The Chase (Huntress of the Star Empire Episodes 1-3) Read online

  Treska figured that as much of a threat as Micah may be, the Riktorians were, at least for the time being, much more of an imminent threat. That didn’t stop her from activating the restraint magnets again. The look of pained betrayal on his face sent an unexpected slice of guilt through her. “It’s for your own good. I can’t have you bouncing around in here like space-junk.”

  “Wouldn’t want to damage the goods.”

  “At least your hands aren’t over your head this time.” She sent him one last glare, then bolted into the cockpit and threw herself into the piloting couch. The HUD flickered to life, and her body connected to the ship’s systems. She felt the laser blasts as insect bites along her flank and knew they hadn’t yet penetrated her shielding. But that wouldn’t last.

  She re-routed power with a flick of her eyes. A twitch of her legs sent power to the main ion engines and she shot forward. She could “see” the other vessel now—an ugly, inelegant thing compared to the Needle’s Eye. She skated away from it on light limbs. It pursued her with lumbering inevitability, but she kicked a leg up and became a bird, spinning up along a different plane while her pursuer scrambled to adjust.

  The piloting couch grew warm and she caught a hint of acrid sweat. The HUD warned her of rising engine temps and she placed an open palm over her stomach, her motion sending a burst of reserve coolant into the engine cores.

  A gossamer net expanded in her field of view, filling it with golden light. She plunged forward, and it molded and tightened around her. She felt the energy net as a tight band around her breasts, keeping her from breathing deeply. She crossed her arms and shook it off with a directed electro-pulse, but the maneuver cost her juice to the defensive lasers.

  And it cost her awareness. The net had done its real work by temporarily blinding her to the sudden broadside of a plasma torpedo. The shields dispersed the force through the right side of the ship, but that only meant she felt a dozen smaller hammers pounding into her right side, instead of one big one. The ship lurched sideways and she heard Micah’s voice calling out.

  “Treska! You have to run! You can’t fight this!” His words were interrupted by a fit of coughing and she saw that a small fire had broken out in the main hold where a panel blew its circuits. She sent fire suppression to it with a flick of her finger. At the last second, she sensed another blow incoming and turned just in time for the torpedo to glance off the bottom edge of her ship.

  “Treska, you have to run! You’ve got fires breaking out back here again!”

  “What do you suggest I do?” Her dance became a stumble, and only the clumsiness of her movements kept the volley of laser bursts from stitching a deadly line across her bow. “I won’t surrender to Riktorian pirate scum!”

  “Then go through the Jumpgate!”

  Was he insane? “I can’t do that! I don’t even know where it’s going! We could end up in the outer orbits!”

  “We’re going to end up space-dust if we don’t!”

  Making an unscheduled Jump was out of the question! Who does that? Without the queue, without knowing the gate’s destination schedule, you could end up in a Jump too long for your craft to handle and fly apart. Or you could emerge on top of someone else who was in the queue. Or end up stars knew where, emerging from an unmanned Jumpgate into a strange orbit and no clue where the Jumpgate would take you next— Another line of laser bursts splashed off her shields, becoming less like insect stings and more like needles being jammed into her flesh.

  The Jumpgate hung, black and massive in space, the huge floodlights providing her with a reference as she moved in a dizzying spin to avoid the pirate vessel. Alarms blared in time with the Jumpgate lights, warning her that the shields wouldn’t last another hit, that fire suppression was about to overload, and that the engines were running hot and out of coolant range.

  “Treska! I don’t want to die back here!”

  Terror of the unknown warred with inevitability. The Riktorian demand for surrender echoed through the cockpit again. Am I the Huntress, or am I some Riktorian’s rat-prey?

  She gunned the engines and shot forward into the Jumpgate’s maw.

  ***

  On the run from Riktorian pirates, Treska seeks shelter on a hostile planet and she’ll be damned if she’ll let them take what’s hers. But the Union’s iron grip has little influence out in the frontier orbits and she’s forced to rely on Micah’s knowledge to keep them both from becoming lizard food.

  The unexpected detour reveals some of the Huntress’s mysteries, and a handful of Micah’s underworld allies with plans of their own. But the planet’s very terrain is affecting Micah’s mind. If he’s not careful, he’ll not only lose his grip on reality, but the fragile truce he’s built with the Huntress.

  Thank You

  Dear Reader,

  I hope you enjoyed your stay in the Star Empire, and are ready for further adventures with Treska, Micah, and their friends and rivals. Don’t forget to subscribe to the newsletter at bit.ly/AthenaNews to stay updated.

  I thrive on reader feedback—I'd love to hear from you at [email protected] or at www.athenagrayson.com. Connect with me via my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/athenagrayson or send me a Tweet at @Athena_Grayson. And if you're so inclined, I would love an honest review at your favorite retailer. Reviews aren't easy to come by, and I treasure every one.

  Thank you so much for reading Season One and for allowing me to entertain you for a few hours.

  Warmest regards,

  Athena

  The Complete Season One

  Binge-read with the Bundles:

  The Chase (Episodes 1-3)

  The Snare (Episodes 4-6)

  The Catch (Episodes 7-9)

  The Release (Episodes 10-12)