As Alen watched Erik and Vanessa approach the open door of the station's bridge, he felt more than a bit of trepidation. Where were the guards or other security measures? Was this a trap? Even the two aliens seemed concerned because they were unusually silent as they approached, relying on hand signals rather than Erik's usual boisterous approach to problems.

Erik made some signal that apparently meant something like "go" because both went in, simultaneously covering different sides of the room. Alen had expected an immediate gunfight, but after a few tense moments, Erik's head popped back around the doorframe. "All clear, Boss! You might wanna check this out, though!"

Not sure of what he was expecting, Alen walked into the room only to see one lone man sitting at a console, staring very intently at Vanessa, who was apparently covering him, as if he was about to piss his pants.

Holstering his own thankfully unused handgun, Alen turned to Erik. "Is this it? I expected there to be more people up here."

Erik nodded but made a show of taking a big sniff of the room. "Yeah, he's all that's here, but someone else was in the room not long ago."

Alen raised his eyebrows. "You can smell that?"

Erik grinned and shook his head. "Naw! This guy here told us before you came in!"

Alen stopped and processed that. "Then why... You know what, never mind."

Deciding there were more immediately important questions, Alen turned to the one person who might have some answers. "Who are you, and who else was in here with you?"

The guy slowly tore his attention away from Vanessa as if afraid she'd strike the moment his attention was elsewhere. However, once he saw Alen, he froze momentarily, as if trying to understand how this small human was the guy the large terrifying aliens referred to as Boss. To be fair, Alen wanted to know the answer, too, but that wasn't important at the moment.

Realizing that staring blankly probably wasn't helping his long-term health, the guy started talking. "Uhh, Name's Cole. I'm kinda the tech guy around here. When the guy in charge took off running, I figured I could go with him and probably get used as a meat shield, or I could stay here and try to make myself useful enough that you'd let me live..."

Erik chose that moment to butt in. "Heh, smart kid!"

Alen looked over at Erik, then turned back to Cole. "Yeah... So, about this guy in charge, you mentioned. Was he in charge of the station or..?"

Cole nodded, then paused and shook his head. "Well, yes, kinda, but more than that. He's in charge of everything. He was the one behind this ambush. All those ships out there are more or less answering to him, at least for now."

That made Alen pause. If this guy had that much pull... "Where'd he run to? This isn't the biggest station in the galaxy, so there are not that many places he could hide..."

Cole shrugged. "Well, I'm not sure, but if you'll let me, I can try to find out." He pointed to the console in front of him.

Alen nodded. "Do it. Just don't make any trouble, or I'll let Vanessa here make you regret it."

The guy was already typing rapidly but paused. Alen heard him quietly mutter, "Vanessa?" as if offended that such a terrifying monster could have such a common name, but then he shook his head and got back to work.

A moment later, Cole stopped. "Got him. He's headed toward one of the unlisted docking bays. Probably has a shuttle there."

Alen cursed. "Can you stop him or at least slow him down?"

Cole nodded. "Yeah, no problem. Do you want it to look natural, or just lock him out? Keep in mind, either way, it will really only slow him down as he's probably got overrides set in place."

Alen thought a moment. "Uhhh, lock him out, I guess."

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Cole nodded, tuned to another console, flipped a few switches, and then went back to typing. "Alright. This ought to buy you about five to ten minutes."

Alen turned to Erik. "Alright, Commander Ried and I can probably hold this place down. Can you and Vanessa go get that guy? He might be the key to us getting out of here alive."

Erik nodded. "Yeah, no problem!"

Cole held up a hand. "Wait a sec!" Then he started rummaging through a drawer. A moment later, he held out what looked like a couple of transceivers. "Here, take these. If you have these on you, I can get you where you need to go."

Erik grinned and took them, then turned to Alen. "So far, my vote is for keeping him alive if he's this handy!"

Vanessa, who'd been mostly silent, nodded. "Yes. He does seem to have his uses, so far..."

Cole's head rocketed around at the sound of her voice, and he stared blankly, leaving Alen wondering if it was the fact that the scary spider monster had spoken that spooked him or if it was the fact that she had an English accent.

-

As their ship rocketed forward, Carter squinted as blinding flashes appeared wherever the enemy's cannon fire impacted against their shields. However, he stared, noticing that the flashes were slowly getting smaller. No, that wasn't right. They were getting further away... Was Sybil somehow expanding her shields, pushing the cannon fire back? That made no sense. It would take more energy to push the shields out further. Then what...

That's when Carter realized what was happening. "You're shooting the ordnance before it can hit us..."

The girl smiled smugly. "Well, not all of it, but the biggest ordnance, yes. I've calculated from what exact points on their ship the largest weapons emplacements are located in, factor in their distance, speed, and the time it takes each shot to close a fixed amount of distance, and simply fire a return shot in an interception trajectory. Simple, really."

Carter shook his head. Simple didn't begin to describe how impossible such a feat was. Missiles were one thing, but shooting down traditional ordnance was something else. It's not like the Sybils' cannons lined up precisely with the battleships. If she overshot or undershot the point of intersection by a fraction of a second, the two shots would harmlessly pass each other by. To continuously and reliably line up and time a shot with that degree of precision was simply impossible. Not even the most powerful AI could manage such a feat. Yet this nerdy-looking girl was talking about doing so as casually as if she was talking about a high school math problem!

Carter looked at the girl with a renewed appreciation for just what a monster she really was. Hell, in her own way, she might be more frightening than the vixen. "You're... a little scary sometimes. You know that, right?"

The girl grinned. "Well, what kind of a ghost ship would I be if I wasn't? Besides, you develop an intimate understanding of your capabilities when you've been around as long as I have. I'm sure anyone could do what I'm doing, given enough time and experience."

Carter wasn't so sure of that, but he wasn't about to argue with her while she was in the middle of performing a tactical miracle. However, looking over at some of the readouts, he could see she hadn't been exaggerating about some of the shots getting through. Even with all the power still going to their frontal shields from John's suicidal charge, they were taking a severe punishment. But wait, if all their power was running to their frontal shields...

Carter felt a shiver of dread work its way down his spine. "But wait, what about the cruiser?"

The pirate laughed. "Just remember them, did ya? They already fired a salvo of missiles, which are closing the gap as we speak!"

Carter looked at John wild-eyed. "How many?"

John grinned. "Enough to kill us a dozen times over. I'm pretty sure they fired their entire payload! The plan is probably to make us choose between death by cannon fire or death by missiles since we can't effectively defend against this much firepower from both in front and behind at the same time."

Carter looked between the pirate and the girl. "Then what do we do?"

The pirate laughed. "You hold on for dear life and enjoy the ride! Either we'll make it in time, or this ghost ship won't be your problem anymore!"

Carter was just about ready to throw a fit with how ambiguous they were being. "Make it where?!?"

Standing with his arms folded, the pirate pointed toward the battleships with his chin. "Straight ahead, laddie! Straight ahead! This old warhorse still has a few tricks up her sleeve!"

The girl spoke up for the first time in a while, her face a bit more strained as they narrowed the gap between them and the nearest of the two battleships. "Hey, do me a favor and ready a full salvo of our own missiles, will you? I'm kinda busy at the moment."

The vixen nodded calmly. "Already done and ready to fire. Just give the command."

The girl nodded. "We're gonna have to time this rather precisely. On my mark."

The pirate grinned at Carter. "You're gonna want to get a grip on your seat there, Captain. Things are about to get bumpy...

Carter grabbed his seat and watched as the battleship filled the screen. Were they going to try ramming it? What was with these people and charging headlong toward every ship in the void?

The girl shouted, "Mark!"

Immediately, everything was dark, as every screen on the bridge went black. But that was the least of Carter's worries. Life support and artificial gravity also seemed to fail, leaving him holding onto the Captain's chair for dear life. Looking around, it was evident that all three Sybils had also disappeared, leaving Carter alone on this monster of a ship in the middle of the cold, dark void. Although he had no idea how long that would last...