Krystal swallowed past the lump that had formed in her throat and pushed the thought aside. There was a job to do, and she would do it. Touching the controls, she moved the guns around to get used to them and then sighted on the first Xakul ship.
“Not yet,” T’arq cautioned. “They’re not in range. Wait until the sight on the gun turns green and then hit the automatic targeting.”
She nodded, eyes narrowing as she watched the Xakul ship approach and gain on them. T’arq whipped the ship around a rock the size of a bus, and the enemy disappeared.
Focusing on her breathing, Krystal kept her finger ready on the trigger. The Xakul ship rounded the rock, and she fired. The first blast with the laser gun missed, and she realized she had forced the gun off target. She tried again, this time trusting the automatic targeting. The laser cut into the ship, and it spun into the asteroid, breaking into scattered debris.
She gaped. She, a civilian who struggled to kill a cockroach, had just taken out a Xakul ship.
“Nice work!” T’arq’s voice broke through her stunned silence.
“Only sixteen more to go,” she muttered. How could they possibly survive this?
Krystal had no time to think, as one after another the Xakul ships bored down on them.
“Why aren’t they firing at us?” Krystal asked as she shot down the third fighter.
T’arq was silent for a long moment as he rolled the ship up and over a piece of space junk that looked like it had once been a ship. Krystal’s eyes fixed on the wreckage; the hull torn apart. Snaked cabling floated from the wreck, like seaweed in the ocean. Light glinted from the glassy panels of what must have once been the bridge. As they shot past, Krystal glimpsed bodies strapped to chairs inside the wreck.
T’arq’s voice jerked her back to the present. “I suspect they want to capture us.”
“What?” the thought horrified Krystal. She knew what the Xakul did to people. Laila had seen it and, before Krystal had come to Taurean space, she had warned her what contact with the evil insectoid aliens would become. “No fucking way! Not if I have anything to say about it!”
Krystal turned with renewed focus to the Xakul fighters, who were getting too close for comfort. Time passed in a blur. What could have been minutes could also have been hours, Krystal again and again taking down Xakul ships.
When there was half the original number left, T’arq let out a startled intelligible shout, before jerking the ship downwards in a sudden move that had Krystal feeling light-headed. Before she knew what was happening, the ship jolted, and they were rolling and rolling, end of end, before stopping with a bone-rattling bang. Krystal was thrown around in her seat, but thanks to T’arq ensuring she was strapped in tightly, she did not slip out.
The interior lights of the ship flickered and went out, the AI’s voice distorted before being cut off. Krystal blinked to clear her vision, her head pounding. A bright light speared into the cockpit, and she lifted a hand to shield her eyes. As her vision cleared, she saw the looming hulk of one of the Xakul ships closing in on them.
As they came closer, Krystal stared in horror as a claw extended and attached to their stealth ship with a jolt that shook her in her seat. They had to get out of here.
She shot a look at T’arq, whose head was lolling to one side, his eyes shut.
Krystal reached across to grab his shoulder, jerking as the straps held her in her seat. She reached to undo the clip and slid out of her harness. The artificial gravity on the ship was, thankfully, still functioning, and she quickly made her way to T’arq.
“T’arq? Wake up.” She squeezed his shoulder and gave him a small shake to get his attention, hoping that he wasn’t injured, and she wasn’t hurting him further.
He groaned and rolled his head away from her.
Encouraged, she shook him again. “T’arq? Come on. We need to get out of here.”
His eyes opened slightly and then slammed shut. The light! She put herself in front of him to block the lights from the Xakul. He opened his eyes slightly again, then closed them with a sigh.
“T’arq? The Xakul are here. I need you!” Her words were rushed, and she threw caution to the wind and gave him a hard shake. If he was injured and she made it worse, then it couldn’t be worse than the Xakul capturing them.
“What?” He shot upright, arrested by the seat’s straps.
Krystal blew out a breath in relief. “The Xakul are here. There’s some kind of hook thing, and I don’t know what to do!”
T’arq undid his straps and lifted Krystal bodily to move her out of the way.
The second hook latched onto their ship and jerked it away from the asteroid where they had come to a rest. Krystal and T’arq both stumbled and landed against the wall, a cabinet opening with the impact and spraying its contents into the cockpit.
T’arq grasped Krystal by the shoulders and looked at her intently, his eyes deep purple in their intensity. “Are you hurt?”
“What? No. I’m fine. I bumped my head a little, but the helmet… I’m fine.”
“Good.” He appeared to relax a little at her words. “I’ve not heard of them doing this before.”
