“It’s hardly a breach of conduct,” Ptolemy said into Natalya’s communicator.

Natalya pressed a hand against the lockers to brace herself from the shuddering building. The bombardment was getting more intense.

“That’s not the point!” Natalya shouted.

“The city will likely be reduced to radioactive rubble in a few hours. No one will miss it,” Ptolemy countered.

“Ptolemy, I—”

“The shield room is only three doors down on the next right turn from here. I suggest you take the loot and hurry.”

Natalya slammed a locker with the butt of her carbine, furious at Ptolemy’s deception. The strike opened one of the smaller drawers, revealing a stack of platinum chips, or plats as they were commonly called. Natalya wanted to leave the coins on the ground just to spite that calm-toned jerk sitting on her ship. But she knew those coins meant more than just money. They meant survival. They meant fuel for her ship and food for her crew, and most of all, time. Time to keep going, to keep trying.

“Co. Drawer,” Natalya said, taking a guarding stance at the door as Co yanked the aforementioned drawer off its hinges.

The woman’s robotic arm made quick work of the sealed locker. Co made no sound of delight or annoyance as she loaded the wealth into her packs, plats clinking against thick pouches of slugs and grenades.

“Ready,” Co announced when she’d filled her packs.

“Okay,” Natalya said, “let’s—”

A blast rang out in the corridor. Natalya had just enough time to duck behind the door. She leveled her carbine, but before she could land a shot, Co put a blast in the man’s head.

The shot had come from the guard Natalya had spared. He must have had a second pistol hidden in his uniform. Natalya cursed herself for not checking him, and blinked at the sight of the dead man.

“This way, right?” Co asked, tilting her head down the hallway as she stood over the stilled guard.

Natalya nodded, and ran.

She turned right at the intersection, gun leveled and ready as she and Co made their way through the quaking corridor. Vowing to strangle Ptolemy if the third door didn’t contain shield controls, Natalya stopped in front of the passageway and tilted her head at the locked, plastic door.

Co kicked the barrier off its frame. Natalya stepped through with coordinated precision, landing a shot in the arm of the lone soldier who stood in the back of the room. He went down, bleeding on blinking consoles. A pillar in the center of the cylindrical room displayed the shield’s status on viewscreens. They flickered with the bombardment, the air defense systems blinking in ready status.

Technicians ducked behind consoles that encircled the viewscreens, some of them officers and likely armed.

“Two options,” Natalya announced in an authoritative tone as she strode into the center of the room. “My way, or her way. This is my way.”

Natalya pointed at the bleeding, but alive, soldier.

“Anyone want to find out what her way is?” Natalya asked, tilting her head toward Co.

Co leveled and primed her weapon.

“I’ll give you a hint,” Natalya said. “It’ll make your friend here stop screaming.”

Natalya counted to three, eyes searching the room for anyone who thought to call her bluff. When the technicians and officers all folded, raising their hands above their heads, she said, “Good choice. Now deactivate the shields around the landing zone and you’ll get rid of us. Won’t that be fun?”

“Doesn’t sound fun to me,” Co added.

“My friend doesn’t think that sounds fun.”

“Shields down!” a technician announced from the far side of the room.

Natalya heard a buzz from the central viewscreens and saw a flashing red light, indicating the landing zone shields were off.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Thanks,” Natalya said, then blasted the technician’s console. The display flickered and froze. Natalya was sure they had a way to reroute commands, pretty sure, but she needed time to get orbital before that happened.

“See this?” Natalya asked, showing the technicians a plastic gum container. She set it on one of the consoles, making sure the Black Cherry label was hidden. “This is a motion sensor. Move, and it sets off a series of explosives my friend here placed at the door.”

That should buy us some time, Natalya thought.

Natalya glared at the technicians, daring them to disagree. When they folded once more, Natalya turned toward the door.

“Is that you, Natalya?” a familiar voice called at her back. She stopped and turned to see a round face, blue eyes, and yellow-tinted skin beaming through the viewscreens that had a moment ago displayed the shields and weapons status.

“Qin,” Natalya said.

“The Traitor of Farbind, still at it. Treason wasn’t enough for you? You have to flee with criminals? Not as high crimes as yours, of course, but wanted criminals all the same,” Qin said.

“You had them raise the shields,” Natalya accused.

The technicians’ eyes went wide, none of them daring to move.

“He said Prosper would send strikes at Horizon if we let you leave,” an officer in Changyu fatigues said, referring to the primary planet of the Changyu Confederation.

“The colonies have their battles, and Prosper is not going to take sides. However, if Changyu wants to interfere with Prosper business…” Qin said, leaving the conclusion unspoken. “Surrender your ship, and keep all those on it contained. You may survive this attack if you do.”

Prosper. It was the home planet for every single human being in the galaxy, whether they wanted to admit it or not. The first colony planets of Horizon and Progress, the Gaozu Hegemony’s central planet, had broken away with dozens of other planetary systems during Prosper’s long civil war. Now the colonies themselves were attacking each other, vying for control of habitable planets.

“I’ll pass,” Natalya answered.

“You will answer for your crimes one day, traitor, of that I’m certain,” Qin said, his mouth narrowing in a scowl.

“I’m sorry, you’ll have to speak up.” Natalya fired a blast at the viewscreen. The scowling image of Qin erupted in a shower of sparks. Natalya glared at the technicians.

“Want me to blow up the room?” Co suggested.

Several technicians let out gasps, struggling with indecision on whether they should run or duck for cover.

“Hey!” Natalya threatened. She pointed to the gum tin, daring anyone to question her. “Order still stands! No movement. Let’s go, Co.”

Co shrugged and joined Natalya, running back through the halls.

Qin. He was the one who’d ordered the Puqi City spaceport to keep her grounded. But why? He’d sent ships after her before, but for all she’d done she was low on the man’s priority list. He was Chairman of the Zhou, the council that oversaw Prosper and the colony planets still under the home planet’s banner. The Civil War had only ended half a century ago. Powers still vied for control. Why did Qin want to keep Natalya on Puqi?

“Shields down, Augustus,” Natalya said into the communicator in her ear.

“You know he likes it without protection,” Augustus replied, the sound of engines humming in the background. “Ooh, he likes that. Purr for me, baby.”

“We’re headed to you.”

“Hold up,” Co said, stopping Natalya.

“Don’t—” Natalya began.

Natalya couldn’t finish her sentence before the corridor in front of her collapsed, a fireball erupting across the intersection. The spaceport’s old food court completely caved in.

“Don’t move!” a technician shouted back in the control room.

Natalya, however, knew differently. “You do that?” she asked Co.

“Figured we’d need to cover our trail. Blast was supposed to go off two minutes ago, actually,” Co said with a shrug.

“If that was the blast, we can move,” announced another technician in the control room. “I’ll bet she was lying that—”

A second explosion rang out and the ceiling in front of Co and Natalya fell apart. Natalya stepped back as smoke billowed around her legs.

“She wasn’t lying!” repeated the technicians.

Natalya raised an eyebrow.

“Put that one in the vault,” Co explained.

“Captain, it’s getting hot out here. Had to lift off to cool down,” Augustus announced.

“The refugees?” Natalya asked.

“Ship’s gorged full.”

“Then we’re coming to you. Co, this way.” Natalya strapped her gun over her shoulder and climbed the fallen ceiling onto the low roof. Co jumped through the opening and onto the roof in a single leap, gun searching for threats as Natalya hooked an arm onto the sunbaked solar panels. She brushed aside Co’s offered hand and hoisted herself onto the roof, taking a deep breath.

Two dogfighting fighters streaked overhead. The shockwave of their supersonic flight reverberated against the roof and cracked dozens of black-glass solar panels. Above Puqi’s green-blue clouds, the massive fleets, no more than dim lights from the ground, had begun to engage, raining meteorites of debris through the atmosphere.

“The more you delay the more he’s gonna like it, Captain,” Augustus said.

Natalya searched the sky but couldn’t find her ship. Then, with a burst of air-to-air blaster fire from a thick tower at the center of the spaceport, it appeared.

The bow came to a point like the sharp beak of an eagle, a thick head near wide as the rest of the ship connected via a narrow fuselage to the arrow-shaped main body. Wings to give stability and house the colorful engines spread from the fat, round body like the leathery wings of a bat. An arched stern fanned out behind the wings, multicolored panels catching the wind as Augustus tilted the ship toward Natalya and Co. Two box-shaped structures attached to the front of the main fuselage like jagged paws, and just behind these was the sealed gangplank on the cocoon-shaped cargo bay.

Chimera was its name. The ship never looked so beautiful.

“To us, Augustus!” Natalya announced.