Chapter 16: Throttle Sixteen

Throttle Sixteen

Diana glanced around as they jetted into the ship graveyard. The massive wrecks of destroyed ships still lay around, huge tombs of metal with new pockmarks and holes punched into them. A few were on fire now, and some crashed ships lay discarded across the wasteland, some with their crews huddled next to them.

The wide open space left plenty of room for Diana to see Krison’s ship out ahead.

The bone Crusher looked fresh and new. Not a ding on it, as if it hadn’t just stayed in the lead for an entire lap of what was essentially a death race.

Diana planned on changing that.

She flicked on the comms to the Purple Streak. “I’m going to test his shields. I need to see how they work to figure out a way to disable them. Keep on target.”

“Can do,” Zil Rossi said.

Diana pushed the throttle up, and soon she was gaining on Krison.

They had to weave around the body of an ancient tanker, then duck under a bridge formed by a long, spindly ship leaning up against another wreck. Ahead, the path forked along in a few directions. Diana was eyeing those, wondering which direction Krison would go in, when the Bone Crusher shot its main gun out ahead of itself.

Dirt and scrap were tossed into the air, and Diana swerved to avoid the worst of it. When she cleared the cloud of debris, she noticed the Bone Crusher zipping through the furthest path.

“What the hell,” Diana muttered. She didn’t have time to catch up to it.

“All the paths lead to the same place,” Zil Rossi’s voice came through. “The one he took is a little faster, but a lot more treacherous.”

“He’s planning on giving us the slip!” Diana said.

Her ship was faster, so was the Purple Streak. She figured that Krison was going to try to make up for that by gaining a bit of a lead now, before the final jump and the race to the finish line.

Diana kept the throttle steady, and she heard rather than saw the Purple Streak catching up until the other ship was hovering just behind and to the side.

“Don’t worry,” Zil Rossi said. “I keep my word. Second place is good enough to qualify in most of the races I want to join.”

“You’ll have to tell me about them,” Diana said.

“And get even more competition?” Zil Rossi laughed. “I don’t think so.”

They stayed fairly close until the paths ahead converged. Diana squinted, looking for the Bone Crusher’s trail, but she couldn’t see it.

They passed the intersection, and Diana started to get a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. “Where is he?” she muttered.

“Ahvie sees him! He’s behind us!”

Diana half-turned in the cockpit and stared out the back.

The Bone Crusher swerved out of a side path and slid into place behind them. The ship was a hundred metres back.

“He slowed down,” Diana said.

Then the Bone Crusher’s gun flashed, and Diana shoved them to the side. There was no way to dodge that, though. No warning, and too little room between the two ships.

All that saved them was that Krison wasn’t aiming for her.

The Purple Streak exploded. A scream sounded out on the radio for just a fraction of a second before the ship next to the Scrap Rocket turned into a spinning mess of disintegrating metal.

Diana cursed and juked out of the way.

“Shit, shit, shit.” Diana pulled back on the throttle and pitched their nose up. The Scrap Rocket flew up, then came back down, Diana tugging them to the side and out of the Bone Crusher’s path.

Krison just slowed down even more.

“He’s keeping behind us, the bastard,” Diana said. She shoved the throttle back up and wove to the side.

Another blast sounded out, and one of the derelict ships ahead gained a new hole in its hull. Diana was sweating as she kept glancing back.

“What can Ahvie do?” Ahvie asked.

“Nothing, let me fly,” Diana said.

She went over her tools. A ship that was in rough shape, but which was faster than her opponents. Less manoeuvrable, though. A single handgun with a few rounds left in it. A terrified mechanic. And no allies.

The comms crackled, and for a moment she expected to hear Zil Rossi’s voice over the line.

“You annoyed me,” Krison’s voice muttered.

“You!” Diana said.

“Yes, me. I did not think that the little mirian would be a real challenge. You annoyed and surprised me in equal measure.”

“Yeah, I aim to surprise,” Diana said.

“I don’t have to kill you,” Krison said. “Take the next path out. Fall behind. You’re not even armed. You will only die if you’re greedy.”

“I can die after I’ve won,” Diana said through gritted teeth.

The line was silent except for the murmur of the Bone Crusher’s engines. “Twenty thousand credits.”

“What?” Diana asked.

“For you to get out of my way. It’s a good amount.”

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Diana glanced back. She caught Ahvie’s eyes, the smaller alien still hidden in her mechanic’s compartment.

“Ahvie thinks that it’s a good amount? What Ahvie might make from a small haul.”

She slapped the comms off.

Diana’s grip on the yoke tightened. She stared past Ahvie and at the ship behind her. The Bone Crusher was dirty. Then her eye caught onto a piece of metal hanging onto one of the grills at the front of the ship. It was purple. “Ahvie, I need you to take control of the ship,” she said.

“What?”

“His shields, how do they work?”

“You want Ahvie to explain shields now?” Ahvie squeaked.

They were getting closer to the end of the ship graveyard.

“No. Can something moving at the same speed as the ship bypass the shields?”

“They should be tuned to stop fast-moving projectiles. His engines need air, he can’t block everything.”

Diana grinned. “Get ready to take control, alright?”

“What?!” Ahvie said.

Diana slowed them down, then twisted the ship’s winglets so that they acted as airbrakes.

The Scrap Rocket slowed down so hard that she was almost pitched to the front of the cockpit. “Are you ready?” Diana shouted.

“Ah-Ahvie’s ready! But Ahvie doesn’t know how to fly well.”

“Just hold us steady, that’s all,” Diana said.

The Bone Crusher slid out of their path, avoiding a mid-air collision.

Diana immediately gave them more gas and matched the other ship’s speed until they were neck and neck.

She saw Krison glancing to the side, obviously not amused by whatever Diana had in mind, but he didn’t let up. Her ship was smaller, if they rammed, he had shields and she didn’t.

Then Diana moved them so close together that as they took the next curve, they were almost, almost touching.

“Take control… now!” Diana said.

She let go of the yoke.

The ship wobbled, but held even.

Diana grinned, grabbed the edge of the cockpit, then pulled herself out of it.

“What are you doing?” Ahvie screamed.

“Winning,” Diana said. “I’m always winning.”

Then she slid down the side of the Scrap Rocket, jumped off the end of a wing, and crashed bodily into the Bone Crusher’s side.

Her hands gripped onto the jutting metal plates of the ship’s armour, and she held back a scream as she was almost yanked off the ship’s side by the passing wind.

Krison turned, then stared at her.

His jaw was slack, and she wondered, briefly, if that meant the same thing in osel body language as it did in human.

She crawled across the surface of the ship until she was right next to the cockpit. Diana reached to her side, and slid her handgun out from its sheath.

Krison started screaming something inside his cockpit and he fired his ship’s gun.

Dust and bits of stone rattled against the surface of the ship, but none of it distracted Diana.

She raised her handgun and fired. The glass-like side of the cockpit gained first one, then two holes. She glared at it, then punched the glass for good measure.

Krison’s screams were a lot clearer as she reached into the cockpit and undid the latch holding the top in place. The moment she lifted it enough, the wind tore the entire canopy off.

Diana fell on top of the osel and planted the still-hot barrel of her gun against his head. “Did you try to bribe me?” she screamed.

“You’re insane!”

“I asked you a question! Did you try to bribe me?” she shouted. “Because shooting me? That’s fine. Coming in the race with some friends? That’s dirty, but it’s not against the rules. But trying to fucking bribe me? You have no idea how insulting that is.”

“I’ll give you more!” he shouted.

Diana slapped him. “I don’t want your money.”

“What do you want?!” Krison asked. He was crying.

Diana leaned in close. “I want to win. Fair and square. So you hold onto the yoke, and don’t let go until the end. And if you try some dirty shit like that again, I will be back here. I won’t be as gentle next time. You understand?” she asked.

Krison screamed, but he seemed to get the message.

***

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