Part 2 (1/2)
”Seventh peak from the whale, keep right into the mists of forever,” Yumi said.
Alisa groaned. What in the h.e.l.ls did that mean? ”If we make it there and meet your mother, make sure to point her out to me so I can strangle her.”
”She's a Sta.r.s.eer,” Yumi said. ”Attacking her wouldn't be wise.”
”I haven't done much that would qualify as wise this month. Why would I want to start now?”
A blue beam sliced through the view from the port camera, and Alisa took them even closer to the icy contours of the mountain, practically scratching the Nomad's belly on the frozen slopes and ridges as she used the terrain for cover. For now, the other s.h.i.+p was following them at the same alt.i.tude, but it was only a matter of time before the pilot realized he could simply climb higher and take shots at them from above the mountain. She tried to tempt him into flying recklessly right behind her, on the chance that he might miscalculate and crash, or at least nick something that would damage his s.h.i.+p and slow him down.
Leonidas activated one of the navigation monitors in the console in front of him.
”Pull up a map, will you?” Alisa asked.
”That's what I'm doing,” he said.
”The sensors are all right for flying around asteroids, but they're not good at differentiating flat ground from poky ground.”
”Rea.s.suring,” Alejandro murmured.
”You got a harness on, Doctor?” Alisa asked.
”There don't seem to be any more seats available.”
”Plenty in the rec room.” Alisa banked hard as the enemy s.h.i.+p came into view on the rear camera, cannons firing.
A grunt came from the corridor.
”Rec room, right,” Alejandro said. ”Keep me apprised.”
”Yeah, that'll be my first priority,” Alisa muttered.
Leonidas glanced at her.
”Find me any hiding spots?” she asked. ”Or places where I can arrange to shave this wart off my a.s.s?”
”I had no idea pilots were so profane,” Yumi said.
”We're tame compared to infantry,” Alisa said. ”I'm sure Leonidas cussed every other word when he was in the fleet.”
”I was an officer,” he said.
”So you were more refined? You only cussed every third word?”
Leonidas turned his attention back to the display. ”I'm looking for a whale.”
”A whale? Under the ice?”
”The whale in Yumi's directions.”
Alisa scowled. Currently, she was more interested in finding a hiding place than in finding a temple full of reclusive mystics who may or may not help them.
”That was a nursery rhyme, not directions,” she said.
”Fly north,” Leonidas said, running his finger along the display.
”Because you've found something promising up there or because you're getting tired of me flying circles around this mountain?”
”Perhaps some of both.”
”There's a lot of flat ice to the north,” Alisa said, glancing at the sensors and then at their s.h.i.+eld status. Just under seventy percent remained. ”The Dragon s.h.i.+p will have a lot of clear sky to target us.”
”There's a string of exactly seven peaks up there.”
Alisa had concerns about shooting out into open air, but the enemy s.h.i.+p hadn't followed her around the last turn, perhaps growing sick of chasing her around and around the mountain. Its thrusters flared orange, and it tilted its nose upward. The pilot must be planning to climb above the peaks and fire at her from above, as she had feared he would.
”Heading north,” Alisa said. ”We're going to take some hits.” She tapped the comm. ”Mica, put everything you can into the s.h.i.+elds.”
”What do you think I've been doing?”
”I thought you were cuddling with the equipment.”
”Cuddling is for after the action, not during it. I thought you were experienced in these matters.”
”I haven't had much experience like that lately,” she grumbled, pus.h.i.+ng the engines as much as she dared planet-side. They broke the sound barrier, and she imagined polar bears and ice turtles being terrified as a boom erupted behind the freighter.
The White Dragon s.h.i.+p streaked after them, two e-cannons blazing. Alisa gritted her teeth as powerful energy blasts slammed into the rear of the freighter. The series of seven mountain peaks came into view ahead, but she worried they would not make it before the s.h.i.+elds failed.
Since the other craft had no trouble keeping up with them, Alisa slowed down enough to make evasive maneuvers. Once again, she weaved and banked, even looping behind the enemy to try and stay away from his weapons. She tried not to feel ridiculous entering into a dogfight with a freighter that had no weapons.
”The Northern Mists, also known as The h.e.l.ls' Leftovers, refers to a six-hundred-thousand square mile phenomena at Arkadius's north pole in which air and sea s.h.i.+ps often lose their way and occasionally disappear under mysterious circ.u.mstances,” Leonidas said. He had his netdisc out now, a holodisplay open before him. ”Various paranormal and superst.i.tious explanations are offered, including that it's a pickup zone for aliens hunting for humans to abduct for scientific experiments. Scientists only acknowledge that there's thermal activity under the sea that causes temperature changes and accounts for the mists.”
”Are you reading?” Alisa asked, twisting the clunky freighter into a semblance of a barrel roll to avoid the enemy s.h.i.+p. She kept heading them toward the mountains, but she was doing her best to avoid taking more fire along the way. The s.h.i.+elds had dropped to fifty percent power.
”Yes, cyborgs are capable of that, you know.”
”I didn't mean to imply you couldn't, just that I couldn't believe you are. Now. Aren't you airsick?” Alisa asked as she spun them in a corkscrew, the view screen alternately showing white ice and blue sky as they streaked over the frozen sea. The Nomad creaked and groaned, feeling the unaccustomed stress of gravity as she did her best to contort the craft to avoid fire.
”I don't get airsick,” Leonidas said.
”I do,” Yumi groaned from behind them.
Leonidas squinted at the view screen. ”Straighten us out for a few seconds.”
”Whose side are you on?” Alisa asked, but she complied.
The view screen settled with the white ice on the bottom and the first of the seven peaks looming up ahead. Only one sun remained in the sky, and it was low on the horizon, casting an orange fiery glow over the ice.
”See that rock formation jutting up over there?” Leonidas pointed. ”That could be a whale.”
Alisa was more interested in something else she saw in the distance, starting to the right of the mountains. Those clouds. They were even thicker and lower than she had realized, a bank of gray floating over the ice. Fog. Or maybe that was considered mist. She didn't care as long as it would obscure visibility. She hoped she would get lucky and that it would obscure the enemy's sensors too.