I couldn’t help letting out a little squeal as the first blast rocked the ship, jolting me forward in my seat. Puck cursed and redoubled his efforts to make the ship obey his will, fingers flying over the controls in an effort to get up some sort of defensive shielding.
“It’s no use. This ship wasn’t built for battles. The shields it does have are shot already, and t hat was just a warning shot.” Falling silent in what was apparently a moment of heated internal debate, he finally reached to open a line on the communication board. “Tengu, you treacherous bastard. You surprise me; I never would have thought you’d stoop to learning something so human as piloting a spacecraft.”
“On the contrary, ambassador.” Came the reply, slightly tinny as it was channeled through the reaches of space. As the visual faded into view, I could see that the face was the same, but there was something undeniably different about it. The hair was a little more unkempt, in an artful sort of way. The man who addressed us now was less animated, more reserved. His presence was less commanding, and the golden gaze wasn’t nearly as piercing as the man whom Puck had shot a mere few hours before. “My brother is…entertaining at the present, but neither of us has had to bother learning such a skill. Unlike yourself, we found ourselves rather short on time.”
“Lord Karu. How nice, you’ve made a family vacation out of it.” Puck grumbled. “Where the hell did the two of you manage to find yourselves a pilot….?”
Karu reached out, his arm disappearing off the screen, and a youthful face not much older than my own was suddenly yanked down into our view. “As you can see, our new friend was quite happy to assist us.”
“Fuck you, man. I’m not your fucking friend.” Jerking away from Karu’s grip, he disappeared from view again.
“Luckily,” Karu went on, completely unruffled. “What he lacks in manners he makes up for in skill. I’m sure his sister is being far more cooperative.” He shot a pointed look in the young man’s direction. It clearly said, At least, she’d better be.
I didn’t need Puck’s frown and narrowed eyes to interpret the situation for me. At least we knew where Tengu was now, and how he and his twin got their pilot. “Yeah, I’m sure she is. Your foray into kidnapping seems to be turning into quite the habit, huh?” Karu just shrugged noncommittally. “Well, tell your pilot he’s a damn good shot, for a kid. Just enough juice to leave us unprotected, but not enough to blow us to bits and ruin your prize.”
“Ah,” Karu smiled faintly, a brief, self-satisfied quirk of his lips. “You misunderstand, I’m afraid he can’t claim credit for that. You know I’ve always been a quick study when it comes to weaponry; there are some things that one finds one just doesn’t want to delegate.”
“Oh. Yeah, of course.” Puck frowned thoughtfully. “I suppose you’re ready to give us your terms for surrender, then?”
My eyes widened incredulously, but before any sound could even come out of my mouth Puck casually reached out and clamped a hand over it.
“If you surrender now, you have my word that you’ll both be presented to the Queen alive and unharmed. I am relatively certain that she intends to use the girl to bargain with; considering your long association with His Majesty, I would presume that she would find your presence of some use, as well.”
Puck snorted, shooting me a sidelong glance. “That means I might get to live, if I don’t piss off the Queen too badly,” he interpreted. Karu inclined his head ever so slightly, apparently approving of Puck’s interpretation. “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to give me a few minutes to confer with my…co-pilot, here, would you? After all, it is her fate we’re deciding on. Say….half an hour?”
“You have fifteen minutes before we open fire on your vessel.” With that, the screen abruptly went blank, the channel cut.
Puck carefully made sure the channel was closed on our end, as well, before turning towards me. “Well, what do you think? Do you wanna take your chances with the psycho twins? Or would you rather ditch those two and go out for a double café mocha with extra whipped cream…?”
“Um….” I couldn’t help staring at him for a second or two as my brain tried to process his sudden shift in attitude. “I dunno. Aren’t they going to kind of…..blow us up before we make it to the nearest coffee shop….?”
Puck leaned back in his seat with an enigmatic smile. “Nope. Doubt it, anyway.”
I frowned at him. I was so not in the mood to play twenty questions. “Well?”
“Well what?”
“Well, what are you going to do?”
He grinned. “We have right around twelve minutes left. I’m going to wait.” I think he must have sensed that I was getting ready to burst a blood vessel, because he lost some of his teasing tone. “Look….if it was the kid doing the shooting, I could evade, no problem. At the risk of sounding immodest, I’m a hell of a pilot. But Karu is the commander of the biggest army on our whole planet. Whole books have been dedicated to his military prowess. If he’s doing the shooting, it’s because he’s already mastered the weapons system on that ship just like he’s mastered every other weapon he’s ever touched, and there’s no way I could play tag with him for more than a couple of minutes before we went up in smoke.” He settled back in his seat again. “So I’m waiting.”
“So….” I was a little numb, and pretty sure I must not be hearing quite right. “You’re….just waiting for him to shoot us down…?”
“Oh, no,” Puck stretched in his seat, looking far more comfortable than he had any right to. “I’m just waiting. ….Oops!” He peered at the chronometer. “Thirteen minutes! Time’s up!”
“Thirteen? I thought he said fifteAGHK!” My head crashed into the back of my seat as the ship jetted back into motion, veering off sharply to the left. A shot whizzed harmlessly, although entirely too close for my comfort, over top of us. Puck’s fingers danced over the controls as if he were playing an instrument, and the ship lurched first to one side, then to the other, and he grinned excitedly as he reached to flip open the communication channel again. “Better luck next time, General!” He called out brightly into the speaker.
“Puck! You’re mad!” Karu sounded more than a little irritated. At the moment, I was none too happy myself. “You can’t evade forever, and you have no shields. You’re throwing both of your lives away, you fool!”
“Oh, but I’m not, General.” The ship rocked again as we darted out of the way of our enemy’s shots. “Look off to your port side. That’s to the left, for the landlocked among us.”
My eyes followed the direction of Puck’s gaze. Darting out from its cover behind the colony’s virtual sea of orbiting satellites, there was another ship approaching us. Long, black, and lean, it cut through the distance with a speed I didn’t think was possible even at interstellar speeds, and there was a faint, white glow around its guns as they powered up, a split second before raining a barrage of shots towards our attackers.
Puck smiled as our ship’s course settled into something resembling a normal path again. “That was worth waiting for.”
Leaning forward for a better view, I could see the new arrival was still pelting the other ship with blast after blast, the entire scene lighting up our little section of space like one of those massive budget special effects shootouts you saw on the vids. Finally, unable to evade the smaller, faster ship, or take its abuse for much longer without losing their already wavering shields, Karu….or someone….apparently gave the order to retreat. The ship wheeled about and sped off back towards the colony.
I watched it disappearing rapidly into the distance before reaching over and punching Puck in the arm as hard as I could. It probably felt something like a mosquito bite to him, seeing as I’m not exactly built, but it’s the thought that counts. “You could’ve just told me!”
“Now where’s the fun in that…?” He grinned widely. I found myself wishing I had a nice, heavy book to use to wipe the smile off his face.
