Mal Single breathed a sigh of relief as the icy planet fell away beneath them.
"See," he said, "I told you everything would be okay!"
Shaggus whuffled something beneath his breath; Mal ignored him.
"Some day," Princess Labia Orgasma told him, "you're going to be wrong, and I just hope I'm around to see it."
Shaggus snorted, and growled loudly: I've seen it; it's not a pretty sight!
Mal continued to ignore his co-pilot. His fingers danced over the controls as he programmed the jump into hyperspace. Suddenly a klaxon went off, and they all jumped in surprise.
"What's that?" demanded Libby.
"Proximity alert," snapped Mal as he flicked a switch. "Damn, where the hell did they come from?"
"Who?" asked Libby, but Mal was busy taking evasive action. Libby felt her stomach lurch as he threw the ship into a tight roll, spiralling away from the new threat. After a short pause to be sure her breakfast wasn't going to come back up, she reached out and keyed the aft camera feed. Directly behind them, gaining rapidly, loomed the huge, triangular bulk of an Imperial Planetary Dominator.
"Where the hell did they come from?" she wondered aloud.
"That's what I said," said Mal tightly. "We nearly flew straight into them. Sorry. With the trajectory we were in, the Sparrow has a small blind spot."
"There's nothing small about a Planetary Dominator," said Libby.
"Hold tight," said Mal. He leaned sharply on the joystick, and the Serendipity Sparrow rolled out of the path of the oncoming behemoth and angled away. Libby hoped that she merely imagined the sound of the hull groaning under the extreme stresses. There was nothing imaginary about the loud clatter which suddenly sounded from somewhere beyond the bridge.
"What was that?" asked Libby.
Mal sighed. "I think Seepy just fell over. Shaggus, go get that damn 'bot secured; we don't want him bouncing around inside the cabin when we jump to light speed."
Grumbling, Shaggus stood and lumbered out of the small bridge.
"Hold tight," Mal called out after him, "only a few more seconds..."
The Sparrow rocked violently as incoming blaster fire raked her hull.
"Just a few more seconds," repeated Mal.
The hyperspace indicator light on the console began to flash, and Mal grinned.
"Watch this," he said triumphantly as he punched the hyperspace jump button. The jump engines whined briefly, then sputtered and died. Nothing else happened. The stars outside stubbornly refused to stretch into streaks of light.
"Watch what?" said Libby.
Mal punched the button again, with identical results. The Sparrow shook again as another blast seared her hull.
"Oh crap," said Mal.
"No light speed?" asked Libby.
The Sparrow rocked and shuddered, and a flight of four THIGH Fighters flashed past the cockpit window.
"I think," said Mal, "that we may have a small problem."
"No kidding," said Libby. "Can't you just, y'know, punch it? I thought that fixed everything?"
Mal frantically punched buttons but otherwise showed no sign of pursuing her suggestion. "Not that easy, I'm afraid," he muttered.
"What are you doing?" asked Libby.
"I'm setting the autopilot," Mal told her. "We've got a few evasive manoeuvres programmed into her; she'll keep us out of reach of that Dominator's attractor beam—for a while, at least."
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"Emergency repairs," he said. "If anything changes up here, let me know!" He turned and ran from the bridge.
The roguish smuggler and his tall woolly partner seemed to many to be an odd couple, but they knew their way around the engine room of the Serendipity Sparrow. There was barely room in the small chamber for the two of them, but somehow they managed to stay out of each other's way.
"What about this," shouted Mal. He was bent over a low railing, with his head buried deep within the open cowling of the hyperdrive engine. He was testing relays, one after the other.
Shaggus grunted. Not that one!
"This?"
No!
"What about..."
Suddenly the Sparrow shuddered in protest, and a loud clang echoed throughout the ship. Mal stood up, engine problems temporarily forgotten. His ship shuddered again, to the sound of another ringing impact.
"That was no laser blast," he said. "Something hit us."
The comm beeped, and Libby's voice said urgently: "get up here." The room was empty, however; Mal was already racing for the bridge, the Woonky close behind him. As they ran through the galley, Seepy Weepy—strapped firmly into one of the chairs—attempted to ask what was happening; they ignored him.
"What?" Mal asked as he dropped back into the pilot's seat.
Libby pointed. "Asteroids," she said simply.
Mal stared. Stretching away before them, as far as the eye could see, was a vast, drifting cloud of extremely large rocks. Without stopping to think, Mal switched back to manual control—and steered the Sparrow directly towards the heart of the asteroid field.
"What are you doing?" squealed Libby.
"Well, they'd be crazy to follow us, wouldn't they?"
"I take it back," said Libby quietly. "I'd much rather watch your mistakes from a nice safe distance, if you please."
"Too late to change your mind now," Mal told her shortly.
"Y'know, if you're trying to impress me..." she began.
"Please," he said, "I need to concentrate."
She nodded, and closed her mouth.
The Sparrow spun and weaved like a thriving cottage industry as Mal took her into the field. Behind them, THIGH Fighters followed closely in hot pursuit.
Aboard the Imperial Planetary Dominator Bermuda, Admiral Muzzel and Captain Pyotrovich were studying the tactical readouts. The fugitive freighter had angled into the chaos of the asteroid field. The Bermuda had come to a stop at its fringes—massive though the Imperial Planetary Dominator was, some of those rocks were large enough to pose a real threat to its safety—and a multitude of THIGH Fighters had pursued the fleeing ship into the field.
With the shifting mass of rock and iron out there, telemetry reception from the THIGH Fighters was hazy at best. As the Imperial forces pursued the freighter deeper into the field, the tactical screen was slowly becoming useless. Several Fighters had already been lost. Usually highly manoeuvrable, they were falling victim to their own gravity drives; in the depths of the asteroid field, with thousands of small masses all around them in close proximity, the gravity drives became unstable, and even had a tendency to draw the Fighters towards the nearest large asteroid.
On the screen, three more small icons representing THIGH Fighters shimmered and faded from view as their transponder signals were swallowed by the field. One flashed bright red and disappeared as the Fighter collided with a rock the size of a large freighter.
Admiral Muzzel winced.
"This is getting us nowhere, Captain," he said.
"I agree, sir," said the Captain. "Shall I order our Fighters to withdraw?"
"Withdraw?" said another voice. "Never!"
The two officers turned. Muff Farquhar stood behind them, tapping his swagger stick lightly against his leg.
The Admiral's eyes narrowed slightly. "But sir, they are getting hammered out there; amongst those asteroids, THIGHs are virtually ineffective."
"Asteroids do not concern me, Admiral," said the Muff darkly. "You will continue your pursuit until we catch, uh, whoever we are chasing." He blinked. "Who are we chasing, Admiral. I require a full status report at once."
"Of course, sir," said the Admiral. "If, uh, you will join me in the briefing room, I shall bring you up to date."
"Very well," said the Muff. He turned and strutted towards the door at the back of the bridge.
The Admiral leaned close to the Captain. "Recall our Fighters, Captain. Set up a sensor net around that field—if that freighter comes out, I want to know about it—and send in every probe 'bot we can spare."
"Yes sir," nodded the Captain.
The Admiral turned and strode quickly after the Muff.
"So, Admiral Muzzel," demanded Muff Farquhar, "what is our situation?"
"During our ground assault on the Rebel base on Hoff," said the Admiral, "several large transport ships took off from the surface; one has been captured. The others escaped into hyperspace. As our Troopers penetrated the base, one final small freighter—and several lone fighters—attempted to escape. We determined that, for a freighter as small as this one to wait so long before leaving, there was an eighty-three percent chance that someone vital to the Rebel cause would be on board. Therefore, of course, I ordered the Bermuda into pursuit."
"I see," scowled the Muff.
"The freighter—a small Firebug class ship, illegally modified—matches the profile of a freighter that fled Lord Vapour's forces some months back. It entered the asteroid field in an attempt to elude us. I have ordered a sensor net to prevent their escape, and launched probe 'bots to seek them out." The Admiral paused. "If they are still in one piece, we will find them."
"Very good, Admiral," said the Muff. "Any word from the other Dominators?"
"The IPD Scalene reports they have boarded the captured Rebel vessel. Heavy resistance has been encountered by the boarding parties, but they are making good progress through the ship. Many high-ranking Rebels have already been captured." The Admiral's eyes narrowed slightly. "The other Dominators have not been so lucky. They have been attempting to track the escaped transports. Every possible destination along their last known trajectories has been placed at the top of our target list."
"Excellent," said the Muff. He stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Admiral Muzzel," he said at last, "I seem to be, uh, that is I feel it is possible that I may have acted a little inappropriately, uh, earlier this afternoon."
"I am not sure what you mean, sir," said the Admiral, his face expressionless, his voice flat.
"I just, uh, I trust I did not say or do anything, uh, unbecoming an Imperial Muff?"
"I am sure that the Muff acted, in all ways, exactly as one might expect a Muff to act," said the Admiral carefully.
Muff Farquhar nodded. "Of course," he said. "Thank you, Admiral. You may carry on! Dismissed."
The Admiral clicked his heels together, saluted smartly, and marched out of the briefing room. The door hissed closed behind him.
"Jumped up little bastard," he muttered under his breath. "You'll get exactly what's coming to you."
"I think we've lost the last of the Fighters," said Mal as a fireball blossomed briefly in the view screen showing the aft video feed. He guided the Serendipity Sparrow around a tumbling asteroid, then surveyed his options. "I think I'll take us in closer to one of the bigger ones."
"Closer," gasped Libby.
Shaggus growled doubtfully.
"Yeah," said Mal. "We're gonna get pulverised if we stay out here much longer. I can almost feel my luck running out as we speak. The larger ones should provide a little more protection."
"If you say so," said Libby.
"There," said Mal. "That's just what I was looking for."
The asteroid he pointed to was large enough to be almost spherical in shape. Its surface was pocked and scarred with innumerable impact craters. It almost rated as a small planetoid.
"I see what you mean," said Libby, as the Sparrow skimmed over its surface. "But now what?"
"We need to put down somewhere until I can fix the hyperdrive." Mal frowned as he studied the rocky features rolling past beneath them.
Libby studied his profile. His lips were pursed in concentration beneath his long nose, and his strong chin was set in determination. His eyes were steely, hawk-like, as he scanned for somewhere to land his ship. His shock of brown hair was a little more tousled and unkempt than usual.
Suddenly he turned and caught her staring at him. He grinned, and she felt her cheeks burning as she looked away.
Shaggus snorted; the social interplay between humans often amused him.
"Down there looks good," said Mal. He pointed. It was a huge crater; at its centre, a large hole bored down into the rock. "We should be safely away from prying eyes in there."
He flew over the hole—it seemed to be a huge round tunnel, leading straight down into the asteroid. He reduced speed, and took the Sparrow into a wide, looping roll until she was headed directly down into the tunnel.
As he activated the fore spotlights, something moved in the gloom in front of them.
"I have a bad feeling..." began Libby. Before she could finish the sentence, something huge lunged up out of the hole towards the descending freighter. Mal didn't even have time to react. They had a brief impression of a massive worm-like thing headed their way, then the creature's jaws opened—revealing a mouth full of boulder-sized teeth—and snapped shut around the Serendipity Sparrow. The giant space worm retracted into its burrow to digest its latest meal.