“Seeking my favor will not gain you hers,” Khoth said coldly to Jack.
“And why is that?” Jack asked.
“She sent me here,” Khoth stated.
“Maybe this used to be the ass end of nowhere, Commander, but not anymore,” Thammah said as more incoming blasts rattled her ship.
She swore and Khoth saw that there was smoke coming from her right engine. They were four Earth minutes out from Jack and his weapons. Thammah’s craft was already starting to slow as her right engine sputtered and died. The four remaining Khul fighters were on her. She was wounded and they knew it.
“Eject, Thammah,” Khoth ordered.
“Are you insane? I won’t lose the Kryptoria! It’s all we have!” she hissed.
He heard underneath that, It’s all I have.
“If you don’t, both of you will be lost and you will go out in that blaze of glory,” he told her.
“You can’t take them on your own!” Thammah cried.
“I won’t be. The humans are less than two of their minutes away,” he told her. Another blast had their connection fuzzing. His Xi had his throat closing as he knew the next hit would cause the Kryptoria to explode. “I’m ordering you, Flight-Commander Pyrrhus!”
“Dammit! Well, if the Kryptoria is going down then so are they!” she cried.
The Kryptoria veered abruptly to the left as the Khul fighters followed, setting her in their sights, Thammah must have hit her eject control as the round globe of her escape hatch flew upwards while the two halves of the Kryptoria split apart. Two of the Khul flew right into them. The Khul lost control of their fighters as the force fields sizzled and spat from the impact. One of the ships veered into the other and both exploded.
Two left, he thought. And one minute out.
Green blasts flew all around him. Only the spin and roll he did stopped them from taking out his shields completely. The Exarch was only a few blasts away from joining the Kryptoria’s fate.
He dove and climbed, but he could not shake the Khul. He could almost feel their hunger for him. Laser blasts skimmed his shields, drawing them down lower and lower. He should eject. But he doubted that his pod would be allowed to get away anyways. Unlike when Thammah ejected, the Khul would have no other ships to go after. His pod would be their only object. He doubted they would think the human aircraft a danger to them. Perhaps they weren’t.
Khoth gritted his teeth. He had no intention of going out in a blaze of glory. The Khul had come here long ago for something. They were back for it. Whatever it was they should not have. He would stay alive now to make sure that they didn’t get it.
He increased his speed then banked to the right as he loaded up the one skasha missiles that his craft contained. Normally such weaponry was not on Paladin-class fighters. It was heavy weaponry. But he always believed in being prepared. So he had ceaselessly worked to increase the power of his engines to carry the heavy payload. He would get only one shot at this.
As the Khul fighters followed after him in a tight arc, he released the missile. It hovered behind him for a moment. The Khul didn’t seem to see it at first. Then one of the fighters swerved to the right, but the other did not get out of the way in time. The missile’s explosion caused the Khul fighter to turn into a golden ball of light and vanish altogether.
But Khoth felt no victory. The other Khul fighter was still there and about to fire at him. He felt his Xi and Xa become one as he realized that it was all over. Death was upon him. He hoped in that moment that the old religions were true and that he would see Daesah again.
Something hit the side of the Khul fighter. The blue force field flickered in and out then in and then completely out that was when another something hit the Khul fighter again and the whole ship imploded.
Khoth let out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding. A sleek aircraft flew past him and circled around until it was practically wingtip to wingtip. The image of the clear cockpit showed him a being wearing some kind of rounded headgear and mask along with eye coverings. The human gave him a wave.
“Jack?” Khoth asked.
“Indeed, the one and only. Captain Jack Parker to the rescue,” Jack said.
“Parker? Your surname is the same as that of Major General Diane Parker,” Khoth stated.
“Indeed, she’s my better half,” Jack said and the smile in his voice was obvious. When Khoth was silent, he amended, “My wife. Ah, life partner--”
“I understand,” Khoth said.
“She and Thammah--where is Thammah by the way?” Jack asked, alarm suddenly in his voice.
“She ejected. But the Kryptoria is lost,” he explained.
“Someone will have to go get her post-haste,” Jack said and Khoth heard him alert others in his unit to trace the Kryptoria’s eject pod. “Your bird looks a little broken there, Commander Voor. But our town is overrun with Khul and we could really use it in the fight.”
