“Not friends,” I said. “But you can’t shoot out the cockpit without hurting my people in the hold…can you?”
“Quirk?” Jorgen said.
“I think I can get it,” Kimmalyn said.
“Be sure,” Jorgen said.
“Ummmm.”
Below us, the transport ship was moving across the top of the lumberyard buildings. It was a medium-sized craft, designed to move maybe thirty people. If they had fit everyone from the base inside, they’d be packed in tight.
The transport ship cruised toward the exit shaft. They probably guessed we were here to rescue their captives, and that we weren’t willing to shoot the ship down.
They guessed right, on my part at least.
“We’ll have to get the shield first,” Jorgen said. “Nedder, go in close, get it with your IMP. Alanik and Amphi, ping them with your light-lances.”
“Where is that, exactly?” I asked. FM had told me, but I couldn’t remember. It wasn’t in the same location as my light hook.
“The buttons on the sides of your control sphere,” Jorgen said.
I found them. “Got it. I didn’t hear Quirk say she was sure she could do this.”
“Um, Jerkface?” FM broke in. “We can’t figure out how to get to you.”
“We’re inside the tree,” Jorgen said. “Entrance is where the branches meet the trunk.”
I still couldn’t tell several of the humans apart, especially when they all started to chatter together.
“Say again, Jerkface? Did you say you’re inside the tree?”
“What’s the matter, Sentry? Never flown a ship inside a tree before?”
“Shut it, T-Stall.”
“We’re on our way, Jerkface,” FM said, “but you have incoming.”
“We need to do this now. Quirk?”
“I can do it,” she said. “I want to have to use only one shot, but I can do it.”
“Nedder,” Jorgen said, “catch that ship before it leaves the tree.”
“Jerkface?” Arturo said. “If we chase it outside, we’d have more space to catch it in an uncontrolled descent before it hit the ground.”
“Are you talking about chasing that ship full of my people down toward the core?” I asked.
“Um, maybe?” Arturo said.
“In here is better,” Jorgen said. “We have incoming. Nedder, get it done.”
“Copy,” Nedder said, and he dove toward the ship as it headed into the mouth of the shaft that would lead out of the tree. When he got close, he hit his IMP, dropping the ship’s shields.
Arturo dove directly behind him, and I jerked my ship to the side in my attempt to keep up. I wished I had my own ship—I looked like an idiot in this thing, which wasn’t going to help them think of me as a capable member of the team.
“Scud,” Jorgen said. “Enemy ships, on top and closing. Nedder, help me hold them off.” I focused on following Arturo as we neared the transport ship.
Kimmalyn’s ship darted over our heads. She had to get ahead of the transport ship to get a clear shot. The transport ship aimed its destructors at her and fired, but she dodged and turned her ship around to face it.
“Ready,” she said.
“All right, Quirk,” Arturo said. “On my mark.” He soared over the transport ship and shot it with his light-lance. I aimed and fired as well, grabbing the ship by the other side.
“Scud,” Nedder said. “They’re coming in hot.”
“Fire!” Arturo said.
Kimmalyn’s destructors fired, and the cockpit of the transport ship exploded in a shower of sparks.
Nine
“Quirk!” Jorgen shouted over the radio. “Report?”
“Successful, I think?” Kimmalyn said. “Cockpit annihilated. Hull is intact.”
That was a seriously impressive shot. Kimmalyn would have been a star, even in the professional leagues.
“Alanik? How’s the inhibitor?”
I scanned the area through the negative realm. The hull was a giant blank space. “Operational,” I said. I held one half of the ship by my light-lance and Arturo had the other. The ship’s acclivity ring also seemed to be operational, so we didn’t have to adjust our boosters to keep it in the air. Without the cockpit controls, I didn’t know how much longer that would last.
“What about the pilot?” I asked.
“Um, dead?” Kimmalyn said. “Copilot, too, if there was one.”