Free Lost Planet 01 - The Lost Planet by Rachel Searles

small, fled from the planet. As they came closer, the space between Trucon and its moon grew thick with traffic, each ship forging its own frantic path. There was a sudden burst of orange as two ships got too close and crashed into each other. Vehicles were headed in every direction possible, but many appeared to be headed for the moon, and only minutes away.
    â€œParker—they’re coming our way,” Chase said. “We need to move.”
    Parker said nothing, still staring at the devastation that had been his home.
    â€œWe need to move, Parker,” Chase repeated. The first vehicles in the onslaught were getting close, and a few of the fastest fighters and cruisers zipped past. “Parker!”
    Parker blinked a few times and reached for the controls. “I … I don’t know where to go,” he murmured.
    â€œAnywhere! Get us out of here!”
    More vehicles rushed past them, all at safe distances, but thousands were following, like a giant moving wall. Trembling, Parker pulled up on the controls to steer away from the moon and out of the path of the oncoming traffic.
    â€œFaster!” said Chase. More and more vehicles filled the space around them, and many of them appeared to be slowing down as they neared the moon’s surface, adding to the congestion. The Starjumper surged desperately upward, but it was clear that they were not going to outrun the deluge of ships.
    Suddenly they were surrounded by hundreds of vehicles, beside them, above them, oncoming, and none following a straight path. Parker swerved erratically to avoid them, but he had lost all confidence in his piloting and his reactions were slow. Chase clutched the arms of his seat, yelping at every near miss, bracing for impact.
    Bursts of color flickered around them as more vehicles collided in the packed space. The cruiser darted through narrow openings between other ships, flipping and turning in a dizzying way. Parker was losing control. Chase squeezed his eyes shut in anticipation of a crash, but they hit a clear patch and zoomed forward, veering in a sharp arc down toward the moon’s surface.
    â€œGet us out of here!” Chase yelled.
    â€œI can’t!” Parker’s voice was hysterical. “We’ve gotta try the breakaway!”
    â€œThe what?”
    His face frozen in a rictus of terror, Parker flipped open a clear cover on the console. Underneath was a round lever. “Hold on!”
    Then he yanked the lever.
    The last thing that Chase was aware of was being thrown violently backward out of his seat and, briefly, the feeling of his head crashing into the cabin ceiling.
    *   *   *
    When Chase opened his eyes, he saw Parker’s body lying crumpled beside him. “You okay?” His voice sounded brittle in the silent cabin.
    Parker grunted and rolled over onto his back. “I feel like I got hit by a planet.”
    A glance out the front window told Chase that they were no longer part of the flood of traffic from Trucon. “What just happened?” he asked, pushing his palms to his temples.
    â€œBreakaway.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œI pulled the breakaway. The emergency escape. It hypercalculates and folds us over to a random coordinate.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œGood lords, dummy. It moves the cruiser without us having to calculate where it’s going. You pull it as a last resort.” Parker climbed gingerly to his feet and returned to the piloting console. “We could be anywhere within a fifty-parsec range of Trucon. We’re lucky it didn’t put us in the middle of a star.”
    Chase crawled to Mina, who lay in a jumbled heap in the corner, and rolled her over. Her eyes remained closed. He leaned in toward her ear and murmured her name.
    Parker glanced over his shoulder. “She’s not going to wake up without some serious technical intervention. Why don’t you check on the guy we picked up, make sure he’s