Oni sped through the atmosphere as fast as she dared without going over the planetary speed limit. While I lay in the back with the doctor trying to stabilize my leg, Adjani helping the best way he’s able by not being in the room.

I pointed to a drawer on the opposite side of the cabin, “There are some medical supplies. And I think a slint,” I hedged. Dr.Whisper nodded and opened the drawer, pulling out the collection of metal and gyro supports. She also pulled out, sutures, anesthesia, and a tourniquet. “What are those for?” I asked my eyes going wide.

“There are bone fragments around your breaks. If we are holding off on major surgery to remove the broken bones and replacing them, then we need to remove the fragments so you don’t get an infection. Not that I would mind watching you die,” Dr.Whisper said as she applied the tourniquet, tying it tightly around my upper thigh.

I chuckled as Dr.Whisper pulled out a needle and stuck it in the vile of anesthesia pulling out 2 CCs of the liquid and injecting it into my arm. After twenty seconds of waiting nothing happened and the doctor looked confused for a second before I said, “Yeah, I’m pretty immune to a lot of anesthesia and other poisons. So you’d need a lot more than that, and I’d die before I pass out.”

Dr.Whisper sighed exasperatedly, “Gahh, fine! Don’t move! An inch.”

“Violet, we have trouble,” Oni called back from the front of the ship.

“Looks like I’m moving two inches,” I joked as I stood and hopped my way to the front of the ship. Dr.Whisper followed me closely, clearly exasperated by me.

As soon as I got to the front, Oni stood and sat in the co-pilot’s seat, letting me take my pilot’s seat. The moment I sat I knew something was off, “Did you adjust my seat!?”

“Default is best,” Oni stated, hardly trying to defend herself.

I shook my head and pressed the button to adjust my seat to its preset perfect position. “Fucking default bitches,” I grumbled as I put my headset on and heard the communications notification.

The moment I accepted the call, Sergeant Hernanda’s angry voice came through loud and clear, “Reaper! This is Sergeant Hernanda Federation police! Surrender now and prepare to be boarded!”

“Hey! Reaper here! Yeah, I don’t think I’ll do that. Ow!” I responded casually and yelped as Dr.Whisper tore my pants and began cutting into my leg with one of her scalpels.

A moment of confused silence filled the air on the other end of the line before several VX-12 fighters intercepted me and flew in front of me, cutting off my escape. I immediately activated my ship’s battle mode and the ship’s helmet covered my head, giving me a three-hundred sixty-degree view of my ships surroundings. Twenty-one fighters surrounded me, three on my left, right, behind, above, and below me with six in front of me. One of which looked unique to the rest. Most of the fighters had the standard blue and white of the federation, while the one in front of me had black and gold highlights.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Surrender now,” Sergeant Hernanda commanded.

I chuckled, “Is that you Sergeant? In the fancy looking fighter?”

Another moment of silence before Hernanda said, “Yes.”

I squinted at that. I don’t believe her. But I can’t disprove her. I’ll just have to go along with it. “Well,” I began, “You and I both know I’m still within range to shut off life support for a few dozen poor souls in the hospital. So why don’t you—”

“You and I both know that’s a lie. I checked. It’s impossible to bypass the security in the hospital. And even if you could, I already had all eighteen patients moved to different wings of the hospital. Surrender now! This is your final warning,” Sergeant Hernanda interrupted.

I gritted my teeth and activated my weapons, “Make me!” I sped up and forward, weaving my way through the fighters surrounding me. Several of them fired and missed me and the other fighters around them. All the ships gave chase as I flew gritting my teeth as Dr.Whisper began pulling bone shards out of my leg. I circled around and fired my right broadside cannons at the ships hitting two of them. Curiously enough, I noticed that the Sergeant wasn’t pursuing me. She just sat there and watched the attack on the other eighteen ships.

My ship shook as a railgun bolt struck my shields and I cursed, both because I let my concentration slip and because it caused Dr.Whisper to flinch and poke a nerve with my bone fragment. I turned to line up to fire again when the ships in front of me broke off making me miss my shot. I followed up the shot with a spin as I fired my broadside cannons, and again, the ships evaded my attack. I cursed under my breath as I dodged a small volley of bolts. As I turned my ship, the planet below came into view, and I saw the federation frigates sending more ships to support the fighters.

I cursed and began putting in coordinates for some other space sector that wasn’t anywhere near the federation. At that moment, something unexpected happened, the ships pursuing me broke off. “What are they doing?” I asked silently before my own question was answered. The Sergeants ship sped past me overhead before drifting to stop on a dime a few dozen meters before my ship. I cursed, “Oh, so you want a one on one dog fight? Sorry, but I got other plans.”

I pushed the throttle forward as I turned and aimed for my escape vector. The Sergeant fired, grazing my ship’s shield and dealing massive damage to them. I cursed again. A direct hit with those railguns doesn’t do a lot of damage to my shield, but if they graze my shields, they deal massive damage. I swerved my ship as another two shots flew by and I began evasive maneuvers to get behind the Sergeant. She followed my flight path perfectly, staying right on my tail. I couldn’t shake her. Another two shots grazed my shields, utterly annihilating them. I continued my evasive maneuvers just as my escape vector came into view, and my nav computer kicked in, and my ship jumped to hyperspace.

The helmet came off my head, and I cursed as Dr.Whisper pulled another bone fragment from my leg, “Fffuuuccckkk. That was a lot harder than before.”

“So, dis Sergeant,” Adjani began, “Who are dey?”

I shrugged, “Just a random encounter that has popped up twice. I’m going to have to take care of her eventually.”

“Better sooner than later,” Oni said as she watched Dr.Whisper pull another bone from my thigh before she began stitching my leg up.

I looked down at the pile of shattered bones and picked them up. Each fragment was black with tiny hexagon structures along their length, and steel grey outlines around them. I reached out to Adjani and said, “Put these somewhere. We can recycle and reuse them.” Adjani took them and put the shards in a pocket of his jacket, a slight grimace on his face. The ship soon dropped out of hyperspace, and I began plotting an evasive course through hyperspace to the Reaver.

“What’s the plan now?” Oni asked.

“Now, we rest, recover, and plan our next steps,” I said as I put in the final coordinates, activating auto-pilot, “We’ll be at my new ship within an hour. Get some rest, and Doc, get these fragments out of my leg.” I stood and hopped my way back to the main cabin to lay down after Dr.Whisper finished stitching me up, cursing as I gave her orders.