With Yen lost in his own malicious thoughts, Adam called out to the rest of the team. “Everyone up! Let’s get to the Cair!”
Secrecy was no longer a concern, so the group ran with reckless abandon. They came across the bodies of an infiltration team, not far from the entry point of the Cair ship. At the base of the vestibule leading into the Cair, Yen found the pilot, still wearing her jumpsuit, her pistol hanging limply in her hand. His thoughts were immediately ripped back to Keryn and the sadistic energy fled from his body. Yen felt weak and sickened; a hollow pit was left in his chest, only to be filled immediately after by a sharp stab of guilt. He had truly enjoyed the slaughter of so many Terrans.
Activating his throat microphone, Yen called to Keryn. “Keryn, this is Yen. We’ve reached the other Cair and are getting ready to board. Get out of here and regroup with the Revolution.”
Relief washed over Keryn when she heard Yen’s voice. She had sworn that the ship was shaking itself apart as she saw the plasma explosion tear through the back of the ship.
“I am so glad to hear your voice,” she admitted breathlessly.
Her heart had sunk when she assumed the worst and she was relieved to hear that they were still alive. With them now boarding the Cair closer to the rear of the Destroyer, Yen was right. It was time to detach from the Terran ship and return to the relative safety of the Alliance Cruiser. Throwing the locks on the hatch, Keryn returned to the pilot’s chair and flipped a switch which blew all the bolts holding the boarding tunnel in place. The flexible tunnel drifted away from the Cair Ilmun as Keryn turned her ship around, intent on heading back to the Revolution. Though the Destroyer was disabled, it still had full weapons. Keryn hoped she could make it free of the Terran warship before they started firing on her.
As she turned back to the Alliance Cruisers, though, she realized that the Destroyer was the least of her problems. Between her and the Cruisers, hovering in space and waiting for her, was a squadron of Terran fighters.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The Terran fighters fell upon the Cair Ilmun as soon as it left berth on the Destroyer. Keryn flew like a woman possessed, weaving and diving in seemingly random and hypnotic patterns, but for every fighter she evaded, another took its place in pursuit. A nearby rocket explosion rocked the cockpit of the ship, nearly jarring Keryn from her seat. Growling in frustration, she pulled herself back into place and pulled the controls hard to the right, turning in a tight circle in order to avoid the next missile launch. She had already stopped looking at the radar for help. All she had learned in the Academy had gone out the window when she found herself alone in space, being assaulted by a swarming Squadron of enemy ships. The combination of their ship signatures, missile launches, and suppressing machine gun fire left the radar console screen filled with indistinguishable dots of red; the one blue dot signifying the Cair Ilmun looking lost amidst the swarm.
At first, Keryn thought she stood a chance of escape. The Terran fighters had split into separate groups. Only a small handful of ships had pursued Keryn while the others set about systematically destroying all the Cair ships still attached to the Destroyer, thereby stranding all the infiltration teams still onboard. It was with relief that Keryn had noted that the Cair ship Yen and his team were moving toward had been, so far, spared from the Terran counterattack. Their attention split between the litany of Cair ships, the Terrans were surprised when Keryn shot down two of the Terran fighters, using the substandard weapon systems on board the Cair Ilmun. Realizing that she posed a larger threat than previously assumed, other fighters pulled back and joined the chase. Now, Keryn was badly embroiled in a space battle she didn’t think she could win alone.
You’re not alone, the Voice said. Let me help you.
Keryn scowled. She was hardly in the mood to argue with the Voice, not when her life was hanging in the balance.
“Not now,” she hissed. “Not ever.”
In between her reminiscing and her debate with the Voice, a fighter slipped into place above her. Keryn heard the warning of her radar only moments before the fighter opened fire with its forward machine guns. Bright red tracer rounds split the dark space between the two maneuvering ships. Keryn cut the controls hard into a climb and managed to avoid the majority of deadly gunfire. A few stray rounds, however, punched through the rear hull of the ship. Keryn could hear the screeching of metal as the heavy bullets shredded large holes in ship, tearing through the wiring and pipes hidden between the armored plating and crew compartments. Their momentum waning, the bullets slammed into the floor of the crew compartments, leaving wide holes throughout the back end of the Cair Ilmun.
The Cair Ilmun shook violently as the crew compartment began to decompress. Warning claxons roared throughout the ship, their sound drowned out only by the whooshing of air being sucked out of the punctures. The lights dimmed and were replaced by brilliant red auxiliary lights. The sudden vacuum ripped bags and unhooked seat webbing from their place. The smaller items were instantly torn through the hole, left to drift free in space. Larger items, like the heavy weapons bag that Adam had left behind, jerked against the metal hooks holding them in place like a rabid animal.
In the cockpit, Keryn was nearly pulled from her seat as the rounds struck. The sudden vacuum pulled her taunt against the padded seat, her silver hair hanging rigidly behind her. She could feel the strong tug at her scalp as she feared the vacuum would pull her hair straight from her head. Hanging at her sides, Keryn’s arms felt like lead weights, pulled invariably toward the rear of the ship.
Fear lodged in Keryn’s chest. With her arms held at her sides and the suction drawing her body further from the ship’s controls, the Cair Ilmun was incapable of maneuvering out of the way of the Terran’s next attack. Unless she was able to move — and soon — she would be destroyed with no hope of rescue.
Merge with me, the Voice said insistently. Though the Cair Ilmun was close to destruction, the Voice still spoke with a calm clarity that cut through the din of warning sirens. We can get out of this together.
Keryn couldn’t manage a retort, even had she wanted to. The pull of the vacuum felt as though an Oterian were kneeling on her sternum, collapsing the ribcage and making it impossible to draw more than a painfully shallow breath. She could feel her heart pounding in her temples as it tried to keep blood flowing to her extremities. Despite the driving beat of her heart, Keryn’s limbs began to grow cold as the veins were constricted, cutting off a clear flow of blood. Her tanned skin was taunt and paled and her pupils widely dilated. Along the edges of her vision, darkness began to creep. As she gasped for air against the weight, the console in front of her began to waver unsteadily. She was losing consciousness and no matter how much she cursed at herself, Keryn was unable to raise a hand to close off the cockpit from the rest of the ship.