That explained why the resonants were so quick to fire on me. They weren’t trying to destroy me or the ship. They were trying to capture me again.
“But when you powered on in the hangar,” I said, “the pirates all seemed extremely worried about being shot by the destructors.”
“The amount of energy released is still significant,” M-Bot said. “A fragile flesh body wouldn’t want to be subjected to one of those shots.”
Well, okay then. This escape had just become more interesting.
As my two resonant tails dove after me, I checked the chronometer. Despite feeling like it was much longer, we’d been dogfighting for only a few minutes. I had a little time until the other ships launched from the hangars—assuming M-Bot’s projection of their load-in time was correct.
I hit the overburn, forcing the enemy ships to do likewise. They knew enough to rely on their superior speed on a straightaway. But as they were focused on that, I flipped off the overburn and hit my speedbrake, cutting the booster and increasing drag. I darted backward—or, well, they darted forward. Either way, the two ships passed me in a flash. I hit the IMP right as they did.
A claxon went off on my dash, warning that my lame shield was finished. I trained on Dllllizzzz’s ship and fired, hoping M-Bot’s guess about the destructors was correct. The ship flashed blue as I scored direct hits, then its boosters powered off. The ship continued on in the direction it had been going—which, as I considered, could be dangerous. Fortunately, the acclivity ring stayed active, so the ship didn’t drop, and it didn’t seem to be in danger of a collision anytime soon.
Shiver’s ship veered off wildly, as if panicked to realize I’d suddenly gone on the offensive. I tracked it easily, expecting…
Yup, a loop to try to get around to tail me again. Executed well, actually. As I twisted my ship and picked her off, I had to admire her skill. Considering that they were all self-taught, that had been a pretty good maneuver.
“I still think it’s unfair,” M-Bot said, “that you can fly better than I can.”
“I have training. You don’t.”
“I’m a computer program. The only training I should need is some lines of code.”
I shot Shiver’s vessel with my light-lance and pulled it to a stop before it slammed into the nearby fragment. Then I cut the light-lance and blasted off—straight toward the fragment with the Broadsider base.
“Spensa?” M-Bot said. “Do you think we could get me proper code to fly and fight?”
“I think that even with some extra lines of code, you’d be missing something.”
“What?”
“Style.”
I came up under the Broadsider fragment, then shot my light-lance onto the edge and used it to curve up and around, flipping so I flew in low along the ground. The hangars were directly ahead. Flight doors open.
I aimed and shot a ship hovering out of the doorway. I hit it square on, and it couldn’t dodge, so I quickly overwhelmed the shield and locked the ship up. I did the same at the next hangar in line.
In seconds, I’d effectively created a traffic jam. With the two ships blocking the way, the others couldn’t escape—at least not without towing their friends out of the way first. I intended to be long gone by then. I just needed my icon.
I flew us to the other side of the hangars. “Take over,” I said, unbuckling. “Warn me if any of them get out of that mess. If I don’t return in time, hover up and start firing at them. You might get lucky and hit one.”
“Oh. Uh…”
I popped the canopy as the ship drifted over to the boulder behind the Broadsider camp. I heard shouts and curses from inside the hangars. A quick glance showed me only one person had thought to duck out back to see what I was doing. Maksim, standing in the open door to his building.
I raised my sidearm. Maksim was armed too, but as he saw me, he didn’t raise his own weapon. Smart man.
I quickly located the place where I’d stuffed the icon. Keeping mostly hidden behind the boulder, I dug down to find…
Nothing.
My father’s pin wasn’t there.
It was strange how hard that hit me. It wasn’t even really my father’s pin. I still didn’t have an explanation for how it had shown up in my pocket—but then again, I also didn’t have a good explanation for how water appeared on the fragments.
Still, in losing the icon, I felt as if I had been robbed of something deeply personal. My only tangible link to the world I’d left. My source of stability.