Exasperated, she shook her head.“I can’t believe Harlow stuck me with you.”
Bez lay down on his side.“Pretty sure it’s the other way around.”
Kira ignored him as a Hili Schooner caught her eye.Ten meters to their right and approximately five meters closer to the sniper, the schooner’s ass stuck out of the dirt at an awkward angle.Its front compartments were buried beneath the surface, making it look like an ostrich hiding its head.
“That could work,” she whispered, eyeing the left rear stabilizer that the damage to the ship had left exposed.
Bez sat up and looked at the schooner.“What could?”
The stabilizer itself wasn’t her ultimate goal but rather the fuel inside.Kira didn’t know how the Haldeel managed to create something with enough thrust to make their ships some of the fastest she’d come across but also so fuel efficient that they could go a decade between refueling.
The only problem was its instability.When exposed to oxygen, it reacted much like magnesium.
It burned.
Bright enough to maybe provide a distraction the rest of them could use to escape.
“Az, do you have azuipi?”Kira called.
“I do,” Pye answered from the opposite direction.
“What are you doing?”Bez asked, suspicion on his face.
Kira moved into position, crouching at the very edge of the wing.Right on the cusp of leaving cover but still within its protection.
“I’m going to create a distraction,” Kira said, mentally judging the distance.
She could do it.
Bez must have figured out what she was planning because he grabbed her arm to pull her back.“Are you crazy?You just got done saying you were worried about another avalanche.”
Kira shrugged out of his hold.She was getting a little tired of all the manhandling.“A controlled burn is much different than an explosion.”
As long as she could figure out how to remove the fuel without exposing it to air, they’d be fine.
Probably.
“Are you always this reckless?”Bez demanded.
“Pretty much.”
Ignoring Bez’s appalled look, Kira raised her voice.“Pye, get ready to provide cover.The rest of you prepare to run when you get my signal.”
“What is the signal?”Az asked.
“You’ll know it when you see it.”
Kira ignored Bez’s hovering as she prepared to move.The Tuann must have known he wasn’t going to be able to stop her because he dragged a hand across his head while muttering a curse.
A second later, Pye fired a barrage in the general direction of the sniper.
That was Kira’s cue.
She launched herself toward the schooner, covering several feet in the blink of an eye.Commotion from behind warned that she wasn’t the only one who’d left the protection of the ship’s wing.
A quick glance over her shoulder showed Bez pounding after her with a determined expression.
“What are you doing?Stop following me!”Kira yelled.
