Chapter Five — Part 1

“I think I found our ship.” Fluff said, turning a corner at the end of a row of impounded wreckage. He’d frozen in his steps, staring around the corner. Whatever he was looking at had him thoroughly excited. He motioned intensely for me to come have a look. “It’s perfect.” He said, several times. We could hear the beginning sounds of battle in the distance.

The invading force dropped to the surface, small strike fighters working their way across the city in violent sweeps, leveling buildings and blowing civilian and defense ships from the skies. Walking to the corner, I focused on the only ship in a row of wreckage that looked like it could fly.

I studied the ship critically. “It’s a pirate ship. And it’s heavily armed. We don’t have a crew to fly something this big.”

The ship was built like a water ship, was essentially an armored boat that could fly. Fluff smiled savagely. “It’s not like we’re going into battle.” He giggled with anticipation. “Not yet, any way.”

Time was running out. Argument would have to wait. As we entered the ship, I thought about the man we’d cuffed and left in the shadows. “What about the cop?”

“We’ll take him with us.”

Fluff ran back into the impound yard, grabbed the cop by the feet, and dragged his body through the ship’s hatch. I saw his face and his name badge as I sealed the hatch, and my mind finally made the connection. Lim was already waking up. He looked at me, mildly surprised.

“Welcome aboard, Lim Sevenson.” I said.

Lim recognized me immediately. “What’re you doing here? Why did you tie me up? Where’s that rogue who sucker punched me?” Lim demanded, still struggling. “You haven’t gone wild on me, have you?”

“I haven’t gone wild.” I said, untying him. “We didn’t want to hurt you, but we didn’t have time to argue. The planet’s under attack. We stole a pirate ship and are headed for safe space. Fluff’s at the Helm. We’re going to try to run without a fight.”

I quickly led Lim up to the Helm. The sky darkened to black as we broke atmosphere. I could see the enemy through every port, ignoring the pirate ship, at least at the present. Lim commented on it. “We’d better get out of here, and fast.”

Fluff looked over his shoulder. “Can’t believe you let the cop go.” He said, adjusting his course.

“By some unbelievable coincidence, he’s a friend of the family.”

“Tester’s work, no doubt.” Fluff returned his gaze to the controls.

I felt the ship shift course again, and Fluff continued to work at the controls.

“Why have we changed course?” Lim looked over his shoulder, eyeing the weapons console.

“There’s a civilian craft caught up by the enemy. They intend to rip it open and take it for scrap. We need to free it.”

I looked at the resonance image, magnified five thousand times on the sensor screens in front of me. Three Scandivat craft had a small merchant ship tethered between them, and were busy trying to quarter it. The tethers vibrated with the strain, flashing in a steady, calculable rhythm. We had to set that ship free before they tore it to pieces, but as usual, Lim had his own opinion.

“We can’t win a fight against three of those ships. We’d best just fend for ourselves.”

“I don’t intend to fight. I intend to hit and run.” Fluff flipped what must have been the thruster handles full forward.

We drew closer, and the image of the ship became clearer. “Tiffany’s on that ship.” I said.

“Are you sure?” Fluff asked, adjusting a trim screw on one of the thruster handles.

“Yeah, it’s one of Jodiah’s cargo ships.”

Lim squinted to see the image more clearly. “I can see his Blazon on the side.”

“Get over to weapons. Try to snap those cables. We’ll give the ship a chance to jump to Otherspace, and then we’ll follow in its wake. Bit, you have to flip the weapons safety switch to activate the weapons station.”

“Bit?” Lim said curiously. “Since when did you change your name?”

“It’s always been my name.” I jumped to the weapons console. Having grown up on planet, I couldn’t figure the weapons controls out. “I can’t do this. Lim, put the weapons to use.”

I slid from weapons to life support, something a little more my speed. I studied the sensor readings on the other ships. The sensor readings didn’t look promising.

“They won’t make it into Otherspace on their own. The Scandivats have some kind of dislocation field around them.”

“Then we’ll just have to activate plan bravo.” Fluff said a little loudly.

He gave Lim the signal to fire.

Lim proved quite resourceful. Three tether cables snapped in four shots without damaging any of the ships. The Scandivat craft, no longer having the ropes to hold them in place, shot away in individual directions. Fluff, in a flash of brilliance, locked tether onto Tiffany’s craft. Then, using superior engines, our ship, as yet unnamed, dragged the civilian craft into Otherspace.

Once in Otherspace, Fluff and I took our true forms, something I wasn’t quite ready for. As angels we were still children. I held his hand, and he squeezed mine back. My clothes vanished as I became an angel, and only my bodysuit remained. Keeping my bodysuit wasn’t my decision, but rather an odd anomaly of Otherspace.

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