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The proximity warning alarm woke Ariana from her peaceful doze. Despite the years since her training, her body responded before her mind had fully come awake. She brought her seat up to an upright position and secured her safety harness.
That done, she began accessing the sensor telemetry on the incoming ship. Not for the first time, she cursed the crudeness of Seraph’s sensors. She could track the ship and identify its profile as some type of small freighter, similar to Seraph, but not much else. When it got closer, she could do a more detailed visual inspection and hope to identify weapons, but she would have no idea if those weapons were powered up.
Vlasa and Noah dashed into the weapons room from two different directions. They glanced at each other, Vlasa looking a little surprised. He gave Noah a small nod before speaking, “What do we have, Captain?”
“Some kind of freighter just jumped in,” Ariana said.
“Hostile?”
Ariana shrugged, “They haven’t shot at us yet.”
“They’re pretty far away. Pirates won’t want to scare us off. They’ll get closer, jam us, and then try to board” Noah said. He stood beside Ariana watching the approaching ship. His right hand went to the pistol on his hip and started flipping the strap on and off.
“What makes you so sure they are pirates?” Vlasa asked, “We’re in the middle of nowhere.”
“Maybe we have something they might want,” Noah said, shifting his eyes down to the floor.
“Like what?”
“Umm.”
“He has a point though.” Ariana said, “If they were just a freighter like us looking to save a little money on fuel, would they be flying straight towards us? Or would they be veering away for fear we might be pirates?”
“Point taken.” Vlasa conceded.
Ariana reached to her control panel triggered the ship-wide alarm. Vlasa headed aft, and Noah practically ran from the room. Ariana turned back to the weapon controls and started powering up their weapons. A single dual blaster and a rudimentary missile launcher were all the armaments Seraph had. If the other ship had better sensors, and could detect Seraph’s weapons powering up, there was a chance that might dissuade an attack. The other ship being better equipped might benefit them.
Within moments Vlasa reported in from the engine room. He would be monitoring power levels and aiding Olivia’s maneuver. Noah joined the communication net from the security station in the cargo bay. From there he could control the interior doors and sensors, watching for boarders.
When another voice joined the conversation, it startled her for a moment. Squee said, “I have found the shield control room and am sorry to report we only have a class one shield.”
“Yeah, thanks, Squee. We were aware. This isn’t a warship.”
“I inform you that all projectile weapons capable of deceleration and most burst energy weapons will be able to penetrate our shields.”
“Again, Squee, I know,” Ariana said, not bothering to keep her annoyance out of her voice this time.
“I did not mean to imply your lack of knowledge, Captain. It is my duty to inform you of my station's capabilities and deficiencies before a potential conflict.”
“We’ll need to review that duty later.” Ariana said, and then after muting her comm, “Assuming we survive this.”
The approaching ship continued to close on them. Any course deviation that Olivia might take wouldn’t get them to a safe distance for jumping any sooner. She could turn around, but that would force them to bleed off all of their current velocity first. The ship would be on them before they could accelerate in the other direction.
“They’re reversing engines!” Olivia yelled excitedly.
“Damn.” Ariana said before turning her mike back on, “Time to FTL?”
“Three minutes,” Vlasa answered, his voice flat.
“Go evasive.” Ariana slipping into a familiar mental space.
At the helm, Olivia fired the RCS thrusters, and Seraph began to juke to the sides at random intervals. Almost as soon as the ship began maneuvering, a triple barrage of energy bolts flashed through the space between them. Ariana braced herself for the impact she knew would be coming. Their shields would stop one bolt and Olivia’s maneuvering might make one miss, but that left one to strike their unprotected hull.
To her amazement, all three bolts flew through space where Seraph had once been. The second the bolts should have hit them, an intense energy beam shot out from the pirate ship. Moving at the speed of light this beam had no chance of missing. Fortunately, because the energy bolts had missed, their shields were still up, and the energy beam failed to do any damage to the hull.
“Beginners luck.” Ariana thought, shocked at the unlikely evasion by her rookie pilot. But out loud she said, “Good maneuver, Olivia, hold steady for five seconds and then go evasive again.”
Seraph stopped changing direction, and Ariana aimed their cannon. The pirate ship held its course, and she smiled. Two energy bolts flashed out from the barrel, and she fired their missile. The energy bolts closed the distance quickly, and both scored a hit. Unfortunately, the pirate's shields must have been stronger than theirs as they both impacted against shields.
The missile came in behind the bolts at a slower pace. As it got close to impact, the missile fired a retro thruster and decelerated rapidly. Now moving at a comparative snails pace, the missile would be able to bypass the pirate's shields entirely. Unfortunately, the pirate’s pilot had begun maneuvering, and the missile missed.
A missile fired out from the pirates in return. Ariana shouted, “Go evasive!”
“Don’t worry, Cap; I got this,” Olivia said, the smugness evident in her voice.
Seconds later the ship shuddered as the missile impacted on the hull. If it weren’t for her straps, Ariana would have been thrown from her chair. The lights in weapons control flickered and the quiet hum of the ship disappeared, replaced by the sound of gushing air. The weapon control panel flashed an angry warning.
“Hull breach in weapon control,” Ariana said calmly.
She flicked a switch on her chair and a green mist started jetting out of a canister on the wall. She watched the mist as it swirled through the room. It twisted around an air current and moved toward the breach in the hull and out into space. She now had a figurative arrow pointing straight to the hole.
Unstrapping herself from her chair, Ariana ran over to the spot of the breach and took a hull patch kit from the wall. She popped the seal on the canister and sprayed the polymer goo over the small hole. It quickly sealed and the rush of air out of the ship stopped.
Ariana started to feel light headed as she moved back to the weapons console. The atmospheric pressure had dropped considerably in the short time before she’d sealed the breach. Nervously she glanced at the pressure gauge and was relieved to see it slowly, but steadily, climbing.
Sitting back in her chair, she looked over the warnings she had missed on the weapon control panel. She released a string of curses when she saw that her weapons were offline. One of the capacitors had been damaged by the weapon strike. Repairs would take a few minutes, so she ignored the damage and shut down the cannon, switching the missile over to the functioning capacitor.
By the time she finished, the atmosphere had thickened enough that she could once again hear.
“We’ve been boarded!” Noah’s frantic voice boomed, “Teleport detected main deck, near the mess. I’m purging atmosphere.”
“No!” Ariana gasped her lungs still weak, “That will cut off the aft of the ship from the bow. And our internal doors aren’t security rated. They’ll be able to bypass in seconds.”
“Roger.” Noah said without argument, “Moving to intercept. Not sure how many there are, so could use some backup.”
“Squee, join him, you’re closest,” Ariana ordered.
“I can help as well,” Javi said, surprising everyone that he was on the network.
“You’re a passenger, Javi.”
“My wish to become a prisoner, slave or dead is no greater than the rest of you. I owe you this much for the trouble I have brought upon this ship.” Javi said. “Besides, I taught you to shoot. I can be helpful.”
“I’ve seen the captain shoot.” Noah said, “I might not want your help.”
“The teacher is only as good as their student,” Javi said.
Despite the tense situation, Ariana smiled at the banter. Fear would drive them to failure. They weren’t a trained military crew, so they would never be able to counter fear with discipline. That meant they had to rely on something else.
Reacquiring a target with the missile launcher, Ariana said, “Show them what a Slu can do.”