“Flippy?” I said, unaware the ship had a name.

  “Flying Purple People Eater,” she replied.

  “What?”

  “It’s an Earth song. Are you telling me you’ve never heard it?”

  “Of course I’ve heard it. How have you heard it? You didn’t even know Johnny B. Goode.”

  “Avelus played it for me. He thought I would like it. I painted Flippy purple after I heard the song. Her identifier is FPPE14871. I wanted to add eyes and a mouth once I found an artist. Ben, Flippy isn’t like Head Case. You need to be careful with the G-Forces. The countermeasures aren’t strong enough to prevent you from blacking out if you push too hard.”

  “I figured as much. If you’re on the flight deck, why haven’t you started shooting at the bad guys?”

  “Is that an order, Captain?”

  “Oh yeah, that’s definitely an order. As soon as Druck’s on board, we’re getting the hell out of here.” I looked outside again, finding a small gap to the Avenger’s left to get Flippy past the mech. “I’ll see you out there.”

  I hit the thrusters, shoved back in the seat as the starfighter rocketed forward, clearing the hangar doors in less than a second. A quick, gentle flick of the stick sent me around the Avenger’s leg, another sent me streaking into the sky.

  CHAPTER 38

  Ion blasts from the cannons on Head Case shot past me as I climbed into the sky, whooping in exhilaration in response to Flippy’s agility. The excitement didn’t last long as the threat display on the HUD blew up with enemy targets. Besides the large dropship overhead, eight more smaller dropships still circled the skies, along with an entire squadron of newly launched fighters. On the ground, six mechs and a few dozen remaining mercenary soldiers continued firing on Head Case and the Avenger. The ground targets wouldn’t matter once we were both airborne, but Druck wasn’t going to make it into the ship at this rate.

  Having gained enough altitude, I pushed Flippy over hard, gasping as the G-forces hit me harder than I expected, threatening to steal my ability to breathe. The maneuver only took an instant, releasing the pressure, but it was a solid reminder of Alter’s warning to be careful.

  My thumb rested on the trigger, targets painted in the augmented reality of the helmet as I dove toward the enemy mechs. Pressing down and holding, I strafed across their flanks, pounding them as I streaked past. One of the mechs, one Druck had already damaged, suffered an ammunition explosion that blew it almost in half, the force knocking the mech next to it off balance. The other machines continued their assault on the Avenger, but only for a moment. As I lifted skyward again, one of Head Case’s turrets shifted its aim to them, the rapid pulses of the more powerful cannons hitting them hard.

  Additional firepower from the cannons targeted the dropships. Concentrated fire blasted one of them out of the sky, the Star of Caprum proving its worth as it allowed a steady stream of ions without fear of running out of energy.

  The starfighters changed formation, breaking into three groups. One to come right at me, two more to try to sneak in from the flanks. The fact that they had overwhelming numbers and still split that way showed that our success so far had given them reason to be more cautious.

  I didn’t shy away from the oncoming fighters, deciding to let the game of chicken play out. The one benefit to my diagnosis was that I had a lot less to lose than they did. My life would only be cut short by a few weeks. Theirs by years. It made me bolder than I would have been otherwise, and for a moment I wondered if maybe Sedaya had inadvertently done me a favor by killing Gyer. Short-term, anyway.

  We plowed toward one another. The enemy fighters opened up, and I sent Flippy into a series of evasive maneuvers that kept me on a track toward them. Quick bounces—up and down, left and right—sent dozens of energy bolts lacing past me. I couldn’t avoid them all. The shields absorbed a few of the blows, holding fast as I returned their assault, focusing on one ship at a time.

  We met in the middle, Niflin starfighters zipping past on every side as I broke through the group, ascending toward the larger dropship. Keeping an eye on the HUD, I noticed the other two units of starfighters hadn’t split up to flank me, but to continue on toward Head Case. That made sense. The larger ship was a larger threat.

  The problem was that the third group didn’t change course either, still vectoring toward the surface and our stationary starship. They had to take evasive action as Alter targeted them, sending round after round of ion blasts into their midst. Breaking my ascent, I sucked in my gut before taking another hard turn, handling the G-force better the second time as I redirected to follow the mercenary starfighters. Looking past them, I could see Druck had managed to limp the Avenger up the ramp, slowly pulling it into the hangar bay in a painfully slow crouch.

  At this point, I didn’t know why he bothered. The mech was in such bad shape, I couldn’t imagine how we could repair it, or how much that might cost. It would probably be cheaper to find another one to buy. And it was slowing down our escape. If I had any way to communicate with him, I would have told him to leave the machine behind.

  As it was, the starfighters in front of me launched projectiles as they neared the bottom of their run, the rounds heading right for the Avenger’s back. I was sure once they connected it would be the end of the mech, Druck, and maybe even Head Case. The Avenger’s back was clearly less armored than anywhere else, making it an easier path to whatever reactor powered the thing. I had already seen one mech blow sky-high due to a similar hit.

  There was nothing I could do about it now. I pulled up ahead of the enemy starfighters and opened fire in front of them, taking easy hits as they flew right into the ion blasts. I managed to blast two of them in their cockpits, killing the pilots as they tried to climb. Out of control, they crashed into the rocks on either side of the spaceport.

  Meanwhile, Alter kept Head Case’s cannons going, firing at both the fighters and the mechs. She had already taken out two of the armored mechs, leaving two more heavily damaged.

  The missiles reached the Avenger just as Druck guided it fully into the hangar. Expecting the worst, the opposite happened, and I nearly cracked my hand on the canopy punching the air in excitement. The shields deployed, Head Case absorbed the missiles, their detonations diffused. The hangar doors immediately began to close.

  And Head Case immediately started to rise.

  “We’re all aboard,” Alter said over the comms. “Lead us out of here, Ben.”

  I made another tight turn, quickly becoming more accustomed to the feel of the G-Forces inside the smaller craft as I resumed the ascent, careful to stay out of Alter’s line of fire.

  “You’ve got company,” I said. After recognizing that the turrets couldn’t fire directly to the side, the two smaller groups of Niflin starfighters closed in on Head Case from both flanks.

  “I see them. Break left, I’ll take care of the bogeys on the right.”

  “Copy.”

  I banked to the left, vectoring up at the bottoms of the enemy fighters as they homed in on the mothership. They saw me coming, and two of them peeled off to deal with me while the others launched missiles at Head Case. I already had the first of the fighters in my sights, and I slammed it with ion blasts, cutting through its shields and hammering it hard enough to bring it down. .

  Return fire zipped past as I rolled away, cutting the thrust and letting gravity slow me. A quick twist of the wrist turned Flippy’s nose toward the incoming fighter, and a quick burst of ions took it out of the sky.

  None of that stopped the missiles from hitting Head Case. A small explosion near the armor plating protecting the cannons at the head’s ear told me the shield node there had failed.

  “Shit,” I said over the comm. “I couldn’t stop them all.”

  “You got two, that’s pretty damn good,” Alter said. “Stay with them.”

  I did, pushing the thrusters and regaining speed as I gave chase. Alter caught me by surprise when she guided Head Case into a spin on its axis even as she continued its ascent, turning in a circle with all of the guns blazing. Three starfighters went down in rapid succession as the head continued swinging in my direction.

  Caught between a rock and a hard place, the enemy fighters tried to climb away. Whatever the guns on Head Case missed, mine didn’t. I chewed through two more fighters, leaving only three still in the air. Along with the large dropship still looming overhead.

  “Nice shooting,” I said.

  “You too,” Alter replied. “But we aren’t out of this yet.”

  With the fighters destroyed, the dropship captain decided it was safe to start shooting with its fixed batteries. Thick bolts of energy began raining down on us, so huge and heavy I knew one hit would go right through Flippy’s shields. And me. One hit would also put the shields on Head Case in serious jeopardy after the pounding they had already taken. As it was, both Alter and I did our best to evade the thick bolts.

  “Ben, Flippy’s smaller and faster,” Alter said. “You need to hit those batteries.”

  “On it,” I said.

  I punched the throttle, holding my stomach tight against the inertia shoving me back into my seat. Flippy gained ground against Head Case in a hurry, speeding toward the dropship overhead. Getting closer made the energy bolts easier to avoid, their aim set to converge on the area around Head Case. I spotted the first battery, a large squarish lump on the dark metal of the blocky dropship. Swooping toward it, a series of shots from the starfighter’s blasters cut the power to it, leaving it dark and dead on the ship’s surface.

  “One down,” I announced, changing direction to skirt along the edge of the ship. A second battery appeared ahead, and I blasted that one too before banking away and targeting a third. Finally catching on, the mercenaries’ remaining starfighters came in after me, swooping down and opening fire. I peeled away from the ship before I could take a shot at it.

  “Ben, the shields are getting overloaded,” Alter informed me.

  “Damn it, I’m trying,” I snapped.

  “Try harder. One hit from those batteries and we’re done.”

  I checked the HUD, spotting the three enemy fighters chasing me away from the dropship. Looking to my left, I saw the bolts sizzling past Head Case, a little too close for comfort. Only Alter’s adept piloting had kept the ship intact so far.

  She was right. I was playing things a little too safe. I needed to step up my game before it was too late.

  I cut the throttle off completely, pushing it past flat to fire the forward maneuvering jets. It threw me hard into my restraints. stealing my breath and making my head spin. With blurred vision, I did my best to unleash a constant barrage of fire at the mercenaries, hoping to take some of them out before they could come around to make another run at me. Two of the fighters went down. The other peeled away in a steep ascent, running from the fight.

  I opened the throttle again and twisted the stick, using the vectoring jets to turn me around. The G-forces sent pain throughout my body, nausea churning bile up my throat. I swallowed it back and held on tight, growling out loud to ease the tension and fight my dizziness. I got a bead on the next gun battery and opened fire, taking it out.

  “Alter, cut to the starboard side,” I said, taking aim at the remaining batteries there.

  “Copy.” Head Case turned toward me, heavy blasts still zapping past it.

  I fired on the next battery, knocking it offline. Alter hit the last one, clearing a path for our escape.

  We both shot past the dropship, continuing the climb as it tried to come about and bring its port side batteries to bear. By the time it finished the maneuver, we were long gone, high into the thermosphere and ready to break through into orbit.

  “Now did we make it?” I asked, still struggling against dizziness, nausea, and sudden fatigue. The world was getting blurry around me, my body turning on me now that the adrenaline had started to fade.

  “I don’t know,” she replied. Not the words I wanted to hear. “Check your HUD.”

  I glanced at it. Even with my double-vision, I didn’t see any ships on the sensors. “It’s clear.”

  “Exactly. How many ships were in orbit when we got here a few hours ago?”

  “At least twenty,” I said. “Where did they all go?”

  “Away from this part of the planet. Away from the fighting. Away from any additional potential…” She trailed off. I knew why.

  A ship appeared on sensors, larger than anything I had seen before, save for a Royal Sentry. Looking out into space, I found it a moment later, difficult to see against the black. Long and sleek and menacing, it reminded me of a Star Destroyer, only more narrow and rounded as if it were the sports car version of the original design. A break between the top and bottom offered plenty of opportunity for hidden hangar bays, gun batteries, and whatever other nasty surprises a ship like that could have in store for us.

  “What is that?” I said, finding enough energy to be frightened all over again.

  “Sedaya,” Alter trembled. “He’s here.”

  “In person? On that ship?”

  “Yes.”

  “Shit.”

  “Yes.”

  “What do we do?”

  “There’s nothing we can do. If he wants to kill us, he can kill us.”

  “Can’t we go to hyperspace?”

  “Head Case can. You can’t.”

  I didn’t hesitate. “Then you need to go. Get Matt and the others out of here.”

  “I’m not leaving you behind.”

  “Gyer is dead, which means I’m dead. Whether it’s today, tomorrow, or a month from now. I lost my chance. But you still have a chance. Matt still has a chance. I don’t know what we got mixed up in, but we don’t belong out here. He doesn’t belong out here. Maybe you can take the slab and the glove we picked up off the goth to the Empress and convince her that Sedaya’s a threat. And then maybe you can take Matt back to Earth.”

  “I can’t get him back to Earth. You know that. Only Avelus can.”

  “Then maybe you can find Keep,” I snapped. “He owes us that much at least.”

  “I don’t think he’ll just let me take him back without you.”

  “Then don’t give him a choice,” I yelled. “He shouldn’t die out here like this. Like me.”

  “Don’t say that.”

  “He should be back on Earth. Promise me you’ll do what you can to get him home.”

  “He’s an adult, Ben. He—”

  “Promise me!”

  I realized I wasn’t being rational. I couldn’t stand the idea of Sedaya catching up to him too. He was only out here because of me.

  “What about Head Case?”

  “You have a crew. You’d be able to do whatever you want with the rest of your life, however long you’ll live. Just make sure Matt is safe first. That’s all I want.”

  The threat display began lighting up as smaller ships launched from Sedaya’s Star Porsche by the dozens. Way too many for us to deal with, especially in our depleted state.

  “Ben, I— ” Alter said, wanting to argue but I cut her off.

  “They’re coming, Alter. You need to go.”

  “I…I can’t,” she said. “You’re my friend. The only one I’ve ever had.”

  “You’re my friend too,” I said, fighting not to choke up. Everything was coming together all at once. The exhaustion, the sickness, the anger and frustration. The affection and love. Yeah, love. I couldn’t stand the thought of any of the individuals on Head Case dying over me. “The best thing you can do for me is to leave me behind. I’m already dying. I don’t want all of my friends to die with me.”

  “Ben,” she said again. I could hear the same mix of emotion in her as I felt. “I…”

  “Go!” I shouted as the ships raced toward us. They would be in firing range any second. “You need to go! Damn it, Alter! Get the hell out of here!”

  “All right, Ben, we’ll go. I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be sorry,” I said, tears coming unbeckoned, streaming down my face. “Don’t ever be sorry. This really was the adventure of a lifetime. Say goodbye to Matt for me. Tell him he was the best friend I could have ever imagined, and a better friend than I deserved. And if you get him home, ask him to tell my mom that I loved her and to thank her for everything for me.”

  “Okay. I will.” It sounded like there were tears in her voice now too, but I didn’t even know for sure if she could cry. “Goodbye, Ben.”

  “Goodbye, Alter. Good luck.”

  I looked to my right, watching Head Case as it changed course, putting distance between us. The bulk of the starfighters changed direction too, giving chase. But they were already in orbit, and with no one else around, entering hyperspace was trivial.

  The starfighters opened fire, their energy bolts shooting across space toward Head Case. With the hits the ship had already taken, I didn’t know if the shields would be able to stop the huge volume of the attack.

  It didn’t need to. Space bent around the ship, bending the bolts too and sending them off course.

  Head Case disappeared.

  I cried out loud as I slammed the back of my head into my seat in frustration. It wasn’t supposed to end like this. But then, was there ever a good way to end? A good way to say goodbye? Sedaya’s starfighters changed direction again, coming my way. I didn’t have the energy to try to fight. Instead, I cut the thrusters and powered down, letting the ship float dead in space.

  I sobbed until the fatigue overtook me and everything went dark.

  CHAPTER 39

  I didn’t expect to wake up. Before blacking out, I expected Sedaya’s starfighters to open fire on me as soon as they were in range, pulverizing Flippy and me into space dust. I had shut the ship down for a moment of peace and solitude before the inevitable. A few seconds to enjoy the sanctity of my small, overall meaningless existence in the universe. A moment to be thankful that I would die quickly and painlessly at the hands of an enemy. Not slowly as I lost all of my motor skills before losing my mind.