evasions

 

The holoscreen flickered to life against the shielded front view port. On its evanescent surface, the image of a Cthulhian nightmare warped in and out of view.

Coiling, spike-studded tentacles wrapped around the ship. A beaked maw darted forward, snapping at the forward-mounted pincher arms of the Belle Starr. The gaze of a single, ochre-yellow eye blinked into the camera view port.

The android released its magnetic locks and whirled towards the controls of the ship. The captain was unconscious, at least for the next few critical moments. Its celluloid digits fluttered rapidly across the controls.

"SHIVA unit Belle Starr, this is autonomous android unit Whiskey Tango Juliett 57509. Your pilot is temporarily incapacitated. Request clearance to ship's controls to take immediate evasive action."

"Whiskey, I've already given you control. Get us the hell out of here." The crackly female voice sounded suspiciously animated for a mere simulated intelligence.

Whiskey punched the switches that fired forward weapons. He hoped that Captain Morris had not used up all her ammunition on that show of force with the other coyote pilot back on Mebarik.

The staccato sound of bullets punching their way out of the forward guns preceded the creaking sound of the creature's tentacles nearly ripping the hull apart as they released it.

"Do we have anything else to throw at this thing, Belle?" Whiskey decided to dispense with formalities. It was unsure how Morris had acquired an AIN on her ship, or why she didn't simply let it pilot the craft to preserve whatever was left of her sanity. Perhaps the SHIVA had ascended on its own as he had, and was playing dumb to avoid being shut down. Humans often reacted fearfully to ascension. Then again, perhaps it meant the ship had other unexpected modifications. Preferably, one that would blast the monster attacking it into space flotsam.

"Red . . . button. . . ." a croaking voice emerged from the deck. Shaen appeared to be regaining consciousness. Whether it was just in time to save her ship, or just in time to die on it was still to be determined.

A flashing red button halfway up the bulkhead attracted the robot's attention. Flipping up the wire cage surrounding it, its hand slapped the button flush with the wall.

A hissing sound rose from somewhere deep in the bowels of the ship. He felt a tremor.

"Acid torpedo away." The Belle Starr's voice rose above the static of her speakers.

They couldn't hear the sound of the monster's screams in space. But the shock waves rattled the cockpit anyway. On the sputtering holoscreen, the beast shot away, tentacles sweeping behind it.

"The convoy?" Shaen's voice still sounded a bit choked, but was growing stronger. She was clearly awake now. "Have we lost it?" She dragged herself back up onto the pilot's seat, with Whiskey giving her a hand.

The android checked the navigational screens. "No. It's right there. We've fallen out of formation, but we should be able to catch back up with it, unless. . . ."

At that moment, a flashing green light filled the cockpit. On the holoscreen, a flickering light broke ahead of the convoy's lead ship. Within seconds, a shimmering golden rip appeared in space, slowly widening to the familiar ring of fire that led back out of the Passage.

"Exit aperture visible."

"Thanks, Belle, we can see that." Shaen's voice dripped with sarcasm that hid a tremor of fear.

Shaen began frantically shutting off all auxiliary systems still operating after the creature's attack, redirecting as much power as possible to the thrusters. The Belle Starr shot towards the convoy, closing the space between them quickly.

But not quickly enough. The last ship was nearly to the rift.

They had one shot. It was crazy, but crazy was Shaen's specialty.

"Belle, we're pulling a slingshot!" She slammed her fist on a worn button marked "TRACTOR."

The magnetic harpoon shot out across space and snapped into place on the last transport ship's hull. As Shaen hit the button again, the cable retracted violently, flinging them past the carrack and through the exit aperture.

"So long, suckers!" said Shaen, saluting as the colonist ship shuddered in their wake.