The spacecraft jolted suddenly, nearly sending Ellyne to the floor. She steadied herself, leaning on one of the consoles as the ship lurched forward. Through her flocia link, she connected with the onboard computers and used the controls to force more power into the engines, unconcerned with any damage that might cause.
She chuckled, recalling how much trouble Marik had controlling their tiny ship as they fled the disintegrating asteroid prison. He’d be red with rage if he knew what she was doing.
The irony was not lost on her—how she’d damaged the ship’s weapons by doing this very same thing—but none of that mattered. The larger Golgolonar ship was on the move, and this was her one chance to strike back.
“This is much more convenient than fighting every alien one by one,” she laughed. “Go ahead, try and run. I’d run from me, too.”
She checked the weapons systems again, but they remained inoperable. It didn’t hurt to make sure. After all, she had no functional knowledge of their technology. For all she knew, they could repair themselves or simply come back online after they cooled down. For a moment, she considered using flocia to attempt repairs—if that were even possible—but quickly scrapped that idea, afraid of making things worse.
“Can’t this thing go any faster?”
Ellyne searched the controls but found nothing helpful. She couldn’t explain how she knew what they all did except she simply felt them, and instinct took over. She simultaneously reveled in the power she had while she also disgusted herself with the methods she’d used to gain it. Soon, however, none of that would matter.
“You can’t run from me,” she cackled, presenting her middle finger to the ship ahead. “You’re a slow-ass, giant ship and I’m a slightly less slow, tinier … um, ship.”
She felt her own spacecraft gaining speed. It appeared acceleration wasn’t its strong suit, but it had eventually picked up some momentum. The other ship, however, was accelerating as well.
It was also injured.
Ellyne wasn’t sure how much damage she’d done with the ship’s weapons, but the larger ship was shedding debris and plumes of smoke rose from the two points of impact.
As her target slowly gained speed, she adjusted course, continuing to fly straight toward it.
“What are you going to do now, lizards?” she shouted. “I’m coming for you—all of you! You couldn’t stop me before, and now I have one of your ships!”
She laughed. They were obviously afraid of her, fleeing like cowards. They apparently weren’t as powerful and intimidating as everyone thought.
But she was more powerful than anyone imagined. And she was about to show the entire city just how true that was.
Even if it was a one-way ticket.
Ellyne noticed something happening ahead. It began as a tiny sparkling, shimmering light on the ship’s surface but quickly grew into a radiant orb.
“Well, shit,” she muttered. “Looks like they have weapons, too. I probably should’ve thought about that.” She searched the ship’s functions for anything that might help but came up empty. “Uh, c’mon ship, turn or something!”
A blinding orb of energy launched from the spacecraft, and Ellyne knew it was going to impact her ship. She braced herself even as she still tried to steer the craft out of harm’s way. But such a bulky object wasn’t nimble enough to avert the collision and the impact knocked her to the floor.
“Okay, so that presents a small problem,” she spat, getting to her feet. Using flocia, she reached out to the ship’s systems and found, ironically, only the weapons systems were damaged in the blast. They must not have known the cannons were already inoperable.
“You guys clearly suck at this,” she teased over an open communication channel. They most likely wouldn’t understand her words if they received the message at all, but she felt the taunt was absolutely necessary. “You can’t stop me. I’m going to kill every one of you—on your ship and mine!”
Her craft continued to accelerate, still aimed directly at the other ship which appeared to be charging its weapon again.
Ellyne regretted damaging her own weapons so early. She also wished she’d targeted their cannons first.
Another orb of energy slammed into her ship, causing a shower of sparks from the ceiling and several of the control consoles blinked off and on before stabilizing. Her knowledge was limited, but the damage apparently hadn’t affected any flight systems. She continued her course, getting closer to the monstrous ship ahead.
Suddenly, warnings flashed on the consoles, and they emitted a hideous, shrieking noise. Ellyne couldn’t read the illegible Golgolonar script, but her connection with the ship clearly conveyed the message.
Warning: Collision Imminent.
“That’s the idea, genius.”
Despite the repeated warnings and annoying, ear-piercing cacophony, she urged the ship forward, watching as her target quickly got larger in the front window.
She wasn’t afraid—she wanted this. She was about to singlehandedly free her planet from the aliens’ tyranny while simultaneously freeing herself from the curse she bore. She could think of no better way to go out.
“Here’s to a free Seralune.”
The enemy ship started to fire its cannon again, but it was too late.
Ellyne closed her eyes and exhaled.