13 The Shield
"Shields up!" Jesse called out to Bessie.
Instantly, Bessie generated a force shield around the Gear.
At the same time, she fluttered her fingers and cast a secondary internal shield that covered both her and Alekai.
"Caravan! This is Jesse. Come in Caravan!"
"Jesse. This is Caravan. What is it?"
"We have what looks like an apoidean scout ship coming at us."
"What's the ETA?"
"Five minutes."
"We can't reach you in that timeframe. Evade. I repeat. Evade."
"Yes Ma'am!"
She disconnected with the Captain and breathed a prayer to the God of the Void. Papa always said that prayers were for the weak, but she had never insisted she was one of the strong.
They had to stay alive for the next two hours alone and without back up until the starship Caravan could reach them.
Jesse gritted her teeth and prepared for the worst.
Up on the Command deck, Alekai had already spotted the object coming towards them, thanks to the crown that his God-grandmother had given him.
He glanced at the screen to his right and mentally calculated the time that it would reach them.
"Jesse, I can see that ship. It will reach us in five minutes." He snarled a curse under his breath. "We have to hang on for two more minutes. Our weapons can't reach it till then."
"We leave now!" Jesse set in coordinates for evasive maneuvers and hit the deploy button.
Nothing happened.
Her eyes grew wide. Was the Gear malfunctioning?
"Bessie, why aren't we moving?"
"Navigation Controls have been diverted to Command Deck." Bessie responded in her metallic sing-song voice.
She was about to ask Alekai what the hell he thought he was doing when he took over the navigation controls and began moving the Gear away from the rendezvous point, circling around the object.
Jesse gasped.
So that was what he was doing while he was chatting with Bessie. Sabotaging the Gear navigation controls.
Damn the lug head snake!
"What are you doing???" Jesse yelled into the intercom. "We have to move out of this spot and try to avoid them!"
Alekai's voice came through, harsh and unyielding. "That would mean we could miss the rendezvous point with the starship Caravan."
"No choice, Alekai. I got orders from Captain Annapolis. We have to clear out."
"No! We fight back." Alekai countered. "This object doesn't look to be that large. It's only about four times the size of Bessie."
"That's still really big, Alekai. And orders are orders!"
"Jesse," Alekai drawled. "The orders were for you. I'm not one of her space cadets. She can't tell me what to do. At least not yet."
Jesse frowned, but he was right. Until he officially became part of the Black Warriors, he was a free agent and didn't have to follow Captain Annapolis' orders.
"Alekai. This thing is big!"
"You know what they say about big things. The bigger you are, the slower you get." Alekai drawled in his bored drawn-out voice.
"And besides," he chuckled. "This is a new piece of Gear. Don't you want to see what Bessie can do?"
"I can see it on-screen!" Jesse shouted. "That's an apoidean scout-ship. We have to get out of here now!"
"Jesse, can I fire weapons even with shields up?"
"Yes. This Gear is fully operational even with full shields up, but it can't take more than a few hits from the scout ship before it runs out of power to maintain shields!"
"No choice. We're going to have to shoot and run at the same time." Alekai drawled lazily. "You ready for some action?"
Jesse scowled. "We're about to be fired upon. Why do you sound so chill and relaxed?"
Alekai chuckled. "I take it one moment at a time."
Jesse took a deep breath. If she couldn't convince him to leave, now was not the time to get confrontational. She would have to throw her lot in with him and take out the apoidean scout ship.
"Does this thing have cloaking capability?" Alekai's voice was light and cheerful.
What the hell was he so happy about???
"Normally yes. I can cloak us so we can get closer for your weapons to have a chance, but that would mean I'd have to turn off all the lights."
"Do it."
"No wait. Alekai, you just got that platform. You won't be able to see any of the controls!"
"I said, DO IT!" Alekai's voice broke no arguments.
Jesse grimaced and shut off all lights. Then she matched the shield's surface temperature to that of the Void around them.
And just like that, they disappeared.
The Gear was a matte black metallic object that reflected very little light. Without any internal lights plus a lack of any heat signature and it simply looked as if there was nothing there.
Within two minutes, they had come close enough for weapons to be effective.
Alekai moved Bessie into position behind the apoidean scout ship. They only had one shot before they gave away their location.
Alekai loaded up all three weapons. Bessie was getting closer to the apoidean scout ship.
Almost there.
Almost there.
Three
Two
One
His fingers danced across the handlebars.
Three separate shots fired out from Bessie's arms. It hit the apoidean scout ship in three different areas.
Their shields wavered but did not fold.
Before he had a chance to do anything more, the apoidean scout ship had fired on them.
At the moment the apoidean scout ship fired, Alekai could see the single white weapon beam leaving the ship.
Alekai quickly calculated the location of contact and twisted on the bike handles, pulling it back. The Gear moved in accord with his movements, dodging the beam in one clean motion.
He didn't have to move the Gear much to cleanly dodge the beam. At the same moment, his finger was on the trigger returning the fire with a strong deep red pulse.
The apoidean scout ship did not even try to evade. It took the full brunt of Alekai's shot directly at its epicenter, its shield wavering even more at the point of contact, but held up under direct fire.
Alekai's lips pressed into a firm line. Judging from the way the shields were fluttering, he was willing to bet that one more barrage of shots would take out the apoidean scout ship's shield.
He needed one more clean shot.
Alekai didn't have much time to think about that as the apoidean scout ship returned fire.
