Imminent Danger: And How to Fly Straight Into It (6 page)

“How very
Star Trek.”

“Pardon?”

“Never mind.”

The sounds of battle continued, raging beyond their field of view. Eris felt helpless, not knowing what was happening. Then there was only silence.

“Do you think the attackers left?” she asked hopefully.

“No,” the Claktill proclaimed. “They have probably released paralysis gas into the air vents to render the Ssrisk immobile.”

“Paralysis gas!”

“Do not be overly concerned. Since we are not paralyzed, the gas is likely targeted specifically at Ssrisk biology. We should experience only mild symptoms, faintness at the most.” Miguri sighed. “If we survive this, Captain Hroshk will be in a very bad mood. The Ssrisk despise those who avoid a straight fight.”

“Well, who wouldn’t try to avoid a fight with a Ssrisk, if they had the chance?”

Miguri smiled faintly. “A fair point.”

Just as Eris began to believe they might come out of the whole attack unscathed, they heard the sound of footsteps racing toward their cell.

BOOM.

The cell door exploded in a shower of sparks, spewing charred bits of blue spongy material at Eris and Miguri. Through the ragged hole came a six-foot-tall male humanoid figure. He was clad in black body armor from neck to toe save for the milky-white lamri glowing on his belt. His head was entirely concealed by a black helmet with a darkly tinted visor. In one hand he held a deadly looking gun—Eris assumed it was a striker. The other hand he extended to Eris and Miguri with a gesture that clearly meant, “Come with me.”

“Oh,
hell
no,” Eris protested, scrambling as far from the menacing intruder as she could in the small cell. Miguri was right by her side, clearly no more inclined to follow the raider than was Eris.

“Claktill,” the alien rasped, voice somewhat obscured by the helmet. “Kra nakri vara!” When Miguri, looking stunned, didn’t respond, the black-clad man wiggled the striker at them and then waved it toward the cell door.

“On second thought, maybe we should follow him,” Eris suggested.

“I agree,” Miguri said. “I find it unwise to anger any being carrying a striker. Especially a raider. They are notoriously trigger-happy.”

The raider exited the cell and, crouching outside the door, gestured for Miguri and Eris to follow. Moving away from the cell, he scanned the empty control room, striker held at the ready.

Where’s Grashk?
Eris wondered, peeking through the opening.

Then the main cell block door spiraled open, and Tarsis ran in. The Ssrisk was clutching a blue oxygen mask to his face with one scaly hand, the other five all wielding strikers. His movements seemed unusually slow.

The raider squeezed off three shots at Tarsis. Eris screamed as all three plasma bursts slammed into the huge alien, burning holes in his chest plates. He gave a gurgling moan and slumped to the floor.

Eris fought back the bile rising in her throat. She didn’t know whether Tarsis was dead.
But he certainly won’t be torturing anyone for a while.

When the raider beckoned them again to follow him, Eris did not protest.
Don’t piss off a guy with a striker. Check.

They were halfway to the cell block exit when Grashk appeared in the portal, blocking the way. Eris saw that, unlike Tarsis, Grashk had clearly prepared for battle. His movements were sharp and swift, a breathing mask strapped firmly over his mouth. A protective vest covered his chest, and only four hands clutched strikers. In his other two hands he held daggers with electricity crackling around the blades’ tips.

Miguri scuttled toward the wall, away from the fight. “What is it with Ssrisk and electric weapons?” Eris grumbled as she crouched and followed her friend.

The raider, meanwhile, had turned to face the new threat. He fired two shots at Grashk, who was racing for the safety of the central control platform. Grashk returned fire as he ran, and managed to blast the striker from his opponent’s gloved hand. As the Ssrisk dove behind the console, the raider clutched his hand and spat, “Inda Kari vin torlak shoon!” His striker skittered across the floor and out of reach.

Grashk leveled his strikers at the intruder—now caught out in the open, weaponless—and fired four plasma bursts in quick succession. Just when Eris thought the battle was over, the raider leaped impossibly high in the air, clearing the plasma shots by at least five feet. Landing catlike beside his fallen striker, he grabbed the weapon and peeled off several shots that made smoking dents in the console where Grashk was taking cover.

“Who are we supposed to be cheering for?” Eris gasped to Miguri.

Her alien friend had a dark look on his normally cheerful features as he watched the battle. “If the raider is what I suspect, then I pray to Kari the Ssrisk emerges victorious.”

The raider danced several paces to the right, making him impossible to hit from Grashk’s position behind the console. Snarling, Grashk jumped out and returned fire. The glowing plasma bursts would have vaporized the raider had he not dropped flat to the floor.

Springing back to his feet, the raider sent a volley of plasma at the Ssrisk guard. The three shots blasted all but one of the strikers from his grasp. Grashk jerked back,
rat-tat-tat
-ing furiously. Now down to one weapon, Grashk blazed plasma back at the raider, who avoided every shot with astonishing acrobatics.

The raider suddenly made a strange wheezing noise.
He’s laughing,
Eris realized.
What does he think is so funny? Is this just a game to him?

Grashk stopped shooting and seemed to be waiting for the raider’s next move. When the raider bowed his head toward Grashk in what appeared to be a nod of respect, the Ssrisk warrior
rat-tat-tat
-ed angrily. “You dare mock me?” he hissed.

The raider responded by rushing at his opponent almost faster than the human eye could follow. Before Grashk could react, the raider had flipped up and over him, delivering a powerful blow to the back of Grashk’s skull. As the raider landed on his feet, the Ssrisk crashed to the floor.

“Grashk!” Eris shrieked.

7

T
he raider seized Eris’s elbow and pulled her away from the fallen Ssrisk. Before she could even think to resist, she was whisked out of the cell block and into the corridor with Miguri hurrying along behind.

“Let go of me!” she protested. “Damn it, let me go!” The raider ignored her pleas. When she started to struggle, he tossed her effortlessly over his shoulder. She pounded her fists against his armored back and shouted at him to release her as he ran.

The corridor was filled with green mist, and Eris felt herself growing woozy. She saw that Miguri—who was trailing behind, trying to keep up with the raider’s long, lithe strides—did not appear to be affected by the gas.
This must be that paralysis gas Miguri mentioned … Lucky for him he’s so tough.
Eris tried to take shallow breaths, but it wasn’t easy while bouncing along on her kidnapper’s shoulder.

Despite having to carry Eris, the raider had no trouble dispatching two more Ssrisk that had managed to procure oxygen masks. The rest of the crew members they passed lay slumped along the sides of the corridors.

After traveling along several hallways and down an elevator column, they arrived at what Eris surmised was the Ssrisk ship’s docking bay, as it held several small blue ships in various states of repair. The raider ran toward a scorched hole in the hull, and Eris realized he must have blasted the opening to dock his ship.

They raced through the hole and into a large, corrugated metal tube. At the far end of the tube was a plain, black metal door. Eris, still hanging over the raider’s shoulder, watched him punch a series of buttons on a control panel and then rip off a glove and slap his hand against a metal plate on the wall.
This must be his ship
, Eris thought. There was a loud beep, and the door slid open.

They hurried into the small airlock. More buttons, through another door, and they emerged into a narrow room lined with shelving units. The raider slammed his hand against another wall panel, and the door to the airlock slid shut behind them.

After dumping Eris on the floor, the raider sprinted out of the room. Seconds later, the engines roared to life.

Eris groaned and sat up groggily. “Are you all right?” she asked Miguri, who sprawled on the floor beside her, panting heavily. They both grabbed at the shelves to steady themselves as the ship began to vibrate beneath them.

“We were just abducted from our abductors by another abductor,” he replied in a disgruntled tone. “How would you classify our situation?”

“What do you think he’s going to do with us?”

“Nothing good, I imagine. He is a raider, after all.”

Eris smiled wryly. “At least he’s not one of those evil Rakorsians, right?”

The Claktill’s tail twitched in agitation. “That is the thing, you see,” he mumbled. “I am fairly certain our abductor
is
Rakorsian.”

Eris crossed her arms. “Now you’re just being paranoid.” Suddenly, the ship rocked violently. “What was that?” she shrieked, jumping to her feet.

“I believe we have detached from the Ssrisk cruiser.” Miguri pointed above her head, where there was a small porthole. Looking out, Eris could see they were floating away from the curved hull of the Ssrisk ship.

They heard a loud clanking noise outside the airlock followed by the sound of metal grinding on metal. “What was
that?
” she said.

“I do not know,” Miguri admitted, “but it does not sound good.”

The ship darted forward. Eris lost her balance and fell, sprawling beside Miguri on the metal floor. “Ow! Who gave him a driver’s license?”

As the ship continued accelerating, Eris struggled back to her feet. “I’m going to find out what’s happening,” she told Miguri. “Wait here. No point in both of us getting shot.”

Miguri nodded.

Hanging onto the wall, she clawed her way to the doorway through which the raider had disappeared. She staggered through the opening and out into a long, narrow, cluttered corridor. Metal boxes were stacked up on either side, held in place by sturdy-looking straps. Eris could see flickering lights spilling out of an open doorway at the far end of the hallway.
The cockpit?

The ship was flying more smoothly now, allowing Eris to keep her footing as she ran down the corridor. Bursting into the cockpit, she found the raider sitting in a high-backed chair. His hands were flying across the ship’s control console, turning dials, punching buttons, and flipping switches.

Eris peered at the main display, which looked like a radar imaging system. At least a dozen small blue dots were quickly approaching a large red dot in the center of the screen.
If we’re the big red dot, we’re in serious trouble.

She tore her gaze from the screen to the cockpit’s 180-degree window as the raider turned the ship back toward the Ssrisk cruiser. Several small Ssrisk ships were speeding toward them, shooting out bursts of plasma. Somewhat similar to their mother ship, the fighters had rounded forms though with symmetrical protrusions on each side.

The raider’s ship suddenly lurched, shook violently, and lurched again. Eris grasped the back of the copilot’s seat to keep her balance. “Did we get hit?” she asked the raider. He ignored her.

Eris watched as the black-clad pilot returned fire at the Ssrisk. Blasts of plasma shot out from somewhere under the cockpit and seared through space toward the fighters. When two of the small Ssrisk ships exploded, Eris resisted the urge to whoop victoriously.
We don’t even know why this guy kidnapped us or what he’s going to do with us once we’ve escaped the Ssrisk.
She pushed that thought to the back of her mind. The important thing was to survive the next five minutes.

“Vastiskira Ssrisk,” the raider chuckled through his opaque visor as another of his shots hit its target. The Ssrisk fighter erupted in a ball of fire that was quickly sucked away into the vacuum of space. “Yukri va rentuk!”

Eris had no clue what he was saying, but was surprised he could be laughing when his own ship seemed to be on the verge of exploding. “You’ve got the strangest sense of humor,” she muttered. Then, to her dismay, the ship lurched again.

“Harati kavarti kivora gra,” the raider said to her. His hands continued their dance across the control board. When Eris didn’t move, he made a sit-down motion with his hand. Eris hastily threw herself into the copilot’s chair.

Another one, two, and then three Ssrisk fighters exploded. But Eris saw that more fighters were pelting toward them, each firing blasts of plasma. There were so many, and they looked so small, that she began to wonder if there were even Ssrisk aboard the fighters.
Is there such a thing as remote-control spaceships?

The raider’s ship started to shudder. “Maka kirova!” the raider growled, obviously displeased with the turn of events.

Is he that bad a pilot? Or is something wrong with his ship?

Miguri suddenly tumbled into the cockpit. After quickly scanning the scene, he shouted at the raider, “Ali kibella di gostras valto macta?”

The raider turned his helmeted face toward the Claktill and cocked his head as if he found Miguri’s words surprising. Then he pulled the lamri from his belt and tossed it to Miguri, who caught it just before the ship lurched again.

“Alvish naltim!” snapped the raider, returning to the ship’s controls.

Miguri pressed the raider’s lamri to the one on Eris’s necklace. “Here,” he said. “Now you will be able to understand him. That will have to do for now.”

“What did you do?” said Eris.

“I attuned your lamri to Galactic Common,” said Miguri, clutching the arm of her chair as the ship lurched again.

“But
I
don’t speak Common,” she protested. “How will he understand me if I’m speaking English?”

“I am fairly certain his lamri is already attuned to your human language,” Miguri replied. “Most lamri are connected to an interstellar network, and once one lamri learns a language, the whole network does. The Ssrisk must have devised a way to sever that connection and remove languages from individual lamri. Fortunately, lamri can always communicate by touch.”