Junker lurched hard the other way but Jaden somehow compensated, and the rock, now spinning, crashed into another large rock, then another, and the leading Blades, unready for the sudden movement of the planetoids, wheeled out of the way too late. Two more vanished in a spray of metal and flames.
"Another two down," Khedryn said into the intercom, his voice cracking.
Laserfire split the sky, exploding a large rock to Junker's aft, spraying the ship with particulates. More laserfire lit up the sky. Jaden wheeled down, spun, pulled up hard. Relin aimed the tractor beam again, latched on to one of the Blades themselves. Junker lost velocity from the drag and the other Blades gained.
"Port," Relin said to Jaden, and used the beam to foul the Blade's trajectory. With no room for error, the fighter hit a rock and broke into two flaming bits, one of which spun into another Blade, sending it into a rock.
The rest of the Blades, swooping and diving in and out of the field of rock and ice, fired. Jaden nosed up but one of the beams hit Junker along the port side, shaking the entire ship. The lights flickered and an alarm rang.
"I cannot keep this up for much longer," Jaden said over the intercom. Khedryn could hear the stress in his voice.
Khedryn agreed. It was only a matter of time before they caught a laser. He spoke loud enough to be heard on the intercom.
"Jaden, can you get us out of the fighters' sight line for a moment?"
Jaden did not hesitate. "Yes."
"What are you going to do?" Relin asked.
"I am going to space what's in my hold. It'll hit a rock, explode, maybe fool the fighters if we can stay out of their sight. They can't scan us in here. We make them think we're dead, then lay low."
"I'll have to accelerate to full to open some space," Jaden said. "It will get iffy."
"Do it," Khedryn said, his mouth dry. "And the price of my cargo is added to the price you owe me."
Relin said into the intercom, "A hard dive out the bottom, we space the cargo, then a hard climb back in. We'll have moments."
"Good thought," Jaden said.
Laserfire exploded a nearby rock, spraying Junker with debris. Jaden climbed hard.
"Will what's in the hold explode with enough pop?" Relin asked Khedryn.
"I don't know," Khedryn said. He had speeders in there. They'd blow, though the thought of spacing his Searing made him almost as ill as Jaden's flying.
Relin pulled two oval-shaped metal devices from his pocket as laserfire shook the ship. "These are mag-grenades. Attach them to a speeder and press that button. They'll blow when the speeder does. Understood?"
Khedryn nodded, and another wild turn nearly caused him to pass out.
"Go," Relin said, then to Jaden, "Khedryn is on his way to the hold. Open up some space, Jaden."
Khedryn unstrapped himself and wobbled like a drunk through the corridors, using safety rails to keep his feet as the ship answered with exclamation points to Jaden's commands. He felt Junker accelerate, twist, turn, wheel, and he imagined his ship dancing through hundred-ton raindrops. The superstructure creaked and moaned under the strain.
"Don't get wet," he said, tapping a bulkhead as he opened the cargo bay hatches.
Everything was secured and in order, held down with magnetic clamps or stored in containers integrated into the walls or floor. He had two nearly complete landspeeders, his Searing swoop, Marr's speeder, several containers of electronics, and other pieces of assorted scrap. He ran to the landspeeders-he could not space his Searing-and affixed the mag-grenades. A press of a button turned both of them hot.
"Quickly, Khedryn," Jaden said through the comlink.
Khedryn did not bother to respond. He hurried across the bay to the air lock doors and activated the venting sequence. A beeper started ticking off the thirty seconds.
"Thirty seconds to vent," he said into his comlink.
"We have the readout up here," Marr said, in his calm, certain voice. "Tell us when you are clear."
Khedryn ran back to the speeders, lost his footing, scrambled to his feet, heart racing, and decoupled them from their magnetic mounts. For good measure, he opened one of the storage containers that held scrap electronics. Too late he realized that if the speeder bumped hard against something else in the bay, it might trigger the grenades while they were still in the ship.
He started to go back, but Marr's voice halted him. "Ten seconds to venting."
"Stang," he cursed. He exited the cargo bay, secured the hatch, and then grabbed a safety rail with both hands. "Clear."
Jaden turned Junker's engines loose and slammed the nose down. The g's flattened Khedryn against the wall, and the overhead siren screamed the imminent venting of the cargo hold. He imagined the speeders skidding across the bay floor, live grenades attached to them.
"You've lost them for the moment," Relin said over the intercom.
"Venting," said Marr's voice.
Khedryn stood and stared through the transparisteel viewport in the hatch doors as the air lock opened and months of work, including the speeders, flew out into the void of space. Through the open air lock doors he caught a glimpse of the edge of the rings as Junker burst out of them. He also caught a flash, presumably from the explosion.
Jaden nosed back up hard, throwing Khedryn to the floor as he angled back into the rings, still spinning and wheeling.
"A good explosion," Relin said, as if he were evaluating a grav-ball shot. His vantage at the rear of the ship would have allowed him to see it directly.
Jaden said, "We'll stay flying hard until we see whether they buy the ruse."
Khedryn sat in the core of his ship, listening to her strain, waiting for the telltale shake from a laser cannon's near miss.
Nothing.
"There is nothing behind us," Relin said.
Khedryn looked to the ceiling, and exhaled. He patted his ship. She had saved him again.
"Find something big enough to accommodate us," he said. "And set her down. Then everyone get to the galley. We need to talk."
CHAPTER TEN
Saes watched on the viewscreen as the remaining Blades peeled out of the gas giant's rings. Llerd monitored the chatter among the pilots through an earpiece, then relayed it to Saes.
"The target has been destroyed, Captain," Llerd said, his round face flush with the news. "Collided with rocks in the rings. We lost six Blades in the pursuit."
Saes nodded, surprised to find himself so unmoved by Relin's death. He supposed whatever attachment he might have had with Relin had been eroded by time and lost long ago. He reached out his consciousness for his Master, trying to recall the feelings he'd had when he'd realized that Relin had been aboard Harbinger. He felt nothing, only emptiness, a hole.
He was alone now, five thousand years in the future. His one-time Master had died a fool. Saes regretted the loss of the Blades, particularly since he would not be able to replace them, but he'd needed to end matters with Relin.
"Put us in orbit around the planet's moon. I will be in my quarters."
"When repairs are completed, should the helm plot a course to Primus Goluud?" Llerd asked.
Saes heard 8L6's servos whir as he stood and looked at the captain.
"No," Saes said. "Plans have changed."
Khedryn tried to slow his still-racing heart as Jaden set Junker down in a deep, sheltered declivity on one of the large asteroids in the rings. His equilibrium was still off from the wild flight, and he swayed as he stood. After confirming that the cargo hold's air lock had resealed and repressurized, he opened the hatch to check on his Searing.