She paused and looked out again.
There was Diado.
With a plasma blaster.
Taking aim in her direction.
Veta spat a curse as she pulled her door shut.
He yelled something, and she saw a blast of light hit the edge of the pod’s dock.
She knew she’d never trusted him. What the hell did that little snake do?
Diado stumbled through the debris, his plasma blaster ready to fire again.
Veta launched her pod.
She breathed a sigh of relief as it cleared the ship, just before more of the ship exploded.
And did she take a bit of pleasure when she saw where Diado was standing explode?
Maybe.
Veta collapsed against her chair. Out the window, she saw the Terran ship, one of the most elegant—it had been commissioned by the Imperial Empress, and later fitted to a command ship for the war—explode again.
She looked for the pods, but from her angle, she couldn’t see any, she was still under the ship. All she could see were the blast points. On the bottom, the places the first hits struck. Interesting that those points were still evident, but the ship was in shambles far above those shots.
Pulling up panels, she turned on tactical displays. All the pods had basic defenses and some minor weapons. Enough to give the escapee some protection, in case their pods were ever attacked. It wasn’t much. Mostly just enough to make noise.
“Now, where is everyone,” she said and took in the scene she had just been jettisoned into. She hit the beacon and sent the distress call to the Terrans, so they could get her and the Imperial Princesses.
Somewhere, just outside of this solar system, a Terran cruiser was waiting. Outside of the Rhimodian-claimed territory, as backup in case something went bad with the negotiations.
So, of course it did.
And wound up three times worse than she imagined.
Terran ships fighting a squad of the Rhimodians. While it was only a small squad, the Rhimodians weren’t losing. The Rhimodians were shifting and flipping faster than the Terrans could hit them.
And in the distance, more Rhimodian ships were moving in.
Veta sighed.
It was a trap.
She shifted and moved the star maps, trying to locate the other escape pods.
The blips were spread out all over the field.
“Hailing the Imperial Party. Respond. Situation report.”
“Veta?” cried out Freya. “My pod! They hit me!”
“Can you maneuver?”
“Yes, I think so.”
“Get to the surface.”
