Anyway, this excerpt is from my YA scifi adventure Gethyon - a SFR Galaxy Award winner and EPIC finalist in the SF category. Here my young hero has not only fallen foul of the local authorities while trying to leave, but there's a bounty hunter on his tail as well...
The warden drew a blaster from the holster at its hip
and started to move toward Gethyon. I just can’t get on the good side of these
guys, Gethyon though ruefully, before
reaching for the controls and spinning the Drifter toward the hangar exit.
“Shut down your damn drive and surrender!” the
hysterical hangar crew yelled at him. Ha,
not likely! Gethyon gestured a nonchalant salute at the hangar tech who
leapt up and down, waving his arms in negation, and to the warden aiming at his
ship, before gunning his craft out of the hangar.
The flash of sunlight from the sea burned across his
sight, and he threw up an arm to shield his eyes before reaching for a control
that would cut the glare. A dark tint bled across the shattered canopy. The
damage limited his external vision so he called up the holographic guidance
system which drew the landscape outside over the interior of his ship in lines
of green, white and red. Clear of the hangar, he tugged the safety harness
around himself, and his ship juddered and rocked under a sudden assault. An
alarm shrieked at him as he clasped his hands to the controls. What the Hades did I hit?
The ship shuddered again in answer and jolted out of
the sky into a dive toward the sea. With his stomach doing somersaults, Gethyon
wrestled to pull her back up, and a shadow shot past the edge of his vision.
The Spirit Drifter turned her nose back up and another tremor shook her. Cold
drenched through him as another craft zipped overhead. Jinx.
He summoned up the shields and yanked his ship back
toward the tower. A touch of fingers swapped the schematic of his surroundings
to one that showed his craft as a silver arrow with one in yellow pursuing. Damn!
More shots hit his ship and shook it like a
storm-tossed leaf. A symphony of red warning and system failure indicators
blazed with increasing brilliance across his console and the intensity of the
alarms blossomed into skull-splitting vehemence.
“Siren off!” With it silenced, Gethyon tried to focus
on an escape. Jinx’s ship was faster and armed. His shields were already at
half-power. If he didn’t shake her off soon, he’d be grounded… or worse.
Two gigantic Seagrafter rigs crawled into the basin
barely a few meters apart. Gethyon swung his craft to the right of them and
followed a sharp arc in behind them, Jinx close on his tail. The sudden glimmer
of an idea filled his mind. He shot out straight toward the side of the basin,
even though it cost his craft two more shots to the rear and left his shields
perilously weak. As he neared the constructions, he flipped his craft over and
flew directly at Jinx who veered aside. In the few moments he knew he had
before she corrected for her drastic evasion, he directed the Drifter toward
the two Seagrafters and edged the ship lower. The shield touched the surface of
the sea, and it spumed water upward. The resulting friction vaporized the
water, adding steam to the fountain of liquid that veiled Gethyon’s craft and
provided a measure of protection.
The schematics glaring across his canopy showed Jinx’s
craft back in pursuit, but no shots followed as she left a greater distance
between them. Gethyon allowed himself a grin and aimed his craft at the gap
between the Seagrafters. There was barely a hand’s width to spare either side
of his curved wings as he flitted between them, and he held his breath. Then he
yanked back hard on the controls and forced the Drifter heavenward. He switched
his rear vision to real-time, saw Jinx’s craft scrape the side of one
Seagrafter and rebound into the other before plunging into the water.
The bounty hunter was down. Somehow, though, he
doubted that would be the last he would see of her.
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I love spaceships, too. Snap! Milano is a nice ship, a bit like the Millennium Falcon with class. And Gethyon's flying here is reminiscent of the escape from Hoth. Good stuff. Love the steam effect.
ReplyDeleteThanks Greta! Yeah, that Milano is a nice ship. But I'm willing to be lured back to the Dark Side when I get to see The Force Awakens. ^_^
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