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officialleehadan · 5 years

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Blackbird

This is one of my New Subscriber stories! For Sarah, who requested Hope Punk with Luka. This one is a little farther ahead, in HGE - Rise Above!

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“We’re getting a distress beacon.”

Ella looked up to see one of Luka’s bodyguards, she thought it was Right, in the doorway to the communal room. She was flipping through one of Luka’s books while he carefully took apart one of the kitchen conoles. It had been acting up recently and, never one to leave something broken, he was fixing it.

“Did we transmit it forward with my code?” Luka asked from under the console, only the bottom half of him visible as he rewired the processors. “Mother and LaShan shouted at me the last time I answered a distress beacon.”

“That’s because it was a pirate trap, and we would have gotten blown up or captured if you didn’t fly like the devil,” Right said pointedly, and winced. “I think they’ll make an exception. It’s the Blackbird.”

In a flash, Luka was out from under the console and running for the cockpit.

“Why didn’t you lead with that?” he snarled, angrier than Ella had ever seen him as he threw himself into the pilot’s chair. She scrambled to join him and flipped on the comm before he could reach for it himself. He spared her the slightest nod of thanks. “All hands, we’re making a Jump. Dammit Right, you know who’s on that ship!”

“I turned us around and kicked on the engines before I told you,” Right said, apparently unphazed by his boss’s anger. “And sent a reply on your code. It was urgeant, but not seconds-to-live urgeant. Breathe and get us there.”

Luka glared, but his hands relaxed on the controls when he saw that they were already at max speed without Jumping. It was just as well that it was Right who brought it to his attention. The towering bodyguard seemed to think of Luka more as a bratty younger brother than an employer.

Before Ella could ask who they were flying to save, the ship bucked smoothly, and the stars warped around them.

Jump tech was expensive. A combination of magic and science that slipped through one of the great loopholes in space travel.

It wasn’t possible to go faster than light, but it was possible to bend space around them the slightest bit, until they shot forward. A short Jump took minutes, and could take a ship from one solar system to another with relative ease.

A long jump, from one galaxy to another, took days, and took so much power than only the huge intergalactic cruisers could make the jump safely without the risk of running out of juice halfway there.

Of course, no that the Empire and the Alliance were working together, they were building a higway of sorts. A string of bases connecting their galaxy to their next nearest neighbor. Soon, anyone with a half-decent ship and a working Jump Drive would be able to visit the Alliance and explore the newest frontier.

But they weren’t making a long Jump today. When Ella glanced down at the coordinates of the beacon, she was relieved to see that the distressed ship was only one good Jump away.

And the Roja had top-of-the-line engines, as maintained by an overinvested technopath.

Space cracked around them, and Ella closed her eyes against the momentary nausea that always accompanied a jump-landing. No one was immune. Even Luka pressed his lips together and pushed through it. Electricity crackled along his hands, and the Roja rumbled

“What?” she asked and stared at the ship readouts. Whole blocks of the ships, engines, wings, and all, were shifting about, smooth on precision-rails. “How?”

“The Roja is fully modular,” Luka said tightly, and pointed to a set of controls. “I designed it to be whatever I need it to be. Hit that switch, and that switch.”

Ella did, and the readout changed again.

The Roja was one of the finest ships in the Black, but Ella thought they were a modified racing ship. Maybe even a hotrodded transport.

“How-“ she whispered as cannons folded out of the hull, and a pair of missile tubes slipped out along their wings. A mine deployer glided open off the back of their cargo hold, and a definitely-illegal communication jammer began broadcasting on all frequencies. “None of this is even sort-of legal!”

“We’re a Continental-class Destroyer. Imperial authorization and all,” Right said from behind her. Ella always wondered at the strange little alcoves behind the cockpit, but as Left joined his twin, back-to-back at newly revealed consoles, she understood.

Gunner stations. The Roja wasn’t just a transport. It was a weapon, small enough to go anywhere, to any base, but with the kind of firepower only the biggest and most powerful Destroyers carried.

The scene that met their eyes when they cut a path closer, weapons armed and ready, was all too common in the farthest reaches of the Empire. Pirates had cornered a mid-size runner ship, usually either smugglers or cargo transport, and were in the process of boarding.

Luka didn’t waste time.

“This is Luka Gol, aboard the Roja,” he said into an open broadcast. “Disengage and leave or we will open fire.”

Ella honestly didn’t expect it to work, but two of the three ships immediately threw up a white-flag signal and pulled back.

The third, locked into the Blackbird’s airlock, was hampered by their own ship. Even Luka couldn’t disengage from an airlock quickly without risking both ships in the process.

“Are they going to pull back?” Ella wondered as their guns trained on that third ship, enough firepower to level a good-sized starbase on a ship with barely eleven crewmembers. She didn’t particularly care if they fired on the pirates. Her parents where killed by raiders just like these ones. “What do we do if they don’t? We can’t fire on them while they’re attached. It could vent the Blackbird.”

“I’ll kill their ship,” Luka said darkly, and flicked his fingers. A new weapon armed. “That’s an electromagical charge bomb. “Pirate freighter Jenny, you have two Galactic minutes to evacuate your personel from the Blackbird and leave or I will personally blow your ship apart.”

“We’re on our way, Red Baron.” The crackly reply sounded scared. Ella was glad, and now she understood why exactly Luka could stand down three ships with his name alone. The Red Baron. She didn’t know he was the Red Baron. Hell, she didn’t know the Red Baron was real. “Two Galactic minutes. Understood.”

“Good,” Luka muttered darkly, and stared through the viewscreen until the ship pulled away and vanished in a blink of space. “Left, you tagged their ships?”

“Of course,” Left said cheerfully form his console. “The Portugal will meet them as soon as they land.”

“Make sure they’re charged with the crime they actually committed.”

“Yes Sir, Impie Sir.”

“I can hear what you really mean when you call me ‘Sir’.”

“Yes Sir.”

Pirates gone, and apparently being apprehended by a destroyer of all things, Luka eased them into the Blackbird’s space and connected their airlocks. As soon as they were locked, he took off at a run again, this time for the just-opening doors.

He didn’t make it. As the door opened, a young woman threw herself through the door. Luka barely had time to catch her before she hit the ground, and pulled her into a crushing hug.

“You have really good timing,” Ella heard her sai into his shirt as he murmured reassuraces into her ear and rocked her gently. Her accent was as pure Core as his, and she was shaken, but not weeping.“I thought you were heading to the Arctic?”

“Something came up,” Luka told her and pulled back to check her for injuries. “Are you hurt? If someone touched you, I’ll give them to Uncle Vlad with a happy heart.”

“I’m alright. My captain has panic rooms built into our escape pods. We locked ourselves in as soon as we got the capture-alert,” she assured him, and straightened her back proudly. Any jealousy Ella might have felt at the sight of her maybe-boyfriend holding another woman vanished the instant she got a good look at the woman in question. “The crew will be coming out soon. I got your reply-code and knew you were on your way.”

“Couldn’t let my favorite little sister get captured by pirates,” Luka said, confirming Ella’s half-formed suspicions, and kissed his sister’s head. “The Portugal will be collecting them shortly.”

“I’m your only sister,” she replied cheekily, and offered a hand to Ella. “Hello. I’m Maggie Gol.”

“Ella Rawlet,” Ella shook her hand. Maggie looked about seventeen, for all that her Core Pride made her seem older. “Your brother took apart our stove, but I think I can scrape up some tea for you. Sounds like you’ve had a hell of a day.”

“Pirates, forged documents, and Red Barons, Oh My,” Maggie said with a smile, and looped her arm through Ella’s, her other hand still firmly wrapped around her brother’s. Behind her, Left and Right were leading Luka’s other security onto the Blackbird. “I could definitely use a cup of tea.”

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HGE - Rise Above

Elizabetta Ralet saw something she shouldn’t, and met someone who might be able to fix her problems, if he doesn’t get them both killed first.

Hands on the Wheel

Dirt and Glitter (Subscriber only!)

Blackbird

In the Late Hours

Night District (Free on Patreon!)

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