Free Chronicles of a Space Mercenary 3: Vengeance by Ronald Wintrick

it didn’t matter if it worked or not, if firing it would back-feed the system and blow Last Chance right out of warp- and because she would not be taken alive by the Kievor- opened up on the Trade Station behind us with her Alartaw cannon. The flashes did not disrupt our visual feed this time- some effect of inner-space dampening the visual energy- and were visible on the main-screen as they reflected from the many faceted walls of the warp-tunnel around us as they flashed away behind us. What we couldn’t see was the effect it was having if any on the Trade Station behind us.
    “I knew the algorithm would work!” Bren shrieked like a girl as the Kievor Trade Station immediately dropped out of w arp behind us and vanished from the warp-scan imager. The proximity warning flashing on my own screen vanished as well and I began unbuckling myself fully intent on my bottles of Old Home. We could fire on the Kievor in warp but they couldn’t fire back! Bren had done it again.
    “Good Lord are they going to roast you over a slow fire for the inventiveness of your brain when they finally do get their hooves on you.” I told Bren with a happy grin as I rose and walked towards him. “Do you know what this technology would mean to the Kievor? Clearly they can’t fire in our warp or they would have. Clearly as well that’s why they didn’t destroy us when they had us in their tractor beam.” I said as I came to stand in front of him, my smile firmly in place. “You’re now more wanted than I am.”
    “Marc has a point for once.” Tanya said as she rose as well. “They’ll never stop hunting us now. We’re almost as much a danger to them as the Alartaw themselves.”
    “We could arm every race we meet.” Bren agreed. “Like the Kievor did to the Alartaw.”
    “Won’t work.” Tanya said. “They recruited lizards and all lizards hate mammals- but they hate predatory mammals a lot more than the herbivore type.”
    “What are you two talking about?” I said.
    “Our time with the Kievor.” Bren said.
    “Oh you remember that now.” I said to Tanya.
    “Yep.” Tanya said with a look I couldn’t quite discern. I wasn’t trying. I wasn’t trying to do any thinking at this point. At this point I was headed for those bottles of Old Home and several weeks of rest and relaxation.
    “You know where I’m headed and for your own personal safety,” I told them with my smile still in place, “I wouldn’t go dropping us precipitously out of warp any time soon.” I did not want to have to think about what the ramifications of Tanya remembering everything was going to mean for my sanity and definitely felt a headache coming-on. A headache which amber liquor would surely cure. At least until the morning.
    “You’re problems will still be here when you sober up.” Bren cast after me just before the hatch closed. I felt a throb in my temple and increased my pace.
     
    Chapter 18
     
    The warp-proximity alarm began ringing through my alcohol-befuddled sleep and before I knew what I was doing I was leaping out of bed and racing towards the Bridge clad in my boxers only. I landed in my pilot’s seat in the same state but holt-jolt or not my eyes were wide open as I strapped on my harness.
    “Who is it?” I demanded as I looked back at Tanya but she was busy with a manicure and didn’t look up. Then she reached over a negligent hand and turned off the alarm.
    “Just testing the alarm.” Tanya replied without looking up as she returned to perfecting her already perfect nails.
    “You bitch.” I said as I unharnessed.
    “I was right in the end.” Tanya said. “I should have emptied your bottles.”
    “Are you in a great hurry to get dead?” I asked as I walked over to her. “Fending the Kievor off in warp when they can’t fire on us is one thing, fighting them in real-space quite another. I think we tried that once.”
    “You should wash your underwear once in a while.” Tanya said instead of responding to my