Free My Other Car is a Spaceship by Mark Terence Chapman Page B

delicate, red antennae waved incessantly, a sure sign of stress.
    “Clever,” the captain muttered with a frown. “No matter which way we turn to engage, there will always be one coming from another angle. Well, there is nothing for it but to dispatch the first one quickly before they can surround us. Close at top speed. Fire a brace of missiles each at Bogey-One and Bogey-Two at maximum range. With luck, they will be distracted for a minute. Then immediately strike Bogey-Three with APCs and mass drivers. Continue in like manner, always attacking the nearer ship with APCs and using missiles against the more distant targets. We cannot afford a long, drawn-out battle. They have the advantage. We must lessen their advantage, and quickly.”
    “Aye, Captain,” the pilot confirmed, now calmer.
    Within seconds, the battle was engaged.
    Bogeys One and Two evaded the missiles and moved to close the gap. Unity ship Coul’Tor pounded Bogey-Three’s shields without mercy, until they failed and the aft of the ship vaporized, taking out the engines. Inertia kept Bogey-Three, now unable to stop or change direction, continuing on a heading toward the sun.
    The other two bogeys, meanwhile, attacked Coul’Tor from opposite sides. With two ships always attacking from different directions, JorTenzin was unable to compensate for the damage by rotating the weakest shield away from the attacker. No matter which way he turned the ship, there was always another bogey waiting.
    JorTenzin fought brilliantly, damaging both remaining bogeys before Coul’Tor’s own shields failed under a barrage of APC blasts.
    JorTenzin’s final act before meeting his ancestors was to launch a small buoy, the Unity equivalent of a Black Box. Lying dormant and silent initially, as soon as another ship with a Unity transponder entered the system it would go active, transmitting a record of Coul’Tor’s final battle.
    Another blast from an APC and Coul’Tor exploded in a brilliant pyrotechnic display as the remaining missiles in her armory detonated in their launch cradles.
     

     
    “There’s too many of them! I…can’t…fight…them…all…off!” Pilot Melf Jensin growled through his fangs. He whipsawed Red Moon this way and that, trying to avoid all the energy weapons coming to bear on his ship simultaneously. “Shields are down to twenty percent, Captain. We won’t last much longer at this rate. Maybe two to three minutes.”
    “Do your best, Melf,” Captain Plemmons said. “We have to hold this system.”
    “ Captain, think !” the Thorian cried out. “There is no way we can hold out against six pirates.” He paused to loose two quems at one of the bogeys. “Shields now at twelve percent. We have to bug out and get help .”
    “We can’t abandon this system. The inhabitants are depending on us.”
    “Wanda, we won’t do them any good dead. Someone has to alert Unity HQ to the pirates’ new tactics. The sooner we leave, the sooner we can return with help.”
    Captain Plemmons hesitated. Her decision was made for her by the impact that jarred Red Moon and nearly threw her from her seat. The strident hull-breach alarm sounded. “You’re right. Break off. Get us out of here.”
    The logic behind her calm words did nothing to wash the bitter taste from her mouth as she gave the order—an order no Unity Captain before her had ever had to give.

CHAPTER FIVE
    On the planet Jorseen in the Felsen system, Undercommissioner for Logistics Spelvin Mynax, the highest-ranking human in the Merchants’ Unity, sat down. He had just completed his daily briefing for his boss. The light from the wall-sized holoscreen cast heavy shadows across Mynax’s face in the darkened room. The shadows matched his mood. As every other day for months, the news was grim.
    “When are we going to get off our butts and mount an effective response to this situation, sir?” he began without prelude. Mynax leaned forward in his formal high-backed chair. “We need a