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“What the hell is going on here?” Veronica growled. Ross hadn’t uttered one word, though he did have a thoughtful expression on his face.

“Oh, man! Oh no! Oh, shit!!!” they heard Dylan cry out.

Seconds later a long and loud explosion ripped through engineering. Tremors rocked
The
Excalibur
. Caught off balance Samantha swayed to the side, and slammed against Tyler. She didn’t know when he’d come up behind her, but come to think of it, she didn’t care.

“
DYLAN!!!
” Johanna screamed. Right at that moment piloting control returned.

Johanna went into a long dive as she tried to shake the large Pirate Ship that had taken such a liking to them. Right now, Samantha really hated Pirates. Tyler smiled at her, and then pushed her wayward wisp of hair behind her ear. He winked at her, and then turned to run toward engineering. Ross blew a kiss at Veronica and lumbered after Tyler. She didn’t know why Ross had gone down to engineering. She just hoped there would be enough room for all of them once Ross arrived.

“
Dylan?
” Johanna questioned. Her face had lost most of its color. Samantha wanted to comfort her, but at the moment she didn’t have the time. If she didn’t get the weapons up and going they’d be goners for sure. Besides, Dylan had been in explosions before. He could really move that butt of his when push came to shove. He’d be okay. She didn’t have any bad feelings about him. But if she didn’t do something, they wouldn’t have to worry about Dylan, cause they’d all be dead.

She raced down to the belly of the ship and leapt into the gun cannon chair. Strapping herself in, she reached for the phase cannon, and moved it into targeting position. Breathing deeply, she tried to focus some of her abilities on keeping them alive. A purple glow circled her hands. She could do this!

“I’m fine!” Dylan’s hoarse voice streamed out through the ship’s intercom. He fell silent and then went into a long jag of coughing. Obviously, he was trying to clear the burning smoke from his lungs. “We got a shit load of problems though.”

Samantha pursed her lips and finally managed to hit one of the pirate ships, though for the life of her she couldn’t manage to shake the bogey on her tail. Why couldn’t her powers work for her when she wanted them to? They always seemed to go haywire when she didn’t want to have anything to do with them. Why couldn’t she be more like Charlotte? Grunting, she focused her concentration and blew up another ship gunning for them.

“Do they ever give up?” She was thrown forward in her chair, as the ship was rocked by another blast. If she hadn’t been belted in, she would have been on the floor. She turned her head as Veronica came running toward her and settled into the seat behind hers.

“Samantha,” Veronica grunted, as she worked the cannon. “I would like to know why the RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 53

handle of your cannon looks like its covered in amethyst light but I’ll wait to ask you once we blow up all of these bastards!”

She sighed. She didn’t need Veronica knowing about her well-kept secret. She hated anyone realizing what she had the potential to become.

“Samantha, get out of there. You could be fried! You’re sitting in the most vulnerable spot of
The Excalibur!
” Johanna cried, fighting to control her breathing.

“Well, Big V is right here with me, we can get fried together.”

Veronica hooted triumphantly. She had managed to shoot down one of the smaller pirate ships that had been closing in on them.

“I don’t want to alarm anyone, but someone’s hacking into my systems!” Lucy cried out.

For being an AI she sure did sound frightened.

Lucy’s bright purple hair flew out around her and her face was scrunched up in intense concentration. She seemed to be going through some unseen battle and she was waving her arms madly, as if to fight off an invisible opponent.

“Get out, you stupid asshole!” Lucy yelled. She began to fade. She looked almost crazy with her frustration.

“That’s one of our many problems!” Dylan shouted. Lucy let out one last horrifying scream and disappeared from sight. “What happened? Lucy, are you there?”

In Lucy’s place a strange AI’s figure emerged. He was a thickly built man with black hair and he wore a black patch over one eye.

Samantha let her concentration wander. She stared angrily at the AI that had just invaded her ship.

“Oh, freaking hell! Dylan, Lucy is gone. And the guy that’s come to dinner, wasn’t an invited guest,” she screamed. She was jostled forward yet again as
The Excalibur
was rocked by a particularly strong blast.

The pirate ship that had been following them so closely, now attempted to latch onto them so they would be able to board them.

“My day just can’t get any worse,” Samantha concluded. And then it
did
.

* * * *

“Prepare to be boarded!” the male Artificial Intelligence said. His holographic projection gradually became clearer. Now, he almost seemed life like.

“Here’s an idea. Why don’t you go straight to
hell
,” Samantha growled. She jumped out of her chair and quickly clambered up the ladder that led onto the bridge. “I’m going down to give our friends a welcome they will never forget!”

Johanna leapt out of her chair and followed her. Samantha stopped and gaped at her.

“What’s

your

problem?
” Johanna demanded.

Samantha stared at her as if she had grown another appendage, waiting for an explanation.

“I can’t do anything either. Lucy is gone. Remember? And that lame brain has taken over our controls. I can’t be of any use anyway. And, besides you’re going to need me to watch your back.”

Veronica fell into step beside them and then abruptly turned away from them.

“Well, where the hell does Veronica think she’s going? I wonder,” Johanna remarked.

They ran down to where the boarding party would soon be streaming through. They were fully armed and prepared for battle. If she’d had more time she would have set up a booby trap for the pirates. But sadly enough, beggars couldn’t be choosers.

RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 54

They settled themselves behind some titanium crates in the cargo bay. Samantha crouched down. Aiming her phase pistol, she rested her finger on the trigger.

“Make sure that the settings are on optimal stun,” she advised.

Johanna gave her an ‘
I’m not that stupid look
,’ and then began entering the necessary numeric sequence.

“I hate this part!” Johanna complained. She knelt into the same position Samantha employed. “Why didn’t they just blow us up?” Johanna asked, turning to level her gaze at Samantha.

She stared at Johanna considering her question. She knew that other
New Monaco
ships had been destroyed, and as far as the pirates were concerned they were in the same category.

So why hadn’t they attacked them ruthlessly, until they had been destroyed? And then Samantha nearly vomited when she finally comprehended the reason.

“Oh, well. Don’t they have balls of steel!” Samantha muttered.

Johanna glanced at her again, nervously chewing on her lower lip.

“Think about it, Johanna.
The Excalibur
is a beautiful ship. In its day it was a luxury liner. What do you think that they might want to do to us?”

Johanna stared dumbly at her, for a few seconds. Her face fell as recognition dawned.

“They want to commandeer our vessel and add
The Excalibur
to their fleet,” Johanna concluded. Fear crept into her voice, and her eyes looked as if they were going to fall right out of her head.

“Yeah, and as far as I’m concerned they can take a one way ticket to hell!” No one was going to get her ship. Who the hell did they think they were?

Her phase rifle whined with its charge, just as the door to the cargo bay blew apart

* * * *

“This is it!” Samantha tensed. She locked gazes with her sister and winked at her.

“When was the last time I told you that I loved you?” she asked. The acrid smoke from the explosion was quickly clearing, and her head felt as if it were going to explode.

“Don’t you be getting sentimental on me now, Samantha!” Johanna warned. “If you got sentimental under normal circumstances I wouldn’t be so worried. But you only get sentimental when you’re feeling desperate!” Johanna’s hand trembled slightly causing her phase rifle to move just a bit. “You’ll get us out of this jam, you always do. And, you’ve got me to kick you in your big butt, if you don’t!” Johanna remarked grinning. Johanna stared back at Samantha, and stuck her tongue out at her. “You can tell me that I’m the best sister in the whole wide world while we are locking these goons in the brig.”

The smoke completely cleared making their line of fire completely unhindered.

“Hey, Jo. How’s about we show them the
love?
” Samantha asked. “I wouldn’t want them to feel neglected.”

She reached for a disorientation grenade from her belt and threw it at the numerous pirates that charged through the gaping hole.

They fell to the floor completely knocked out. She quickly reached for another grenade, until she realized that she was all out. Why hadn’t she made sure that the weapons locker on the bridge had been better stocked? She was slipping, that’s for sure.

“Uh, Jo. I think that we’ve got a wee bit of a problem. You don’t happen to be packing, do you?”

Johanna hit one of the pirate’s dead on, and he went slamming against a bulkhead and slumped to the floor.

RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 55

“Do I look as if I’m PACKING?” she shouted. “You are packing more than, Sam! Now would be the time for you to do some freaky shit!”

Three more pirates came howling into
Excalibur
, and Johanna turned her attention away from Samantha. She blasted each of them in turn not missing once.

“Well, like you said, I am packing but you know as well as I know that that ammo isn’t really the reliable kind. I could blow us up along with the pirates!”

Samantha’s face fell straight down to the floor, as she considered how well the odds were stacked against them. “Oh, well, guess we are going to have to use these assholes for target practice,” she murmured. Her ears rang and her eyes stung. Gunfire blasted out around them, and her eyes darted back and forth. She was getting a headache trying to keep up with all of it.

She was so tempted to draw on the fire inside of her… but when she used to practice with Charlotte, she was always the one that had the unfortunate effect of actually making things go boom. Charlotte was able to protect herself, Johanna couldn’t.

Samantha was worried. She had never been this worried before in her entire life. But she was so worried that she could see her life flashing before her eyes. Things didn’t look good.

They had pirates on their ship. They had never been invaded before and as soon as she hit one pirate there was another to step in and fill his space. They were like soldier ants. No matter how hard you tried they still kept coming back to attempt another infestation.

Samantha had run up against a few pirates in her time, but that had usually been a scenario where she had held the upper hand. They now had control of her ships computer, and they definitely outnumbered her crew. Yep, things were really going down the old shit pot.

“Johanna, duck!!!”

A ticking grenade landed on the floor behind them. She closed her eyes, expecting it to explode but it didn’t.

“Jo, cover me!” she cried out, above the din of the gunfire.

She crawled across the floor for the curious looking grenade. Samantha had never seen one that looked like it before and there was a strange red light beeping on it.

Feeling a shiver go up her spine, she managed to get back to her previous position. She immediately flung it back toward the pirates not expecting it to explode. But as soon as it hit the ground it exploded causing her stomach to lurch sickeningly.

Johanna and she were thrown back toward the door with the impact. At the last moment, an amethyst hue sparkled in front of them, taking the brunt of the explosion. Stunned, Samantha sat there shaking her head for a few moments.

“Holy crap!” Her ears rang loudly and her voice sounded as if it were miles away. “That most definitely wasn’t a disorientation grenade, it was a freaking bomb! I think I did something though… just like you wanted me too! Aren’t you proud of your little sis?”

“What did you say?” Johanna asked loudly, putting her hand up to her ear.

“Nothing!” Samantha mouthed, gesturing for them to make a hasty retreat back through the door and into the main part of the ship. They’d done all they could do at the moment. Since they were both stunned, she didn’t want to risk taking the pirates on in hand-to-hand combat.

Besides, after that blast, she wasn’t even sure if any of them has survived. But more would come.

Dread continued to coil in her stomach. Her heart raced.

They rushed to bolt it manually. They certainly couldn’t rely on their computer systems to do it for them. They’d been damn lucky that
The Excalibur
had been reinforced with the hardest alloy known to humankind, or they would’ve been sucked out into the unrelenting coldness of space.

RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 56

Samantha panted, trying desperately to catch her breath. Bending over she leaned her elbows on her thighs. She could still hear gunfire and she knew the door would hold for only a short while. She felt exhausted. Whatever she’d done to erect that shield had taken a good chunk of energy out of her.

They needed to do something quickly, before they found themselves facing the unthinkable. She patted her sister on her shoulder and furrowed her brow when she noticed that Johanna was favoring her left leg.