But What Will The Gods Eat Tomorrow?

"Pshoo, pshoo, pshoo, pa-phook, pshoo."

"What are you doing?" Tempest asked incredulously.

"Making laser noises. I hate not hearing sound effects."

"I can’t believe it!" Tempest bemoaned as the field strength dropped below fifteen percent. "We’re going to die and he feels the need to add his own sound effects! The fields aren’t going to last mu–"

The ship rocked and a loud boom echoed from our trix-armor. I stopped making laser sounds. "Fields are gone," I said matter-of-factly.

More and more laser blasts hit us, and the Dragon was jolted back and forth. All of a sudden the lights in the cockpit dimmed, and a loud hissing explosion came from within Tempest’s console. "The jump-coordinator’s been hit!" he informed me. Outside, the jump window flashed through thousands of different scenes. "We have to abort the nova!"

"Are you kidding?" A beeping from the console informed me that a missile had a lock on our position and was homing in on us.

"If we jump, I have no idea where we’ll end up!"

"Anywhere’s better than here!"

There was a brief pause. "Good point," he said, and the jump window passed over us.

* * * * * * * * * *

"Incredible!" Fear said, shaking his head. I still wasn’t completely convinced he believed me. "Half a second from being fragged, the ability to jump anywhere in the galaxy, and you choose to nova behind the Aardvark? The ship, momentarily confused, comes to a stop, and you have just enough time to lock on a few heat-seekers and ram them up its rear?"

It was close enough to the truth. The jump window passed over us, and Tempest and I both let out a sigh of relief, until we realized we were still in the Vartherik system. The nova drive could have taken us anywhere in the universe and we ended up approximately a thousand meters from where we started, staring at the tail end of the Aardvark. Sometimes I don’t find the universe’s little jokes so funny.

"How’d you know the missiles would penetrate the vitrilium armor?" Fear asked suspiciously.

My head hurt from all the fast thinking. "I figured the exhaust ports would have to link directly to the fusion drive." I paused dramatically, stalling for time.

The part about the Aardvark being confused was true. After all, Badgers weren’t supposed to nova. And the part about the missile was true too. Kind of. The Aardvark’s heat seeker, the one that had targeted us, passed through the jump window just before it closed. Arriving in the engine wake of the Aardvark, it now had a better heat source than my poor little Dragon could offer.

"Tempest’s scans confirmed my suspicion, so I fired the missiles. The Aardvark had enough time to get a detailed scan of the Dragon. They had to know it was NOVA-equipped. Really, I didn’t think we had any other choice."

"Hmmm," Fear said, climbing up the boarding ladder. "You didn’t think it was too dangerous, Tempest?" He peered inside the cockpit, not quite sure how to scrutinize the face of a disembodied AI.

There was a pause. I closed my eyes, knowing my cover was blown. "Commander Cougar has proven himself most resourceful since we’ve been teamed together. I have the utmost faith in his abilities." I couldn’t believe it. He sounded so sincere, I almost believed him.

"Hmmm," Fear said again, dropping back to the deck. "Only one thing confuses me," he admitted. "If you destroyed the Aardvark, then where have been for the last few months? And how’d you end up on a salvage and repair station halfway across the galaxy?"

The silence was noticeable.