Twin streams of plasma left our carrier and nicked a stray missile that was on the starboard side of the battle cruiser. I half expected for it not to explode, but it erupted in a ball of angry lava, and the cruiser bounced away from the impact as its hull began to glisten.
Another missile exploded on the port side of the Elaka Nota ship, and this one set off a chain reaction of explosions and shrapnel that ate into the hull of the enemy battle cruiser like a fat man taking bites out of a submarine sandwich. The vessel began to twist into three separate dripping parts, and everyone let out a cheer.
“Fuck you, Elaka Nota!” Zea laughed as she flipped both middle fingers up at the deteriorating spaceship. “No one messes with the King and his Queens!”
“Great job everyone,” I said with an exhale of relief. “Paula and Kasta, you both okay?”
“Kinda,” Paula laughed. “Feel like a kitten that accidently got stuck in a clothes dryer.”
“Shit,” I sighed. “Are you hurt at all? Is your suit--”
“I’m alright,” she said. “We managed to get to a bulkhead seat before the real fun started. Are we good to get back to the repairs?”
“Yeah,” I said, “and as soon as you are done, we are going to hyperdrive one system away and transfer everyone over. Good or bad, there is just a little too much luck in this place.”
“Perhaps we have caught the attention of Loki in addition to Odin and Freyja,” Aasne said. “He might be playing games with us.”
“Naw,” I said. “The only one up to their usual tricks is Elaka Nota, and as soon as we finish with the Jotnar, those motherfuckers are next on my list.”
Chapter 11
It took Paula and Kasta another fifteen minutes to do the repairs. Zea hit the gravity and life support systems on the cruiser, and the systems seemed to hold just fine. Juliette said that it was pretty obvious that there was a patch there, but I decided that we could work it into our story if we were questioned somewhere in Jotnar’s home system.
I wanted to speak with Eve face to face, but I had to wait until the repairs were finished and both ships exited hyperdrive one solar system over. Then we docked the two vessels together and we all met in the cruiser’s hold to go over the next part of our plan.
“We have a lot of work to do and not a lot of time,” I said as I looked at everyone. “Anyone know how many light years away we are from Jotnar’s home sector?”
“I checked when we came out of hyperdrive,” Zea said. “Sixteen and a half light years.”
“Pretty far,” I sighed.
“Our new ship is way faster than the corvette.” Zea shrugged. “Two light years per hour for one hour with a ten hour charge would take us shy of ninety hours. This big girl does four light years per hour for three hours and an eight hour charge. It will take us thirteen hours to get there.”
“And we’ll be in a Jotnar ship.” Aasne grinned. “Perhaps the next phase of our plan will be easier?”
“Yeah,” I said as an idea suddenly came to me. “Kasta, how are you with voices?”
“Voices?” she asked as she raised a blonde eyebrow.
“Can you sound like someone else?”
“Yeah, I can do that, beautiful,” she said, and her voice sounded exactly like mine.
“Wow,” Zea laughed.
“It’s super easy,” Kasta said in the hacker’s voice. “I just gotta plug the right sounds into my processor and then blam! I’m like a voice ninja.”
“Do I really sound like that?” Zea asked, and the other women laughed as her face turned a bit red.
“How many escape pods are missing?” I asked as I turned to Juliette and Zea.
“None,” Juliettle said with a shrug. “They are all on board.”
“Perfect,” I said. “Probably means the captain is dead along with the crew.”
“Wouldn’t there be more bodies on the bridge then?” Zea asked. “We just found the one guy who--”
“He probably cleared them out,” I replied, “but we’ll do a search on the ship. Here is the short-term plan.” I gestured to the interior of the cruiser. “Paula and Kasta are going to finish welding the inside of the bulkhead. Long term, Kasta’s going to try to find any recordings of the previous captain speaking so she can try to learn his or her voice. Get the repairs completed first.”
“Got it,” the twins said in unison, and then they turned to jog back toward where the damaged wall had been patched.
“Juliette and Zea, you are going to set the navigation on the corvette to return to Nordar 13. Leave a message on the log for Madalena and update our plans.”
“Hmmm,” Juliette said. “It’s against the law to set warp and hyperdrives for auto engage. There isn’t even a setting to do it.”
“You going to go police officer on us right now?” I smirked at her.
“No,” she laughed.
“I’m the king,” I said with a shrug. “My word is law.”
“Our lord and husband is correct,” Aasne said. “He does not need to care about the rules of mere humans and--”
“But it’s going to be impossible to change the systems,” Juliette argued. “We’ll have to--”
“That’s what Zea does,” I explained as I pointed at the hacker. “She got this cruiser working with a pulse pistol magazine. She can figure out how to get the corvette to flip out of the drives automatically.”
“You fucking bet I can,” Zea said. “Come on, Red, let’s get to it.”
“Red?” Juliette asked with a bit of indignation in her voice.
“It’s not as cool sounding as ‘Blondie,’” Zea laughed, and then the two women walked back through the boarding tube toward the corvette.
“Aasne and Elana, I need you both to move the food over,” I said.
“What about the weapons?” Aasne asked.
“I’m conflicted,” I said. “We’ve got centerfire gear onboard, and Nordar would use pulse.”
“I do not think it would be an issue,” Elana said with a shrug of her slender shoulders. “We Nordar love weapons. The more on our ship, the merrier.”
“Alright,” I said. “Bring them all aboard and give me an inventory of what is left in this ship’s armory.”
“Yes, my king,” Elana said, and then they both followed Zea and Juliette into the boarding tube.
As soon as my two wives had walked out of earshot, I turned to Eve and reached my arms out for her. She fell into my embrace quickly and pushed her face into my chest.
“You alright?” I asked.
“Yes, my love,” she whispered.
“Tell me what happened.”
“I felt her mind try to enter mine. At first I thought that she meant to speak with me and try to find peace between us. But no, she was trying to incapacitate me. She knew me, or at least, she knew of me. She hated me. It is strange since she does not know me.”
“This means that Elaka Nota finally figured out how to use these women as weapons,” I said.
“And trackers,” Eve replied. “Yu mentioned something about the hyper and warpdrives and your dreams. I wonder if my blood sisters are able to sense me when I travel that way.”
“Hmm,” I said as I considered her words. “Can you sense them?”
“No,” she whispered as she shook her head. “Perhaps they are more powerful than me.”
“You said you fought her though?”
“Well, yes.” Eve smiled slightly. “Perhaps they are not more powerful than me. When she tried to enter my mind it was akin to a puppy scratching at a door. I opened the door, grabbed her by the tail, and spun her over my head a few times before tossing her outside.”
“Hot damn,” I laughed.
“Then I followed her out,” Eve said. “I was able to see what she saw on the bridge of her ship. I made the pilot faint and then pushed their throttle all the way to the max before I came back to my own body.”
“Incredible,” I laughed. “So our plan only worked because of you.”
“It was a great plan. I doubt that my interference did more than help slightly. Zea and Juliette are the heroines that executed your plan and saved our lives.”
“That is one of the many things I love about you,” I said as I hugged her tighter in my arms. “You give others the credit.”
“You do the same, my love,” she whispered. “That is why you are such a great leader, king, and husband.”