“Hey,” Tyler said as comically as he could manage, one eyebrow arching high as he winked.

  Ally groaned and shoved him away. “What’s happening?”

  “We don’t know,” I replied. “We’re going to the flight deck.”

  “You should be going to sick bay,” she said, pointing at the bandage on my forehead. “You’re bleeding through it.” She glared at Tyler. “Didn’t you notice?”

  “I just woke up,” he complained.

  I didn’t know how the wound could have opened up while I slept. I tried not to panic over it. We had enough to panic about already. “I’ll deal with it later. Come on.”

  We raced down to the lounge and then toward the elevator. Flashing emergency bulbs bathed everything in a Christmas glow. As we waited anxiously for the elevator, the alarm cut off abruptly. An ominous silence took its place.

  I remembered my comm badge as the elevator doors slid open and we hurried inside. “Wait,” I said to Tyler before he could direct the cab to Deck Four. “We don’t know when it was last used.”

  “Damn, I almost forgot,” he replied.

  “Meg, are you there?” I said.

  “Noah, is that you?” she answered. “Is this important? I’m a little busy⁠—“

  “We’re in the elevator on our way to Four. Do we have enough charge?” I asked at lightning speed.

  “Yes, you’re clear,” she replied.

  “Do you know what’s going on?” I asked as Tyler hit the button.

  “No. Only that someone else somehow found us in the middle of nowhere and I need to finish repairing the hyperdrive ASAP.”

  Her answer knotted my stomach with dread. This had disaster written all over it. We stepped onto the flight deck to find Ben, Matt, and Shaq already present, grim expressions on their faces.

  "What's happening?" I asked.

  "We've got company," Matt replied, pointing out the wide transparency.

  I moved closer to the window, my mouth falling open. Three oblong, scaly ships surrounded Head Case at a distance, glowing veins of orange visible beneath their pearl-hued hulls. More of the Warden's forces? They bristled with what appeared to be quills—shards of crystal that jutted from their spiked carapaces.

  "Have you tried contacting them?" Tyler asked.

  Ben nodded. "No response. Probably because they can’t understand a thing we’re saying.”

  "Then what do we do?" Alyssa asked.

  “Right now, we’re waiting to see what they do,” Matt replied. “We aren’t in the business of shooting first. Hopefully, they picked up our arrival or our heat signature and just swung by to check us out.”

  “That’s what we hoped about the Warden,” Tyler reminded him.

  “That’s why I’ve got the guns and thrusters ready.”

  “And why I’m sitting in the co-pilot seat while Meg and Leo are busting their tails to get the hyperdrive working,” Ben added.

  “What can we do?” I asked.

  “You look like you should be in sick bay,” Ben replied.

  “In the middle of this? Not a chance.”

  “This is our responsibility. You don’t need to do anything.”

  “Like we’re supposed to just stand here and watch while you fight for our lives?” Alyssa said. “We did that before. It sucked.”

  Ben smiled. “Noah, take over for me,” he said, releasing his restraints and rising from the co-pilot seat. “Ally, take the systems console. Use the control pad to navigate to the status screen. I need you to keep an eye on our shield status.”

  “On it,” Alyssa said, rushing to the station.

  “Obviously, green is good. Orange is meh. Red is bad,” Ben summarized.

  “Simple enough.”

  “Tyler, I don’t have anything for you to do right now. But I promise that once we’re out of this mess, I’ll get you up to speed on all of Head Case’s systems so you can help us with the next one. I thought we would have more time.”

  Tyler didn’t look happy about being sidelined again, but he nodded and slid into one of the stadium seats to mope. I hurried to take Ben’s place at the co-pilot station.

  “That doesn’t look like a benign maneuver to me,” Tyler noted, drawing my attention to my sensor grid.

  Outside, the alien ships shifted formation, moving to surround us in a triangle in an effort to prevent our escape. The tips of their spines gained the same orange glow that radiated beneath their translucent hulls. They looked ready to deliver blistering volleys of plasma or magma. Or something.

  “Unidentified contact,” Ben said into what looked like a CB transmitter that could have been ripped out of a big rig. “Please respond. We mean you no harm. We are not a threat. If you fire on us, you will be fired upon.”

  “I’m glad Leo got the shields back up to snuff,” Matt commented.

  “What are you waiting for?” Tyler cried. “Hit them before they hit us, or we’ll be trapped.”

  “We don’t shoot first,” Ben reiterated.

  “Then don’t shoot, just move! You don’t have your magic to protect us, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

  I glanced back at Ben. Apparently, Tyler had hit the nail on the head. “Matt,” Ben said softly. “Go.”

  “Aye aye,” Matt muttered. "Brace yourselves!"

  He jammed the throttle forward. Head Case leaped toward the nearest enemy ship in a blur of acceleration, vectoring thrusters pushing us toward the center of one of the triangle’s sides. Almost immediately, plasma pulses sizzled through the space we'd just occupied in a heavy barrage that would have turned Head Case, and us, to slag. We slipped out of their kill box, leaving the aliens scrambling to give chase.

  "Return fire!" Ben barked.

  At his command, Matt unleashed a barrage from the lower pair of cannons. Blue energy hammered the nearest alien hull, met by crackling orange energy attempting to absorb or deflect the charged ions. Partially failing, shards of their shimmering armor plating exploded outward.

  “Nice shot!” Ben cheered. I was equally pleased to see our weapons do some actual damage.

  Our brief surge of optimism evaporated as the other two ships unleashed strafing runs across our starboard cheek. The deck shuddered under dozens of hits while klaxons blared a damage report neither Matt nor Ben needed to hear; the situation was painfully clear.

  We were in real trouble.

  “Starboard shields at thirty percent,” Ally said. “Assuming I’m reading this right.”

  “You probably are,” Ben answered.

  “Damn, they punch hard,” Matt added.

  Outgunned three-to-one, Matt threw Head Case into a punishing dive, coaxing every bit of speed from her thrusters. Despite the dampeners, the G-forces still dragged at my body, bringing fresh pain to my cuts, bruises, and sore muscles. Behind us, the aliens gave chase, continuing their blistering assault.

  "Can't this bucket go any faster?!" Tyler shouted.

  "Not at the moment!" Matt shot back through gritted teeth. He yanked us hard to port, narrowly dodging another salvo meant to slice us in half.

  "We can't keep this up forever," I said. "Sooner or later they’ll land another solid hit.”

  Matt ignored me, angling us onto a new vector using the debris from our one and only successful strike against the enemy as chaff gave us cover. We slipped behind the spinning shrapnel, the wreckage absorbing a few rays of orange plasma meant for us.

  “Hold onto your lunches,” Matt hissed. “I’ve got an idea."

  He cut some of the thrust, allowing our pursuers to close the distance, still maneuvering wildly to keep as many shots from hitting us as possible.

  “Rear starboard shields, fifty percent,” Ally announced.

  “Come on,” I heard him mutter beside me. “Just a few seconds more.”

  “Forty percent,” Ally updated. “Port shields, seventy percent.”

  “This is going to be tight,” he announced. He yanked the main throttle all the way closed while using the stick to activate vectoring thrusters, a second thumb-throttle allowing him to push them to maximum output. Our forward velocity decreased in a hurry, causing the trio of enemy ships to overshoot us. As they struggled to come about, Matt opened the throttle and swung Head Case in a wild rotation, until our weapons aligned on the nearest target.

  "Fire!" Ben shouted

  Matt unleashed a full frontal assault with all of Head Case’s firepower. Unable to handle the powerful barrage, the alien shields winked out. Almost immediately, armor boiled away under the massive attack. Debris poured out of the ship’s rear, followed by a quick fireball before the whole craft split in two, its orange glow dying out.

  "Hell yeah!" Tyler pumped a fist. “That was amazing!”

  I stared at Matt in awe, developing my own kind of crush on the real god of Thunder.

  Of course, it wasn’t time to declare victory. The remaining ships swept back in, angry and intent on punishing us for our success. Matt’s maneuver had let us take out one of the ships but left us more vulnerable on the tail end of it. Crossfire slammed Head Case from both sides.

  "Rear shields are out again!” Alyssa cried.

  “Better keep them on our forward shields," Matt said. "We'll make our stand here. Noah, take the stick.”

  “What? Now?” I started shaking, unprepared for the order and freezing up.

  Noticing my utter failure to perform, Matt threw the ship into a desperate corkscrew evasion, trying to spoil the aliens' aim. No longer worried about flanking attacks, they tightened their fire despite Matt’s efforts. Space transformed around us into a deadly stew of crisscrossing orange rays. It was all Matt could do to keep us ahead of the destruction, juking madly through space.

  “Forward shields are nearly gone!” Alyssa’s hands shook like bowls of Jell-O.

  I was sure that this was it. The end of a wild ride I could barely believe I'd embarked on. We were about to pay the ultimate price, annihilated by alien legions from some obscure corner of the galaxy. All because we accepted charity tickets for an impossible voyage gone horribly awry. If only I could undo the awful mistake that had doomed us to…

  My panicky lament broke off as Matt threw Head Case into a bone-crushing high-G turn. Thrown sideways against my restraints, agonizing pain shrieked through my already sore ribs. Somehow, it was strangely cathartic; knowing this would be our final maneuver somehow calmed in our final few seconds of existence.

  But somehow, it wasn’t the end.

  Matt led the aliens into a trap of his own design, one that left them firing on Head Case from nearly opposite angles. While the forward shields held up to the punishment, Alyssa had already confirmed that the rear shields were gone. Yet, the energy rays from the alien ships never contacted the rear shields. Instead, they vanished into nothingness. I knew it was Ben’s doing before I even looked at him. His body was lit like a candle, his forehead soaked in sweat. I knew at that moment what it looked like for a man to be ready to die to protect his family. I knew Dad would have done the same. He just never had the chance.

  “Ben, now!” Matt shouted.

  Ben dropped the defense at the same time Matt fired the overhead vectoring thrusters to rotate Head Case downward, pushing us away from the two approaching ships at just the right moment. The two enemy ships fired at where Head Case had been, orange rays passing each other and smashing through each other’s shields, carving out armor. Trailing debris, the two ships swung away from one another to avoid colliding, but for one of the ships at least, it was already too late. A sudden fireball burst from the side of its hull and the entire ship went dark.

  The remaining alien craft peeled away, its outer shell badly damaged, its propulsion system, hidden somewhere on the ship, seemingly offline. It didn’t gain velocity, relying on only vectoring maneuvers to take a relatively straight path away from us.

  “Whooooooooooo!” Tyler screamed from the nosebleeds. “Yeah! Take that you sons of bitches! Ya-hooooooo!”

  Ally cheered as well, while Matt relaxed back against his headrest and expelling a relieved breath. Ben had a weak smile on his face, though he looked ready to again pass out.

  I wanted to enjoy the victory, too. Instead, I slumped in my seat. Matt had asked me to take the stick, and I’d blown it. Maybe it would have changed the outcome and spared Ben the need to use chaos energy to bail us out. Maybe not. The point was, they’d given me a job and I’d failed to execute.

  “Matt,” I said. “I froze. I’m sorry.”

  “No,” he replied. “I shouldn’t have put you on the spot like that. I was only thinking about my next move, not the person in the co-pilot seat. You’re a hell of a VR pilot, but you aren’t ready for this yet.”

  It felt like a backhanded compliment, but I decided I hadn’t earned the right to take offense. “I don’t think I want to be ready for this.”

  “I said the same thing once. Sometimes, we don’t get a choice. Anyway, we won this round. And like Ben said, if we can get a breather around here, we’ll get you ready for whatever comes next. As ready as any of us can be, anyway.”

  “Thanks, Matt,” I said, appreciating his understanding. He responded by putting his fist out. I bumped it, matching his grin.

  “Meg…damage report.” Ben’s listless voice reflected his fatigue.

  “Well, they pretty much just undid everything Leo and I spent the last five hours working on, and then some. But we’re alive, so there’s that.”

  “Hyperdrive?”

  “Somehow, it escaped damage. Which is a good thing because if it had been hit, Leo and I would be literal toast right now. We should have it back online in the next fifteen minutes or so.”

  “I’m glad you’re both unhurt. I hate to ask you to start repairs once you finish with the drive, but...”

  “It’s okay. I hate sleeping anyway.”

  “Once we’re in hyperspace, we’ll have time to repair, rest, and recover.”

  “Aye, Captain.”

  Ben looked wearily forward. “Nice job,” he said, eyes switching from Matt to me, as if I had actually done anything.

  I didn’t want to take credit for my failure. “I didn’t⁠—“

  “Nice job,” he repeated. “You’ll get more action next time.”

  “I hope not,” I answered. “I don’t want a next time.”

  Ben smiled. “That makes all of us. Matt, I need to go pass out again.”

  “Understood.”

  “Noah, Tyler, Ally, you three were probably sleeping. I don’t know if you can after this engagement. Maybe once the adrenaline wears off. If not, I recommend pizza and a movie to help calm the nerves.”

  “Do you have the Last Starfighter?” Tyler asked.

  Ben laughed. “We sure do. It’s—“ He froze, his eyes on the forward transparency.

  Or at least, I thought they were going to the view outside. Turning back to see where Ben was looking, my eyes widened when I saw the holographic projection of the Warden’s face floating in front of the pilot stations.

  “Ugh, not him again,”Ally groaned.

  “Congratulations,” the Warden said, seemingly sincere. “That was a pretty impressive and decisive win, if I do say so myself. And very entertaining, indeed.”

  “Of course,” Ben said. “You did this.”

  “Technically…yes. But not directly. You see, the Achai are visiting Warexia too. And, well… let’s just say they were starting to bore me. So, I gave them a task.”

  “To destroy us?” Tyler asked.

  “Not specifically you,” the Warden countered. “To attack and defeat a ship of their choosing.”

  “So why did they attack us?” Alyssa asked. “We’re in the middle of nowhere.”

  “I may have passed them coordinates to your location, since you were the ship closest to them. But I didn’t expressly tell them to attack the ship that looks like a giant robot head. They made that choice of their own free will.” Since he was only a head, I couldn’t see him shrug, but the shifting of his expression suggested he had. “Obviously, it was a bad choice. Be right back.”

  The hologram vanished. Through the forward viewport, we watched as the surviving alien ship suddenly went dark.

  “And that, my friends,” the Warden said, his head reappearing, “is the price of failure.”

  “Wait a second,” Matt said. “Before, you said it was good enough that we tried to carry out the task, not that we had to succeed.”

  The Warden wrinkled his face. “Hmm. That’s right, I did say that. Well, I didn’t say the same to them. Probably because I thought they looked much tougher than they turned out to be. I’ll honor my word with you. As long as you try.”

  I could tell by Matt’s face that the promise held no consolation for him. The same went for me.

  “In any case, I wanted to offer my congratulations on your first success. I expected you to die within the first few seconds, so I’m very excited to see what will happen next. Oh, and as a reward, one of you has been randomly selected to receive a boon. I’ll be seeing you.”

  He vanished again.

  “Check, please!” Tyler cracked.

  CHAPTER 28

  Our narrow victory and the reappearance of the Warden left us all shaken. A million thoughts blasted through my mind like a storm of asteroids, each crashing into the other, making it hard to sort out any specific idea. No doubt, the others felt the same. I drew a deep, shaky breath, wincing as my bruised muscles protested.

  "Well, that was fun," Tyler quipped, breaking the uneasy quiet a second time. I was used to his attitude from our matches. He always tried to lighten the mood, no matter the situation. He couldn’t stand silence or tension. For him, it was always better to air complaints and concerns than let negativity fester. Or when all else fails, crack a joke. “Anyone else ready for round three?”

  "Not really," Alyssa muttered. She slumped back in her chair, rubbing at the dark circles beneath her eyes. Despite her evident fatigue, I doubted rest would find any of us easily after such a close call.