Chapter 4

I strolled out of the living area and into the small engine room, made even tighter with the installation of the second engine. To help squeeze it in, they did flare the sides some but there was still very little room.

"How's it going?" I asked Candy, eyeing up her slim figure.

While working on fitting the two new inlet manifolds, she had stripped down to the waist, leaving her fine, if small, breasts bare.

"These are great," she said with a wide smile. "They aren't cheap but they will pay us back with better fuel economy and a bit more speed, too."

"Great," I replied making my face into a smile.

If she was happy, why shouldn't I be too.

"Where's Lila?" she grunted as she strained over undoing some lock bolts.

"She re-wiring the Plasma cannon," I said. "Last time we used it, we blow out the breakers."

"She ok?" she asked looking up from her work.

"Yeah, she seems ok," I replied.

Trouble was you never know with Lila. Although she was big and strong she could be like a baby sometimes and those slavers gave her a bad time.

"Could do with her down here, once she finished," she said.

"Ok, I'll tell her," I said and headed back to the food processor to try out blend number 42.

The money we got from the salvage of the old freighter wasn't a lot but it did buy Candy's new manifolds, my new coffee software and high power breakers for Lila's little baby, the plasma cannon. Blend number 42 was strong and smooth and I savoured it for many minutes.

"Heaven, just heaven," I sighed.

"Captain," said Lila with an edge to her voice.

"Yeah," I replied.

Once again we were cruising along on a mail run to Star Base 19, usually a safe sector.

"I'm picking up some navigations pulses," she said, her head firmly in the hood of the scanner.

"How far off?" I asked.

"I don't know but they're getting closer," she said. "I think we should take avoiding action."

"Why, this is a quiet sector," I said.

"Captain, I recognize their sensor sweep frequencies," she said her voice going up slightly. "They are the same bastards that fried my engine and left me to die."

"Ok, drop out of warp and we'll wait them out," I ordered.

The engine note died and suddenly everything was quiet.

"What's going on?" asked Candy the lack of engine noise must have woken her up.

"There is at least one, may be more political police ships out there," said Lila," they usually hunt in packs."

"Oh, those guys who left you adrift," said Candy. "But don't they think you're dead?"

Lila didn't say anything, she just bent low studying the scanner screen.

"Is the shielding on?" I asked.

"Just on standby," said Candy.

"Put it on full," I ordered. "And lets hope they haven't picked us up."

With the shielding only on standby we were still just about visible to their scanners.

"Lost them," shouted Lila. "The bastards have shut down their active scanners. They know we are here."

"Shit," I mumbled to myself.

The last thing we need is some political maniacs buzzing around us.

"We're being hailed," said Lila.

"Put them up on the speaker," I ordered.

"Unidentified ship," came an officious voice. "Stand by to be boarded."

"Keep clear," I said, "or we will fire on you."

"We are the legal reprehensive of the Planet Phobos 3," said the same voice.

"We are nowhere near Phobos," hissed Lila. "Well outside their jurisdiction."

"Keep clear," I said again. "I'm charging weapons. Girls to your stations and commence charging."

"Very well, you give us little options but to call up our nearby Battle Star," said the voice with a sneer.

"How fast is that ship?" I asked Lila over the intercom.

"Not that fast," she said. "Warp 3 max, I would say."

"And their Battle Star?" I whispered.

"I don't know, warp 5 or 6," she said.

"Shit," I cursed. "Candy fire up the warp engines and get us out of here, max warp. Lets see what those new manifolds of yours can do."

"Fucking right," she said with glee.

The engine noise wound up and we were off but not before they hit us with a 10 gig blast.

"That'll be nothing if that Battle Star catches up," warned Lila.

"Then lets make sure it doesn't," I said.

"Warp 6 captain," said Candy with a touch of pride in her voice. "Steady below red line too."

"Change course to Star Base 18," I ordered.

"But that's further away," commented Candy.

"So they'll not expect us to head there," I said.

Trouble was, once they found our warp trail they just had to follow it to find us.

"What's their Battle Star armed with?" I asked.

"You can bet Plasma cannons captain, big buggers too," whispered Lila.

"Shit," I swore. "Anything on the scope."

"Yeah, they are still there but falling well behind," said Lila.

"This is no good," I said thumping my chair arm. "They are following our trail and giving updates to that Battle Star. What do they fucking want with us, anyway?"

"Captain, these are not nice people," said Lila calmly. "If you don't follow their ways, their doctrines, to them you are a heretic, that's why I was on Phobos trying to organize some resistance."

"Ok," I said, "lets go and see what they want. Reverse course. Charge weapons girls."

"What are you going to do, Captain?" asked Lila.

"I'm going to see how they like being left adrift," I growled.

"I like it," said Lila and I could hear the smile on her face even over the wires.

"Candy, target their engines only," I ordered.

At this speed we weren't going to get much of a shot.

"Target locked," said Candy, her voice breathless.

The lights dimmed as the shot was fired.

"Engine compartment breach," shouted Candy. "They've dropped out of warp.

"Ok, lets swing around and get back on course to Star base 19," I ordered. "That Battle Star will have to stop and pick them up, first, before they start after us and at this speed we should get to safety."

"D-did I kill them?" said Candy, her voice shacking with shock.

I keep forgetting how young she is...

"No, no," I reassured, taking her in my arms. "You just blew up their engines that's all."

"They won't die out here then?" she whimpered.

That's a tricky one, for who knows how badly damaged they are and how far away help is. They may have been bluffing about the Battle Star.

"No, of course not," I said hugging her slim body tightly.

"Is she ok?" asked Lila who had just joined us.

"Yeah, she's fine," I replied. "First time blues, that's all."

"We should have finished them off, the bastards," said Lila with some venom. "Come here, babe, and we'll have a cuddle."

I watched as the two of them disappeared into their quarters.

"A Phobos ship you say?" said the base commander.

"Yeah, a Battle Star," I confirmed. "Their scout ship fired on us when we refused to be boarded."