There were two identical ships on the deck and Seth led us to the nearest one.
“Dax, Seth, keep the Hive off us while I figure out how to fly this tin can,” Sarah said.
Seth grinned at her Earth term—I had no idea what a tin can was—and began to bark orders. I wasn’t going to do Seth’s bidding, but followed Sarah instead. She was my responsibility. I’d protect her, or, as she said, die trying. Of course, Seth probably knew that I wasn’t going to do anything but flank my mate and didn’t give me any commands.
We were halfway up the boarding ramp when the first sonar detonation threw us all to the ground. Ears ringing, I rose instantly, roaring a challenge. Three Hive stood on the opposite side of the launch pad, another set of sonar charges at their feet. The weapons created a small, contained blast radius that would disable the ship, or weaken the hull until it was no longer safe to fly.
I charged them, firing my ion pistol to take out the first before I reached them. The second collapsed as I neared, and I glanced behind me to find Seth on his knees, covering me. The third Hive calmly loaded a sonar blast as I neared, as if nothing existed but his mission, his need to fire his weapon at our ship.
I wondered what went through his mind when I cranked his head to the side, when his neck snapped. I would have continued, ripping his head from his shoulders, but Sarah was yelling at everyone to get onboard and Seth and I were the only two remaining outside the ship.
“Come on, warlord. Let’s roll!” Seth yelled at me, shooting across the launch bay at another trio of Hive that entered on the far side of the area. I didn’t have time to charge them and make it back to the ship, so I joined Seth and we hurried on board, closing the launch doors behind us.
The men slumped in the hallway, their energy drained by the escape and short fight. I located Meers. “Where is Sarah?”
“Pilot seat.” He lifted his hand and pointed in the direction my mate had gone. Seth and I both took off at a run.
I found Sarah looking over the controls in the cockpit. She was buckled into the pilot’s seat, a look of fierce concentration on her face.
“Well?” I asked. It looked like any other control board to me, but then, I was a ground fighter.
“The controls are unusual, more video game than cockpit, but I’ll manage.”
I didn’t understand half of what she said, but it sounded promising. Shifting in the pilot’s seat, she fiddled with the U-shaped steering column and odd foot pedals.
“There’s no key to start the ignition sequence.” She pressed a bunch of buttons until the displays came to light.
“Can you fly this?” I asked.
She continued to fiddle with the displays, flipping a few switches, then took a deep breath when the very powerful feel of the engines coming alive vibrated beneath us.
“Buckle up!” she yelled so those down the corridor would hear.
I glanced toward the back, but saw no one. Surely the men would know to get strapped in by now as the vibrations of the ship’s systems were powerful and rumbled through the floor.
I did as she said, strapping the harness over my shoulders as Sarah mumbled to herself, a strange, repetitive chant I didn’t recognize. “What are you doing?” I asked.
“Praying,” she replied.
That didn’t make me feel any better, but I had no choice but to trust in her abilities. I had to trust that when she said she could fly this ship, she could. I had to let go and give my faith and trust to Sarah. She was in control now. Everything in my body screamed at me to take over, to throw her over my shoulder and drag her out of here. But that was the primitive Atlan beast raging within, not the thinking man who sat beside her. An Atlan male never relinquished control in a dangerous situation. Never. And I began to understand what she’d given me, the depth of the trust she’d bestowed upon me in going against her own nature, in surrendering her body to me. Sitting powerless and helpless beside her was one of the most difficult things I’d ever had to do.
Ion blasts struck the pilot’s window in bursts of white flares that scorched the glass.
“Hive at four o’clock,” Sarah called.
“What?” I asked.
She pointed over my shoulder and I realized perhaps it was an Earth concept. Not true time, but… whatever.
“Two Hive groups are here,” Seth yelled as he stuck his head in the cockpit.
Another blast hit the clear window. “No shit, Sherlock,” Sarah said, her voice tense, her eyes on the display. “They’re trying to overload the power grid, disable the ship.”
A panel short-circuited to Sarah’s left, so she reached over and shut it down.
“Get down so I can get us out of here!” she cried, her anxiety level clearly rising.
A blast shook the ship so hard I felt as if my teeth would literally shake out of my skull.