Outbound Flight

Outbound Flight

Chapter 1

The light freighterBargain Hunter moved through space, silver-gray against the blackness, the light of the distant stars reflecting from its hull. Its ru

Its drive gu

"Hang on!" Dubrak Qe

Clenching his teeth firmly together to keep them from chattering, Jorj Car'das got a grip on his seat's armrest with one hand as he finished punching coordinates into the nav computer with the other. Just in time; theBargain Hunter jinked hard to the left as a pair of brilliant green blaster bolts burned past the bridge canopy. "Car'das?" Qe

"I'm snapping, I'm snapping," Car'das called back, resisting the urge to point out that the outmoded nav equipment was Qe

"Terrific idea," Qe

The last word was punctuated by another cluster of blaster shots, this group closer than the last. "Rak, the engines can't hold this speed forever," Maris Ferasi warned from the copilot's seat, her dark hair flashing with green highlights every time a shot went past.

"Doesn't have to be forever," Qe

On Car'das's board a light winked on. "Ready," he called, punching the numbers over to the pilot's station. "It's not a very long jump, though-"

He was cut off by a screech from somewhere aft, and the flashing blaster bolts were replaced by flashing starlines as theBargain Hunter shot into hyperspace.

Car'das took a deep breath, let it out silently. "This isnot what I signed up for," he muttered to himself Barely six standard months after signing on with Qe

And this time it was aHutt they'd frizzled. Qe

"You okay, Jorj?"

Car'das looked up, blinking away a drop of sweat that had somehow found its way into his eve. Maris was swiveled around in her chair, looking back at him with concern. "I'm fine," he said, wincing at the quavering in his voice.

"Of course he is," Qe

Car'das braced himself. "You know, Qe

"It isn't; and don't," Qe

"Progga the Hutt isnot the sort of person you want mad at you," Car'das said anyway. "I mean, first there was that Rodian-"

"A word about shipboard etiquette, kid," Qe

"I'd settle for it not being the last tour of my life," Car'das muttered.

"What was that?"

Car'das grimaced. "Nothing."

"Don't let Progga worry you," Maris soothed. "He has a rotten temper, but he'll cool off "

"Before or after he racks the three of us and takes all the furs?" Car'das countered, eyeing the hyperdrive readings uneasily. That mauvine nullifier instability was definitely getting worse.

"Oh, Progga wouldn't have racked us," Qe

"Working on it," Car'das said, checking the computer. "But the hyperdrive-"

"Heads up," Qe

The starlines collapsed back into stars, and Car'das keyed for a full sensor scan.

And jerked as a salvo of blaster shots sizzled past the canopy.

Qe

"He followed us," Maris said, sounding stu

"And he's got the range," Qe

"Trying," Car'das called back, fighting to read the computer displays as they bounced and wobbled in front of his eyes. There was no way it was going to calculate the next jump before even Qe

But if Car'das couldn't find a place for them to go, maybe he could find all the places for themnot to go..

The sky directly ahead was full of stars, but there was plenty of empty black between them. Picking the biggest of the gaps, he punched the vector into the computer. "Try this one," he called, keying it to Qe

"What do you meantry? " Maris asked.

The freighter rocked as a pair of shots caught it squarely on the aft deflector. "Never mind," Qe

Maris exhaled in a huff. "That wastoo close."

"Okay, so maybe heis mad at us," Qe

"I didn't have time to calculate a proper jump," Car'das explained. "So I just aimed us into an empty spot with no stars."

Qe

"We don't have enough data in that direction for him to have done a proper calculation anyway," Maris said, coming unexpectedly to Car'das's defense.

"That's not the point," Qe

"No, the point is that he got us away from Progga," Maris said. "I think that deserves at least a thank-you."