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Chapter 34

"It's no good. They've got a lock on us," said Cora from beside him. We're going to have to do something to shake them off."

"Not at warp speed," replied Levi. "And we're still in dead space. There's nothing here to hide behind. Any chance you can disable the speed max? It could give us an edge if I can fly this baby to its limits."

Cora gave him an incredulous look and then shook her head. "You'd better know what you're doing," she commented as she hacked into the pod's computer system. "There's a fine line between safety protocols and strawberry jam!"

A missile came shooting past them way too close. "Fuck," said Levi, applying the reverse thrusters. They lurched in their seats, threatening to lose consciousness as the little vessel slowed down too rapidly for their comfort. The entire craft groaned alarmingly. It was not designed for that kind of stress.

"It won't shake them for long," said Levi.

"I've got the charts up of this area, and this patch of dead space is absolutely massive. The only thing between us and the Hatha Quadrant is an asteroid. We won't stand a chance if it comes to a dog fight with them. Will we?"

"You never know. But is it likely? Not exactly."

"Could we use the stone on them?" asked Cora.

"I doubt it. It would likely take us out, too, unless we have a rocket to shoot it out, and even then, it's risky. If it doesn't deploy, we might just be handing it to them all over again."

The dots that represented the other escape pods from the Imperial Surfer were turning and heading back toward them.

"Where's that asteroid again, Cora?" asked Levi.

"There. Why?" Cora quickly got a lock on it and set it as a destination point on their star chart. "Perfect," said Levi. "You'd better hold onto your lunch. This could get bumpy!" With that, he accelerated at full throttle in the direction of the asteroid.

The tiny craft shook with the forced velocity. He was keeping it just under the point where the tolerance of the little pod could fail.

The giant asteroid came into view, millions of tons of rock and ice hurtling through space and leaving a long tail streaming out behind it.

"What's the plan?" asked Cora. "We can only duck and dive around that thing for so long before we're either taken out by the Jorvlens or wiped out by the asteroid."

"Not if we land on its surface," replied Levi.

He heard her gasp of horror beside him. "That sounds a little suicidal," she said.

"It's perfectly feasible. I'm one of the best pilots on Lorr. Why do you think my brother gave his ship to me and not one of my older brothers? They land missiles on asteroids all the time."

"But that's missiles. We're in a little escape pod; the forces on that thing could be catastrophic," Cora replied.

"Not if you land on it traveling at the same speed. In the early days, they used to mine the minerals off them like that." Levi tried to sound optimistic.

"So why did they stop using that method?" Cora asked pointedly.

"They discovered it was easier to blow them up and put out nets to pick up the pieces."

"Not because they lost too many mining craft then?"

Levi loved that his woman was super intelligent, but he could never get one over on her. That was for sure. "Okay, there were a few mishaps, but what choice do we have? We have two bad choices—a dodgy landing, or getting shot down."

"When you put it like that, what are we waiting for?" Cora said with a tight little laugh. "Won't they just lock on to us on the surface of the asteroid and pick us off anyway?"

"Well, that's where you come in. We have to shut the pod down completely. There can be no readings whatsoever from us on the surface of the asteroid, or they'll find us." Levi maneuvered the pod into position, flying parallel to the body of the asteroid.

"You know what you're asking. Don't you?" said Cora. "If I shut everything down, we only have the oxygen contained within the pod until we reboot the pod, and who knows how long that might take."

"Yes, I know that." He brought the pod in closer to the asteroid. They could feel the turbulence of the slipstream already.

"And then the heating system will go off." Cora's anxiety was palpable. "The pod will rapidly cool to sub-zero temperatures. Within maybe ten or fifteen minutes, the interior of the pod will have cooled to minus 455 degrees Fahrenheit."

"It's our only hope, them not detecting us," he said, desperately trying to concentrate on landing them safely on the surface. They could worry about the rest after.

"I think you just might be crazy," she said.

"Hold on, this next bit will be rough," Levi said through gritted teeth.

The tiny craft bounced around alarmingly and Levi had to struggle to keep a hold of it. "Come on, baby. You can do it," he hissed through his tightly clenched teeth.

With a final bump, the vehicle landed safely on the surface of the hurtling asteroid.

"Woohoo!" he yelled exultantly.

Cora started laughing beside him. "That was amazing!" she said. "I can't believe you did it!"

"Still think I'm crazy?" he asked.

"Absolutely certain of it," she replied with a massive grin on her face.

"We need to power off before they get here," he said. "They can't detect us or it will all be for nothing."

Cora started pressing buttons beside him. "Are you sure about this?" she asked.

"It's the only way it will work," he replied.

"Okay then," she said and initiated the process to shut it down using the rapid override. They were left in almost total darkness.

They could just make out the Jorvlen pods circling the asteroid. Levi hoped they wouldn't guess their tactic. They would only have to circle the asteroid to figure it out, and it was one small step to land on the surface and recapture the stone.

The temperature in the pod was dropping rapidly. Levi pulled Cora into an embrace to share body warmth. The feel of her trembling form beneath his large hands overwhelmed him, and he kissed her deep and hard. If these were their last moments together, he wanted to make them count.

The kiss was long and passionate, but eventually, they pulled away from one another. "Hey, you're making both our hearts race, that's going to use up our oxygen a lot faster," teased Cora.

"Yes, but it's also going to keep us warmer," he retorted, going in for another kiss.

He could feel his head going dizzy when they broke again, and it had nothing to do with the passion of their kiss. He checked the screen, and the Jorvlens were still circling, like the flies on Jorvla. Maybe there was an evolutionary link. Go away, damn you, he thought.

His hand hovered over the start button that would both save their lives if they ran out of oxygen yet doom them, too, if they started the craft before the Jorvlens left. Cora was going limp in his arms from hypoxia and cold, and Levi's teeth were chattering when the Jorvlen pods finally gave up and flew away. He assumed they thought they crashed into the floating debris.

Still, he waited, just in case. He could feel his head going woozy, and then, all of a sudden, he suddenly felt warm and comfortable.

With all the will he had, he hit the start button and smiled as the life support fired back up.

They'd done it. They had the stone and had escaped the Jorvlen pursuit as far as they could tell. Having the stone could make all the difference in the war raging between the two sides. However, if they took down the cartel, the Jorvlens would be starved of their lifeblood, the one that gave them their ill-gotten profits and subdued half of the universe on a poison that was too dangerous to sell.

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