously as he should have been. He seemed to enjoy it a bit too much—he laughed every time they narrowly dodged a plasma burst like a child playing a video game.

“If you don’t keep both hands on the controls, Varrin, I swear to your precious Kari that I will take that knife of yours and scratch rude words into every single square inch of your ship!”

“You wouldn’t dare,” Varrin said with complete confidence.

“Do I look like I’m bluffing?” she demanded, a steely glint in her eyes.

“You’re becoming far too defiant,” he muttered.

“And it’s entirely your fault, so live with it.”

“You should really have more faith in me, girl. If I can single-handedly incapacitate a Ssrisk war ship, then I can pilot a pod through a light firefight.”

“Fine,” she sighed. “Just please don’t get us killed.”

“Kratis is hailing me,” Miguri announced over the intercom. “Do you want to speak with him?”

“Patch me through,” Varrin said.

Kratis’s scarred face appeared on the monitor a second later. “Prince Varrin,” he snarled. “Your current actions are surprisingly reckless, even for you.”

“Really, Admiral, you aren’t one to talk.” Varrin smirked. “Didn’t you just disobey Tetrarchy command by flying into a restricted terrestrial system? My father might kill you for this. Or possibly promote you, depending on his mood.”

“If I bring the emperor his estranged son, I will not be punished—I will be honored above all others. It is you, my prince, who will be on the executioner’s block.”

“Hardly,” Varrin snorted. “First of all, that would mean leaving my little brother as heir to the throne, something I’m fairly certain my father would rather kill himself than do. It would also require that you capture me, and at the moment it is I who am blasting your ship to smithereens, not the other way around.”

“Your pathetic cannons cannot so much as dent this starship!” Kratis snapped his beefy fingers at his officers, setting off a flurry of activity. “For the past twelve millennia my family has served the royal house of Rakor. If it is death you desire, my prince, then it will be my honor to give it to you.”

“Go ahead and try,” Varrin said and then switched off the channel. “Things are going to get tricky from here,” he said, calling up a tactical display on the monitor screen. “Nothing I can’t handle, of course.”

“Since when did you have a brother?” Eris demanded, although she vaguely recalled having heard Varrin mention him before. “Do you not like him or something?”

“On the contrary. My little brother is a complete disgrace to my father,” Varrin said. “He is, therefore, my favorite being in the galaxy.”