Free The Key by Pauline Baird Jones

“Your zoombag is fire and weather proof. Unlike earth bags, this one is fitted with speedjeans.”
    “Speedjeans?”
    “A g-suit? To keep your blood from pooling in your legs in tight turns when you’re pulling G’s? So you don’t pass out?”
    Pulling G’s? He thought he knew what that meant.
    “How fast does your bird go?” Fyn asked.
    She smiled. “ Fast .”
    When he was geared up, he climbed inside. He expected her to give him a verbal tour, but she just waited quietly beside him, letting him explore the mocked up cockpit. He had a few questions and some of the controls had labels he wasn’t used to, but it wasn’t that different. He’d flown a lot of different craft.
    “Ready to give her a go?”
    He nodded and she showed him how to hook in to the radio and control oxygen flow.
    “Just take her out and get a feel for her, then I’ll set the computer to run a variety of sims for you. I’ve even uploaded what happened to me. Maybe you can figure out how I could have done it… like a guy .” She grinned at him. “Kick the tires and light the fires.”
    Sara closed the hatch and secured it. She looked around, but they were alone for the moment, so she activated the computer from where she was, then jumped down from the ladder. She keyed her radio.
    “You reading me?”
    “Roger.”
    Sara grinned. Soon he’d sound like one of them, even if he didn’t exactly look like them. Who knew a head full of dreads could be so hot? She’d never been interested in the bad boys in school. She’d grown up in the danger zone, didn’t need to invite more of it into her life.
    Danger probably ran scared from Fyn. And she should, too. She’d seen him in the jungle and tested his strength on the mat. She didn’t know what had happened to him since his planet was over run, but it couldn’t have been…good. And then getting stranded on Kikk for who knows how long. Dang. That was some bad luck.
    She knew about bad luck. And about getting a chance to turn things around, thanks to Evie. One reason why she couldn’t run. Or at least it made a good excuse.
    “I’m going to start you from the basement…the hanger bay.” She walked over to the control panel. She could see him inside the sim on one screen and also see what he was seeing on the next screen. He made a smooth exit, then did some loops, getting a feel for the stick.
    “Nice.” His voice was deep and smooth, like rich, dark chocolate, with a hint of an unfamiliar accent. He went full throttle and did a series of bat turns, testing the outer limits. He was good, better than she was, darn him.
    “Let me know when you’re ready to try some scenarios.” She kept her voice cool. Maybe it would send the rest of her a message.
    “Let’s do it,” he said.
    She keyed in the first scenario, their battle from the other day.
    The doors to the sim bay slid open and Carey came in.
    “That Chewie in there?”
    “Yes, sir. We just started the first scenario.”
    He joined her at the panel. “Not bad. That the battle the other day?”
    “I uploaded the data from all our computers.”
    Fyn dove into the battle without hesitation, forward guns blazing. He took down one, then another. As near as Sara could tell, he got the ones she’d gotten.
    “There goes three, now four. You got hit right after this, didn’t you?”
    Now he was seeing what she’d seen, her wing man in trouble. He went in, just as she had, scattering bandits and eliminating the threat to her wingman, but swarms of bandits were closing fast. She’d been able to dodge most of their fire. Unfortunately, most wasn’t good enough.
    He jinked to avoid a salvo, swinging the Dauntless like it was a hammock. Enemy fire singed by on either side, but he was still flying. Then he hit the space brakes, almost bringing on a stall. He seemed to know just how much he could slow. When he accelerated, he took out two more.
    Just when they thought it was over, he caught a stray blast.
    “Doesn’t look like