Taunting Krell Read online

  “What is the classification?” The pilot studied her.

  “I’d call it an S class.”

  “I’ve never heard of that classification.”

  “It stands for screwed. How did Barcarintellus get their hands on them?”

  “What are they?” Krell leaned closer, brushing her back with his chest, to peer at the image of the sleek ship displayed on the monitor.

  “They are military prototypes Earth Government commissioned and the paint shouldn’t even be dry on them yet. They are new, fast and carry heavy firepower.” She bit her lip. “They are playing with that hotel on thrusters. They could have easily taken it out.”

  “Dry paint?” The pilot seemed confused.

  “It’s a saying. They are new, have only been out a few months, and you have to kiss major ass of someone high-up to get assigned one. That’s another saying. They are rare, expensive, and the waiting list for getting one is anywhere from six to sixteen months. My unit requested one and we were about a year in line before ours is off the production line.” She rubbed her legs. “Give me a minute and let me think.”

  “Cyan?” Krell gripped her arm. “How do we take it out? Do you know?”

  “Ram it. That’s about the only way and hope when we hit it, there’s something hard on the other side to slam it into.” She glanced at the Vontage, her mind working. She grabbed the control of the viewer again and zoomed in on the larger ship. “There.” She pointed. “See that docking bay for mass supplies? They are designed to deal with older freighters that aren’t known for their finesse or piloting integrity. Those are solid doors built to take some serious damage. It’s easily sealed from inside and it can take a major impact without affecting any of the internal systems.”

  “We need a real assessment,” Krell demanded, his voice gruff.

  She turned her head to stare up at him. “I’m dead serious. I don’t know any weapons that can pierce the hull of a Genesis Four shuttle and their engines are shielded too heavily under the belly. They aren’t going to expose it for you to fire at them. They know it’s their weakest spot and it maneuvers too well. Did you notice how it doesn’t even have any view ports? It’s for a reason. That baby has no flaws other than it doesn’t handle jolts too well. A massive impact might work to disable it or at least put it out of commission while they do repairs. The harder the outer shell, the more sensitive equipment they put on the inside. The lack of ports made that baby really dependant on computers and hardware to make it fly without being blind.”

  “Baby?”

  The pilot started to annoy her with his questions. “The shuttle,” she sighed. “I’m telling you that’s the only way you’re going to hurt it. You need to side impact it with this shuttle and slam it into those delivery doors. I’m a pilot and we were warned that we needed to land them gently when we were given the specs of them when they were trying to sell them to our units. The issue with hard impacts is the only flaw I know of. It’s like slamming someone’s head into a wall. Their skull might not crack but you can cause some damage to their brain.” She studied the console carefully and shock struck her once again. “This is the Bridden. How did you steal it?”

  Krell grabbed her arm and jerked her around to face him. “How do you know that?”

  She held his gaze. “I know my shuttles and I’ve been on this one before. I should have recognized it but I have been a bit distracted since we boarded.”

  “When were you on it?” Krell’s hold on her tightened.

  She swallowed. “This was Dell Harver’s baby. I worked with his uncle, General Vern Mellhorn, for two years. He commands the Gordon Lee One-Two-Seven. Every time his nephew was in our part of space he’d dock and stay a few days with the Bridden’s crew. He allowed me to fly this ship a few times. He considered himself a real lady’s man.” Memory of the guy flashed—she’d liked him, but they hadn’t been close. “How did you swipe his shuttle? He loved this thing as if it was his wife or he gave birth to it. I know he wouldn’t have sold it.” She dreaded the answer.

  “We’ll discuss it later.”

  Shit. That’s not good. She had a sinking feeling she’d never see Dell again. He’d been a nice guy but would do anything for a buck. It was one of the reasons she’d never hooked up with him. He’d have turned her in for reward money in a heartbeat if she’d ever slipped up if they’d had a personal relationship and something revealed her secret. The guy had been a paid mercenary willing to go on any dangerous job if the price was high enough. She pushed those thoughts back and would deal with her emotions later. Her training took over. She stared into Krell’s eyes.

  “I know this shuttle, I’ve flown it, and you need to trust me. I think the Markus Models damaged that floating hotel of yours in order to lure more of you to come here or they are tracking it until the other unaccounted shuttles they stole from Earth can converge on this location. It’s a trap either way. Mavo is on that ship, right? Please believe that I want to save him. You said the Markus Models want to exchange cyborgs for more of their units still in storage on Earth. How many cyborgs are on that ship? They are sitting ducks, ready to be boarded and taken prisoner. I need that pilot’s seat to take out that shuttle and we need to get out of this sector of space fast without being tracked.”

  Krell studied her and it really angered her.

  “Trust me, Krell. Please? Give me a chance. Mavo is on that ship. The Bridden is heavily shielded by special materials the sensors can’t read, I’m assuming they haven’t noticed us yet because of it, but once they realize we’re here, a Genesis Four could kick our butts. We will be useless to the Vontage unless you want to be cellmates with your fellow cyborgs aboard that ship once the Markus Models capture everyone to use as bargaining chips. We have one shot at this. We hit them hard and fast before they realize what’s going on. They are going to notice us soon, we’re coming up on them, and they’ll get a visual with the outer cameras. They can see us but the sensors don’t register anything because of the shielding.” She took a deep breath. “You’re here. You can watch everything I do and kill me if I’m lying to you.”

  His dark blue eyes narrowed and seconds ticked by. “Remove yourself, pilot.”

  The pilot hesitated. “Excuse me?”

  Krell never looked away from Cyan. “She’s piloting the Bridden. That’s an order.”

  “That’s a mistake,” the pilot hissed as he moved.

  Relief flooded Cyan as she dropped into the warm seat. She grabbed the belts to harness her body in tightly. “Secure everything and order them to buckle in. This is going to be rough.”

  Krell growled and dropped into the other seat, reaching for his own belts. “You heard her,” he demanded louder. “Secure everything loose and prepare for an impact.” He turned his head. “I will kill you if you betray me.”

  She met his gaze. She noticed he’d referred to himself and not cyborgs in general. She’d evaluate that later too when she wasn’t scared and worried about the dozens of things that could go wrong. “I don’t doubt it for a second but you’re the only one worried about that now. You can trust me.” She rolled her shoulders and grabbed the controls. “Ready?”

  “We should warn the Vontage of the impending impact.”

  “It’s too risky. The Markus Models would pick up the signal too and they’d know we’re here. It would blow our surprise advantage. Just let me do this and be quiet. I need to concentrate.”

  She focused on the screens. One more deep breath and she blew it out. It’s now or never. This is insane. Her thumbs pressed down on the thrusters, activating them to full burn, and she wished could use the onboard computer to help her calculate velocity and impact but knew it wouldn’t. They were designed to avoid crashes.

  “Did you modify Dell’s computer?”

  “We replaced it.”

  “Shut it down. I need full manual override or it may try to take control to avoid a collision and I don’t want the Markus Models to try to hack it when they spot us. They wil