Last Chance by Victoria Zagar Read Free Book Online Page B

side, Anton. Stay safe. The glass was lowered and he took a deep breath from his mask as the alarms rang to clear the deck. He looked to the side of him as his engines fired up to see Anton beating at his cockpit controls. Something’s wrong, he realized, as they fired off into space. He felt his stomach twist into a pretzel as he looked around for Anton’s ship. He saw it firing on one thruster, the other one spluttering. He opened a private comms channel to Anton’s ship.
    “Go home, Anton. Turn the ship around and get home safely.”
    “I promised I’d protect you!” Anton yelled. “I won’t go back now!”
    “Yes, you will,” Julian said. “Please.”
    Anton fired up the main comms channel. “This is Ship B-23, Pilot Songstar. Requesting emergency landing clearance.”
    “I love you,” Julian whispered down the comms channel, before cutting it off and firing his afterburners. His ship shot ahead to join the rest of the squad, leaving Anton to slowly turn around and hobble back to base.
    Anton landed his ship safely. Once the bay doors had closed, he jumped out of his ship, tearing his helmet off. “Get this thing fixed!” He rounded on the chief engineer. “Isn’t there another fighter I can use?”
    “Sorry, buddy. All the fighters are out. There’s nothing I can do for you.” The engineer pulled a panel off the side of the ship and peered inside, contemplating the complex maze of wiring as he spoke to Anton.
    “I can’t just watch,” Anton said. “My boyfriend is out there alone!”
    “He’s got his squad,” the engineer pointed out. “I’m sorry. There’s nothing I can do.”
    Anton pointed to an old ship still on the deck. It was half-covered with a tarp that was slipping off. It looked dusty, but serviceable. “What about that?”
    “That’s an old Dragon fighter. I can’t let you take that.” The engineer sighed, fiddling at wires and making Anton feel like he was an insect on the man’s shoulder.
    “Is it still operational?” Anton stuck his head into the panel and looked at the engineer.
    “Sure, but you don’t even know how to fly it. You haven’t had the training.” The engineer moved his head to see around Anton.
    “I’ll figure it out,” Anton said. “Ready her for launch.”
    “You can’t order me about,” the engineer protested.
    “Look,” Anton said, grabbing the engineer by his overalls and pulling him out of the ship’s underbelly. “Everything I care about is out there. Ready the fighter or I’ll do it myself.” He looked into the engineer’s eyes with a steel gaze until the man backed down.
    “You got it,” the engineer sighed. “I don’t want to hear a thing about how it handles, though.”
    Anton realized what he meant as he fought with the controls, shakily flying the Dragon out of the hangar bay. Damn, he thought. Perhaps I made a mistake. Maybe I can’t fly this thing after all. He could see fighting in the distance, the flashes of laser fire and the orange glow of explosions. I have to get used to it. Julian is out there. He needs me.
    He pulled the fighter into a loop and tested out the weapons systems. The laser fire was weak compared to the new fighters, a single burst instead of double, but he liked the accuracy of it. Satisfied with his five-minute training session, he found the afterburner control and raced ahead to meet his squad.

    * * *

    Julian saw a strange ship swoop past him. He turned to fire on it before seeing the Alliance markings on the side. What kind of a ship is that? Is it some experimental fighter?
    His comm unit sprang to life. “This is Songstar,” Anton said. “I managed to get myself a replacement fighter. It’s not shiny, but it’ll have to do. I’m with you.” He fired on an enemy fighter and it exploded.
    “Jules, on your tail!” Anton yelled. It took Julian a second to react to his real name instead of his callsign, a second too long as the laser burst hit him from behind and disabled his