Local Star Aimee Ogden (the lemonade war series txt) š
- Author: Aimee Ogden
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Triz couldnāt see the outer lock open, but when the ship maneuvered away from the Hab, the lip of the opening couldnāt have been more than inches away from the plastiglass shell over her head. āShitting stars!ā she yelped, but the deepening hum of the engine covered her voice. She cursed and fumbled with her gloves to direct the cannula for manual injection. As she watched, the fat, fluted cylinder of Vivik Hab shrank away. Just behind the Hab, the local star flared like a jewel, eclipsed by the crown of the Arcade. At the Habās midsection, the pair of whaleships on their umbilici dwindled to marbles, then to nothing at all. Triz swallowed. The Hab was still there, she made herself remember, and it still would be when the Tiresh turned homeward.
āKeep us together back there,ā Kalo said. She could barely hear him over the engines; had he said us or it? āIāve got visual on that Skimmer. No sign of other ships yet, but weāll see what turns up.ā
Trizās eyes flicked upward. Or what she thought of as upward, at least, not that such a thing mattered out here. That thought made the stars spin sickeningly. She stuck her sore tongue between her teeth and bit gently to distract herself as she hand-pumped the siphon. The engineās noise receded to a dull groaning.
āThatās doing it,ā Casne called out. āThatās great, Triz.ā
Trizās brain couldnāt process a response, so she just nodded, unseen, in the rear couch. Too much work to keep an eye on her jury-rigged bypassāand to remember to breathe with that bottomless black painting the paper-thin plastiglass. She inhaled deeply through her nose until heated air scorched her nostrils. She opened the shunt for another injection just as Kalo shouted, āComing up on him fast!ā
Triz risked a peek over her shoulder and his at the view out in front of the Tiresh. She could see the Scooper now too, dull-battered steel light against the dark background. Even as she watched, it grew in size; the Tiresh was gulping down the space between them. The Scooperās engines barely glowed. Of course, Triz hadnāt refueled it yet. No acceleration for Rocan.
But as she stared, a glimmer sparked at the front of the Skimmer, near the cockpit. Something bigger than the far-off stars just beyond, though she couldnāt have said what exactly. āWhat was that?ā she said.
Kalo didnāt jump at her voice in his ear. āThat light? Donāt know. Looked almost like he was firing something, but Scoopers arenāt equipped withāwhat is that?ā
All three of them leaned toward the front plastiglass. Far in front of the Skimmer, no bigger than Trizās thumbnail, a patch of space suddenly shone golden-white. āSon of a Golrosk,ā said Casne softly. āHeās got a tunneler.ā
Triz frowned. āA tunnelgun?ā
āNo,ā said Kalo, just as Casne said, āSort of.ā Casne went on: āThe tech is related, but the tunneler is more complicated. Itās a big, temporary stable tunnel to somewhere else. A more predictable somewhere-else than what comes out of a tunnelgun.ā She cursed. āHe was blind in his left eye during that fight. I thought his tech was just on the fritz. If the Ceebees have miniaturized tunneltech that small . . .ā
āSo heās going to get away?ā The Tiresh couldnāt intercept in time, even with the Scooperās lazy drift. Triz let herself fall back against her seat. Through the dorsal plastiglass, Vivik hung, familiar but far. Still in sight. At least they could still go back safely . . .
āNot a chance.ā Kalo reached across his body for a set of controls down on his left side. āTriz, back in position. Iām going to need you to time a double injection. And for all godsā sake, make sure your harness is tight.ā
She gave the restraints a testing tug even as a scowl crimped her face. āA double shot will just slow us down. I donāt see how thatās going to help.ā
āJust buckle up, Triz, before I turn you into a smear on the rear āglass.ā
Triz buckled. She also opened her mouth to tell him where to shoot his attitude, just as the Tiresh shuddered hard. Her teeth clacked together, and the shunt jumped out of her hand. She snatched it out of its dead float just before the Tiresh coughed angrily and screamed forward into space. Triz opened the shunt just in time and let the engines guzzle deeply. āYou shorted the butterfly valve,ā she shouted. āAre you crazy? They arenāt built for that!ā
āDonāt. Tell me. How to do. My job.ā
Triz craned her neck. The Tiresh was closing the distance to the Scooper at an alarming rate now. Kalo was angling to put the gunship between the tunnel and Rocan. Triz hissed and clutched at her restraints as if they would protect her from a mid-space collision.
āPrepare to fire,ā said Kalo.
āNo, Lieutenant.ā Casneās voice was steel-hard. Strange to hear her sound like a Fleet captain and not an old friend. āRocanās getting a trial so he can testify in front of all of the Confederated Worlds what he did. To Hedgehome, to the Golrosk. To me.ā
Silence from Kalo. They were almost to the Scooper now. Triz wanted to say something and didnāt dare interrupt now. āOkay,ā Kalo said finally. āProposals?ā
āThereās a hole in his plastiglass where the tunneler went through.ā Grim satisfaction from Casne. āThe Tiresh has a boarding hook. Vent the cockpit.ā
Triz squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for Kalo to countermand that insane idea. No pilot alive could hit an angle that precisely, and no one at all could aim their own body at a flying starship at eight hundred klicks an hour. But instead, Kalo said, āTriz, when I tell you, I want you to exhale as hard as you can. Do you understand?ā
Her own voice sounded very far away when she heard herself say, āYes.ā Casne reached over the couch in front to squeeze her shoulder. Triz clenched
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