New Elysium: Breakout

Pursuit of the Hunted Part 39

Ember closed her eyes and spread her senses wide. She was no longer just Ember the augment. She was the entire vessel. Everyone else was within her, space was now her playground.

Usually, she loved this part, but the stakes were high today.

Exhilarated she flipped the Ember around to face the newcomer. The Vesper ship in front of her was a standard military model, the same one that Ember herself had flown back in the day. 

But it also had weapons, which Ember was sorely lacking. 

...and yet it waited.

Red, I hope you are buckled in, she sent him. She shivered as she thought of Red. If there was one life inside she wanted to save it would be his. At least to prove one point, she'd left behind her old life entirely and would never go back. He'd never asked once they'd left Helion 7.

A signal from the other ship pushed its way into her thoughts. She patched it through making sure Red would be able to see it on his screen. She shared it with the Blackstar as well, not listening for a reply from them.

"Hello, Hannah."

Her blood ran cold. 

Pietr. 

Cold, unyielding in ideals, furiously committed to Neo-Tokyan authority. 

She remembered him from training. He'd been in her group, dead last in everything until New Caledonia.

"Pietr," She replied. She felt rather than heard Red ask a question. She ignored him, everyone but the Vesper in front of her.

"Your father says hello."

"That's nice," she snapped. "Why aren't you dead?"

"Always to the point," he laughed into the channel. "I always liked that about you."

"That doesn't answer the question."

"I agreed to help."

"You mean kill the rest."

"Whichever way you look at it. The houses must be preserved and they have been."

"So why are you here?"

"You're a loose end, Hannah." His voice had taken on a menacing tone. "You know your father doesn't like loose ends. The way I see it you can come quietly and let him strip every augment from your body like he wants, or you can die."

"You know I'm not going to come willingly."

"I know. I was counting on it in fact."

"You could never beat me in training, Pietr."

"I have weapons, you don't. I don't know what kind of ship you're flying, Hannah, but it doesn't have weapons."

Ember smiled to herself. "I don't need weapons for someone like you Pietr."

"Hannah, I'm supposed to take you back alive."

"And everyone else?"

"I can't answer for them."

"Not happening, Pietr."

"I was hoping you'd say that."

"I know," Ember trembled for a moment, taking a deep breath to calm herself. 

Ember, Red's voice was in her head. How good is he?

Good? Ember sat watching the other Vesper, he didn't move his ship, like an old western waiting for the other gun to be drawn first. He's the bottom dregs of our class...until New Caledonia at least.