Black Hole Heartbeat

Elizabeth - 81

The sun had started to set. Darkness spread through the sky like ink dropped in the

sea. She thought about Olivia, buried by two strangers and an old friend who hardly

knew her at all. Mourned by no one. Black took over the horizon. How easily that

could have been her, had life turned out a little differently. She took Ana's hand and

squeezed it tight.

"I really am sorry, you know. For everything."

They rested their heads against each other, staring through the fogged glass of the

visors into the glamorous dark. They were swallowed by the shadows.

"You hurt her, I'll break your neck!" Rusalka hollered at them.

She took this be a sign of Rusalka's forgiveness.

Elizabeth moved away and called Roka. Her whole body felt restored. Reborn from

ashes.

"We ready to split?"

"Can you reach these co-ordinates?"

"Wind's died down. Should be fine to reach you now."

Roka reached them within a couple of minutes. The shuttle doors lifted open.

"We get everything we needed?" he asked.

"Indeed," Rusalka said, stepping aboard.

Ana followed her in. Elizabeth picked up a handful of dirt.

"Everything okay, Captain?" Roka asked.

Elizabeth thought about Olivia one last time and tossed the dust into the wind.

~*~

They were halfway back to the Victory Pearl when the first missile struck. Elizabeth

fell to the floor, dragging Ana down.

"What's the situation, Roka?"

"Better strap in. We've got one, two... fuck. Six of 'em on our tail. Whatever you

took, someone wants it back. Bad."

Elizabeth crawled to the window. She could only see five of them. A Mundus fleet.

Like their ripped uniforms and shorn haircuts, the ships were random assortments.

Two Torfus military crafts. One with a cannon from The Barely Charted welded to

the front. The other had wings ripped as cheesecloth, patched up with sheet metal.

A third looked like an ME-2, a cheap gunship with energy blasters, the fourth a

smorgasbord of engine parts, cannons and fins in blue and red and green. Elizabeth

was surprised it could fly at all. The fifth was the most worrying; a seemingly

perfect condition Krei sharp-fighter. Probably the best mix of speed and power in the

galaxy. She squinted hard but could not find the sixth.

"You sure there's six of 'em, Roka?"

"I can't see it either. But I've never known our radars be wrong."

A zap of energy surged past the window. Roka veered hard starboard.

"Can we handle them?" Elizabeth asked.

"The sharp-fighter's a concern, but the pilot doesn't seem to know what she's riding.

Rest of them we can avoid easily enough, but we've got no guns."

"None?"

"We're a transport shuttle, Captain. There's sharp-fighters back in the Pearl's

hangar."

A missile glanced off their tail in a violent crash.

"Call Donovan! Just let me concentrate on not getting us killed!" Roka shouted.

Elizabeth radioed and a female voice answered.

"Hello, this is the Victory Pearl."

"Nyomee? Where's Donovan?"

"He's been teaching me how to work the controls. I can't fly yet, but I can operate

the com stuff."

"Where's Donovan?" Elizabeth asked, cutting her off.

"He stepped out to use the bathroom. But I can help! What do you need?"

"We've got six ships on our tail, most custom models so we don't know their full

specs. One we can't even see, but it's on the radar. We'll bring the party to you but

we'll need someone on the cannon. You'll also need to get our fastest sharp-fighter

out there with us; they've got a Krei one that'll out-manoeuvre our cannons. And we

need this all five minutes ago. Got that?"

"...Donovan's back now."

There was a static crackle of a mic being adjusted before Donovan's voice came

through the com link.

"You say there's six of them, Cap?"

"You hear the rest?"

"One on the cannon and get a sharp-fighter out to you. I'll try and get this sixth

bogie once you draw 'em closer. Any suggestions for who you want on the cannon?"

"Br –" Elizabeth started.

Her voice broke away.

"Forr was always a good shot. He should be able to work it, even with his new hand."

"I'll get him on it. Lead those horses to water and we'll make 'em drink."