Galactic Outlaws (Galaxy's Edge Book 2) Read online

  “It’s a wonder they didn’t slam into each other and save us some trouble,” Keel said as he looped the Six into a corkscrew turn to follow the leftmost Preyhunter. The maneuver lined up another starfighter underneath them. “Ravi, belly guns!”

  The Indelible VI shuddered from the rapid fire of its twin quadburst turrets. Blazing red energy blasts ripped through the Preyhunter’s left wing, leaving scorched holes and exposed circuitry.

  “Did you get ’em?” Keel asked, keeping his focus on the pirate in front of him. The pilot rolled and banked in an attempt to escape.

  “Down, but not all the way out, Captain.”

  “Let me take care of his friend first…”

  On the forward window, Six’s targeting computer laser-projected the image of the enemy craft drifting through the ship’s crosshairs. The image brightened and flashed as a high-pitched beep indicated a lock. Keel fired the forward blaster cannons slave-linked to his flight control. Red laser-bursts spit out in rapid succession, slamming into the Preyhunter’s single ion thruster. The small snub fighter erupted into a flaming ball of incandescent gas.

  “Ha ha!” crowed Keel.

  “The other two are behind us,” Ravi said, his face betraying no emotion. “I am attempting to hit them with the tail turret.”

  A barrage of enemy laser fire caused the Six to shake as its shields absorbed the energy.

  “That’s not good.” Keel decelerated and steered the ship down, as it were, at a ninety-degree angle. One of the pursuing craft failed to compensate, presenting itself to Ravi in a lazy, wide arc. The navigator fired, making the pilot’s mistake a fatal one.

  “The other ship is still being in hot pursuit, Captain. I am thinking this is the ace of the pirate crew.”

  Keel continued his dive, spiraling and rolling in an attempt to avoid the unrelenting laser fire. “Thank you, Ravi, for pointing these things out.”

  The Six again shuddered as blasts found their shields. For a split second, the main lights dimmed across the starship.

  The onboard comm chimed. “Captain, is everything all right? Is it the Republic?”

  “Can it, General!” Keel shouted. He turned to Ravi. “Gotta shake this guy. Hold on.”

  A visual appeared in the upper corner of the cockpit window. The princess, wrapped only in a white towel, her naked pink shoulders visible. She struggled to remain on her feet as Indelible waggled and swung its way in and out of laser fire.

  “C-captain!” Leenah shouted before falling head over heels. Her feet and a billowing towel were all that remained visible on the feed.

  The Preyhunter fired again. Indelible rocked violently, and the lights winked out again. When they came back on, they were noticeably dimmer.

  “We have lost shields!” Ravi said, almost in disbelief. “You were supposed to be dodging!”

  “It’s not my fault!” Keel protested. “She distracted me.”

  “We will suffer a potential hull breach if such a deluge of laser fire is to strike—”

  “I know! I know!”

  Keel’s mind raced for a maneuver that might shake the stolid attacker. “Hang on. Just hang on.”

  His mind made up, he put all power into his engines. The sudden burst of speed pushed him back in his seat. He couldn’t imagine how Leenah might be sliding around on the refresh room’s floor. Actually, he could imagine. Was imagining. He shook the images from his head. He needed to focus or they’d all be vaporized.

  As the Indelible VI sped off, the Preyhunter adjusted its own speed, not letting its quarry escape. The reality was that the Six could easily outrun a K-13, and Keel expected the pirate pursuing him to think that was just what was happening.

  He guessed right.

  The Preyhunter’s pilot fired repeatedly in a desperate attempt to disable or destroy the escaping Naseen light freighter. Keel dipped and rose as though he were tracing the pattern of a wavelength. The Preyhunter followed every move, each time just missing the freighter.

  “Now!” Keel yelled to himself. He pulled the freighter up hard, maintaining such a sharp turn that he doubled back and zoomed directly toward the oncoming Preyhunter. Lulled into the belief that this was just another patterned dodge, the pirate exposed the belly of his starship for a split second. He realized his mistake and compensated, but the opening was all Keel needed. He and Ravi both fired, vaporizing the ship moments before the Indelible VI shot through the ball of flame where the pirate once was.

  Adjusting course, Keel continued at full speed toward the last position of the final, damaged Preyhunter.

  Ravi stared at his captain for some while before Keel, who was smiling at his own exploits, looked his way.

  “What’s that look?” asked Keel.

  “Had even one single shot connected during your head-on run, the odds of our destruction were eighty-four percent.”

  “Had, Ravi. I didn’t give him the chance. No need to worry.”

  “I am finding it difficult to do anything but worry, sir.” Ravi probed with the Six’s sensor arrays. “The remaining Preyhunter is attempting to reenter Pellek’s atmosphere. It should be within homing missile distance before it can escape.” He switched off the missile’s launch safety.

  “No, no,” Keel said, waving his hand. “I want him to go down there. We’re gonna follow him, see where he lands. Kill his family. All his friends. His dog, if he has one.”

  “Oh,” Ravi said, his voice rich with sarcasm. “A detour for vengeance. How enjoyable. Yes, this is precisely the sort of thing we should do with no operable shields and two known rebels. I am wondering why I have not thought of this before. And what if we are knowing these pirates? Lao Pak is Pellek…”

  “We should kill his schoolteachers too, if we can find them.”

  “I will be refraining from all the killing. I cannot leave the ship, if you are recalling?”

  “I’ll kill them for you.”

  “Please to be leaving me out of this.”

  “Suit yourself, Ravi. Suit yourself.”

  08

  “Captain Keel, where are you going?”

  General Parrish was on the captain’s heels the moment he stepped from the cockpit. He had apparently been waiting for Keel just outside the single-man blast door separating the pilot and navigator from the rest of the ship. They’d landed, and the youthful rebel would now be demanding answers.

  “Outside.” Keel tightened the holster around his thigh before removing his Intec blaster. He took out the weapon’s charge pack and inspected it in Indelible’s bright overhead lighting. Satisfied, he shoved the charger back in place with a slap of his palm. “Ravi, is there a welcoming party?”

  The navigator spoke through the comms. “Just the lone Preyhunter at the adjacent landing pad. The pilot appears to be doing its post-flight cycle.”

  “Lao Pak?”

  “I am seeing no sign of Lao Pak or the rest of his pirates, Captain. But there is a seventy-four percent chance he is scrambling to meet us. We came in very fast for landing.”

  “That was the idea.” Keel lifted his palm to engage the quick disembark ramp. “That little twerp is going to pay for double-crossing me.”

  General Parrish placed himself in front of Keel. The captain looked down at him, a frown on his face. Had the young general always been this short, or was he only now noticing?

  “Captain Keel… Lao Pak? Pirates? I need to know what’s going on.” It was a thin request more than a command. An order given by someone not used to making them. Or at least not when the person on the receiving end had no compulsion to obey.

  Keel just barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes. The general, the princess. They could still be worth something.

  “That’s right, General. Pirates ambushed us once we completed the jump to Pellek. We followed a survivor to Lao Pak’s little pirate den. He’s supposed to be a friend. I’m going out to thank him for the welcoming party.” Keel slapped the ramp release and closed his eyes as the white cloud of gases
hissed with the quick drop of Indelible’s plank.

  “Do you need backup?” The general showed a gleaming chrome-plated pistol on his hip. It was an expensive model, shot accurately enough, but was woefully underpowered.

  “No.” Keel stomped down the ramp, calling over his shoulder, “But you can come if you want.”

  ***

  The general drew his pistol, holding it upward in both hands like he’d seen Planetary Police do as he ran down the ramp after Keel. His footsteps echoed in time with his rapid heartbeat. The planetary atmosphere was arid and seemed to wick away the moisture from the creases of his mouth. He could feel the heat of the sun through his boots. The landing pad itself was clearly made from scrapped freighter hulls, pounded flat and welded together. Captain Keel’s ship landing here was like putting a priggot seed on a dinner plate. This sort of a pad was made to support the truly massive deep space haulers.

  No telling what a pirate might reel in.

  Parrish looked around with curious interest. There was a spaceport off in the extreme distance, barely visible behind shimmering waves of heat. Closer was some sort of… compound. That must be the pirate den Keel mentioned. A gross amalgam of portable duracrete buildings, repurposed freight sleds, and the occasional cargo hold of some derelict, all welded or riveted into an oddly symmetrical structure.

  Stepping in a half-circle, Parrish observed old, single-man anti-fighter emplacements. Unoccupied. In fact, the whole compound seemed abandoned. Which was a good thing.

  Gathering his wits, the general looked for Keel. The captain, blaster still in its holster, was walking with balled fists toward a damaged Preyhunter starfighter.

  The Preyhunter’s triangular canopy opened straight up, revealing a particularly surly looking Drusic. The black-haired sentient primate filled nearly every cubic centimeter of the small snub fighter’s cockpit. It snorted as Keel approached, then let out a growl. It had alarmingly sharp eyeteeth.

  Parrish fumbled with his blaster while Keel closed the distance between himself and the ship.

  ***

  “Look, Keel…” the Drusic said in a deep, rumbling voice. “Lao Pak sent us up. Nothing personal. Besides, you won. Shot us to hell.” The pilot extended a massive, hairy paw as a peace offering.

  Grabbing hold of the gigantic mitt, Keel swung himself up onto the nose of the Preyhunter so he stood directly above the muscular Drusic. “Nothing personal? Then neither is this!” He threw his elbow into the Drusic, just above the primate’s eye, and followed up with a barrage of punches to the creature’s face.

  Keel knew that all this effort was only enough to daze a being of this size and toughness. So he was prepared when the Drusic let out a primal scream and raised both fists in the air. He jumped nimbly backward.

  Confined by the cockpit, the Drusic rose to a semi-standing position. It brought down both fists like twin sledgehammers on the spot Keel had occupied only seconds before. The Preyhunter shook from the impact. The Drusic lifted its boulder-like fists for another attack, revealing two dents in the already beat-up starship.

  Keel jumped up, grabbed the open canopy, and brought it smashing down over the head of the Drusic with such force that the ore-glass shattered. Of course, the thick skull of the Drusic went a long way in helping that to happen. The pilot slumped unconscious in the cockpit. Keel keyed in a rapid sequence on the Preyhunter’s control dash.

  “Captain Keel!” a voice called in the distance. Not the general’s. Someone else. Keel turned to see a pirate approaching with a pair of Hool bodyguards at his side and the general in tow. They had already apprehended and disarmed the youthful rebel.

  “What poor Ishm’mark ever do to you, huh?”

  Keel jumped off the nose of the Preyhunter. He squinted in the sunlight at the leather-draped pirate, his black hair in long braids. “Lao Pak.”

  “Not so fast, Keel.” Lao Pak took a worried step backward, bumping into one of his menacing Hools. “You slow down now. You keep coming this way and l have Seepa prick your friend. Terrible bad way to die.”

  The Hool hissed and bristled its venomous spines. A dry, panicky glug came from Parrish’s throat.

  “So kill him,” Keel said, advancing toward the pirates.

  Seepa jerked Parrish toward him, but Lao Pak raised a grease-stained hand. It was trembling. “He no important?”

  Keel knew what Lao Pak was thinking. The pirate had overplayed his hand. That, or Keel just didn’t care about this particular crew member.

  “Okay, Keel. Ha-ha time over. No more kidding. I let your friend go… this time.”

  With another drooling hiss, the Hool threw Parrish to the ground. The general scampered toward Keel.

  “So okay, Keel? We friend now? Like old time?” Lao Pak continued his nervous withdrawal, repeatedly bumping into the snarling Hools, who looked nowhere near as keen to retreat. But these idiot monsters didn’t know who they were dealing with.

  Keel reached toward his blaster, eliciting a yell from Lao Pak, who ducked in expectation. But the Hools apparently knew enough about Keel to have their surplus N-4 rifles ready. They leveled them at Keel.

  His hand hovering above his blaster, Keel stood ready to draw. Ravi could tell him what the likelihood was that Keel could drop them both—but even without the numbers, the captain felt confident. Mostly.

  Not yet.

  Keel relaxed his arm. “Why’d you try and blow up my ship, Lao Pak?”

  The cowering pirate straightened and mouthed a quiet prayer of thanks. “Keel, that not personal, you know.”

  “If one more person tells me it’s not personal… You shot at my ship!”

  Lao Pak held up his hands. “Only a little. Big money bounty, Keel! Had to try.” The pirate looked behind him at the compound. “Came on black channel. Everybody see it. How can I say no to hundred thousand credits? My crew mutiny if I no try.” He shook his finger at the sky, like a professor giving a lecture. “Being pirate king very hard.”

  The price caught Keel’s attention. “Wait. A hundred grand? For who, the princess or the general?”

  Lao Pak pointed at Parrish. “He general? Of what, nursery school?”

  Parrish blushed and threw his shoulders back. “I’m a general of the Mid-Core Rebellion.” His tone was proud, a bit wounded.

  “Oh.” Lao Pak gave a dismissive wave. “He just another pirate.”

  An aggrieved look came across the general’s face. “The MCR are not pirates.”

  Behind Keel, the Preyhunter’s engine primed. No one except Keel seemed to notice.

  Good.

  Lao Pak smiled, revealing several gold teeth. “You say no pirate. I say…” He began to count on his fingers. “Kublar, New Penda, Rhyssis Wan…”

  General Parrish looked down. “Those were a long time ago. The MCR has changed. We’re a united force for good.”

  “You say.” Lao Pak looked to Keel, as if appealing to him for help in the discussion. “I say MCR pirates. Only they lie about it to feel better. Republic say traitor, so who care?”

  “I say,” Keel interjected, trying to regain control of the conversation, “you are going to tell me whether the bounty was for the general or the princess. Or both.” Another hundred thousand credits sounded pretty good. Even if he did end up having to give a cut to Lao Pak.

  The pirate shook his head. “Mid-Core general not worth money. Too many fakes. Have money for MCR? Here, you general now. Look at you.” Lao Pak put his finger on Parrish’s face, leaving an oily black smudge when Parrish pulled away. “You family rich, I bet. You give money to be general. But so young, probably you not even fight.” A contemplative, philosophical look came across Lao Pak’s face. “Is your family rich? Where they live?”

  To his credit, Parrish refused to dignify that accusation with an answer.

  “So the princess…” Keel said, steering the discussion back to his own interests.

  The general laughed. “It wouldn’t be her.”

  “Why not?” asked K
eel, facing Parrish with his hands on his hips.

  Lao Pak stepped forward. “It you, Keel.”

  “Shut up, Lao Pak. Why not, Parrish?”

  “Because she’s not a real princess. She’s from the Enduran system. They’re all princes and princesses there. Have been for years. They all get the title. Equality, you know.”

  That explained what Ravi had been laughing about.

  Keel put his hands on his hips and glowered down at the general. “You two certainly carried on like she was an important princess.”

  General Parrish took a step back. “You seemed more interested in helping when you thought…” He shrugged.

  With a growl, Keel asked Lao Pak, “How much is the going bounty for a rebel princess?”

  The pirate tugged thoughtfully at his wispy mustache. “I can find out. If we friends again. Not as much as for you, though.”

  Keel nodded. “Well, find out. I don’t have all day. Wait! What do you mean for me?”

  “See, that’s why I had to!” Lao Pak exclaimed. “Big money from black channel. Dead or alive, she say.”

  “And you figured killing me would be easier.”

  “No!” Lao Pak sounded wounded. “Not kill. I wanted your ship, too.”

  Keel’s hand went again to his blaster.

  Lao Pak shouted, “No! No! You kill my pilots! You beat up Ishm’mark! Blow up my starfighters! We even! You pay me back!”

  The damaged Preyhunter suddenly roared to life. The delayed takeoff sequence Keel had entered into the console was now active. The starfighter blasted away from the landing pad and barrel rolled through the air. Its Drusic pilot was flung from the ship as the Preyhunter shot toward the pirate compound, leaving a vapor trail behind it. With a sound like a glacier breaking apart, the craft penetrated a duracrete building and exploded.

  Keel used the distraction to draw his pistol and shoot both Hools in the head, dropping the bodyguards in a crumpled heap.

  Hools. Good riddance.

  Lao Pak screamed and threw his hands up in the air.

  “Relax,” Keel said, holstering his blaster. “Nothing personal. Now we’re even.”